Selling Your Business Culture to Job Candidates

Inertia is a powerful force—not just in physics but also in people’s lives. As such, you might not be surprised to learn that your potential new hires often need more than the lure of higher pay and better benefits to make the move from another business to yours. After all,…
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Sourcing and Sorting Your Job Candidates

Last week, we took a look at developing a hiring scorecard, a way to analyze your different staffing positions so you can develop the right criteria for filling them. Because a strong team will differentiate your business from the rest of your competitors, let’s continue taking a look at Zach…
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The Hiring Scorecard

We’ve long maintained that your staff is one of the chief differentiators that separates your business from the rest in the competitive landscape. As we wrote back in 2017, “having a great staff will empower your business to offer great customer service, to offer a personal touch that seems so…
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Surviving in the World of Big Chains and Online Warehouses

The Verge posted a fascinating article describing so-called Amazon Nomads, independent merchants who scour out-of-the-way stores (often failing chains in small towns) for products on clearance to snap up and sell using Amazon’s storefront. But with all of the prognostications about the death of brick-and-mortar, one can’t help but think…
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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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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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The P&L Report of Mystery Shopping

The Brandt Group offers many detailed reports with which our clients can interpret the mystery shopping data we generate. They can identify big-picture trends or focus on the minutiae, covering your entire company, a regional division, an individual store, a specific department, or even one employee. Each report has its…
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Commandment No. 10 – Thou Shalt Practice the CANEI Principle

We have finally arrived at the tenth entry on Shep Hyken’s Forbes article, The Ten Commandments of Superior Customer Service, titled “Thou Shalt Practice the CANEI Principle”. What does CANEI mean? As Hyken explains, “CANEI is Dr. Edward Deming’s concept that stands for Constant and Never Ending Improvement. It is…
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