Imagine a well-intentioned phone call that gets really ugly in 20 seconds? This happened to me recently. Why? The answer is simple…I let my professional guard down. I initiated the call in a casual manner, while I multi-tasked in the background. Twenty seconds into the call I ran into a POW!!! Why? I made two mistakes that I have been avoiding since 1985. For a large part of my career, I paid the bills by making 40-50 phone calls per day. Now, as a former trainer, phone specialist, and experienc...
Nov 23, 2023•6 min•Season 5Ep. 214
For many of us, phone conversations are happening less and less compared to 10, or 20 years ago. The same trend is happening in business. Is it time to rebuild those verbal muscles? Today we look at this evolution, and ask ourselves some relevant questions. Are we ready to receive, or make difficult phone calls? What happens when a simple business conversation takes a quick turn, and then suddenly things get heavy? Should business owners and operators look at telephone engagement as a trainable ...
Nov 16, 2023•5 min•Season 5Ep. 213
No reply has now become one of the favorite ways for buyers to say no. As business owners and operators, this style of saying “NO” may seem inviting for our own use. After all, we can avoid confrontation by never having to explain our decisions. However, this trend could also be packed with a trailer load of negative effects on our business! True, trust-building partnerships will not be healthy with vendors who cannot take the time to explain the "why." On the flip side, ghosting from a current ...
Nov 09, 2023•5 min•Season 5Ep. 212
Do our customers see us as true client-success partners, clinical processors, or servant stewards of their time and money? What kind of customer service experiences are we delivering to paying customers? It is incumbent on ownership, executives, and managers, to fully understand the impact service departments have on buyers. The buck stops with those three capacities of the corporate machine. The current business climate will bury companies that deliver unacceptable transactional care. Customers...
Nov 02, 2023•5 min•Season 5Ep. 211
The question for this show is an age-old chin-rubber. Are business shortcuts really worth it? What are the typical end results on the backside of vendor claims that the four-hour job can be completed in two hours, or that four-day job can be wrapped up two days? In my life, the results are mixed, with the highest percentage leaning towards low quality of work. Reality dictates that rapid job completion is often associated with a host of unwanted problems for customers. So, the various questions ...
Oct 26, 2023•5 min•Season 5Ep. 210
Learning the mathematical power of customer defection rocked my world in 1988. For 35 years I have been chasing the reasons, and solutions. Season 5 continues our hunt for ways to make customers happy, and to keep them coming back. The headwinds of the Experience Economy beckon the necessity to change our go forward coordinates. If we don’t change, the dreaded Silent Business Killers (SBKs) will overshadow our efforts. The business graveyard is full of companies that refused to, or did not know ...
Oct 19, 2023•12 min•Season 5Ep. 209
Youthful innocence has the ability to reveal certain simplicities of life, and business, that are often hidden inside adulthood complexities! A handful of these bedrock simplicities flooded my mind one spring day in 2023. Three yards of mulch, and 35 wheelbarrows later, I found myself with a short list of foundational observations that can help any of our professional endeavors. Where did I obtain these valuable insights? From my seven-year-old grandson! Today I share what happened on that sprin...
Oct 12, 2023•9 min•Season 4Ep. 208
Imagine how intimidating high-mountain roads could be, if there were no guardrails to protect cars from going off the edge? Processes deliver safety to businesses, in the same way that guardrails protect cars on dangerous roads. Designing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) enables our businesses to pave a multi-lane, super-highway for operational consistency, efficiency, and profitability, However, how often is the customer the main beneficiary of our process expressways? That is our question ...
Oct 05, 2023•5 min•Season 4Ep. 207
Sam Walton loved this principle, and he used it as one of his top 10 concepts to drive Wal-Mart to meteoric heights. In 1988, I took a chance with this mindset, and it turned our 5.5-million-dollar company into a 12-million-dollar company in 2 years. Imagine exceeding corporate expectations by exchanging a company-centric formula, for a customer-centric recipe? Today we tell a pretty cool story (at least I think it is cool), about building a productive sandbox that is a polar opposite from the c...
Sep 28, 2023•6 min•Season 4Ep. 206
Today we look at the all-to-common dilemma of mismanaging customer questions. I once worked with an ex-TV news reporter, who actually created a company devoted to teaching the art of “question deflection.” In fact, this person did quite well. Why? Because there is an enormous corporate appetite for manipulating customer questions. Do we really think that customers like our clever, devious, and manipulative ways of managing their queries? Or, how about the recent trend to just “ghost” customer qu...
