Dashboard: Collect Your Own Data

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard every Monday Jean Marks and I talk about the issues we think business owners should be following welcome Jean Lauren it is great to talk to you I missed you Jean I hope you had a good holiday your Thanksgiving was good huh it was great it was really great and nice break you I yeah it was good and I just got back from a little traveling this week as well so uh you've been doing a lot of traveling yeah I been doing a lot of traveling but we we were supposed to go to London uh this week and then we canceled that trip uh just because it's just too much of a pain in the neck with the new restrictions you know yep I've been hearing a good bit of that all right let's dive into it uh first Jean I want to talk to you about a story that the Wall Street Journal published on Friday about digital marketing it it's about how the big tech companies Apple Google Facebook have been making changes that make it harder to Target specific customers specific audiences I thought it was a great piece and I'm really eager to get your thoughts on it did did you see it I did and I read it and I you know it's it it it is a real issue and a real concern among a lot of companies Google is um cutting out the use of uh gradually cutting out the use of cookies which has really been sort of like the main stay of you know capturing data from people that are browsing the internet um and it is uh it's preventing a you know presenting a lot of challenges to a lot of businesses that buy data but I don't know um you know there there's there's a big business impact and there's a small business impact big you know Lauren like big businesses Buy data you know there are uh there are big companies out there that sell data it's expensive but it's extremely valuable so if you're Coca-Cola or BMW or some Big Brand you know uh you're going to have your challenges getting good data going for it small businesses it's on a smaller scale um none of my clients I can't afford to you know spend the kind of money on data that a large company does but I still need to try and gather data from the people that you know that that you know that visit well that's exactly the thing I liked about this story cuz I thought the the underlying point was sort of many businesses big and small have been relying on the big te tech companies to gather and manage that data and that's kind of I think the wrong way of going about it you want to have that relationship with the customer you don't want Amazon to have it and now with these changes it's encouraging a lot of businesses to try to gather that data themselves yeah as we should be and you know it's funny that you say CU I I've been talking to a lot of people trying to give some thoughts on like even the holidays coming up you know and a lot of businesses have supply chain issues and uh small business Saturday was you know over last Thanksgiving weekend and um one of the big things that that I've been trying to stress to my clients um because we're doing it is um you know when people visit your site or people visit your store you got you got to collect your data from them at least you know the like the journal says there's you know a real popularity in programs like loyalty programs um you know giving away being a VIP P customer doing special discounts special promotions um it really is data is important for your business for two reasons one is um it it provides you a a source of potential marketing as long as they're opt in Way Way Beyond the holidays and then you know the other thing is it certainly builds value in your business as well if anybody ever wants to buy your business or buy into your business um you know they're going to evaluate you know your data so it's really important to capture that stuff you can't just rely on the big tech companies to do it for you uh the smartest clients that I have are doing it on their own and it is um so yeah you've got to make sure you've got a good loyalty program you got to and by the way one final thing on data if you're going to be collecting data nobody just wants to give you the data you know you're going to have to give something away for data and I think that that's something important that we all realize which is part of what the story was about there a lot of tactics that companies are using from you know running a quiz to a running a some kind of contest anything that allow you to allows you to collect uh email you know today I just got my car washed and it was like you know it was an automatic self-service kiosk to sign in and when you're you know choosing your plan and giving you a credit card it wouldn't let me go to the submit to go to the next screen without providing my cell phone number oh interesting and I know and and it says we're not going to be selling your data or whatever but I really could not move on I'm in line at the car wash and I couldn't move forward did you do it I had to I had no choice now I guess you could put in a fake number you know because but I put in my ACT put in your number Jean I put in my actual I put in your number Lauren so you're going to be getting but no you know and then 10 minutes later I started getting text messages from this place you know thanking me for being their customer I mean it's a really interesting thing there's a line there somewhere there is a line you can't put a gun to people's heads I I get it it's important to get the data but you've got to do it in a way where it's truly opt in and people have a choice to back out I couldn't back out of that process which is a little frustrating next story this is one you genan it's about how businesses are replacing employees with chatbots uh I found