“Our system is down” or “My Compter is on go slow”, are common replies I hear from banks, utilities and estate agents
What does it say about their business?
It’s certainly not giving a positive image of the business and it could be losing them a lot of business. But what does it really mean and how can we fix it?
Our System is Down Variations
Our System is Currently Down messages fall into three basic types.
Computer or IT Systems ….
that have crashed and haven’t rebooted yet is the most common system failure cause.
Phone Networks …
that become overloaded and can’t physically cope with the number of calls are less common than when there aren’t enough people to answer the calls. A business will then often talk about higher than normal call volumes.
Websites
Website down times are often because the website server crashed. Smart IT people use more than one server and will automatically switch to backup server if one goes down. Less smart IT people don’t even know if their system has gone down. Our Web Design guards against this risk.
The second type of website failure is when the website has unprecedented numbers of visitors that it cannot cope with due to technical reasons. It’s analogous to trying to get a million gallons of water down a pipe that can only cope with 50 gallons. It just cannot cope and will fail.
Often unprecedented visitor numbers are due to very successful promotions or advertising campaigns where the marketing people haven’t spoken to the techies to see if the technology can cope.
What “Our systems are down” really means is that the technology is temporarily out of order, broken, inactive or in an inoperative state.
Our System is Down at the Moment is About People Not Technology
I was looking for a new house and had phoned several estate agents to arrange viewings. 3/5 of them have come back with the “our system is down” message. Usually this was when I spoke to someone about arranging a viewing. Of course sometimes they use different words such “my computer is on go slow”. But whatever they say I’ve waited a while and then I’ve moved on to the next house I want to view on a very long list. These estate agents missed a potential sale because their “systems are down”. (I eventually bought a beautiful house from an estate agent whose system wasn’t down).
Marketing isn’t difficult, people are!
The thing is I don’t think this is a technology issue. It is a people issue.
When systems repeatedly go down .. and it seems that they do in some businesses … people have to firstly recognise there is a problem, then they need to decide to do something about it. And if they don’t, the same message keeps going out to prospective customers and business is lost.
The reality is, however, good your marketing is it will be to no avail unless you can then deliver the goods .. in this case, the ability to set up property viewings. All your marketing efforts are wasted if you fail to deliver when a call to action is answered by your prospects.
Having poor follow up systems will kill all your website, social media, SEO, PPC and other marketing efforts stone dead. What a waste Our System is Down at the Moment is.
So what system failures are holding back your marketing? They needn’t be just about systems being down. Do you have problems acquiring prospects or clients, nurturing them or selling to them> Or maybe all three. If you need help contact us NOW.
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