Your customer-facing employees should never have to struggle with balancing customer advocacy with company loyalty. If companies and their leaders would be customer advocates, as they should be, there would be no conflict.  It’s when leaders are inwardly focused that it becomes hard for those who look outside. When you see only what you want, … Continue reading You need advocates, but not for you.

I get tired of so much of the “I created this AMAZING sales funnel gizmo super-duper widget package for launching your business to success” emails I often get after attending one of those misleading webinars I initially thought might be interesting or might have a few practical nuggets I could apply. I feel dirty just … Continue reading Push or Pull. It’s your choice.

One of the biggest reasons, if not the biggest reason, customer experiences are so bad these days is due to too many business leaders not knowing the game they are playing and thus not having a team aligned and playing together. To begin, let’s address what we mean by the game businesses are playing. Ultimately … Continue reading The big reason most customer experiences suck and the shift that needs to happen to change that.

We measure everything these days. I heard a disturbing story on the radio about a place where they have figured out measures for what makes a woman more beautiful than another. They have determined that a certain length of legs, size of chest, weight, jawline angle, and more make for the most beautiful and appealing … Continue reading Goal achievement could be making you mediocre.

You’ve been getting sick a lot lately so you go to the doctor. They’re not sure exactly what’s going on so you’re prescribed a regimen of tests.  You dutifully go through all the hassles. You are stripped, robed, put into machines, poked, prodded, and had tubes put where no tubes should go. Then, you’re told … Continue reading You may call them soft skills, but they’re not soft, they’re human, and they matter a great deal.

Who is on your team? What people make up your business? Simple answer, execs, employees, and maybe investors. Isn’t that it? For most people, it is. But I think that misses a potential opportunity. What if you thought of your team as more than those in your immediate view? What if you included customers in … Continue reading Who is on your team? Is someone missing?

In the book, A Case for Compassion, Sara Schairer poses a compelling question, “What would happen if we made people and the planet our priority instead of growth and profit?” Schairer, for those of you not familiar with her, is a Stanford-certified instructor of Compassion Cultivation Training and founder of Compassion It, a non-profit organization … Continue reading Book Review: A Case for Compassion by Sara Schairer

“All of our representatives are busy helping other customers right now. Wait times may be longer than normal. We apologize for any inconvenience.” It seems this has become regular fare. But why? Too many calls? Not enough people to handle the volume?  What’s the solution?  It’s not AI. That may be the current panacea, but … Continue reading Call volume is high. We have to do better.

Who am I here to help? This is the real question entrepreneurs need to ask themselves on a regular basis. One failure I see over and over is people and businesses spreading themselves too thin by trying to please too many different factions. Trying to be all things to, if not everybody, a lot of … Continue reading Who do you help?

I once worked in a place where my manager got mad at one of my teammates for being too much of a customer advocate. This left me scratching my head. By definition, an advocate is a supporter, promoter, or backer, so, given that, I kind of thought that’s what we were supposed to be doing. … Continue reading Are you an advocate or an adversary? Only one truly increases success.