Sep 21, 2023•6 min•Season 4Ep. 205
In life, we find that answers to many of our questions can be found hidden in simplicity. The same holds true for business. Today we look at the silver lining of viewing our businesses through a very raw, elementary, and basic lens. Granted, we all thrive on selling a product or service that produces a payment, but what about the journey we take customers on to that payment? Often times it’s in these “transactional stretches” that we create the most impactful favorable, or unfavorable impression...
Sep 14, 2023•4 min•Season 4Ep. 204
Long-term business success can be severely hampered by employees who streak! What is streaking? What are the easy ways to detect if streaking is happening in our companies? What impact can streaking have on our customers? Join us as we uncover three, simple concepts that can eliminate streaking, and set up guardrails to avoid streaking events in the future. Support the show
Sep 07, 2023•6 min•Season 4Ep. 203
The business boneyard is full of companies that were infected with “circular” customer service! Are we taking customers on a never-ending journey, that seems full of lip service, and zero action? Like a mouse on a wheel, many customers experience the ugliness of pursuing service, only to find their efforts lead them around, and around, and around, with no resolution in sight. My wife and I just endured such a three-month journey, and it was not our first such experience. Many of us have experien...
Aug 31, 2023•4 min•Season 4Ep. 202
Cryptic communication, tardy responses, shoddy detail management, and unanswered customer questions can cripple business success, and hamper future growth. On the flip side, prompt and detailed correspondence can help companies grow by exceeding customer expectations. However, both sides of this coin rest on the shoulders of managing email activity. So, why do so few companies touch on this? Why do so many owners and managers leave such an important function up to personal preference? What do ou...
Aug 24, 2023•5 min•Season 4Ep. 201
Overseeing 8,000 employees creates unique vantage points for assessing business. Wesley uses his career background to support the notion that professional selling is a noble calling, and that this career path is loaded with premier leadership opportunities. We are honored that Wes joins us to highlight, and define, key elements of the profession that many of us are proud to be associated with. This is a great episode to share with anyone still contemplating their potential career path. We have s...
Aug 17, 2023•1 hr 38 min•Season 4Ep. 200
Exceptional customer service starts with an understanding that the complexities of life are behind every business veneer we encounter. All business professionals have lives that can directly affect their work attitudes. As service providers, we don’t always know what our customers are encountering in their personal lives. In fact, we have no idea how good, or bad their day, week, month, or year is going. However, we can always be sensitive to the notion that they are navigating life challenges, ...
Aug 10, 2023•6 min•Season 4Ep. 199
Imagine perceiving that all of our daily work activities serve a customer! Well, in reality they do! Whether it’s an invoice paying patron, an associate, a teammate, vendor, supplier, direct report, or even a boss, we have an opportunity to demonstrate good business stewardship. Set aside five minutes for this contemplative message. Imagine adopting a simple mindset that can leave a trail of smiling fans along the road to a rewarding, fruitful and productive career? Enjoy! Support the show...
Aug 03, 2023•6 min•Season 4Ep. 198
Giving sincere business compliments can kickstart healthy and productive relationships. The power of authenticity and genuineness are unspoken business qualities that are routinely overlooked. However, every generation seems to respond favorably to business professionals who consistently display these tenants. This show encourages us to harness the art of delivering accolades that matter to the receiver. We can set ourselves apart from the competition by highlighting a hard-earned achievement of...
Jul 27, 2023•6 min•Season 4Ep. 197
After 35 years in business, I have seen, and heard, my fair share of vendors who default to situational fabrication while resolving customer issues. There are many problems with transaction fabrications, but the most glaring is unspoken. In many cases, the customer can sense the lies and embellishment, yet they will rarely tell us that their “BS Radar” has picked up our deviancy. They simply disappear, leaving the vendor with no chance of obtaining repeat, or referral business. So today, our sho...
Jul 20, 2023•5 min•Season 4Ep. 196
Sharing stories of life can often begin the restoration process for people who have endured similar experiences. Amada Blackwood shares her remarkable story of escape, and survival, from the horrors of human trafficking. Knowing that many others have been hurt by these dark corners of our world, Amanda shines her bright light with a message of hope and healing. This is a “Pay it Forward” episode that could benefit someone you know, and care about. Thank you, Amanda! Support the show...
