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Originally Posted by Rebecca (PayforPrecision)

“How patronising....I might not be fit but I can still throw a mean left hook! ”

How sexist assuming its just for girls, I reckon Clive would make a great cheer leader 

Like it, too much text, so needs simplifying, but the concept is spot on 

Maybe 2 shops side by side, one with a queue of people, one without, the typo website name on the top of the shop, next to the right one.

Then you can add a smart call to action in the actual description. Remember you can have text in your advert, just minimal text in the actual image. Look at the fiverr one above, only has 1 word in it.

I think these days less is more.

Don't put site wide links to external websites, and only add something that will add value. Don't add clutter for clutters sake.

In reality, most people won't really see the footer of your website as a primary place for info, so keep it simple.

Look at the footer on any page of our business directory, lots going on, loads of information. But from heat maps we know very little is used.

The forum footer is much simpler, limiting to a disclaimer, biz info and social media links.

But my favourite is our Trusted Trader site which has a much simpler and clutter free footer. So it looks like we are evolving to a simpler approach.

New thread done

Add your Facebook & Twitter links

I'll start it off.

https://www.facebook.com/MyLocalServices

https://twitter.com/MyLocalForums

https://plus.google.com/+MyLocalServicesAlcester/posts

It sounds like they are taking a liberty 

Depends on what you want to happen, insist they remove your name, or negotiate a consultancy fee. Plenty of companies take on outside consultants as temp employees to fill skills gaps or help them with tenders.

Not discussing it with you first is bordering on fraud. Decide what you want to happen, ie financial compensation, or remove your details, then demand an audience and get it resolved.

We've had a few of those threads over the years. They tend to grow and grow, and then get culled from time to time.

I don't think we have had one since we moved to the new forum format, maybe it's time to start a new one  Normally do it for all members.

I'll add it to my to do list and get one set up, always glad to get good ideas 

Everyone aware now of the new Pension auto-enrolment?

If you are still confused or don't understand it, the Guardian has an easy to read article all about it: Pension auto-enrolment – what business owners need to know

Here's a good example of someone touting data, came through this morning:

Dear Business Owner,

I am sending you this email because there are only 6 hours left before we take our product off the market.

We are the developer and publisher of the largest business database on CD in the UK. The database is the only one on the market to contain details not available anywhere else on 5 million Businesses in the UK including 4,6 million named Decision Makers available by job function and 800,000 Businesses with email addresses.

We have decided to give it to you for a symbolic price of £49 (instead of £998) until 3PM today (the product will be entirely removed from our website at 3PM).

Yeah right  If you ever wondered why you got spammed to death, this is one of the reasons!

May seem an odd question, but it's something I think smaller businesses are better at than larger businesses and organisations. How many times have you seen or heard about new banking customers getting preferential rates over existing customers?

Big organisations do it all the time, mention you want to leave your mobile phone provider or energy provider and you will no doubt be bribed into staying with a reduction in your tariff or monthly bill, something that wasn't offered until you threatened to leave.

Last year my wife was shocked to realise she had auto renewed her car insurance with directline for 9 years. So she began a crusade of going through our bills and looking for better providers, something we have talked about for years and never got round to doing. I think we saved over £300 from our household bills, which proves it's a useful exercise, but the biggest was Direct Line.

They offered to reduce her car renewal quote by a £100. So much for 9 years customer loyalty! Shopping around she actually got a better quote elsewhere and Directline lost a 9 year claim free customer. I was supposed to do mine but forgot 

But this year it was my turn, 7 years loyal claim free service with Direct Line. So a quick phone around shows there were more competitive quotes, in which prompted a call to Direct Line. After lots of waffle about market conditions and how prices vary on a day to day basis, guess how much they reduced mine by? Yep £100  In my case it worked out cheaper to stay put.

Wouldn't it have been great if my 7 years as a loyal claim free customer was appreciated with a renewal quote which reflected this, rather than seeing how much money can be squeezed out of your current customer database and hoping they won't notice?

In the age of 24/7 social media, and customer service expectations, is this really still a valid and promoted business model to generate a huge loyal customer following? Or the business practice of yesteryear from a faceless organisations past their peak?

Does it sound familiar? Do you reward customer loyalty?