If you own a small business then you probably need not worry about this issue.

Once your company gets bigger and busier you may well have to rely on other people or technology to do many things for you. You still can’t beat having a human being check over decisions at some point though.

Case in point, my application for a credit card this week. A classic case of letting your technology lose you customers.

I like to keep a couple of credit cards for convenience. I have one with my main bank LloydsTSB but when I travel I sometimes find that it won’t work in other countries right away. I applied online for a backup card with my bank of 15 years First Direct.

I waited a few weeks hearing nothing but then found a message via my online banking interface telling me I was declined! I asked why and they said that the computer didn’t see enough credits going into my account. I wrote back saying that I used the account for mortgage payments only which was why. They said it was too bad.

I applied to another bank who have no idea how much I make and was immediately accepted. I told First Direct that I am closing my account on principle. They don’t care I’m sure.

Bottom line. We all need to apply some humanity to what happens in our business if we want to keep our customers.

Paul Browning

I’ve noticed more and more of this over the past few months.

It was fairly innocuous to start with but now is downright annoying and sinister.

I’m taking about interruption marketing of course. All the sites which started off as great such as YouTube, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB now slap me in the face with huge unblockable adverts when I visit. I can’t watch a movie without being forced to watch a 45 second movie advert first.

I tried to read a movie review on Rotten Tomatoes and I have to navigate my way round an out-of-date (its the 3rd of Jan now) Christmas advert from HMV.

I will never be clicking on any of these sorts of adverts and I refuse to waste 45 seconds of my life waiting to watch a movie trailer.

My business point is – never slap your customers in the face with interruption marketing. It annoys.

Paul Browning

Doing the right thing as a small business owner isn’t hard.

While many company owners are losing sleep over the font to use on their business cards and colour on their logos they can often make mistakes with the simple yet important details.

Today I searched on the web for a company or small business who could provide me with some elocution training to help me with a speaking test I have next month.

I found a company which fitted the bill but immediately I could see classic mistakes they were making which will result in making them look small and unprofessional.

1. Office number goes through to his home
2. Call picked up by a child telling me her dad is out for a run
3. Company uses a free e-mail account instead of their domain name
4. Website last updated in 2008 and copyright notice says 2008
5. No clear message about what they do or how they can help me
6. Annoying message about the site content is copyrighted (as if it is worth stealing!)

It really isn’t hard to get some free or cheap processes in place to make your business look bigger and more professional than the rest. Just do the opposite of the guy above.

Paul Browning

Standing in the queue at Starbucks today I was reminded why it is so important never to presume your staff understand what your company does and even if they do, you need to ensure they consistently deliver your desired message.

A customer picked up one of the Starbucks reward cards and asked if it was for collecting points. The member of staff replied that you didn’t, it was for paying money onto so you can get stuff like free flavours in your coffee. I don’t work for Starbucks but even I know the card isn’t about that.The Starbucks cards is there for preloading money onto so you can pay for your drinks and food. It saves you having to use cash if you don’t have it handy or having to key in your credit card pin every time. With the card you get discounted coffee, free wifi, extra shots and other goodies.

Also, Starubucks give a percentage of the profits used via the rewards card to their nominated charity so you are doing good things.

The card isn’t my point. The point is that you need to ensure your staff are all giving the same message and that they are aware of and knowledgeable about what your company does and what it offers. You can use training and scripts for this sort of stuff. I hear it has been working out pretty well for McDonalds for a few years now.

Paul Browning

I rent a business postal address in Milton Keynes through a company called United Business Centres or UBC.

It’s been going pretty well until recently when I heard they were going bust. Nobody from the company had been in touch but when pressed I was e-mailed a copy of a letter from the CEO saying everything was rosy and they were just closing one office.

But one week later….

I received a letter from their receivers saying that they were going bust. I was annoyed because I needed to find another office address as well as pay for business mail redirection.

I went in to collect my mail today expecting to find it closed or closing down and it was open for business as usual. The receptionist gave me my mail and when I asked her if they were closing she casually said ‘Oh no, we have been bought out by Regus.’

