It is a fitness center!  Just another gathering of treadmills, clanking weights, and hard charging ellipticals.  As I enter, there is the mandatory scan of my key chain fob and then it is off to some torture device that will elicit sweat. There, in this particular location, is a beautiful Polynesian young lady with a ready smile.  As I scan my ID each day, there in front of her is a computer screen with my face and name.  The same tools as so many other fitness centers.  But in this one the front desk help actually read my name and
Continue Reading

Charismatic Businesses know that customer engagement IS the foundation to their magical charisma.  Yes, it may cost a little extra to create the engaged customer experience, but the profitability easily offsets the difference. Starbucks, one of the higher ranking companies in our Business Charisma survey, is opening liquids-only locations.  It seems that selling hot beverages is a lot more profitable than also providing WIFI, seating for gatherings.  Do people pay extra for their Starbucks because their coffee is the only great coffee out there?  What percent pay the price to have a common place to meet friends? When your customer
Continue Reading

Howard Schultz came back and saved Starbucks in 2008.  His focus was to get back to the coffee experience. But what happens when the business focuses too much on the bottom line?  We forget that the customer refers and recommends the value of our offering by completing the following: “It is worth it because . . . . ” Starbucks is starting to focus on drive through business.  I have seen several of their “container” locations where they sell the profitable hot drinks, where the customer does NOT have a place to meet friends.  Those pesky customers are expensive.  The
Continue Reading

Forbes had a great article with statistics that will make you stop and think. In 2014 an employee given a 3% raise really only gets a 1% increase in spending because of inflation If that same employee leaves the company they can look forward to a 10% to 20% increase in salary (with some as high as 50%) This is a call for HR to rethink their methods. If that employee does leave consider The replacement costs for an entry-level employee is between 30% to 50% of their annual salary. For mid-level employees it could cost up to 150% of
Continue Reading

As published in the Midwest Society of Association Executives FOCUS magazine spring of 2016 by Kordell Norton “They can’t pass the drug test!” He is another client who is complaining about the workforce, more especially, those “Millennials”. Repeatedly business executives are frustrated by this emerging group of workers. “One half of all the applicants from this age group literally cannot pass the drug test. Then,” he pokes the air between us for emphasis, “those we do hire don’t want to work. After a couple of days they come and tell us that the work is too hard.” Who are these
Continue Reading

“I book 350 speakers a year,” says the meeting planner.  The salad suddenly becomes less important, with this nourishing new conversation. As the lunch conversation continues, I ask the question that all speakers want a real answer to, “what do you look for in a speaker?” The smile is wry, the answer thought of beforehand. “One.   I want a speaker who will customize their materials to my group.”   With the downturn of the great recession, there was a winnowing of the inventory of speakers.  Said one meeting planner, “Speakers who used to command five figures, now will gladly take the
Continue Reading

The owner of the shop had the cutest little black puppy. “May I hold her?” I asked. There is a change that happens to your heart when you hold a puppy.  They are so accepting, lavishing licks and kisses.  They only know optimism and friendship. When you watch others respond to puppies they too go through the same interaction.  Acceptance, love, caring, fun, and affection. So too is the customer relationship.  At first it is filled with the same emotions.  Over time the hope and caring fade.  First on one side, then on the other. Those people/organizations that continue to
Continue Reading

I am a soap stealer.   There, I said it.  If I am going to pay $200 dollars for the hotel room, then I am taking the unopened soap.  That was until my wife revolted at my effort to corner the hotel soap market.  “Don””t bring home any more until you do something with those,” she said pointing to a box of beige and white wrapped packages. As I was walking past the box I realized one my thievery victims knew that I would take their soap.  They planned on it.  They wanted me to think about my stay at their
Continue Reading

It is called The Residence.  For eight hours you get a living room, shower, private bathroom, a double bed with a flat panel screen, and your own butler.  The price?  $20,000. On Etihad Airlines, the flight from London to Abu Dhabi can be taken in the nose of a new A380 with your own Residence experience . . . all contained in 125 square feet. Before their first flight, the first month is already sold out. Does that kind of high end experience qualify as charismatic?  Not necessarily.  The butler/chef might be able to cook.  But when their ability to
Continue Reading

Not only did Andrew Luck set passing records in his first few seasons with the Indianapolis Colts . . .but his secret weapon has to be the playing head-games with the competition. When a defensive player sacks Luck, or puts a particularly hard hit on him, instead of getting mad, or complaining to the referee in an effort to get a penalty, he instead  . . . wait for it . . . compliments the opposing player. Who does that? According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, when New England pass rusher Rob Ninkovich slammed Luck in their
Continue Reading