Free entry to the Natural History Museum has boosted visitor numbers by 190%
Are you looking to attract more customers? Then you need to follow the example set by some of the UK’s museums and give your customers something for free. (more…)
Archive for the ‘Tips for business’ Category
0800 numbers: Museums prove the theory that Free = more customers.
Friday, December 2nd, 2011Christmas is coming. Use 08 numbers so that you don’t leave your customers out in the cold
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
We’ve finally reached December so we can safely use the C-word again…yes, ‘Christmas’ is nearly here.
Although the festive period is a time for celebration and family gatherings, for small to medium sized businesses Christmas presents lots of tricky challenges. From the office party, which throws up all sorts of alcohol-fuelled disputes, to making sure you have enough staff on duty to serve your customers over the festive period.
Customers expect businesses to have fewer staff working over the holiday period, but will still get frustrated if they call your business and all they hear is a ring tone of a phone that is never answered. Technology can help. (more…)
Take every publicity opportunity when it comes along
Monday, November 7th, 2011
Gary Barlow - now Scarborough pantomime's biggest promotor
When Gary Barlow said to one of the X-Factor contestants that his act was like ‘a bad pantomime in Scarborough’ the audience lapped it up in the usual way. Criticism like that is, after all, just part of the X-Factor experience.
But for some Scarborians, the comment meant far more than the throwaway line it was intended to be. According to the local paper the comment has sparked outrage and fury.
However, I was impressed when I heard an interview with the head of one of Scarborough’s pantomimes on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast show today. Because rather than complaining about Barlow’s comments, he was thanking him for bringing attention to the town and already had promotional posters being printed with the slogan ‘As criticised by Gary Barlow!’.
I loved that – not only was the getting national news coverage for his production but he was going to milk the opportunity even further by playing on Barlow’s comment with his posters around the town.
That is pure opportunism and should be applauded. If those kind of opportunities come your way in business, you have to take them.
The only thing he didn’t do was get in a plug for his website or give out an 0800 number to enable people to buy tickets. Maybe there will be a next time to rectify this, but I doubt that Gary Barlow will give them a second chance…
It’s not what you say or even how you say it, but the method you use to say it
Friday, November 4th, 2011
With the BBC celebrating 75 years of broadcasting this week, it brought into focus the massive change in TV that we have seen in recent years. From a few programmes a day, we now have zillions of channels to choose from which are broadcasting 24×7 (but some would argue there’s still nothing to watch!).
And the same is true with communications technology. We all know about the proliferation of communications channels with social media and mobiles on top of face to face and traditional telephony.
But this abundance of choice can bring its own perils, because the old adage that ‘its not what you say but how you say it’ holds true but there is now a third dimension…the medium you use to say it.
Choosing to send a Tweet or a text rather than call someone suggests brevity – which some admire, but others will take to mean ‘you couldn’t be bothered’.
Emailing large documents when someone is out of the office might get the information to them but is it in a format whereby they can read it and get to the bits they need. In this case a text message might be better.
And then there is the case of mistaken medium whereby you mean to text someone from your phone but end up Tweeting them instead and what should have been private becomes all too public. In case you are wondering, this wasn’t me, or indeed the classic ‘friend’ but a BBC Radio 5 Live presenter. Thankfully the content of her message to her husband wasn’t anything too embarrassing but I’m sure it amused her 9000+ followers!
Sometimes you need technology to help you, so if you run more than one business, you don’t want to answer your phone with one company name if the caller was expecting to speak to another. Using call whispers is the answer as it announces the source of the call before you speak to the caller, which helps to avoid those embarrassing moments and makes you sound ultra professional.
Turning Negatives Into Positives
Monday, October 31st, 2011
So, N-Power has been fined £2million for not handling its complaints properly.
The energy regulator Ofgem said Npower had not recorded complaints properly or given dissatisfied complainers details of the Energy Ombudsman’s redress service.
But, with news of the company’s fine all over today’s news, the damage to N-Power’s reputation now goes way beyond the customers who were unhappy enough to complain. All other previously satisfied customers will be scrutinising their bills looking for errors and any energy customers considering switching will run a mile from N-Power even though Ofgem says it has now remedied all of the breaches of the regulations for which it was fined. (more…)
5 ways your telephone number can make you money
Friday, October 28th, 2011
You might not realise it but your phone number can help you make money in many different ways. Here are just 5 reasons why your finance director would thank you for using non geographic numbers: (more…)
The power of the positive and damage of the negative
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
So, you have ‘given an hour’ and helped someone to get online for the very first time. They have subsequently spent every waking hour surfing the net and finding all sorts of useful information that they never knew existed, yet alone was accessible at the click of a mouse.
They have found old and new friends on Facebook, their house on Google StreetView, they’ve studied Twitter in bewilderment, they’ve gone to Amazon (because “they sell books, right?”, and quickly realised they sell almost anything you can think of!) and they’ve even started looking for next year’s holiday.
Your friend has also discovered that not only can they buy lots of things but they can find out what everybody else thinks about the book/car/hotel they’ve chosen because there are reviews on the website they are looking at. (more…)
Give an hour to help others get connected
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
As you’re reading this you’re clearly already online and pretty-well versed in using the internet. After all, as much as we love our blog, if you are looking for something to read and don’t know much about t’internet, you’re more likely to buy yourself a novel from best seller charts, than seek out our daily musings.
But lots of people are still untouched by the wonders of the internet – something which concerns the Government which is why they have been paying Lastminute.com founder and web evangelist, Martha Lane Fox to be the UK’s Digital Champion.
And the BBC has now launched a high profile campaign called ‘Give an Hour’ which encourages anyone confident enough with computers to donate their ‘free’ hour when the clocks go back on Sunday 30 October to introduce someone to the internet for the first time. (more…)
Crisis management – a lesson from BlackBerry
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
There can be few people who didn’t hear about BlackBerry’s massive service problems last week. A faulty switch at a datacentre left customers unable to use the messaging and web browsing services on their handsets.
Initially, BlackBerry tried to play it down, giving little information to the press and customers except short statements saying that they were sorting it out. However, the longer the problems went on (over 3 days!) and the more people that were affected (millions of users worldwide), it became clear that this was a big deal and the company was forced into crisis management mode. (more…)
Google’s lesson in ruthless innovation
Monday, October 17th, 2011
On Friday we wrote about today’s pace of innovation and the contrasting story of the introduction of a new design of electricity pylons that have taken almost a century to be designed.
Today’s blog looks at the other side. Google is undoubtedly one of the great innovators of our day, constantly churning out new features, programmes and applications. But Google does so in the full knowledge that not all of them will succeed and is ruthless when they don’t. (more…)
