Attention to detail – does it really matter?

I received a letter in the post this morning which prompted me to put pen to paper or perhaps fingers to keyboard!

I decided to blog, a little off topic and in the middle of the week, as I felt it was a very simple, small thing, but occurring twice in a few weeks meant it had value as a reminder to us all.

Attention to detail is very important especially in a new start up or small business; you only get one chance to impress, so why would you waste it.

Two examples I have personally received in the last few weeks are as follows:

• 
  A letter arrived this morning, enclosing a CV, the letter was hardly readable as the printer had virtually run out of ink , with some lines disappearing completely, the letter was also unsigned and the applicant for a job at my company, stated that they could be “an asset to my school”!
• 
  A few weeks prior to this I received a letter from someone offering me their accountancy services, this company's letter was also poor, in so far as it was printed at an angle, with some words missing (they fell off the page - oh well doesn’t matter!) and once again almost unreadable due to low ink in their printer – I cannot say more as I never even tried to read it, in the bin it went, first impressions were enough.

Both these people have spent time and money researching clients/employers, thinking, compiling, writing, printing and posting their letters and then ensuring a poor response, all that wasted time, effort and money to guarantee a NO.

In today’s difficult climate a yes is hard enough to get, without putting additional barriers in the way.

Both parties have given the recipient the feeling that they do not care enough to check what they are sending out, so would you trust someone with your very valuable assets: your customers or your money.

The person applying for the job may be very good, as might the accountant, but we will never know!

So your one chance to impress 5 minute check list:

1. Check details are correct
2. Spell check the document
3. Check printer ink
4. Check paper in printer is straight
5. Check it over & sign the letter

5 minutes is all it takes to make a big difference to the outcome, attention to detail and pride in what you do does not guarantee you ‘a yes’, but more importantly, it does guarantee that you will not get an instant ‘NO’, so you are in with a chance.

A chance – the door is open
A NO - the door is closed & locked.

So make sure your doors are all open.

Image Connect connects you with your customers.

"The deadly dozen Part 13 (a bakers dozen!) - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 13 Pictures

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ yes, it can be, but only in the right place, to enhance the written word and when correctly sized for quick downloading or it’s worth 8 ‘I can’t be bothered to wait for this’!

Finally
Time is a precious commodity and having a site that loads quickly, is easy to navigate and read, quickly answers the visitors questions in a straightforward manner is more likely to be visited and revisited.

Remember even if you think you are offering the same as someone else, you need to make it different, make it your own, and then you are NOT offering the same as someone else.

Make sure your website clearly explains what you do, what you are offering, what your USP (unique selling point) is, make visitors trust you and want to do business with you.

P.S.
Having taken all the 13 top tips into account, remember make the site your own, these are just some of the tips to bear in mind, but you can break the rules and make up your own, but always remember the key question is always ‘will your target audience like it’?

If for example, it’s a site for children, then you can break the colour rules and make it colourful, bold and bright, but a word of caution, be sensible, don’t ignore all the rules and tips at once.

Books are black text on white paper for a reason – they are easy to read and that’s the main aim to enable the reader to enjoy the story, and that’s why the reader purchased the book!

Hope you enjoyed this story, please feel free to comment or ask any questions, I am happy to help.

"The deadly dozen Part 12 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 12 Content is King

We are now at content and remember ‘Content is King’.

There is no point following all the previous tips and then having poor content, badly spelt and unoriginal.

Do not go for content overload for the sake of it; say what you need to say clearly and concisely.

If you need to talk about another topic put it on a new page, don’t cram it in somewhere and lose it.

Conversely do not go to the opposite end of the scale and say too little leaving visitors to guess what you do, they do not want to read between the lines, as in doing so they may get the wrong message and leave.

You can read more tips on this in the future on ‘Content is King’.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 11 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 11 Flash Animation

Flash animation can be great, when used sparingly and correctly, if you want a flash intro, then it must be quick and also convey some information.

Navigation must also be on this page to enable people to move on if they wish, don’t just have a splash screen with an enter site here button, visitors do not know if they are in the right place if you tell them nothing!

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 10 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 10 Page Layout

Layout of the pages should be clean and clear, following a similar pattern and style across all you pages.

Do not use too many columns, 2 or 3 max.

Each page should have a focal point for main content.

All this quickly leads to your visitor being comfortable and feeling at home on your site.

The quicker this happens the longer someone will stay, if however they have to keep looking on the page to find the key information they want, they will soon get frustrated and leave.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 9 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 9 Sounds Effects & Music

Sound effects and ‘lift music’ playing on a web site are a real turn off, most of us enjoy listening to some sort of music, but we like to choose the type we like.

We do not want to be subjected to someone else’s choice, as it may be far removed from our own.

We also visited the web site for a specific purpose, to read some information which requires us to concentrate on the task in hand not be distracted by someone else’s noise in our own home or office.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 8 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 8 Pop Up Windows

Pop up windows should be used very sparingly, if at all.

Pop up windows do exactly what they say, they pop up and cover the content your visitor has come to see.

This can be very aggravating and we are trying very hard across all areas of your website not to aggravate and thus turn off and loose your valuable visitors and potential customers.

.....to be continued