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Don’t Harp on the Customer’s Mistake - 6/24/25


Seth’s daughter, Sarah, had missed some swim classes, and Seth remembered that the aquatics center had several make-up classes available late in the summer.  So Seth pulled up the class schedule on his phone, found one that worked on his and Sarah’s schedules, and planned to attend a session Read more

Create Customers for Life - 6/17/25


Veronica has gone to the same automotive service shop for at least 20 years.  She bought a new car about a year ago, and this is the third car she’s brought to the shop instead of taking her car to the dealer where she bought it.  She’s had three Read more

Don’t Turn the Customer into the QA Department - 6/10/25


Roberta received a form with information filled in by the company after her conversation with the account rep.  Roberta just needed to review the information, fill in some of the blanks, sign it, and resend it in order to set up a new account. She noticed that the effective date Read more

Imitate to Improve - 6/3/25


Oscar Wilde said that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  Now this doesn’t mean that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.  Nor does it mean that great impersonators such as Rich Little, Dana Carvey, or Frank Caliendo are always offering flattering portrayals of those that they imitate. Wilde’s Read more

How the Customer Perceives a Truth as a Lie - 5/27/25


You’re the customer, you’re asking about an unused item that you’re returning, and you hear the employee say: “The refund process takes 7-10 days.”  You’re thinking: “Great!  I can get the refund check as early as a week from today!”  The reality is that the company means that they’ll Read more

Tell Customers What’s Next - 5/20/25


In most businesses that have been around for a while, how a process was originally designed is not how it currently operates.  Sometimes this change is referred to as “practical drift,” where the actual process moves further and further away from the documented steps over time.  Maybe the changes Read more

Questions to Guide You to Empathy - 5/13/25


“If I was him, I would do ABC…” If you’ve ever heard somebody say this - whether it’s a friend or acquaintance, whether it’s some TV reporter or podcaster - you may get as frustrated or as annoyed as I do. I get annoyed because we are not that other person. Read more

Negate the Nervousness - 5/6/25


The customer needed a loan, so he walked into the bank, but he was a little nervous.  He knew that launching his business would be easier if he had some working capital, but that’s about all he knew.  He was anxious because he didn’t know what to expect in Read more

Don’t Rush to Resolve Quickly - 4/29/25


The customer is angry, so you use the CSS LEAD technique as designed.  You, listen, empathize, accept responsibility, and deliver on a remedy.  But it doesn’t work.  The customer is still upset, and maybe even a little more frustrated than when you started…why?! If the use of this technique fails, Read more

Energy v. Apathy - 4/22/25


I asked a couple friends who are much more scientifically-oriented the question: What is energy?  I didn’t mean E=MC2.  I meant physiologically, what is energy? They described a lot of things that sounded really good, yet far too advanced for my non-medical mind. Part of the reason why energy is of Read more

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Coach for Student Success

Posted on October 24, 2013 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

Vince Lombardi was the coach of the Green Bay Packers, but would his style really work well in an Education setting? Apparently it did – along with being a great football coach, he also was a successful teacher of Latin, algebra, physics and chemistry. In other words, teaching and coaching can be very similar.

And in the University and Community College arenas these days, teaching doesn’t just apply to the classroom. Much of what students need to be taught involves everything that surrounds the classroom. It’s the financial aid, general time management, navigating school processes and policies, dealing with school-specific tech applications, or navigating a campus.

To address the need to teach about these aspects of the Student Experience, some colleges are investing in Success Coaches. In the article “Success coaches” prodding college students to graduate, examples from Wallace State Community College and the University of Toledo are highlighted. Essentially, the coaches’ responsibilities can involve many tasks including:

  • Monitoring student accounts to ensure students are staying on-time and on-track with registering, attending, and completing classes.
  • Communicating with faculty about issues or red-flags, then taking action.
  • Being almost like an account representative for a pro sports team’s season ticket holders, being the main point of contact for the student.

Of particular benefit to First Generation Students, these coaches have a 1-to-1 perspective of their relationship with the students, working to keep tabs on, develop relationships with, and help to navigate their student experience.

Think of all the information that your organization has available on your customers or your students. Then ask, who is that dedicated resource charged with looking at and acting on that information to ensure student retention, a great student experience, and long-term success?

Find a coach to help guide the student to success.

Did you like this post? Here are other Student Success-related posts:


From Lament to Leading the Way – 3 Steps to BRE-Building

Posted on October 21, 2013 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

I was having a conversation with an economic development professional (a Business Retention & Expansion manager), and he was sharing his organization’s approach to retaining and growing with existing local companies. It started positively, and then the more he talked, the more he described his issues:

  • He wanted to a “real” and robust BRE program.
  • The current program was too limited to conducting site visits once/year with key businesses.
  • He wanted “to have a continual dialogue with companies.”
  • He needed to more quickly use the results of the interviews in issue-resolution for the client and community.
  • There’s no system to their relationship-building with companies. It was too much of a task-focused endeavor.

Much of what the BRE professional was lamenting is common in the industry. Too much work, and too little time. So the focus is on hitting a targeted number of site visits, helping when issues arise in a manner that’s not efficient or systematic enough, having large lag time between gathering information and acting on well thought out strategies, and getting activities done more than relationships developed.

This is common…but it doesn’t mean it’s the step to greatness.

To take that next step, even if staffing resources don’t increase, several other aspects of the program should change:

  • BRE programs need to have a mix of research activities; overreliance on site visits (the most labor-intensive data collection method) reduces capacity for issue-resolution, planning, and real relationship development. Phone/web-based surveys, and BRE News Research are efficient ways of complementing site visits.
  • Creating 12-month Touch Point Plans helps organizations build client knowledge and relationships, often without having to take a step onsite. These need to be developed/executed to make relationship-building happen on an ongoing basis.
  • Developing resource databases and detailed search capabilities such as exist in some BRE applications expedites identification of people/grants/processes/services that can be used to impact business needs and issues. These databases can also expedite the sharing of resources with the business itself.

If you’re lamenting the difficulties in moving your BRE program to greatness, take these 3 great steps.

See more BRE blog posts at: http://brebuzz.com/bre-blog-posts/


Is Your Fan Experience a Reason to Stay or Leave?

Posted on October 16, 2013 in Business Advice, Sports 1 Comment

It’s not about winning. It’s not about the more popular sport. It’s about convenience and interactions with the people around you….

In the article Why I Gave Up My NFL Season Tickets, a former Washington Redskins season ticket holder shares why he’s no longer an NFL season ticket holder (STH) and is now a STH of the Washington Wizards. In short, he wanted an easier commute and not to be exposed to out-of-control drunk fans.

I was once told by a major sports owner that the only thing that drives attendance is “Wins and Weather.” He was echoing what his marketing consultant had said many times to the press. But in the case of this fan and many others, it’s not just about “Wins and Weather,” it’s about the fan experience. It’s about whether the fun outweighs the effort, the hassle, the cost, and the time.

This is a short post because the article itself has many key points, but keep this point in mind as well. The team, its wins, its marketing, its sales pitches, its image can bring fans in, but that’s often not what keeps fans.

If you want to keep fans for the long-term, you need to start by getting to know them, developing a relationship with them, learning their renewal drivers, and helping their experience to change and improve as their lives change.

Make the fan experience a reason to stay…not a reason to leave.

Did you like this post? Here are other Sports-related posts:


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