Great Service, No Excuses

The pandemic has either created or magnified a myriad of problems for manufacturers, distributors, and businesses all across the world. Supply is constrained and delayed, and costs have risen dramatically. Add to this the labor shortage, and businesses are left scrambling to find a way to tread water, let alone…
VIEW FULL POST

‘Tis the Season for Appreciation

Though it’s been another difficult year, businesses everywhere should take the time to look back with appreciation for all that they’ve been able to accomplish in 2021—despite the challenges arrayed against us all. The biggest reason for this success is, without a doubt, the loyalty of customers and employees alike.…
VIEW FULL POST

Cutting Costs

One of the great challenges many small businesses are facing right now is figuring out how to survive amid economic inflation, supply chain disruptions, and the labor shortage. Belts are getting tight, and it’s getting much harder to find a way to keep the doors open. One such consequence of…
VIEW FULL POST

Setting Expectations for Your Employees

Every business has goals of some kind, even beyond the basic need to make enough money to keep the lights on this month. Usually, a business hopes to grow, to bolster its reputation, and to genuinely satisfy everyone involved day-in and day-out. These kinds of goals are often broken into…
VIEW FULL POST

What Does a Leader Really Do?

When we think about the importance of designing a great customer experience, it’s easy to get hyper-focused on the frontline staff. This makes sense because these employees are the ones with whom the customers will be interacting the most, whether they are the servers at restaurants, cashiers at retail stores,…
VIEW FULL POST

Hospitality is King

For this week’s blog, let’s take a look at Danny Meyer’s outlook on the art of hospitality. Meyer is the CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, which oversees the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, which in turn is a restaurant that is often voted #1 in any given year…
VIEW FULL POST

Repeat Business vs Customer Loyalty

For our last dive into Shep Hyken’s ACA 2021 report, we’re going to take a closer look at rewards programs, and how they generate repeat business—and how this differs from customer loyalty. As we have in previous blogs on the ACA 2021, let’s first consider some numbers. Hyken asked his…
VIEW FULL POST

Positive vs Negative Reviews

This week’s topic covers part five of Shep Hyken’s ACA 2021 report, which is all about how customers rate and review their experiences at different businesses. We all know that word-of-mouth is critical to maintaining a good reputation and driving referrals, but what do the numbers actually say? The first…
VIEW FULL POST

The Human Touch

The next part of Shep Hyken’s Achieving Customer Amazement 2021 report deals with customers’ preferences regarding self-service and human-to-human options. Specifically, Hyken asked, “When you have a problem or issue with a company or brand, which solution do you prefer to help solve your problem?” According to the report, “41%…
VIEW FULL POST