Customer Loyalty Is More Than a Punch Card

When business owners talk about customer loyalty, the conversation often drifts toward rewards programs, punch cards, or clever marketing tactics. But real loyalty isn’t built on a foundation of gimmicks. It’s built on three easy-to-understand goals: First, the customer is satisfied with what they bought. Second, they come back the…
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Three Actionable Strategies for Building Long-Term Trust

As a small business owner, you already know that no matter how hard you try, complaints are inevitable. Something will break, someone will misunderstand, or a process will hiccup at the worst possible moment. But here’s the good news: when you’ve built a strong foundation of customer trust, those inevitable…
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Turning Transactions into Relationships

Not long ago, a member of The Brandt Group shared a story that perfectly illustrates the kind of customer experience we should all be striving for. He had stopped into a local nature store—one of those specialty shops that sells bird feeders, seed blends, and other products for backyard birding…
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Walking the Talk

“Customer-first” is a phrase you’ve probably heard a hundred times. Maybe you’ve even written it into your company’s mission statement. But as easy as it is to say, living it takes intention, discipline, and the courage to see your business through your customer’s eyes, to admit when you’re wrong and…
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Balancing Quality and Convenience

It’s a fast-paced world, now more than ever. As a result, convenience often trumps a consumer’s demand for quality. Indeed, customers are increasingly willing to sacrifice at least some level of excellence in favor of greater speed or simplicity. As a small business owner, you might find the challenge of…
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A Great Customer Experience Begins with a Great Employee Experience

For small business owners and managers, delivering an exceptional customer experience should be a top priority. But what if we told you that the real secret to a truly remarkable experience actually lies in your team’s experience? While it’s common sense to focus on customer-facing strategies, a great customer experience…
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The Power of “Yes”

In the world of customer service, the word “no” acts as a barrier that shuts down communication and ultimately stifles solutions. As Dr. Nido Qubein, a renowned motivational speaker and entrepreneur, said, “I always start with a yes. It doesn’t always end that way after we’ve done the study, but…
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Care Enough to Be Curious

Where competition is fierce and attention spans are short, businesses must grapple with the question of how to stand out from their peers. While flashy marketing and unique selling propositions certainly have their attention-grabbing merits, the best differentiator is the often-overlooked realm of employee-customer interactions. Let’s take a moment to…
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The High Cost of Layoffs

Yesterday, October 19, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell admitted that “inflation is still too high.” This comes amid reports that many large banks (especially at Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs) are reducing their staffs in response. The financial sector is not the only group of industries cutting back, however, as…
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