// archives

Execution

This category contains 14 posts

Influencing Buyers to Choose Your Brand

A trend is emerging across industries such as healthcare, banking and technology with regards to what influences buyers to choose a particular brand. A company’s website and references from peers overwhelmingly carry more influence/weight that professionally prepared collateral and email campaigns. Read why.

Share

Credit Unions: Filene, Zig Ziglar and Southwest Airlines are on to Something

Credit unions can learn from what Southwest Airlines, Zig Ziglar and others already know — you hire for attitude, train for skills. The Filene Research Institute provides a blueprint for getting it right.

Share

Is it the Size of the Gun or the Aim that Determines Sales Success?

In the financial world, it seems that branch and ATM locations have become an obsession — but is reach as important as aim? Distribution without focus is costly and we examine why customer mix is critical to profitable growth.

Share

eBay Giveth and Paypal Taketh Away

eBay’s purchase of Paypal seemed like a no-brainer, until the two tried to integrate their systems. Making matters worse is two Customer Service organizations trying to sort through their disconnects. Read the transcript of a real eBay Chat dialogue where they admit customers who redeem only part of an eBay gift certificate lose the remaining balance unless they call Paypal to reactivate the funds.

Share

Customer Service — Easier Said Than Done

Outsourced call centers sound like a good deal until they accelerate customer attrition. How eBay (and others) are dropping the ball whereby Customer Support is code for customer avoidance.

Share

Citi’s One-Size-Fits-All Approach to Buyer Personas

Citi card services lose another valued customer, but it could have been avoided if Buyer Personas were used.

Share

Give It To Me Straight

Why “No” beats “Maybe” in a sales call. The secret to increasing sales productivity might lie in our ability to make it comfortable for a suspect to say “No.”

Share

Frontline Employees – Brand Ambassadors or Brand Assassins?

Frontline employees are the key to a positive brand experience in business, but nowhere is this more critical than services businesses. Here’s an example of a management failure to enroll frontline employees in becoming brand ambassadors.

Share

How Subaru Stubbed its Toe at Whole Foods

Environmentally friendly and hip brand (Subaru) takes a good idea and botches the execution — “who’s to blame” is less important than “how to avoid” making the same mistake.

Share

Twitter Tools and Tips for Online Retailers

Twitter tips for online retailers

Share