A friend of mine works for a large, highly recognizable insurance firm.  We got to talking about customer service and she shared the fact that in her company the historical culture was the opposite of customer focus. “We were the only place certain people could obtain insurance and so they were lucky we even took [...]

At a business dinner the other night the conversation rolled around to the big box home improvement stores.  There were men and women around the table, all who had shopped at one or the other of the two biggest – okay let’s just name them:  Home Depot and Lowes.  The guys said that Lowes was [...]

Can you believe we are nearing the end of the first quarter of 2009?  Time goes so fast and yet so little changes.  I was in a planning meeting recently in which we discussed our focus for 2009.  Lively discussion ensued but I wondered how much effort was being put towards making change happen for [...]

Interesting conversation the other night with a retailer of power tools and accessories.  He is an independent business owner competing with the big box Lowes and Home Depot.  The conversation turned to customer service because, hey – shouldn’t every conversation revolve around customer service? He mentioned the fact that the big box retailers will take [...]

Last night I had the opportunity to sponsor the monthly NARI NEO dinner. What a wonderful collection of remodeling experts! A fun group but also clearly a talented collection of professionals. One of the two speakers for the evening was Jeff Nischwitz of Think Again Coaching. He talked about being focused in your marketing message [...]

Have you missed me?  I received a call on February 13th that my father was suddenly very ill and I left my home, children and business without a backward glance.  A lover of technology, I hung up the phone and immediately went to my computer to find the first available flight out but it was the Friday [...]