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Grow your business through employee training, improving company communication and morale and inspect what you expect through mystery shopping reviews.

Communication Is Key, Part 1

The writing experts at Grammarly.com have an article that breaks down the four types of communication that happen at a business: “upward, downward, lateral, and external.” These directions indicate who’s talking with whom, and what their interpersonal relationships are with one another. Think about this in terms of a business…
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The Antidote for Inflation

Whether the United States is now in a recession has been the subject of much political posturing and debate. Regardless of how any of us feels about labels or technical definitions, the U.S. economy has shrunk two consecutive quarters amid soaring inflation and higher interest rates. A silver lining is…
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A Standout Customer Experience

Regardless of the industry, all businesses face competition of one sort or another. You might be tempted to think that you have no direct peers if you own a unique business in the area—like if you have your town’s only movie theater—but that’s a superficial distinction. You’re still competing for…
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Understanding the Labor Pool

Writing for Forbes, Emmy Lucas posted an article this week titled, “Five Types of Talent Behind the Great Resignation,” in which she details some of the personality types of people who’ve left their jobs in recent years. While many market watchers have attributed the Great Resignation to factors like early…
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Becoming the Standard

Many trademarks and company names have become so successful that they are now synonymous with their class of products or services. There’s even a term for this process: genericide. You know of many examples and might not even realize: Kleenex is often substituted for any facial tissue, Aspirin for any…
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Elevating Your Customer Experience

Shep Hyken is back at it again with another great blog about the difference between good and great, and why this is an important distinction when trying to maintain customer loyalty. As he cites, his “customer service research found that the top reason customers are most likely to come back…
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Keeping Your Language Professional

It should go without saying that workplace language is different from interpersonal language—or, at least it should be. Most business owners don’t want their employees to make their coworkers or customers feel uncomfortable. Who wants to work at or shop in a place like that? So, in the interest of…
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Good Intentions

The rationale behind why businesses should offer a superior customer experience is fairly practical. Great customer service begets stronger customer loyalty, increased sales, and greater revenue. Moreover, most of us believe that we should treat others the way we would want to be treated, i.e., with respect—in the hope that…
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Use Your Reputation to Recruit

The numbers for the Great Resignation continue to shock everyone. As cited by The Motley Fool, “Since the start of the pandemic, 20% of workers have changed careers,” and a further “46% of employees are considering a career change.” We’ve seen especially high turnover months during this time, including August…
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The Horrors of Calling Customer Support

No one likes calling customer support. We’ve all had experiences where we waited on hold forever, been transferred multiple times, talked to support staff who didn’t understand what we needed, and on and on. Some industries are especially notorious for this, including telecoms, airlines, and financial institutions, but it’s no…
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Hire for Attitude

You might think it’s a bad time to be picky when hiring. Given factors like the so-called Great Resignation, the shrinking labor pool, and how competitive businesses have to be with one another to even attract job seekers, it’s no wonder that managers are just thrilled to receive qualified applications.…
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Preparing for Stagflation

Market volatility has certainly caught everyone’s attention recently. The Dow Jones is down over 5,000 points year-to-date, purchasing power is down over 8%, and the economy shrunk 1.4% in the first quarter. Former Chair of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, as well as an alarming number of economists, are now…
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