Author Archives: admin

What Do You Want To Be Famous For?

I want to be famous for being inspiring, inventive, and radiating positive energy! I’d like to be famous for my common sense Customer CARE principles and my PASSION for bringing positivity into workplaces.

But mostly I want to be famous for motivating people – like you – to take away one or two or maybe three ideas every month or so, put them into practice and experience the positive change – and THEN feel motivated to teach it to others.

There’s only one problem – research shows that only 10% of an “audience” will actually put something into practice. Are you in that group? I’ll bet you ARE!

Why Customer Loyalty Is So Important

It’s still the beginning of the new year – keep it happy!

Next week, on Feb 1st, I will celebrate my 25th year of being in business. That I’ve made that milestone makes me happy. So as I’m packing up to head out to a few speaking engagements I thought I might once more cover some of the basics of why we are all here – why I’m in business and why you are in business– to make customers happy and invite them to stick around and become loyal to our product, our service or our cause.

Thanksgiving Thoughts From JoAnna Brandi

It’s the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US this week. It’s a time we spend with family and friends and give thanks for all the bounty in our lives. A recent survey commissioned by the John Templeton Foundation revealed how Americans think about gratitude. More than 90 percent agreed that grateful people are more fulfilled, lead richer lives and are more likely to have friends.

21 Tough Questions to Foster an Excellent Customer Experience

“Delivering a great customer experience” has become imperative in business. Competition is tougher than ever and the Customer Experience, for most all of the companies I work for is a top strategic objective.

Of course that makes sense. When customers have great experiences with your company they are more likely to buy more, more willing to tell others and act as referral sources. This makes doing business easier and your bottom line more robust. An increase of only 5% in your profitable customers can drive 25% – 100% more profit to your bottom line.

Profit From Positivity, Part 2

October 7, 2014: 7 Ways to Profit from Positivity – Part 2

Happy Customer Service Week – or as I like to call it “Customer Happiness Week.” This year I am focusing on making sure the
internal customers are happy, engaged and inspired to do their best work in service of the external customer.

To celebrate Customer Happiness, here is the link to a fr*ee webinar I did last week. Watch it immediately. The link will expire in a week.

In our last tip I mentioned that when people feel good at work they are more productive, more creative, more resilient, more likely to achieve their goals. I shared several ways you and your business can profit from positivity.
We talked about:

Profit from Positivity – Part 1

Companies that love customers are just plain different. They have this remarkable tendency to be wildly successful. When leadership has both EQ – Emotional Intelligence – and reasonably good IQ they have people smarts as well as business smarts and can discover how to sustain and cultivate success.

As work and the workforce changes, the role of leadership is changing. While it’s still critically important for a leader to set direction, it’s no longer so important for a leader to give directions.
Capable people, enabled by the intelligence they access through search engines and social connections, often create new (and better) ways to do things. Just witness the number of young successful entrepreneurs in so many fields.

What Do the Fish and Flowers Say?

I ran into a friend of mine at a conference the other day. I was surprised to see her since I know that she works grueling hours as an art director. And, the impression that I’d gotten of the ad agency she works for left me with the feeling that they probably wouldn’t support a day of education out of the office.

The Power of Saying Thank You

Often the best advice is the simplest advice. The problem with simple advice is that people don’t take it because it seems so, well, simple. My experience tells me that simple can be very effective when done over and over again. A simple way to motivate, inspire and lead smarter is to increase your output of gratitude, thank-you’s and praise.

In my leadership training I speak a lot about raising the “Positivity Ratio” at work and letting people know we appreciate them.

Today here are some of my simple thoughts on thank you’s, gratitude and praise.

Do You Have the Freedom to Fail?

I have this ritual. Before I write a program for a client, I review my notes (I take lots), my impressions (those instant intuitive flashes that come while I’m taking notes) grab a stack of index cards to tuck into my fanny pack and head for a walk on the beach. Sometimes I play music, sometimes not.

By the time the walk is over I have an overall context of what I want to present and usually what my key purpose with that client is. Along with that kind of eagle eye view I also come home with ideas of what books I might need to take off my shelves for inspiration and wisdom.