Tag Archives: customer service
Measuring Project Success: Thoughts for the Training Professional

Measuring Project Success: Thoughts for the Training Professional

When we think of the concept of “success,” it often seems relatively straightforward.  Looking back on your day, for instance, it’s generally an easy thing to sum up whether it was successful or not.  Did your presentation go well to that big prospective client, or did your car break down on the way to work?  Were you able to get the gym as you had hoped, or did your boss need you to work late on someone else’s project?  Easily definable items such as these, measured against a finite number of other events, allow for relatively rapid analysis.

Yet, when one extends the number of competing factors a bit, measurement becomes increasingly difficult.  Just as it is generally easy enough to determine if your day went well, deciding if you had a good year can be a bit harder.  For one thing, how do you weigh competing factors against each …

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The Power of Your Network

The Power of Your Network

Whether it is building our LinkedIn Contacts or Followers on Twitter, gathering Friends on Facebook or Yammering with our fellow work teams, the buzz of “networking” is always present. Networking comes naturally for some people, but not-so-much for others. So big deal, you say. Why is networking so important anyway?

From a personal perspective, networking builds new relationships through which you can share information, answer questions, and make new connections. People in your network become the portals to knowledge, opportunity, and information you might not find on your own. From the business perspective, however, networking isn’t only helpful, it is mandatory. Business networking not only brings new business and new talent, but it supports collaboration – whether it’s collaborating with internal team members or making connections outside of the organization. Once you’ve established a business connection, you’ve set the foundation for sharing a multitude of resources ranging from best …

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Jeffrey Gitomer’s Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take…and Take

Jeffrey Gitomer’s Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take…and Take

Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last week I attended Jeffrey Gitomer’s sales seminar here in Minneapolis.  For those of you that don’t know Jeffrey, he’s one of the foremost sales speakers and writers in America today; author of The New York Times best sellers The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling and The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude.  I had never heard Jeffrey speak before, but after reading a couple of his books, I had fairly high expectations going into the seminar.  Well, it’s fair to say that he blew them out of the water.  He was creative, he was edgy and he was overall very fun to watch and listen to.  Aside from all of these great things, however, what separates Jeffrey from other sales trainers both in my mind and in wallet size, is the importance he …

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5 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Customer Base

5 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Customer Base

A key driver of your company’s value is the aggregate value of your customer base.  When I joined the Dashe & Thomson team a little more than a month ago, I knew my success would hinge greatly on my ability to understand our customers and their needs.  However, in my short time here it’s clear that analyzing customer profitability and maximizing a customer’s lifetime value are just as important.  These tasks are essential to any business, but when time and resources are limited at a small change management firm like Dashe & Thomson, they become vital.   Paging through old notes from a marketing class I took while at Carlson, I can recall five things companies can do to improve the value of their customer base:

  1. Reduce the rate of customer defection – Something that continues to come up in discussions I have with clients is how satisfied they are with
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