Bussiness - Stop Your Business From Doing Anything Stupid

Our planet is undergoing transition. Shift occurs! As a result of international competition, many American businesses are struggling.

Numerous choices are being made that go against sound business practices and fostering consumer loyalty.

The goal of most businesses' marketing efforts is often to figure out how to persuade present or potential customers to spend more money with them.

I advise you to consider what to refrain from doing rather than what to do. In other words, refrain from doing anything stupid.

Finding out what keeps clients from making a purchase from you and making sure the action or reaction never occurs again are both examples of not doing the stupid things.

Here is an illustration of "dumb stuff," in my opinion. Some airlines now seek to charge passengers for live agent interactions.

That is foolish in two ways. First, they have made the decision to penalize clients who choose to continue receiving one-on-one care. Even worse, they did it by announcing that they would charge more for the same level of service that was previously normal. How many clients will they lose as a result of their choice? I am at least aware of one.

Businesses need to cease doing some more subtle, but no less harmful, dumb things.

Consider the brand-new Wheaties boxes. Wheaties boxes featuring images of the American Olympic gold medalists were just released by General Mills. Paul Hamm was the only one absent. Why?

General Mills' response to my query was as follows:

"Choosing a Wheaties Champion has never been simple, especially in light of the numerous championship athletes who have put up tremendous displays. However, it is simply impractical to recognize every champion on the Wheaties box."

So why don't they include the first American man to accomplish this feat in one of gymnastics' greatest comebacks? His comeback from a horrific fall to a nearly flawless high-bar routine received almost universal acclaim and, for the majority of us, was the epitome of the term "champion."

However, there was debate. As most of you are aware, a South Korean gymnast appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport claiming that a scoring error cost him the gold medal. Hamm can keep the gold medal, the court recently decided.

The controversy surrounding the medal was unrelated to anything Hamm did or did not do. Nevertheless, General Mills made the "safe" choice. However, by playing it safe and omitting Hamm, Wheaties is offending the millions of customers who view him not as controversial but rather as a hero, alienating them, and in turn, losing revenue. That is now "dumb crap."

So begin to stop! Instead of saying "No," try saying "Yes." Stop charging for services that the majority of us consider gratuitous.

Find out what frustrates, deters, inconveniences, or confounds your customers and eliminate it.