Different perspectives: what you think ain’t what the world thinks

I think I might have some Yorkshire blood: I think I’m pretty plain speaking. I’m certainly not one for politicking. Which is why I enjoy the bawdiness of PR man Colin Byrne’s blog. (I’m also not going to criticise Colin because he looks like a Friday night bouncer who eats dobermanns for elevenses). He’s recently posted a couple of comments about the US Presidential election campaign, in which John McCain’s latest assault on Barack Obama attacks Obama’s celebrity.

It’s an interesting angle. The thing is; in the UK, the perception is that Obama is a trailblazing front-runner. American friends tell me that back home, the race is much tighter.

Perception is a funny thing. Discussing the recent fracas in Georgia, I was talking to another friend; who reminded me that Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who dismantled communism in the former USSR, was only a hero in Western eyes. Back home, he was vilified as the man who left millions without state support.

Companies- especially big companies- are like countries. Inside, the perception can be totally different to outside. I have worked in/for several large organisations, where managers mourn the fact that customers still dislike the company, even though staff are trying their hardest: why won’t anyone appreciate what we do?

The reason is simple: perception and reality have as much validity as each other. It’s why PR is a legitimate profession, and why even small companies need to think about their public image.

You won’t get thanks for working 18 hour days if the product still doesn’t work. Equally many companies will still get paid the same rate if the job turns out to take half as long as you thought it would. What matters is the agreed perception of value, irrespective of the underlying facts.

Next time you think:

• If only they knew we were up till 2am finishing that proposal
• Or, we may look like swans, but we’re paddling like ducks underneath
• Or, it’s a great product- I hope they don’t notice the sellotape holding it all together

…it’s the perceptions you’re dealing with. And running a company is chock-full of these issues. They’re not bare-faced lies (I abhor unethical practice). Rather, an appreciation of your customers’ perspective is essential to understanding them, understanding what they need, and understanding what they will value.

Congratulations to the O2 Arena!

This week marked the culmination of what is, in my opinion, one of the finest turnarounds in brand/marketing history. The O2 Arena, nestled in the elbow of the River Thames in Greenwich, has become the most successful live events venue in the world. With over two million people scheduled to walk through its doors this year, it eclipses some of the world’s other famous venues like Madison Square Gardens into a cocked hat.

Most remarkably, let’s not forget that this is the building we came to loathe when it was called the Dome. At the turn of the millennium, it demonstrated everything Britain did badly. A great piece of British engineering rightly admired around the globe, but filled with stuff designed by a committee which couldn’t decide whether it should be educational or entertaining. Nobody wants to go to a funfair with a message! Worse still, by the end of the first week, the press was full of pictures of exhibits which had already been pulled out of service. Post-it notes with “Out of Order” were already cropping up. The taxpayer picked up the bill for a dismal failure.

It took a Frenchman, the irrepressible P-Y Gerbeau, to start the turnaround (he is, I believe, now involved with the X-Scape entertainment arenas). Some American noses were sniffing around too- because they could smell a bargain. Here was a perfectly good entertainment space (if only it was used properly); with excellent shiny new transport links to central London; which had a terrible reputation and represented a political liability, and therefore would have a fire-sale price tag.

The eventual buyer was AEG (the US entertainment group, not the washing machine people…), and they’ve done what I think are some pretty clever things. Here are just a few.

• Make sure people forget “The Dome”. That needed a change of name; so they killed two birds with one stone by bagging a fat sponsor too. The “O2 Arena” was born.
• Provide world-beating facilities. The O2 isn’t just visually spectacular, it’s genuinely an enjoyable experience to go there. From ticketing to toilets, everything works properly.
• Surprise everyone. O2 highlights have included Prince’s almost passport-deserving residency last summer, the Spice Girls’ (er… triumphant) UK comeback, and of course the incredible Led Zeppelin one-off gig.
• Appeal to everyone. Large venues should find it fairly easy to cater to all markets. After all, Cliff Richard could be appearing one day, Slipknot the next. But the O2 is redefining the meaning of live events, and in so doing appealing to the broadest of audiences. Residencies like Prince jostle against all-night events (DJ Tiesto recently headlined, and New Years Eve at the O2 is a legendary club-fest). Whichever generation you represent, the O2 now delivers a consistent performance.
• Push the brand: The O2 now has a little sister, the IndigO2, which caters to a more arthouse audience, and has held cultural events like the Tutankhamun exhibition.
• But keep it simple: Unlike the dreaded Dome, AEG have kept things simple. It’s a venue. It has space. It uses that space to host events. Events will make or lose money according to how many people buy tickets, and how many T-shirts and programmes they buy. And that’s it.

