52,000 People Bitching

About Your Business??

     If you can’t deliver what you promise,  please—P L E A S E— close down your business and become a politician, or go work for the government. Don’t worry; you’ll be qualified! I guess I had a gullible sign around my neck, but in just a couple of weeks, I managed to stumble into three businesses that failed to deliver what they promised.

     From “Fresh-picked” apples  that I bought at an apple farm in upstate New York, and kept — as suggested —  in a cool place, that rotted out in 48 hours … to Comcast Cable TV that kept Kathy on the phone for one and a half hours arguing with a rep and three supervisors (one dumber than the next) for billing her 87 year-old mother for two years worth of equipment she didn’t have and never had (Kathy’s tenacity won a $248 credit!) … to a magazine editor who promised  to print a story I gave him and then never said a word about not doing it.

     Oh, there were others.  And I’m quite certain many of you could add many more of your own stories. What sucks is that not only do people lie about what they’re selling, they actually have the nerve to argue about it — and then to add a little fuel to the fire, pretend they know nothing about anything, and do everything possible to cut off communications. Amazing. They should all have to go before Judge Judy; she’d fix ’em..

We’re not just talking integrity here. We’re talking branding. BRANDING IS  having a customer know in her heart of hearts that she is getting what’s been promised, and will always have recourse with the business she’s dealing with who will literally bend over backwards, stand on their heads, spit wooden nickles and kill her with kindness… just in case they screw up!

     If you are in business and you are serious about making your business work,  please take the high road! When businesses (the boss, or ANYbody who works for the boss! ANYbody!) promise a service, for a specific price in a specific time period, or a product for a specific price to perform in a specific way (and be delivered at a specific time), that business must be prepared to follow-through EXACTLY as promised or suffer the consequences of being bad-mouthed.

     Bad-mouthed.  Studies show that one unhappy customer on one day will tell at least 10 and probably 20 other people how unhappy they are and will also in all likelihood embellish the story each time, and those people they tell will tell another five or ten each. [“You won’t believe what happened to Harry the other day…”] 

     Let’s say you run a 5-day a week business  and have just one unhappy customer a day (even though you may have 500 HAPPY customers a day!)? That’s a minimum of 2600-5200 people a year bad-mouthing your business, and being repeated to the tune of maybe FIFTY THOUSAND negative comments about your business. No, that’s not exaggerating. Think you’ll survive?      

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You are your business.

Attitude and behavior

are your brand.

     Small business owners rarely devote enough attention to branding and the importance of branding. It is much more than a logo, name, label, or catchy slogan. Brands reflect the integrity and reputation of both the company and the business owner.

 Your brand and branding messages need to include

 and be wrapped around

ALL aspects of your business.

     Your brand and branding messages need to make a statement about the environment and methods you and your company are engaged with. This “statement” needs to be an integral focal point of ALL of your communications… verbal, visual, written, in-person, and implied!

     Your business exists because of your customer bases: INternal customers (like associates, employees, referrers, strategic alliances and present suppliers) as well as EXternal customers (like past and present buyers, prospective buyers and employees, and prospective suppliers). What it is that you put out to each and all of them every day is what adds up to your brand and branding.

     This translates into how you and your business deal with all of these diverse “customer audiences” on a day-by-day basis, how you treat them, whether you pay your bills on time, if you follow-through with customer service after the sale is made, if your business is a good citizen in the communities that support it, whether your products and services provide true quality benefits and dollar value.

     Keep in mind that one unhappy customer (internal OR external) will tell ten other people about her or his lack of satisfaction, and each of them will tell ten more. In case you weren’t doing the math, that’s a hundred people walking around bad-mouthing a business that may naively dismiss one upset as one upset. But–aaaaaah, the reverse is also true: delight one person and gain a hundred positive referrals!

     Reality is that maintaining positive and productive brand images and branding messages means you need to practice unending vigilence in tending to all levels of (internal AND external) customer service. It is especially important to be and stay tuned in to employee and industry-related issues, and to pounce on problems and deal with them honestly.  

     A great memorable name and themeline are critically important to brands and branding messages, but not nearly as important as a business with clear-cut genuine values run by people with clear-cut genuine attitudes. 

# # #  

Hal@TheWriterWorks.com or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God bless you!

Hey Boss, what’s

your T-shirt say?

     One of the most useful exercises you can do as a business owner or manager is to take a shot at branding yourself and your business… regardless of whether your business is already in the middle of a branding campaign or not.

     This exercise is just between you and yourself! And don’t offer any feeble not-enough-time-type excuses because this whole adventure shouldn’t take you more than 3-4 minutes!

     Put two pieces of paper in front of you. Label one “Me” and the other “Biz.” Put “Biz” aside for a minute. On the “Me” page draw the simple outline of a blank t-shirt… no knit collars or sleeves, no tag sticking out, no concern for size or crooked lines; remember, it’s just for you, and you can toss it when you’re done.

