The Crusoe Effect

I'm an unfaithful man

2007-07-23T16:45:00.000+01:00

It's been way too long since I last posted on my Blogger account. It isn't because I'm lazy, it's because I've been cheating! My posts have been the sole property of Wibble for the last while and the way the site is growing, they're going to stay there! Sorry guys, my new love is too powerful to resist :)

London calling

2007-05-08T21:31:00.000+01:00

So last week I had a rant about not getting to enjoy my public holidays because of London based clients who don't always share the same holidays as us South Africans. Well there is an upside, and it's a great upside - trips to London!

I've been invited over to an event in London by one of my UK based clients and that means a few days of R&R with the family over there - lovely. The best part of the trip is that the event I've been invited to is a clients birthday party so it isn't all work. When the invite hit my inbox it made me realise just how important it is to have close client relationships. We have only ever met once and have developed the relationship over the last two years simply by working on projects together 6000 miles apart.

Relationships like this are invaluable in keeping a business strong!

Public holidays are a drag!

2007-04-30T14:54:00.000+01:00

Public holidays are supposed to be fun relaxing days off work where you can undertake the random arbitrary household projects that you have been putting off - things like watering the garden and washing the dogs. That's what they are supposed to be, but they aren't.

Being self employed changes many things in your life, one of the most painful is public holidays. Half of my clients are based in the UK and the other half based in SA. Therefore any SA public holiday that isn't a holiday in the UK means work as usual, and visa versa. I would be highly upset if it wasn't for the fact that my UK clients pay me in GBP which does ease the sting a little, but it is still quite frustrating.

If you are going to start your own business, just realise that there are more hidden pains than you think. For those of you who did take the public holidays, I'm very jealous!

Customer service language

2007-04-24T16:15:00.000+01:00

Customer service talk translation

It's company policy - I have no actual reason why it happened
We'll look into it - Give me some time to find an excuse
It's in the contract - I'm making up small print on the fly
Are you sure? - You liar!
You must speak to someone else - I'm about to hang up
Who did you speak to? - I know you don't remember
We'll call you back - Go fuck yourself

The property decision is looming

2007-04-18T08:02:00.000+01:00

Our little company is in the middle of a very big decision. We are growing and need offices - so what do we do?

There are 3 viable choices:
1. Rent office space
2. Buy commercial office space
3. Buy a house and use as offices

The problem is trying to work out which one is best. They all have pro's & con's but each seems to have a con that turns me off enough leaving me in no decision hell. Here is a basic intro into each...

Rent office space:
Pro: Relatively cheap compared to buying
Con: Zero investment in property. You're paying someone else's bond

Buy commercial office space:
Pro: It's an investment and this area of the property market is set to boom
Con: You have to pay a min of 15% deposit and the bond is 10 years not 20 (ouch!)

Buy a house and use as offices
Pro: Affordable compared to buying offices
Con: Transfer and legal fees will be more than a years rent under option 1. It's like burning money.

So this is where we are stuck. At this stage any decision will be a good one, even if it's wrong. I'm so stuck with which option is best that I'm happy to make a wrong decision because at least I'll then know and can take it off the list!

Frustrated!

Time to let go

2007-04-13T17:24:00.000+01:00

So, something on the light side of life. A while back we found a wind tunnel in Midrand and gave it bash. This is a small clip of one of the better parts.

Creativity from the masses

2007-04-11T21:57:00.000+01:00

I'm not generally classified as a creative person (although I'm left handed), but I do have my moments every now and then. My irritation is that they mostly go to waste. If I think of a cool advert idea for BMW or a funky event idea for Addidas there is nothing I can do except forget the idea.

Instead of creativity for the masses, how about creativity from the masses?

I wonder how receptive companies would be to people sending through their creative ideas/concepts. Some may be happy but I don't know any that would know how to handle such input. And where do we send them?

Now if there was a portal where anyone could load an idea for a company within a specific category my bet is it would be used a lot. The companies can subscribe and get notified of new ideas pertaining to them and if they like and implement the idea then they can give a small cut to the creative originator.

My next venture? Who knows! :)

The cost of customer happiness

2007-04-10T19:02:00.000+01:00

Went to Wimpy recently and ordered my usual bacon & cheese burger. When the burger arrived it only had one piece of bacon on it. Surely not I thought, so I asked the lady who served me and she said one piece was all I got.

I politely asked if they would be so kind as to put at least one more piece on my burger because a solitary bacon slice seemed a touch stingy. She kindly obliged, took my burger back, and went to on ring up a R3.00 extra on the till. I was appalled and gave the lady a choice - give me what I had originally paid for (bacon on my burger and not just one piece) or lose me as a customer forever. The choice wasn't hard for her - she chose to lose a customer because she would get fired if she didn't charge me for the extra bacon.

Lets not try and calculate the cost of losing a customer but instead focus on the cost of making a customer happy - one piece of bacon. The cost isn't the R3.00 it's a fraction of that for a single slice of bacon (ignoring the fact that they should have used at least 2 anyway). This is such a minute cost. Wimpy will argue that the national cost of using an extra slice of bacon on every burger sold will be quite high, but isn't that what I paid for in the original price? And what is the cost of losing more customers?

My advise to Wimpy:
Give your customer facing staff more adaptable rules instead of laws
Give the customer what they paid for in the first place
Cutting costs within your product is always noticed by your customers - don't do it
Losing a customer for life over a piece of bacon is not a good trade

It always amazes me how cheap it is to make a positive impact on your customers, and how rarely companies bother to even try.

This attitude from Wimpy is in direct contrast to their marketing campaign which shows a customer getting old and still using Wimpy. Maybe the person in the advert is getting old while waiting for a decent amount of bacon on their burger!

It's more than a right

2007-04-07T14:49:00.000+01:00

As we draw nearer to the launch of the new company I find myself thinking back over the last year as the idea grew and evolved. Yes there was fear and anxiety, doubt and dread, but that's all gone and now I'm left with excitement and wide eyes.

Too often people find ways of not making their great ideas happen in reality. Everyone has the right to see if their idea can be a success, but having the right is not enough - it leaves too many outs for people who don't have the self belief. When you have an idea that holds up to all possible scrutiny it is no longer your right to turn it into reality, it's your duty!

Being a duty removes the human excuse element which takes you that much closer to your idea becoming a reality. With the human element gone you gain the ability to factually re-examine the research, markets, and tests to decide if your idea will in fact make it in the big bad world.

Shake-up or wake-up at Telkom?

2007-04-05T17:42:00.000+01:00

Duncan over at FMTech has broken the story that Telkom CEO, Papi Molotsane, has been axed by the Telkom board. Go over there to read the post, but what I want to know is what the impact will be on the consumer - me, and you.

Are we moving closer to cheaper broadband or away from it? As usual though, it's probably going to be the consumer that suffers from these changes and it gives Telkom yet more excuses for dragging their feet.

Whoever it is that takes the reigns I hope they have a grasp on how detrimental Telkom's business practices are the SA economy.

Telkom I don't want to touch tomorrow, I just was decent broadband at an affordable price!

Freedom for British soldiers

2007-04-05T06:51:00.000+01:00

After a few weeks in a foreign country, eating top quality food, and working on their TV persona's, the British prisoners who have been held captive by the Iranian government have been given tailored suits and business class tickets home. The flight is in the air now and will land at Heathrow in a few hours.

The politics of the situation are unfolding in the media war that is raging.

The Iranian president has been parading the prisoners on Iranian television where the prisoners were made to apologise for trespassing, thanked their captors for being so hospitable, and generally asked to be forgiven by the Iranian people.

The western news services have been berating the British prime minister for not taking firmer action (essentially for not bombing Iran). The Daily Express even called the Iranian president EVIL. How terribly sad is that one monkey of a journalist with an idiotic editor allows such ignorant drivel to be published. Millions of brain-dead Brits will be downing their pints and running for their pitch forks and torches, preparing for the invasion of Iran.

The man is far from evil! He captured soldiers who we supposedly trespassing, he held them in good conditions, fed them well, used them for some good PR, bought them suits, and sent them home. He did well to make Tony Blair look like a tool and that's what he wanted.

So the PR battle has begun - my fear is that the size of the voice will determine the winner of this propaganda war, and that voice does not below to Iran.

It's about the Black & White

2007-04-04T22:11:00.000+01:00

Many of you would have read that I'm starting a new business with Peas (and another as yet un-named partner). Well we're close to the launch - very close, and hell is it exciting!

The one thing that I am very happy about is that we are taking the time to get our agreements drafted, checked, agreed upon, and signed. It's awesome to go into business with people you know and are friends with, but it's incredibly important to get everything reduced to writing so that you have something to refer to when (I specifically didn't say 'if') you need to clarify a standing on an issue.