Jul 13, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 195
Observant buyers can effectively read the tea leaves of business behavior. Savvy customers can sense when they are about to walk into a service mess, or a buyer’s paradise. Baseball pitchers often telegraph their upcoming pitch. They do this by defaulting to unique, repetitive, pre-release throwing mechanics that their opposition learns through observation. Businesses do the same thing. Often times our customers know when we are about to deliver bad service, or no service at all. This show encou...
Jul 06, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 194
What would companies look like if the C-Suite personnel engaged in the routine duties of every employee position? The annual figures are about the same for start-up companies compared to businesses that shut their doors. After watching transactional behaviors for over 30 years, I can comfortably claim that many of these dead enterprises died on the “Experience Economy” battlefield. Quite frankly, many of these companies went to the boneyard because they routinely delivered dissatisfying experien...
Jun 29, 2023•6 min•Season 4Ep. 193
Why do some businesses deliberately choose to do what is wrong, even when they know their decision will lead to customer dissatisfaction? To coin an old phrase, some business actions stick out like a sore thumb. Many times, the pain suffered from these actions hurts worse than that sore thumb? So why do we do these things? Do we understand the true cost of serving up service we know is bad before we deliver it? Referrals are essential to the success of many business models. Likewise, a necessary...
Jun 22, 2023•5 min•Season 4Ep. 192
What are the various ways we engage with customers? More importantly, how do we engage with our customers. Do we wing our encounters and default to verbal wrestling. Do we blurt out the first thought that bubbles up, or do we patiently listen before a careful response? Do we put thought into what we will say, should say, and do say? This episode will open up a vault on the QSS principle, which was initially taught well over 2000 years ago. Support the show...
Jun 15, 2023•6 min•Season 4Ep. 191
Acquiring experience-oriented opinions about purchases can be an arduous task, resulting in excessive costs, and low engagement. This show looks at where to find inexpensive, and expansive information about what buyers think, and how they feel about our businesses. Enjoy! Support the show
Jun 08, 2023•5 min•Season 4Ep. 190
How often do we recognize the golden opportunities tucked inside of negative events? Probably not as much as we should. Turning lemons into lemonade is an overused cliché, that is undercapitalized in real life. Processing a warranty claim presents a viable opportunity to embrace this cliché, and deliver a customer-centric experience. Consumers understand that problems may arise, and all they really want is professional and expeditious issue resolution. It is at this intersection that many compan...
Jun 01, 2023•4 min•Season 4Ep. 189
As we take the week off from our “3 Biz Tips in 5 Minutes” podcast series, we invite you to Join us as we catch up with Gordon Manzione. The last time we connected was on Episode #43, dating back to August 13, 2020. Today we chat with Gordon about Australia, America, and his unique, creative, and evolving gift of video storytelling. Always candid, engaging, and good natured, Gordon will leave you smiling! Thanks for tuning in, and cheers to the GLHS class of 1976! G-MAN https://www.youtube.com/@...
May 25, 2023•53 min•Season 4Ep. 188
Imagine reducing the quantity of time in order to increase the quality of service? We invite you to tag along for a five-minute broadcast that unveils the customer-pleasing math of delivering exceptional service in the Experience Economy. More or less, this episode is all about accomplishing more, with less! Are you a “720 Company”, or a “120 Company?” Enjoy the show! Support the show
May 18, 2023•5 min•Season 4Ep. 187
Want better customer experiences? If so, then how about we start by examining the very packaging we use to get our products into the marketplace. How do our parcels really look when they hit front porches or receiving docks? It may seem trite on the surface, but we do send our customers perception-building messages, each time we ship a product. Stop and ask yourself one question. How many times have you received a delivery that was poorly prepared for the long, and sometimes rugged haul by carri...
May 11, 2023•4 min•Season 4Ep. 186
This five-minute show highlights a few simple, customer-centric guardrails for print catalog design and layout. Buyers want tools that make their job easier. Client-success is magnified when vendors address this basic mindset. These five minutes invite you to think of the word “TOOL” the next time you embark on a catalog layout. The ultimate challenge in creating cool, customer-friendly catalogs, is striking a healthy balance between creative graphics, and rapid, end-user functionality. Support ...
May 04, 2023•5 min•Season 4Ep. 185
