SimpleBiz360™ Podcast

“Tell them what they want to hear to shut them up!” “Keep the deal rolling…tell them what they want to hear.” “Don’t lose the deal…tell them whatever you want…just don’t lose the deal.” “I don’t care what you tell them…they better not cancel the deal.” Do these lines sound familiar? If so, take a look at how many customers got a line of BS from your company similar to the previous quotes. Customer...

If you want to win over millennial and and Gen Z buyers, being authentic is essential for vendors. Be real. Be genuine. Be transparent Be honest. Be humble. Support the show

Customers want vendors who are primarily classified as doers. Customers want orders to flow seamlessly. They want action. They don’t want lip service, they don’t want clever schemes, they don’t want blame shifting… They just want vendors who do what they say they’re going to do. Ready. Set. Go. Support the show

Imagine reading one business skill-building book with a goal of obtaining three take-aways? Imagine doing this once a month for 12 months? With 36 new skills sets in one year, imagine the goals you could achieve, the raise you could get, or the new job you could obtain? Skills are transferrable from one job to the next. It all starts by cultivating a mindset to acquire new business skill sets! If...

Our fast-paced business world is moving further away from this principle. What would happen if we made a deliberate effort to talk with our customers? It's a simple question about a lost art! We encourage you to carve out some time to bond with your customers. They will love it, and you will pick up many, many ideas that can be used for continuous improvement!  Support the show

Imagine a high school football team that never practices, and only shows up to the games. They would be a disaster. Now replace the football team with your customer service team. Why do we let customer service reps play the game, without practicing with them to ensure they are creating positive customer experience experiences? Role-playing is like practicing. It is essential for success. When will...

Business is a two sided coin. One side is what you sell. The other side is how you sell it. Each side of that coin creates customer experiences. Is your company actively dissecting all of the experiences you create? Are you sometimes overlooking the “how you sell” side of your business? Support the show

Transactions have routine components that are common with most every sale. Many of these components involve interaction with the customer. These are commonly called touch points. Do you know how many touch points are in your routine selling process? Do you manage your team for successful outcome with each touch point? If your answer to both questions is no, maybe it’s time to explore improving you...

Customers can sense when companies are setting the service bar at a bare minimum. The companies that aim higher elevate the customer experience, and will benefit from an abundance of repeat and referral business. Avoid being “run of the mill” and aim at delivering exceptional customer service. Support the show

One of the hallmarks of top tier companies is to anticipate the wants, and needs of customers. if your company routinely assesses the necessary components of customer success, you will always be one step ahead of creating bad experiences. Anticipating customer desires is a well-constructed pathway to ensuring favorable deliverables, and levels of customer satisfaction that exceed buyer expectation...

 Sometimes a series of small changes help you deliver better customer satisfaction , rather than making wholesale, sweeping changes. When was the last time you sat down to identify 10 or 15 improvements you could make on your website? When was the last time you challenged the wording of your website? When’s the last time you tried to modify your procedures to make it easier for the customer? Imagi...

Voluntary communication from the vendor is a display of good stewardship in action. Customers want to know that their money is being spent wisely. Vendors demonstrate good stewardship by sending voluntary information designed to educate, inform and equip customers with helpful updates about their transaction. Do you want more repeat and referral business? Courtesy communication is a great tool to...

After decades of consistently baking up conversations in writing, I let my guard down one time in December. The lack of written confirmation came back to cause me painful issues in February. Do you confirm the details of critical conversations in writing? If not, maybe it's time to start. A two-minute email could save you thousands of dollars! Support the show

Turn the noise off, leave the electronics home, find a place to think… and continuous improvement ideas will pop up everywhere. You just need to quiet the noise, search your mind, reflect on possible improvements, and then write them down. It can be therapeutic and refreshing at the same time. Our minds are amazing creations, and we really see what they can produce when we search and listen. How a...

Football quarterbacks often call audibles because they read the playing field and see something that could damage their play calling. We are no different in business. Sometimes we need to call an audible in order to reshape our approach to something we see when we read the room. Do you read the room routinely? Do you sometimes reshape your approach after reading the room? Support the show

The short answer is customer feelings. The day has come and gone, where product and services stand on their own merits. In today’s economy, businesses must be keenly aware of how they are making their customers feel. If you’re not managing this mindset, it’s time to giddy up, and address the 800 pound elephant in the room. Support the show

Time is money. Time is short. Time is a precious commodity to a business. What are you doing to reduce the time and toil customers have to spend doing business with you? Maybe it’s time to look for ways to save your customers more of their precious time? Support the show

Mature companies often find themselves saddled with internal squabbling about issues that are actually quite insignificant. If this is happening to your company, you are inadvertently taking your eye off the customer ball. Maybe it’s time to revisit your roots, and fall back in love with focusing on some of the major issues that can create good customer experiences. Support the show

Black holes are unanswered  communication. As time ticks by, the inquiring party becomes increasingly agitated because their inquiry has gone unacknowledged, and unanswered. Many deals have been lost, and many customers have defected because they were sent to a cyberspace blackhole by a vendor. It is time to Wakey-Wakey! Just answer your dang communication! Do a 180 degree turnaround today! Suppor...

Margin erosion is a sneaky business killer that can unnecessarily send a company to the boneyard. Becoming a doctor of details is essential to protecting the precious pennies of profitability. If you are not willing to get into your company weeds, than brace yourself for a painful impact sooner than later? What say you? Are you putting your operational weeding gloves on to make sure you are retain...

After 35 years of tracking bad customer experiences, the lack of these two actions are the bedrock of buyer dissatisfaction. Period. End of Story. You want a more profitable bottom line? Do you want to stay in business for the long haul? Do you want customers to come back for more? Deliver on these two actions and most of your problems will be solved. Support the show

The best return happens when companies aim their improvements at customers. Buyers have a keen awareness of which companies prioritize customer satisfaction over company profitability. The best companies know that happy customers will lead to healthy bottom lines. Where are your improvements aimed at? Support the show

The common thread of championship athletic teams is humility. At a certain point, once the collective team becomes humble, the real improvement and growth starts. Without that humility, the teams will never achieve the ultimate goal of a championship. It’s no different in business. If we want to succeed, and grow as businesses, the collective personnel must become humble enough to pursue improveme...

Sadly, customer perception molds customer reality. This reality may not be true, but to the customer, it is their reality. If companies want to create better customer experiences, it behooves the company to understand the various realities customers are seeing, feeling and receiving. If you have never jumped into the customer shoes to experience your product/service, now might be the perfect time...

Companies can lose BIG money when they deliver a product that looks, and feels inferior to the original sample. This happens all too often. Why? Companies want to pad profitability by using cheaper raw materials for the order fulfillment production. Is your company doing this? If so, maybe it’s time for an integrity-driven approach to filling customer orders? BTW…the example in this video created...