So to my partners I say thanks for doing this right - I've never been this excited. And to everyone else I say hold on to your seats - it's going to be a wild wild ride!

The sad tale of little Pietie

2007-04-04T15:53:00.000+01:00

Little Pietie is a supplier of mine and has been for years. Poor little Pietie has been letting his delivery to my company slip somewhat over the last few months and the warnings and offers of help didn't seem to improve the situation.

Little Pietie has just learnt that consistently late delivery leads to delayed payment of invoices.

You shouldn't want to run your company like a bastard, but you do need to be strict and apply business rules to your management. I've always been a good and regular payer to my suppliers which generally elicits the best out of them - treat each other well and all that. However little Pietie pushed me too far. I was tracking the number of combined days he was late on delivery and that's how many days he is now going to wait to be paid.

Small business live and die on cash flow. If you don't deliver consistently then you can't expect to be paid consistently. No matter how many companies I look at, it's always the ones that falter on their delivery that suffer from cash flow problems. Poor work management equals poor delivery equals cash flow problems. Start at the source and fix your delivery and the cash flow will sort itself out.

Audi and their patents

2007-04-03T08:21:00.000+01:00

It was with confusion and a small amount of horror that I watched the Audi advert for their new A6. You can see the advert on their website if you haven't seen it yet.

The advert compares the number of patents NASA has filed in it's history (6509) with the number of patents Audi filed during the development of the A6 (9621). I wonder if Audi did research into the public perceptions of patents before creating this advert. The average person may assume that more is better and thus infer that the Audi A6 is better than anything NASA has ever put together (better than space travel?!?). Then again the average person may think that patents are tools used to hinder innovation and kill off advancement in many industries.

My assumption (which could also be wrong) is that the average person equates a patent with an invention, something new and never seen or done before. The average person is going to see the advert and assume that Audi made 9621 inventions while developing the A6. Well what are they? Surely at least 1 of those inventions is so amazing that it is worth talking about? No? Can you then maybe name some of the 9621 changes you made to the car? That is a lot of change but it looks and drives the same.

What is so special about a patent that Audi has chosen it as a measurement of 'brilliance' for it's new offering? Not a single one of the 9621 patents is worth talking about alone, it's still just a car, and it doesn't fly into outer space (which would be pretty cool) - so all I can assume is that a ton of the money I spend on an Audi goes towards registering patents that aren't actually anything amazing and are instead little patents that Audi is registering in order to prevent anyone else from innovating in the field of engineering or motoring.

I love being an Audi driver but I truly don't understand the reasoning behind this advert. Can someone explain it to me?

Speak to my accounts department

2007-03-30T16:03:00.000+02:00

After 5 years of running my business hands-on and creating invoices at the end of each month, I have finally let go (a little). This is the first month that my accountant will create invoices, send them directly to the clients, and track the payments - I don't have to do a thing. 5 years of creating invoices in a spreadsheet, checking them, exporting to PDF, and emailing them to my clients are finally over, and I'm feeling a little hollow.

Letting go of pieces of control is scarier than I thought, but I know it's the correct thing to do and I trust that my accountant will do it better than I ever did. For a small company that relies on regular payments, outsourcing this small part of the process is potentially dangerous but we have created and tested the systems and processes so I'm expecting success.

Aside from the peace of knowing that someone else has taken over the responsibility, I now get to tell people to speak to my accountants department which is not only novel - it creates much more free time for me to focus on other parts of the business.

May the delegation continue!

Journalists attend events? You lie!

2007-03-28T09:16:00.000+02:00

There are journalists out there who are known for being absent minded (let's keep it polite) when it comes to attending events or even interviews. Yes, everyone has missed a meeting before, but it seems to happen with journalists more frequently.

Most PR's attribute this to the 'power' that journalists feel over their PR counterparts whose job it is to get the journalist to the event. While it's the PR that prepares all the background info, invitations, prepares spokespeople, writes speeches and press releases - all the journalist has to remember is to arrive (preferably on time). The perceived 'power' is an excuse that PR's hide behind and is rarely the reason a journalist doesn't attend an event.

Here are a few tips that you can use to improve an events 'hit rate' with journalists:
- Make it interesting! If the event seems boring and the speakers you're putting forward don't have value to offer then the journalist is likely to decide to go for a beer instead of coming to your event
- Pick your journalists! Having 20 journalists attend your event is impressive, but not all of your events will appeal so broadly. When you are doing a focused event only invite those journalists whose focus it is. By doing this matching accurately you are more likely to have a higher hit rate and the resulting coverage will be more valuable.
- You're competing with beer! While it is their job to cover the news, if the prospect of having a few beers with their friends is more enticing than attending your event then you are in trouble. Learn how to compete with beer and you will stand a better chance of getting them there.
- Reputation! It is all a process, and both you and your client need to build up a reputation of providing value at events. Each event depends on the last and impacts on the next.
- Always have alternatives! Having the journalist attend the event shouldn't be your only focus for achieving coverage. You must be able to offer all the journalists a variety of alternatives to attending the event while still delivering you the coverage you want. Pre or post event interviews, video conferencing, an event press release. Having the journalist at the event should be a bonus not a prerequisite!

16,000 email reminders is not going to get the journalist to attend the event, and not having them at the event is no excuse for not getting the coverage.

Note to PR's:
While the above can help, if your event simply isn't press worthy then you probably aren't going to get anywhere no matter what you do, and you will probably damage your reputation by trying to sell it as something that is news worthy

Note to journalists:
If the event doesn't interest you then rather be blunt and tell the PR you won't go. Saying you will attend when you know you won't is going to waste the PR's time and give you a bad reputation

The Long Tail

2007-03-27T18:11:00.000+02:00

Just finished reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired Magazine. It is a phenomenal read for anyone wanting to understand the economics of online business and how unlimited supply is creating unlimited demand.

I studied economics at university and this read was enlightening to say the least. If you're thinking or starting a business it is a must read. There is a new world of business and it's inspiring.

The new business dawns

2007-03-26T08:49:00.000+02:00

It's a week away - our first official day of business. Daunting yes, but oh so exciting.
There seems to be an insurmountable pile of work that needs to be done before then, but I think it's more in my head than in reality, and no matter what happens, next week will arrive and the cogs of business will begin to turn - and that's when we'll know what we're made of.

We have a winning formula, it's now simply a matter of making it happen!

How to peel a Mango

2007-03-19T08:56:00.000+02:00

I have just returned from a weekend in Stellenbosch that consisted of exquisite dinners, even better wine tasting, a beautiful wedding on the Saturday night, and one of the most entertaining phone calls I've had since Thursday. I couldn't believe it, back-to-back amazing phone calls. What did I do to be this lucky?

Weddings are always great fun, and it was with excitement that, a few weeks ago, I booked 2 flights to Cape Town on Mango to attend a close friends nuptuals. In all the excitement I mistakenly booked the Joburg to CT leg for Friday morning instead of Saturday morning as had been planned. When my better half realised my mistake I quickly phoned Mango to find out if we could change the flights, and much to my dismay, Mango wanted to charge me R500.00 per ticket to make the change. The option of taking the Friday off work and keeping the R1000.00 as spending money was more enticing than changing the flights so we stuck with our original Friday morning flights.

On Friday morning, as we were packing the last bits of luggage I got a call from a lady at Mango and the brief conversation went like this:

Mango: Good morning Mr Crusoe, you have 2 tickets booked to fly back to Joburg on Sunday at 1:30pm
Me: Yes that is correct
Mango: That flight is really overbooked and I wondered if you would mind flying back on the 10:30am flight instead of the 1:30pm flight?
Me: Yes we can do that if you want – it will cost you a R1000.00 for each of us
Mango: Excuse me...
Me: If you pay us a R1000.00 each then we will be happy to take the earlier flight
Mango: I'm sorry, we can't pay you to change flights
Me: I wanted to change our outbound flights and you wanted to charge me, so why can't I charge you?
Mango: Sorry we can't pay you a R1000.00 each
Me: Well I guess we'll stick with our 1:00pm flights then
Mango: Fine
Me: If you get your managing director to phone and ask me then I'll re-consider
Mango: Thanks for your time
Me: No, thank you!

I was grinning from ear to ear for hours after that call. Mostly because it isn't often that the tables get turned and you can use a companies system against them. I truly hope this lady reports the call to her boss but something makes me seriously doubt she will care enough to bother. Pity, it would have been another fun conversation.

