resources
The Apple Watch, iPad, and Customer 3D
The Apple Watch is the latest innovation that has a lot of people weighing in about why it will not be successful. It’s human nature these days to minimize the impact of innovations, claiming they are not needed and don’t…
You Belong with Your Customers
Fascinating studies about cooperation are focusing us on the direct benefits to businesses that will transform their customer strategy. In The Evolution of Cooperation, Robert Axelrod explained his research on players of the game Prisoner’s Dilemma. This game famously demonstrates…
Are you still focused on your agenda?
You are in the dinosaur era. Start being helpful or be ignored. A guest post by Danielle MacInnis from MacInnis Marketing in Melbourne, Australia. Small businesses need marketing more than ever I have just spent the last 3 months travelling around…
What You Are Already Doing
Seth Godin gave us another brilliant post recently. It described how difficult it is for most people to understand why they would benefit from a new service that does not exist today. They get stuck in believing that what the world…
Customer-Centered Advocates
Recently, I interviewed a number of adults who had loved ones in senior living facilities. One of the clearest messages they sent was that the residents at these types of facilities “have to have their son or daughter advocating…
April 30, 2014. The Path to Success.
Bill will speak and serve on a panel at the National Society of Hispanic MBAs event in Rochester, NY, on April 30, 2014, discussing the importance of influence and diversity to entrepreneurial success. The Rochester Chapter of NSHMBA currently has over…
March 28, 2014. The One Project
The Thinking Forward speaking troupe, which Bill helped found, introduced The One Project to a community-focused audience on March 28, 2014 at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY. Bill described the benefits of The One Project initiative, which was created as…
April 1, 2014. Public Speaking and Leadership
Bill gave a lively presentation to the Rochester Rotary Club on April 1, 2014 about Persuasive Public Speaking and Leadership. He highlighted how excellent public speaking skills not only benefit leaders in the workplace, but also solidify their personal branding…
Feb 27, 2014. High Impact Presentations.
The Professional Abatement Contractors of Central New York (PACNY) invited Bill to speak at their annual conference on February 27, 2014. Bill delivered a 45-minute talk and demonstration about High Impact Presentations to an audience of professional trainers from all…
Anticipation
The best way to demonstrate that your organization is customer-centered is to be easy to do business with. Recently, we experienced a nightmare with a company who has an acceptable tech solution but could not get out of its own…
Customer Bill of Rights
When President John Kennedy spoke to the U.S. Congress over fifty years ago about four basic consumer rights, it was groundbreaking. Nothing had existed like this previously. Today, however, new insights are necessary to define the rights of customers more…
Re-Defining Customer Service
The definition of great customer service is changing…for the better. The Customer 3D™ approach is taking suppliers’ expectations to a new dimension for their customers. What used to be acceptable in the product-centered world is being expanded by a new,…
Growing Customer-Centricity
Many companies believe that they can develop a customer-focused organization through a command-and-control approach. The reality is that becoming customer-centered will never happen without a deep-rooted culture that allows it to flourish. Michael Jones, in The Roots of Aliveness, introduces a…
Customer Expectations
Many companies claim that they want to "exceed customers' expectations." There’s a problem with this mantra, however. It is based on the supplier’s view of what its customers expect. And this is inevitably shaped by the rules and procedures that…
Resourceful Leadership
One of the essential characteristics that every customer-centric organization shares is a culture of resourcefulness. It starts with the organization’s leaders. Their vision is practical, and even frugal, and it translates into the culture of everyone working there. The message…
Creative Customer Performance
When organizations focus on what their customers will tell others, it opens performance to a new dimension. Suddenly, everyone from front-line employees to executives takes on a creative role that embraces exciting new ideas. My wife and I recently had…
Thinking Forward
Customer service is being re-invented with an attitude that is very different from what we are used to seeing. Companies are beginning to think forward for their customers—to anticipate how they can become a more valuable partner. Steve Jobs once…
What Needs Changed?
The title of this post can be interpreted in two ways. First, it can represent the question “What needs to be changed?’ What are the situations or worldviews that are not working and that, therefore, ought to be improved? These…
A Different Approach to Customer-Centered Success
This community is very different from any other customer site. The worldview of customers is being re-invented by passionate advocates for changing what has been accepted as normal customer service. This network is a resource, focusing on only the most…
Customer Effort
It’s good that the world is paying more attention to the amount of effort that a customer must exert in order to do business with us. Nevertheless, there is still a lot more that companies should be doing. “Stop Trying…
The Customer 3D™ Premium
All of us are well aware that basic knowledge is getting more basic, because it is more easily accessible. Google and other high-performance search engines have proven that. Customer 3D™ organizations are factoring this trend into the design of their…
Anti-Complexity Officer
We have enough complexity already. Consequently, we have less and less patience with suppliers that expect us to figure out how to do business with them. We have heard a lot in recent years about the Chief Customer Officer (CCO).…
A Bigger Pie
Shirley Taylor, recent President of the Asia Professional Speakers Singapore, is part of a vibrant mastermind group of professional speakers who are all growing their businesses. Instead of operating independently and struggling, they are now collaborating. Taylor describes it this…
The Innovation Zone
The Innovation Zone demonstrates that most dynamic innovations are not a single stroke of brilliance and great, new products but are a disciplined, easily-learned business process that includes an organizational incubator that supports and sustains the practice of turning ideas…
The Designful Company
“The complex business problems we face today can’t be solved with the same thinking that created them,” says author Marty Neumeier in this entertaining and original read. Instead, he says, we need to start from a place outside traditional business…
1000SongwritingIdeas
A great tool for all songwriters looking for creative resources. 1000 Songwriting Ideas is a handy book of creativity exercises that stop writer's block and spark the fire of your imagination. It offers concepts to ponder as starting places for…