In trying to create the new zimbabwecompanies page, which we want to separate from the directory page, we lost the code for the old ‘likes’ by accident.  Keeping the code would have really come in handy to boost the ‘recommend’ buttons we want to use now on Facebook.  We have now linked the zimbabwe companies Twitter page to the new zimbabwecompanies Facebook page.  What this means is that both the Facebook and Twitter updates should be seen on both platforms simultaneously (if the job was done perfectly).  I say this because I really should have let the techno young guys handle this all on their own but the truth is I saw this as a great learning opportunity for social marketing and all it really entails, the apps, the linkages, the advertising, the build up, everything.  So  I asked to be let in and now we know who would have been responsible for the parts that are not yet 100% functional.   The page for zimbabwecompanies on Facebook is   http://www.facebook.com/zimbabwecompaniespage  and special thanks go to Mrs Tait in Australia for being the first person to like the page before we sent out invitations to clients.

We wish to advise all our valued clients that we are removing our Facebook plug-in from the ‘like’ button, which had hit the 150 000 plus mark, to ‘recommend’ which means we are starting all over again!  We think having people ‘recommend’ instead of just ‘like’ will add value to the information shared about the website on the social networks, thereby increasing the chances of real interaction where people acknowledge that what information they have seen, accessed about a company is worthy to pass on to others, a case which would not necessarily happen with the ‘like’ action.

We take this opportunity to thank our clients for consistently coming up with ideas to improve how we can serve them better.  To the Managing Director who strongly spoke about this but did not wish to have his name published here, we thank you for your contribution.  We hope all our clients and their friends will stop by to ‘recommend’ their companies to friends and friends’ friends on Facebook.

CUSTOMER CARE REPORT: We thank all the clients who made time to give invaluable feedback to our Customer Care Section.  Feedback indicates that some clients never check their listings when we tell them to as long as they have paid for the listing.  It is imperative to make sure that you check to see that the information, as provided, is correct on the listing.  A South African company complained to us about an email address which kept on bouncing but a correct telephone number from one of our clients.  It turned out that the email address was wrongly captured and never checked.  Once more, we are appealing to all the companies who list with us to check and make sure that their details are correct.

We thank all the companies who took time out of their busy schedules to allow our people time to get this very necessary feedback.

RENEWALS: We thank the following companies for paying for renewing and paying for their listings:- Wazara Furniture, Council of Estate Administrators, Appreciative Debt Collectors, New Reinsurance Company, Business Masters, Bakery, Business Masters, Accounts, Smartzone Cleaning, Kaycomms, Megapost, Selrahc Studio, CW Aircraft, Casa Della Pizza, Fantasy Destiny, ABS Asset Valuers, Highglen Walling, Fairdeal Furnishers, Talmotronics, Abemark Electrical, Thamsanqah, Kelvin Bonus Dread, Black Granite, Gillespies, Royal City Furniture, Modern Motor Cables, Nootan Trading, Generations Shopfitters, Vaida Chemicals, Pettengell, Masvingo Engineering, Tanblue, Merge Power, School of Java, Midsly Cakes, Specialised Construction, Shamus Construction, Alpha Auto, Gabtronics, and Copperwares!  We appreciate the payment and we are working to make sure that your trust in our ability to serve you is not misplaced.

COMPANIES/PROFESSIONALS/TRADERS DATABASE CD: We appreciate criticism, comments, and feedback because it is only through addressing clients’ concerns that we are better able to serve you.

DEPLOYMENTS : We thank all the companies in Ardbennie, CBD and  Bindura who received our marketers.

May we again emphasise the importance of placing your business in the correct cagetory, to enable people who use the website and the CD to find your listing when they search. A directory listing, while online and on the CD, serves the same purpose as a printed directory – it is not advertising per se, but putting your contact details and letting the world know the type of service you provide.

DEVELOPMENTS : We have started posting companies seriously on Facebook.   We are happy with the progress so far and we are making concerted efforts to make sure that every company listed with us gets the same exposure.  Thanks go to our team and the young new guys who are constantly on the look out for web based ways to serve our clients better.

