A Feast for the Eyes

In last week’s blog, we covered how background music influences the overall vibe of your business. As we said then, ambiance covers multiple sensory perceptions, including examples of how a restaurant’s freshly baked goods invite diners in, or even how merchandising can lure customers to visit. The concept of using…
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Setting the Mood with Background Music

Ambiance comprises multiple sensory perceptions: a retail store’s merchandising would appeal to the eyes; a restaurant’s freshly baked goods hearken to the nose; and the cool air on a hot summer’s day brings respite to the skin. But what about the ears? What are some ways we can make sure…
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Shake It Off

Our friend Steve Beck has a book titled “Leave Your Funk at the Door” in which he extolls the importance that salespeople and customer-service agents not bring in their personal baggage when they start their workday. (His advice applies to everyone in everyday life, really.) Putting on a happy smile…
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Setting Expectations

As Katherine Barchetti has said, “Make a customer, not a sale.” Indeed, one of the common themes of our blog is the importance of making the customer experience your top priority so you can do just that. There is nothing more vital than the lasting impression he or she takes…
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Delivering the Best Customer Experience

Delivering the Best Customer Experience Shep Hyken recently posted another invaluable article recently, “20 Tips on How to Deliver an Amazing Customer Service Experience”. Let’s do a deep dive on a few of his points to really reinforce the importance of emphasizing customer service above all else, even before the…
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Your Invisible Product

Service That Sells posted a great article at the end of last month that we want to spotlight today, titled “Why Do Restaurants Fail?” As they explain, “The bottom line is that restaurants fail because they couldn’t sell enough product to cover their costs.” That may seem obvious on its…
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How to Manage Your Leads

In a perfect world, customers would come into your business fully educated in your offerings and know exactly what they want to purchase. But seeing as how that’s rarely the case, you employ salespeople to not only educate those customers and help them select their purchases, but also suggest add-ons…
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Unconventional Mystery Shopping

Most mystery shopping can be broken into two categories: on-site and over-the-phone. In both cases, mystery shoppers interact with your employees to assess customer service, salesmanship, and other aspects of the experience, such as cleanliness, merchandising, wait times, the complexity of the automated phone-tree, and more. These are tried and…
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How to Leverage Your Online Presence

“If you’re not online, you don’t exist.” This may be the most important truism regarding visibility in today’s marketplace. Indeed, there are whole businesses dedicated to search-engine optimization, online reputation management, and more. There are even now previously unheard-of careers like digital influencers and brand ambassadors. If you want to…
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