In my former life as a regional manager, I had both ‘corporate office’ experience and I was also active in the field, working with the same stores and employees that I had come up through. This ‘front line’ experience helped me to appreciate the silly and often ridiculous ways that those at corporate, you might say, the Ivory Tower, would interfere with the company’s real mission which is to grow the business by meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Twenty five years in retail has ingrained in me an ability to spot stupidity a mile away, as I did last week.

I was on a tight schedule as usual and one of my stops was at my personal bank to deposit a check. I pulled in to the drive through and after waiting almost 10 minutes the attendant returned to tell me that they couldn’t deposit my check because it looked altered. What?

It was my own company check, written by me to myself, to be deposited (not cashed!) into the personal checking account I had with this bank. It seems that the bank has a policy of not accepting checks that may appear to be altered. At first glance this seems like a worthwhile safety policy for all concerned, but what were they objecting to?

The clerk explained that the date looked altered. They said that they couldn’t tell if the date was February 12 or 13! It was not altered, perhaps my messy handwriting, but in either case, what difference could this possible make, it was February 13? At this point I wasn’t mad, I was stunned in disbelief.

I realized that the clerk was just following orders and not the one to be upset with so I asked if the manager was inside. He said that she was but that she already OK’d this! “Tell her I’ll be right in.”

I drove around, parked and went inside where the manager was waiting for me. She re-explained the banks policy and showed me that the date on my check was not clear! Since it was already February 13 I asked what possible difference it could make and she just repeated the banks ‘no alterations’ policy. Now I was getting streamed.

Here are the facts as I explained them to the branch manager.
• You know me by sight as one of your customers
• You personally opened up our checking and savings accounts
• You processed our home equity loan six months ago
• You know that I own my own business, that this is my company check, written by me
• And finally, I’m not looking to withdraw money; I’m depositing this money into your bank!

No dice. I had to drive home, write another check and come back. Despite my growing red face I still recognized that even the branch manager was not the policy maker so I asked who was and if we could get them on the phone. Surprisingly she obliged and she got the banks controller on the phone to clarify their ‘no alterations’ policy. Having told the controller the facts as I just outlined above, the branch manager then said to the ‘Ivory Tower’ controller that even though I know Jim, if I accept this check I will be written up, right? She was told, “Yes you will.”

And there you have it. The branch manager was afraid for her job and the result was one of major inconvenience for a good customer. By the way, this bank has also been courting me to move my business banking to their bank. Not going to happen.

This is yet another example of a policy created in the Ivory Tower, combined with zero tolerance for any common sense to be applied by the folks entrusted to actually interact with and serve their customers. It’s no wonder so many businesses are in serious trouble.

Many times policies are created in the ivory tower in the heat of the moment, when something bad or unfortunate happens at the store level. Typically, the policies created are an over reaction to something that rarely happens and in fact create impediments to customers trying to do business. A couple questions for you as I close this rant.

• Do you have any of these policies in your business?
• Do you trust your front line staff to do what’s necessary to serve and please your customers?

Remember, customers have many options. Make it easy for your customers to do business with you. By the way, when I left the bank I drive to another location less than 2 miles away and they immediately deposited my check!

Remember the ol’ 80/20 Rule that says 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of its customers? Well since this is true for most companies, I find it odd that many entrepreneurs focus on and spend the majority of their marketing time and resources always trying to acquire new customers, much of the time to the neglect of their current customers (the ones generating the profit!).

That makes no sense. It’s much easier and quicker to sell more to your current customers than it is to acquire and sell to new ones. Look, you already have established relationships with your current customers because they’ve already purchased from you! This is a huge marketing advantage.

Communicating with your current customers with a monthly newsletter helps you stay top-of-mind. Your newsletter arrives and instantly your customers are thinking about you and after receiving your newsletter on a consistent basis, your customers actually begin to look forward to receiving it—it’s a welcomed friend—and they are curious to see what tips you are sharing with them this issue. Issue after issue, your newsletter reinforces your relationship with your customers. It makes your fence stronger. It also gives you a way to tell current customers about products and services you provide that they may not know about.

Learn more about newsletter design in my book, The Magic of Newsletter Marketing – The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life available at Amazon and my Web site.

If you’d like to discover the best ‘Done-for-You’ newsletter program ever, check out my No Hassle Newsletter program. With No Hassle Newsletters you can complete your monthly newsletter in about 23 minutes or less! Go to www.nohasslenewsletters.com.

Publishing a customer newsletter is one of the smartest ways to grow a business. Yet, few give real thought as to the importance of newsletter design. Newsletter writing is critically important yet without proper design, your newsletter may not get read! In this article I’m going to discuss the largest and perhaps most important part of design.

The masthead is the major graphic element at the top of the front page of the newsletter and includes the newsletter title. The masthead should identify your company. It may say that you (your company name) “presents” the newsletter title. It may include your logo or a symbol that represents your kind of business. A spine is a good symbol for a chiropractor. A professional speaker might be represented by a microphone.

In most cases, the newsletter title you develop should not be the name of the company. It should, however, be a name that sticks in the mind, that rolls pleasantly from the tongue, and, along with your graphic of choice, easily conveys what the newsletter is about.

The tagline is at the bottom of the masthead. You can think of it as a subtitle. The newsletter title and the tagline should work together. They should tell anyone who picks up your newsletter what it’s about. It should give them a clue about the benefits of reading your newsletter. One last point. Remember the old expression, “too cute by a half.” What you think is cute and ‘clever’ may leave your readers utterly confused. Learn more about newsletter design in my book, The Magic of Newsletter Marketing – The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life available at Amazon and my Web site.

If you’d like to discover the best ‘Done-for-You’ newsletter program ever, check out my No Hassle Newsletter program. With No Hassle Newsletters you can complete your monthly newsletter in about 23 minutes or less! Go to www.nohasslenewsletters.com.