When you focus on the total experience of your business, you are changing your community, your team and business as a whole.

If you have talked about creating value for your community through philanthropy and haven’t made the leap yet, I would challenge you to make that part of your strategy very soon.

Your team, customers and community will thank you for it.

If you don’t have the Total Experience Design Manifesto yet, you can get it here.  

TXD is about innovation, change, and creative destruction (out with the old,
in with the better).

This is where TXD looks to the future, to what could be and should be, not just
to what is. Innovating on a delivered experience includes innovating on the experience of using your product or service. The “experience” part of the equation is your gauge, a dipstick to measure progress and development. If you are not improving life, delivering the appropriate experience, your “progress” may not be so beneficial.

The best innovations tend to be revolutionary in their experience delivery, transforming society and how we do things.

Think iPod or Google, revolutionary products and ideas that deliver revolutionary experiences, a new way to shop for and manage music or a better simpler search. These companies continue to deliver transformation.

Listen to this week’s podcast as we talk about what that looks like in your business.

Also, if you don’t have it yet, you can get the Total Experience Design Manifesto here.

Take event ticket sales in today’s market.  I don’t know very many people who purchase tickets to events offline.  I don’t know what the numbers are for online sales but I bet they are really high.  E-mail opt ins and deal sites like Groupon let you know when your favorite event has a special promotion to get you to buy a ticket to that event.

As a baseball fan I am subscribed to our local baseball team’s mailing list.  They ran a promotion a couple of months ago for free tickets.  Thinking that this would be a great Sunday afternoon activity with the family, I thought about getting tickets but didn’t do so right away.

When I tried to buy tickets, I had waited too long and this happened:

Now I was not concerned with the fact that I missed the promotion.  What I was concerned with was the experience that they delivered in the process.  All I got was a tiny set of letters that said, “This offer is no longer for sale.”  That’s it.  They might as well have given me the finger.

Instead of saying something like: “I’m sorry, this promotion has expired.  However, we would love to see you at the game.  You can check out other ticket options here or you can take a look at some of our upcoming promotions to other games.”  What I got was a dead end in the experience.  Not even a link to buy tickets somewhere else unless I am handicapped.

Could you imagine if someone called your office to ask about a service offer and the person on the phone told them that you don’t offer that anymore and then just hung up on the perspective client.  You would go nuts.

Small business owners create these unintentional poor experiences online all the time.  In the case of the minor league baseball game, I still got tickets because I love baseball.  Not everyone shares my enthusiasm for the game.  The average person will just move on and spend their money somewhere else.

How is your online experience?  Are there any dead ends that need to be opened up to reduce the sales friction for your buyers?  Take some time and review your online presence and make sure that all roads lead to the logical next step for your customer.

• Content (website, pamphlets, art, books, music, videos, etc.)
• Brand (trademark, company name, product name, slogan, etc.)
• Technology (know-how, processes, inventions, etc.)
• Secrets (lists, financial information, data that has value if kept secret, etc.)
• Relationships (deals, partners, alliances, suppliers, vendors, lead sources, etc.)

To really nail down protection in any of these areas, you need an IP lawyer – plain and simple. But, you don’t always need to nail down protection all the way; sometimes you just need a “covering,” especially in the beginning. So, here are five ways to strengthen the value of your business with FREE intellectual property protection:

1. Strengthen Content Protection with a Copyright Notice.

1. Use the correct format: ©[space]First Year of Publication[space]Owner
2. Examples:

• © 2010 Webb IP Law Group
• (c) 2006 – 2012 Webb IP Law Group
• Copr. 2004, 2007 Webb IP Law Group

1. Use the © mark even if you have not applied for federal registration of your copyright.

Warning: If you pay someone to create Content for you, they often own it. Make sure that your agreements are clear about Content ownership. If possible and appropriate, make sure that the written agreement states that you own it.

2. Strengthen Brand Protection with a Trademark Notice

1. Use the correct format–The trademark notice is a “TM” next to the brand, usually to the bottom right or top right of the brand.
2. Example:  Webb IP Law Group _TM
3. Use your trademark (provided you are not infringing someone else’s brand) on marketing, advertising, and sales to establish stronger rights to your trademark.

Warning: Do not use the ® symbol unless you actually have a federal registration or you risk getting in trouble. Also, until you actually use your brand in commerce or have an application filed with the US government, anybody can steal it. So, if you have an excellent name, keep it under wraps.

3. Strengthen Technology Protection with an “inventor’s notebook” and simple confidentiality agreements.

The lowest level of technology protection is not automatic and involves two main processes.

1. Keep an “inventor’s notebook” as a special record of your inventions.  Use a blank lab notebook (or google “inventor’s notebook”) that is:

• Permanently bound (NOT loose-leaf)
• The place where you write down all of your ideas
• Date all writings
• Have each page witnessed by two witnesses

Keeping a notebook like this can be used later as evidence of your creation and can be proof against someone who might steal your idea from you.

1. Keep inventions secret until they are protected

• Have simple confidentiality agreements with anybody you discuss the idea with who is not an attorney.
• Limit access to invention details to people who agree to keep it confidential.

