Read my 5c worth in this article - my contribution’s on the third page – see link below the poll to “Playing catch-up” (ITWeb’s multi-page article format’s not super user-friendly; I do like the image they’ve used for the article though – en garde!).

I thought that deciding on a model would be the hard part, and actually buying one would be fun. Wrong. Firstly, there is the associated ‘I’m-about-to-be-ripped-off’ feeling that I guess nearly every woman feels when she walks into a dealership. But my online research and hours spent in the souks and markets of Arabia and South East Asia prepared me well for negotiations.

What’s been so disappointing is the lack of customer service I’ve experienced with at least five dealerships (most being part of the massive CMH Group). My impression is that cars sell themselves in this country, with minimal effort from the sales staff. I’ve felt like it’s been up to me to follow up constantly; that they are not interested in selling me anything, despite my budget being around a quarter of a million rand.

Perhaps car dealerships don’t need to make an effort. Perhaps they are doing quite nicely, thank you very much. But for those who are genuinely interested in improving their customer service, here are some simple ideas:

1. Return calls. And return them promptly. This is really not difficult.
2. If you have an email query facility, monitor it, channel the queries to the right people and enforce a service level agreement – e.g. respond to queries within 24 hours. So many enquiries submitted on dealership websites and Carfind/Autotrader disappeared into cyberspace.
3. Keep your online inventories up to date. It’s very annoying to spot a great car only to find it’s no longer available.
4. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Even if it’s ‘I’ll call you back in 30 minutes’, make sure that you actually DO call the customer back within that time. Or call them to tell them you don’t have the answer just yet but will get back to them as soon as you do (and then follow up!).
5. Be honest and don’t string customers along. You’d think this was obvious. For 10 days I’ve been trying to get a quote out of a salesman at a dealership in Pietermaritzburg for a vehicle that I was very keen on. He repeatedly promised to get back to me but didn’t. When I escalated my query to his dealer principal this morning, I found out that the salesman had actually SOLD the car 10 days ago and had just been stringing me along. And used car salesmen wonder why they have a bad reputation. Just be honest. (The DP concerned has promised to discipline the sales guy, have him call me and explain/apologise, and do what he can to make things right with me – let’s hope these are not empty promises too.) UPDATE: Nope, those were empty promises too. I’ve since found out this dealership (Datcentre Pietermaritzburg, you are now named and shamed) has a not-so-great track record with customer service to say the least.
6. Know your stock. On at least three test drives, I knew more about the vehicle than the salesperson did.
7. Read car owner online forums and complaints sites like HelloPeter. Know what is being discussed on them and be prepared to answer questions about complaints and issues. Swearing blind that there are no known gearbox problems on a car when the internet is littered with owner complaints about them really doesn’t build trust.
8. Lose the arrogance. Treat your customers with respect and value their business. Don’t make them feel like you are doing them a favour by talking to them.
9. Don’t back-pedal at the last minute. Suddenly reducing the trade-in value or adding extras to the cost just as the deal is about to be sealed is super-dodgy – again, keep your promises. (An extra R1,000 for floor mats on a R250K car? Seriously? Don’t get me started on the rip-off that is extras…)
10. Communicate! One dealer emailed me one afternoon to say he had a new vehicle press car for the weekend and did I want to take it out for a spin. I replied immediately, saying ‘yes please!’. Then… nothing. After sending him two further ‘hello??’ emails, I got a response TWO MONTHS later. Another dealer who also went AWOL told me ‘I had no news for you, that’s why I didn’t reply’ – to three emails from me over a month! It’s really not hard to keep in touch with customers – even if there is no progress, a quick mail to say ‘I’ve not forgotten about you – I am just waiting for more information still’ or similar will go a long way.
11. Have customer-friendly hours. Dear Cape Town dealerships – why do you close at noon on a Saturday?! Staying open until say 3pm would be so handy. Or offer to take the vehicle to the customer during the week for a test drive.

What do you think? Am I a demanding customer, or does the South African motor industry need to pull up its socks?

Spicing up the marketing mix - which is all about how social media is adding a new flavour to traditional marketing channels, and is finally being taken seriously. I weigh in on what makes for an effective company page on Facebook.

Digital marketing: Get the push vs pull balance right. This is about how, when you’re marketing online, you can’t rely on people coming to your website or other online property – you need to set up channels that will push content out to your audience. (Think how when you ‘like’ a brand on Facebook, they send content through to your news feed.)

Thank you to Lezette at IT Web and Vanessa at TwoKats for African Business Review for the mentions

Please note that this is my personal (OK, professional, but in my own capacity) blog and what I say in this post is purely my own opinion and has absolutely nothing to do with Habari.

