What Should You Do With A Dying Industry: Run or Reinvent

Things change. The business owner knows that better than any one.  Change can alter the impact of your company. And if it's not the kind of change that you're looking for, it can kill your bottom line.  We change everyday.

Our favorite items may not be our favorites any more. When we change our mind, we alter our spending to match our new taste. It's the same for your clients, they can change their minds and their spending habits.

Consequently, Industries Change

We've seen this before and we'll keep seeing it. In the music industry instead of:

1. walking into Tower Records (out of business now),
2. sitting at their listening station (which I used to love by the way),
3. and then buying the entire album just to get the 3 or 4 songs you really like.

We now download our favorites and leave the rest of the album in the digital store.  In the book industry, when we're not downloading reading material the way we download songs, then we:

1. conduct a quick search on Amazon or Barnes and Noble,
2. pay for the item (typically with free shipping and a fraction of the cover price),
3. and wait for our new purchase to arrive.

But that's only for the ones who still love to hold their books - like me.  Recently, I walked into a local Wolfe Camera store. Excited, I was eyeing and investigating my next purchase. Feeling loyal to the company - mainly because of the former warranty program - I was determined to buy from them.

Instead, I discovered another industry in flux. Like Tower Records and Borders Book Store, Wolfe Camera is closing their stores (and a quick online search revealed that this may be old news - but I didn't need a camera until I needed a camera).

Maybe it's the cell phone industry that created a major shift for them. I did just use my phone as the impromptu photography equipment at a recent birthday party. And if you have a good eye, you can get some pretty good shots. And pretty good is good enough for the average amateur photographer.

But What About the Client Who Wants More? 

This is where reinvention comes into play.

Every change always creates some type of niche market. The question is will that market pay for what they want? And can you meet that need in a way that gets them to open their wallets to you?

The beauty about small business is our potential agility. Of course, a sluggish mindset can slow everything down. The key to change and making the most of it relies on 3 core small business decisions:

1) Pay Attention 

In this economy, you can't open your doors, make your money and just coast. You have to watch out for the changing needs and desires of your market. Which means using what you sell and/or constantly communicating with the people who use what you sell.

Staying involved can cause you to organically discover your next move.

2) Pursue New Avenues

Yuki Noguchi in “Why Borders Failed While Barnes and Noble Survived,” highlights some differences in the two bookstore's decisions.

Borders choose to expand the physical store and outsource digital sales to Amazon. While Barnes and Noble, reports Noguchi for NPR:

“Invested in beefing up its online sales. Eventually, it also developed its own e-reader, the Nook.”

As the industry continued to change, one was able to capitalize on that change and the other became a causality.

Finding the natural upgrades to your product or service can position you to win different by setting the curve instead of chasing it.

3) Push a Team

Ideas can come and go with very little impact, the same way highly talented people can have mediocre careers. The difference between success and failure is identifying a smart idea and focusing on it.

In large part your team will draw their passion and focus for the new project from you. If you're half-hearted about the company upgrade, then don't waste your time and money. Because wishy-washy leadership will constantly undermine team effort.

As the head goes, we go.

Because everything is in constant motion I am left with 2 constant questions:

• What industry will change next?
• What kind of opportunity will that create?

I Wonder 

As we become more health conscious, how will it change the fast food industry and pockets of the prescription drug industry?  And if the price of gas continues to dance around our wallets - feeling like a game to figure out just how much it takes before we park our cars - how will the gas and/or electrical industry adjust?

Change happens, and if smart change isn't happening in your industry, how can you make relevant waves to help it along?

Fortunately, in business death isn't automatic. The death of a business has a lot to do with:

• Mindset - learning to ride the wave or just letting it swallow you up.
• Focus - putting consistent effort in the smartest direction, given your circumstances.

Things change. Or better yet, why not change some things?

Running Businessman Photo via Shutterstock

LetsLunch: A Matchmaking Site for Business Lunches

LetsLunch, a networking site that aims to help business professionals meet up for lunch, has just launched version 3.0 of its service, adding some additional features as well as expanding service to the U.K.