Cold calling hell

2007-03-15T16:11:00.000+02:00

The last 5 minutes of my day were spent trapped in the following telephone conversation:

Crusoe: Can I help you?
Kind lady: I'm from XYZ employment agency
Crusoe: What can I help you with?
Kind lady: We specialise in IT staff and I'd like to place some of our candidates within your company
Crusoe: You said you place IT staff?
Kind lady: Yes
Crusoe: We aren't an IT company
Kind lady: What do you do?
Crusoe: We're a media communications company
Kind lady: What's that?
Crusoe: It's not an IT company
Kind lady: Do you want to hire any IT staff
Crusoe: Not today thanks.
Kind lady: Okay thank you
Crusoe: Anytime dear

I chose not to pick a fight with this lady over where she got my details and why she didn't know what my company did because I was overwhelmed with pity for her. She is trapped doing a job in which she has absolutely no interest at all. I wouldn't be surprised is she got to work in the morning and simply dialed a random seven digit number to get her day started.

Hell isn't a place beneath the crust of the earth where everything is on fire and nasty little gremlins chew with their mouths open - it's having no passion what so ever for the job you are doing. If you're job is anything like this kind lady's then you need to get out. If you happen to be in the IT industry then you can give her a call and she'll find you a job in media communications.

Client sensitivity

2007-03-15T15:22:00.000+02:00

While I would advise anyone in business to be sensitive to the needs of your clients, I've recently learnt that there are circumstances where you must remove sensitivity from the equation and put the needs of your company first.

This will mostly happen during times of change. Companies that have stability in their income, staff, and offerings will at some stage need to move the company forward so as not to be left behind. The objective is to reach the next level of stability without encountering too much turbulence within your staff, culture, and cash flow.

Staff, culture, and cash flow are all internally manageable, but your clients aren't that easy. In order for you to move forward you must realise that your clients will need to move forward and quite often they won't like it. As long as you can clearly communicate and demonstrate that the next level of stability will be worth the move you will be fine, but if clients are stubborn you may need to leave them behind - more often than not they will catch up at a later stage.

Putting your clients loyalty to the test is dangerous but can be worth it.

Things journalists want you to know

2007-03-14T09:33:00.000+02:00

Dealing with journalists can often be quite a daunting experience, even for the most seasoned PR proponents. If you are thinking of undertaking some form of media strategy that involves dealing with journalists, then the following might help you out.

Things journalists want you to know (but won't tell you):

1. Journalists don't know everything
Contrary to popular belief, journalists don't actually know everything about an industry. They may regularly write about an industry and may even be experts on specific topics within an industry, but there is always an opportunity for you share valuable information with them that will enrich their articles and help them stand out in their reporting. By being a source for new information you become an asset to a journalist. If you have an interview with a journalist, the more relevant background information you can supply them, the more empowered they are to conduct the interview and write the article. This works in your favour.

2. They like to express their own opinions
Journalists are opinionated. While they have a responsibility to report on the facts, journalists will tend to deliver stories that are aligned to their own opinions. As such, rather target those journalists whose opinions will reflect positively on your company. If your message supports and adds to the journalists opinion then there is a better chance of receiving positive media coverage and creating an ally for the future.

3. They face peer review
Peer review in the world of journalism is incredibly important and can have an impact on a journalists careers path. While you may not have an opportunity to improve a journalists grammar or spelling, you can have a direct impact on their level of writing and the depth of their articles. Spend the time to work out what makes a journalist a great journalist and then do everything you can to help a journalist be great. Providing scoops, inside stories, info no-one else has access to, sought after interviews. These are only a few of the things that you can do to help a journalist do great work. If you give them crap they will write crap (if they even bother to write anything)

4. They are human
It may sometimes be a stretch of the imagination, but journalists are in fact human beings. Most have hardened exteriors from years of dealing with PR people, but if you understand the human element - their pains, their stresses, their frustrations - then you will begin to understand what makes them tick and you can tailor the way you work with them to suit their human side.

Understand these points and you will have taken your first step in the right direction.

Association of brands

2007-03-12T16:36:00.000+02:00

There is a special place in my vocabulary for people who park (drive) with no consideration for others, and I know I'm not the only person who feels this way. Although this car isn't branded, it amazes me how many branded cars we see on the roads that are being driven shockingly. The drivers obviously don't care that they represent a company and that the people they upset in traffic could very well be customers. What would happen if the brand managers knew how all their hard work was being undone by the company's driver? Next time it happens I think I'm going to phone and find out. I urge you to do the same.

A similar situation occurs with South Africa's infamous taxi's. Why would a marketing person want or allow their branding to be splayed all over a taxi? This is a vehicle with a driver that knowingly, and without care, breaks the law on a regular basis, and has little or no respect for other citizens or life in general.

When I see a company's brand on a taxi my emotional state is definitely not one of love. It isn't wise for any company wanting me as a customer to try and push their branding into my mind at the exact time that I'm screaming and cursing with blood pressure through the roof. Association is a massive component of branding, hence sports stars being paid millions for endorsements - associating their skills and popularity to a specific brand. The emotions that ordinary citizens display towards badly driven taxi's are definitely not the ones you would want to have associated with your brand.

A special thanks to our very own Peas on Toast whose parking (as shown above) inspired this post. Peas, the parking is impressive, but at least your VW Beetle isn't branded with the name of your new business venture :)

Inside out PR

2007-03-08T18:34:00.000+02:00

Went to meet a potential client yesterday and instead of selling him on the value of having a public image and a high media profile, I found myself warning him to not even consider embarking on a media strategy.

The reason was quite simple, he couldn't embark on a media strategy without having an internal communications strategy already in place and working well. It is imperative for any company considering a media strategy to have proven their communications ability internally first. Any communications strategy should be developed from the inside out.

The bedrock of an effective communications strategy is alignment of message, a situation where your staff & management (internal), your stakeholders & customers (semi-external), and the market (external) all have the same understanding of what your company does. If you don't have this you will forever be running on a broken leg and any external communications are going to cause more confusion than they solve.

In order to get this alignment you have to start on the inside with your staff and management. Once they are both representing the same message and projecting the same vision then move onto your stakeholders and customers and only then should you consider implementing and external communications strategy.

I'll put up a post soon on some ideas on the tools you can use for internal, semi-external, and external communications. Need to give it some thought and structure first.

Honesty for the brave

2007-03-06T17:34:00.002+02:00

I heard a great definition of love today which goes something like this, "If they know the worst thing about you and are OK with that, then you know their love is real."

Imagine adopting this level of honesty within your company. Allowing your customers to know the worst thing about you and hoping they love you none-the-less. It's a brave strategy but the benefits could be phenomenal. Imagine a world where your customers love you in spite of your worst characteristics.

A few things would happen if you adopted this strategy:
- You could very well forge the strongest bonds with your customers
- By admitting to your weakness/flaw you can focus on fixing it openly with your customers
- You increase the chance that your customers will love you to the max

It is definitely risky, but by trying to hide your skeletons in the closet you are more likely to have a PR disaster in the future and lose the trust of your customers.

Tag-line or promise?

2007-02-28T08:40:00.000+02:00

When you are thinking up a tag-line for your business, take the time to do it properly. Too many companies pick tag-lines based on poor criteria and then wonder why their tag-line isn't universally known and accepted.

FNB (yes I'm picking on them again) have the tag-line, “How can we help you?”. On the surface this appears to be a good tag-line. It says that FNB is always trying to improve the customer experience, they are friendly and very helpful. The problem is that FNB doesn't appear to be committed to the tag-line, almost as if marketing came up with the catchy phrase but forget to tell the rest of FNB.

The problem with, “How can we help you?” is that they don't really want you to answer the question. Try it. Phone them and ask for help. When you visit the FNB website one of the things that catches your eye first is the tag-line blazed across the top of the page. Why isn't it clickable though? FNB and inviting customers to seek help and yet they aren't committed to making sure the channels of communication are open.

FNB are missing out on an amazing opportunity to become an amazing banking resource. If they took on their tag-line as a company wide mantra and everyone and everything became focused on providing help they will differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack at a massive pace. The number of unbanked in South Africa is astounding and FNB has an opportunity to create both physical and online resources dedicated to helping customers and potential customers. Unfortunately they didn't think beyond how cool the tag-line would look on a business card.

When you are thinking up your company tag-line make sure it is something that you are willing to stand behind. Make it a promise to your customers, a promise that you don't break.

... and it continues...

2007-02-27T08:37:00.000+02:00

Writing about poor customer service is becoming rather boring, but every single day I see massive flaws in customer service. This morning I phoned Wesbank who provide finance for both my personal and company car. To verify that I was who I said I was the consultant on the phone asked me for my personal details which I duly provided.

However, the cell phone number they had on record had one digit listed incorrectly. Having had the same number for 8 years I doubt I gave the number incorrectly so I assume they must have entered it incorrectly somewhere along the line. Not a big problem though, we can change that very easily. Wrong!

