Can Retailers Survive in the Age of Amazon?

Retail Survival = Seamless Experiences One of my favorite omnichannel retail stories is from Tesco in Korea. So when I spoke about changes in the retail world at the Seamless Africa conference a few weeks ago, I put up this picture and talked about it. Tesco developed a system where they display store shelves on…
How To Use Data To Fight Crime & Serve Citizens Better

How About Crime Preventers Instead of Crime Stoppers? Kris Andreychuk, Supervisor of Community Safety in the City of Edmonton’s Neighbourhood Empowerment Team, was frustrated. Get your FREE Transcript Now! His teams of social workers, police officers and youth workers were great at helping move criminals or juvenile offenders onto a better path after they’d been involved…
Why You’d Better Care About Social Customer Care

Social Customer Care is Scary, But Inevitable I won’t lie to you: there’s a lot that can go wrong when you are interacting with customers online. But more and more customers are turning to social media when they’ve got a problem or complaint. If you aren’t there to offer that social customer care, things can easily…
Don’t Waste Your Money on Customer Service Training!

Customer Service Training Can Be Worthwhile, But… Customer service training is one of the most commonly searched terms online. Sadly, far too many companies throw away their money on such training. I bet United Airlines spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on customer service training, and we see where it got them. Don’t get me…
9 of the Best Twitter Reactions to United Fiasco So Far
I love the way the Internet so often responds to awful situations with humour. More to come, no doubt.
How Investment Management Firm, Allan Gray, Became (& Stays) So Successful

Investment Management Firm’s Success Starts With Values I just got back from an amazing two weeks in South Africa, where I spoke at the Seamless Africa Conference, interviewed people like today’s podcast guest, Nomi Bodlani from investment management firm, Allan Gray and then explored the history, politics, beauty and wine of the region. Get your FREE…
What Customers Say & What They Do Can Be Very Different

AKA, The Meat Lovers Marketing Research Episode When Barry Davis, AVP of marketing research firm, Leger, started chewing on what consumers had told his firm motivated their decisions when buying meat, he found the results tough to swallow. Get your FREE Transcript Now! You see, consumers were saying they wanted choice in cuts and quantities,…
Why Winning Companies Create Simple But Unique Value

In today’s podcast interview, multiple best-selling author, Chip Bell, discusses his new book, Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles, and the importance of going beyond good customer service to — not great service, but unique value service. In other words, you don’t have to do heroics to create an experience that is memorable enough that people want…
“Confidential”? — I don’t think so

I got an email from a bank I deal with, asking me to complete a survey on a potential web service redesign. As both a customer and a website usability tester, I was willing to oblige. The email said: As always, your participation is completely confidential. Follow this link to the Survey: If I’m following…
How to Recession-Proof Your Business

During the last recession, Brian Gracon, author of Meconomics 101: 16 Ways to Improve Your Marketing, Selling and Business Management for Today’s Consumers, wondered why it was that some businesses were still busy, even when unemployment was high. What was their secret to being recession-proof? Get your FREE Transcript Now! It’s All About Me The…