More Tips for a Customer-Centric Foundation

As we discussed last week, the most successful companies are the ones that cultivate a superior customer experience, the ones that take pride in everything they do. On its face, that idea doesn’t seem all that revelatory: after all, don’t most business owners think that keeping their customers happy is…
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Building a Customer-Centric Foundation

The most successful companies are the ones that place the customer experience above all other considerations. Yes, that even means over maximizing profits or emphasizing growth. Those customer-centric businesses understand that you need a strong foundation before you can build the rest on top of it. They understand that profits…
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Good Habits vs Natural Gifts

We’ve all heard of someone described as a natural-born salesperson: that man or woman who seems to have an uncanny mix of empathy, conviction, improvisational skill, and cunning—that knack for relating to people, projecting confidence, possessing the ability to think on his or her feet, and strong judgement. They seem…
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Stop Wasting Your Time

When you’re in a position of leadership at your company, your time is precious. There aren’t enough hours in a day for you to handle everything yourself, and you can’t afford to shorten the day further with poor productivity. Dayshift supervisor, store manager, or business owner—or something in-between—it doesn’t matter.…
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Understanding Your Company’s Culture

Alison Doyle, writing for The Balance Careers, describes company culture as “the shared values, attributes, and characteristics of an organization.” She goes on to explain its importance by saying “workers are more likely to enjoy work when their needs and values are consistent with their employers.” After all, believing in…
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Shrinkflation

According to Wikipedia, shrinkflation “is the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, or even sometimes reformulating or reducing quality, while their prices remain the same or increase.” The term is relatively new, and is usually attributed to British economist Pippa Malmgren, who used it in a Twitter conversation…
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Customer Loyalty Is Always Up for Grabs

One of the most important pursuits for any company is maximum customer loyalty. In fact, we’ve devoted countless blog posts to this idea, and we’ve structured our mystery-shopping service around the idea of earning that loyalty. Why? Because loyal customers equate to repeat business, naturally, and they also lead to…
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Can Self-Service Fit Within Customer Service?

Self-service options have been all-the-rage for many years now, with one of its earliest manifestations appearing in the form of pay-at-the-pump gas stations. According to PetroleumServiceCompany.com, “In 1973, a station in Abilene, Texas, invented pay-at-the-pump. By 1994, about thirteen percent of convenience stores offered pay-at-the-pump. Less than a decade later…
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How Does Shopper Recruitment Work?

One of the questions that sometimes comes up with our new clients is how we at The Brandt Group find mystery shoppers to perform all our audits. Is mystery shopping a vocation? Do mystery shoppers attend classes, receive special training, and earn certifications? What does it even take to become…
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