The service works by allowing business professionals to sign up and create a profile that outlines their industry and interests, as well as when they might be available to have lunch with other users. Then the site matches you up with other business professionals in your area who might be relevant to your interests and you can choose a specific time and place to meet.

When looking for users to lunch with, you can view short bios, a list of professional interests such as online media or entrepreneurship, and even reviews from other users who have lunched with them in the past. You can also see links to social networking sites like Twitter and LinkedIn if you wish to connect with them further.

Version 3.0 gives users the option to become “sponsored lunchers,” helping them to be seen by more users of the site and thus making the most of their networking opportunities. Other upgrades include social media integrations, group lunch features, and of course expansion into the U.K. market.

The whole idea behind LetsLunch is to “make your lunch break count.” Instead of just eating a sandwich at your desk or picking up fast food, you can actually make new contacts that might help further your business interests.

Though there are plenty of sites that allow business users to meet others and talk online, this one actually facilitates face-to-face meetings, so there can be more chances for expanding your actual network.

Many business owners and professionals may prefer a more traditional or organic form of networking, but many aspects of business are being changed by the Internet, so this type of site may not be such a huge leap.

Especially for people who may have a hard time building their business network naturally, such as those who work remotely or have recently moved to a new city.  A service such as this could prove valuable in a number of different capacities.

Videolicious Lets You Easily Create Tasty Videos On A Low-Calorie Budget

The power of video as a communication medium is nearly limitless. Being able to convey a sense of feeling or urgency via video, when accompanied by the right narration and music, is a unique skill and not easily learned. It is also as Ramon Ray, editor of Smallbiztechnology.com, has said, “a way to give people a reason to find you and stay with you”. Indeed, it is the most preferred method for an Internet audience to get the information they need.  Once you hook your audience with well-worked videos, you're going to find they will remain loyal. But you might be wondering where you should start. As an entrepreneur, what is your best entry into the video-making market?

One of the more interesting apps is Videolicious â€" and yes, it's just as much fun to play with as its name implies. The main usefulness of Videolicious isn't just in a cool-sounding name, but in your ability to create pretty decent videos very quickly. You can use it to quickly record a ‘main' story and infuse various stills or B-roll (or what's basically ‘extra' footage) over the main story, and Videolicious will, in seconds, save the video for you to export to whatever means you want to broadcast it, including social media outlets such as Facebook or HootSuite.

To get a good idea of how Videolicious tells stories, check out this HootSuite blog post that shows how easy it is to use. In fact, I downloaded it to my iPhone, figured out how to use it, and created my first video, all in about ten minutes. This includes adding music to your video (which Videolicious will allow you to do from anything currently loaded on your device) and setting the video up for export. This also includes the all-important final step of exporting it; from my phone I can do this to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or even via e-mail.

Best of all â€" at least to an extent â€" Videolicious is free. With a free account, you are limited to one minute in video length, using up to ten additional shots per video, and can store 20 videos. This is the ‘personal' account and is probably great for simple and short videos, and it might even be enough for a business that wants to do a little video marketing. There's also a ‘business' level that costs $10 per month or is $60 if paid for a full year, and lets you do up to 10-minute-long videos with added stuff like access to licensed music libraries (in other words, no copyright issues here). The ‘business plus' plan is $20 per month or $120 for a full year and allows unlimited service â€" unlimited video length, shots, storage, and other useful stuff.

Bottom line, you can easily use this product to experiment a little first and then move up if you find your video groove.

Why Small Businesses Still Need Paper In A Digital World

I recently published an article on Xerox about the increase in paper use in our supposedly ‘paperless' world.  Experts predicted that we would move towards being totally paperless, but the reality is that in the past thirty years worldwide paper consumption has gone up by 50%. Why is this?  Read the full article here to find out.