Firstly the consultant told me that having the wrong number wasn't a big problem. Wrong again. What happens if someone from Wesbank needs to phone me? Then when I asked if we could fix the number quickly the consultant informed me that I would have to phone another number and speak to another consultant in order to fix a mistake that they made.

Some simple questions I would like Wesbank to answer:
1.Why doesn't your consultant have the ability to change my number on the spot?
2.Why do I have to go to the trouble of phoning another number?
3.Why doesn't the consultant take on that burden herself instead of leaving the burden with the customer?
4.Why can only a customer service agent provide customer service? Surely all of your employees should be able to provide customer service?

Needless to say I'm not going to phone again to get my number changed. The upside being that I won't be getting any sales calls from Wesbank on my cell phone.

The customer service gap

2007-02-26T11:25:00.000+02:00

The combination of my customer service experiences over the last few weeks has made me realise just how big the gap is between expectations and delivery. South Africans are used to living in both a first and third world country (or developed and developing to be more PC). Unfortunately, this is the same gap that exits in service industry – consumers with first world expectations receiving third world service.

This problem is universal across all companies and all industries in South Africa. Even McDonalds which is a global company specialising in high service levels can't seem to be able to rise above merely mediocre service levels in SA. Why is this?

The rut. The American dream is something everyone understands. So what about the South African dream? The South African dream is something that exists for only a very few people – the rest seem to be stuck in the mindset of born-work-die. This is the rut and it's a massive part of the average South Africans daily reality. How will working harder make my life better? How will improving the service I give make me better off? Let's face it, it probably won't, but that's where the dream kicks in. If the South African dream existed – that anyone can make it big – then more people would focus on being the best each day, striving for that dream. Without the dream we are left with a population of people stuck in the rut, working in some service related job with no ambition what so ever to improve themselves or the service they deliver.

Much of the blame lies with the ever present income and education gap. Access to the internet with real time service delivery, global understanding and experience, the understanding of what is possible in the service world - all of this clashes heavily with the lack of education, no worldy experience, no internet access, and no dreams in the hearts and minds of the people tasked with giving good service. Hardly seems fair does it.

How do we solve this problem? I'm not entirely sure, but my best bet would be to begin the process of giving the service providers good service and start treating them like first class citizens. The more they understand and value receiving good service, the more empowered they are to give good service. It may be a small start, but it is a start.

The easy answer

2007-02-22T19:24:00.000+02:00

Poor FNB just can't catch a break. I pick on them quite a bit because they are always so willing to show off their terribly flawed customer service.

My request, to me at least, seemed simple: allow my business accountant access to my online business banking without giving access to my personal accounts. I figured there were 2 options of how to do this:

1. Create a whole new account which has a separate login ID and password
2. Seeing as my accountant banks with FNB herself, that we can add my business account to her profile so that she sees it listed within her online accounts.

We asked the polite and friendly lady behind the counter which of the two options would be best. Not knowing the answer, she went off to ask the supervisor and quickly returned to tell us that we will have to create a whole new account (option 1). Still thinking that option 2 would be the easiest, I asked again if it we couldn't simply add to my accountants current FNB profile and the response was a rapid and decisive "NO".

So on we went with option 1 and were soon joined by the supervisor to help out our rapidly failing teller. We took 30 minutes to complete the relevant forms, signing in triplicate and initialing every page before the supervisor calmly mentioned that it would so much easier if my accountant had an FNB account. I immediately said that she does and the look on the supervisors face was priceless. "Well then all we have to do is add it to her profile." I almost exploded in the bank!

Breathe! Why would the teller so blankly answer NO to my question? Here is what I think:

1. She didn't care about my problem and didn't care if it got solved or not,
2. It was too much effort to go and ask her supervisor again, and
3. She was probably scared that she would look bad if she had to go ask again

In the end she perfectly succeeded in providing terrible service, upsetting a customer, confusing a simple situation, and letting herself and her employer down. To make matters worse, our teller was in the process of training a young teller. Is this honestly the kind of customer service she is training? My future dealings with FNB certainly seem dark indeed.

"NO" is too easy an answer and should be banned from the vocab of anyone in a customer facing position. There are so many better ways to deal with a question. Even questions that deserve a 'no' answer can be answered without using the word, and specifically not without a decent explanation.

Dear FNB, for the sake of everything that is decent in this world, sort yourselves out!

Thanks

Place your bets please

2007-02-21T21:36:00.000+02:00

If you're ever going to bet the bank on someone, bet on yourself! Now that's a philosophy to live by.

The belief factor

2007-02-21T21:19:00.000+02:00

When you can't sell something through facts, sell your belief. Your belief in something or someone, and it's associated passion, is more powerful than all the facts in the world. Yes the facts will definitely help, but belief is the bedrock.

Working in the media has given me some insight into the power of belief over anything else. My clients spokespeople who are true believers in what they do get significantly more media coverage than those simply towing the company line. It is as difficult to describe belief as it is easy to recognise it. The stronger the belief, the greater the media adoption of the spokespersons comment.

However, belief can't be faked or planned - it's either there or it isn't.

Another aspect of belief is belief in yourself, your ideas, or in people. It is always good to be able to convert belief in plans, but failing this, if you truly believe in something or someone then go with what you believe.

The miracle is in the detail

2007-02-19T21:18:00.000+02:00

My world has been rocked – truly rocked. How is it that someone can so thoroughly disguise their lack of ability? No it's not even that. How can an apparently talented person make so many mistakes?

I must admit, I've been rocked over the last few days. The realisation hit home – never assume that someone gets something basic. No matter how 'apparently' intelligent the person is! Especially if the person appears intelligent!

I've been working on a training manual and testing out the manual has made me realise that I missed an entire section, “Things Crusoe assumed you would be able to do because they are so utterly basic” with an equally important subsection titled, “Really basic things you have forgotten already.”

The only explanation I have is that it is a lack of care. My effort levels are high because my motivations are high, but the same cannot simply be expected of an employee. Big mistakes don't bug me as much as little mistakes – ones that could have been avoided if you cared enough to simply just do it right. Making a big mistake in the persuit of big outcomes is acceptable because you will learn from it. Big mistakes shouldn't deter big ideas. However, making small mistakes by not taking the time to do things correctly is, to me, near inexcusable.

The reason is simple: the miracle is in the detail. Millions of people will tell you that it's the small things that count, and they count in two big areas. Firstly, people appreciate quality in the detail and its these small things often put one product or service a step ahead of the competitors. Secondly, it also happens to be the small things that will push people away. Why? Because not attending to the small things shows a lack of care and a lack of passion, and why would anyone want to willingly give their hard earned money to someone who doesn't care.

So the question is, how do you identify someone who has talent and a passion for detail?

The illusion of control

2007-02-12T22:11:00.000+02:00

Control - the power to influence or direct people's behavior or course of events. This is somewhat contradictory. You cannot use the word influence to define control. To me, control is near absolute while influence has some flexibility.

I live in the PR world where big headed practitioners believe they can control the media. What a sad joke of an illusion that is. You cannot control the media, you can only feed it. The skill comes in your cooking, adding the correct ingredients and making sure it suits the taste of the person/publication/website that is doing the eating. A really good chef knows exactly what his customers tastes are and how they like their food served - if he doesn't he will lose his customers.

My advise is to drop the act and face the truth that your job is not to control the media but to influence it. If you get the recipe right and your influence is reflected in the media then you have done your job well. Any media outlet that succumbs to control is no longer an independent and reliable source of information and disqualifies itself as a worthy medium for your clients.

PR can be an honourable profession as long as you apply respect to all the facets of what you do and drop the act - you're good but you can't control it!

The difference between brand and logo

2007-02-07T07:11:00.000+02:00

The difference between brand and a logo has been discussed beyond where any really sane discussion should ever go. The reason it's still discussed is because people still don't completely understand what constitutes a brand. Certain marketers (including myself) would say 'everything' - from the way you answer the phone to the colour of the product.

One of the most successful bands in popular music over the last 20 years is the band U2. The 4 members have been creating sounds for over two decades and they are still at the forefront of music. These 4 Irish dreamers have conquered the music world many times over, and Bono, through his aid work, is now reaching millions of people his music didn't. Every single person I know has a favourite U2 song, every single person has a memory linked to that song, an emotion that gets replayed to that song, many even sing along as though they were Bono himself. Every one of their hits over 20 years sounds like a U2 song, yet none of them sound the same. If you heard a new U2 song on the radio you would know it was them long before the DJ mentioned the bands name - it's in the way they make music.

