So I figured it was time to get some company credit cards, just in case. 

And as Publicity Heaven is a member and supporter of the FSB, it made sense to apply for an FSB credit card and help the organisation earn some commission.

What a nightmare. 

First of all the application link on the FSB website was broken. And no-one at MBNA (who run the scheme) answered the phone for a good five minutes. That’s when ringing the special “I’m a member of the FSB and I want to be a new customer please” phone number!

So I rang the FSB directly to give them some feedback. Turns out they knew the link was broken and “are looking into it”. Then the final blow… the lady on the phone told me the FSB credit card is for individuals not limited companies. 

Ah. Perhaps you should have mentioned that on your website. Before I wasted 15 minutes trying to get one.

My point here is not to have a rant. It’s how easily a bad experience (albeit a minor one) has turned into negative PR for the FSB. 

In the internet age a blog like this leaves a permanent record on the internet. In a year’s time, someone Googling “FSB credit card” could find this post and decide not to bother, based on my experience.

There’s a lesson for every business there.

It allows the crime to be shown with the court report.

Not good PR for a certain sandwich chain.

Again the people running Little Chef came over badly.

At the end of programme Heston – surely the UK’s most amiable chef – was threatening to walk out because there was no sign of any commitment from Little Chef.

He had redesigned the famous Olympic Breakfast and was quite fairly asking them to commit to five test sites instead of just one. Heston’s biggest fear about the project was that they were using him for publicity and not to really make a long-term change to the menu.

With one programme still to go, it increasingly looks that way.

At every turn the chief exec of Little Chef came over as insincere and false. His mouth was saying that he thought he had a real connection with Heston, but his eyes and actions were saying otherwise.

When the Little Chef board trooped into Heston’s restaurant to taste his new menu, they looked like a board. A bunch of suits who had lost touch with what was really happening in their restaurants.

If Little Chef’s goal for this was to reach people like me who haven’t eaten there for years and show me how much they’ve changed for the better (or are starting to change) – then so far they’ve failed. Let’s see what if tonight’s final episode turns this PR disaster around for them.

Heston is best known for running the world’s best restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray, and for being particularly inventive with food.

On last night’s programme he failed to introduce a good enough new menu. In the words of one customer, it was “too poncy”. I’m looking forward to see how he changes it in tonight’s programme (and can’t help but think that Gordon Ramsey could have done a better job, with the common touch he displays in his programme Restaurant Nightmares).

From a PR point of view however, Heston won last night. The Little Chef chief exec came across as closed, unsupportive, and unwilling to compromise. At one point he put the phone down on Heston mid-call, because he refused to give him gross profit figures for their food. Was he really interested in Heston’s help, or did he just want the publicity?

Good PR must have a grounding in being real. It would have been a PR coup for Little Chef had they genuinely wanted help from a top chef updating their menu, with the resultant attention helping to drive a new era of growth. If they only got Heston in as a stunt, this was never going to work.

Will Little Chef realise this in time? Apparently the food trial is still continuing right now at a branch in Hampshire. Can’t wait to watch tonight’s episode and see how it turns out.

Electronic communication is scarily permanent.

Websites like HelpHound are a record of people’s thoughts on your business.

And anything you write on your website or any email sent to a customer could come back and be used against you.

I’m currently listening to a replay of a consumer show item on BBC Three Counties Radio. A customer spent several thousand on artificial grass for their garden, and their children get static shocks from it. Unfortunately the supplying company has not helped them sort it out, and the radio station has been involved for a few weeks now.

The company hasn’t yet been named (yet), but emails between the company and customer have been read out as part of the “evidence” that the product isn’t right. If I ran that company I would want to get this sorted out ASAP, before it escalates any further.

How would you feel if emails sent by your staff were read out on a radio station’s consumer show?

It can happen in the flash of a camera.

No shockers there with its current problems.

Lending aside, the biggest problem Northern Rock currently has is a self-perpetuating PR crisis.

The first few people panicing and queuing to take their money out made others panic and join the queue. And that then makes more people panic.

We’re probably at the point now where people who were unmoved on Friday will be worried this morning by reports that £2 BILLION has been taken out already. I know if I had money in Northern Rock I’d probably be thinking very hard about it today.

While I was taking photos of the queue in York (hey, you don’t see this stuff every day) a retired man stopped to tell us he’s seen the same thing happen in Derby in the 70s or 80s, when a building society got into trouble. There were pictures of people taking wheelbarrows of cash out, which of course attracted more people to do the same.

Northern Rock seems to be doing the best it can – making it easier for customers to get their money out by opening longer. It’s hard to see what else it could do to stop the panic.

UPDATE: Monday 17th September at 6pm: And with one move, the government kills the PR crisis. Good move. Lets hope it works.

But that’s what the makers of Crocs woke up to this morning.

It’s an unusual story which shows two things: it’s a bit of a quiet news day, and Crocs are the must-have fashion items of the moment (why else would they get front page status?).

If a story like that hit your business, would you be ready to react? It’s virtually impossibly to anticipate every single angle that could be thrown at you, but you can plan for general themes.

Ensure you have brainstormed possibilities, have rough plans ready, have made it easy for journalists to speak to your key staff 24 hours a day, and your business is locked down to prevent leaks.

In this internet age where anyone can visit your business’s website, you also need to have a reaction for your customers as well as the media (as of 1pm today there’s nothing on the Crocs website).