Unique Selling Proposition

Through the Mirror of Your Customer

Astronaut Eugene Cernan once said, “If you begin to think you’re something you’re not, you’re looking in the wrong mirror.” In my opinion, many industries have been looking in the wrong mirror for a long time! Soberingly, those businesses are being forced to see themselves anew – in a reflection of the perceptions of their…

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Not Hand Size – Heart Size: The Art of Engagement and Loyalty

While political candidates have been making headlines challenging one another on the comparative “size of their hands” – a client of mine has demonstrated it really is the size of one’s heart that matters. I am honored to say I know and work with a company from Sheboygan, Wisconsin whose leaders care so much about…

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How to Create a Successful Customer Loyalty Program

Having worked with Starbucks since 2004, as I began my journey to my first of two books about them (The Starbucks Experience and later Leading the Starbucks Way), friends and colleagues are quick to contact me whenever Starbucks makes the news.  That goes for both good and bad news! Recently Starbucks announced a change in…

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Service Professionalism – Neither Scripts Nor These 5 Gems

Once upon a time…in a land far, far away…I was a young organizational development specialist employed by a sizable health care system. My job was to “improve customer service by deploying employee scripts.” Given my naivete, I took to my task by researching the best available customer service programs. Ultimately, I purchased a boxed set…

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The SDI’s of Millennials

In the 1950’s, a number of ministers and politicians railed against the “evils of rock and roll” and implied that the youth of the day were adversely affected by the insidious nature of the music. Despite that music, most of us who lived through the 1950’s and 60’s did so without too much lasting damage.…

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Easy Wins

Ahhh, summer – a season of sunshine, valiant efforts to slow one’s life down, and vacation travel.  It’s hard not to notice, however, how our great escape efforts are often marked by so much preparatory and participatory stress. Marketing guru (and a man who was kind enough to endorse my Zappos Experience book) Seth Godin recently posted…

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The Conundrum of Consistency: When More Becomes…More of the Same

Consumers value consistency.  Consistency of service, consistency of product, consistency of availability, particularly when we travel.  But consumers also value the unique and, of late, the local – that feeling of having discovered a secret gem.  As a business owner, how do you cater to this perplexing paradox? Many brands enter communities and appear “out…

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How to Grow Your Customer Connection Through Technology

In a Time magazine survey, people were forced to choose one item to take to work: their wallet, their lunch, or their mobile device. The result: 66 percent chose their mobile device over their lunch, and 44 percent chose their mobile device over their wallet. In the same study, 68 percent of adults report that…

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FREE RESOURCES

The Starbucks Experience: Leadership Tips eBook
Elevating Care in Healthcare: Lessons from the UCLA Health System eBook
How to Win Every Customer, Every Time, No Excuses! Article