A New Way to Connect to Your Customer

I thinking about leaving Bill Gates in 2008.  Well, maybe not leaving, but I’m ready to do a good amount of cheating.

I’m tired of being held hostage by my software.  I’m tired of losing gigabytes of space on my hard drive because I’m saving umpteen versions of a multi-megabyte spreadsheet full of data – and then not knowing what the most current version is.

I found Google Apps in my search for a way to collaborate with several of my clients and I’m thinking about making the move in 2008 and doing most of my work on the Internet – using Google Apps.

Once you see what they are offering – you’ll see that it can potentially save you thousands of dollars in hardware and software expenses.  But more importantly – it will provide you with the opportunity to connect with your employees and customers and collaborate in a way that’s not really been feasible or possible before.

Here are just a few things I’m really liking about Google’s new offering:

• The ability to customize and own your e-mail!  You don’t have to have a "gmail" account if you don’t want one.  And you can kid yourself all you want, but having your own domain is psychologically like having a real office.  It lends a sense of credibility and stability to your business.  Not necessary, but nice
• TONS of e-mail space.  If it’s enough space for all 10,000 Google employees, it’s enough space for me.  My e-mail records are my life and they are chewing up tons of storage on my computer. Then there are the two or three times the whole thing crashed and a couple years of e-mail records – bye bye.  Well, no more!
• The ability to share calendars with your teams.  YIPPEEE!!!  I’m forever working with people from several different organizations and companies and trying to schedule a meeting is an exercise in patience and flexibility.  The new calendar allows people in your organization or team to see your calendar and schedule accordingly – no more back and forth!
• Instant Messaging- Love this tool.  It’s a great way to have a meeting without taking up phone time – not to mention having a saved version of your conversation!
• Web sites – Unless you’re running a major e-commerce operation, their web site tool is more than adequate and gives you everything you need at a good price — FREE
• Blogging – if you like, you can blog on Google too.  If you haven’t started a blog – consider this one.

I think there are more tools here – but the obvious benefit to marketing people and business owners is that this is one more way to connect with customers, make yourself more accessible!

If you have more experience with this – I’d love to hear about it