Your website is available to customers 24/7 and it can do more than simply provide a place for people to look up your phone number, address and prices. With planning your website can influence customer perception of your company, differentiate you from the competition, encourage new customers to call you and it allows existing customers to keep in touch by creating a ‘club’ atmosphere to keep customers coming back to you.

How the design of your site affects customer perception

If your website looks as though no thought went into the design, then the impression your customers will have is that your company does not care about its image. Good design improves customer perception of your company and shows you care about your image, your company and hence your customers. It also makes it easy for your visitors to navigate website pages and access information. Look at the website from the perspective of your customer, the site visitor, don’t add bells and whistles unless they help visitors to find what they are looking for and enhance their perception of your company. Sound effects, music and animated graphics that loop endlessly can distract from your content and may annoy site visitors, prompting them to go elsewhere.

Keeping in touch with customers

When did you last update your website? If it was ages ago then not only could your site drop down the search engine rankings but also your customers may assume that you have disappeared and will be less likely to re-visit your site. Updates tell visitors you are in-demand and give customers the perception that you are good at what you do. Tell them about the great projects you are involved in, about your new services and introduce them to new staff members.

A blog provides a way for you to build an on-line profile and write as often as you like. Blogging software lets you make your article live as soon as you hit the “publish” button. This enables you to react quickly to news stories and company events such as winning a big contract or completing a project and instantly inform your customers. Influencing customer perception by showing your capabilities and encouraging them to become your customers.

David Woodroofe
Mangaing Director
Create Design Studio
01962 737989
www.createdesignstudio.co.uk

Last year energy regulator Ofgem completed a probe into Britain’s energy supply market which included a detailed look at the small business sector of the market and the issues affecting it.

Small businesses vary significantly in their size and in their energy buying expertise.

The probe identified that the smallest businesses struggle to engage in the energy market. So, Ofgem has introduced new rules to give them better protection. The majority of small businesses in Britain are micro-businesses and Ofgem’s reforms only apply directly to these companies.

Under the new rules a micro-business is defined as a company which*:

• consumes less than 200,000 kWh of gas a year, or

• consumes less than 55,000 kWh of electricity a year, or

• has fewer than ten employees (or their full-time equivalent) and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total not exceeding €2m. A business only has to meet one of these criteria to qualify as a micro-business customer.

Current arrangements

The amount of information micro-business customers receive about contract terms and conditions varies significantly depending on the supplier and how it markets its deals. The probe found that many micro-businesses do not receive the terms and conditions of their contract in writing, including those relating to notification windows. Notification windows typically start three to six months before the end of a contract. If customers don’t tell their supplier that they want to switch within this window, they may be unable to leave the supplier at the end of their contract term. As some customers do not have hard copies of the terms and conditions, a significant number of them are unaware of these windows and have been ‘rolled over’ onto new contracts without their knowledge.

New rules

Ofgem has introduced new rules on provision of the contract terms and conditions, and on contract roll-over. Before entering into a contract a supplier must explain the key terms and conditions to the customer, and make it clear that the contract is binding. This applies equally to contracts agreed by telephone or in person. Within ten days of a contract being agreed, or an existing contract being extended, (or as soon as reasonably practicable) the customer should receive written copies in plain language of the full terms and conditions and a statement of renewal terms (if the contract is of a fixed

length). Approximately 60 calendar days (but no longer than 120 calendar days) before the end of the fixed-term period, suppliers must send customers a statement of renewal terms and details of the key terms and conditions which apply if:

- the customer takes no action and the contract is rolled over, and

- the customer prevents their contract from being rolled over.

After receiving the statement of renewal terms the customer will have a notification window of approximately 30 calendar days to contact the supplier if they wish to switch or negotiate a new deal. If a supplier pitches new offers to a customer at least one of those must be in writing and valid until the end of the notice period. Where customers do not contact their supplier in writing during the notification window their contract can be automatically rolled over for a maximum length of 12 months (provided the supplier has already given the customer certain information such as a statement of renewal terms).

Customers who wish to avoid being automatically rolled over for a further fixed term period can now prevent this from happening by writing to their supplier at any point from when they agreed a fixed term contract until the end of the notification window. However, if a customer wishes to terminate or cancel the contract they must do so in accordance with the terms of the contract.

When do the new rules come into effect?

The new rules take effect from 18 January 2010 and will apply to all new contracts entered into on or after that date. The conditions will not apply retrospectively, meaning that for customers on existing contracts, the new rules will only begin to apply when the contract is extended on, or after that date.

Imagine this: a group of enthusiastic business people get together to share ideas about networking. They exchange ideas; they refine current approaches; they devise new, more effective, ways of doing things. Over time they create and share and continually improve a definitive Body of Networking Knowledge, comprising the best and most practical way to get real and lasting benefit from networking.

Would you like to be part of such a group? Would you be willing to roll up your sleeves, to get stuck in, to play a part, to contribute and to learn?

If so, here’s your first step: come along to the Open Minded Days event on 29 April 2010. It’s called “How can we make the most of networking in this decade?” and it’s in a venue in Bracknell that’s easy to reach from the M3 and M4, that has stacks of free parking and that’s close to a train station.

The day will run in Open Space format, which means that there will be no Powerpoint, no keynote speeches, and no selling of solutions – just like-minded people working fruitfully together. You will help set a specific agenda and you will share the responsibility for executing it.

