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Are Customers Working Too Hard To Do Business With You?
Companies can no longer get away with being hard to do business with. If your business has inconvenient hours, long wait times, unaccommodating payment methods, low inventory, complex ordering procedures and outdated contact information, and when their employees are unresponsive to phone calls, unwilling to admit mistakes and unfriendly toward inexperienced customers, the accumulated friction will certainly destroy you. Customers walk through the door hoping you would give some…
Why People Rarely Write Things Down
To write something down is to humble ourselves. That’s why people rarely do it. Writing things down means we don’t know everything. Or can’t remember everything. Or might learn something. Writing things down means we have to pause long enough to honor the moment and listen to people. Writing things down means we have to confront our own beliefs and drip a little blood on the paper. Writing things…
Burn the Moment into People’s Brains
Don’t hand it over, deliver it. Whether you’re submitting a proposal, responding to a complaint, making a statement, giving an answer or telling a story, any time you can bring surprise and delight and love to the interactions that make up your day, it’s worthwhile. The servers at Sidney Street Café don’t just give you the menu, they perform it. Each of their items, from apps to sides to…
Are People Taking An Interest In What You Believe In?
It’s one thing to give tours of your office. But the big question, the ultimate compliment in disguise is, have other companies taken an interest in what you believe in? A riverboat casino in East St. Louis, who believes that health trumps all, provides the convenience of an onsite medical clinic. Free consultations, free medications, free disease management support groups, for every employee, and their families, forever. And ten…
Are You Speaking From A Deficit Position?
If you want to become famous professional wrestler, it’s not about lifting more weights so you can beat the other guy. It’s about getting Vince McMahon to like you. Instead of hanging your fortunes solely on chance, you make friends before you make requests. That way, when the time comes to make your move, you’re not speaking from a deficit position. You’re talking to people with a voice that’s…
Nudging the World in a Positive Direction
If we plan to earn people’s attention, we have to reward them for giving it to us. After all, attention is the great commodity. It’s an asset to be protected, not a resource to be depleted. And it’s what every brand, every company, every organization, every website and every entrepreneur is killing themselves to obtain. And because of that, because the chronic bombardment and high expectation for visual and…
Kicking Your Addiction to Yourself
It’s the battle for enoughness. Once you’ve gotten the beast out of your system, filled all your ego holes and flushed all the selfishness away. Once you’ve earned enough attention, approval, applause, respect, validation, celebrity and popularity to make you feel worthy. Once you’ve achieved and produced and executed enough to prove to the world that you can do it on your own terms. Once you’ve kicked your addiction…
Turn a Painful Process into a Pleasurable Practice
Riddle me this. What do doctor’s appointments, getting haircuts, working out, tech support, taking pets to the vet, visiting the hospital, filling out forms, buying a car, sitting in waiting rooms and going to confessional all have in common? They’re experiences most people have always hated. And in every business, there’s a parallel experience. Some transaction, some activity, some part of the process that customers usually view as a…
There is Never a Shortage of Competence
When you sell a commodity, you differentiate through the uncommon. Language, purpose, emotion, education, interaction, technology, leadership, narrative, culture, platform, design, connection, interactivity, community, service, soul, support, responsiveness, honesty and humanity. These are the features that distinguish your organization, these are the real reasons customers do business with you. Since there is never a shortage of competence, what’s scarce, and therefore valuable and remarkable, is this running imperative that…
Trading Analog Dollars for Digital Pennies
The web isn’t just a connection machine, it’s a cutting machine. We’ve traded analog dollars for digital pennies, and the smart people and organizations who are taking advantage of this trend are seeing massive dividends. We’ve lowered the cost of gratitude, which means saying thank you to people has never been easier. How are you using social media as a hearing aid to become a hero on a moment’s…
