Category Archives: Small Business Messages

Instant Messaging and Small Business

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Wow, a couple of days ago I was looking forward to a few quiet days where I might be able to catch up with my work but it never seems to work out that way. Just as things began to settle down more work came in and I’m back knocking out a bunch of articles and reviews.

In fact I’ve been doing it for over 12 hours so far today (and it’s only 4pm as I write this) so I thought I should semi-escape for a few minutes just to try and regain my sanity. I say semi-escape because all I’ve done is take the laptop out onto the back patio to write this. At least I’ve escaped from the office for a short while.

Yesterday I posted a comment in a thread over on Home Office Voice about using Instant Messaging for business purposes – silly me because Martin immediately asked me to recount our experiences and so here I am.

Martin’s thread was commenting on the growing trend among businesses to conduct important business via one of the various types of Instant Messaging but to us it’s really nothing new.

Most of our clients are online and are a segment of the online industry that has almost always used ICQ to conduct business. We have been using it ever since we started in business and these days nearly every major order we get comes to us via ICQ.

We find that it is invaluable because anyone who relies on email will know just how easy it is for important emails to get culled by the various spam filters that most of us employ these days.

Now that is not to say that there isn’t plenty of ICQ spam because there certainly is but it’s not hard to tell the difference between someone who wants to talk to you about business and a dopey Russian Cam Girl who has been given a bunch of ICQ numbers to cycle through every day of the week.

There is also the problem of friends, and sometimes business associates who just want to chat and Toni frequently has her ICQ turned off for that reason. I’m a little less polite than she is and if someone just wants to chat a terse “Bugger off I’m busy” usually does the trick.

You may wonder about things like record keeping with business done via Instant Messaging but most have a history function and all you have to do is make sure that it’s turned on and then every word that’s exchanged is recorded and stored on your computer.

Of course, if you are worried about the informality of Instant Messaging you can always close the business transaction with a phone call or with an email but once you start using and Instant Messaging system you will soon find that even those final closing formalities are usually not required.

I’ve left the most important benefit of using something like ICQ till last and that is the fact that is usually occurs in real time. When you are discussing business via email there is always a gap on the proceedings while people are reading those emails but with something like ICQ you talk to the person and they respond almost immediately.

If you are a writer or a designer you get to pick your client’s brain in real time, you can ask relevant questions to clarify important points that might be missed via email and it’s easier for you both to understand each other.

Very few of our orders these days come to us by any other form of communication and we would be lost without it. Don’t be afraid of using Instant Messaging in your business transactions. Once you’ve have tried it you will wonder how you ever managed without it.

In Small Business it Works Both Ways

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I sometimes think that many small business people are very short-sighted. They tend to forget that the people who are doing work for them today may well be their own clients at some point in the future.

An example of what I am suggesting happened this week. A friend who runs a small business here in town was having his carpets cleaned by a professional cleaner. The conversation turned to advertising and our friend mentioned that he had a website.

The carpet cleaner told our friend that he spent thousands of dollars each year on advertising and would like to talk to someone about having his own website. Our friend, as all good friends do, recommended us and the carpet cleaner asked our friend to get us to call him.

I called him next day and obviously caught him at work in someone’s house so he asked me to call him back after six that night. And I did call him back after six … and got his answering service.

I left a message and asked him to return my call.

Several days later I’m still waiting for that call.

Now if he couldn’t return a call how reliable is he to come and clean carpets at a pre-arranged time?

In small business you shouldn’t just be working to impress your clients, you should also be working to impress those who are working for you. You never know when those people could turn into prospective clients.

Telling Stories

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There are times when we sit down at our friend’s computer shop drinking coffee and just listening. Of course we listen to our friend because he has a lot to teach us about computers but we also listen to his customers too.

The one’s I find to be particularly interesting are those who bring their computers in for repair. These are mostly people who have no clue about computers. Some are highly articulate and successful in their own businesses while others are just ordinary people. There are retirees, students, mums and dads … just ordinary people who don’t understand much about computers.

I find that the stories they tell our friend are really interesting. There are times when I get quietly frustrated with them – why don’t they just give our friend the facts? Why do they have to keep waffling on and wasting time when just the facts would get our friend on the job quicker?

These people have a need to resort to stories. They don’t have the technical background and so they don’t have the technical words to use. To them there are no short sharp facts – there is only the story. And our friend understands that.

