Yesterday I went out looking for a dog micro-chipping company as it is
now compulsory in S.A to chip all registered puppies / dogs. I had a quick look
at their PDF map and thought I am pretty familiar with the street and area so I
would drive down the road and find a board and just turn in. I mean how hard
can it be...? right...wrong!. We drove up and down, up and down and up and down
again without ever seeing a board. We then tried to access the website via a
map but we were in a bad signal area so the internet was slow. We did notice a
cat sanctuary close by and thought – “Well surely that has something to do with
animals so that would be it or at the very least know their neighbours...right”? Wrong again.
We decided to drive into a farm next door but by now we had lost confidence. The farm resembled nothing of the place we were
hoping to find. We reached the farm gate but thought we are not at the right
place because there was no indication of micro-chips, animals, or veterinary
(any visible signs of the brand). I was busy turning around when I noticed a
small gate buzzer on the farm gate. I decided that I would not hurt to have a quick look at
what this farm does... low and behold in the middle of nowhere on down a dusty
farm road on a very tiny buzzer there was the company we were looking for –
eureka!
But it got worse – inside we were greeted not as customers but it felt
like a FBI interrogation
“What are you doing here?”
“Did you fax through an order?”
“Take the paper home and fill it in and bring it back?”
Wow!
What did we learn from this?
1.
A board outside would have made a big difference
in finding the place
2.
A board outside on the busy road would be great
for extra marketing
3.
A Google maps – would have worked better (it
would have given us a map to the meter)
4.
Internet access can have poor signal areas - so be clear from the start
5.
A Mobi website would make a huge difference in
download time
6.
A brand depends on people’s willingness to go
the extra mile (You may have all the above but your staff can still have a negative effect on
your brand)
7.
Go the extra mile and help – especially first
time clients.
Conrad Kruger
www.bizzsolutions.biz
Marketing Manager
