Between the chirps of my laptop fetching e-mails, the bark of my iPhone receiving e-mails and text messages, the pings of my iPad as social media alerts poured in, and the sounds of our inter-office intercom and my landline, it’s no wonder I can’t concentrate (please insert your humorous comment about my ADD here). Yes, I know I can mute everything, and yes I know I can turn things off. But can I really?! Do I risk missing an urgent message from a client, my attorney or even my pharmacy tech (thank you CVS for texting me when it’s time for me to pick up my prescription)…

In a world where an e-mail has a 24-hour statute of limitation, an inbox message a 12-hour statute of limitation, and a text message or tweet a three-minute statute of limitation, it’s no wonder you can’t go into a meeting without someone showing you the top of his or her head because they are looking at their phone or tablet (I know they’re doing it, no one can stare at their lap, and make those faces for that long).

It’s not such a bad thing. Basically, a client or customer chooses how to communicate with you and your business. And you need to be sure you are taking advantage of all the outlets available and are using them properly.

For example, take our client eBevSeeker, a company near and dear to my heart (not only am I a shareholder in the company, we at Spiro & Associates are their agency). The whole concept behind eBevSeeker at www.ebevseeker.com is finding someone’s favorite beer at a value. When we created the company, we wanted to talk to our primary target audience, those who were 21 or older who liked to drink beer (both men and women). We asked them how they wanted to be communicated with, and it turned out to be a combination of text messaging, Facebook, Tweets and e-mails. We then went as far as to let them choose how they wanted to be communicated with, what days they wanted to be communicated on, and even what products and locations they wanted to learn about.

In an era of making things as simple as possible to use, we created QR codes, a mobi site and websites as sign up portals. We don’t “spam” our users. We don’t sell their information. We simply provide them the information they want (value, product and location), when they want it (they choose the days) in the format they want it (e-mail, text, Facebook, tweet, etc). The results have been overwhelming…but then again, it’s about beer!!

Now, I’m not saying you need to run out and embrace all that techno weenies such as myself surround themselves with, but I would definitely get a clear understanding of who the center of my client/customer bulls-eye is and how to talk to them in a fashion they prefer.

Sorry, gotta’ run. Someone’s sending me smoke signals.

We will forgo money if we are having fun and doing killer creative. We will also forgo having fun to make money and do killer creative. We would always like for our clients to have three boxes checked, but we will settle for two checks. If they fall below two checks we ask them to seek advertising, marketing and public relations excellence elsewhere (we ask them very nicely and with a great deal of charm…you know how charming Chris Spiro can be).

When huddling with a client recently to discuss branding strategies, we talked about his client/customer list, and the topic of “good clients” and “bad clients “came around. He asked how we measure a good or bad client, and I took him through the aforementioned. He then wanted to know whether bad clients or bad customers negatively affect his brand. “Hell, yea!” was the short-and-sweet answer.

Whom you do business with and whom you associate your company with is a firm reflection of your company brand (and in many instances your personal brand). Those customers and vendors you align yourself with become your foot soldiers to future business, so there is an implied connection. Of course we recognize that if you are in a retail operation this is significantly more difficult than in a service industry or private sector.

The bottom line is that your customers and clients are part of the mix of who and what defines your brand. They are part of the overall experience that you must live up to in order to fulfill your company’s promise of delivering your services or products.

Maybe now during the start of the new year is a good time to take a hard look at who’s on your brand train. You may be surprised that some of them could derail your journey to success.