Surface Ripples

How To Kill Business

Perception (reputation) is a vital part of your company's success. If you are well perceived/have a good reputation, anything is possible. If not, you will have a major PR effort in front of you to get where you want to be. Very few seem to realise the importance of PR and how easy it is to convey a negative impression which could be fatal. Here's how...

The most extreme example that comes to mind is how Gerald Ratner killed the Ratners Jewellery chain overnight (literally) by jokingly saying that they sold "crap". Whilst this may have been true, the reason that people bought from Ratners in the first place was that the merchandise was seen to be relatively good quality at affordable prices. What Gerald Ratner failed to realise was that one small misjudgement was all it took.

In these days of recession, it's more important than ever to get your PR right, and it can be something as simple as responding to an enquiry or phone call. I constantly hear stories of how someone has rung/emailed someone else to enquire about a job/product/event only to receive no response at all. What does this say about the company being contacted? Either that they are so busy that they haven't the time to respond, or that your enquiry has been "lost in the system" or that they don't (for whatever reason) consider you important enough to merit a response. Whatever the right answer may be, all are bad for the company's or individual's image.

In Gerald Ratner's case, it was his image and the media that "did for him" in the early 1990s recession. Nowadays, not only have the media become more adept, but consumers also have the power of the internet at their disposal and can reach a large audience without the help of TV or the press (just try Googling "complaints about BT service" to see what I mean).

Failing to respond to any enquiry (even with a polite "no") is, frankly, rude (let alone unprofessional). It says that you/your company do not value that customer's (or potential customer's) business. In the current recessionary climate, this is corporate suicide and will only get worse as we emerge and new competitors come on the scene.

People may have no choice but to deal with you today - but they will leave as soon as they can. It is a case of caveat vendor.

Labels: Customer Care, Strategy

posted by William Martin @ 19:13