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‘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.…
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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…
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The Choice Short-Staffing Forces

An ongoing challenge that businesses across the country are facing is short-staffing. At the start of the pandemic, many employees were furloughed or lost their jobs altogether, sending millions to unemployment. As our country has opened back up again, many of these workers have not returned to work en masse,…
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Lessons from Amazon

In this week’s blog, we’re going to cover Shep Hyken’s recent video, *How Amazon Sets the Standard for Every Business.” Before we even get going, consider how evocative that title is. It’s easy to imagine that there are a lot of business owners out there thinking that they don’t compete…
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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…
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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%…
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The Communication Age-Gap

The next part in Shep Hyken’s Achieving Customer Amazement 2021 document covers Communication Preferences, as ranked by the four different generations Hyken surveyed: Gen-Z, Millennials, Gen-X, and Boomers. As with the previous sections in his report, there are several noteworthy differences—but also plenty of common ground—when it comes to each…
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The Value of Customer Service

Returning to Shep Hyken’s Achieving Customer Amazement 2021 report this week, let’s take a look at how much consumers value quality customer service. To begin, let’s consider this number: a 52% majority of people reported that they were willing to pay more if it meant they would receive a higher…
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How Does Age Affect What Customers Value?

Age plays a large factor in influencing customer expectations for a great experience. The level of employee helpfulness, friendliness, empathy, knowledgeability, as well as the ease of shipping/delivery and returns all matter to each age group, but there are certainly stark differences on how much each of these matters to…
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