the story really interesting and not just because you managed to pull your own dog into the story well although I did like that yeah I mean the story with my dog for those of you uh for for the millions of you that have not read this uh is you know is this I mean you know my my dog died a few years ago but before she passed away um I had an intimate relationship with my pharmacist at CVS uh because this dog had I have a picture of this dog with her Med her medications Lauren you wouldn't believe it there were like you know like eight different sets of pills for this poor little dog and um she um but I would be getting text messages from my pharmacist at CVS saying like hey Jean lavender by the way the dog's name is lavender that was my my wife's idea not mine you seem a little sheepish about that gen yeah but okay so it's lavender and i' be like lavender is you know her prescription is coming du do you want to get it filled and I'm like yes I'm texting back and it's like oh we realize you're out of refills can we contact your doctor I was yeah sure and then it goes back back and forth and it took me a few times to realize I wasn't talking to a pharmacist I was talking to a computer you know it was a bot it was a it was a chatbot CVS has been doing this for a few years now and now the technology itself is becoming so inexpensive that most CRM systems and marketing applications are now providing this stuff it's turning into this giant like when I mean giant like an $18 billion market for chatbots and what they do Lauren is they're replacing people because if you use chatbots they can get conversations done and even trigger actions like sending emails or ordering products or alerting people all without a human being you know being involved so you know salespeople you know how needed are they to answer basic questions about a product that a chat box can answer the same thing with customer service people um you know the same thing with marketing people when when a prospect is requesting information so at that lower level one other story Lauren I have to say which is kind of related to this which I didn't even write so I was this week I was in Vegas right and I travel a lot so I've seen a lot of hotels I stayed at the Paris hotel in Vegas I'm going to write about this and when you go to check in at the Paris Hotel there was one woman behind the check-in desk and about 10 self-service kiosks which I've never seen before and you go to the self-service kiosk you put in your confirmation number you slide in your driver's license and your credit card and it spits back out for you your room keys and you just move on and if I was at Paris Hotel a year ago or two years ago it would have been a dozen agents behind the desk now because of Technology there was one and the rest of self-service kiosk it's it's just the same thing to do with this chat box story I wrote this technology is becoming cheaper and businesses are are small and mediumsized businesses are putting it into place and I know this sounds blunt but they are replacing people with this stuff and we saw on Friday you know the jobs report came out it was disappointing there's still 4 million less jobs in the economy than there was uh you know prior to the pandemic and I got news for you man like I don't know how many of them are coming back because businesses aren't sticking around and waiting they're buying robotic technology and using things like chat box to cut down on their payroll and I think a lot of those jobs aren't going to be there for those people that are holding out for more unemployment benefits or God knows what well let let me just say one thing which is I use a CVS Pharmacy as well and they drive me crazy with those chatbot phone calls I think there's a line in this story too that can go too far as well I bet they drive you crazy because they it's like you you get all these text messages reminding you that a prescription is coming due or to come and pick it up and it's like overload right yes yeah drives me nuts too drives me nuts too um so there's got to be a line and you're right and I think that they they but they're going to find that line good companies will you know next story this is another one you wrote Jean um there's a hundred billion doll in SBA funding sitting in a pot in Washington DC about to expire just waiting for people to apply for it yeah I'm I'm really glad you included this in the stories today um so today is what December 6th right so we've got until December 31st to take advantage of this guys if you're listening to me now listen closely there's a hundred billion in money from the SBA for you every small business in this country is eligible for this money it's the economic injury disaster loans it was a special program in addition to the normal disaster loan programs they have for any business that's in a disaster area caused by covid we're all in a disaster area and with this bus have to be a disaster no we don't have to be a disaster we don't have to prove Revenue loss we don't have to prove that we're employees it's not the PPP it's just a loan program now yes it's a loan program it's not a for pay this one back you do but Lauren you can borrow up to $2 million and the payback is 30 years at a fixed rate of interest of 3.75% over 30 years and not only that but but Biden President Biden he made a tweet to this program just a few weeks ago with his vaccination mandates he said that you can now use the money to pay off existing debt so if you are a for-profit or a nonprofit business you can borrow this money for 30 years 3.75% interest rate for a for-profit business by the way is going to look pretty darn attractive as interest rates go up over the next year or two we all know they're