So, there you go. It’s a shame we needed an American buyer to make it work. It’s a shame the public sector didn’t do a very good job of things with the Dome first time round. But the above points show it really is possible to turn round a national joke- a brand in big trouble- and not just recover, but recover to become a world-beater.

Consumer Transparency: the illusion of people power or great customer service?

In a comment on my post “On the hunt for new ideas”, Ash asks what I think about consumer transparency. Me have an opinion? I’m more than glad to oblige.

For anyone who needs some help slicing through the jargon, consumer transparency is a pretty universal term for “being honest” in all sorts of ways. Most obviously, it means being straight with your customers, especially when things go wrong.

For example, if you’re super-successful and suddenly find that you don’t have enough widgets to send out to your customers, you get the CEO to be very public about the problem. He needs to exceed the customers’ expectations in terms of refunds or other recompense.

The idea is simple: in today’s very public world, with online forums, blogs, consumer groups etc., the general public has more power than ever before to influence a company’s reputation. This should act as a natural brake on corporate irresponsibility, and therefore businesses are wise to keep their service up to an acceptable standard.

Oh, the naivety!

I do believe in people power, but only to a degree. There are certainly some cracking examples of corporate reputations being tarnished by sloppy service in the short term. A good UK example would be the scramble for TalkTalk’s effectively free internet service. A victim of their own success, takeup was so high that service suffered. The Carphone Warehouse’s Charles Dunstone was way too late with an apology, and not impressive when it came to resolving the problem. (The internet sector is full of these stories, especially as intermediaries can always blame stoic old BT).

But has this affected TalkTalk in the long run? Not really. The Great British Public knows its place- if a service is cheap price-wise, you can’t be surprised if it’s a bit wobbly at times. In the US, what we ruefully accept in the name of service wouldn’t be given the time of day.

So I don’t think many large companies really take this sort of thing seriously. They know that we’re remarkably tolerant, and in any case, one thing the UK is very good at is crisis PR. We can always pick up the pieces later. For a great example, try to find BA’s latest - and very clever- online ad, promoting the improvements at Heathrow Terminal Five. You see, you’d forgotten already, hadn’t you?

However… where the transparency motto really does carry traction is for small companies who have the willpower and agility to build transparency right into the heart of their operations.

I don’t believe for one moment that an underpaid customer service rep working for my utility company in a stucco-grey call centre has my best interests at heart. But I do believe that an expert in a small company is going to offer me genuine consumer transparency. And he(/she) isn’t doing it because of his targets, or some diktat from the Corporate Social Responsibility Department. He’s doing it because it’s his job, a job he takes pride in. To me, consumer transparency is just a new name for decent service.

A superb example of forward thinking PR

I wanted to share with you this piece of excellent PR work (which I found on the excellent Robert Scoble’s technology blog).

Declaration of interest: This blog is sponsored by Microsoft

Let me give you the story first, and then I’ll tell you why I think it’s a piece of genius.

Microsoft has produced a super-smart website to promote the Windows Vista operating system. Called the “Mojave Experiment”- click to see it- the site is a simple video. In the video, members of the public are first shown making negative comments about Vista. They may never even have used Vista, but their comments are based largely on the preconceptions that arise whenever a giant corporation launches a new product under massive press scrutiny.

The participants then get a chance to play with “Mojave”, the code-name for what is supposedly Microsoft’s next operating system after Vista. We see their amazed reactions at Mojave’s impressive functions and features.

Then, rather like the denouement of a magic show, or the twist in the tail of a film, the participants find out that what they have actually been playing with is… Windows Vista.

It’s a great video- really well produced and very smart. Click the link above to see it.

Now, let’s take a look at why it’s clever.

Firstly, it’s created a wave of interest from the technology community. That alone is worth its weight in gold: it’s created bags of PR from bloggers like me.

