Sadly, customer perception molds customer reality. This reality may not be true, but to the customer, it is their reality. If companies want to create better customer experiences, it behooves the company to understand the various realities cust...

Companies can lose BIG money when they deliver a product that looks, and feels inferior to the original sample. This happens all too often. Why? Companies want to pad profitability by using cheaper raw materials for the order fulfillment produc...

Many of us split our work week between our homes and company offices. Trade professionals transition from job to job in the same day. Each of us has common tools of our trade to work quickly and efficiently. However, many of us come to a work l...

We invite you to follow us for two minutes per week. With a small weekly investment of 120 seconds, you will come away with two business questions designed to stimulate your thoughts about how to improve customer satisfaction. Follow. Like. Sha...

I could pay for a weekend at a ski resort If I had a dollar for every time a business associate printed an attachment, but ignored the email it came with! The accompanying emails often contain special instructions, requests, conditions, or prev...

Many buyers prefer to order products and services independent of interacting with customer service personnel. Does your order entry process service “do it yourself” purchasing?

Can your customers effectively order product from your catalog? Or, do your customers have to go on a hunt and peck internet search to gather the information they need to place an order, just because your catalog is not informative enough? If y...

Perception is a two-sided coin, but only one side truly matters! Does customer perception matter to your company? Some executives are blinded by self-pats on their backs while delivering mediocre service. Are your eyes opened to the cruddy serv...

Giving something extra is another way of expressing customer appreciation. L’agniappe is a Cajun expression that labels a mindset of giving something extra. To the Cajun culture, it is a conscious mindset that encourages usage. The trick is to ...

The reality is that 80% of handwritten notes will get thrown away. The remaining 20% will quietly love them, save them, cherish them , or reciprocate by responding back. This applies to customers, spouses, kids, grandkids and friends. I would m...

Expressing appreciation is a dying principal in modern business. There is no way around this. Saying THANK YOU to customers is all but dead. An expression of appreciation on a paper, or text receipt is not making any customer feel warm and fuzz...

Why? Why? Why? In my 35 years of doing business, whenever there are problems, customers always want to know why. However, so many vendors get a failing grade when it comes to answering this simple question. If you want to make customers really ...

Customers defect after they have endured enough doses of la-di-da service. Time is the currency of the Experience Economy. When customers sense the violation of their time, they usually say goodbye to that vendor. It is simply their way to puni...

What would customers say if you asked them what they thought of your customer service? Would they describe it as a lackadaisical approach to servicing orders, or a professional, well oiled machine? Talk to your customers. Be your customer. Find...

Business is looking and feeling too casual these days. We operate at WARP speed, cutting corners, multitasking constantly. Then, amidst all this chaos, we partially answer questions with cryptic, text abbreviations. Our associates, or customers...

What if we became Chief Encouraging Officers at the office? Most of us spend more time working than we do with our own families. As a result, the workplace often takes on the role of our second family. Knowing this, why don’t more leaders adopt...

Intercompany divisions, often pursue goals, and objective specific to their operational structure. However, lost in the shuffle, is tying all the divisions together, so that everyone works in a harmonized effort to satisfy the customer. Are you...

The first 30 seconds we meet potential customers is all we have to make a good first impression. When we succeed, we launch the transaction process with the wind at our back. When we don’t succeed, we dig an unnecessary hole that can often be h...

We often hit the business “Danger Zone” when we blindly copy and paste attractive-sounding business procedures, instead of critically thinking critically about our own business. Where are you in this click and drag world? Do you manage by shall...

The answers to improved profitability often hide deep below the way things look on the surface. Are you a detail-surfer, snorkeler or scuba diver? Maybe it’s time to do a deep dive to become more profitable.

When it comes to faulty behavior, societal trends often suggest we adopt a blame-shifting mindset over a self-ownership model. However, in business it is quite the opposite because the orders usually stop flowing when a customer is dissatisfied...

How to keep customers is not a topic often discussed in business board rooms. We spend a lot of board room time talking about getting new customers. However, we need to spend as much time discovering more ways to increase customer satisfaction ...

Customers can easily tell when they are unwanted. As businesses, we like to think we put the welcome mat out for everybody. However, sometimes we send the wrong message to our inquiring customers. Is it time for your company to audit what you a...

The concept of being an expert leaves little room for improvement. Do we really want put our products and services on a self-proclaimed pedestal, or do we want to come across with an air of humility? 

Are you actually listing a phone number? Are you actually answering calls, recording voice mails, listening to these voice messages, and then acting on them? If you are not managing the phone properly, you are running the risk of creating unhap...