One reason is that printed communications have proven to be just as effective as ever. Also, we have so much more information at our disposal today than we ever did and that simply translates into more to print.  So how do you deal with all this paper (which isn't going away anytime soon!)?  Here are a couple of my tips from the article to help you better market your business and increase your office efficiency:

• Have at least one color device. Color has been proven to deliver a far more powerful impact than black and white. Now that the cost of color printing has been drastically reduced, the difference in price is negligible. Not only is a full-color print job more compelling, charts and graphs are also easier to render in color.
• Scan important documents. By taking advantage of your MFP's scanning capability, you can have better control of your filing system. Group all documents from the same project in one file and scan them into one file on the server. As you begin to move file cabinets out of your office, you'll free up space and make future office relocation easier.
• Pay attention to printer features. When comparing models, take a printer's pages per minute (ppm) into account. While the difference between 28 ppm and 35 ppm may seem unimportant, when printing large quantities, a few extra pages a minute add up quickly. Also, be sure duplex capabilities are included, as well as wireless printing and compatibility with your other devices.

For all my tips on how to better control your paper consumption, printing costs and increase your office efficiency, check out the full article on the Xerox website.

Scott Mitchell of LoopLogic: The Importance of Story Telling in Business Video

Everyone loves a good story and not just one told in print.  Story telling in video can have a big impact on the videos overall success and also bring benefits to your business and web site as well.  Tune in as Scott Mitchell, CEO and Co-Founder of LoopLogic, joins Brent Leary to explain why story telling is important and shares his insights on tracking views, engagement, interest and how to reap SEO benefits.

* * * * *

Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Scott Mitchell: Sure, I have been in technology for over two decades. I was once a programmer.  In fact, I am probably still 75% geek, but 25% business. My Co-Founder and I, we started this company, LoopLogic, in order to make video on the Web just a little bit easier.

Small Business Trends: Can you talk a little bit about the story telling aspect of video?

Scott Mitchell: When you think about video, using it either for your business, which is obviously the focus of your audience, or even at home, you do want to have a story arc.

It does not matter if you are creating a highly produced piece or if you are going to create something as simple as turning on your phone to do a quick 30 second interview.  You will always want to think about it as a beginning, middle and end.

The three act structure has been around for a longtime for a reason, and you want to make sure that you do that. Create a buildup to making the point and end having a good conclusion.  So that the viewer is able to walk away from it feeling informed and persuaded.

Small Business Trends: Is there a big difference in telling a story that will help a business as opposed to telling a story from a personal standpoint?

Scott Mitchell: When it comes to the structure, there might not be all that much difference â€" when it comes to the content, it is very different. With content marketing for businesses, the focus is less and less on the product in business, and more and more on human needs of people.

The hallmark of modern marketing and the hallmark of modern video and things like email marketing, has been a move away from, “Hey, here is bunch of features.” Trying to explain how to use the tools for maximum benefits in your business.

That type of content marketing, that type of storytelling to your customer in this modern age, is much more appealing.  We have tracked this with our technology.

Small Business Trends: How do you go from having a finished video to using it to drive leads and build relationships from it?

Scott Mitchell: What you want to make sure is that anywhere you are posting the video, you are able to track who is viewing it.  When are they viewing it?  For how long?  So that you can better understand how the video is working.  Is it engaging people?

The other thing that you want to do is not just place it in one place, you want to try to distribute it through multiple channels, being able to place that video on a syndicate of affiliate sites.

But again, whenever it is being posted in those sites, being able to have the analytics on those sites about viewership can be important.  So what you might find out is that, maybe the video performs extremely poorly on your blog, but low and behold, it performs extremely well on one of your affiliate sites.

Another place that we've seen more and more people using video is embedding it in their email marketing. In the past, that would typically mean if you had your email marketing message that would say you have been around us for 30 days and we want to teach you a little bit more about X,Y, or Z and here is the link to a video.

Well people click on those links at about half, or even as low as a quarter, of the time that they will click on a nice thumb nail of the video, inside of your mass email program.

Small Business Trends: You have a way to set some responses based on who views the video, and what they've seen in the video. I think that is the critical part from a business prospective.

Scott Mitchell: For some, posting video to YouTube provides a lot of SEO love back to your site. If you are looking to get some of that love back to your site, absolutely post on YouTube.  What we can actually do is, we can always put a wrapper around that YouTube video.  So you will get all of that YouTube love, but you will get all of the tracking you talked about.