Secondly, it’s a piece of work which has precisely done its job. Companies like Microsoft, McDonalds, Airbus, or Glaxo SmithKline live slap-bang in the public eye. Their product launches are almost guaranteed to be shot down by someone, whether the naysayer’s motivations are political, financial, social or emotional. Rather than trying to prevent negative perceptions of their product from getting out, Microsoft have realised that the global availability of information makes that sort of protectionism impossible. Instead, they have tackled the negative perception head-on, with incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, in an elegant and engaging way.

I’m pretty sure that the age of total PR control within corporations is over. Instead, it’s smart answers like this which have the power to genuinely change minds.

Should there be a windfall tax on petroleum companies?

I didn’t plan to get into politics on this blog, but it is my job to stick up occasionally for the interests of business. Especially when business unfairly gets a mauling.

Petrol prices have, not surprisingly been in the news. Over this weekend, I paid over £1.20 per litre- it’s a real kick in the wallet.

As several petroleum companies have recently declared hefty profits, there has been a call for a windfall tax on those profits.

I sympathise with the hard-pressed consumer. I’m one of them. But that doesn’t make a windfall tax right.

The vast majority (around 70%) of what you pay at the pump goes straight to the exchequer. Check out the superb www.petrolprices.com for current details of petrol prices in your area, and an idea of where the money goes (you’ll also find out how little your poor garage retailer actually makes out of each litre).

Now, the Chancellor hasn’t put much effort into getting gas out of the ground at all. But he gets the lion’s share of the money- in petrol taxes and VAT.

The petroleum companies go to plenty of effort to get gas out of the ground. By strange coincidence, oil and gas come from either the most inhospitable places on earth (under the oceans, deep underground, in ice-fields etc.), or the most troubled. And no, I’m not so naive as not to realise that these places are sometimes troubled precisely because of oil. Either way, it’s a dirty, messy business with enormous start-up costs and zero return in the event of failure. Drilling rigs have to be commissioned over months and sometimes years in only a hope of getting to the black stuff.

The same challenges face drugs companies. They can invest hundreds of millions of pounds in the pursuit of the next cure for a major ailment, and there’s no promise of success.

These companies do sometimes make exorbitant profits. But they, and their investors, take exorbitant risks. And that’s why they deserve to profit from their efforts.

If we don’t make it worth while, with a nice chunky paycheck, then these companies will simply go and do something more profitable elsewhere. No oil. No cure for that ingrown toenail (we’d better leave my medical credentials aside, eh?).

Imagine if you took your business- the one you’d put your life and soul into- and the government suddenly decided that this year, it looks like you made too much, so they’d like another chunk, please? Would you really think that’s fair? No, Sir, it is not. The markets reward two things: hard effort and taking risks. Petrochemicals and drugs companies deliver both, in bags.

I cannot vouch for the ethics of oil companies. I cannot vouch for their green credentials. Those are arguments which will run and run. But they do deserve reward for what they do, and their contribution to our daily lives. A windfall tax would be entirely unfair.

Related posts: Want the truth? Ask a cabbie!

The answer is always yes!

Don’t be surprised if I disappear for a few weeks.

I’d love to say I was on holiday, but I’m not. No- for some reason, recession and whatnot aside, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. In the space of three weeks, I have gone from having “a reasonable amount of work” to “so-much-that-I-might-as-well-keep-a-sleeping-bag-in-the-office”.

Now, all work and no play definitely makes Jack a dull boy, and I suspect the next three months or so won’t be easy. Quite how I resource some of these new clients, I just don’t know. It just has to be done.

And since some of them will be reading this, I might just as well be honest: Dear clients, I have no idea how we’re going to keep you looked after, BUT WE WILL.

Having too much work is the kind of problem a company wants. In fact, to expand the venture, it’s the kind of problem a company needs. I don’t know a single entrepreneur who hasn’t on occasion done a 3am finish with caffeine as their only friend and relatives wondering who this sallow, hollow-eyed fool is. It comes with the territory.

A few snippets of advice to anyone in the same boat as me, then:

• Do take some sort of weekend. Seven days doesn’t work.
• Do something utterly different with your spare time (I go running and water-skiing, because I spend all day in front of a screen).
• Be available when you want to be; but turn the phone off sometimes too.
• The answer is always yes. You’re never too busy to take on more paid work, even if you have to pay someone else to do it.

Tesco chases the banks- and I think Tesco will win

The top story in the business press today is about Tesco’s latest assault on the high street: Britain’s No. 1 retailer wants to massively increase its financial services offering.