I spent this morning at the Habari/ADvantage Facebook Connects event in Sandton. Because Peppermint Source does a lot of content strategy and management work for Domino, Habari’s freshly minted (see what I did there?) social media division, they asked me if I’d speak about content strat on Domino’s behalf. Which I agreed to quite readily, although had second thoughts when I saw who else would be speaking – two people with impressive titles from Facebook as well as senior people from respected local agencies. Eek. Anyway, turns out my four solid days of preparation and two run-throughs paid off and my presentation was pretty well received and generated some potential work (and a new fan/stalker). Excellent.

What got on my nerves though was some of the tweets that were flapping around during the session. People criticising the event for ‘being social media 101′ and ‘nothing new’. One person tweeted about walking out due to boredom; all others could moan about was that they don’t care about anything except Places launching in SA. And so it went on – by a small group of people who’d clearly put on their grumpy pants this morning. I have seen this sort of negativity at so many industry events and it makes me mad. You know what? Bitching does not make you look cool and clever and like someone I’d want to work with – it makes you look juvenile, shallow, ungrateful and unprofessional. Frankly.

People, did your mothers never tell you (a)  if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all and (b) don’t look a gift horse in the mouth? I’m guessing that Habari would appreciate your feedback and suggestions so they can make future events even better, but for heaven’s sake, whatever happened to giving balanced criticism constructively, and saying it politely? (Some tweets were like this and they stood out.) Losing the word ‘FAIL’ would be a good start.

As for the gift horse, did you pay to attend Facebook Connects? No. Did you help out at all with the organisation of the day, securing speakers, managing the venue and delegates, organising giveaways, etc.? No, didn’t think so. Have you offered to give a talk next time that would kick today’s presentations into touch? Hmm? What was that?

There are always people who will find fault with things. Had all the presentations been intergalactically super-stellar and checked all the perfect-presentation boxes, someone would no doubt have bitched about the airconditioning, or the colour of the carpet, or that they only got ONE free mousemat and pen. Fortunately the grumpy pants brigade is usually a minority. There were also plenty of positive tweets about how ‘we need more events like this’; that it was ‘brilliant’ and ‘what a great event today’ – people hoping for more to come in future. Personally I really enjoyed it and loved meeting new, interesting people and reconnecting with others.

Late in the day, Mike Sharman (who was funny, interesting and pleasant in person when I met him briefly today), tweeted this:

“Let’s be honest here for a second. What do agencies think of @habarimedia‘s association with Facebook #facebookconnects ?”

Well, Mike, I’ll tell you what my little agency thinks of the association: Flipping impressive. Habari have pulled off a major coup in securing exclusivity with Facebook on various levels for advertising in South Africa. They are in touch with FB constantly and in the absence of a FB office here, Habari are SA’s go-to team for the latest developments on the platform. And they have set up these Facebook Connects events to share their knowledge, Facebook’s own staff’s perspectives and international and local case studies with the SA industry – for free. Not to mention the mousemats and pens. Any ‘agencies’ who think this isn’t impressive are likely sucking on sour grapes.

So, all you Grumpy Pantsters, next time you are attending an event you haven’t had to pay for (NetProphet, Silicon Cape, Heavy Chef and similar), that other people have put hours, money and resources into to deliver to you, try not to resort to picking holes in it as your default setting. Look for the good things. Listen to what’s being said rather than tweeting about how you can’t get onto the wifi (maybe you missed the announcement of the access code because you were too busy tweeting about how bad the traffic was).

Be supportive of successes. If you have feedback and suggestions, do share them but do so constructively and politely. It’ll do wonders for your own personal brand too. Social media and manners need not be mutually exclusive.

Googling some of the phrases from her articles (for example: “It’s a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many business owners”) shows that the work is mine and was originally published on this site, on my Peppermint Source company’s website and as one of my “Marketing 101″ columns on IT Web. Lower down in the search results (and with more recent dates) is the plagiarist’s version of it where she has lifted entire chunks of my copy, as well as her modification of much of it (complete with freshly-added typos…).

This person has even had one of her (my?!) articles published on a South African business website (I certainly hope they did not pay her for it). I have emailed them to let them know that they are in breach of copyright by publishing it and that their contributor is a plagiarist. I’ve had no response from them as yet.

On her LinkedIn profile she also claims to be a member of ‘The South African Freelance Central Association’. Yesterday it said she is a member of ‘The South African Freelancers Association’ (SAFREA - and she isn’t). There’s no such thing as the South African Freelance Central Association, but there is my site, Freelancentral - from which this person will be barred should she ever attempt to join us.

I have emailed this fraudster asking her to cease and desist immediately, copying in my lawyer, who will be the next person she hears from if she doesn’t comply right away. I’m hoping she will do so, be professional and apologise.

