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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

Prep Enough to Personalize - 4/15/25


Everybody loves Howie.  He is an account rep for the local air conditioning and heating company.  When I say Everybody loves Howie, I’m definitely talking about the customers.  His co-workers love him too, but customers are especially fond of him.  They seem to really enjoy their conversations with him, Read more

Get Your Customers to Brag, Not Bolt - 4/8/25


Here are two customer retention concepts that we discuss with some sports clients: BIRG and CORF.  BIRG is Basking In Reflected Glory.  CORF is Cutting Off Reflected Failure. You want BIRG.  You want the customers feeling so good about your organization that they want to be a part of your Read more

Narrow Your Focus to Seek Excellence - 4/1/25


You’ve probably heard companies use phrases such as: “We want to go from being good to great.”  Maybe they’ve said: “We strive for perfection, and although we’ll never reach perfection, maybe we can achieve excellence along the way.” These organizations find some kind of a catch phrase or slogan, but Read more

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Know What You Need to Know for BRE Success

Posted on July 25, 2013 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

When Economic Development Organizations create their Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) Programs, they often have key goals such as:

  • Having a better understanding of business needs and expectations
  • Better matching community and government resources with specific needs of a given business
  • Improving relationships between the local government and its constituent businesses
  • Identifying companies at-risk of relocating or at-risk of job loss
  • Increasing local business retention and job growth.

These are all very good, very laudable goals. But to achieve goals such as these requires that the BRE professionals have resources, information, and intelligence on their local businesses.

If you want to understand needs, bring resources to bear for a local business, improve a relationship, know who’s at-risk of job loss, and grow the local economy, you need key pieces of information. Here’s a checklist for you to use to ensure you have what you need:

  • BRE Surveys – Understand retention drivers, current business outlook, likelihood to be recruited, perception of your local business environment, and many more characteristics.
  • Interviews from Site Visits – Learn about the local industry’s products/services, personnel needs/issues and recent changes, lease details, local customers and suppliers.
  • Business News Research – Gain information on leadership changes, facility closures/expansions, acquisitions, earnings, corporate strategies.
  • BRE Alerts – Get same day/next day updates on information that addresses imminent impact on a local business.
  • Exit Interviews – Learn the reasons why businesses left, so you can apply lessons learned to those that stayed.
  • Resource Updates – Have ongoing dialogue with local resources that help address business needs/issues so that you’re abreast of changes to programs, personnel, and information.

What else do you need? What do you need to know to best serve your local industries?

Get what you need so you can give what your locals businesses need.

Learn more about keeping up-to-date on your local businesses at http://brebuzz.com/


Sample a Sports Survey

Posted on July 2, 2013 in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

When theory moves to practice, it’s always a good thing. As much as we love talking about why and how to conduct client surveys, it’s always helpful to look at actual surveys and pinpoint some key strengths to build into your own tools.

The University of Wisconsin completed a recent survey with season ticket holders (STHs), and there were several positive aspects for you to review so that you can build these into your own STH research:

  • Much of the analysis was based on trending (not every organization is the same, so sometimes the best analysis is against one’s self – over time)
  • Start with the most important data (near the start, they highlight likelihood to purchase and retention drivers immediately in the presentation – again, trending)
  • They sprinkled in sample comments to illustrate the data findings (many people understand data better if there’s a story behind it)
  • It was comprehensive (covering such attributes as game day experience to parking to likelihood to renew to retention drivers and disabilities services)
  • They asked about communication methods/preferences (the survey addressed information sources as well as % of respondents with smart phones, use of smart phones during games, and connectivity).

Issues? They needed more stratification so you could compare answers by customer type or by response. What do students feel v. non-students? What are retention drivers for those married v. those single? What are retention drivers for first year STHs v. those with the Badgers for 15+ years? Luckily, the data is there; they just need to analyze it more fully.

Finally, the presentation was big on overall findings, but it lacked recommendations. It’s the kind of presentation that makes you nod your head and say “interesting” throughout, but at the end you want to ask “Based on this, what are you suggesting we do?”

See this sample sports survey as a fine example of what to ask; now find ways to use the data you gather to make strategic retention and revenue decisions as well as to identify STH-specific retention tactics to employ.

Learn from this Badgers research.

Interested in improving your organization’s fan retention and revenue? See our other blog posts at: http://serviceadvice.cssamerica.com/category/sports/

Learn about our CSS Sports services at: http://cssamerica.com/csssport.htm


Give Your BRE Plan a Check-up

Posted on July 1, 2013 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

Let’s do some BRE benchmarking. As a business retention/expansion executive, you probably know what your job is on a daily basis – the mission/purpose of your role, your part of the economic development organization. But what are the big picture long-term goals and objectives?

It’s easier to achieve a goal, if you’ve effectively identified the goal, planned the process, and measured progress. Noted below are Objectives/Purposes/Goals taken from three BRE planning documents. Compare your organization to these samples:

Hugo Business Retention and Expansion Research Report

  • To demonstrate support for local businesses
  • To help solve immediate business concerns
  • To increase local businesses’ ability to compete in the global economy
  • To establish and implement a strategic plan for economic development
  • To build community capacity to sustain growth and development

Entergy Business Retention and Expansion Guide

  • To demonstrate to existing firms that the community appreciates their contribution to the local economy
  • To encourage expansion that leads to sustainable job growth
  • To help businesses solve their problems and challenges
  • To assist local businesses in gaining awareness of available resources
  • To develop collaborative relationships for participating in comprehensive long-range retention and expansion activities
  • To build the community capacity and cooperation to sustain growth and development activities
  • To provide better information and understanding for all local leaders of the strengths and weaknesses of the business climate

City of Shoreview Business Retention and Expansion Strategic Plan

  • Support business development that increases the tax base and adds quality jobs
  • Retain quality businesses by creating a positive economic environment that supports and fosters business expansion in the community
  • Plan for and pursue redevelopment opportunities consistent with City goals
  • Promote reinvestment in the community by directing time and financial resources to pre-determined business and neighborhood targets
  • Strive to meet the needs and demands of the community for specific services

Where are the gaps in your organization’s goals that you need to fill based on what these other BRE programs emphasize. How will you plan (strategically) the process to achieve the goals? How will you measure your progression toward the goals?

Make sure your BRE program isn’t simply about making visits and resolving issues. There’s got to be a strategic component. There’s got to be ongoing research on the clients even when you are not face-to-face with them. There’s got to be the goal, the long-term plan, and the measurements of progress.

Give your BRE Plan a check-up.

Learn more about keeping up-to-date on your local businesses at http://brebuzz.com/


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