There has been a running joke since the inception of Fresh Tilled Soil that we are indexed within the main search engines and SuperPages under "top soil" and "soil" companies. Check it out for Boston or Wellesley. We get a laugh every now and then when our land line phone rings and on the other end a potential client is asking if we deliver.  I always have to let them down politely and pass the lead along to a real landscape supply company.

I’m questioning if this happens to other companies with unique names, but this experience pretty much assures me that it may happen more often than not.

What’s most disappointing is the way SuperPages has dealt with the situation.  For the past couple of months we have been receiving calls asking us to update our listing.  I’d be very interested in updating the listing but they want to charge us to do it.  How does that make sense?  Let’s get this straight…  They created a listing we did not ask for.  Then incorrectly listed us as a company in the "soil" genre and now they’re calling us and telling us that people are searching for our services (web design and marketing) and we are missing out on this potential traffic.  Well of course I asked for some facts and data to support their claim and she was unable to provide it.

Unfortunately, they were not interested in listening to me or answering my questions.  I even asked to speak with a manager because it was quite apparent that I was speaking to someone who was not completely confident with the English language.  To my surprise, she hung up on me.

You know what would have been a good way to maybe get my business.  Apologize for the incorrect listing, fix their mistake for FREE, and provide me with site analytics and facts so I can assess their value proposition.

Now imagine if other companies ran a business this way… They would be out of business.