This is one of those announcements that makes so much sense, you wonder why we didn’t all expect it.

Firstly, Tesco is no newcomer to finance- it’s offered personal finance products like motor insurance for ages; in fact the only major product missing from its portfolio is a fully-fledged current account. No doubt that’s on the way.

Secondly, the high-street banks are in a bad way. Jealously refusing to provide a decent level of service to Joe Public at any cost, off-street brands like Egg, ING and IceSave have taken some of their business (admittedly, the high street banks do have stakes in many of these brands). The credit crunch is squeezing their profitability and shareholders are running scared.

Thirdly, Tesco has no shortage of high street presence. One pound in eight spend shopping is spent with Tesco. This is an astonishing statistic. Many of the UK’s new-build developments- whole villages- are built on land owned by Tesco, and served during the community’s growth by Tesco stores. Why wouldn’t you want to do your banking in the same family-friendly place that you do your shopping, rather than trudging through some of our fading town centres? Better still, you could do much of your banking at the checkout.

Reason four, and this is a funny one, banks are some of the few companies Tesco can beat in the brand wars. Tesco’s aggressive growth has earned the company a bad name in the past five years. Boss Sir Terry Leahy has been the butt of much anti-capitalist sentiment. But if the Great British Public dislikes anyone more than Tesco, it’s the banks. This sentiment is accentuated by the credit crunch: when we feel the pinch, we forget our morals and think about price. If Tesco is cheap and looks after us, we’ll forgive them.

But the final reason Tesco is going to make a killing in financial services is the big one, and the one which is least talked about. With its (then) innovative ClubCard, Tesco has refined the art of customer profiling better than anyone else in the market. Tesco knows more about its customers’ spending habits and financial situations than many of us do about ourselves. That means they can target offers and reduce marketing costs. It’s a level of agility many of the banks simply don’t have.

Is there a lesson for small businesses? These days not many people wake up and decide to start a bank. But it does suggest that CRM- the skill of managing your customers with great care- does have some value. Even if you’re not as all-embracing as Tesco, a bit of customer care can yield dividends.

Related link: More on banks

The Sixty second guide to insurance

This morning, I have been investigating insurance again. I haven’t checked my policies for ages (tut, tut…) and I’ve just got a new client whose contract includes an obligation that I have professional indemnity insurance.

I haven’t seen that stipulation in a contract for my sort of work before, but it makes perfect sense. If I make mistakes which affect their company, they have a right to know that I’m adequately insured. After all, if they sued me, I am a sufficiently small company that I’d just end up bankrupt. They’d get no compensation, and in reality, nobody would be better off.

It’s interesting, then, that insurance isn’t just “another one of those expenses”. In this case, it’s an important way of demonstrating that my company is adequately prepared to do business with larger clients. I can’t emphasise this enough- these expenses all amount to smoothing over the bumps of business transactions, and ensuring that risk is adequately spread. You can’t expect to take business from a major client without assuming some of the risk that they, with their higher profile and larger client base, already bear. Insurance is your way of passing that risk on too, for a fee.

So, I’m a fan of insurance (that’s something you won’t hear too often…)

Anyhow, here’s the sixty second primer:

Public Liability Insurance (PLI): Protects you from claims made by the general public (clients, customers, etc.) for a range of physical or financial injuries which might be your fault. If a customer trips over on the stairs in your office, PLI can take the claim. Similarly, if you’re a plumber making a housecall, and drop your toolbox on a customer’s toe, PLI will take care of any legal unpleasantness.

Employer’s Liability Insurance (ELI): Protects your employees in the event of injury whilst conducting business for you- and it’s a legal necessity. You can’t fully employ anyone without ensuring you have ELI cover (and there are swingeing fines from the Health and Safety Executive if you don’t). If your employee is injured or falls ill whilst on company business, ELI offers them some restitution.

Professional Indemnity Insurance: This is what my client required, and offers them recompense in the event that I do a bad job. Of course, I won’t- but everyone makes mistakes sometime. If I were to write a factually incorrect article for the client, or our plumber above ended up flooding the house, professional indemnity insurance will cover the claim.

Now, I can’t honestly say that insurance is the most interesting subject on earth, but if that’s whetted your appetite for cover, here are some options.

Choice is good, instructions are essential.

Today, a salutary lesson in business planning and customer service.

This is a story which my good friend Darren likes to tell; about his father-in-law, John.