Back to the tracking, let's say you send out a video through you mass email program. We can track it down to a named individual.  The reason why that matters, is you can start pushing people into different groups.

Here is a group of people that didn't even click it, fine.  Here is a group of people that watch the video, but they only watched it for a couple of seconds, they push play.  Then here is a group of people that watch 50% of it.  Okay, the people who push play and the people who watch 50%, those are very different people, in terms of a level of engagement.

I can have a very different conversation with those two groups.  That is the problem of a “view of a video.” A lot of times, like on YouTube, it shows you how many people viewed it.  But you don't really know down to the named individual how much they viewed.

What we have started doing is using the analytics to actually trigger actions in your other systems. When somebody passes that 50% threshold, or let's say 75% threshold, add a tag in the CRM system saying, super interested in X.

Then they pass the 90% threshold, super, super interested in X.  Now you can use those tags in order to do future email marketing.  Or, if you are lucky enough to be using one of these automated marketing tools, you can automatically trigger the sequences.

Small Business Trends: Where can people learn more?

Scott Mitchell: Check out our site and go to LoopLogic.com.

Scott Mitchell â€" Looplogic by smallbiztrends

The Power of LinkedIn: 4 Ways to Leverage The Grand Network For Business

A recent LinkedIn release  pegs the number of professionals connected on LinkedIn at an unbelievable 175 million members worldwide, 15 million of whom are self-employed professionals. More than 75% of these professionals are spread across 10 countries around the world.  The leading countries (with regards to number of professionals) are the United States, United Kingdom, India, The Netherlands and Canada.

Small business professionals leverage LinkedIn in a myriad of creative ways. Not only do they leverage the site to make critical hires, but they also use LinkedIn Groups like “mini conferences” where they can learn more about various subjects such as advertising and public relations. We've also heard of small business professionals relying on their networks to find trusted vendors, partners and even funding for their companies.

Here are some ideas of what you can do with LinkedIn, irrespective of the size of your business:

• Boost Your Sales While Making Connections Seamlessly. LinkedIn, by itself, comes with the power of social media sharing and connections. You could grow your network just by staying active on the network. At the basic level, you can create direct connections and then referred connections through your extended network. LinkedIn's Premium accounts also offer you “InMail” with which you could reach out to anyone in the world. Marketo - a leading Revenue Performance Management Company â€" reports that InMails offer a high hit rate and perform astonishingly better than regular email. On the sales side, “Sales Navigator” â€" an outbound sales tool provided by LinkedIn to its premium members â€" pulls in accurate data, seamless integration, and real-time information about prospects (or decision makers in companies).
•  Establish Credibility for superior engagement. Members with regular updates (that offer value to others versus self-promotions) are probably the most valuable offering that LinkedIn provides for companies looking to sell, hire, or perhaps just engage. As individuals and key employees answer questions on LinkedIn Answers, participate in groups, and share valuable information, the platform runs off a knowledge centric, value-added platform working to benefit of every member's efforts.  
• Hire People and develop systems to work the recruiting systems. Did you know that at least 24% of most entry-level candidates, 8% of middle management executives, and 9% of top-level executives look for jobs on LinkedIn (thanks to an info graphic from Lab42 , reproduced by Mashable)? If the numbers are anything to go by, you have a better likelihood in finding the best, most apt talent for your organization through LinkedIn as against the usual recruitment practices? Additionally, you'll also get a deeper insight as to the type of person your potential hire is by reviewing updates, responses, and usual participation on LinkedIn. Further, LinkedIn Recruitment services program promotes your job listings to candidates who match the profile and demographics you suggest. Stacy Lyons, Corporate Recruiter at Bronto Software, reports that 7 of their last 8 hires came straight off LinkedIn.
•  Get Endorsements and Recommendations about your Brand, products, and Services. Every recommendation and endorsement that appears for your services, products, or the brand is an “earned” on. While there ways to grow your Facebook page fans and Twitter followers, LinkedIn is more of a closed network and these endorsements, shout outs, or recommendations don't come in just because you went out of your way to do the same for others. All love on LinkedIn is voluntary.