This day will spawn a series of events and activities that together will rapidly bring together a valuable commonly-owned networking resource.

Some of the UK’s top networkers have already signed up to take part in this exciting day, including Fraser Hay, Dave Clarke, Steven Healey, Nick Tadd, Vanessa Warwick [add to list when we can]

We’ll start work at 09.30 but doors will open at 08.30 for those who’d like to beat the rush, get in some extra networking – and grab a bite of breakfast. We’ll finish by 16.30.

Your contribution to the expenses of the day will be an £57 including VAT, Ths will include breakfast, teas & coffees, a buffet lunch, full proceedings of the event and access to the Body of Networking Knowledge.

Note: When we first became aware that the acronym of Body of Networking Knowledge is bonk, we considered avoiding the wording. But then we thought: hey, that could be memorable and anyway, it will be fun to have people asking how the bonking is going and so on. So, we proudly invite you to become part of creating an enormous bonk!

I am co-organiser of the event.

Developing your brand is about creating a relationship with your customers based on their perception of your organisation. Start not with what you sell, but with those who will buy, and find the appealing values that your organisation shares with them to give your organisation a personality they can relate to.

Successful branding helps to make sales easier because trust has been created between customer and organisation. Creating this kind of successful brand doesn’t happen overnight but it can be supported by making your organisation accessible to customers on the web.

A blog is a type of online diary, often used by businesses to publish articles about issues and events relevant to their industry that will be of interest to their customers and their peers. It can be hosted separately from your main website or the free blogging software can be installed on your web-server to integrate your website and your blog. Some smaller companies or freelance workers only have a blog as the software is versatile and can be used in a similar way to a traditional website with pages for services, products and contact information. You can update your blog as often as you like and as soon as you hit the ‘Publish’ button your articles are live on the web and can be indexed by search engines.

Blog-posts can be effectively promoted through the use of the social networking site Twitter where users write their current status in messages of 140 characters or less. These messages can contain hyperlinks that direct readers to your blog post, your website or to any other online resource you want to promote.

Your Twitter status can also be linked so it updates your Facebook status and your status on the Ecademy business networking site, meaning you only have to write updates once and all the people who ‘follow’ you will be informed. If you are trying to spread the word out about a new product or service it is obvious that linking your updates this way could provide an effective and low-cost way to promote them online.

These websites can also prove useful in other ways. By posting questions to those in your network others can respond quickly with personal recommendations and links to information resources. Additionally, social networking can enable you to keep in touch with friends and business contacts you may not often be able to meet up with in-person due to geography or lack of time.

Social networking has received coverage in the mainstream media and on the BBC news website an article by Claire Prentice explains how small firms are harnessing social networking for their marketing. As many small firms cannot afford to spend large sums on advertising they have turned to the social networking websites to reach a global audience with a minimal cost. Promoting special offers, new services and even to fill cancelled appointments at the last minute, updates on Twitter or Facebook build trust between customers and your organisation because they know the information comes from the source.

Social networking sites invite your customers to enter into dialogue with your company and the feedback you receive can be used to improve your services. However, your organisation also becomes open to criticism. Approach criticism as a chance to improve your service and potentially win back a customers and even this aspect of social networking for business use can have a positive outcome.

Are you new to social networking online? Here’s some tips on how to begin:

Online social networking site http://www.twitter.com, uses short messages to help you stay in touch with other twitter users and http://www.facebook.com is a full social networking site that allows you to upload photos, update your status and instant message other friends online at the same time as you.

Business networking sites include http://www.ecademy.comwhich is a large site with users from all over the world with clubs and regional networking groups you can join. You may also like to look at http://www.linkedin.com for opportunities to network with other professionals.

If you’d like to start your own blog visit: http://www.wordpress.com. Try reading a few blogs to see the breadth of writing that exists on the web. You can search Google for blogs or you can visit a blog search engines like http://www.technorati.com which has a list of 100 top blogs to browse. Also try http://mashable.com for blogs about the world of social media online and a series of articles on ‘How to’ that should help you if you are struggling to use any of the sites mentioned in this article.

Create Design Studio have a dedicated service for those of you who would like to start your own blog but don’t know where to begin. Setting up blogs on your existing website, designing the pages, showing you how to login and write articles as well as using Google Analytics to see how well your blog is doing. Call Create Design Studio’s Managing Director David Woodroofe on 01962 737989 if you would like to discuss having your own blog.

If you decide to take the plunge why not look up Charlotte Lamb, Creative Director at Create Design Studio, on Twitter by searching for @charlotte_lamb to read Charlotte’s Tweets on Graphic design. Or visit the Create Design Studio website to find out how we can help you with web design, graphic design or e-marketing.

Just wanted to say a big thank you to Andy Manning and everyone who has made Alton4Business such a fun place to network during 2009.

To many networking groups take themselves to seriously and loose the true essence of networking, people talking to people. Sure we have had our serious moments when collectively talking about business issues, but we have always ended the meetings with a laugh and a joke.

I am really pleased with the contacts I have made in 2009 at A4B and the work that has flowed from them.

See you on the 6th Jan 2010 for a Full English.

Thank you all

David Woodroofe, Managing Director of Create Design Studio, Bishops Sutton, Hampshire.