U2 songs have been played at weddings, funerals, birthdays, holidays, concerts, night clubs, and dinner parties. The have sold millions upon millions of albums in hundreds of countries around the world! It's success piled upon success - really large buckets overflowing with success. All of this without having a logo.

Just keeping it real man

2007-02-06T23:41:00.000+02:00

We live in the digital age, and what an astounding age it's turning out to be. The rate and ease of communication is mind boggling - I'm technically literate and it still amazes me that my brother and I can instant message each other in real time from opposite sides of the globe.

This mass communication has attracted the marketers who use these new rapid channels to push as much information as possible at everyone and anyone. There are successful campaigns but the majority is useless noise, millions of shards of data that bounce off your eyes but never make it to the brain.

The internet is becoming (if it isn't there already) the most powerful communications medium available. But how do we know what's real? Who do we trust? These aren't just internet related questions, consumers with money drawn have always asked these questions. It used to be that their network of people would provide the answers - classic word-of-mouth. As radio and television took off people had a new, higher voice they could listen to - that deep yet gently commanding voice in the advert on the radio or TV. But there was a problem brewing ..... that voice was a filthy liar!

The burger you get never looks as good as the one in the advert. Those pants looked great on the lady in the magazine but they make me look fat. That passenger is sitting in economy and smiling. Honey, the bloody TV is lying again!

And so the cynical consumer was born. The never trusting, always questioning customer. The marketers did this to themselves and it's their responsibility to now have to market to the cynical. But how do we know what's real? Who do we trust? The answer - they will trust what's real. Only companies that can show true value in real terms will cut through the cynicism. Deliver a real service, show real results, make a real difference to your customer and you will win. Don't airbrush your products, improve their durability. Don't promise the world, only what you can deliver. Tell your customers the truth. Keep it real!

FNB tackles crime - well almost

2007-02-05T09:01:00.000+02:00

Sunday Times broke this story yesterday about First National Bank (FNB) backing down from a daring anti-crime campaign.

Much of the focus has been on government seeing it as an attack on the president, Thabo Mbeki, and how FNB buckled under the pressure from various interest groups. Yes they buckled under the pressure - of course they did. The South African government doesn't take kindly to criticism, and FNB realised that keeping their government accounts was more important than making a stand against crime.

Why FNB buckled raises a question: was the campaign designed to impact crime, or was it designed as a marketing "shock&horror" campaign with a flashing neon FNB logo?

I bank with FNB, and as their customer I feel quite proud that they at least attempted to make some noise about crime in SA. Even if it was designed as a marketing tool, the fight against crime is a worthy enough cause to be highlighted. I just wish they had followed through with the campaign because now they are only almost serious about crime.

Rather be hated than indifferent!

The high concept

2007-02-04T20:18:00.000+02:00

An interesting blog post caught my eye about the idea of the high concept. The concept that any company marketing it's products or services should have a single, clear, understandable concept that easily articulates what is on offer, "communications around a high concept that can serve as the umbrella for an organisation"

From a PR point of view, the high concept is incredibly important in projecting a clear message. This helps because:

1. More than just the specialists in your industry can understand what you do
2. People that you reach can easily explain to others what you do (word of mouth)
3. By easily understanding what you do, potential customers can 'buy into' your offer faster and with less confusion

Sounds simple but it might not be. Can you create a high concept for your company? Describe in 6 words or less what you do in a way that any potential customer can understand. Mine is easy, "We achieve media coverage". Sure I would need more time to explain the benefits of media coverage, how we do it, where we truly add value - but pretty much anyone can understand and repeat those 4 words. If someone wants media coverage they will know who to phone.

(And before you relax too much, "we provide business solutions" doesn't count! Pencils are business solutions as well I'll have you know)

Certain companies choose not to define a high concept because it could haunt them in the future when they try to re-define their brand, or their services expand beyond a single industry. These companies use the 'business solutions' line in the hope that it will make sense, or they hand deliver a 50 page company overview when you ask what they do.

Corporations of this size generally have enough budget to market themselves without a high concept, but for the emerging companies trying to gain mind-share, defining your high concept is imperative.

It's news to me

2007-02-02T17:44:00.000+02:00

A vital step in getting valuable media coverage for your company is knowing the difference between something that is big news in YOUR world and something that is big news in THE world.

The communication of news that is only big in your world should be limited to your company newsletter and blogs, but you shouldn't fill up journalists inbox's with articles that will simply be deleted.

Know what is newsworthy to the market and match that to a publication that carries this type of news and you will increase your chances of being published.

Change please

2007-01-31T18:07:00.000+02:00

If Douglas Adams had written a book on change management, the opening line would have read: "Rule 1: Don't Panic!"

And he would have been right.

In-source customer service

2007-01-29T22:21:00.000+02:00

Customer service is a highly personal component of your customers experience with your company and contributes greatly to the emotions that a customer feels towards your company [your brand]. So why do some companies outsource major components of their customer service?

It truly doesn't make any sense to me. DSTv are a broadcast company and a highly successful one at that. They sell the decoder and monthly subscriptions but they have washed their hands of the entire installation process. Fair enough, they may have decided that this customer requirement wasn't profitable enough to internalise, but the cost of this decision is that DSTv cannot control the customer service element of the installation process.

DSTv now face these problems:
1. New customers walk out of the DSTv offices with a decoder and a carelessly typed list of installation companies - abandonment of your brand new customer
2. DSTv cannot unfairly recommend any one installation company so the customer needs to rely on luck in choosing a quality installation company
3. When something goes wrong, the installation company blames DSTv and DSTv blames the installation company, leaving the customer in complete limbo
4. The customer does not know where to turn and will tend to blame DSTv because it is their product that isn't working
5. Instead of DSTv handling the customers complaints directly and having the opportunity to immediately solve the issue, the customers only option is to complain to everyone they come in contact with - bad news for DSTv

The complete customer experience has been put in jeopardy by DSTv not wanting to take responsibility for all the stages involved in using their product. If you want to have control over your customers experience, then you need to be responsible for every customer contact point and not leave it up to someone else.

Customer choice

2007-01-24T17:26:00.000+02:00

Much of my day today was spent in a presentation by Stratus - a company that deals in mission critical business systems. I asked the presenter what they defined as mission critical to a business, to which the answer was, "We don't, our clients tell us what is mission critical."

I had to smile because it was an excellent answer, and I left wondering if it was a genuine example of good business practice or simply good media training. I'm hoping for the former!

Engage brain please

2007-01-22T20:12:00.000+02:00

I just saw this letter on Jo'blog and thought it was worth sharing for it's sheer cringe-worthiness! You would wonder how things like this happen, but they do. Dinner bookings and timings is a tricky issue because patrons want to relax and eat in relative peace, but a restaurant is a business, so maybe the manager had the right idea and the worst execution.

The manner in which the issue was handled is disgusting and the manager should have applied some thought to his problem instead of tackling it without his brain. In many European cities they have 2 seatings at restaurants - one at 7pm and another at 9pm. Patrons don't mind because they are used to it and the establishments are very clear when you book. Maybe some local eateries could try out a system like this for busy nights. This will enable them to turn tables and increase income.

I have no idea whether us South Africans would take to a system like this, but it has to be better than what Fishmonger came up with.

Focus

2007-01-20T22:51:00.000+02:00

There are too many companies in business today that focus there efforts on what their competitors are doing instead of what their customers want. It is an easy trap to fall into because keeping up with the Jones' can appear to be incredibly important, and looking good against your competitors is a highly emotional reaction.

If you want to receive the best levels of service, stick with the companies that focus on you and not on their competitors. If you run your own company, spend more time on learning about your customers and less time worrying about what your competitors are trying to do to gain market share.

Your competitors are important, but not as important as your customers. Leaders focus on customers, followers focus on the leader - which type are you?

The art of everything

2006-12-29T14:26:00.000+02:00

Being artistic isn't limited to the traditional arts. Anyone can be artistic in any field, no matter how far away from a traditional art it is. You can apply your own artistic flair to your job by simply treating your outcomes or deliverables as an art form.

My local tailor is an elderly gent who works in the corner of a shoe repair shop. His work is amazing and everything he does is beautiful, even if it is a simple hem lift. During my last visit I sat and chatted with him for a while about his work. He uses a 50 year old foot-pedal powered sewing machine - the reason he says, is because the new machines don't give him the ability to impart his own skill into his work. His skill isn't in using the machine, it's in understanding fabrics, dress style, and how clothes are supposed to fit. This is his art, and he is a master.

Makes you realise that anyone can be an artist by finding the art within your work and applying your arty side to everything you do. An artistic plumber/ Yes I believe it's possible.

