What could gratitude and happiness possibly have to do with success on the job? Everything. There’s plenty of proof that there are health benefits to feeling grateful and happy; such feelings can reduce stress, boost your immune system, open your mind to new possibilities and make it easier to be kind and creative. There’s also [...]

Human nature is funny. Put a person in a room with a “specialist” and they tend to want a little bit of free advice. My friend Robin, a lawyer, says whenever she goes to a party someone usually asks for a little legal advice. My friend Steven, a doctor, says it’s always “By the way [...]

We are all beginning to realize the value of developing long term, loyal relationships with our customers. They buy more and refer more, help us develop the next generation of products and services, and they even help us keep our advertising costs in reason. But are our customers (people external to our company that buy things from us) the only people we should be building long term relationships with? No. The relationship strategy applies externally and internally as well.

I just returned from speaking at another Inc. Magazine Conference on Customer Service Strategies. I enjoyed three days of learning and networking with some of the best and the brightest minds in the field, and in the entrepreneurial community. There was one thing in particular that was so rewarding for me this year. The absolute recognition and affirmation in almost every session that I attended that without creating an environment where the workers feel valued and good about coming to work, you cannot even hope to deliver a level of service that will build true customer loyalty.

What would happen if you stopped TRYING to make money? If, for one whole year you didn’t think about creating profit. If, for that year you took your focus off what was dropping to the bottom line? Do you think your business would fall apart? Do you think your profits would naturally drop? Well, that depends.

I thought I was going into the gift shop, apparently I was entering the twilight zone…

JoAnna Brandi hates to generalize, but I am beginning to think the service givers, especially here in Florida are suffering from a disease I call E.D.S. – Empathy Deficiency Syndrome. Some of the symptoms include apathy and an amazing ability to look right at a customer and not see a thing. The other peculiar indication of this syndrome is the inability to use the words “I’m sorry” or calming phrases such as “I can understand how that might be upsetting.”

I was talking to my friend Judy the other day. She owns a small business here in town and has clients all over the country. We were talking about motivating employees because I have been writing a teleclass on that very topic for National Seminars (see below) and I love this energizing topic! Whenever I am working on a project I have a habit of discussing it with a lot of people to get a whole range of opinions

It’s hard to be one of the best – it’s hard to be great. It takes real effort to be a Nordstrom, a Container Store, a Whole Foods or a Southwest Airlines. It takes focus, commitment and discipline to craft a culture that yields consistently positive customer experiences — and consistently profitable returns.

There’s no doubt about it; customer loyalty is key to profitability. A mere five percent increase in your customer retention could as much as double your bottom line profits! On the flip side, it costs anywhere from 6-30 times more to get new customers than it does to keep the ones you have – that is, if they’ll stay!