Scotland, it has to be said, when it comes to businesses, is not the most online-literate or friendly country. Many of the media are barely online, many businesses still don’t have anything past a basic website (and many grudge even that) never mind social media or digital PR.

I’ve had an often nagging feeling about why, but it’s true: many Scottish businesses can’t stand their customers, so why would they go near anything that lets customers get in touch – or Heaven forbid, give them money?

This point was actually struck home to me a few weeks ago at the New Start Scotland event. During a talk from NS Design, the presenter, Gary, pointed out that social media like Twitter and Facebook were great ways to interact with the marketplace, potential customers and current customers. Now, up until that point most of the crowd had a look of interest and curiosity. At the mention of ‘engagement’ the crowd went to looks of dismissal (“speak to customers? As if!”) or horror at the thought of having to engage with these customer things who come into shops or contact you.

I’m not even talking about the more extreme cases like customers being turned away from B&Bs because they’re gay, just everyday dealings. Being friendly, polite, customer-facing, smiling, coming across as if you enjoy your work. Because if you can’t come across as pleasant and happy, why should someone give you their money? Customers in this day and age don’t hand over money because they have to, they hand it over because they want to. There are very few companies out there who don’t have competitors and if you aren’t at the top of your game, customers will go to them.

Now, I’m not saying it’s all businesses. Many of them use digital and social media really well (BrewDog are a case in point) but for the vast majority, it’s just not on. And they’ll lose out in the long run because of it. Using B&Bs as an example, you can be quirky enough to hook people into booking you online months if not years before they travel. If you’re really quirky they may book a trip around you!

And until that attitude changes, stores will lose sales and custom. They’ll miss out on getting new customers and keeping old, building relationships. And the biggest problem is that they won’t see it’s their own fault.

Social media and digital engagement can do wonderful things for many companies, but the tools are not the trick to learn from this: it’s the mindset of seeing what others want, listening to what others want and engaging with them if you want their money. And coming across as doing it because you enjoy what you do. Because happiness and enthusiasm are a core part of the customer-facing experience now.