It’s always a good idea to let potential customers know you exist. When times are a bit tight it’s even more important to invest in advertising and promotion!

But hold your horses. It’s vital you get your house in order before you roll out the welcome mat. Advertising is vital to success but in-store service must come first.

Imagine walking into a retail store, cash in hand, ready to buy and no-one serves you or even acknowledges your presence. It happened to me last week. As I stepped back out of the shop, cash still firmly in pocket, I wondered about the amount of money that the offending business had spent on advertising and marketing. Whatever it was, it was getting flushed down the loo at the last hurdle.

I’m one of these shoppers that believe the people I deal with are as important as the product or service I am buying. With so much competition in the marketplace, there’s always a friendlier option down the street where I’d rather spend my hard-earned cash. After all, buying is a feel-good experience and there’s nothing ‘feel-good’ about being ignored or suffering poor service.

So here’s the crux of the issue – regardless of how much you spend on advertising, or how good your advertising is, your business still needs to offer a quality customer experience. Think of it this way – one disappointed customer walking out of your shop is word-of-mouth advertising working against you. You lose the original sale, and another ten or so on top. Disgruntled customers are more likely to spread the bad word than happy ones too.

So the answer is simple. Switch that old horse around so he’s in front of the cart. Ensure the experience customers receive lives up to the advertising promise.

For example, if you operate in a retail environment, ensure staff are briefed to engage every customer within one to two minutes of them stepping into the store. Some staff are naturally more affable so you may have to work harder with some people than others.

I also suggest you run a customer survey. Anonymous feedback from customers is invaluable and helps you to understand the view from the other side – often a difficult thing if you’re too close to it. An alternative to this is a mystery shopper scenario – this could be a relative or a neighbour who has been briefed to visit your business, and perhaps a few competitors as well, and report back objectively to you.

Remember that at the end of the day you (and your staff) are the best advertisement you have for your business.

Once you have your house in order, you can confidently swing the doors open and promote yourself to one and all.

Russell Dye runs Icon Advertising Limited, a full service advertising agency with offices in both Auckland and Tauranga.