The simplest and most powerful customer service secret of all: tell your customers what’s going on. Or better yet, give them the ability to tell themselves. Refer back to my joyful travelogue recently. The #1 thing the airline could have done to make everyone’s wait easier would have been to provide more timely information. If…
Looking for advice, bids, and suggestions: I have a 1950’s era Cape with these sort of cardboard/wood pulp tile ceilings: (click for larger image) and This is in a room that is approximately 144 sq. ft. I want to get them replaced with this kind of ceiling tile from Armstrong, available at the big box…
Have you ever wondered what the heck ranch dressing is? I have. It’s very tasty stuff, making almost anything better. According to Wikipedia, it was first invented in 1954 by the Henson family at their dude ranch, the Hidden Valley Ranch. Eventually, it became so popular that in 1972, it was bought by Clorox (yes,…
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” – Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride Marketers love hyperbole, and when we ran out of superlatives like guru, expert, and maven, we turned to sillier superlatives like ninja. However, like many foreign loan-words, you have to be careful about…
Two years ago I was wandering around St. Louis at 6 AM before one of the Social Fresh conferences. I had my digital camera with me, and was looking for interesting photos to take. Right around 6:15, I saw the sun start to come up. A look to the east revealed the reds and golds…
4:45 AM, January 21. The alarm shouted its usual cheerful “WAKE UP” to me in my hotel room, urging me to get out of bed in time to get to the airport for my flight home. I groggily packed the remaining bits and pieces of my luggage and stumbled downstairs to the taxi stand for…
Have you heard any of these questions lately: What’s the value of a Facebook fan? What’s the value of a Twitter follower? What’s the value of an email subscriber? I know I certainly have, and these are the wrong questions to be asking. Why? They assume that all people are the same. Let’s instead crib…
In Buddhist monasteries, young monks are often made to practice the art of sutra copying. They’re given handwritten copies of sutras, or religious texts, and are made to copy the words and brushwork of master teachers onto new scrolls and books. These texts are often elaborate and beautifully written, sometimes in Sanskrit. Monks huddle over…
Click here if the video doesn’t show up. What you can do about it.
