While i was still in school, I read Jeff & Bryan Eisenbergs book, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark. In it, they talk about WIIFM, your customers favorite radio station. This stands for What’s In It For Me. What is the problem that a customer can hand to you and you take care of it for […]
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There is a thought that each company should surprise and delight their customers. This means unexpected surprises, or benefits that occur at key points in the relationship. This past weekend, I was at my mothers house and she asked for help assembling a piece of furniture. This is not an uncommon occurrence for me […]
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When people talk about software there’s a concept of total cost of ownership. This is the cost of the entire software; the implementation, maintenance costs, staff time internally and training among other things that add up tot he real cost, not just the sticker price of software. I feel the same way about napkins. To save cost, […]
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Recently, my son (under 4 years old) got upset and I wasn’t sure why. I asked and his response was because I ripped a piece of a plastic bag. In that moment a ton of ideas became clear to me about what’s important, engagement and the world as a whole. From my perspective, I was […]
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I have been a huge fan and supporter of Evernote since long before I met and was a co presenter with Evernote’s founder and former CEO, Phil Libin in Silicon Valley. Since then I’ve recommended to friends family and many others I interact with since I felt it was the best note taking app. I […]
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Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods makes a ton of sense to me. On one hand you have Whole Foods, a supermarket retailer with large spaces in high end areas capturing a fair amount of wallet share from consumers who have higher education, technology adoption and education. Further, many of their items are private label […]
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One of the most important things to focus on when looking at an eCommerce Strategy is the conversion process. Every site and every page should have a correlation to the conversion goals (what action you want the visitor to take) of that particular website. Last night I was shopping online and got ticked off that […]
Keep readingHint, you pay them every few weeks. About 3 blocks from my apartment a grocery delivery company, Fresh Direct, parks 7 days a week from about 8a – 9p. Despite this being a violation of parking rules this is excellent from a logistical perspective. Being able to preplan deliveries and have a central point of […]
Keep readingAsk a bunch of small business entrepreneurs what they’re looking for in a service professional – be it a lawyer, writer or developer – and I’ll bet most of them would answer with one word: value. But “value” is actually two things combined into one – quality and cost. And I bet if they had […]
Keep readingWhen the U.S. Government dropped a virtual bomb on the file-sharing website MegaUpload.com last month, thousands — if not millions — of MegaUpload users who utilized the site to store personal files as a synchronization and backup service received a rude awakening and painful lesson about the risks of Internet security. And it’s quite possible […]
Keep readingIn the business world today, there is a tremendous push for social media strategies to encourage social media relations between businesses and their customer base. All over, businesses are trying to incorporate social media into everything from advertising and supporting toasters to online services. But at what cost?
Keep readingAnytime you think an idea is too far fetched, take a look at this video. JapanProbe dot com Uploaded by pubjapaned. –
Keep readingThis week, I was planning a get together for 35 people. Considering the cost of food for such a large number of people, the added sale of drinks, and the hefty gratuity that restaurants charge for large parties, the restaurant I chose was bound to come out ahead by servicing my party. But instead of […]
Keep readingFrom a business perspective, when I think of Groupon or Living Social, I think group buying is a bad idea–like many others. Too often companies are overwhelmed by an influx of new customers. This can result in a loss of profits and poor customer experiences. But in all fairness, whether group buying is good or […]
Keep readingTonight, I realized that no restaurant so far has really wowed me with a marketing brand of some sort when I left the restaurant. (You can check out a previous post to read about a restaurant that did leave me with a less than stellar impression.) Sure, I’ve gotten macaroons and jellies at the table […]
Keep readingIn a previous post, I wrote about the continuity of operations, or the need for small businesses and start-ups to dedicate themselves to a continuous flow of operations from the beginning of a customer’s transaction to the end. If a continuity of operations is important, then we also need to start thinking about a related […]
Keep readingI decided to make this blog post the first in a three-part series on continuity within your small business or start-up. Let’s tackle the continuity of operations first. There’s one maxim that every business needs to know when they begin to go about the business of, well, doing business: People know your company better than […]
Keep readingRecently, I decided to jump ship–business-wise. For the first time in five years, I decided not to use the printing company I had come to depend on. Why? They had poor customer service, and there was no customer relationship management. Basically, they made my life harder than it needed to be. They failed me in three […]
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