I need buttons for my upcoming “Social BOOM!” book launch. I want 1,000 buttons with the word BOOM! on them for people attending the launch party.

Buttons will be an easy way of identifying who has registered and who has not. The buttons also will be a souvenir from the event.

I Googled “boom button” and hit return. Number one and two on the list were Wackybuttons.com and Zazzle.com. I clicked on Zazzle because they had 163 reviews and a 4.5 star rating. I found a couple of buttons that were kind of cool and began searching for a phone number.

Searching … searching … searching. Finally, in frustration, I hit the word “HELP” and came to find that Zazzle does not want to receive my phone call. They want me to establish an account and log in using the Zazzle app. When I click “Can I order by phone?” I find that Zazzle “does not currently accept phone orders.”

The sales volume must be amazing at Zazzle.com. So amazing that the pinheads there (no pun intended) have decided to be unavailable to customers and difficult to do business with. If you want to contact them, you can do it only by email, by filling out the mandatory boxes in the form, selecting a product and selecting a category – you know the drill.

So I went back to Google and clicked on WackyButtons.com with no ratings and no reviews. The phone number for Wacky Buttons was easily located on the website. A live human being answered the phone on the third ring.

Wacky Buttons has no artwork charge, there is no minimum order, rush shipping is available, and the company ships worldwide.

They have one-inch buttons, and the person who answered the phone, Jason, is impressive, friendly, willing, smart, knowledgeable about buttons and able to answer my two most imperative questions: Can I get them by Friday? and How much are they?

YES! I can get a thousand buttons for $180 plus freight by Friday. (I didn’t even ask the price for 500.) Jason instructed me to send an email – which I did while I was still on the phone – and told me they would create the art, email it to me, get approval and print the buttons in two days.

I’m not satisfied; I’m ecstatic!

NOTE WELL: I’m writing this column for two reasons:

1. If you’re going to be online, make it easy for your customers to connect with you. In my opinion, having no listed phone is not only rude; it’s also ignorant. Granted, it’s only a $200 order, but I guarantee that at least a thousand people have gone to Zazzle.com, then clicked off and found WackyButtons.com to be both friendly and willing to accept business in a manner that the customer wants to give it, not simply how they want to receive it. Let’s see, $200 times 1,000. Wow, before you know it, it’s real money.

2. If you’re ever in need of buttons, I give my highest recommendation to WackyButtons.com. They are easy to do business with, accommodating, priced right, and have done all that my way. (At Zazzle, they’re waiting for an email while Wacky Buttons already has my money.)

Go to your website right now and try to place a $1,000 order. Can you do it? If I need to talk to you, how easy is it to access a phone number or email address that goes directly to a person? Is your phone answered by a live human being? Or are you “trying to serve me better” with “the following nine options, which have recently changed”?

Your business is dependent on the Internet. Your customers need you. They’re counting on you and looking for you online. How available are you? How ready are you? How easy is it to access you? And how willing are you to accept their money?

Or is their business going to go to your competitor? Mine did.

EPILOGUE: Wacky Buttons sent me BOOM! artwork in four hours. I approved it and paid five minutes later. My buttons will arrive in two days.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by email at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2011 Jeffrey H. Gitomer