Struggling Telstra subsidiary Sensis will make up to 120 staff redundant nationally following a disastrous profit result on Monday that has left the directories business reeling…
The company has “run into a brick wall”, as The Australian’s respected business columnist John Durie said last week, largely on the back of its unwanted hard copy directories.
The next time you get a call from a Sensis salesperson asking you to spend thousands of dollars on Yellow Pages ads, do your business a favour and say “No thanks, I’m going to spend that money on my website instead.”
(Image credit: brutalSoCal, Creative Commons.)
Online directories maybe on their way out as well in the not too distant future.
With Google Places incorporating their own directory into their search results and their policy to crack down on websites that consist mainly of links and not much actual content, online directories may go the same way as their offline counterparts.
I am not surprised. My SME business in Qld, specialises in online accounting & web based applications setups and training, have been using Sensis for over 20 years.
My experience in the past with the various sales reps have been good, however something goes wrong from the time the proof goes into production – in fact horribly horribly wrong where 3 ads have gone to print all with different branding, wording & colours. My last experience for the 2010 directory was the final straw,I was sent a final proof 1 hour AFTER the cut off date. “Not Happy Jan” . The next problem was to talk to a “real person” I was shunted backwards and forwards to various departments no one wanted to help, they were obviously ducking for cover – sales staff mobile phones turned off – when eventually someone did contact me they remarked “well we got your phone nos. correct so you did not lose any business”. That was not the point – I had asked & paid for specific ads which were not delivered.
For the 2011/2012 Directory, cancelled all ads with Sensis, they even had the cheek to charge me a cancellation fee for my Online Directory.