     Now close your eyes and take two deep breaths (go ahead; I’ll wait!). Good.

     Next, put some representation of whatever you think would be the most appropriate visual message [word(s) and/or picture(s)] on that t-shirt to represent you, your thinking, your personality, your approach to things, your attitude, your values, your goals/ambitions— whatever strikes you as something that accurately represents what you’re all about.

     Perhaps it’s something you might want a stranger to know about you, or even something that might surprise those who do know you?

     Good. Fold the paper and stick it in your pocket.

     Now, close your eyes again and take two more deep breaths. Okay, now pick up the “Biz” page and draw another t-shirt (same as the first one), but —on this one—record what it is that you most want others (customers/patients/clients/employees/vendors/referrers) to see in your business.

     In other words, when others hear or read or think about the name of your company or practice, what do you want come to the front of their minds? What quality or uniqueness or value or key characteristic? Write/draw it on this second (“Biz”) t-shirt. 

     Finally take the first one out of your pocket and unfold it. Put the two side by side and make a note on the “Me” page about what the two messages have in common. On the “Biz” page jot down what the difference(s) is/are.

     Ideally, there’s a synergy between the two. Whatever differences there are should be healthy ones. If you think you could never wear both shirts, you might want to start career-hunting again. If the messages run parallel but you think they need to be more closely aligned, what can you do starting at 9am tomorrow morning to get that to happen?

     If the messages are identical, you may want to think about stepping up your personal life a bit. Eating, sleeping and breathing your business is admirable, but quickly becomes an unhealthy state of existence that magnetizes stress, illness, and family disruptions. 

     If I see you this summer without a t-shirt, I’ll know you’ve been busy working on your message, your business, and your life… or are about to be arrested! All four situations need your undivided attention! 

# # #  

Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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“You Get Incompetence

In A Dirty Facility!”

     Just because you own or run a professional (medical, legal, accounting, mental health, etc.) practice doesn’t exempt you from the need to establish and consistently promote a branding theme line.

     That single statement that others will identify with you needs to fully describe everything important about your service in seven words or less.

If you’ve been thinking that you and your profession are above the clutter of fastfood/hi-tech/toilet paper/auto dealer hype, you are correct! 

But you are NOT above developing and publicizing a meaningful message and putting it out to the universe for consideration and, hopefully, acceptance.

     Why is that? Because our emerging societal norms are to expect every entity–professional or trash–to put a billboard in our collective faces, all day, every day!

     Seriously, we live in a competitive, consumer-driven world (despite existing economics), with the 9 or 10 million Twitter users rapidly adapting to 140-character length messages and any business worth anything (plus some that aren’t) relying on 7-word branding slogans, you and your professional practice need to be maximally represented in the hunt in order to survive.

     Your brand is not simply your name or catchy logo or label, though some involve one or both of these. In reality, your brand encompasses all aspects of your professional practice, and how you represent yourself to patients and clients, prospective patients and clients, and the circles you and your practice operate in.

     These operating circles widen every day with every new hi-tech communications development, with every encounter . . . between yourself and other staff and associates connected with your practice as well as between each of you and the rest of the world: families, friends, patients/clients, prospects, affiliate agencies and institutions, sales reps and vendors, professional and public communities, et al.  

     As a rule of thumb, your brand should be represented by a theme line of 7 words or less that says who you are, what you do, what the unique benefit is of your service, and ideally includes your name or location or other sales point . . . and accomplishes all that persuasively.

Actually, great branding lines are engaging, convincing 7-word stories — often with a double entendre included, and occasionally rhyming if you’re lucky.                                        

(“For The Best Of Your Life…” for LIFE Health & Fitness Centers; “Growing Internet Businesses With Real World Experience”for eHealthcare Ventures; “You Deserve A Break Today…at McDonald’s”; “Orthopedic Patient Partnerships – Adding Life To Years” for Medical Center of Ocean County, NJ; “”You Can Be Certain With I.G. Burton” car dealerships; “Backpackers Spine Health & Strength Training Program” for Dr. Ian Fries; “The Dog Kids Love To Bite” for Armour Hot Dogs; “Enhancing Life, Work & Sports Performance”for BioMotion 3-D Imaging and Physical Therapy; “The Medical Mark of Excellence” for board-certified neurologist Dr. Michael Mark, are just a few that come to mind)

_________________________

     There are plenty more, including some I’m sure for those typically even less-creative professionals in law and accounting. But what you need to know is that it IS important to have a strong branding identity and that it IS best done by a professional, not by whimsy, chance or a creative cousin. Remember there is no second first impression. What you say you’re all about the first time around is what sticks. 

     Oh, and even after all of this is done, it’s the consistent reinforcing positive and pleasant attitude that you and your staff project to the rest of the world –all day– every day– day after day– because you believe in the value of the services you provide, that counts!

In other words, the phrase you use must be the guide you follow and must reinforce the actions you take.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!