Online Business Adviser

The Forum For Online Business Success

On the weekend I caught up with friends for breakfast at a local café. They had turned up earlier than me and already ordered. I sat down and ordered a coffee, and then had a look at the menu. It was from here that an almost comedic service routine started.

I was asked not long after ordering if I’d like to order a meal, which I did. At the same time, my friend ordered another coffee and had it arrive about 5 minutes later. Still no coffee for me. The waitress then came to clear my friend’s plates and asked if we would like anything else. Perhaps my meal, or at the very least my coffee?

So then I got my breakfast. Still sans coffee. After asking yet again for my morning caffeine fix, I was told “we’re really busy”. Not “sorry”, just “we’re really busy”.  Read more...

Yesterday I was shopping for my wife’s birthday present, and was at the counter when I was asked if I had a Myer One card. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been asked this question – it’s the stock standard one that all Myer staff are required to ask.

But something different happened today. When I said no, I was asked, “would you like to apply for one?”

This is the first time I’ve ever had a sales person try to upsell me to their rewards card, and it made me wonder how many new card customers Myer is missing because not all of their staff ask this. Obviously not everyone would say yes (I still didn’t) but even if it gathered a few more applicants a day then surely it’s a worthwhile exercise?  Read more...

If you are one of the many businesses that have decided to create an online sales channel, there is a good chance that you are already operating a bricks and mortar business. If you do, you need to make sure that your online experience extends your business and doesn’t just duplicate it.

Think about it - the experience of a physical store is pretty basic. Products are lined on shelves, register at the front. People come in, browse around, perhaps buy something and then leave.  Read more...

Every Saturday morning I take my son to his swimming lessons, which is truly one of the highlights of my week. My wife has deemed these weekend classes “dad soup”, because it seems this is the day when all the fathers are around to jump in the pool. Last weekend, I bumped into an old colleague who I had not seen in several years. We were Facebook “friends”, but in typical fashion, never really interacted much aside from the casual status “thumbs up”.

It was clear from the way the conversation went that he had been following what I was doing through my activity on Facebook. This gave us new things to talk about, particularly given I had done some work in his area of speciality, and it also led to the discussion of some potential contract work.

This is a great example of the intersection of social and real world networking, and the tremendous value of the latter.  Read more...

Those that have been following some of my tweets during the last week will know that I have been searching for a new laptop. On top of this, I’ve also upgraded my broadband, making this a week where I have dealt with my fair share of sales people and customer service reps.

I always enjoy major purchase shopping, because it lets me negotiate and hammer a sales person (metaphorically of course!) until I get the deal I want. I spent time in four different stores negotiating, along with a friend who was also in the market, thinking that the promise of buying two would buy greater leverage.  Read more...