They say life can change in the blink of an eye, but you never really appreciate how true that phrase is until someone blinks. On July 7, 2011, at 4:30pm, life blinked for my 20 year old son, Ben and the ripple effects of that blink reach beyond comprehension. He was hit directly in 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 [...]
Often our first interaction with our customer is over the phone. If you had to rate that experience from the caller’s perspective – how would you do? A+ – you answer the phone personally with a warm greeting and a smile on your face F - they have several confusing options with a menu that [...]
They sound similar but do they mean the same thing? I asked the question of the Build Customer Relationships group on LinkedIn this week and overwhelmingly the answer was NO. Everyone agrees that customer service is the foundation – what gets customers in the door the first time and turns them from prospects to customers [...]
Today is my 300th blog post and I just want to say thank you for those that subscribe, those that are first time visitors and all of the rest of you who stop by on occasion to read my blog postings. This past week I asked the question – how do you say thank you [...]
I once heard someone say – if you can’t find exactly what you want – build it yourself. I love the lively discussions that happen on LinkedIn in the various groups. I belong to several; local groups with a variety of business types and industry specific groups for speakers, writers, customer service and [...]
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 [...]
I had the pleasure of facilitating a communication workshop earlier this week and the results were riddled with “ah-ha” moments. The group took a test to determine their “color” communication style and then they broke into groups to identify: key elements of their communication style pet peeves in communication topics they like to discuss tips for [...]
Reading some more in the book What the Customer Wants You to Know and came to the chapter about communicating with your customer. Author Ram Charan says: The final step to ensure long lasting and profitable customer relationships is to incorporate post-sale servicing into the overall process. The sale does not end when the contract is signed. It [...]
People buy from those they like and trust and the only way to build that trust is to learn about your customers as people not just cash in the register. This became clear to me during a recent trip to Venice, Italy in which I visited a shop, Arte Venexiana, near the Rialto Bridge. I was looking [...]
