Poor customer experiences are par for the course these days, almost to the point of being expected. Too often though, we blame these bad experiences on the people who deliver the service when it may not be their fault. Many times the fault lies in the design of things. You see, there are several elements … Continue reading It’s in the design. Improving customer experience is more than improving customer service.

Imagine you have a product that used to sell quite well but now is waning. Sales have been declining over the last several years and it looks like people have moved to other things instead of your product. If you’re like most business people, you begin looking strategically at how you can change people’s minds … Continue reading Questions and conversations. The way to customer empathy and improving your business.

When you ask children what they want to be when they grow up, you get a lot of responses. You will hear teacher, police officer, firefighter, soldier, secret agent, spy, football player, chef, soccer player, swimmer and on and on and on. Some things you never hear though are accountant, tax lawyer, bank teller, and … Continue reading When I grow up, I want to work in customer service.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, have you seen the movie? It’s a 1968 family film that stars Dick Van Dyke and a car, a car that has amazing capabilities, the biggest of which is that it can fly. Caractacus Potts – Van Dyke’s character – is an inventor, actually more of a failed inventor, with two … Continue reading An inventor, some children, and a flying car walk into a bar for a leadership lesson. Okay, no bar, but there is a lesson.

Sales is an important job. Without selling, you don’t get your product or service out there. If you don’t get your stuff out there, you don’t make any money. No money, no business. So yeah, sales is pretty important. Sales, however, is a funny word. I so often see it mentioned using words that suggest … Continue reading We need sales wizards, not pushers of products.

When businesses are in their early beginnings, they’re in a fledgling state where things are still being worked out. Processes are being tweaked and products being innovated. The few people who are involved work together as a team. The roles are hybrids, they lack definition. Everyone is contributing and collaborating on a shoestring budget to … Continue reading Are you building a “with” or “for” culture?

So many times when I talk to business leaders, they talk about growth. And it always leads me to one question, why do you want to grow? Usually, I get that “you’re a heretic” look as if I've somehow slandered the flag, mom, and apple pie all at one time. But what is the reason? … Continue reading Why do you want to grow your business, to get more or give more? Your answer is key to whether it happens or not.

How do we listen? It sounds so easy. You just listen someone says. But when I say listening, I mean truly listen. And what do I mean by that? I mean listening to understand. When we are confronted with someone who represents or vocalizes a point of view that we vehemently disagree with, we often … Continue reading Listening: what it really is, why it’s hard, and why we need to do it.

But what is inclusion? I can tell you, in this context, it has nothing to do with different races, genders, creeds, or religious persuasions, it has to do with involvement. Have you ever worked in or are you currently working in a place where your leadership doesn’t involve anyone but themselves in anything. In other … Continue reading Engagement requires inclusion.

In the book This Book Will Make You Kinder, the author, Henry James Garrett, seeks to answer two key questions: Why are we kind? Why aren’t we kinder? Garrett, for those of you who are not familiar with him, is primarily known for his illustrations (he calls them cartoons) of animals who comment on subjects … Continue reading Book Review: This Book Will Make You Kinder by Henry James Garrett