For some inventions, keeping it secret indefinitely is the right choice. For others, your initial protection helps you get ready for patents.

Warning: Do not use “Patent Pending” on your product/service unless you actually have a patent pending with the US Patent Office that covers your product/service or you risk being sued.

4. Strengthen Secret Protection by Keeping the Secret

1. Mark secret documents as CONFIDENTIAL—use a watermark, a footer, a header, or even just in the text.

1. End email footer with a notice of confidentiality. For example:

“This email and any attachments contain information from Webb IP Law
Group, which may be confidential and/or privileged. The information is
intended to be for the use of the individual or entity named on this
email. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any
disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this email
is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please notify us by
reply email immediately so that we can arrange for the retrieval of the
original documents at no cost to you.”

1. Encrypt or password protect important computer data (customer lists, financial data, credit card numbers, etc.)
2. Follow any legal secrecy/confidentiality requirements that apply to your industry or to the kinds of secrets you are expected to keep (HIPAA, FTC requirements, etc.)
3. Establish policies of “need to know” for critical information – in other words only people who “need to know” should be given access to that information.

Warning: If you cannot prove (in writing) that you took appropriate efforts to keep something a secret, then courts will generally treat you like you didn’t. Be sure to document your efforts to keep things a secret.

5. Strengthen Relationship Protection by Documenting Expectations

a.     Have clear expectations

• Spend extra time now to avoid problems later
• Deal with topics you’d rather avoid
• Repeat what you hear to make sure you heard it right

1. Put those expectations in writing

• Send a casual email summary
• Or send a Formal Memorandum of Understanding

Getting it in writing is a great way to preserve that understanding so that six months later you can go back and remember what you were thinking and expecting.

Warning: If someone sends you a summary of an “understanding” and it is incorrect and you don’t reply, that summary might someday be treated as if it was the full truth on the subject. Don’t let an opportunity to clarify slip by, it might bite you later.

These five techniques are used by major corporations around the world and are proven to provide at least baseline protection. They are processes that should be a part of your regular way of doing business because they provide an infinite return on investment. Be aware of the intellectual property that you create as you go about your business and set up whatever you need to manage its protection.

Warning: “Baseline protection” means that it is the least amount of protection that is better than nothing at all. Certainly, that level of protection is not always appropriate. Be shrewd about what you protect and how you protect it. That said, if you don’t at least do the free protection, don’t be surprised if other people treat your property like a doormat.

Jason Webb, Registered Patent Attorney at Webb IP Law Group [www.webbiplaw.com,   www.facebook.com/webbiplaw]

One of the little things that gets overlooked by businesses online is what do with users who happen upon a 404 page error on your website.

Here’s what that experience typically looks like:

A 404 error happens when a user tries to visit a page on your website that isn’t there.  This could be because you moved it or it never existed.  Rather than leave your clients at dead ends, what if you used this dead end as a tool for engaging your client base at a deeper level?

Renny Gleeson talks about this very thing in a recent TED Talk that he did.  Great talk and a great lesson on how companies are doing the little things to build an engaging experience for their audience.

Enjoy the short video and look at how you can incorporate some of these ideas into your own experience.

In point #1 of the Total Experience Design Manifesto you learned that everyone creates an experience whether they know it or not. Point #5 expands on that idea and gives some specific areas where this point is represented.

If you still don’t have the manifesto, you can get it here.

Listen to today’s podcast and make sure you leave us your thoughts.

If you have ever tried to brand your business, the whole concept of what a brand is and how it looks for your business can seem confusing and in some cases ridiculous.

Branding in some cases feels like the girl in high school who doesn’t get enough attention so has to act outrageously to get the attention that they so crave.

We argue that branding starts with how you handle your business and the experience you deliver goes hand in hand with that.

Before you can give an outstanding client experience, you have to have the internal culture in place to support it.

That’s what point #4 of our Manifesto on Total Experience Design covers.

Today’s podcast deals with how you can do that effectively for your business.

Moving beyond the corporate buzzwords of mission, vision and values lies a powerful tool that can’t be underestimated for your business.

Businesses that have a defined mission and a shared commitment to that  mission.  This is not only important for you and your team but is also important to your customers.  They want to know that you are in alignment with their values and beliefs as well.

Take a minute to assess your organizations mission and ask yourself how clear it is.  Also, determine how committed your team is to your mission as well.

How good are you are focusing on important areas in your business?  If you’re going to put your focus somewhere, then make sure that it is on the experience that you deliver.

By focusing on the delivered experience, you are really focusing on all of the different systems and processes that go into putting that together.  Business owners who focus on the experience have more satisfied clients and employees.

This episode focuses on the Total Experience Design Manifesto Point #2.

This week the My Business World podcast dives into the Total Experience Design Manifesto.  Today’s episode focuses specifically on point number one.

We will focus on the one point that business owners seem to neglect with regards to the experience that they are generating.  Specifically, business owners have a bad habit of taking their experience for granted and not being intentional with how the team is interacting with that experience.

Who’s responsible for creating the experience on your team?  Everyone.