Could Customer Hoop-Jumping Be Robbing You Blind?

Customer Hoop-Jumping Experience #1:
I recently wrote about a soon-to-be-open Anytime Fitness center that’s losing a golden opportunity to sell memberships during pre-launch – all without spending a penny on traditional marketing or advertising. I recommended that the gym leverage its prime location by posting a phone number or website address along its storefront. A small, [...]

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Bucking Conventional Wisdom

Most business owners mask their vulnerabilities and insecurities by projecting a slick and polished image of infallibility. And this controlling behavior breeds the habitual corporate-speak, hype and chest-thumping clichés that consumers have come to loathe and reject.
But Southwest Airlines bucks conventional wisdom by removing the rules and regulations that handcuff its employees.
Take a moment to [...]

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What a Preschool Can Teach You About Delighting Customers

Yesterday was my daughter’s first day of pre-school. To calm frazzled nerves, the teacher handed my wife a little ziplock bag containing a cotton ball, tea bag and tissue.  The attached note read:
“Dear Preschool Parents
Here’s a little gift for you as you leave your precious one with us on the first day of school.  As [...]

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In-Flight Delight

“Sit back, relax and enjoy your flight!”
Those are the seven most meaningless words you’ll ever hear when flying.
It’s next to impossible to enjoy anything when your straight-jacketed into a flying aluminum tube for hours upon hours. And I don’t know about you, but I find nothing makes the time fly by (pun fully intended) when [...]

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Bikinis and Quitting Time

Mornington, Australia. Five-minutes-to-five.
Three bikinis in hand. Checkout counter two feet away.
“We close at 5 o’clock. You’ll have to leave now.”, ambushed the sales woman.
Jaws agape. Words choking. Julie and her two daughters calmly place the merchandise back on the shelf and exit the seashore boutique.
And one-hundred and three dollars walk out with them.
Counter-signaling good service [...]

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