How to Clone Your Best Clients

You walk into your waiting room and there she is, Mrs. Manning, smiling as you enter.  Although she is a client, after all this time a handshake is too formal for her and you greet with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.  As you walk her into your office you chat animatedly about her kids, your kids and their latest soccer games.  Even as you get down to business the tone is light and truly collaborative.  You share a mutual respect but truly enjoy working together.  And thanks to Mrs. Manning telling her friends and work colleagues about …

Small Business Vision: Why Do You Do What You Do?

One of the most important statements you can make as a small business owner is to articulate your business vision and say why you do what you do.  A vision describes the fundamental purpose of your business, why it exists and what it is meant to do.  It is a moral statement that guides the decisions you will make along the way and will remain in place over the long term.   Here are a couple of examples: Amazon Vision Statement:  “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find …

Don’t Got Metrics? Then You Won’t Get Change.

As the old saying goes, “you get what you measure” and trying to make change happen in your organization is no different. I worked with a telecommunications client a few years ago who was trying to transform their collections call center. Customer satisfaction surveys were spotty, agent turnover was high and while the supervisors and managers tried all of the usual call center agent motivation tricks of pizza Fridays and drawings for free movie tickets, the center had a pretty negative view of its customers and behaved accordingly. It should be no surprise to our readers that paying your bill …