Are Your Assumptions Causing Inefficiency?

You see the same scenarios every day as you interact with customers. Patterns start to emerge and you start to make assumptions. In so doing, you may be walking into trouble and great inefficiencies. Last week I went to renew my driver's license at the Department of Public Safety (DPS) office. … [Read more...]

Please Stick With It. It’s Worth It.

Your customer just bought your product. What are you doing to make sure it isn't returned? For my birthday this year, my wife got me a new electric razor. In reviewing the enclosed documentation, I saw a sheet of paper stating: Please stick with it. It's worth it. Like many of the finer … [Read more...]

Book Review: Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty Is Priceless

We all say that we love our customers and always do the best we can for them. Of course we do! Our "customer satisfaction" scores are high! Jeffrey Gitomer's customer service manifesto Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty Is Priceless teaches exactly why the "satisfaction" … [Read more...]

Patriotism Alone Won’t Sell Your Product

Toyota recently became the world's largest auto maker by outselling longstanding US giant General Motors. On the heels of this news, I saw two TV commercials that highlight two very different ways of selling vehicles. Ford's commercial showed me historical images of the American past. The … [Read more...]

Weekend Reading – May 12th

I found these great posts in Problogger's Top 5 Group Writing Project: Top 5 Internet Marketing Mistakes -- You should never make a change unless you can measure the result. How else will you know if it was successful? If you market on the web, this is a good list of things to remember. … [Read more...]

Your Small Business is Worth More than a Free Email Address

Your company must make a professional first impression with potential customers. Don't set yourself up for failure by being cheap. I drove behind an electrical contractor's truck this week. This small business owner had big magnets on the sides of his truck with his company name and email … [Read more...]

Once You Start, Don’t Stop

A consistent customer experience is paramount to your business success. Once a customer gets a taste of great service, you better keep on delivering! Predictable Company Response My family and I had a DiGiorno pizza this week. Unfortunately, it was missing a large section of cheese. Since I … [Read more...]

The Secret to Local Marketing

Are you more likely to buy from a local company than a national chain? What if a local company started in your backyard and then grew to national fame? Businesses that feel like they are local can have a competitive advantage over cookie-cutter generic national or global brands. Ice cream shop … [Read more...]