Is the tail wagging the dog...

There was a great movie in 1997 called "Wag the dog" with De Niro and Hoffman. The tagline was "Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the dog."

I was reminded of this the other day when I phoned Telstra/Foxtel to reconnect my Foxtel service. A simple exercise really :

1. You move (obviously)
2. You phone Telstra to advise of the move
3. They thank you for the call and send a technician over to complete the reconnection.

Part 1 and 2 were completed with relative ease, I then phoned to find out what needs to be done. 2 weeks, 7 call centre agents and many wasted hours later I still do not have Foxtel. Why? The system will not process something that needs to be processed. When I try to find out what the problem is - the inevitable answer is "the system"

Now the lesson here is simple. Your processes, procedures or systems should never (ever) interrupt business, cause undue customer agitation or prevent sales. If someone comes into your shop and wants to buy something and your //insert offending item// is down, make a plan. Better yet, already have a plan that can be whipped out, dusted off and used without hesitation.

If you are in a competitive business, that customer may never walk back in again!

I'll let you know if the system at Foxtel stops wagging their customer service and I get to watch rugby again before the Super 14 ends.

Are you sure about your insurance?

Walking home from the train station last week, I noticed a woman mowing the lawn. She was wearing very good gardening gloves - which is good, because she may be switching between gardening task and the gloves are good for protection. The problem is - she was wearing sandals on her feet.

She had more than adequate cover for her hands, they were not really at risk - but her feet were much closer to the business end of the mower and her protection there was extremely inadequate.

According to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), one in six small businesses in Australia – more than 270,000 businesses – are not insured. In South Africa - I would imagine the situation is similar or worse, because let's face it, insurance is at best a grudge purchase.

If you are over-insured, it's costing you. If you are under-insured...well you don't want to find that out at claim time. Money spent on a broker may well be worthwhile, just make sure you are speaking to someone who understands your business and you are not talking to a consultant who is simply reading through a checklist to assess your risk.

Small comapnies are different to big companies. Your risks are different, your needs are different. However, one thing that most big companies do - and you should also, is annually assess your cover and determine if it is correct and sufficient. Do you have business cover, not just household insurance? It seems like a simple question but a lot of small businesses do not have business interuption insurance, public liability or professional indemnity insurance. What happens if you become injured and can no longer generate revenue?

Do you have the correct insurance for your business? Or are you mowing the lawn in open-toe shoes?