Reliable Flagging, Maple Ridge – Read this before calling them

Thinking of calling Reliable Flagging of Maple Ridge for your flagging and traffic control needs? Then please read this post first.

Back in July, I wrote about the weekly wrong numbers that we were receiving for Maple Ridge’s Reliable Flagging (see the post here). I wrote the post to seed the search engines with the right phone number. Well the calls stopped for a while, but they started up again a few weeks ago [I was bumped out of the top position for the keywords “reliable flagging” by an Industry Canada profile]. And then the calls started again. For the calls we’ve been answering, it works out to be 2 to 3 calls per week. From an SEO perspective, this shows the power of being in the top slot as opposed to being number 2.

And every time someone calls, we’ve been dutiful in trying to help out and pass their actual phone number along (it is now written on a permanent sticky-note next to the phone and I have it memorized 604.466.3524… 604.466.3524 …604.466.3524 … 604.466.FLAG). And every time we get a phone call, we ask the caller to “say hi from John” when you call the right number.

But not any more. No way. No how.

Here’s why. I had another phone call today from someone looking for flagging services. I told him the correct number without a beat, and he mentioned that I must get a lot of phone calls for them as this is the number that I got from the Internet. I said “I did”, and “please say hi to Jane for me.” After hanging up, I did a quick search on Google revealed that we are no longer ranked number 1 for reliable flagging. Hmmm… I pondered. Let me call Jane directly again as last time when I tried to find a solution, she wanted to know why I didn’t call her and let her know about the problem.

The response that I got from her today was appalling in my opinion. She is saying that she only gets business from the Yellow Pages and never from the Internet [hands up if you simply recycle your Yellow Pages when it arrives on your doorstep]. And she certainly has never had anyone say that they got her phone number from me. She kept on insisting that it is an issue between me and Telus if we are getting those phone calls [think about that one for a while].

Then I tried to interject the berating and threats that she is “going to sue my ass off” with a creative solution. I offered to get her a website built through some of the contractors that I use overseas at cost … as in I am not going to be making money… and for a basic brochureware site, you are talking $100-$200 max. But at least as a website owner she could control her own name and her own business. But I forgot… she doesn’t get any business from the Internet.

I cannot comment on her business skills, customer service abilities, professional  demeanor, traffic control skills, or anything else in that regard. I do hope that for whichever customers do choose Reliable Flagging over other great businesses offering flagging services, your experience in dealing with Jane has been better than mine (please post a comment below if you agree or disagree). I hate to admit it, but I actually hung up on her. I never hang up on anyone. I am even polite to telemarketers.

So for the last time, Reliable Flagging’s phone number is 604.466.3524. And this time, when you speak to Jane, please say “Hi from John”. And do tell her that you got her number from my blog and the Internet.

Oh… and for those looking for flagging services in Maple Ridge or the Vancouver area, these websites look interesting:

Ansan Traffic Control

Valley Traffic Systems

Reliable Flagging, Maple Ridge BC, Phone: (604) 466-3524

Reliable Flagging of Maple Ridge, BC, has turned me into a momentary domain squatter today, and I’m not proud of it.

It all started around four years ago when we moved into our new home, sampled some VOIP technology that was before it was time, and had to get a new phone number. The number that was assigned to us apparently use to be owned by a Maple Ridge flagging company called Reliable Flagging (as in traffic control to make sure construction happens safely).

The phone calls started coming in immediately. At least one per week that we answered, and that is with call screening where we ignore pretty much every number that we don’t recognize. After the umpteenth wrong number we found out that their phone number in the phone directory was still listed as our number. We contacted the phone company and they said they would fix it … they didn’t say that this fix would take two years mind you.

Anyhow, even after this correction in the phone book, we kept on getting calls. “Is this Reliable Flagging?” No. No. No.

I am not sure if it picked up more over the past few months or it is just that I am working from home more often and now sitting next to a phone without call display, but the calls seem to be increasing in frequency. And then I had a phone call this morning from a prospect looking for flagging services. In the midst of a Seinfeld flashback with Kramer answering the mis-dial for MoviePhone, I thought I would help him and Reliable Flagging out by trying to find the real “Reliable Flagging”, or if I couldn’t, at least source someone from another flagging company who could help him.

So I started searching. First it was a basic “Reliable Flagging” search on Google. The first response was from a company called iBegin that had a listing for Reliable Flagging. The phone number listed… yep… our phone number. A few listings down, there was another listing, our phone number once again.

I think I realize what is going on. Apparently, a trend started a couple of years ago where people are taking advantage of some loophole in copyright law where they were sending out-of-date phone books overseas and having the whole thing copied in tandem to reproduce their own directory listing. These copies then form the basis for many of the web directories that are popping up in various places [note: I’m not saying this is what iBegin has done]. In any case, wrong numbers are being perpetuated, and now thanks to the power of web search (especially local search), they will never go away.

So after I hung up the call today, I did some more internet research for Reliable Flagging, and found a phone number that was also out of order. And the I found another one that didn’t ring through. I then called a competitor who ranked at the top of organic results for the search phrase “Traffic Control Vancouver” (who I will not promote by naming them for reasons that will come clear below). They expressed that Reliable Flagging was no longer around. Which made sense to me, and I didn’t doubt this given the calls that I received.

And this is when I became a Domain Squatter. I registered the domain name ReliableFlagging.com. My intent was to try and use the medium to my advantage. If I could outrank the earlier listings, I had hoped the calls would stop. This is also why Reliable Flagging and Maple Ridge Flagging Services keywords are peppered throughout this blog post. Fight fire with fire.

And then in a further act of defiance, I posted my tale of woe on Craig’s List with an offer for any flagging company who wanted these phone leads to let me know, and I would be more than happy to sell them to them.

A mere 6 hours later I had a phone call from someone who worked for Reliable Flagging. While I was happy, they were pissed that I was trying to make money from their name. I said, “Good news… you’re in business! Tell me your number and I will tell everyone who calls what the new number is” They didn’t like this, and they refused to give me their new phone number.

Another hour passes by, and I had a phone call from Reliable Flagging’s owner (Jane). As my wife said to me just a few minutes ago, “Ah the immortal Jane Baker.” We felt like we had gotten to know her through her calls… especially for my wife whose first name combined with her maiden name sounds phonetically very similar, especially when it was said with an accent — a factor that only contributed to confusion over the years.

Anyhow, Jane was also not too pleased that I was trafficking on her good name and business. She threatened to sue. I said I am just trying to do the rightful thing [I did take the Craig’s List ad down as soon as I heard that Reliable Flagging was still providing traffic controlling services to Maple Ridge]. I have even offered to transfer over the domain to her at no cost to her and help her with her web presence. I guess I am not very good at this cyber squatting thing. And really, who am I kidding, this is more for my sanity than anything else.

Hopefully, WordPress works its SEO magic, and Reliable Flagging’s traffic control services will be found by all Maple Ridge residents very soon. With the correct phone number. Which, for hopefully the last time, is 604.466.3524.

And for those who weren’t paying attention, the moral of the story is that you should control your web presence. Your yellow pages ads are not enough. It could be a simple website (even a free one). Your audience is searching for you. If they can’t find you, how much business are you leaving on the table?