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Encourage Your Associates to “Show Off”

Encourage Your Associates to “Show Off”

She had the entire line of the check-out counter completely mesmerized. It was as if she was using us as her test audience for a comedy try-out. And she was funny and entirely unleashed. Yet, she never slowed her rhythmic action on the grocery story register and...

Customer Service as Community

Customer Service as Community

Today customers are way more particular about their return on investments of time, money, and energy. They would rather fund relationships than transactions. Stop treating your customers like consumers and start helping them feel like partners.

What Are You Wearing for Halloween?

What Are You Wearing for Halloween?

Customers enjoy happy, upbeat people who are eager to serve them. It need not be a “clown costume,” just one that conveys interest, enthusiasm, and kindness. Conversely, customers dislike dealing with unhappy, sour people who seem like they got up on the wrong side of the bed.

Great Customer Service as Boat Carpet

Great Customer Service as Boat Carpet

We broke the bank when we bought out our current house and built a large indoor spa off the master bedroom. It is a godsend at the end of a hectic day. When our three granddaughters come for a visit, the spa becomes an aquatic playground. We keep snorkels on hand and...

Innovation is the New Symbol of Survival

Innovation is the New Symbol of Survival

"What is something new and different your customers would say they have noticed recently?" It was a question I asked the CEO of a medium-sized company. The CEO, known for his impatience and strong personality, launched into a mini-sermon on the virtues of consistency....

Repeat Customers Are Not Necessarily Loyal Customers

Repeat Customers Are Not Necessarily Loyal Customers

Do you have loyal customers? If you said yes, I would ask, how do you know? Is it because they keep coming back? If that’s the case, I would call them repeat customers. To know if they are truly loyal customers requires a little more understanding.

The Curb Appeal of Innovative Service

The Curb Appeal of Innovative Service

Curb appeal. It is a fundamental tenet of residential real estate sales. And the concept applies way beyond the view from the curb to subtle detailed touches like a freshly baked apple pie in the kitchen. It is a recognition that a prospect's antennae include more...

The Allure of Simple Honesty

The Allure of Simple Honesty

Earlier this summer, my wife and I traveled over a thousand miles to get to the St. Lawrence River that separates the U.S. from Canada in upstate New York. We paid big bucks to hire the very best fishing guide in the Alexandria Bay area—Aziel Snyder. If was a perfect...

Making Special Days Special, Not About Specials

Making Special Days Special, Not About Specials

I was walking through a large retail store today and they were taking down all the Independence Day paraphernalia to replace them with sales goods themed around Labor Day. It made me sad. I could not help but view it as a metaphor for our short-term, time’s up world...

Necessity is the Mother of Customer Co-Creation

Necessity is the Mother of Customer Co-Creation

Necessity is the mother of invention. And few things are more necessary to the success of an organization than customers. Leave that thought on the page and we will return to it very shortly. Napoleon knew that a military force was only as successful as the food it...

Are Your Customers Seeing Monsters?

Are Your Customers Seeing Monsters?

My dad's favorite childhood story was when a rural pond full of skinny dippers claimed they all saw a huge, evil monster. Every time he told the story, he would laugh so hard at the punchline he got tears in his eyes. Here is the short version… At the annual hog...