Time to relax

2006-12-23T19:33:00.000+02:00

It is that time of the year to lock up the office and change your focus to more relaxing things. This year I'm off to Switzerland for some snowboarding - the flights and accommodation are booked and I'm super excited.

The aim is to have such a relaxing time that by the end of the holiday I'm excited to get back to work to tackle a new year, put your exciting ideas into practice, challenge the norm, and achieve higher levels of success.

All the best for the year ahead!

Delegate to technology

2006-12-18T13:36:00.000+02:00

In the process of learning a tough lesson on running a small business: never think you can do the accounting manually! It is a cost that you think you can avoid, but no matter how great the urge to be frugal, you have to get a proper accounting software package.

I've been creating invoices in Excel for 5 years and today it bit me. There is a query with a large client - I have the invoice, they have the invoice. They say they paid it but naturally Excel doesn't know - and I don't remember. I now need to sit and go through hordes of bank statements and invoices to figure out what is going on. This is going to be a monumental waste of time.

My first investment in 2007 is going to be some accounting software. Lesson learnt!

We want you ..... NOT!

2006-12-15T12:10:00.000+02:00

Investec Private Bank are currently running a series of TV ads appealing to the entrepreneur, with lines like, "Entrepreneurs don't follow formulas, they create them" and "Where one and one don't always equal two". Investec have obviously identified entrepreneurs as a desired target market which, on the surface, seems amazing because many banks don't like the risk involved with people who "create their own formulas".

However, take a closer look at Investec's offering and it becomes a little confusing. Their requirements contradict their appeal for entrepreneurs. In order to become a client of Investec Private Bank, you need to personally earn over R550,000.00 annually and your company needs to clear an annual profit of over R350,000.00. In other words, you, as the owner of the company, need to realise a combined annual increase in worth of almost a million Rand.

Interesting...

Interesting in that the bar has been set quite high for the good 'ol entrepreneur. Sure there are plenty of people who attain this easily, but there are plenty of exceptional entrepreneurs whose businesses are thriving but who don't make the grade according to Investec. Here are some of the basic business rules Investec don't seem to take into consideration:

1. An entrepreneurial business needs to re-invest as much as possible in order to grow the business
2. An entrepreneurial business needs to keep salaries lower at first in order to afford to grow
3. An entrepreneurial business needs to keep profits as low as possible in order to be less burdened by tax
4. An entrepreneurial business needs a bank that understands it's needs and offers solutions that are suitable

Investec, you really are a great private bank, but why spend millions targeting a market you don't actually want as clients?

Child entrepreneurs

2006-12-14T00:26:00.000+02:00

Most people say it can't be taught, but these folks would beg to differ.

Check out Ka-Ching!

Don't make a promise you can't keep

2006-12-13T10:58:00.000+02:00

There is always a danger in making promises to customers. You do need to make certain promises and the core ones are essentially your pledge to your customer, your mission statement. But making promises outside of your core service can be dangerous.

McDonalds sell fast food. Their promises to you are that it will be quick, easy, and in-expensive. They have perfected this and are rarely unable to deliver on these promises. It is in fact these exact promises that make me frequent McDonalds when driving between meetings in a rush with a hunger. Keeping their promises makes me a satisfied customer.

So what happens when they up the promises? Yesterday, driving into my local McDonalds, I noticed a massive sign saying "Free internet access inside". I was intrigued. Unlike normal I parked and ordered from the counter, standard promises delivered, found a table and opened my laptop while eating a burger. Then nothing. I couldn't connect to the internet. I did everything I normally do on other networks, even phoned my friends, but not a single person could help me make it work. McDonalds didn't have on-site tech support and all they could say was that they think it's broken.

"But you promised me free internet!"

They had encouraged me to break my routine for the promise of free internet and then not delivered. McDonalds had broken a promise and a customer had left feeling cheated.

If you are going to make a promise, do so knowing you will keep it. That promise needs to make it's way onto your mission statement and be taken seriously by all. If not, don't make the promise!

Customer retention

2006-12-09T09:50:00.000+02:00

Is it entirely necessary to focus on customer retention? The answer is an emphatic YES, but it isn't quite as simple as that. You need to decide where to put your focus.

It is imperative for any company to retain customers, but there are 3 drastically different cultural styles:

1. The first is the "no approach" approach. Yes, it happens! There are companies who show no apparent care for customer retention.

2. The "fear of rejection" approach. Born out of the fear that your customers may want to move to another supplier. This fear leads to the negative approach of preventing customers from having freedom of choice through restrictive contracts, customer lock-in, bargaining on price, begging them to stay - it comes in many forms.

3. The "love thy customer" approach. This is the positive approach to customer retention and involves an introspective look at what you could be doing better, how you could service your customers better, and what you must do to make customers want to choose to stay.

The love approach isn't necessarily more work than the fear approach, but it does require honesty, imagination, and a desire to have truly happy customers. Unfortunately there are very few companies like this because it requires less brilliance to adopt the fear approach.

*This post was inspired by my new MacBook from Apple Inc. a company of people who obviously love their customers, love giving you the best, and who don't use lawyers and fear to lock you in like that other technology company!

At your service

2006-12-08T19:35:00.000+02:00

Until now, my experiences with FNB have been somewhat mixed. The in-branch service is pathetic because the tellers haven't received proper training and the banks systems are outdated by at least a century, but their online banking is (IMHO) the best in SA.

It was therefore refreshing to see an FNB teller honestly showing their absolute lack of interest in even pretending to care.

Today I had the pleasure of watching my FNB teller pick wax out of his ear with a match while he waited for someone to phone and tell him how to order me a new credit card. Priceless!

Rent or buy

2006-12-07T13:59:00.000+02:00

After almost 5 years of working from home I have decided that there are no more excuses - the company needs offices. Looking at some rental options in my area has depressed me somewhat because they are all dull office blocks where individuality seems to be prohibited.

The one office park was very promising but the rental rates are ludicrous and I realised that we shouldn't use our profits to make someone else rich. Buying seems to be a good option but I'm stuck with the same bland office choices.

So, next week will be spent looking at houses in the area where I can apply for business rights. The monthly bond payments will be less than rent, it's a valuable asset, and we can impart our own style into the refurbishment of the house when converting to offices. Let's hear what my bank manager has to say about this!

The rules of play

2006-12-05T11:45:00.000+02:00

When I started my first company in 2002, my start-up capital was equivalent to a stardard car payment which really isn't enough to start a business, and was going to last all of about 5 days. I had to make a plan and I really didn't want to borrow money from a bank/friend/family member/venture capitalist/loan shark.

It was my understanding that companies invoice their clients at month end and the clients would pay whenever it suited them after that date. I had a client lined up already, but I couldn't survive past my first month without more cash, and if the client had taken their time with payments I would have been thrust into a cash flow problem. (In case you don't know, cash flow is one of the biggest killers of business start-ups and those that survive can take years to recover from a cash flow hit)

I spoke to a person who had been a bit of a mentor/inspiration to me and he taught me the following invaluable lesson, "You must define the rules of play. The terms of business are detailed in the contracts that you draft. You set the rules and all your client needs to do is sign."
(This was followed by a stern warning to be fair and to never abuse your clients)

With a new outlook on business I went to the contract signing meeting with my very first client. I politely explained that my retainer is payable upfront at the beginning of the contract. "These are my terms" I said trying not to tremble. To my absolute amazement the client agreed that was fair, signed the contract, and wrote out a cheque.

Almost 5 years later and the same client still pays me upfront for all my services and (touch wood) we have never had a cash flow problem. Such a simple thing like being paid a few days earlier can save a company tremendous hassles!

Stop, breathe...

2006-12-04T17:14:00.000+02:00

Being quick witted in business can often bite you in the butt. If you are ever under fire for whatever reason, take the time to stop, step back from the situation, and compose your response with foresight.

Impulsive responses to clients, customers, or colleagues can often dig you into something from which you cannot escape. The more enraged you are, the more important it is to take the time to respond instead of lashing out with whatever comes to mind.

The toughest thing is to try un-say something! Stop, breathe...

Stress to distress

2006-11-30T13:51:00.000+02:00

You have to know the difference between stress and distress, and be able to tell when you move from one to the other - it is incredibly important. As a business owner (or future business owner) you are going to have to handle a ton of stress on multiple levels. It just comes with the territory.

Ordinary stress is perfectly fine and is often an asset to a business owner. Aside from making your hair fall out, stress can make you focus, work hard, and deliver. It cannot be avoided no matter who you are or how 'chilled' you are, so you need to learn how to focus it and make it help you.

