I have a friend who has a business in the automotive market. He specializes in replacing car engines. It’s called Tucker’s Engine Exchange in Waterbury, CT. He does quite well for himself. Here’s the interesting thing: he does not advertise. He gets more work than he can handle from local garages. He very seldom takes customers “off the street”.
Recently a customer called him with a job to replace an engine on a 2000 Toyota Corolla. The man loves Toyotas (who doesn’t?) and knows them like the back of his hand. The customer brought the Toyota in and was told the job would cost $1200 up front and $1100 upon completion. CASH! The customer agreed. The business owner completed the job and the customer was thrilled with the results.
Out of curiosity, the business owner asked the customer: how did you hear about my business anyway? The customer replied: “I found you on Google maps. All your contact information and even a picture of your business”
He just scatched his head and was perplexed. Later when he told me this story I explained that Google actually hires people to go around taking pictures of businesses and lists them in their map section.
I just think that is very cool. If you want to check out your business in Google Maps go to http://maps.google.com