Boost Your Business : An Expert's Tips

Winners and Losers
Sunday, September 25, 2011

The philosophy of ASDA (Wal-Mart) supermarkets is easy to grasp. Their advertising is aimed primarily at young couples. It has little to do with the good looks and vitality of young people. When a couple, at an early stage of their relationship, start shopping they may spend say €30 - €50 a week, which is hardly a fortune.

The marketing departments of supermarkets wisely have their calculators out. Without allowing for inflation they figure out that, if they keep youngsters happy, then when they have children they will spend €5,200 a year; you can buy a car with that kind of money. Over 40 years this sum will morph into €208,000. That is what I call business shrewdness; it is the value of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Banks were similarly minded when offering inducements to students to open accounts. Today’s penniless student is tomorrow’s doctor, solicitor or schoolteacher. They and their families will need a mortgage, loans, insurance, and much else. The impoverished student will eventually represent about €75,000 - €200,000 business each year.

I was reminded of this when my wife and I visited a Spanish restaurant on the Costa del Sol and explained that we wanted just a bottle of wine between us. We were told by the restaurant’s meet and greet concierge that tables were for diners only, despite there being a number of empty tables.

It was no big deal; we went instead to a competitor across the plaza. There we were treated as valued customers and in future will dine there regularly. As we enjoyed our drinks we could see several of the earlier restaurant’s tables remained empty as were the heads of the proprietors.

The smart operator would have welcomed and made a fuss of us; not for the paltry profits from a €10 bottle of wine. No, they would have considered this a golden opportunity to showcase their restaurant and establish friendship with potentially regular customers.

Perhaps they thought we were tourists; not that this should make a difference for tourists stay and spend; they also recommend and return year after year. As it happens we are not tourists. We live here; we are in business, we entertain regularly; family, friends and business clients. Imagine the value of such clients they turned away.

As I have said so often; there is nothing much wrong with Mediterranean Spain; it can tick every box imaginable; run rings around competitors because of its many advantages. Sadly, it cannot survive, let alone prosper, when there are so many business proprietors not fit for purpose. They spoil it not only for themselves but for the Spanish and local economies.

Robert Louis Stephenson, the great writer, once observed: ‘Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary’. He obviously hadn’t had any dealings with many business owners in Spain.

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When the Customer is King
Monday, September 19, 2011

There were times within living memory when restaurateurs and those providing for the chill-out trade could be laid back about their approach to business. They could afford the dubious luxury of adopting a take it or leave it attitude towards customers. I recall one restaurant manager telling my companion and me they were closing. They were not; he resented our not ordering a meal, although their drink prices were heavily loaded. Another airily told us to join the queue for a table; another sniffily suggested we return later. What goes round comes round, amigo.

Let’s look on the bright side of recessionary things; customers are hopefully better treated when they are as rare as hens’ teeth. During the recession it is the customer who calls the shots and they can be damnably discerning. It is their privilege to be so.

Businesses can do more to help themselves. It is at times like this when business proprietors really do have to pay attention to detail in order to make their service more appealing than those of their competitors. Being nice to customers is the obvious way. Let me offer advice that will have them reaching for the smelling salts: Why not give your customers something for which they don’t get billed?

The Chinese restaurants don’t need any lessons in business psychology and are much appreciated for ‘throwing in’ a free bottle of wine or two, or placing the help yourself Schnapps on the table. It is a customer-building art that penny-pinching Europeans could learn from.

I was part of the business gift revolution. As a young man I worked as a salesman for the Blackpool-based Starline Business Gift Company. It was an American-imported concept by which businesses actually gave your customers free gifts. It was a fairly tough thing to sell in Britain but ironically the smaller enterprises were the first to catch on.

A lady who regularly visits her hairdresser is a goldmine but until I called at the hairdressers a simple thanks were thought enough. After I had made my point the customer’s lifetime loyalty was earned by a simple gesture. The hairdresser, after the hairdo, would press a pouch containing a rainhood into the client’s hand, in case it rained. It was a small thank you that cost coppers but I can’t tell you how much this small act of appreciation was valued.

Garages were good customers. On servicing or repairing a client’s car they would attach a key fob to the car keys. On it of course was printed the garage contact details in case of breakdown. Again, for a few coppers outlay a client’s goodwill was gained.

Calendars and desk items were other ways of building and keeping customers loyal – and your business name on their desk. Printed pens; I sold them by the thousand. It was a doubled-edged business booster as on the one hand it was an appreciated gesture of thanks whilst the customer was giving the business a free advertising ride.

A London-based estate agent never advertised. Instead, he always made sure there was a welcome home hamper delivered on the day his clients moved in. His customers did his advertising for him. Guess which was cheapest. Go on; give your customer the occasional free dessert and get them back time after time.

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Poor spelling cuts sales by half
Sunday, September 4, 2011

An analysis of website figures by a top online business entrepreneur shows a single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half. Charles Duncombe says “Poor spelling is costing the UK millions of pounds in lost revenue.” He goes on to say: “I am shocked at the poor quality of written English.”

He says it is possible to identify the specific impact of a spelling mistake on sales. His company measured the revenue per visitor and found that revenue was twice as high after an error was corrected.

“Spelling is important to the credibility of a website. When there are underlying concerns about fraud and safety, then getting the basics right is essential. Even cutting edge companies depend upon old-fashioned skills because when you sell or communicate on the internet 99% of the time it is done by the written word. Spelling is important to the credibility of the website.”

The problem is far worse in Mediterranean Spain than it is in the United Kingdom. I have been beating my head against a brick wall for years over this basic business error. I estimate that 70 percent of websites lose credibility and business because of poorly written content. Many Spanish-owned websites, aimed at English speakers, do not have English language content.

Depressingly few business owners do anything about it; many cannot see it. Let me give you an example. An estate agent had done me a favour and I was looking for some way I might repay him. Browsing through his company’s website I cringed at the poor grammar; the lack or incorrect use of punctuation; the abysmal lack of marketing flair. In a word it was amateurish. This was my opportunity to repay his kindness: I offered to give the website’s content a free makeover. What was his reaction? “Thanks but no thanks; Eileen (his wife) did it. She thinks it is perfect and wouldn’t take kindly to being corrected.”

I despair. Would a reasonably educated person likely have confidence in a plumber or garage, let alone an estate agent, who cannot spell or string a sentence together?

The latest findings are endorsed by business organisations. James Fothergill the Confederation of British Industry’s head of education and skills, warned that too many employers had to invest in remedial literacy lessons for their staff. The William Dutton Oxford Internet Institute agree: “When a consumer might be wary of spam or phishing efforts, a misspelt word could be a killer issue.”

NOTE: My website and brochure makeovers do what cosmetics do for plain women; my methods are called word flattery. My fees are modest, especially when set against lost business. To fail to address this problem is the perfect example of spoiling a ship for a ha’porth of tar. Send me your website address for a free and honest analysis. quite_write@yahoo.co.uk

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