The Downgrade Apocalypse

Customer reward programs have been around a long time: in fact, the earliest example may well be Betty Crocker, which, in 1929, introduced the idea of using box-tops as coupons to encourage repeat purchases. Since then, just about every major company—and a great deal of small ones to boot—have made…
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Going Above and Beyond the Right Way

In previous blog posts, we’ve cautioned about the dangers of offering an above-and-beyond level of customer service. While that attitude can certainly delight your customers, the level of effort required becomes unsustainable; worse still, those customers may eventually take those efforts for granted. But there are situations when going above…
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Act Like You Own the Place

When you think of people who act like they own the place, you might imagine overly self-important people, the ones who think they’re better than everyone else. But in the business world, there’s another way of looking at this phrase: act like your own the place means to truly care…
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Why You Should Become a Mystery Shopper

Have you heard about the gig economy? In recent years, more and more people have begun taking independent-contract work, offering on-demand services as a way to earn extra money in their spare time. Companies like Uber, GrubHub, Instacart, and many more have cropped up in the last fifteen years, and…
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Unleashing an Exceptional Customer Experience with Teamwork

Most businessowners understand the advantage of an exceptional customer experience—the crescendo of customer service, value, and convenience. And while knowing this is an important first step, finding your way to the apex of the customer-experience mountain requires action. The good news is that achieving the first part—the customer service—is a…
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A Customer-First Culture

The pressures of big-box stores, mega-chains, and online warehouses continues to squeeze small businesses everywhere. Add to this the complications of supply-chain disruption, a shrinking labor pool, and rising costs, and it’s no wonder the future is so uncertain. Navigating these challenges requires a dedication to providing a great customer…
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Is Tipping Getting Out of Hand?

When many new servers first start waiting on tables, they believe that in order to earn larger tips, they have to deliver an exceptional customer experience. The longer they work in the dining room, however, the more they come to realize that most guests have a specific tipping percentage in…
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When a Problem Becomes an Opportunity

When we make the customer experience our number one priority—that is, when we offer high quality products, convenience, and consistently great customer service—the number of customer complaints falls to near zero. Near zero, mind you. Admittedly, we will never reach a state of zero problems because we are all human,…
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How Loyal Are Your Customers?

Most business operators understand that customer loyalty is a key component of long-term success. Even in the simplest terms, we know loyal customers are repeat customers, so the more loyal ones we have, the more recurring revenue we’re guaranteed. But customer loyalty encompasses more than just the likelihood that they’ll…
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