I remember a friend who works in PR looking through a selection of business cards in her wallet and pulling a face. 'I do hate that,' she said, 'when people have a hotmail or Yahoo! e-mail address for their business.'
To be honest, at the time it wasn't something that I'd ever really thought about. When we started The Old Station Nursery, part of the start-up process was to talk to a graphic designer, who worked up a logo for us; we then started to build our brand from this logo. We had the usual letterheads, business cards and stationery made, all uniform with our logo and signage. Next came the website (now on version three) and gradually, without really doing much more, our brand was born.
At the same time we bought a domain name, so that we could have several e-mail addresses with the same ending as our website address.
This all sounds fairly straightforward so far, if a little expensive. How many times, though, have you been given a business card that is either misspelt, has no logo, or has a hotmail or similar address? Similarly, many nursery companies still don't have websites, which is not only a wasted opportunity, but doesn't really show them in the best light as forward-thinking businesses. It is really worth considering how an outsider sees your company; when they visit your website, do they get the same first impression as when they receive a copy of your prospectus, make a phone call to your nursery or send you an e-mail?
I am sure that many of you, like us, benchmark the local competition before your fees are increased each year. Do you always get a good response when you phone a nursery? Do you get a prospectus promptly by post or e-mail? In a recent round of benchmarking I was amazed that two or three settings close to one of our nurseries either didn't reply to e-mails at all, despite repeated messages sent to them, or promised prospectuses which never came. Seeing as the people who do our benchmarking for us are usually genuine customers, and customers are generally precious commodities, this strikes me as pretty careless.
Don't get me wrong, I would like to say that every single enquiry to one of my nurseries gets the textbook response, but in reality everyone has the occasional off day, or maybe a junior member of staff answers the phone and doesn't cover every base. However, I would hope that they realise quite how precious new enquiries are and treat them accordingly. So, don't be afraid to see your nursery as a brand and to be brand-aware. If first impressions count when you meet someone in person, so does the first impression your nursery makes, whether this is a real or virtual encounter.
- Next month's business development column (13 May) will be written by Karen Walker, director of the Children's Place nursery chain.