I was driving home recently after running a bunch of errands and I got it into my head that I wanted to pop into a Garden Centre to pick up a few bits and bobs for the greenhouse.

It had just gone 5.30, so I wasn't sure whether anywhere would be open.

On my way home I passed 4 garden centres. All of them had entrance gateways with the main shop being further down a driveway.

And not one of them had their opening hours visible at the gateway.

For the first couple I drove in, parked up, and walked to the entrance. Only to find out they'd just shut.

I didn't even bother with the last two.

You'd think it would be obvious: to make sure crucial information like your opening hours were visible to potential customers driving past who might come in if they knew you were open.

But none of them did.

I wonder how much potential “drop in” trade they've lost as a result?

Of course, we would never do anything like that, would we?

Our “shop front” (usually our website) always has all the information our potential clients need to know to be ready to give us a call, doesn't it?

We have clear descriptions of who we work with and the sort of challenges or goals we help them with, don't we?

And we make it crystal clear what benefits clients get from working with us and how we're different to others in our field, right?

If not, you might want to start working on those areas. You don't want to end up like the Garden Centres: losing customers simply because you didn't make the basic information people need to know available to them.