Couple weeks back I tried to hold a small Webinar using GoToMeeting and let’s just say things didn’t work out too well. Everyone was logged on and had a visual of my screen but the other party could not seem to connect to me with the phone conference portion of the event.

I called GoToMeeting’s customer service line to find out what I had done wrong (it’s usually “pilot error”) and it turns out that my other party had a different phone number to dial in on than the one I had.  Frankly, at this point out I can’t recall the exact nature of the problem but because I had assigned a new time to the webinar from the original scheduled time, their system kicked out a new number and sent it out to the other participant. That new number was ONE digit in difference than the original one and that fact ’caused a big problem resulting in a failed webinar attempt.

Despite having changed the event date, the fact that the number was only one digit off from the original somehow caused the problem. (Wish I could recall the exact details ’cause it was a really dumb thing set in place from their end.) Once it was clear that their system had finished off my webinar I let ‘em know what I thought about it, (with a smile but plenty of volume) and that brings me to the real point of this monologue.

Little over a week after that call I got an email from them saying,

In order to provide GoToWebinar customers with the highest level of service, we have scheduled replacement for some of our telephone conference lines. We regret any inconvenience caused by this necessary action.
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
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You have been identified as a customer who is using a teleconference number that is being replaced. For your convenience, we have updated the GoToWebinar interface to reflect the new phone numbers. However, because some of your participants may still have emails and Outlook calendar events containing the old conference numbers, you will need to send new invitation and confirmation emails to them to make sure they have the most current call-in information before your next Webinar with them occurs.

Now I’m not sure if my call prompted the change in numbers or if the change had anything at all to do with the problem I experienced, but at the time the email arrived it sure felt like it did. I’m assuming that the changes to their numbering system had something to do with my problem and the call I placed. I want to think so because I frequently voice my thoughts about systems and processes with really stupid elements that make things difficult for the end-user, and almost always nothing is ever changed. I’d like to think that GoToMeeting has some folks on staff that take feedback to heart and actually act on it. Kudos to them if this is indeed what happened here.

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Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure located at 2414 Arbuckle Court Dallas, TX 75229, and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons,Tyler and Preston, also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com.