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Google Alerts isn’t just for CEOs and Administrative staff to monitor their brand, it’s for employees too!

I was rather excited today when I heard that Starbucks had expanded it’s Mobile Card coverage and while in Downtown Pittsburgh I stopped into the Starbucks in Market Square. After ordering my Dark Cherry thing I asked whether they took Mobile Card in there yet whereupon the… older… staff member there went completely blank. I explained a little more, showing her my phone and, now not being treated like quite such an idiot, I was told that “Pittsburgh is a little slow to catch on to these things.”

Yes, yes Pittsburgh can be rather slow to catch on to many things. Pittsburgh isn’t at the forefront of many companies’ minds when launching new products or likes but that’s no excuse for employee…. ignorance (for want of a better word).

If I work for anyone, even through client work, I like to keep as up to date with what is going on with that company any way I can.

Shouldn’t employees be well versed in what’s happening in the company they work for? Shouldn’t a member of staff be able to answer any question that comes up about a company, service or product? Surely that’s not too much to ask.

How about using this thing called the Internet to keep up to date with all of your employer goings on? You don’t have to be super dedicated, you don’t have to spend a lot of time doing it and you’ll be a better employee for it.

Let’s take today’s encounter and Starbucks in general as an example.

Using Google Alerts I can set up a daily email message for the word “Starbucks”. This way, Google will do the legwork for me and send an email containing up to 20 results (default) right to my email.

Google Alerts monitors news, web sites, Twitter, blogs, and more.

Through your Google Alerts email you can see what other people are saying about who you work for, often what your employer is working on, and what your competition is doing. At the very least.

Many, many blogs wrote about the Starbucks iPhone apps when they were released. There was quite a lot of online buzz about it. However, I haven’t met a single Starbucks staff member here in Pittsburgh who is versed in either the Mobile Card App or the MyStarbucks App. Was there a press release or something send to Starbucks Locations?

By being a conscientious employee and checking your email and checking your email once in a while you can better your customer service, company, service, and product knowledge and likely stay ahead of your coworkers and all for free!

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