I learn more about life from my children than I do any other source.  And a lot of  what my children are teaching me makes perfect sense on how businesses should be run. They are my advisers if you will.

I have 4 advisers- a middle schooler, a kindergartner and twin pre-preschoolers, so I have a wide range of inputs of which to receive.   Sometimes they have so much to teach me, that I become quite overwhelmed, if you know what I mean.

One night in particular, I was serving a steak dinner to my family.  With the little ones, we  cut up the pieces of meat, and serve it to them in a “ready to eat” format.

My youngest daughter, one of the twins, likes her food to be cut up a little bit more than the others.  It’s a convenience for her really, but if we don’t cut it up small enough,  she’ll eat so fast that she can’t swallow her food fast enough before she adds more.

Before we know it, she’ll have a big wad of food in her mouth that she can’t swallow, and we have to help her get it into the trash, and start over.  The problem is that she becomes disinterested in eating, and thinks that she’s done. Not good for a growing little girl.

As parents, we do everything that we can to help our children grow, be successful, and get the most out of life.  Which is why we cut her food into really teeny tiny bites, when its something chewy like steaks.

When her food is cut up into the right size bites, she eats, and eats and eats… she consumes her dinner until she’s full.  And then some.  By taking away the distraction of eating, she focuses on the enjoyment of eating, and looks forward to it.  And then she feels like she’s earned the right to dessert!

Let’s think about the lesson she’s teaching.

Imagine breaking down your product or service into bite size chunks – the easiest most basic pieces that a client can use, making it as easy as possible for your customers to get what they want.  Enticing them, and giving them they want, all in a single action.

Let me give you an example.  One of our local Grand Junction news stations is semi active on Twitter.  They give updates on breaking news a couple times a day, but when they have an exciting story that they are Tweeting about, they give a link to the homepage.

Giving out a homepage link is great for the news stations own brand, but lousy for a reader that wants to  get right to the meat of the story that they were just told about.  This becomes an aggravation to the reader, and eventually, they may give up if the search for the article isn’t directly linkable from the homepage.

Specifically, I was trying to get a link to the online live coverage of President Obama at the Grand Junction town hall event.  I mean, it’s our own town, and I wanted to catch some of it while I was writing out some outlines for a project.

They tweeted a link to there homepage.  I went there, and looked around, but couldn’t find a link to the live coverage.  I even had the Moxie Maven help me out… nada, nothing, nil.

I tweeted a request to a direct link.  My response was the homepage.   Arrggggh!   Should I be thankful for a response?  Thankful isn’t what I was feeling.  I was annoyed, discouraged, and went to CNN.com.

There was someone on the other end of Twitter that knew the answer, but they didn’t help.  I even asked a very specific and direct question.

And the plot thickens!

CNN wasn’t streaming live for this event… so I was forced to go back to my Grand Junction news station to keep searching.  I did finally find the link (which mysteriously appeared in an article I’d read previously) but there was still a problem…

I couldn’t get it to connect to their video feed in FireFox.  I tried Internet Explorer.. I just upgraded it to version 8, so all should be good right?  I mean, there site says that they recommend IE 5 or greater.

But I still couldn’t view there live stream of President Obama’s town hall meeting.

I asked Moxie Maven if she could try it on her machine, which I knew was running Internet Explorer 7.  Voila!  It worked. Perfect.

Now our local news agency has not only urked me, but her too.  She had to stream the town hall meeting for me, while she worked on her own project.

The point is this.  Putting obstacles in the way of your customers isn’t the best way to build your business.  In fact, it’s a really lousy way to build a reputation that you can be proud of.

What could be done differently?  I’m not in the loop of what resources they have available, but there’s a few things from this article that I’d at least address.

First, I’d make sure that all links are direct links to the story itself,  and not the homepage.  Branding will happen no matter what page you land on for a news channel site.  I’m especially referring to Twitter here, since that’s where my interaction occurred, but all links (no matter the media)  should directly link to the story that’s being referenced.

Second, I’d take out the limitations of browser compatibility.  According to this W3C Consortium statistic on browser usages,  Internet Explorer (all versions combined) is no longer the leading browser.  Tying your site to a certain browser is a sure way to turn potentially loyal fans into raving critics.  Is this what you’d want for your business?  Especially if it’s the browser that’s not in the majority?

Browser incompatibility problems are so 10 years ago.  There are so many compatible systems now that a big business like a news station really has no excuse to not use them.

Third,  I was having problems, and expressed that on Twitter.  But they left me hanging.  No reply to help.  They alienated me, as a customer of theirs.  In business, customers are always number one.  No matter how large or small the customer is.  They should have replied and tried to help.  It’s a public forum, they could have been the hero.

They need better training on customer support.  Putting customers ahead of your own business is a sure way to build a solid relationship with clients that will grow your business for you.  Nothing is more important to a business than it’s customers.  Without customers, you don’t have a business.

My advisers…err my children, taught me even more about the way I serve dinner.

When I give my children large, unmanageable things, like perogi’s (potato filled pasta), they like them whole.  It’s a kid thing I guess.  They want the whole sandwich, or the whole steak.  They don’t want it cut up into bites or have half a sandwich.  They want the whole thing.

But the whole thing isn’t good for them.  It’s just simply too much food, and it goes to waste.

So after a few years of parenting, I’ve been able to figure out what foods are to be cut up, and what is given whole.

Now there are certain foods (like perogi’s) that if I give it to them whole, they’ll ask for me to cut it up.  They’ve seen the benefit of eating it after it’s already managable and easy to eat.

Let me repeat that, it’s important:  If I give it to them whole, they’ll ask for me to cut it up.

They like it this way. Just like a client can’t handle the entire contents of your business in one sitting.  They just want a piece.  The piece that fulfills their needs at the very moment that you met them.

And the next time you see them, they want only the piece that they care about at this new time.

Think of it this way – if you are a hardware store, and a customer comes in for paint, Would you take them to the lumber section? or just point them to the front door and say “There you go – it’s in there!”.  Of course not.  You’d take them to the paint isle, and help them pick out the right paints, paintbrushes, colors, etc.

Same thing online.  Take your customers to where they want to go, not to the parking lot.  Make it easy.  In today’s instant gratification world, it’s all too easy for potential clients to become clients of your competition, all in a matter of seconds.  And making clients happy couldn’t be easier.  Be their friend, and give them exactly what they want, and they’ll be there for you forever.