Last week I spoke at the Fastbreak Breakfast hosted by the Canton Chamber and Aultcare. The topic was social media strategy and as part of my speech I have the participants think about their 30 second commerical in terms of the 140 character restriction of most social sites. You have to be focused. People don’t [...]

I am clearly in a customer service funk this week. And just when I thought I’d heard the worst, I read this comment: I received an interesting email yesterday from my office internet provider (and phone provider) spelling out their new terms and agreement regarding their internet service. What I found interesting is there’s a [...]

The economy is showing signs of improvement. Businesses are getting busier.  When we are slow it is easy to chat up a customer, exceed expectations with deadlines and go the extra mile. But what about when it gets busy? I recently asked this question of the Build Customer Relationship group on LinkedIn and here are [...]

The economy has taken its toll on all businesses, some more than others. But add to that fact, changing technology and the change in consumer buying habits and you have a more challenging operational situation. Borders Books announced yesterday that it is filing Chapter 11. On the same day I received a detailed email from the [...]

I received a lovely surprise in the mail today. A friend and colleague of mine, Leslie Ungar, president of Electric Impulse Communication, sent me a copy of her new book 100 Tips in 100 Days, 100 Tips to Communicate Your Competitive Edge. It is a clever, information packed, must-have to help you communicate your message [...]

Customer Service isn’t a title or a department – it is a culture. In a recent post over at Duct Tape Marketing his lead paragraph says it all Here’s something your customers won’t ever tell you but that you had better understand: Your employees probably treat your customers about the same way you treat your [...]

Last week I spoke at the Painesville Chamber breakfast and later received an email from Henry Brooks from Infinity Resources, Inc. He shared the Laws of Building Customer Relationships by Bob Burg entitled “Go Giver.” The Law of Value Your true worth is determined by how much more you give than you take in payment. [...]

Guess we won’t be seeing Lebron in this uniform again. Let me start by saying that I’m not a basketball fan. If I had to pick a sport and lawn bowling wasn’t an option then baseball would be my pick.  There is something so boring about watching a bunch of guys in shorts run to [...]

I have been saving a torn out letter to the editor since May 26.  The letter struck a cord with me.  This election year the local school put a levy on the ballot. They wanted the residents to vote for adding a sizable tax amount to our real estate taxes for the purpose of…..well, I [...]

   We’ve dabbled in social media.  In some cases we have gotten quite good but are we focused?  There are many uses for participating in social media, but for me – the best benefit is the ability to connect with our customers – or our potential customers.  We have a make or break opportunity available [...]