Over the weekend I went to the UK to my best friend Wil’s wedding. I’m happy to say everything went very well, including my best man speech! We stayed at the Hilton in Warwick, and again just about everything was perfect. The staff were friendly and attentive.

My only gripe was that Hilton in their wisdom make a charge to their hotel guests to use the hotel car park! Yes the same guests who are spending money staying at the hotel and eating and drinking at it are charged the princely sum of £3 per day to park their cars there.

To me this is absolutely bizarre, it is not the amount of money they are charging that worries me it is the principle of the who thing. Why would you risk alienating your customers over something this trivial. Surely if I’m spending a few hundred pounds to stay the weekend it is a bit unnecessary to charge me to park my car. It is not like they were short of space, they have a big car park that was only maximum 10% full.

Often the smallest things in your business can annoy your customers the most. Make sure that you aren’t doing anything silly in your business that might jeopardise the relationship you have worked hard to cultivate with your clients and prospects.