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88 posts

The Guest Model: Greet

Our favorite workflow acronym at The Brandt Group is GUEST. While this model has existed as a sales flowchart for quite a while now, we’ve tweaked it to amplify customer service over pure sales, which we believe will not only help win long-term loyalty from your customers but also ensure…
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Empowerment through Ownership by Michael Brown

There are few things more demoralizing to a front-line employee than taking the brunt of customer frustrations while having no power to address them. No employee wants to shrug his shoulders at a complaint, and no customer will tolerate it. After all, what’s the point of placing a living, breathing…
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Mastering the Phone Conversation

As we’ve discussed in an earlier blog, the art of phone conversation seems to be dying. More and more, people have moved their personal lives into social media and text messaging with humorous memes and zany emoji. But while many people now have underdeveloped interpersonal conversation skills in their personal…
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Image Is Everything by John Brandt

Back in the early 90s, Canon Inc. ran a highly successful ad campaign featuring Andre Agassi with the tagline, “Image Is Everything.” Canon was trying to sell cameras of course, but the adage the company tapped into was playing on the importance of how people carry themselves, the image they project to…
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Positivity and Realism in Leadership

Continuing our look at Travis Bradberry’s article, “6 Things Great Leaders Do Differently”, let’s examine number four on his list of qualities that strong leaders possess: “They stay positive, but remain realistic”. Bradberry details two extremes to avoid: the overly pessimistic person who “throws his hands up” in the face of…
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Kindness In Leadership

Travis Bradberry, the contributor for Forbes.com, wrote an article last year titled, “6 Things Great Leaders Do Differently”, in which he compiles a list of qualities that strong leaders possess compared to mediocre ones. The first comparison covers kindness versus weakness, which we’ll unpack here today. As Bradberry explains, “One of…
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The Right Questions

Order-Takers vs Salespeople Are you an order-taker or a salesperson? Order-takers do exactly as the label implies: they simply ring up items that the customer asks for with no additional effort to connect with that person. Salespeople, on the other hand, put in that effort to understand what customers need…
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3 Ways to Become a Great Mystery Shopper

If you researching mystery shopping online, you could be forgiven for thinking that becoming a good shopper means taking online courses and earning certifications. While those endeavors don’t hurt, they aren’t necessary either. Truth be told, mystery-shopping companies like The Brandt Group want real people with honest opinions—because that’s what…
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Trust as an Effective Management Tool

Being an effective manager is a lot like juggling multiple spinning plates: you have to lead by example, coordinate your subordinates’ schedules effectively, handle customer service emergencies, engage with ownership, or any of another dozen duties you’re likely imagining right now. But management is more than a fun parlor trick:…
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