Blog
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?
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.
Give Your Customers “The Knife”
Customers care when they share. Their participation elevates their allegiance when they are invited and encouraged to put skin in the game.
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
"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
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
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
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
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 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?
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...
Happy Wild DaisIes Day
The photo you see is a group of daisies on the side of my backyard. They are getting ready to celebrate Independence Day. While we traditionally wave Old Glory on this day, I want to wave wild daisies. Notice how they are all standing tall and proud—an appropriate...
The Parable of “He Waved Back”
It was raining hard. I was in the edge of a small town near where I live in a long line of “stop and go” traffic all slowed by the single traffic light in the center of town. A car from a side street was waiting to get in the line. I left a space between my car and...
Leadership—Unwrapped and Unadorned
The true story is a part of the Southwest Airlines folklore—stories you would retell around the corporate campfire. A customer repeatedly wrote a complaining letter after each of Southwest’s flights. She complained that Southwest did not have first-class, that they...
Putting the Pandemic into Perspective
Guest post by John Baldoni. No one wants to relive 2020. It was a year of pandemic, racial strife, economic crisis and climate catastrophes. This year, 2021 promises to be better; people are being vaccinated, jobs are returning, and a degree of congregant life is...