My Mom just got off the phone.  A three-hour help desk call.  She is crying.    “I guess I’m just too stupid to understand what they are saying,” she is defeated.    The first thing that comes to mind (after assuring her that she isn’t stupid, she is one of the smartest people I know) [...]

It is raining.  In fact, it is supposed to snow over the next few days.  April snow.  Not my fav. In my travels this morning I needed gas and so stopped into a new place:  Waterway home of the Clean Car Club.  Truthfully I didn’t notice the name of the place, I pulled in because of [...]

I believe in customer loyalty.  In fact, I have a speech – my most popular speech – entitled Earning Customer Loyalty.  So imagine my surprise when I was reading a recent edition of Advertising Age and found the article entitled:  Why Customer Loyalty Isn’t as Valuable as You Think” by Hamish Pringle and Peter Field. [...]

I was just reading a post of Zach Heller’s entitled Why Joke with Your Customers.  It was an April Fool’s Day post – the classic day for jokesters but he brings up a good point when he talks about having fun with your customers: What is the point of playing a joke on people who [...]

In the local monthly magazine an article about Little Tikes caught my eye.  The title “Little Tikes Turns to Parents for Toy Advice” struck me as a DUH. Of course.  And yet how many businesses actually involve their customers in product, buying or marketing decisions?  The article informs the reader that product development for Little Tikes [...]