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Somewhere, deep in your house file, are customers that are missing in action (MIA). Service and quality issues have alienated some. Others have simply gone quietly into the night. They left without complaint or fanfare. Emails are unanswered and catalogs are ignored.

Maybe they have completed the lifecycle for your merchandise, never to order again. If so, they are gone. Let them rest in peace (RIP).

Or, maybe they are just taking a break from shopping. If this is the case, without an active plan to stop them, they will evolve from MIA to RIP (resting in peace). Since it costs four times as much to acquire a customer than it does to reactivate one, now would be a good time to start a reactivation program. [Read more →]

Have you noticed how the introduction of new systems or processes creates more work? It starts with a learning curve, and then moves to redundancy, but the results are the same – more work!

It is time to break that pattern by working smarter. This starts with taking a break from doing and spending time thinking. (Don’t worry. It won’t hurt much!)

Abe Lincoln once said, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my ax.” Those hours of preparation are critical to the success of any initiative.

Start small with fifteen minutes a day and ask, [Read more →]

The single common denominator for wildly successful companies is a unique corporate culture that encourages employees to rise to their potential and includes customers as part of their team. The advantages of such a culture are many, but the greatest one is the inability of competitors to replicate the formula.

Employees that think and resolve issues quickly increase customer satisfaction. Creating this environment is risky if you fear mistakes, but the rewards include high morale, customer satisfaction, and profitability. The benefits far outweigh the risks. [Read more →]