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 previous agreements that act as addendums to the attachment. Are you training your associates to pay attention to both components of correspondence they receive? Support the show

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? Support the show

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 you are making customers go through more investigating to order, then it is time for the marketing department to wakey-wakey! Support the show

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 service your customers are getting from you? Time to wakey-wakey! Support the show

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 provide this “extra” something without the recipient asking for it. What about you? How well do you deploy L’agniappe? Support the show

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 much rather put a smile on the 20% audience who appreciates receiving a heartfelt message. What about you? We invite you to go a little “old school” by exploring the magic of handwritten notes. Support the show

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 fuzzy. When are you going to pick up the phone, write a handwritten note, or send some chocolates to a customer? Support the show

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 happy, start telling them why there are issues with their orders…don’t just tell them there are issues. The main question on their mind is why. When will you start providing answers to the most prevalent question in business? Support the show

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 punish bad service. Where is your company in this cause and effect equation? Is it time to revise your service mindset? Support the show

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 out what they think, and then throw away the Ladida approach and exchange it for a buttoned up approach. What say you? Support the show

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 often ask us 2,3 or 4 questions at once, and then we go on to answer in unintelligible, short-hand quips that have tons of grey area, and, we only answer one of the multiple questions. This leads to misinterpretation, mistakes ensue, customers defect, ...

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 a mindset of knowing employees by name, and knowing a little about their families? Maybe your employees are going through something, and encouragement could help their situation. We invite our audience to start knowing more about their employees. Try b...

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 your internal divisions pursuing divisional success over total customer satisfaction? It’s a fair question that many companies need to answer. How about your company? Support the show

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 hard to climb out of. What is happening in your company with those first 30 seconds of customer interaction? Support the show

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 shallow convenience, or by deep thought? Support the show

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. Support the show

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. In business we have to buck the societal leanings, eat some humble pie, and then accept the fact that we need to improve to get the orders flowing again. This takes a mindset of humility. Are you will to eat some humble pie in order to serve your cust...

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 so we can retain the buyers we have. What about your company? Is it time for a new mindset? Support the show

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 are projecting to customers? Support the show

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? Support the show