Be careful what you say about your business.

– Robert Kruger 17 February 2011

As a business owner, it is hard to stay on top of everything. You keep your nose to the grindstone paying bills and payroll and taxes, you manage how the money flows in and out, and you try to hire good people so they can do their job without constant supervision. It seems like you’re running things all right, and then it blows up. What happened?

It’s the little things that can take you down. It’s even worse you don’t find out about these little things until your customers mention something (or stop talking to you altogether).

Have you ever been to the doctor and seen the person at the front desk cough and cough and cough and then hand you a pen? How unprofessional is that? You go to the doctor to feel better, not worse.

How about trying to get a quick oil change before going to work only to be told that they’re short-handed because one of their mechanics is out because he couldn’t get his car started?

And then there are food issues - the grocery store clerk who finds a tub of sour cream in the cereal aisle and puts it back in the cooler (has that been there three hours or three days?) or the cook making Chinese dumplings who picks up the dumpling he dropped on the floor and throws it in the pot with all the rest (I’m glad I ordered the noodles!).

You think things are running smoothly, but your customers may not be getting the experience you envision.

Your personnel aren’t solely capable of tarnishing your brand. Have you looked at your web presence lately? You can’t simply mutter, “I don’t know what all this Twitbook stuff is all about, so I don’t need it!” How you conduct yourself online reflects on the character of your business.

If your website looks and feels like you haven’t updated it since 2002, people will judge you negatively.

People do look for your Twitter and Facebook pages in addition to your website to determine if they want to do business with you. Keeping up with current trends makes its own statement. If your communication channel isn’t current, they will assume your product isn’t either.

If you have an area of expertise, prospective customers will look to see if you have a blog or an enewsletter where you share what you know. Today, it is so easy to share information, the lack of sharing is regarded as a sign that you are out of touch, you don’t care about your customers, or you don’t really know enough to be useful.

The contagious desk attendant, the mechanic who doesn’t take his work home, the grocery spoiler, and the down-and-dirty dumpling man are all out there (I have seen them myself). You don’t want your internet presence to be viewed by your prospects and customers the same way.

While we can’t help you keep the dirt off the dumplings, we can help you make the right impression on the web. Call us. I promise we won’t make you sick.