I asked why nobody had bothered to tell me about this and she simply shrugged and responded with the 4 saddest words in  business, ‘It’s not my job.’

I could have come back with ‘Whose job is it then?’ but really, what is the point? When your front line, customer facing staff are so apathetic then it becomes clear why they went bust in the first place.

Paul Browning

I love surveying my customers.

Surveys provide valuable feedback and help your customers become contributors to your business and their experience of buying from you or working with you.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do surveys though.

I stayed at the Premier Inn in Coventry two nights ago. I didn’t have a great experience but that is another story. I received a customer satisfaction survey today and I thought I would give my feedback to them.

I answered three questions and at the bottom the marker said I had completed 3% of the survey! You must be joking. 100 questions about my one night stay. What could they possibly need to know which would require 100 questions?

I gave up, despite the fact they were offering £1000 as a potential prize.

When surveying your customers ask a few important questions and leave space for free text comments. Use an online tool such as SurveyMonkey.com and offer a reward such as an e-book or prize draw.

Paul Browning

Starting a business is a dream shared by many people but few ever do it.

Growing a business is a huge challenge. You have to take care of sales, marketing, logistics, cashflow as well as perform the work if you are both the owner and the employee.

All of this is almost guaranteed to put us into a place where we get feelings of discomfort or even fear.

The problem isn’t the fear. It is when people label that feeling as wrong or tell themselves that they should be feeling that way (as if we have a choice). If you choose to grow then pain and discomfort will be your constant companions so get used to it. Eventually what felt scary will feel as natural as drinking a cup of tea.

Paul Browning

I have door-to-door sales people call on my regularly. What gives them the right to disturb me when I am trying to work I don’t know – I really do need to get that sign up on my front door.

Anyway. Since they are there I like to listen to what they have to say. Amazingly, they actually use questions which prevent them ever making a sale. If you are a sales person or sell anything at all, you will starve if you can’t sell so knowing what not to ask is as important as knowing what to ask.

The guy trying to sell me fish from his van knocked. I was busy trying to feed my baby and I do already buy from my regular fish man to be honest. But the new fish man upon hearing that I already buy from fish man asked a strange question which was guaranteed to end the conversation with a no – only because he was the one who said no!

I said I already buy from a fish man so he then said ‘So won’t want to buy from me then?’

There was nothing I could add to that because he had just closed the door in his own face.

The moral is self evident.

Paul Browning

Would you like some more customers?

Sure, what the heck. You would only be wasting time surfing the web or putting what you had for breakfast on Facebook so why not have a few more to keep you busy during the day.

Here’s how.

Step 1 – Create a Compelling Offer

What will you give your new customers? Avoid giving freebies away but if you have to, give them titles such as ‘Free Taster’ or ‘Try Before You Buy.’ Preferably give away information of high perceived value to your new customers such as an e-book, audio guide on a CD (with a nice cover) or a video you have filmed. All easily done.

Step 2 – Create a Postcard to Distribute

Use an online service such as Vistaprint. You can upload your own designs or use one of their existing ones. On it put down your compelling offer. Put a time limit on when it must be claimed by and your contact details including your website and e-mail.

Step 3 – Tap into Your Network

Speak to your existing customers and ask them to refer your services to people of equally high quality as them – they can use your postcard to hand out which will say what you can do. Tell them that for every customer who joins from their recommendation they will get a special gift from you. Down to you to work out what it is. Use vouchers for your services, cash back, free sessions or products. I prefer products.

Step 4 – Say Thanks

You must thank anyone who gets you new customers. What gets rewarded gets repeated!

How it Works

Ten of your customers take you up and each refer two others. Out of the twenty new customers only half keep using your services. You have now doubled your customer base to twenty.

Go back to step 1. Twenty customers each refers two others giving you forty new customers only half keep using your services. You have now tripled your original customer base to thirty.

Keep going until you have enough customers.

When you have enough you can begin to test your prices and or bring others in to deliver your service for a share of the money. You could also consider teaching your model to others in your industry or franchising your business or selling up as a going concern.

Paul Browning