CUSTOMER CARE REPORT: Our Customer Care Section went to visit the first lot of companies, in an exercise that will continue throughout the year to find out:-

1. If clients know where they are listed
2. Whether or not the listing details, as supplied, are correct,
3. If clients understand what they signed up for and the benefits they stand to benefit from their chosen package
4. If clients are aware of our other free value addition service, e.g. free update of contact information any time throughout the year.
5. Feedback from clients about the service.

We thank all the companies who took time out of their busy schedules to allow our people time to get this very necessary feedback.

CUSTOMERS WHO ARE HAPPY ABOUT OUR SERVICE: Douglas Muchochomi of Stability Driving School, Sandra of Davecon Motors, Chiedza of Pathfinder Luxury Coaches, Wendy of Kelton Auto Glass, Mr. Jorijo of J. Digital Systems, Mr. Chirisa of Heritage Corporate Kings (Volunteer referee +263-774-038-895), Mr. Tavaziva of Vali & Company Chartered Accountants, Mr. Mundowa of Lynatech Marketing, Mr. J. Muguti of Jacinth & Associates, Mr. O. Chikuhuhu of Surveytech Land Surveyors, Mrs Shamu of Tiens Demetria, Mrs Madzanire of Linsey Hairdressing College.

OTHER COMMENTS: Mr. Muchenje of Deepswitch : Corrections must be done on time.

Commtech  - Mr. Mazarura : The website must have an events calendar to alert them of all the forthcoming business events from around the country.  Noted.

CORRECTIONS: We wish to thank Mr. Tony Rodrigues, Managing Director, Centrust Travel for taking time to read one of our fliers and send through corrections and comments.  Your contribution is taken into consideration, actioned and appreciated.

RENEWALS: We thank Majoc Systems, Agrifoods, Freight World, V. Plan Zimbabwe, Frefar Systems, Peace Security, Navvyfair Computers, Bestafoam, Tami Fashions, Raspan Enterprises, Medco, Tholcran, Anam Investments, Tobican, Mutezo & Mugomeza, School of Accounting, Channel Engineering, Deepswitch, Tranchman Plumbers, Centrust Travel, Total Tech, Electric King, Heatfin, Swaszy Granite, Demash, Destiny Travel, Knight Security,Pump Systems, Progressive Insurance, Appreciative Engineering, Micence Computers, Hume & Pipe, Pagold, Unique Integrity, William Bain, Eastview Car Sales, Incredo Engineers, Niluc Trading, Davecon Motors, Khvor Investments,  Alpha Developers, CBRE, Trekkers, Alboge, Wielands Travel, Tyrone’s Cosmetology, Chanetsa Butchery, Super Master, Global Hardware, Tashinga Glazing, Amazing Signs, Macle t/a Rochem, Letaba, Proplastics, Stainzim, Allen Wack & Shepherd, Custom Services, Columbia Engineering, Agrianalysis, Tylers, PNT Communication, Onesky Travel, GM & S Printers, Tendo Electronics, Textwright, Feelspeck Debt Collectors, Farmowick, Tradewinds, Vali’s Auto Electronics, Waterflow, Zimenergy, Clifford Pag, Janana Leather, Sunny Day Nursery School, Tawa Driving School & NZ Telecomms for renewing and paying for their listings!  We truly appreciate the continued confidence, and we are working to make sure that your trust in our ability to serve you is not misplaced.

NEW CLIENTS : We thank our new clients Easycare Surgical, Polvia Investment, ICDT, Jassin & Associates, Ray mupfunya, Musimwa & Associates, Kelton Auto Glass, Coolmech, Admore Garwi, Best Air Services, Turnblue, Grant Pack Investments, Global Hardware, Moonhurst Aircon, Trium Corporation, Fordworth Radiators & Dialton Africa.

COMPANIES/PROFESSIONALS/TRADERS DATABASE CD: There is work on a new cover concept for the Database CD. Look out for the April issue. We are also changing the writing speed of this month’s CD to address concerns from some clients who have laptops which seem to have problems with reading the Database CD. We appreciate criticism, comments, and feedback because it is only through addressing clients’s concerns that we are better able to serve you.

DEPLOYMENTS : We thank all the companies in Southerton and Bindura who received our marketers.

May we again emphasise the importance of placing your business in the correct cagetory, to eneable people who use the website and the CD to find your listing when they search. A directory listing, while online and on the CD, serves the same purpose as a printed directory – it is not advertising per se, but putting your contact details and letting the world know the type of service you provide. That is why listing on the directory is important.