The biggest danger with stress is it's ability to escalate into distress. The difference is simple: stress is something that has a solution; distress is something that doesn't. Having a deadline is stress, but if you focus and work you can meet the deadline and that stress goes away. Distress is losing your cool in a traffic jam. There isn't anything you can do but sit and wait for it to clear, but often you will work yourself up into a frenzy and blame everyone from the stupid drivers to the traffic department. You will make a pact to never pay tax again because the traffic department are idiots. Your brain will blow something quite simple completely out of proportion and this is incredibly dangerous. A stressful situation can quickly cause distress if you don't keep a check on it.

There are many things a business owner faces every day that can escalate into distress, and when they do you will become completely useless and defeatest. Don't let it happen! Keep things in the stress zone, identify their end points and work towards those calmy. If you don't you are likely to become a detriment to your company and yourself.

When companies stop caring

2006-11-28T08:28:00.000+02:00

All it takes is a trip to a Pick n Pay hypermarket to see what happens when a company doesn't care about its customers. I stupidly went to Pick n Pay on Saturday and these points will sum up my experience:

1. I asked 3 separate staff members for help and all 3 told me it wasn't their department
2. I eventually found the correct staff member lingering in the corner of the store having a chat with someone on sms
3. After waiting for him to eventually acknowledge me, I asked where to find the product I was looking for and he mumbled out an aisle number and returned his focus to his cell phone
4. Still not being able to find the product I approached a group of 7 staff members having a casual chat and wasn't surprised to hear that it wasn't their department (even though they were standing in that department)
5. Only half a dozen tills were open (out of a possible 50) so the queues were massive.
6. When I eventually got to the till the teller was so engrossed in a conversation with a colleague that she didn't greet me, look at me, or thank me for shopping there.

I am now going to go out of my way to never shop at Pick n Pay ever again, and I hope I'm not the only one. It is truely astounding that a company can treat their customers so poorly and with such disregard.

The upside is that there is an opportunity for someone to crush them by opening up a competing store. I do love how their tag-line is such a blatant lie! An honest marketer would have gone with "We'll show you our backside"

Where to attack

2006-11-27T11:42:00.000+02:00

Companies waste so many resources attacking their competitors and never seem to get anywhere. Your research will give you a nice long list of your competitors weaknesses, and that's all you need right? WRONG! Small incremental amounts of market share can be stolen by targeting your competitors weaknesses but that gain is often not worth the cost.

More often than not, a company's weakness exists because the market doesn't care. This isn't always true, but most weaknesses exist because that aspect of the service ranks far down on the customers list of requirements.

The best form of attack is to attack the weakness that is inherent in your competitors biggest strength. Identify their best strengths and find the weaknesses within those strengths. If they are a massive company, they aren't likely to be agile. If they have massive overheads then they are less likely to be able to compete on price. It may take some time, but when you see it you will know how to exploit it.

*In the cola wars, Pepsi was number 2 by a mile and then some. Coke had invested millions in creating the brand around the iconic glass coke bottle, and when they invested heavily in a bottle factory to create the bottles, Pepsi struck. Pepsi knew that the bottle was Coke's biggest brand asset, but the inherent weakness was that Coke had to stick with it until they had realised the investment in the factory.

Pepsi hit the market hard with plastic bottles with double the volume of cola at the same price at a Coke bottle. Coke were powerless to react and Pepsi scooped up massive amounts of market share. That moment put Pepsi on the map, and the 2 have been battling it out ever since.

*from the book "Marketing Warfare" by Jack Ries & Al Trout

Market leaders and competition

2006-11-24T12:44:00.000+02:00

A quick scan of the press releases issued within an industry and you will notice that multiple companies claim to be the market leaders in their industry. Theoretically, only one company should be able to claim the title of market leader, but in practice, the title can go to a number of companies.

A company can be the market leader in a number of areas:
1. Market share
2. Revenue
3. Unit sales
4. Innovation
5. Customer satisfaction

So which one is more important? All of these measures in their own right can place a company as a market leader, and you should work at becoming the leader in all of them, but innovation and customer satisfaction are the 2 most important measures. These 2 determine all of the others and these are the only 2 that guarantee future success. Without innovative products/services and satisfied customers, a market share and revenue leader can quickly see itself sliding to the bottom of the heap.

Hundreds of businesses go out of business every day, and many of these were the titans of their time. Established companies often get complacent and stop innovating, and they become revenue focused and forget about customer satisfaction. This is where the opportunity lies for small businesses to strike. If you can successfully target these weaknesses then you will have given yourself the best opportunity to rapidly gain market share and revenue. Just don't forget the lesson when you get to the top!

The joys of litigation

2006-11-23T14:34:00.000+02:00

Many people will tell you that when it comes to lawsuits, only the lawyers get rich - and they would mostly be right. Going to legal route to solve an issue is always dangerous and costly, but you should always consider it as something you may need to do.

Small companies and start-up's often don't have the time nor the money to see litigation through to the end so it makes it even more important to make sure you have solid contracts, detailed reports of meetings and discussions, and that you get everything in writing.

Litigation is generally only necessary when the matter in question isn't clear so if you have followed a strict regime of keeping written details and only working on contract, then you should be able to settle all situations without going near a courtroom.

Be as anal as you need to be, but the best form of protection is preparation, and if you have it all in black & white then you can focus on making yourself rich and not the lawyers! Lesson #1 in the small business survival guide - don't be caught without a contract!

To be the best

2006-11-21T13:12:00.000+02:00

What does being the best mean to you? Thousands of people and companies strive to be the best in their respective fields, but what many lack is the understanding of what it means to be the best, and a plan on how to become or remain the best.

Being the best means being the best at every single little aspect of what it is that you do. The process starts by identifying the components of your product and/or service, listing those components, what those components entail, and detailing what being the best means for each of those components. You can study competitors and even other industries to define where they are the best and what makes them the best. Finally, build a plan for becoming the best at each component. Don't be afraid to list even the simplest of components, like how staff answer the phone – EVERYTHING has an impact.

It sounds incredibly simple, and it actually is, but it is amazing how many companies never take the time to do this exercise. Often companies become the best in their industry by chance, but not having a detailed plan for remaining at the top can lead to a speedy fall.

Here is the perfect example of how this works: Tiger Woods is the #1 golfer in the world, and is already regarded as the best golfer ever. Tiger knew from a young age that to become and eventually remain as the best golfer, he would need to be the best at every single component of the sport, and even beyond the confines of the sport. Golf, like business, can be broken down into components: driving, iron shots, bunker shots, putting, etc. To be the best, Tiger aims to be the best at each of these components and the combined effect of that has put him at the top. But Tiger is now a brand, and that too was not by accident. Tiger added to his list things like press interviews, charity events, fan recognition, and many more. Not only does he work at the components of his golf game, he works hard at all the other components that a celebrity sports person needs. The brand that is Tiger Woods has been worked at and improved on a continuous basis, and the results speak for themselves.

If you want to be the best at what you do, you need to be the best at every single part of who you are and what you do. The combined effect of that is what defines you.

A talkative client is a happy client

2006-11-21T11:51:00.001+02:00

My client meeting scheduled for an hour this morning took over 2 hours to conclude, mostly because my client and I spent well over an hour talking about all things from cars, to sports, to dress sense, to what she had for breakfast. We hadn't had a meeting in months so we had a lot to catch up on and it was good to spend the time with non-work talk. When we finally got to the work portion of the meeting, we whipped through it efficiently and quicklywent back to the social chitter chatter.

Here is what I learnt from that meeting:
1. It's incredibly powerful to have a relationship with a client that moves beyond the confines of work.
2. She was excited to meet with us because our work made her look good, and when you do that you are greeted with big smiles
3. The client has absolute trust in us moving forward, so much so that she was happy to receive a quick update and then leave us do what we do
4. I learnt a little more about how to keep my client happy. I already knew how to deliver, this was getting to know the person, and that enables me to keep her happy as both a client and as a person.
5. My dress sense needs some work.

I'm looking forward to our next meeting - weird that isn't it?

I can't wait!

2006-11-15T18:38:00.000+02:00

This is just 7 weeks away. Skiing in Switzerland for 2 weeks - I CAN'T WAIT!!

This is the actual chalet where we are staying, and that is the actual snow I'll be jumping in like a 3 year old on lucozade!

Street!

When hard work pays off

2006-11-15T17:42:00.001+02:00

I have just returned from a meeting with a very long standing client of mine. Our company is almost 5 years old and this client has been with us for 4 years now which is a testimony to the value we add to their business. However, they have never been a financially valuable client - not until now at least.

For four years we have have worked pretty hard on this client and have never charged them very much for the work we do. We were just a tiny start-up when we signed them and were simply happy to have the business, regardless of the income. Having their name in our client list is valuable so we have never pushed them to increase their spend with us, our focus has instead been on continuing to work hard and deliver.