LinkedIn can be a very powerful tool, if you explore the ways to use it to your advantage. How are you using LinkedIn? Does it work for your business?

Adobe confirms targeted attack on digital certificate code signing infrastructure

Adobe has announced that it was the victim of a targeted attack that accessed an internal server and confirmed its digital certificate code signing infrastructure was hacked, but Flash, Reader, Shockwave and Air were not impacted.

According to a statement by Adobe senior engineering director Brad Arkin, Adobe became aware of the attack after it received two malicious utilities that appeared to be digitally signed using a valid Adobe code signing certificate.

Arkin confirmed that the impacted certificate runs on the Windows platform and three Adobe Air applications that run on both Windows and Macintosh, and that its revocation will not impact any other Adobe software for Macintosh or other platforms.

It has now decommissioned the existing Adobe code signing infrastructure and as of yesterday, has issued an advisory revoking all software code signed after 10th July 2012.

He said: “The first malicious utility we received is pwdump7 v7.1. This utility extracts password hashes from the Windows OS and is sometimes used as a single file that statically links the OpenSSL library libeay32.dll. The sample we received included two separate and individually signed files.

“We believe the second malicious utility, myGeeksmail.dll, is a malicious ISAPI filter. Unlike the first utility, we are not aware of any publicly available versions of this ISAPI filter.”

Arkin confirmed on Twitter that Adobe received the pwdump7 sample on 12th September leading to the investigation. He also said that the three known bad files that were signed with the impacted certificate occurred on 25th and 26th July.

He said that a forensic investigation is underway, but its internal testing indicates that moving the impacted Adobe certificate to the Windows Untrusted Certificate Store does not block threat actors from executing the malicious utilities on a victim machine and this could have a negative impact on the user experience and the execution of valid Adobe software signed with the impacted certificate. Therefore it does not recommend using the Untrusted Certificate Store in this situation.

Arkin said that the private keys associated with the Adobe code signing certificates were stored in hardware security modules (HSMs) kept in physically secure facilities, and all entities authorised to request digital signatures were provisioned according to an established procedure that verified the identity of the entity and verified that the release engineering environment met the relevant assurance criteria.

“All code signing requests were submitted via mutually authenticated Transport Layer Security (TLS) connections to the code signing service and were performed only if the requesting entity came from the originally provisioned IP address,” he said.

“Within minutes of the initial triage of the first sample, we decommissioned our signing infrastructure and began a clean-room implementation of an interim signing service for re-signing components that were signed with the impacted key after July 10th and to continue code signing for regularly scheduled releases. The interim signing solution includes an offline human verification to ensure that all files scheduled for signature are valid Adobe software. We are in the process of designing and deploying a new, permanent signing solution.”

A build server was identified as being compromised. This required access to the code signing service as part of the build process and this was not caught during the normal provisioning process. Arkin said that the compromised build server did not have rights to any public key infrastructure (PKI) functions other than the ability to make code signing requests to the code signing service.

In its ongoing forensic investigation, Arkin said that Adobe has identified malware on the build server and suspected that this was the likely mechanism used to first gain access to the build server. He also said that Adobe has forensic evidence linking the build server to the signing of the malicious utilities but could confirm that the private key required for generating valid digital signatures was not extracted from the HSM.

“We believe the threat actors established a foothold on a different Adobe machine and then leveraged standard advanced persistent threat (APT) tactics to gain access to the build server and request signatures for the malicious utilities from the code signing service via the standard protocol used for valid Adobe software,” he said.

“The build server used a dedicated account to access source code required for the build. This account had access to only one product. The build server had no access to Adobe source code for any other products and specifically did not have access to any of Adobe's ubiquitous desktop runtimes such as Flash Player, Adobe Reader, Shockwave Player or Adobe Air. There is no evidence to date that any source code was stolen.”

