Results Are In! Mission and Vision Out!
Posted on March 9th, 2018 | Blog
While this may sound like blasphemy to companies who organize internal teams to come up with their company’s mission, and to the CEO who is told good leaders define and share their vision, I’ll ask a simple question: once a vision or mission statement is clearly articulated, how many companies enforce and revisit the goals read more
How do you listen to your customers? How you do it matters….
Posted on February 1st, 2018 | Blog
In asking thousands of CEO’s of small, medium sized businesses, “do you invest in good solid customer research?”, I am astounded to learn that less than 5% have done so. Then when I ask the 5% for more details as to what they learned from their study, I often find that they, in fact, did read more
Lyft vs. Uber, both giving up competitive advantages!
Posted on December 9th, 2017 | Blog
When Uber first came on the scene, it was a big hit with consumers and a disruptor to the taxi and rental car companies. I personally use them on nearly 100% of my business trips. Uber grew at a staggering pace until they got multiple bad headlines. Around that time, I became aware of read more
How Resistance to Change Kills
Posted on October 12th, 2017 | Blog
I confess, I was eavesdropping on my plane seatmate’s PowerPoint for a minute or two and saw this quote: “Branding is out, Results are in!” I so wanted to applaud and interrupt him but he was dug in on his work. I don’t know if it was his original quote or from another source but read more
Are Customer Surveys Useless? Ask the Airlines
Posted on August 7th, 2017 | Blog
Each time I fly, if I am in the airlines’ frequent flyer program, I receive a customer survey almost upon landing. Or maybe everyone gets it. I can guarantee you that no passenger feedback form is telling the airline they approve of “the new airline industry”. Customer feedback is useless to them, so why do read more
Avoid this Sinkhole: Customer Complaints Often Offer Dangerous Surprises
Posted on July 17th, 2017 | Blog
It is a fact of life that your company, any company, is going to have complaints. It doesn’t make you bad people, it just means that a customer experience didn’t measure up as expected. It doesn’t surprise us that solving issues is often an important driver in a buying decision. Yet it does surprise us read more
What builds Trust? It may not be what you think!
Posted on June 13th, 2017 | Blog
When it comes to making a buying decision, where does trust rate as a criterion? A recent Wall Street Journal interview with a couple of business consultants tried to address the question using the travails of United Airlines as an example of a company that has lost public trust. The downturn in business for United read more
Spell it Out for Your Customers!
Posted on May 11th, 2017 | Blog
Do you feel commoditized? Are you fighting the price game every time you have a new opportunity? We see so many companies succumb to price pressure because they don’t have a relevant value proposition. Often they miss the opportunity to provide solid confidence building in the sales encounter. Nothing grabs the attention more of a read more
Afraid of Competition? U.S. Airlines vs. International Competitors
Posted on March 24th, 2017 | Blog
Last blog post, I wrote about the disintegration of loyalty programs, specifically mentioning Delta and Marriott hotels. This is a trend happening across industries. When a company provides a diminishing return of rewards to loyal customers, shouldn’t that company be concerned with how they are perceived and how they deliver customer service? In other words, read more
What if Loyalty Doesn’t Pay Anymore…Ignoring Customers’ Values
Posted on February 22nd, 2017 | Blog
As a frequent business traveler, I can’t help notice the moves made by large companies in meeting the needs of their customers, or not. I have been an elite member of the Marriott Hotel chain for years. It affords small benefits but ones that their elite members have come to value. Besides speedier (sometimes) check-in, read more