WEBSITE STATUS : All the major search engines have given us a clean bill of health. You can access the website via Opera, Firefox, Google or your favourite web browser.

We take this opportunity to thank everyone, local and international, including Yahoo and Google, who helped with invaluable advise, and expertise to clean the virus. We also take cognizance of the lessons learnt and wish to share our experience that viruses can be good or bad, depending on what they are initially intended for. When search engines use robots to rank websites, some of the programmes used can contain code which reads some scripts as bad code and labels them virus, as happened on some of the pages on our website. Thanks to Yahoo whose Customer Care section kept up correspondence with us, the trouble with Google Chrome was eventually sorted out. More thanks go to the Primezone team which worked patiently and tirelessly to resolve the virus issue, and for the wonderful team spirit. Last but not least, special thanks go to our clients, for their patience, understanding and support.

RENEWALS : We thank Academy of Commercial Studies, FABS Hardware, Olive Branch Pharmacy, Vital Engravers, Red Rose Entertainment, Tiens (Fatima Speciality & D. Shamu), Langa Training Centre, Edgelink Computers, Stability Driving School, Allied Insurance, SDEC, Auto Torque, Wheeler Dealer, Delport Gutters, Lynatech Marketing, Columbus McKinnon, Eltex Engineering, Simflow, Tineo, Patgre Executors, Bolsbury, Feelspeck, Ascua Investments, Fairkiss Engravers, Faith Pharmacy, Longden Steel, Magodora Haulage, T & A Foundry, United Builders Merchants, Hamburger Hut, Vakol, Precision Grinders, Baroda Training, Damco, Power Flow Exhausts, Pagold, Jimmy’s Diesel, Zimbabwe Garden Weddings and Rank Wholesalers for renewing and paying for their listings!  We truly appreciate the vote of confidence, especially considering the fact that some of these companies renewed well aware of the virus problem which we were battling at the time.  Thank you, ladies and gentlemen!

NEW CLIENTS : We thank our new clients Career Management Centre, Rostan, Waterlife, Kandanga & Partners, Kanokanga Christian Centre & Kanokanga Marriage Centre, Packrite Packaging & Packrite Bar Coding, Horizon Inn, Flexway Trading, Walter Office, Cench Technologies, Gigatraxk, Cape North Investments, Linesey Hairdressing & Dr. P. Bete.

COMPANIES/PROFESSIONALS/TRADERS DATABASE CD : There is work on a new cover concept for the Database CD. Look out for the April issue. We are also changing the writing speed of this month’s CD to address concerns from some clients who have laptops which seem to have problems with reading the Database CD. We appreciate criticism, comments, and feedback because it is only through addressing clients’s concerns that we are better able to serve you.

DEPLOYMENTS : We thank all the companies in Graniteside, Workington and Norton who received our marketers. It is heartening to hear renewing clients who give testimony of this service having made a difference in their business. We also take this opportunity to thank the four companies who did not renew with us this year and we have taken note of their concerns. One company felt that while they did receive business enquiries, they were not for their particular type of business because they had been placed in the wrong category. May we emphasise the importance of placing your business in the correct cagetory, to eneable people who use the website and the CD to find your listing when they search. Another client expressed dissatisfaction with the way he had been told the directory works. A directory listing, while online and on the CD, serves the same purpose as a printed directory – it is not advertising per se, but putting your contact details and letting the world know the type of service you provide. We make our directory better by providing working contact numbers, with names of people one can reach and talk to. That is why listing on the directory is important.

TWITTER UPDATES : We have resumed Twitter updates and the features are current as at 25 February, 2012.

WEBSITE STATUS :  The virus was a bigger affair than we had bargained for so after cleaning out the initial bug, we realised that there were two more different viruses embeded in the website so we are in the process of removing those.  This will take, approximately, a further two weeks and then we will resubmit the website to Google for re-verification.  Firefox is not showing the website altogether so we urge our clients to continue using the website via MSN and Yahoo.