The next stage is a complete revocation of the impacted certificate for all code signed after 10th July 2012, this is planned for Thursday 4th October.

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, said that it had "thousands of clean, official Adobe files signed with the compromised certificate", but only three were deemed to be ‘bad files'.

Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle, said: “Adobe acknowledges they have found two different pieces of malware using one of their code-signing certificates. One steals passwords and the second will modify ISS servers. The implications of a breach this serious are staggering. Adobe will be cleaning up this mess for a long time.”

Dell completes acquisition of Quest Software

Dell has completed the acquisition of Quest Software to add its identity and access management (IAM) and data protection software to its portfolio.

As reported by SC Magazine in July, the acquisition sees Dell offer even more security solutions its previous acquisitions of network security vendor SonicWall and managed security service provider SecureWorks last year.

The deal sees more than 100,000 customers, 5,000 channel partners, 1,500 software sales and marketing experts and 1,300 software developers added to the Dell Software Group. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

John Swainson, president of Dell Software, said: “The close of the Quest acquisition is a tremendous milestone in Dell's journey to strengthen our end-to-end IT capabilities, empowering our customers to unlock greater value in their Dell technology investments, as well as their overall IT environments.

“The addition of Quest Software into Dell's software portfolio will extend our industry-leading suite of solutions to a broader range of customers and partners, while simplifying operations, maximising workforce productivity and delivering faster results.”

Alan Fudge, SVP of worldwide sales and marketing at Quest Software, said: “Quest is a strong strategic fit with Dell's software group and our products extend their existing capabilities in systems management, security and business intelligence.

“Dell and Quest share a similar view on emerging trends, believing that customers need to be able to quickly scale and adapt in order to meet changing needs and market dynamics. Together, we will enable IT organisations to simplify operations, maximise productivity and deliver faster results - and the entire Quest team is excited about joining Dell.”

Translucent Accounting

Making things “transparent” has become popular in recent years. Transparent accounting, transparent processes, transparent government… it's one of those words that sneaks up on you and then all of a sudden â€" it's everywhere â€" modifying all sorts of other words.

Of course, it makes sense that there would be some sort of backlash somewhere.  And the idea of translucent instead of transparent accounting made me laugh. Sure, you can see it, but you have to squint and it's a little out of focus.

If I'm the guy on the right in this cartoon, I think I'd be looking for another job soon.

Setting Up A Contest Isn\'t As Easy As It Sounds. Learn How To Transform Idle Contests Into Social Melting Pots

A whole lot of social media experts will tell you that your business can benefit greatly from setting up contests. Many articles online don't tell you how to set up your contest to attract an audience, though. They only say “setting up contests is good.” Well, duh! Everyone should know this by now, but one thing they should learn, at this point, is how they can set up contests to attract participants and attract more attention.

Seth Lieberman, CEO of SnapApp, gives us 4 pieces of advice to make contests more successful, which I will condense in a nutshell:

• Set a goal for your social media contest. Your contest has to have a solid scope to achieve, such as getting more likes, followers, or even sales. Set up your contest to revolve around that goal. A contest without a goal is about as useful to you as an air conditioner in a Norwegian winter.
• Get out there and reach groups that have likely potential customers. If you've got a restaurant in Miami, for example, you can join a local group and ask them if you can advertise your contest there. It's a very professional way to get the word out about your contest. As Lieberman said, when it comes to contests, “When you build it, they will come” isn't a proper piece of advice.
• Know what to give your winning participants. It has to mean something to them. If you offer some little doohickey, they won't give you the light of day. If you're a consumer electronics dealer, you can offer something like a tablet. Some people identify with these devices.
• Watch out for Big Brother. The FTC has regulations that govern any sort of endorsement, so a person's advertisement for your company with the motivation to win a contest might come under scrutiny. To make sure that everyone knows what's going on, write some terms and conditions to the contest that clear things up.

As long as you follow these simple pieces of advice, you'll have a better experience with your contests than the thousands of businesses who start contests without achieving the results they wanted.

Sophos adds encryption module for data stored in the cloud

Sophos has added anti-virus and encryption functions to its Android security products.

