There is a great Italian restaurant less than five blocks from Big Ears headquarters here in the Happiest City in America. They have excellent food and a renowned chef. It would be a great little place to take clients for a quick, impressive meal. But we don’t eat there.

Why? Because the owner of the restaurant speeds through our neighborhood in his giant, very well-branded truck. He is always (really, always!) holding a cell phone to one ear and he never (really, never!) comes to an actual stop at the stop signs.

He is famous throughout the neighborhood for endangering pedestrians, school children and other drivers.

We thought it was only fair to let him know that these habits are affecting his business.  (Of course, these things are also illegal and putting lives and property at risk, but we thought once he understood the other repercussions, we wouldn’t have to “go there” with him.)

So we picked up the phone to give him a jingle. We were willing to take the time and energy to give him some important information about his business. After all, he spends lots of money on advertising and printing coupons. We were certain he’d appreciate a free business boost.

But when we called the number, we entered a voice-mail nightmare. Many buttons to choose from, but no options that appeared to meet our needs. We weren’t catering a party or any of the other things we could get information about. It was just too much work.

So we hung up. And each time we see him coming down the street, we all look to see if the cell phone is at his ear and if he rolls through the stop sign. In these things, sadly, he hasn’t disappointed.

What things could be affecting your business without your knowledge? Does everyone driving a company vehicle understand their actions can impact your bottom line? Does your location have an employee smoking area in view of customers? Do employees go out on the town and cut loose still wearing their staff uniforms?

Take time to notice. Other people do!

As marketing and public relations professionals, one thing we can’t stress enough is that everything your business does is marketing. Perhaps not in the traditional sense, but really, what is marketing?

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

When things go awry in this process, there are many ways to make things even worse. There are also, thank goodness, ways to make things better. This article, by Impact Learning Systems International offers a great reminder about the value of customer complaints and those who take the time to make them. It also gives tips about how to make the most of these interactions. Give it a read. It will only take a moment.

While you’re there, check out some of their other blog posts. Impact Learning is a great company offering proven customer service training and sales training programs.  Just down the street from us in beautiful San Luis Obispo, CA, Impact Learning helps organizations build value and integrity into customer relationships.

Effectively managing customer relationships is one of the important “non-marketing” aspects of marketing that every business needs to understand.

As you may have noticed, the Big Ears blogger has been laggy about updates. It started with a trip out of state, where the accommodations didn’t provide the promised wifi connection. (Well, technically, the wifi was there. It just wouldn’t let anyone connect to it.) This led to rushed visits to a coffee shop, where most time connected was spent on vital correspondence and file uploads.

Upon return to California, there was so much to catch up on and so many clients to please. And here we are. But things have calmed down. Our noses have returned to the grindstone … and our fingers to the keyboard.

How about you? How’s that To Do list? If you need a little help finding your groove, here’s a great procrastination hack. Click now. Really. Now. Don’t tell yourself you’ll “come back to it.”