Is tearing up a bird’s nest an act of cruelty or kindness? Last year my wife and I noticed a couple of birds flying up to the dryer exhaust vent above the kitchen window. My wife correctly guessed that they were building a nest so I went outside to check it out. After I came […]
Archive | Leadership
Customer Service for Breakfast
For just a moment, forget about productivity. Forget about making your company more money. Forget getting a better performance review. To me, good customer service isn’t really about any of those things. To me, providing good customer service is about the person that I want to be. Think about the last time you were provided […]
What if Your Customer Has a Point After All?
Sometime back in the early seventies, I was getting in our family car in a Kmart parking lot when I looked down and found a badly weathered eight-track tape (ask your mom) on the ground next to the car. The tape was in bad shape but closer inspection revealed that it was The Turtles’ Greatest […]
A Salute to Pants
It’s that time of year again when it has become necessary for me to switch from shorts to pants, and I couldn’t be happier. I had almost forgotten the comfort, warmth, and security that wearing pants provides. It’s just like getting a hug of sunshine, but without the searing heat and life-threatening melanoma. The reason […]
Handle the Heat Like George Clooney (Director’s Cut: longer article)
With a little prodding, you can get my friend John Hicks to talk about the time he got to act in the Coen brothers’ classic movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” After John saw their first movie he was hooked, so when he learned they were shooting a movie practically in his backyard, he rushed […]
How are you training your customers?
Have you ever noticed that so much attention is given to training employees, but so little to training customers? You are, at this very moment, training your customers. Every time you interact with your customer in your business, you are communicating something about yourself and your business. In every interaction, no matter how small, your […]
4 reasons to quit quiet quitting
I can hardly get through the day without bumping into a Reel or TicTok video lauding the benefits of quiet quitting. Even worse, there are other videos that give you point-by-point instructions about how to do it. The quiet quitting philosophy argues that if you aren’t getting the recognition and monetary reward to which you […]
Creating Marva-lous Customer Service
Maybe it’s time to re-think your goal of customer satisfaction. My family and I spent the entire day driving through a torrential downpour to get to an important event three states away. Both of our kids were cranky and miserable which meant my wife and I were cranky and miserable. We all were ready to […]
It’s a Wonderful Life Leadership Lesson
If you haven’t seen It’s a Wonderful Life, stop what you’re doing right now and go watch it. Then call your parents and ask them why they omitted this crucial piece of awesomeness from your upbringing. I watch it every year and, if the other members of my family are to be believed, I always […]
I Am A Customer
Allow me to introduce myself. I am a customer. I am the person that makes the economic engine turn. I am the reason you take home a paycheck. I am the reason you are able to feed your family, pay your mortgage, go on vacation, buy a car, and contribute to your church or synagogue. […]