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Avoiding Common Mistakes

Gene Marks, writing for The Hartford, has posted a great list covering many of the common traps small-business owners fall into, especially when they first get started. Many of these observations are important even for veteran business owners, so let’s look at a few today. Don’t Ignore Your Customers As…
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Using Mystery Shops to Coach

You’ve made the decision to start mystery shopping your company, and now your first reports have arrived. Perhaps they’re a mixed bag: some did great, others so-so, and a few poorly. How should you, or those employees’ manager, use this data to instruct them? Reinforce When discussing what went well…
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Our Shared Passion

Last week, we covered how important it is to ask yourself why you’re in the business that you are, even beyond the goal of attaining financial security and providing for a family. We discussed how you’re able to derive a whole separate level of fulfillment and pride by believing in…
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Have You Ever Stopped to Ask Yourself Why?

Let’s think about a product that has existed for a long, long time: the unassuming yet mighty pen. According to Wikipeida, the earliest pen was probably invented by the Ancient Egyptians over 5,000 years ago, and it has seen a lot of changes in the millennia since. What was once…
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Why Do Customers Choose Your Business?

Unless your company happens to operate in a complete monopoly, it has competitors. Perhaps even an industry full of them, especially given how small the world has become through the power of the Internet, and not just the other guys down the street or across town. Given the number of…
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Which Industries Benefit Most from Mystery Shopping?

You might think this question is purely rhetorical, as there’s an argument to be made that all industries can benefit from mystery shopping. Given that The Brandt Group specializes in mystery shopping, you might also think that we would agree with the sentiment—and you’d be right, of course. But there…
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Role-Play as a Training Tool

It’s no secret that most of us learn best by doing as opposed to merely watching, which is why so many trainers recommend using role-play to teach customer-service and sales techniques. As an article at Ready Training Online explains, “Think back to how you learned to drive a car and…
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Employee Retention and Customer Loyalty

All businesses should yearn for high customer loyalty. Loyalty, after all, means repeat-business and word-of-mouth. The sales that come from returning customers and referrals don’t come with the typical cost of customer acquisition that eats into the bottom line. In a sense, customer loyalty is a lot like free advertising.…
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Principles for Great Management

Last blog, we discussed the qualities of great leadership, the personality traits someone has to either possess or develop to be effective at managing others. Today, let’s add some principles to these qualities. For inspiration, we’ll refer to an article at RunningRestaurants.com, which is geared towards restaurant management. As always,…
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