RENEWALS :  Notwithstanding the virus, we started approaching clients for renewal on the 26th of January, 2012.  We thank the following companies for not only renewing, but for paying their renewal fees promply and for the wonderfu, beautiful and heartfelt words of support. Hillbright Science College, who not only renewed, but upgraded their service, to include Hillbright Business School, Brapt Security, Surveytec Land Surveyors, Allied Insurance, Ezekiel Guti College, Heritage Corporate Kings, VGP Technologies, Vali Chartered Accountants, Cartridge Zone, LBN Saw, Bridges Real Estate, Bretton Motors, Afrimune, J. Digital Systems and Onesky Travel.

NEW CLIENTS :  We thank our new clients Z.H.D.T. Properties and Southbay Real Estate who registered, even after being alerted of the virus.  We also want to thank the following professionals who listed with us from the 26th, Mr. Talkmore Takura, Mr. Reason Maponga, Mr. D. Kachire, Mr. Simplisio Bvuta, Mr. N. Musweni, Mr. Sheddy Nyandare & Mr. Masimba of Green Cab.

COMPANIES/PROFESSIONALS/TRADERS DATABASE CD :  There is excellent feedback from people using the Databese CD, which is really a duplicate version of the website.  Our apologies go to Picmost and Majoc who were erroneously left from this month’s version of the CD.

TWITTER : We apologise for the late Twitter updates.  As promised, we started featuring companies for this year from the 27th of January, 2012.

While we still appear first on the Google search engine results, from the 17th of December, 2011 the search result has been appearing like this:

Zimbabwe Companies- Company contact Names, Phones, Emails …
zimbabwecompanies.com/
This site may harm your computer.
The Home for Zimbabwe Business, property, accomodation, cars, cell phones, electronics, telecoms, bookshops, building supplies, granite, entertainment, law, …

On the 17th of December, 2011, the people who orchestrated this search result wrote us the following email, which we have forwarded to internet police (there is internet police and it works!)

vintage logo design
qhlogodesignguru.com
Haren@email.com
94.63.4.228
Submitted on 2011/12/17 at 9:36 am

Hi How are you? It’s good to know that you are still around this website. How did you pass the latest Google update? Just checked your rankings and it seems like you are doing a good job Hope you will maintain the quality, just don’t forget about your friends C ya soon!

We checked MSN (bing) and the search result was like this:

Zimbabwe Companies- Company contact Names, Phones, Emails …
The Home for Zimbabwe Business, property, accomodation, cars, cell phones, electronics, telecoms, bookshops, building supplies, granite, entertainment, law, mining …
zimbabwecompanies.com

Then we checked Yahoo and the search result was like this:

Zimbabwe Companies- Company contact Names, Phones, Emails …
The Home for Zimbabwe Business, property, accomodation, cars, cell phones, electronics, telecoms, bookshops, building supplies, granite, entertainment, law, mining …
zimbabwecompanies.com – Cached

And we checked Ask, Dogpile and other search engines and it appears that the only search engine compromised was Google.  So we went to work and found the virus.  Then Google wrote us the following letter.

TO:
abuse@zimbabwecompanies.com
admin@zimbabwecompanies.com
administrator@zimbabwecompanies.com

5 More…
Message flagged
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 2:06 PM
Message body

Dear site owner or webmaster of zimbabwecompanies.com,
We recently discovered that some of your pages can cause users to be infected with malicious software. We have begun showing a warning page to users who visit these pages by clicking a search result on Google.com.

Below are some example URLs on your site which can cause users to be infected (space inserted to prevent accidental clicking in case your mail client auto-links URLs):
http://zimbabwecompanies .com/grammyshop.htm
http://zimbabwecompanies .com/tabobabycompany.htm
http://www.zimbabwecompanies .com/sdeczimbabwe.htm
Here is a link to a sample warning page:

http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http%3A//zimbabwecompanies.com/grammyshop.htm

Although some sites intentionally distribute malicious software, in your case, we have evidence to suggest that your site was compromised.
Since  your site was compromised, it’s important to not only remove the malicious (and usually hidden) content from your pages, but to also identify and fix the vulnerability. We suggest contacting your hosting provider if you are unsure of how to proceed. StopBadware also has a resource page for securing compromised sites:

http://www.stopbadware.org/home/security

Once you’ve secured your site, you can request that the warning be removed by visiting
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?
and requesting a review. If your site is no longer harmful to users, we will remove the warning.

Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team

We are sharing this information for four reasons:-

a)  To warn clients not to access search results for zimbabwe companies via Google but via Yahoo, Bing, Ask or any other search engine until we have finished fixing this problem (we have already identified the virus but we want to make sure that we totally clean it up before resubmission so please bear with us).

b) To educate companies who have websites that while your web host can be the best e.g. Yahoo in our case, there are certain attributes which are beyond your web hosting company and webmaster’s control.  This unfortunate but rude awakening is a case in point.

c) An independent computer expert whom we consulted immediately after we became aware of this problem said the virus will not harm any computer (otherwise Msn (bing) and Yahoo would have also issued the same warning),  but  we still urge all our clients to heed the Google warning until we issue a clearance signal for the Google search result. We take all our service providers advice seriously and we thank Google, Yahoo, Msn, the internet police and everyone of the local and international consultants and Primezone members who are working to fix this problem.

d)   We believe in respecting our clients by telling them the truth, even if it makes us look bad.  Toyota survived one of the worst set backs in history and it brought them improved customer loyalty.  Our company is built on solid fundamental principles and ethics, and we are proud to serve.  To us,  setbacks are learning opportunities and with your continued clientele and support, we will continue to become the website of choice for zimbabwe companies for the online directory and other listings in 2012 and the future.  Our marketing team will be going out in full force for business as usual for renewals and new listings from the 3rd of January 2012.  We are working flat out to fix the Google search results problem.

If we are getting targetted at search engine level, we must be doing something right. We believe that competition must be smart, productive and above all, it has to benefit clients, not harm them. We apologise to all the clients whose Google search result was affected and we will publish the list of affected clients when we finish cleaning up the virus.

Another update: it looks like the the Advermark In Store Agreement has still not materialised.  We, like you will keep checking in store!

To every company’s success in 2012!

Primezone t/a www.zimbabwecompanies.com

RE: WITHDRAWAL, APOLOGY & MORE Hide Details FROM: Nqobani Palane TO: ‘www.zimbabwecompanies.com’ Message flagged Sunday, November 13, 2011 12:52 PM Message body Lets progress go head and print your CD’s we are a sincere group of people we honour our agreements… we are flighting as commited to in the agreement Regards

____________________________________________________</p>

As stated in the above correspondence, there was a misunderstanding which we did apologise for and as far as we know, Advermark do honour their agreements.  We remain sure that the mix up will soon be rectified and the Companies/Professionals/Traders Database CD advert will be flighted in store as per agreement.   In the event that there are any changes, we will post here to let everyone know.  Thanks for reading and point out this to us.  We do try very hard to keep our promises – so does  Mr. Palane, that is why we entered into an agreement with him.  In this day and age, it is very important to choose the people you deal with carefully in business, as we do.   So, from Mr. Palane and our team, just keep looking here for updates regarding the flighting of the advert.

Season’s greetings and happy  holidays!  Dont forget to keep checking in store!

For decision making, speed and efficiency,  especially for the renewal listings which went out last week Wednesday, special mention and thanks goes to:-

1.  Mr. Brett De Villiers – Carswell Meats (he manages his emails promptly)

2.  Mr. Don Chirove – Metal Craft Engineering – (from his mobile, very deft and efficient)

3.  The General Manager, Bolsbury Trading, almost immediate response!

4.   Mr. Boyd Carr of Coghlan Welsh and Guest – these lawyers astonish!

5.  The Managing Director – Decorama, we were pleasantly surprised.

Thank you gentlemen.  You make us proud to have such high ranking management members who are also computer savvy!

The price for the directory online and on the CD for the period 23 November, 2011  to 31 December, 2012  is US $20 per company.  This payment will be for an annual listing and you can submit change of details for free for your entry any time during the course of the year.

We are working hard to reduce the price of the CD from the current US$6 per copy to a price to be made known beginning January, 2012.   We wish to thank all the companies which have continued to buy the CD and we want to apologise for not having the CD in the Kingstons outlets as earlier advised.  This was due to mistiming on the part of our advertising partner whom we are working with to rectify this problem.  The CDs will most likely be available in the Kingstons outlets with effect from December, 2011.  We sincerely apologise for this logistical error.