going up a $100,000 loan is like 500 bucks a month that you would have to pay off it's a it's a very sweet deal and it's going to go away at the end of this year so if you are if you're looking for this kind of financing you want to clear up your existing financing with an SBA loan go to sba.gov uh I just think it's a very sweet deal should you go directly to sba.gov or do you go through a bank no this program the economic injury disaster Loan program is through the SBA directly now there are also grants available under this that also expire which is also just money that's sitting there if you're a small business and you're in a lowincome area and you can prove a certain amount of Revenue loss and by the way the low-income area there's a there's a map locator on the SBA site to determine if you're there you can get up to like a $15,000 Grant just free money before you know whatever's left over at the end of the year is going to be applied to the infrastructure Bill funding um but you know putting that aside this is money either the the loans or the grants that I think a lot of businesses should be taking advantage of right now because it's it's a great deal but one final thing on it if you the the higher your loan you might be required to provide coll Cal or personal guarantees so you know there's that but 30 years at 3.75% come on who knows where we'll be in 5 10 15 years right like an insurance policy what will you be doing 30 years Chanel any I'll be Happ to be doing anything Jean I I'll be in diapers sitting in a nursing home remember what I had to lunch today okay too much information Jean uh finally this one's from the morning brew a daily email newsletter um it's um about how some employees are waiting for the legal battles over Joe Biden's vaccine mandate to play out rather than issuing a policy and and dealing with it you got any thoughts on that Jean yeah I do I have a couple thoughts on that so I just for everybody to insult your intelligence if you've got more than a 100 employees um you know you're under the president's mandates you're required to either uh make sure that your employees mandates that are not yet in effect because of the legal battle in effect so the the Mandate is that you have to require that your employees are vaccinated or they have to be weekly tested however 10 states um you know uh you sued to to say that it was not you know you know it was legal to do this it's being administered by the occupational safety and health administration the whole thing's been stayed all the states all these lawsuits have been combined into one lawsuit it's in the sixth US federal district in uh court of appeals in Ohio and we're waiting to hear on that appeals and the attorneys that I talk to say that it doesn't look good for the president there's a lot of holes in what this mandate is so what do you do if you're an employer in fact I mean this whole thing was supposed to be inacted by like January 4th right now it's in limbo so what do you do so you do nothing obviously I mean you don't have to like move forward with this the only thing I can advise my clients is like listen you got to prepare for certain things if this does happen um you want to make sure that you at least have got a plan in place for polling your employees dealing with the employees that say that they don't want to get vaccinated or even testing um and making sure you've got you know a solution for testing set up for you um the other thing to consider I think we talked about this before I have some clients that are considering turning some of their employees into independent contractors to get them off the payroll so that that just kind of lowers under a 100 employees or you know at least doesn't give them the problem of having to you know pay you know fines and penalties I think it's like $14,000 if you don't comply so the bottom line on the mandates is we're going to hear from the courts soon uh you got to stay don't do anything but just have a plan in place if the courts do find in favor of the presidential mandates I hope that makes sense I think it does make sense you are though addressing it just from the legal standpoint as opposed to the health issue standpoint uh we do have the recent news of the new variant we don't really know at this point uh all that we need to know to make a judgment on how big a problem the new V varant might be U but that's certainly a factor as these businesses think about what they want to do to protect their employees and I wrote you know as you know a few months ago so I'll reiterate it because it's it's there I you know I I'm in favor of it I'm in favor of the mandates and I know and you're talking over a republican here you know um but I um you know there's a war that we're fighting a lot of people have died a lot of people have gotten sick and like I wrote in the hill I believe is where I wrote this uh it's like you know suck it up employers come on guys we're not you know throughout the history we have not been asked compared to other small business owners you know in in the past that have had to fight Wars um we are not being asked to sacrifice very much by doing this and I think you know I I I think you we as business owners have to step up and and really really try and get people vaccinated um so you know I'm I'm in favor of it Gan marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquire the Washington Times Forbes an entrepreneur you can also hear I'm on ABC radio's I on the world with John Bachelor uh Jean hosts two popular small business podcasts of his own with paychecks Corporation and the Hartford thank you Jean thank you Lauren it was a great talking to you we'll talk to you next week always a pleasure have a great week everyone