Keep It Classy: Simplifying Your Services toward Streamlined Accessibility

  You’ve got a new business afloat and some new tricks up your sleeve. You’re shelling out a new service that can either advance or reinvent the industry, some catchy gimmicks, a cool name and a tricked-out logo. You’re feeling pretty confident about your business. But you’ve got to remember, the business world is very cutthroat. No one’s going to “Like” what you do on Facebook if they know someone that offers it for better quality, quantity, and price. You’re not going to get re-tweets or Twitter followers if you don’t stand out on someone’s News Feed. In other words, you can do all the work you want but the only way your business is going to work out is by working out for your customers. There is no trying. Either you carry yourself as the champion or crash and burn.

                How can you get customers to carry you? A tricked-out Tumblr can only do so much. Viral YouTube videos and memes on message boards can do some cool things too. In addition, don’t forget the success of those silly GEICO commercials that attracted audiences without having to explain car insurance in any shape of detail. All that stuff is amazing and ground-breaking, especially in the age of social media with new programs and services launching all the time.

                But the best way to stand out isn’t so much about being out there as much as it’s about being there for them. Who cares where you check in to on Foursquare or what you’re featured in doing on Facebook if you don’t provide access to customer service through a toll free number that is easy to remember and recite, for example. What if your customers have to dial long-distance or scour your LinkedIn and Google Hangouts in order to find an email address in order to find answers?

                Social media isn’t a game of putting a bunch of buttons on a website, even though you may be connected to some fake friends who may serve as nothing more than that. It’s about getting more out of your brand. Showing off can get you so far but you must remember the words of Woody Allen, “Ninety percent of success is showing up.” Nothing could be closer to the truth than that statement. If you’re accessible, and you take care of your people on that first-come first-serve basis, people are going to stick around. But if you can’t find a means for them to reach you, and you use your time and resources online just to show off and talk about yourself, the only thing viral you’re going to get is a “Cool Story Bro.”