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Make it a good news story

Written by: Jo Macdermott

Article Overview: As a Small Business owner operator, business is often personal. So what happens when our business or we as the business owner ‘stuff up’? Because it is personal, do we take it as a reflection on our own character? Do we bury our head in the sand and pretend that it didn’t happen? How do we deal with it when there isn’t an organisational structure to hide behind? It can be quite challenging. I think that ignoring the problem is the worst thing you can do. A better approach is to acknowledge your shortcomings and try to turn a negative story into a good news story. Here are some recommendations on how.

Make it a good news story

Let’s start with an example from my own business. I run an event called the Marketing Puzzle in conjunction with a long time business associate. We hold approx three to four events per year. Just before our second event, which we held earlier this year, I received a very generous offer from a contact of mine to provide the wine (free of charge) for the evening. How could I resist! So, we kindly took up the offer. What I didn’t do is, that by accepting the offer, clarify what my contact wanted to get out of the event in terms of branding/exposure. So, the event went ahead as planned and at the end of the night my contact came up to me and said how disappointed she was that we hadn’t supported/promoted her brand during the formalities. Oops – we had ‘stuffed up’. So how did we turn around the situation? Instead of pretending that it never happened, I phoned the next morning and apologised. I didn’t offer any excuses but asked if we could make it up to her. She accepted my offer. I then held a brainstorming session with my associate and presented a proposal of ideas of how we could help promote her business in other ways. Essentially, we turned the situation into a positive experience.

Coca-Cola recently ran advertisements in major newspapers clarifying errors in a recent advertising campaign. Although Coca-Cola was compelled to do so from court action, I wonder whether it would have been better to do so before being forced by a legal authority. What do you think as a consumer?

Being up front and honest about a mistake or weakness in your business is important. Now that we are being completely open and honest, has your business ever been know for any of the following?

• Providing great follow up but negligible customer service.

• Only having good follow up during the initial sales process.

• Trashing (or never replying to) website enquiries.

• Reducing telecommunication costs by rarely returning phone calls.

• Only replying to emails that could be answered with yes/no responses.

• Having a deliberate policy to under quote and over invoice.

If you have recognised a particular area of weakness (either from the above list or some other concern), use this opportunity to re-connect with lost customers. Be open and honest about where you were at and where you are now, and create some buzz around it. If however, your business reputation is at serious risk, perhaps you should consider doing what most big organisations would do in this instance, which is hire Public Relations agency. If you would like some practical ideas that you could implement in-house, here are some tips.

Pick up the phone.

I have heard of many instances where companies have given a new employee a list of past customers to call/re-connect with in an attempt to generate some new sales/business. If you have this in mind, it is best to explain as thoroughly as possible on a case-by-case basis to the new employee, why these customers no longer buy from you. Hopefully you have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that has notes about any prior dealings. The last thing you want is one of these customers to become more upset with your business, and your new recruit to leave because they have been abused for your past mistakes.



Review your advertising campaigns and address your shortcomings.

I recently saw a new advertisement for a skin clinic that I visited last year. Even though I have current skin care needs, the new advertisement did not persuade me to visit them again. The reason being is that the clinic’s customer service and wait times were, based on my experience last year, unacceptable. In my case, I waited over an hour past my appointment time after being advised by the receptionist on arrival “take a seat it won’t be long”. Apparently a lengthy wait time for this clinic was acceptable. Had the new advertisement featured a headline – “Improved waiting times”, I would have considered visiting again.

Send an email to all website enquiries that weren’t answered.

Although it may be too late to capitalise on the original sales/website enquiry, it is worth sending an apology note to all people who had sent an enquiry to your business and didn’t get a response/follow up. In this instance, a sales promotion would be a nice way to try and make it up and encourage a purchase for your business.

Issue a new customer service policy.

If your customer service was not up to scratch, then perhaps it is time to create a customer service policy or charter for your employees and customers. Before you issue it, get some feedback from some ‘friendly’ customers to make sure that you have hit all the right ‘hot buttons’. Once you have signed it off, tell as many people as possible about it; write to all your customers, include it in your sales proposals, have a dedicated section on your website, make it part of your on hold music. Make the most of your efforts to correct past wrongs and build your business from this new platform.

If as SME operators we can capitalise on our personal relationships rather than hide from our mistakes we are ideally positioned to be leaders in our market.

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Article Tags: advertisements, advertising campaign, apologised, br, brainstorming session, business associate, coca cola, conjunction, customer service, formalities, long time, mistake, nbsp, newspapers, next morning, own business, proposal, puzzle, time business, wine



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