As we remember this week the passing of Queen Elizabeth there’s been a lot of focus on Service, Duty and a certain responsibility to keep one’s word. We do live in a society that all too often appears to be focused on the wrong issues of the day, how much money can we make? how can we market our products better to that people buy them more often? how can we get ahead?
I think that’s the one that jars most of all in today’s world – how can we get ahead? By sheer implication, it suggests we have to put others behind us so we can be better. I was brought up with a rather old-fashioned concept, if we can make others rich we will be rich ourselves. It’s all a take on the same thing.
Google too used to operate under the mantra ‘do no evil’ and, for two young lads working from a garage, that made a lot of sense. A bit like our Queen, some people set out to change the world for the better. At some point that gets called into question. I am, sadly, certain there will be testing times ahead for the monarchy, right now all seems secure, but in the fast-paced life of Social Media, things don’t take long to change.
I am also fascinated to some extent, to understand why others don’t take the ‘to do good’ line more seriously. take our dear friends the Russians (friends because your standard Russian is probably not that different a person to anyone in the west), what’s wrong with their leadership, what ‘good’ are they hoping to achieve by literally pissing off the whole world.
It’s all most complex for mere mortals like me, but I don’t really see why the Russians couldn’t have been nicer to their neighbours and built them lots of lovely schools and hospitals and then maybe the Ukrainians would have liked their ‘brothers’ a bit more. But this was not to be.
All this is living proof that being nice to your neighbours, doing good and ultimately helping people works. I don’t actually see this philosophy being banded about too much in our national press, perhaps it’s a bit close to the bone for most people. But I do know this – in my business, it works.
If your website sets out a transparent, easy-to-understand, reasonable service, that is neither too complicated, nor too expensive it will do well. I’ve literally seen it. The worst offence I see is when website owners limit the information available for customers… i.e. there’s just not enough on their website for people to make an informed decision. People will usually pay the fair price… but only if they know what they’re getting and it makes sense to them.
I’ve heard it said that business owners are the worst people at selling their own businesses. This is because often they are a little shy, or unwilling to come across aggressively, they also take for granted many of the aspects of their own products and services and often they fail to put themselves in their customer’s shoes. I am perfectly guilty of this myself… I’ll often recommend a money-saving technique and then forget the client is a little computer illiterate. Much easier if I do it for them.
The key however to all this is what I’ve learned over the pass 10 days or so, by the example of our Queens – Service, Duty and helping others. If we can just help others we’ll be fine and we’ll have all the rewards we need.
I will take this opportunity to, along with many of you, mourn the Queen, I am guessing none of what I’ve said above needed to be said, but I wish all our clients well for the future and will end this post with the phrase God Save The King.
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