The same applies to every business - including yours. It doesn't matter how good your products or services are. If you can't consistently deliver them in an efficient manner and with minimum hassle for customer, your customers will eventually drift off and try someone else.

On other hand, you will stand out from crowd if you focus effort on getting delivery right.

What does this mean? It means focusing on detail of how you and your staff interact with customers. It means creating systems so that orders never, ever get lost or misplaced. It means having sufficient control so that when you make a promise to a customer, you can deliver on that promise.

And it means having systems in place so that all these things happen consistently.

Having a great product is one thing, but if you want to really impress your customers: get delivery right.

***For more ideas on this topic, see http://www.businesssimplification.com.au/ideas.htm

© David Brewster, October 2002 http://www.BusinessSimplification.com.au; mailto:feedback@businesssimplification.com.au

3. ALWAYS PRINT YOUR HEADLINE IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Your headline should sum up most important concept embedded in your classified ad. And that concept should be big enough to catch a reader's eye, even if they're only glancing through ads and not actually reading them.

4. Your ad should be easy to read, for readers of all levels. Make sentences short. Use simple language. And, above all, get to point before your reader's attention wanders.

5. If you are going to include a phone number, make it an 800 number, even if it's a local call. People are wary of calling any number that might have charges attached.

6. Don't abbreviate. Just because you know what an abbreviation means, that doesn't mean anyone else will. You don't want readers to miss meaning of your ad because you were too lazy, or too concerned about pinching pennies to spell out every word.

7. Place your ad in as many sections as apply to what you offer. The more times it's printed, more likely it is to be seen by right people.