A month ago they got a new MD who flew out to SA and we had a meeting with him today. I went in thinking that we may either lose the account or have to re-pitch, but instead he told us how integral we were to their local operation and told us that he doesn't want us on a mickey mouse retainer any more, that I must send him a proposal for a full-blown monthly retainer for our services.

I was over the moon. This client has just become a very financially valuable client, all because we had put in the work for 4 years. Yes, there are people who will tell you that 4 years is too long to wait for a client to become valuable, but they are wrong. That is the kind of attitude that will only ever see short term gain. Even though they never paid us much, they did pay us for 4 years and that must never be overlooked.

Value your clients because they pay your salaries, always be prepared to work your ass off (even if it's for little financial reward), and always respect and value the fact that they want you to be their service provider. If you can do that for one client, then you should be able to replicate it with others - and that's when you can claim to have a successful business.

Numbers - aaargh!

2006-11-15T14:06:00.000+02:00

This morning I played golf with some friends of mine. They are business partners in a very successful company and most of the on-course talk was about their recent mergers and share deals. Some big numbers were thrown around, but for the most part I didn't understand a damn thing!

I'm a business owner. In fact I own a number of businesses, all of which are successful, but what they were talking about was daunting. Why didn't I understand any of it? Am I missing something?

Later on in the round, when I was a number of shots ahead of everyone it dawned on me. I didn't understand them because I chose a long time ago not to try and understand it. If the time comes, I will hire someone who knows that stuff and they can worry about it. I became flush with pride because I knew that I had chosen to do what I love (crazy-idea start-ups), I had chosen to lead those companies with passion and vision, and I would leave the mind-numbing rubbish to the people like my golfing buddies.

It was a concious choice from years ago that I would leave time in my life for things like golf, which is why I was able to beat them. While they spent their lives crunching numbers, working out interest and exchange rates, and calculating stock depreciation, I was doing what I wanted to do.

Some of the best business owners don't have a clue about the finer details of accounting etc, but they do understand their business goals, their staff, and most importantly their customers. Let the CA's handle the maths - as long as you worry about your customers, the CA's will always have money to count.

I love this car!

2006-11-10T13:02:00.000+02:00

Would you look at this! It isn't every day you get to see your dream car on the road so I had to take a photo. I'm not even jealous because I'm happy for this guy, the same way I'll be happy for me when I get one :)

In case you don't recognise it, this is the new Murcielago. Bastard!

Dot Com Boom - the sequel

2006-11-09T09:58:00.000+02:00

It's coming for sure, the 2nd dot com boom is on our door step thanks to the promise of Web 2.0. But what is different this time? There are a few things that I think will be different:

1. Investors will be more wary which is a good thing because it will help to weed out the weaker ideas and give legs to the stronger ideas.
2. The internet has grown up, and so have the users. This means that there will be more actual value and less promised value
3. Ideas won't cut it anymore. This time around investors won't put money into internet ideas. VC companies won't consider business plans without an actual company and product already in the market.

The lesson here is, if you want to be the next internet billionaire, you will need to build your idea, carve out your market, and be profitable long before the time comes for cashing out! Better get cracking because you are already behind.

This little piggy

2006-11-08T16:50:00.000+02:00

I was driving up Grayston drive and the cop driving in front of me was passing the time by talking on his cell-phone in clear view of everyone without a care in the world. I took out my phone and took a photo from behind. When I pulled up next to him to get a better shot, he threatened to stop me for using my phone while driving. Can you honestly believe it?!? I was pissed that I never got the photo but I did get some satisfaction from laughing at him and showing him the finger. Pity he didn't decide to follow me.

The pain of persuasion

2006-11-08T15:30:00.000+02:00

I'm in a bit of a quandry - how do you know if an idea is a good idea before it has been implemented? When I explain my idea to people they all seem to think it's great. But is it a great idea, or did I project my desire for it to be a great idea onto them? I sell my idea hard because I really want it to be great, but sometimes I think that my ability to sell the idea is greater than the idea itself. And is that a bad thing?

Crap, I'm confused!

Acceptable behavior - me thinks not!

2006-11-01T09:07:00.000+02:00

I recently came in contact with a large multinational company that makes millions of Dollars a day. They have awesome products and advertise themselves as an awesome company, but they really aren't. My dealings with them are always rather painful, and there is a sense (at the SA office at least) that the staff expend more effort trying to avoid work than actually working.

Where does a culture like this come from? Right from the top I tell you!! The worst dealings I have had have been with the managing director and as time passes, more and more of his staff are starting to act like him. He has set the worst example possible, and his actions give consent to everyone else to behave the same. Now the company is full of people who miss meetings, don't take calls or return messages, ignore emails, and leave work unfinished.

The lesson is that you can't enforce a strong culture, you have to live it!

Close, but no...

2006-10-30T21:32:00.000+02:00

Today I realised that total success and abject failure are a millimetre apart. This is my explanation for the existence of so many ordinary people/ideas/things. Subconsciously, most people know that in order to achieve great success they must risk catastrophic failure and it is this risk that prevents them from ever being anything other than ordinary. The ordinary folk huddle together and find comfort in knowing they aren't the only normal ones. The special few break free and soar.

If you want to achieve success you have to risk it - stare failure dead in the eye and smile, more often than not your arrogance will be enough to see you through.

Executive coaching

2006-10-30T17:03:00.000+02:00

Today I met with an interesting gent who talked to me about the concepts of executive coaching. Coming to a definition of executive coaching is not that easy and he left it quite open to my own personal interpretation. It isn't a business seminar, it isn't clinical psychology, and it isn't a dummies guide to living the high life. My best effort would be to describe it as assisted self realisation. I love that that is a contradiction!

Many corporate business people, CEO's, and entrepreneurs (like myself) get incredibly wrapped up in work and actually become mentally bound to the office. We lose sight of what we truely want and begin to believe that what we want is same as what the company wants. As a business owner it is crucial that I succeed as a whole person and not just a business person. If I fail my family, my friends, and myself in order to make the company a success then I will die a lonely unhappy person - and the company will likely fail as well.

So executive coaching is assisted self realisation. A trained coach will help me find myself, identify my core values, and help me to become a whole person. The side effects of this will be that I am able to focus more clearly on my business and create balance.

I really had fun today meeting the coach and I plan on exploring more with him in future. I've only taken one of many steps to come, and already I feel empowered. Here's to finding out more about coaching, what it is that I really want, and going after it with passion!

SAA wake up!

2006-10-11T09:11:00.000+02:00

Irritation washed over me as I read the automated response to my complaint to SAA. I wrote them a comprehensive and impressively rational letter regarding the appaling treatment I had received on my flight to London recently. It didn't take long for an "out of the office" response to jump into my inbox. SAA is out of the office? Surely not! Out of their minds maybe, but has the whole of SAA left?

Thankfully the email explains that it is an acknowledgement of receipt and not an out of office notice, and goes on to thank me for writing to them. Then it said something that completely shocked me: "We will investigate and revert to you shortly. This will take longer than normal due to the high volume of incoming correspondence."

Did they just openly admit that they receive lots of complaints? I mean, this is from the customer complaints department, so even though they politely use the word 'correspondence' they actually mean complaints.

It really isn't wise to notify customers that they are receiving a higher than average number of complaints. We are used to it from Telkom because we all know they don't care a damn, but from a company that faces stiff competition - scary!

What's worse is that it is a week since I sent through my letter and I still haven't heard anything else. Guess they're still pretty busy then!

Media 24 up for Sale

2006-10-09T07:57:00.000+02:00

So I noticed last night while watching TV that Media24 are selling a certain percentage of their shares to the public. The advert, which jumps from person person, all saying that they own Media24, states that only black South Africans are eligable to buy these shares.

As a white South African, I was rather upset by how blatantly whites were excluded from the offer. Do these companies not realise how racist they are being? While I fully support transformation in South Africa, and constantly seek ways for me to do more, I am adamantly opposed to racism. What would happen if a company ran television adverts stating that a special offer was only applicable to white South Africans?

Futher, the advert showed a number of coloured people. Does this mean that coloured people are allowed to by shares as well as black people? What about Indians? I didn't see any Indians in the advert so are they being excluded the same as whites?

As much I felt the need to have a bitch about this, I have no idea where the line is drawn. Maybe it is a good thing that a company like Media24 is so bold because they are simply saying what other companies have been doing but keeping quiet. Maybe I have been naieve all along, and it took a television advert to make me realise that BEE is straight-up racism!

And so it starts

2006-10-07T22:31:00.000+02:00

So this is the first of hopefully many posts to come. Needless to say I'm incredibly excited about where this could go. Aside from that, I don't have too much more to say right now because Invasion is on in the background and it's getting heated!