This person is a direct competitor to my Peppermint Source outsourced marketing business. Did she honestly think that her theft of my work would go unnoticed? While there is definitely enough work to go around, and competition is healthy, the space we operate in is small, and I know many people in it. I have spent over five years building my reputation and credibility in this industry and have worked extremely hard to get to where I am today. So it makes me angry, disappointed and frustrated when someone with no scruples steals my work. (It’s not the first time it has happened.)

One thing I’d like this person to know is this: What goes around always comes around.

I did manage to write up a column for IT Web last month. It presents the main mistake I see the companies I consult to and their contemporaries making, when it comes to their marketing.

Check out the article here and do let me know if you agree.

So often I see clients who are just keen to get going on their new website, or a flyer, or to book exhibition space at a product expo. My job is to rein them in a little (without damping their enthusiasm!) and get them to assess what their messages are, who they should be reaching and how best they can do it. Sometimes this means that a website or expo stand isn’t the most appropriate vehicle, nor will it give them the best ROI.

Getting going on marketing projects without a strategy in place is like putting the cart before the horse. In the long run, a good strategy will save you time, effort and money. And remember, a strategy isn’t a document you write once, agree to and then file it away, never to be seen again. It should be reviewed at least quarterly, and when significant changes occur in your business or marketplace.

Fail to plan and you plan to fail.

Doctors, lawyers, accountants and other professionals probably never see a client without billing for their time. So why should clients expect marketing consultants to offer up freebies?

Where does business development end and giving away ideas for nothing begin? In the preliminary meetings I attend, I try not to give away any ideas (it’s dangerous without having a solid brief anyway – I could be off base and then look like I don’t know what I’m talking about). Rather, those initial  meetings need to be about gathering information so I can put accurate quotes together.

I’ve been good previously about not actually meeting with clients until I have a signed estimate and deposit in the bank. I’m happy to chat on the phone and yes, there are sometimes exceptions. But lately, I seem to be spending a lot of time in my car, driving to meetings with clients who never end up converting to paying customers.

Perhaps my initial screening process is flawed and I should talk about money up front. If the client baulks at say the price of the marketing healthcheck that we offer over at Peppermint Source, they are probably not the right type of client for me.

How do you screen potential clients? And at what point do you start charging for your time? Please do share your thoughts on this in the comments below – from either a consultant’s or client’s perspective.

Check it out here: www.peppermintsource.com (where you’ll see the logo is less lime green… not sure why WordPress is making it look that way!).

Basically, Peppermint Source is a full-service outsourced marketing solution. It’s perfect for companies who don’t have the time, skills or staff to handle their marketing in-house – but who also aren’t sure how to work with freelancers, or perhaps don’t have enough going on to warrant using an agency.

We start with a marketing ‘healthcheck’ – a day-long workshop where we go through your company’s current marketing activity, target market, services and offering, USPs, value-adds, etc. Then we go away and process it all, finally drawing up a practical marketing strategy and implementation plan. Clients can then choose to use Peppermint Source to roll it out, do it themselves, or hire freelancers.

The best bit is that for implementation, we can draw on our pool of over 4,500 freelancers on Freelancentral – cherry-picking the perfect creatives for your projects.

We’ve already had several great enquiries from a number of companies in both South Africa and the UK (of course the Rand makes outsourcing marketing to South Africa very affordable!) so here’s to a great year

This answer is thanks to Georgie, who runs Woolies’ Twitter account (@Woolworths_sa). She picked up on a little FAIL rant I was having earlier this week about poor service at their Canal Walk store and responded immediately, managed to sort out my query, and find the answer to this overdue one too:

When indicating the suitability of products for vegetarians, we need to qualify the vegetarian logo further to specify for which type of vegetarian the product is suitable. We therefore use the following vegetarian logos on Woolworths products:

The “vegetarian milk” logo is therefore used on the yoghurt to indicate that the product is suitable for vegetarian who consume milk, i.e. it is not suitable for vegans.  The logos are not product ingredients.  Other logos used on this product label include “low fat”.  Logos assist customers with identifying suitable products faster.

As correctly stated, Woolworths withdraw all yoghurts in May 2008 when we discovered gelatine was used in the products.  Woolworths yoghurts have not been made with gelatine for years.  In other products we have unfortunately not been as successful in finding suitable alternatives.

If gelatine is used as an ingredient, it is listed by name in the ingredient statement.   And the product label will NOT include a vegetarian logo.

The copywriter in me suggests they perhaps include a colon after the word ‘vegetarian’ or use the airlines’ terminology (Lacto Vegetarian / Ovo Vegetarian / Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian / Vegan).

Nevertheless, I’m very impressed that a big company like Woolworths is using social media to respond quickly to customers. Nice one