I come across business owners who still believe that internet tools such as blogging and Twitter may be fine in the B2C world but have no legitimate place in the world of B2B. This is a limiting belief, to say the least.

What internet tools in general – and social networking tools in particular – have done, is to increasingly narrow the gap between the ‘B’ and the ‘C’ of the two business propositions in question. For starters, how many people open one browser for business use and one for personal use? Do you really think that people at work (’business’ people, even) are not also engaging in some ‘consumer’ practices like buying books on-line from Amazon, selling on Ebay that paperweight the mother-in-law brought back from the coach tour of Normandy, or even catching up on the football results on the BBC web site?

The other side of the coin is that a business blog that never gets personal is a very dull read. Also, business Twitter streams which do nothing but tweet company news are hardly going to set the word of mouth genie shaking to get out of the bottle.

It’s time to remember that people buy from people. Forget B2B and B2C when it comes to the internet. It’s all B2P now. P for person. The new tools let you and your business become personal, which allows your customer to see you as a person. You don’t need to wait to meet a buyer at a trade fair or the CEO on the golf course: you and your business have already made your personal mark on the web.

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Whatever the politics of the current wave of UK mail strikes, one thing it should do is to force more small businesses to re-examine how they use the internet.

Smallest Post Office in the World?

Over the last year, one of my clients, who used to spend many thousands annually on paper, print cartridges, and postage has reduced these bills by a mammoth 80% through sending almost all paperwork – including invoices – by email. Although this is one of the most simple uses of the internet, it has immediate an impact on your bottom line.

The process of managing the expectations of how your clients receive your invoices and other paperwork can be gradual or dramatically rapid, depending on the end customer. One way to implement things is to offer two prices. My client above sent out an updated price list for the year ahead. To stay on the existing prices, the end customer simply needed to choose to receive paperwork electronically.

Electronic Payments

Postage delays don’t only prevent the delivery of invoices. Even when clients attempt to pay on time, their cheque can be delayed. Have you asked your clients and customers to use electronic transfer via their internet banking? This will become the norm as banks start refusing to process cheques in the next few years. Why not make it the norm for your business now?

The same goes for your own supplier bills. Pay those on-line and never waste time following up ‘mislaid’ payments or ‘lost’ cheques, which can have an effect on your credit rating as well as your relationship with your suppliers and channel.

If you depend on suppliers sending you product through the mail, make sure they have a contingency plan. Look for suppliers who have openly declared that their deliveries will be unaffected. Amazon, for instance, guarantee normal delivery by switching providers.

Keep Your Customers Informed

One of the best and simplest ways to use the internet in times like these is to keep your customers informed of what you’re doing to ensure delivery or payments. Put something on your web site’s home page (again, like Amazon) and use your mailing list to make sure every customer knows what will happen if they place an order. If delays are unavoidable, send them a discount voucher for a future job/item to alleviate the pain.

I’m interested to hear how your business is approaching things in the light of mail strikes and unreliable deliveries. Post a comment and let me know.

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UPDATE: And, as if by magic, here’s the meat of an email I got this afternoon from WIRED magazine –

I’ve actually received my copy but if I hadn’t, this would have been a nice touch. It’s still a nice touch, actually, because it makes me feel more than just a subscriber number.

It was my birthday a couple of months back. For one of my presents, my wife and kids bought me vouchers for what’s known as ‘The Daddy’ at a local barbers.

This is more than your standard barbers. There’s no sign of a striped pole, for starters. And ‘The Daddy’ is more than a standard haircut.

Part of what’s included in ‘The Daddy’ is a wet shave. I’ve never had the experience of being shaved – as opposed to shaving – before, so I was both slightly apprehensive and feeling a little lordly when I sat in the chair recently.

But barber Brent Walsh asked all the right questions. Not only did he find out a lot about my shaving habits but he also made me feel at ease by so obviously being an expert. We got the haircut part of the deal out of the way quite quickly. I’ve had haircuts before – as you can imagine – and there’s not a lot in the process itself that can change. Even here, though, barber Brent Walsh talked options and gave advice. Not a lot of options but then there’s no longer a lot of hair, so that was fair enough. He convinced me to try something a little different and I liked the result. (For the record, my wife liked the result, too.)

The shave was a different experience entirely. Different from the hair cut and different from any previous experience in a barbers. In the space of 30 minutes, Brent had won himself a new regular customer: I shall be booking a monthly shave and treating myself to an experience that manages to be simultaneously soothing and invigorating.

So you had a shave – big deal!

All well and good, you may be thinking, but why should you care about my depilatory thrills? The answer is in why I’m going back for a wet shave and why I’m going back to Brent Walsh for that shave.

Brent made the wet shave experience so pleasant that I immediately thought of it as a treat and something I could enjoy on a regular basis. I’m sure I could go anywhere now and expect at least some semblance of the same experience. So why will I choose Brent Walsh rather than another barber, whenever possible? Well, for starters, like a truly good salesman, he took me from a customer who didn’t know I had a need to one who recognised the need. But he didn’t stop with the sale. He also:

• Gave expert advice at all times, based on my preferences and his experience;
• Showed a personal interest in my needs, such as my type of skin;
• Asked me what I thought about the experience;
• Handed me a small leaflet about shaving as a take-away;
• Shook my hand, gave me a genuine smile, and made me feel he would be pleased to see me again.

This is a great example of building customer loyalty from a level of customer service that makes no distinction between passing trade and long-term clients. Is that a waste of effort? Sometimes, perhaps. But often it is the determining factor that gets the customer to do repeat business with you.

So, if you’re passing through east Surrey and feel like treating your face, give Brent a call. Or check out the web site, at least.

I must make it clear that I have no connection with Brent Walsh other than as a satisfied customer. No offers of free shaves or other tonsorial treats have been made to me and Brent Walsh is not aware that I am writing this post.

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