Add some real value - or someone else will!

I can't remember who sent me this visual but I believe it sums up beautifully the situation in which many service providers find themselves - and often as a result of their own actions. Or inaction to be more precise.

It never ceases to astound just how many business web sites and other branded collateral is littered with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and inconsistencies such as font size, punctuation, spacing, capitalisation, multi-language spelling variations and text alignment.

And these quality issues should be picked up and rectified, particularly if the Brand promotes itself as "expert', "professional", world-class", "industry-leading" etc. Now don't get me wrong, errors will always occur, such is the nature of our endemic 'speed-to-market' environment and the fact that the creators are so close to it that little oversights are quite often missed. However, while accepting these factors, this does not excuse the fact that these taints on the Brand are not picked up and rectified quickly.

Maybe, in a world where spelling and grammatical bastardisations are acceptable thanks to the need for speed and the ever-pervasive "add to dictionary" function on all electronic devices, these errors aren't considered errors at all. Or perhaps my expectations of state-of-the-art, market-leading, subject matter experts with a reputation for quality, professionalism and integrity are simply unrealistic.

However, for as long as I can remember, marketing and communications specialists/experts/gurus/service providers have prided themselves on being the protectors of Brands, developers and custodians of a Brand's persona, its attitude reflected by how it is portrayed and, hopefully, enhanced.

So while marketers can not control all of the Brand touch points such as face-to-face customer service, store or office layout or phone-based customer interactions, they certainly can on all things promotional including web, brochureware and other collateral.

Want to keep your existing clients happy and continue to be recognised as a valued member of Team Client? Then you should probably take a little more time to review the work once it has gone live, particularly in the digital space where volume is increasing. After all, you'd hate to lose a client based on the fact that one of your competitors drew published mistakes to their attention!

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression!

Hey SME (all!) business owners, how long has it been since you reviewed your website? I mean REALLY reviewed it by putting yourself in the prospective customer's shoes and asking yourself whether the impression it gives makes your brand shine and truly reflects your brand positioning?

If you haven't done this recently (or ever), you might want to consider this:

Bad grammar and spelling mistakes: What impression do you think this gives your existing and prospective customers? Assuming your service and product offerings are on par with your competitors, a simple mistake such as misspelling on your site may make your prospects consider whether you are as professional as your promotional collateral and advertising states.

Most SME's describe themselves as "professional", "reliable" or "trusted". However, when reviewing their 'virtual shop fronts' online, it surprises me how many sites contain spelling mistakes and poor grammar. Does this make a good first impression of those businesses? Not to me it doesn't, and the same applies to many of your prospective customers who jump online to search.

Don't let simple little mistakes get in the way of making a good first impression. Have your web site and other marketing collateral reviewed objectively and make sure all elements of your brand support your "professional" brand image.

"....but everyone was emailed about that!"

It never ceases to amaze us how often businesses, both large and small, can excel at communicating with their customers but fail dismally to do so with their own staff. Some appear to hold the belief that events or news will get through to their staff via osmosis or word of mouth or that once the message is sent, the receiver will automatically understand it because they "have been told". More often than not, this results in feelings of frustration or even alienation from those on whom the reputation of the brand is so heavily reliant.

If you have not recently surveyed your staff about what behaviours the business should do more of and less of to make it a better place to work at, do it now! We'll bet London to a brick that one of the, if not THE most frequently raised issue will be lack of communication. And without addressing this issue, there is a real danger that your organisation will become increasingly disjointed and there will eventually be a measurable cost of quality due to the need to communicate further about something that should have been better communicated up front.

Don't wait for something to go wrong before incorporating your staff in the process....it could save your brand unnecessary cost, adverse publicity and staff angst.