These have been included in its consumer Mobile Security and in the new Sophos Mobile Encryption app, and Sophos said they allow its SafeGuard Enterprise users to securely access encrypted files stored in the cloud through the Encryption for Cloud Storage module. Users can securely view documents saved in Dropbox on their Android device.

Users enter their password and they can view encrypted documents on their mobile devices without compromising corporate security, according to Sophos. An iOS version of this app is already available via Apple's App Store, and Sophos said that it plans to support further cloud storage providers such as Egnyte and Google Drive with future releases.

Matthias Pankert, vice president of product management at Sophos, said: “Users want to stay flexible and take advantage of personal apps in their working environment. They use Dropbox to take their data with them and can be tempted to download apps from stores other than Google Play.

“As Android increases its global market share, Android devices and apps are becoming a prime target for data theft and attacks by cyber criminals. It has never been more important for individuals to have security applications on their devices.”

Starbucks Triggers Customer Service Drama

Ignore your customers when making a business decision, and they'll let you know it. Take the example of café chain Starbucks, which recently announced discontinuing free soy milk and syrups for loyal customers. Customers weren't happy and responded. Your customers are probably the same. Customer service is an important thing, and if you forget about it, even for the benefit of your bottom line, you may find other unfortunate results. Here's more on the story and what other business bloggers have to say about the importance of listening to customers.

Where Starbucks Went Wrong

They giveth and they taketh away. Free soy milk and syrups that is. These usually cost 50 cents extra, but have been offered free to customers as a reward for making at least five purchases on a registered Starbucks card or mobile app…until now. Of course, the company says they are now tweaking another part of the rewards program by offering its gold-level members, those who make at least 30 purchases over the year, a free drink or food item with every 12 purchases from the cafe chain instead of after every 15 purchases, as before. Wired

Here's the announcement from Starbucks. Customers were not impressed. One possible reason is that the cafe chain tried to spin the news into something positive, even though company representatives should have known it would be unpopular with customers. After all, the “rewards” they were adding to the program (a free drink or food item) were less popular than what they were taking away. Some customers make the choice of soy for health or other reasons, so it is more than a preference. You can see some of the customer comments below. Starbucks Blog

From your customer's point of view. Small business marketing consultant Steve Miller insists Starbucks' biggest mistake was not trying to see things from their customers' point of view. In other words, Miller says Starbucks just called up their marketers and had them create an announcement that tried to make their unpopular decision, probably made purely for business reasons, sound like something good. Had they taken a moment to see things from their customers' point of view, they would have known better. Two Hat Marketing

Small Biz Customer Service Ideas

Meeting your customers' expectations. Consistency is critical in every business. Customers must get the service they have come to expect, or they may not remain customers. This is most important when the customer relationship moves from the offline to the online world, says business owner and blogger Joanna Ellis. Creating the same great customer experience online as in your offline experiences translates into better conversion rates and more revenue. Property Management Insider

When things go bad. Customers who do become perturbed have never had more tools at their disposal to express their anger at your company or brand. One of the most popular places to do this online is Yelp. When you read a bad review of your business there, the first instinct is to strike back. Keep calm, says Rieva Lesonsky. Take some time to figure out what went wrong with this particular customer and the try to reach out and make things right. Grow Smart Biz

Awesomeness is as awesomeness does. The key to being awesome at customer service is not just shining on your good days. Customers should be able to count on the fact that even on your business's worst days, you will meet or exceed expectations. Belinda Weaver, blogger at Copywrite Matters, argues that a business owner must desire to make good customer service decisions, even when things go wrong. In fact, she says, business owners should treat these problems as opportunities to do the right thing. Copywrite Matters

Making them drool. Blogger Sharyn Sheldon says there is a way businesses can go beyond merely satisfying their customers on a regular basis, to a point where, as she so colorfully puts it, competitors will be drooling with envy. That's because Sheldon thinks she has the answer for the kind of customer service every business owner dreams of, one where you not only meet customer expectations, but gather input to improve from their suggestions. Byte-Size Learning