That competitor across the street is plotting to steal your customers right now. Could your marketing be making it easy for them? Typically, it’s not big things that lose customers; they’re too obvious. Costly mistakes are usually the little ones, easily overlooked in your daily buzz of doing business.

How clean are your trays?

Customers see things you don’t. Dirty tray-tables left airline passengers wondering about engine maintenance. “If they can’t get the little things right, what about the big things?” surveyed passengers told Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. in their 1982 book, In Search of Excellence.

While some of the so-called “excellent” companies have gone by the wayside, their principles of excellence still apply. Learning from the customer, for example, helped expose these marketing mistakes:

These little things will cost you customers

1. Stale advertising
Running an ad too long is like not running any at all. Once it reaches a customer more than three or four times, an ad quickly loses effectiveness. Easy fix: update copy regularly. Instead of one ad, create a campaign of three. Add a new one monthly while deleting the oldest. A high-frequency campaign demands updates more often.

2. Out-of-date website
Does your site still promote a spring special in August? Does it list products or services no longer available? Your site often makes the first impression. Keeping it current is critical. Generic “evergreen” content won’t help either. We launched a new client site this year that gets updated weekly. A lot of work? Yep. But, it’s worth it: site traffic increased 155%, store traffic is up, receipts too–all in a down economy.

3. Freemail address
Using gmail, hotmail, or other free email for business tells the world you’re not serious. Anyone can get a gmail account, order cards, and call themselves a business. You’re better than that. Emails should be an extension of your web address. It’s easy and you’re probably paying for it already: most web hosting packages include email. Fix this today.

4. After-hours voicemail
Advertising 24-hour service but using after-hours voicemail literally chases customers away. I don’t call at 2:30 in the morning to leave a message. I need a human now. So, forward calls to a tech. Or, at least hire a service. Then, advertise it. We tag one client’s ads with “you always get a person, never a machine.” Even if they never call, customers know you’re always there.

5. Slow response
If you solicit inquiries on your website, be prepared to respond–quickly. Web leads cool in minutes. Same day isn’t fast enough. A prompt reply demonstrates commitment. Same goes for comments on Angie’s list, Yelp!, Twitter, etc. Whiners are easily outnumbered by those checking your track record. Responding promptly to complaints, even from whiners, builds trust and protects your brand.

Twenty more where those came from

There are probably at least 20 x 20 x 20 more ways simple marketing mistakes chase off customers. Go address these. It will put you head-and-shoulders above most competitors—especially that one across the street.

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