Small Business Tips from Guy Kawasaki

Guy K. had a recent post on tips for small business in 2009. I think he’s too modest in suggesting that these are for small business owners. I’d recommend that every marketing department follow the advice. I don’t usually do such a wholesale content cadge, but I’m putting the list here in its entirety just to save you a trip - and also so I can intersperse my own opinionated marketing commentary and suggestions within. (I’m in italics.)

1. Act like a prospective customer and call your company to see how the phone system and receptionist treat you.

   Oh, and don’t use your own phone - if you’re in a really small company, the receptionist may well recognize your number(s), and you may end up with a chat, rather than the sort of reception that someone calling in cold might get. Of course, if your company is that small, the receptionist may recognize your voice as well. So why not have a friend make the call and let you know how it went. (While we’re on the topic of phone calls. Check every phone number on your website, and in any marketing communication and piece of documentation, to make sure that the number is correct, that it’s working, that someone or something picks up….)

2. See if your website has a “Contact Us” section. If it doesn’t, add one. Ensure that it has a street address.

   If you’re a virtual company, with no physical location, say so, and let people know where your virtual team members are. Even if you’re virtually all virtual, someone in the virtual joint must actually get physical, paper mail. Use this address.

3. Send your company an email asking for customer support and see if someone responds to it.

   As with the phone call, this may be done best done blind, i.e., by a friend, not by you. If you sell B2B, use a legitimate business address. Yahoo, gmail, and aol addresses tend to fall to the bottom of the response file - so while you’re at it, come up with a policy and processing for responding to non-business addresses.

4. Answer customer support calls or emails (not the one you sent in) for a day.

   This is excellent advice for marketing, product management, management in general… You will learn more about product and company flaws, and customer frustrations, from you time on this particular cross than you will in any other way. (I don’t know if he’s still doing it, but Craig of Craig’s List was answering customer support requests at one point.)

5. Go out on a sales call with your salespeople and a service call with your service people.

   Nothing to add to this one, other than DO IT MORE THAN ONCE A YEAR.

6. Read the documentation or manual that your company provides. Extra credit: See if you can do this without reading glasses.

   Keep in mind that documentation/manuals are not meant to be read through as literature - there will be repetition and redundancy all over the place, because sections need to be self-contained. So you might want to try a couple of typical use cases - how to set up/install; how to do-something-or-other-that-you-want-to-do…Do read all the intro material, however.

7. Pretend that you lost the documentation or manual that came with your product or service and try to find it on your website.

   Yes!

8. Register your product or service including finding and reading the serial number of your product. Extra credit: See if you can read your serial number without reading glasses. Extra extra credit: If you use a Captcha system for registration, see how many times it takes to get the word right.

   Pre-extra credit: See if you can find the serial number. See if you can find the serial number without lifting the product, crawling on all fours, turning things upside down and inside out. If we’re talking about software, try to figure out how someone who can’t find the box, CD, documentation, whatever could come up with the serial number. Also, note how many times the same number is repeated in a sequence. It’s really hard to read a number like 151600000237444444421894. See how hard it is to read those strings in which the numbers are repeated. Also, there’s a reason why credit card numbers are broken up 1516 2374 4444 2189. It’s because it’s easier to read them. Thinks about that when you’re assigning those serial numbers.

9. Add a signature to your email. A “signature” is a block of text at the end of your emails that contain all your contact information. It saves your recipients the hassle of asking for your address and phone number or searching for them on your website.

   At minimum, have your phone number.

10. Join Twitter and then search for your company name, your product, your competition’s name or product name, or market sector terms from your business. For example, let’s say you’re in the web design business. Extra credit: Use Twitter as a twool

    I don’t know about Twitter. (Maybe this will be my year.) But you should definitely Google your company name, your product, etc.

Here’s my one addition to this excellent list:

Have someone who could conceivably be a customer spend some time on your website. Then ask them to tell you what your company does, what it’s products and services are, who those products and services are aimed at, what they’re good for, etc. If someone who could conceivably be a customer can’t tell what you do from your website, call me: it’s time for a re-write.

Anyway, every time I read Guy Kawasaki, I say to myself, “Gee, this guy’s really good in a no BS, down to earth, smart guy way.” Note to self: Read Guy Kawasaki more often.

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