The Competitive Advantage

September 11, 2018

Does Your Logo Really Make a Difference?

I was on an elevator this morning when the stranger who got on with me looked over and said, “Nice shirt!” I was wearing one of my polo shirts from The Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, GA. This happens to me all the time when I’m wearing one of these shirts. The logo is such a recognizable image – even without the word ‘Masters’ written across it (see image) – that people seem compelled to comment on it.

What is it that makes this logo so well-known? While we can’t replicate the world-wide TV audience and golf superstars associated with the event, there still are several lessons – as business owners and marketers – that we can take from this:

March 6, 2018

Customer Service Excellence: A Real-World Lesson

I had a memorable customer service experience last week… from a company I didn’t think was capable of it.

Our firm’s email is based on the Gmail platform. On Friday, I received my monthly email invoice from Google and noticed what I thought was a discrepancy. So, I decided to send an email to Google Support to see if they could provide an answer.

I sent an email using their support system and within a couple of minutes, received the robo-response, “This is an automated email from Google Cloud Support. Case #15164139 has been created or updated.” Kinda what I thought would happen… maybe I’ll hear back from the goliath in 3 or 4 days.

And here’s where the story gets interesting. Scratch that… here’s where the story gets remarkable!

October 17, 2017

Better, Faster, Cheaper? Which do your clients really want?

“Which do you prefer – better, faster or cheaper?” I’m sure if you asked your clients directly which they would choose, their immediate response would, of course, be “All three!”

But if they had to pick one, which one do you think it would be?  It’s a topic I discuss frequently with firms across the MR industry.

June 20, 2017

Why I left this webinar after just 10 minutes!

The two most common ways presenters butcher a webinar…

I sat in on a webinar last week… sort of. It was a presentation on Customer Journey Mapping and I was genuinely excited by the topic.

But after less than 10 minutes, I left! While the topic was certainly of interest to me, the delivery of it was so horrible that I just couldn’t sit through it.

March 21, 2017

Why is ‘thank you’ so often ignored?

I was in Memphis this past weekend. My son-in-law, Wade (that’s him with the cheeky sign), is wrapping up medical school… and it was “Match Day.” During Match Day, graduating med students from all across the country “open their envelope” at exactly the same time to find out where they will be doing their residency.

Wade ‘matched’ in orthopedics at the Medical College of Georgia… he and my daughter are very excited. And it’s at this point that the story gets interesting.

January 25, 2017

Question: What percentage of your clients don’t return?

Answer: It’s a lot higher than you think!

Creating a “client for life.”

True story. I’ve been working with a large firm in our industry for the past several weeks… and one of the data-gathering projects we did early on was to look at Revenue by Client, for each of the past several years.

Of all of the insights that this exercise can provide, the most interesting – in this case – was that 40% of their clients only did one project with them… and then never returned!

We’ve done this “one-timer” analysis for many firms and the resulting information is ALWAYS a surprise… because the percentage of one-and-dones is ALWAYS higher than the client expected!

December 20, 2016

Stupid Business Rules

True story… I received a notification from the State of Tennessee recently that it was time to renew my ‘dba.’ Fine… so I filled out the form, wrote the check and sent it in. A few days later, I received an envelope back from the department I had responded to. On top of my form and my check – which they were returning – was a letter from the head of the department and, across the top, stamped in big letters: REJECTED.

Crap! What did I do… wrong amount on the check, improperly filled out form, what? Nope. I had sent in my form and my money too early! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? So, let me get this straight… one of your customers (me) pays TOO promptly… and your response is to send the money back?

You can’t make this stuff up!

December 6, 2016

4 Easy Tips for a Website Update by the End of the Year

Planning for revenue growth in 2017: Part 5 of 6

If you’ve been reading along with this series for the past several weeks, you know that we’ve covered several fundamental, but critical, ways to enhance your marketing & sales as you move into 2017, including:

• Understanding the perception of your firm in the marketplace
• Sprucing up your LinkedIn profile
• Starting to blogging
• Picking up the phone

Today, we explore what should be at the hub of your marketing efforts – your website… and how to do a website update.

Without suggesting you embark on a complete re-do of your website – especially before the end of 2016 – here are 4 easy tips to help get your website ready for 2017: