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I have just read a wonderful book on creativity. The title is ‘Creativity’ and the author is Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. Creative name eh? He is a wonderful writer and I can’t recommend him highly enough. His most popular book was called ‘Flow’.

Anyway... have you ever been into a shop that you like and noticed that nothing has changed? Same as last time. Same as always. You ask yourself ‘Why bother coming back?’. It is obvious that the shop is relying on new customers and neglecting the existing ones. It is a bit like reading about a great new offer if you start up an account with a bank or telephone company but can’t because you are already a customer. Makes you feel like leaving them... and coming back, doesn’t it?

Where I am leading to is your website. Does it look the same to everyone? Are you hoping to attract new visitors and neglecting the people who have visited the site before? Is there any reason for them to visit your website a second time? Imagine if the figures indicated that people don’t usually buy on their first visit and then don’t have a reason to visit again... and they are more likely to buy on the second or third visit. The underlying message is also saying that you are more interested in finding new clients than looking after the existing ones.

Now back to Csikzsentmihalyi... his definition of creativity is much broader than personal creativity. It includes the domain, the area of expertise. Domains include customer service, retailing, IT etc. He says that you must know the domain before you start to get creative. You must understand how the internet works. You must have a deep understanding of marketing before you start to get creative within this domain. He also includes ‘The Field’ in his definition. The field are the people within the domain. The experts or people who can make an educated judgement on a merits of an idea. Some of the most creative people in history were not accepted by their field and failed to make a difference in their lifetime. Some like Galileo, we put under house arrest. You need to make an effort to associate with your field. The experts in your field.

So... if your website, brochure, advertising material, training materials or premises are the same this year as last year, you are forgetting the need to refresh to keep the existing people coming. You are forgetting to give them a reason or incentive to return. You are operating as if they will always stay with you just because they are existing clients. It is much easier to keep and please existing clients. They already know and trust you. Their barrier is down. All they can do to express their disappointment at your lack of ‘freshness’ is to leave you. You are not acknowledging their loyalty and taking if for granted. This applies to internal as well as external customers. Your own people are entitled to be treated as existing customers.

So what are you going to do for your existing clients and customers in 2007?