I’ve met John several times. He’s now in his 70’s, still thoroughly full of life, and a ‘mad inventor’ type of chap. John has had more hare-brained schemes, inventions and business ideas than I have had hot dinners. Some of his inventions and ideas have been very successful indeed. Others have been shockers on which he’s lost money. Of course, he’s always picked himself up and carried on.

Anyhow, the story I want to tell takes us back to the 1970’s, when John decided it would be fun to open a hotel. It would be a rather special hotel; because the restaurant would be very different to anything else. John’s idea was that instead of having a menu, he would keep a stock of pretty much everything a decent restaurant would need, and guests could simply ask for anything they fancied. Anything at all.

What could possibly go wrong? If cheeky guests really did ask for sauteed tiger toenails, it’s not as though they would really expect him to deliver. John thought it was far more likely that he would need some Cordon Bleu classics, and not much else.

The hotel and restaurant went bust. The restaurant was a failure- but not because John got caught out by demanding customers. Rather, he was caught out by making his customers literally embarrassed to be there. (This isn’t quite as effective when written down, but bear with me). A typical booking in the restaurant would go like this:

John: Good evening Sir, Madam. What can I offer you?

Customer: Umm, well do you have any menus?

John: No, Sir. You can have anything you want. Anything at all.

Customer: Oh. Ummm. Can we have a think about it for a minute?

John: Certainly, Sir.

Five minutes later: Customer walks out, sheepishly.

How can this be? What could be better than a restaurant which serves anything you want? The fact is, despite our obsession with choice, too much choice is lousy. Put yourself in the position of the customer. If there’s no menu, he has no idea whether he’s walked into McDonalds or The Ritz. He has no idea how to behave, what to order, or what is expected of him.

The experience of buying any product needs to be smooth. A waiter in a restaurant is there to serve, sure; but he is also there to make the purchasing experience as simple and smooth as possible. If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable in a restaurant, it’s because there was a disconnection between your experience or expectation and the experience offered by the management. And if that disconnection exists, you won’t stay or come back. (A good example: for circumstances I won’t bore you with, I once dined at London’s Savoy Hotel wearing shorts and a T-shirt. It was a very odd experience…)

If you don’t believe me, take five minutes off to watch this classic sketch from the legendary Not The Nine O’Clock News TV show. In it, the staff of a hi-fi shop are mercilessly cruel to a customer who isn’t as cool as their normal clientele. It’s very funny, and illustrates the problem perfectly. Customers just want a bit of looking after- and sometimes that means some education and some clear instructions.

Getting a good team together

There’s an old saying: “If you want to get a job done properly, you’ve got to do it yourself”.

I have to admit, I have always been the sort of person who agreed with that. Like many entrepreneurs, I want everything done my way. And when other people do the job, it’s never quite how I would do it.

Unfortunately, this sort of misguided perfectionism doesn’t actually help. It’s cost me dearly, sometimes. The saying should be, “If you want to get a job done properly, delegate effectively”. In a one-man-band, you can do everything yourself; in fact you have to! But that doesn’t make you the most effective businessperson. Indeed, being a one-man business is about as stressful as it gets. The fact is, you’re not an expert at everything, and that means there are some things you’re truly lousy at. (I’m terrible at following up sales leads properly. I’m also very enthusaistic about new projects, but get bored as soon as they reach maturity).

The answer is to build a team. Whoa there- I don’t mean you have to suddenly go off and employ 20 people. Most businesses can’t support that, and in any case, you didn’t start up a company just to become the king (or queen) of human resources, now did you?

But you can build a team in interesting ways. Firstly, you can always use freelance assistance, even if you don’t want to go to the extent of taking on employees. Indeed, if you’ve got an accountant, even if you only see them once a year, you’ve effectively got freelance help: someone with expert knowledge who takes a problem off your back.

Right now, my company has over 30 freelance individuals who add enormous value to what I do, allow me to sell bigger deals, and above all give me expert help when I need it.

There’s another source of expert assistance at your disposal: friends, colleagues and other contacts. Think how much knowledge you’ve got from them. I have lost count of the amount of invaluable advice I’ve had, free of charge, from the broad community of people I just happen to know.

In essence, if you want to get a job done properly, get some help. It’s a shock and a terrible knock to the ego to realise that the rest of the world has buckets of talent; and a nice surprise to find that it’s there for the taking.