To these people there is only the story because the story helps them understand what happens and so the clues that our friend needs are embedded in the story.

Do you listen to the stories when the customers and clients of your small business come to you for help?

Or do you miss the clues because you don’t understand that telling you a story is the only way that many of your customers and clients can express their need?

Small Business Impressions

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Today Toni and I spent an interesting couple of hours helping a friend prepare for the shooting of a television commercial for his computer business. We tidied up and rearranged. We moved things around in the shop to place more emphasis on certain products and we generally set out to make the place look more appealing. We even adjusted a few things to add some branding for the name of the business.

And then we stood at the entrance customers use and took another critical look at the shop. After that we decided that there was a lot more that could be done to improve the general look and feel of the business.

Now don’t get me wrong, our friend’s business isn’t in trouble. He is a very talented computer technician who has developed a great reputation in town for the quality of his workmanship.

But now, through the television advertising he hopes to attract clients who are looking for more than just computer repairs. He wants to attract people who are looking to buy complete systems and he knows that will put him into direct competition with the big department stores in the district.

That means that he has to start changing the look of his shop from that of a repair shop, where you might expect things to be less tidy, to the more slick presentation that you might expect from a store that sells good quality computer systems.

That look and the immediate impact it has on potential customers starts at the front door and should be increased the further a customer moves into the shop.

So what impression do customers get when they walk into your business?

And what are you doing in your small business to increase your branding potential?

Perhaps you might like to share some of your ideas here.

It’s Funny What Messages You Hear

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We went into a well known fast food outlet today and it was interesting to listen to the messages that we received while we were there.

‘You both look like a couple of average fools so I’ll tell you that there will be a two minute delay when I know is could easily be ten’

‘Just wait over there and I’ll bring it to you when it’s ready but don’t hold your breath because I’m really not interested in serving you’

‘I know that there is a set list of ingredients for this but who cares? I’ll just throw some stuff in there and squirt some cranberry sauce all over it and they won’t even know that I couldn’t be bothered putting all the ingredients into the order.”

‘Oops that’s the order for that dumb looking couple – it’s just hit the front of the food chutes – damn perhaps if I keep my head in the softserve machine they won’t notice and I won’t have to serve them’

‘Damn one of the other staff has grabbed that order for someone they’re serving – oh well the bottom of the softserve machine looks pretty interesting to me.’

‘Holy cow that old fart looks like he’s about ready to crush my gonads – I better get their order fixed up real quick.’

‘Here you are sir – I’m sorry for the delay but really I couldn’t give a damn because you’re both a couple of dumb fools and I’ll probably never see you again. Wow it worked – he said thanks but I didn’t like the way he smiled at me.’

And our message to McDonalds – ‘Thanks – we understand you were treating us like a couple of tools – we won’t be back. Subway is just around the corner and that’s where we’ll be going in future.’

Now what are your clients hearing when they deal with you and your staff?

What Message is Your Small Business Sending to the Marketplace

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The message that many of us send out may not really be what we want the marketplace to hear. But then that problem isn’t restricted to small business. Sometimes we do have an excuse – after all we’re small and we can’t employ experts to vet every message we want to send.

But what excuse does big business have?

Take Boeing – the aircraft manufacturer for instance. They have been busy advertising their latest verion of the V22 Osprey (its a combination aircraft and helicopter if those sort of things interest you) and it has many uses. Perhaps showing it in a rescue situation might have been a good marketing ploy but someone at Boeing decided that it was time to flex a little muscle and show just what this mighty fighting machine could really do.

So about a month ago a ad appeared in print in the National Journal showing the Osprey in action. Not just any old battlefield action but something that was topical and put the plane right at the forefront of the fight for freedom. And what better way to do that than to show this hi-tech piece of hardware attacking … a mosque.

Of course you can imagine the response to which Boeing replied that it had no knowledge of how the ad came to be created.

There’s not much plausible deniability in that one – especially when the same ad was printed again this month.

So what message are you sending to all parts of your marketplace?

Who Speaks for Your Small Business

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Here is an interesting question for you. Who speaks for your small business?

Whose voice do people in the marketplace hear when your product, your service, your whatever your selling gets a mention?

Do they hear you speaking? Do they hear your employees speaking? And is the message one that you would want the marketplace to hear?

And of course, all that leads on to another interesting point that you should never forget. Actions speak louder than words.

Now who did you say speaks for your small business?