Tom Nixon

The skills for 2007

2007 is going to be an exciting year and I can't wait to get stuck in. I've picked two skills to work on that are going to be important next year and beyond. What's interesting for me is that these skills aren't anything directly to do with developing websites for our clients, but they'll certainly help me to strengthen a business that does great work.

1. Coaching and mentoring. Although 'coaching' conjours up images of someone in a tracksuit saying 'Go on son, you can do it', I have become a big fan of this in 2006. This is mostly through being lucky enough to have been on the receiving end of it, care of Pete Burden. Working with a coach/mentor has transformed how I think about business and how business fits in with the rest of my life. It's been amazing for me personally, and so next year I want to give more of the benefit to the other people who work here. I know they'd laugh if I said I was going to be their 'coach' or 'mentor', and they're right in as much as I'm not interested in those titles, but I believe that by making more use of the tools of the trade I can help our people to get more enjoyment out of work. And I reckon that's the best way to attract and retain the best people in our company.

2. Copywriting. Writing is back in fashion. Big time. If you're in business in 2007 then you should be blogging; writing e-books and articles; and sharing your knowledge and opinions with the rest of the world. Participating in a wider conversation is what is creating the next generation of 'thought leaders', and I want to join in. I have never been a great writer. I really have to stop using the word 'really' so much (and I also make too much use of brackets - and dashes - when they're not really necessary.) In 2006 I've been trying to get into the habit of blogging, and next year I'm going to try to post more frequently and improve the quality of writing. I know that it's the content and authenticity that's the important thing (better to have a badly written, but interesting blog updated daily than beautiful, but unoriginal prose once a week) but good quality writing, like good design, engages an andience and makes them want to read what you have to say.

Satisfaction guaranteed

Some time ago I learnt from one of our clients about the power of the satisfaction guarantee. They'll happily give you a refund on any of their products for any reason at all. Customers love it because it reduces the risk associated with trying something new and it shows that the vendor has confidence in their product. Great. And it's good for the manufacturer too, who sells more product as a result. Assuming that you don't sell shonky goods then very few people will take you up on your offer.

So a while back, we decided to try out the concept on some of our consultancy services. The logic was exactly the same as Reflex Nutrition's: Often, a piece of consultancy is the first bit of chargeable work that we'll do for a new client. We're asking the client to take the leap of faith from having a friendly chat with a nice bunch of web people, to agreeing to pay for their help and advice. And let's face it, everyone is sceptical about paying for consultancy! Our proposition was simple: If you don't find the consultancy useful then you don't have to pay. Suddenly it's the consultant taking the risk and putting their money where their mouth is. But (I'm pleased to report!) after doing this for a few years with lots of clients, nobody ever took us up on the offer. And best of all, it made it much easier to turn prospects into clients.

OK, this is the bit where I stop being so smug :)
Because today I had our first ever taker-upper of the satisfaction guarantee.

It was a slightly odd relationship from the start. The client was of a decent enough size to be able to afford our pricing; successful business; liked our previous work; and we had particular experience in their industry sector. It was looking like a well qualified opportunity. But when I went for a meeting with them, something just didn't feel right. There were no awkward curve-ball questions that I couldn't answer, and there was nothing about the client that made me think they were unprofessional or, well, dodgy at all. I simply wasn't feeling the love, and just found them a little bit frosty and untrusting. But because nothing tangible had gone wrong, I went away and worked out some rough costs, and we agreed to some initial consultancy, with our satisfaction guarantee attached.

So we kicked off with a workshop session yesterday which was going well in terms of the information we were extracting from the client (which was the purpose of the session) but the  frostiness was still there, and then right near the end of the session it suddenly went pear-shaped, and frostiness turned into vocal unhappiness. Nightmare! So we left under a bit of a cloud of awkwardness with an unfamilar feeling in our tummies. All very new and strange to us.

I followed up with the client and offered to talk through their concerns, and reminded them that the satisfaction guarantee still stood and that there would be no hard feelings if they took us up on it. It was no great surprise that they took me up on the offer, and if I'm honest, I think that it was probably a lucky escape for both parties.

The great thing about guaranteeing satisfaction is that it accepts up-front that yes, there is a possibility that things won't work out, and on those rare, awkward and unfortunate occasions when it happens, there's an easy get-out clause which minimises the embarassment. Anyway I'm happy to put this one down to experience.

Nixon McInnes gets creative (and about bloody time too!)

Web agencies naturally have similar strengths and weaknesses to their founders. Nixon McInnes was started by a techie-turned-business-person (me) and a marketing guy (Will) so it's not surprising that we're pretty good at understanding our client's businesses and architecting and building websites that deliver tangible business results.

Whilst that's great sales patter, the problem is that neither Will or I could design our way out of a wet paper bag, and this personal trait of ours had been holding back the agency from producing truly wonderful work. Whilst we've always done a good line in corporate, B2B sites, our design work has never really set the world on fire.

Things improved when we produced Baby Says Hello earlier this year and I think we've now proved that we can do the colourful and creative thing with the launch of the website for Italian kids TV channel JimJam. But the most important thing we've done recently is hiring a creative director who goes beyond 'doing the design bit' on an individual project and flies the flag for great creative throughout the web design and development process, right from the first conversation with a new client.

I'm excited about how our portfolio is going to improve in 2007. Watch this space, and expect some wow factor!