Blog
Deliver Pontoon Customer Service
Pontoon boats are fantastic! I have had my share of speedboats, rafts, and canoes. But the versatility of a pontoon boat cannot be beaten! It can carry eight people on a leisurely late afternoon boat ride complete with proper adult beverages. It can make grandchildren...
Excelling without Yelling
Guest post from Mike Horne. Sam was at it again with Brian, long-term colleagues, this time in a meeting with 70 others. The exchange between Sam and Brain was familiar to many and always disturbing and disruptive. Sam said, “You’re stupid if you think that will...
Celebrating National Jellybean Day with Customers
There is a fruit and vegetable stand in North Georgia that found a way to celebrate customers in a unique way every single day. The owner discovered the www.nationalday.com website. It turns out every day of the year is celebrated for something. When we drove by the...
Spring: A Time for Courageous Service
Spring has sprung,Fall has fell.Winter’s here,And it’s cold as…usual. It was my first introduction to poetry. I was seven and all the second-grade boys thought the little poem was bold and smutty. We only recited it in the spring when we were feeling our oats. At...
What Leaders Can Learn from Crazy Horse – Part 2
When you played cowboys and Indians as a kid, did you want to be the cowboy or the Indian? I wanted to be the Indian. All the ones I saw in comic books had supercool moccasins and could move around with their bow and arrows without making a sound. And there were...
What Leaders Can Learn from Crazy Horse – Part 1
We live in an era of statue-removal. Meanwhile the largest mountain carving in the world is under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota just seventeen miles from Mount Rushmore. The final carving will be 640 feet long and over 50 stories high. The subject of...
Reach: The Leadership Side of Purpose-Driven
“A man’s [person’s] reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for.” It was a Robert Browning quote I admired even before I fully understood what it meant. It is not about purpose, it is about a pathway to purpose, along the lines of a focus on the journey...
The Magic of Service “Robust, Harper-Style”
Robust is a super cool word. It means strong, vigorous, and full-bodied. But, in the hands of our 9½-year-old grandniece, Harper Jane, it has a more majestic meaning and provides a powerful lesson for creating value-unique customer experiences. Here is the backstory....
Love as a Customer Retention Strategy
She was over-the-top friendly. Her eye hugs made you feel you were in the presence of a forever friend. As she rang up my purchase at the checkout counter of the well-known department store, she commented on my cowboy boots. “You’re either from Texas or you got a heap...
The Leader’s Guide to Valentines
I bet you think this is going to be a blog about praising and affirming your employees. Valentines are obviously those colorful cards with sweet “be my valentine” sayings and pink graphics. We all like getting them, even if it makes us feel a bit silly. But the...
Customers Want “the Second Shot!”
I was fortunate enough yesterday to get my second COVID-19 vaccine. It was a giant relief, one that more than compensated for twenty-four hours of arm soreness. It was the peace of mind that, despite vaccine shortage or administrative challenges, I am now protected—at...
Do You Have a Customer Trim?
. It takes knowing the customer well enough to anticipate issues; it requires trusting the customer; and it takes caring enough to have solutions ready to ensure smooth sailing.
The Moral of the Donkey in the Well
There is an antique story about an old donkey who fell in the farmer’s abandoned well. Crying out, the donkey alerted the farmer who summoned his nearby neighbors to help him get the donkey out of the deep well. Their efforts proved totally fruitless. So, the...
How Do You Get the CEO to Care About Customers?
I believe smart organizations are customer-centric and have spent a career beating that particular drum. It is my job is to champion that perspective to the best of our ability.
“Did You Find Everything You Were Looking For?”
This is about the thinking behind the customer’s experience. So, don your most whimsical hat, take a few risks, and turn your enterprise into something sparkly and joyful.