An Important Holiday Story: A Lifetime of Customers
December 27, 2011 | Sales and Customer Service
Yesterday I called to cancel my monthly delivery of organic fruits and vegetables. The representative didn’t seem to care about the cancellation – she was only interested in the fact that I still owed $50 on my account. This surprised me, since I was holding an invoice for $25.00. As my confusion …
Take CARE Of Your Customers During Peak Season
November 29, 2011 | Sales and Customer Service
For some of our clients, Thanksgiving heralds the arrival of their peak season for sales and service. Now is the time when front-line representatives can really use the service and sales skills that their managers have been coaching and developing all year. But the time between Thanksgiving and the end …
October 20, 2011 | General
The question is no longer “if”… rather “when.” Are you ready to change? That is the question that advertising executives asked themselves last month in San Diego at the Western Classified Advertising Association annual conference. Kerry was fortunate to be a keynote speaker, and she conducted a three hour session …
Coaching To Keep Your Best Employees
October 6, 2011 | Coaching
On October 19 Kerry will conduct a webinar on Coaching Skills To Keep Your Customer Service Reps From Leaving. (For more details, please click here). We hope you’ll join her. But we think the title may be a bit misleading. Although every organization desperately wants to retain its best employees, …
The Case For Moving From Service To Sales
August 12, 2011 | Sales and Customer Service
Over the past months we’ve received a lot of comments and questions about our April 27 blog Stop Trying To Delight Your Customers. Conventional wisdom holds that customer delight drives loyalty, and to delight customers you have to meet and exceed their expectations. But we reported on an article Stop …
Make The Most Of Your Coaching Time
July 5, 2011 | Coaching
First-line managers have one of the most difficult jobs in any business. To put it simply, they usually have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. Then, when you add responsibilities for coaching and developing employees, nearly every first-line manager faces a …
Stop Trying To Delight Your Customers
April 27, 2011 | Sales and Customer Service
For years, customer service experts have emphasized that customer delight is the key to building loyalty. Companies and their front-line representatives have been urged to “exceed customer expectations” and “under-promise and over-deliver.” But a new study reveals a different secret to gaining loyal customers.
April 5, 2011 | Leadership
Recently I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Dr. Richard Strozzi-Heckler. Richard is an outstanding teacher, an acclaimed executive coach, and a sixth degree black belt in the martial art of Aikido. As you might expect, Richard takes a very disciplined approach to leadership development. His latest book …
To Turn Goals into Results – Change the Conversation
December 20, 2010 | Performance Management
As we near the start of a new year, leaders at all levels are in the process of setting annual performance goals. To turn these goals into results it’s important to change the conversation from a focus on what to a focus on what, why, and how. What. Goal setting …
Are You Coaching or Keeping Score?
November 15, 2010 | Performance Management
With all the new reporting tools that are now available, it’s easier than ever to be seduced by the expanding array of performance metrics. So if you’re a sales or service leader, ask yourself this tough question. What are you actually doing to move the needle on performance? Are you …