The customer is in charge and the customer is talking - about you. There's great value in engaging the customer. Engaged customers buy more, tend to be more loyal and recommend their friends to you. The "thumbs up " on Facebook is one of the ways the customer spreads the word about you and one of the reasons you want to make sure you are engaging the customers in ways you never did before.

71% Take a Friend’s Recommendation

The customer’s opinion is more important than it ever was before. 71% of people said they take a friend’s recommendation for a product or service. Customers today are involved and engaged in a way never before possible and it’s changing the game. For the better, I think.   The customer’s in charge and the customer…

This week I had dinner with my Mom at Seasons52. As the hostess took us to our seats, she picked up two black napkins and when we were seated asked us, since we were both wearing dark clothing, if we'd prefer a black napkin.

The Black Napkin

Last week I was having dinner with a colleague in Miami. A wonderful Italian restaurant on the inter-coastal waterway. Good food, good company. In the rustic tradition the white napkins resembled kitchen towels – thirsty but – uh fuzzy. Absorbed as I was in the food and the conversation I didn’t pay much attention to…

Authentic Happiness Coaching

In the Name of Loyalty

Oh brother. Now I’ve heard everything. Someone please tell me how cutting thousands of jobs at Sam’s Clubs is going to increase customer loyalty?   http://www.examiner.com/x-35524-Boston-Populist-Examiner~y2010m1d30-Walmart-to-cut-11000-Sams-Club   Looks like a cost cutting effort to me. If someone can shed some light on this please do. Are the employees of the sub-contractor be any more likely…

Customer Happiness

It’s All About Heart

Starting next week, for 5 weeks, 20 world-renowned thought leaders are sharing their insights and wisdom on how to live better, experience more joy, have more fun and create prosperity even in tough times. We’ll be talking about business and we’ll be talking about life.   This online event is called the Heart Based Service…

So the afternoon at the NACCM Conference – after a lovely lunch in the sunny courtyard – was spent in the Uber Loyalists track talking about my favorite topic – creating the emotional attachment we call loyalty. Marti Beller of the Affinion Group shared her experience on Customer engagement and its many benefits. She confessed to being a passionate Mac enthusiast and talked about Apple’s ability to create a kind of loyalty most of us can only aspire to. She shared a statistic about banks that says that only 35% of consumers feel engaged with their banks – 56% could be swayed and 9% just downright dislike them. Glad to see there is so much room for improvement. Marti also took us beyond the traditional 4 P’s of marketing (remember them? Product, Place, Promotion, and Price?) and added her own take on it.

Watching Your P’s and Q’s

So the afternoon at the NACCM Conference – after a lovely lunch in the sunny courtyard – was spent in the Uber Loyalists track talking about my favorite topic – creating the emotional attachment we call loyalty. Marti Beller of the Affinion Group shared her experience on Customer engagement and its many benefits. She confessed…

Cupped Hands

Off to a Great Start Today

Seven years ago the NACCM Chairperson was Kathleen Peterson, the Chief Vision Officer of Powerhouse Consulting and this year we were once again graced by her presence, her humor and her keen insight on the current business environment. She congratulated the audience, companies that understand the customer experience as a differentiator, for having negotiated the…