Facebook is adding an ‘ask a question’ feature to a sample of profiles. This feature is available in your status bar, so that you can pose a question rather than just give a status update. What you type is visible for everyone in Facebook to answer so this sounds like a great way for Facebook to keep users on their site.

However, I reckon they’ve got bigger pland for this. They say that they won’t be giving search engines access to this info, presumably because they want to keep it for their own search engine??

Lets wait and see…

I went to Wimbledon last week with my wife Sue. We had a great day and saw the Ladies semi-finals.

One thing that struck me was how differently the top seeds are treated at Wimbledon. They are favoured and looked and after in lots of ways, for example, who they play, when they play, where they play etc. Everything is geared to give the top seeds the best possible chance to make the final or the semi-finals. It struck me that it should be like that in business too.

You see, all customers are not created equal. Some are worth a lot more to your business than others. Who are your Top Seeds, and what are you doing to treat them differently and make sure they know that they’re your top seeds?

I’ve had some amazing feedback recently from several Members of my Entrepreneurs Circle who took action on the back of this message when I talked about it at our Monthly Business Growth Event in Croydon last week. They made proactive contact with their best customers and the results were more sales, more bookings, more referrals and more profits. (More so than on any other single thing that we’ve advocated in recent months)

So, given the impact this very simple initiative had I thought I ought to share it with all the dearly beloved readers of my humble blog…so here it is.

Don’t miss out on this neat, universally applicable, free and easy to implement technique!!

Your mission this week, should you choose to accept it: Pick up the phone and talk with 8 of your best customers. Tell ‘em that you really appreciate their business and make ‘em an offer – give them something that shows you’re sincere and makes ‘em feel valued and loved.

I guarantee good things will happen if you do.

Interesting article in the Sunday Times Business Section yesterday. It was hidden away down the bottom of a page but it was reporting on some research that showed a clear link between a businesses success and the amount of time and energy it invests listening to its customers.

I’ve always been a big fan (and practitioner) of proper engagement with customers. Tomorrow we have our quarterly Franchisee Consulatation Group taking place here in Solihull. The agenda is shaped by the franchisees, we talk about what’s on their mind and how to make it better. With our restaurant marketing service, Explosive Marketing, we’ve juts introduced the ‘Automated Feedback Machine’ which basically emails a restuarants customrs, automatically, the day after they’ve dined at the restaurant, and invites them to complete an online questionnaire about their experience the night before. Suddenly, these restaurant owners are getting consistent, objective feedback, uncensored by their staff. It’s golden.

Quite a few times in my 1:1’s recently with Members of my Entrepreneurs Circle I’ve found myself asking them ‘what do your customers think?’ and each time the business owner has no idea – or else they’re just guessing.

Watch any of the business progs on TV ‘ Mary Queen of Shops’, ‘Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares’ etc and a common thread is that at some point the star will go out on the street and ask customers what they think…the results are invariably enlightening and come as a complete shock to the business owner.

So there’s your ‘Action for the Week’ this week.

Find out what your customers think about you and what could do better.

Go on, ask ‘em and listen. They just might help you make a million…