When displeasing repetitive patterns continue without any change, aggravation grows, and customers disappear. Eventually the rubber band of customer grace breaks, and they are lost for good. It is essential for companies to determine their disp...

Many products require subcontractors to play a vital role producing what has been designed. If the final product quality is compromised, we have to alert these partners, and ask for them to modify their production in order to achieve success. I...

Lost customers are the death of most young businesses. Finding out why customers are defecting is essential to long-term sustainability. How do you find out? Talk to your customers, and spend time thinking about things as if you were the custom...

“SPINIPULATORS” combine spinning plus manipulating to wreak internal, and external havoc. These truth-distorters vomit false narratives designed to elevate themselves at the expense of other teammates. We can knock them off their perch with fac...

Most customers are smarter than we give them credit for. Perpetual excuse- making vendors put themselves at high risk for a short business life. Many buyers can easily detect vendor BS, and the quick penalty is a lost customer. Sadly, often tim...

Calculating all the variables that go into a establishing a standard cost is anarduous process. Like it or not, this is where we have to put on our lab coats, and become a doctor of details. Bypassing certain cost components can be deadly t...

I started a business in 1990 and it suffered from a fundamental mistake. We built our financial projections based on $69 a transaction. However, had I done my research, I would have discovered that the area market rate was $45. The company last...

Do you charge customers for warranty, shipping and handling? If so, are you sure that’s the way you wanna do things? When customers pay for mistakes they didn’t make, they usually disappear into thin air. Think about it! Do you really ...

Customers like companies that proactively pave the way for smooth transactions.. Reactive companies do very little paving, which usually results in clunky, and troublesome transactions. Proactive companies eliminate obstacles before they occur....

Employee buy-in can be much deeper, and more productive if management leads by example. The days of executives telling employees to do one thing, and then they do another are long gone. Managers who grab an order and row with the team become an...

Do you advocate for customers? How often? To what degree? Do customers bear witness to instances where you deliver on advocating for them, or do they just hear empty words? We all have inter-company directives, goals, and objectives, but the em...

“I’ll explain our price once, but I’ll never apologize for our quality.” The words of Terry McManus were defensible. So many business people operate in a “Word Salad World” where empty statements cannot be converted into provable claims. First ...

Schemes and scams are a fast track to the business boneyard! Customer are way more intelligent than scammers give them credit for. Maybe it’s time to do a full company-scrape for any unwanted schemes and scams being conducted by your personnel?...

During my career I have witnessed dozens of executives avoid managing tough business situations. Why? I’m not totally certain, but most of the times it seems rooted in mistaken identity. In other words, they see their obligation to manage as an...

Proactivity is a wonderful business quality, but sometimes unique situations require reactions to solve an issue. Contingency plans can’t always be planned out, but many times that can. Has your company ever examined the various contingencies t...

“When you’re wrong, admit quickly and emphatically.” Dale Carnegie’s sagewisdom remains as powerful today, as when he uttered them 90 years ago.Humility is an endearing human trait that is dissolving away in modern business.How abou...

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Harold Geneen’s simple, yetpowerful words can be a bright light in a dark room. Company performance, and customer perception has to be convertible into metrics that can paint a factual picture...

Using acronyms can often sound like cryptic, mumbo-jumbo to the customer ear.Perhaps it is time to exchange unfamiliar acronyms with names, and descriptionsthat customers can actually understand, and relate to?

Imagine an Octopus with eight sucker-bearing arms, a soft body, and a strong beaklike jaw. Now transfer this image to what happens when a company lies to a customer. Each outright lie (body) ends up requiring many sub-lies (sucker-bearing arms)...

Features, features, features. What about the benefits? Many companies fail to explain the “WHY” when it comes to listing features. in the features. What if you were to pair every feature with a benefit. “The real benefit to you” is a phrase mor...

Customer transactions travel a road of various micro-experiences (transactional components) that shape buyer’s opinions, perceptions, repeat and referral business. Collectively, these components are called Experience Events (EE). Are your ident...

Customer complaints can set up course corrections for companies that are going off road! The keys to getting back on track are 1) listening to the customer (not just hearing), 2) being humble enough to accept the criticism, 3) and being smart e...

The appetite for “DIY” products and services has never been higher. What does your company do to cater to this modern mindset? Assuming no salesperson will aid potential customers, what information are you providing to assist informed decisions...

Are you in need of some additional ‘WOW” factors in your business presentations to customers? One of the coolest ways to do this is to search your facts, features, and benefits vault for things you have never communicated to customers. Once dis...

Perception and facts often compete for the truth. Perhaps it is time to start examining the perceptions customer have of your business, and the services that are delivered. Often times companies lose customers just because their bad impressions...