If you don’t know the gap between what your “employees perception” and your “customers perception” you can’t make the “right changes” to build differentiation.  Let me explain.  Customers have a very vivid perception about what they want the experience to be with your company - right, wrong or indifferent - it is reality to them.  [...]

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I just read a great article in Harvard Business Publishing, “In a downturn, please put aside pathetic platitudes,” written by John Baldoni.  The reason this is a great article is that it is “in your face” accurate on what really shouldn’t be going on in organizations.
John states in the article that when times are tough [...]

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I don’t know how many of you enjoy reading about Einstein or not but he had a quote that hung on his door at Princeton that to me was spot on in regard to your customers and generating more revenue. 
The quote was, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be [...]

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It just wouldn’t be appropriate to not have at least one blog entry related to the Olympics - this is my first (and maybe last).  I saw a great comment from the biggest name in the Olympics, Michael Phelps, and his coach, Bob Bowman that I felt needed to be discussed a bit.
In an interview, [...]

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When economic times become more and more uncertain this question seems to come up more and more - a direct correlation in my book.  Companies start to realize that what they were doing in good times doesn’t necessarily work in weaker times so this drives the “strategy question” of what should they now do differently. 
Strategy [...]

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I just read an article that I wanted to share with you.  It is called, “Three Uncustomary Customer Service Mindsets that Deliver.”  The reason I am pointing it out is that this is very typical about what most articles on customers experiences focus on - delivering exceptional service. 
So is this good or bad?  Most people [...]

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Today I read two blogs that were focused on something we have been preaching for many years - if the “lowest common denominator” in your business (customers and employees) don’t get it, nothing will change.
The first blog post actually led me to the second post.  The first post, “Dumb it up, People,” was posted on [...]

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I get asked this question all the time, “Should we just survey our customers to find out what they are thinking?”  Or some other question relating to the use of surveys to capture customer information.  Well, it depends is my usual answer.  It depends on WHAT kind of information you are looking to acquire.  If [...]

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I wrote and article about a month ago titled, “Be Disruptive, Build Loyalty and Consistently Beat your Competition - 5 Steps to Succeeding in Difficult Times.”  The article, I have to say, was a great benefit to a lot of people, at least there were a lot that downloaded the article.  Because of that response [...]

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I just read an interesting article in Marketing Profs that I wanted to share with you.  The article, “Three Uncustomer Customer Service Mindsets that Deliver,” gives the reader three different ways to potentially build a better experience and loyalty.
I left a comment on their site that basically said, good idea, but not something that will [...]

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