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Google will begin using information compiled by data aggregators to provide information to consumers in the growing Google Products area. The company has done this before, but things are different now.  The search engine once tried walling off internal information from products like Froogle and Google Product.  Now comes Google Product Search with product pages that compile “all the information” Google has on a product. Google manager Brian Lam blogged yesterday that the company would “[work] with suppliers and manufacturers to get product data straight from the source.”   The company chose Edgenet, a data company that organizes information from thousands of companies in multiple sectors, including consumer electronics, furniture and “general merchandise”. Read More

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I hit a dry patch while preparing a presentation over the holidays,  I needed examples of national brands the audience would immediately consider outstanding customer service organizations. Many did a good job.  Some did pretty good jobs, but finding the company doing a great job was difficult. Nordstrom is one obvious fallback, but has almost reached the level of cliche.

Customer service, like marketing, is science and art. But smart local businesses do both

Customer service advocates once tried using the Malcolm Baldridge Award as a proxy for a national customer service award.  That worked early when customer-centric organizations like the now defunct AT&T Universal Card and FedEx won awards for service. Now? Zappos’ service culture is revered, but the company is slowly absorbing into Amazon, a pretty good service company too, but better at logistics and making markets.  There’s not much there to make customers swoon. Multiple elements create a world class service envrionment, but first among them is having a world class service or product offering.  Then the organization has to dazzle customers with every transaction, including full empowerment  down to the line staff level. Ritz Carlton properties still have some of that cachet, but keeping a service quality culture at that level  is darn near impossible when you grow from 4 to 40 sites and sell out to Marriott. Some companies–Amazon, FedEx,  Disney depending on who is talking–have great national reputations, but they are the exception.   The inability of most national brands to deliver great customer service is an opportunity for small businesses. Your takeaway as a small business leader is to make customer service a differentiator. If you run a pizza parlor, you can compete with the chains by offering good quality food and great service.  Not every independent bookshop was squeezed out of business by Amazon.  Instead the national chains took a beating, just as Netflix was administering the same style of beating to Blockbuster.  But Joe’s Pizza, at the corner for two generations?   Doing just fine thanks. Read More

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goals listToday is the day when people infamously promise themselves to change things.  You might have found yourself mentally agreeing to save more money, lose weight, work less often, attend church or change something.

As a small business leader, your resolutions are called goals.  You hopefully have a goal process, create strategies to reach them, measure them and update your business with new ones. If you don’t have a goal process, you need one right now.

Stop everything after you read this blog and ask yourself this critical question: What one thing can I do in the next month while still running my business that will improve profits? Remember that profits are made up of revenue and expenses.  So your question is really what one meaningful thing can you do in the next 30 days to bring in more revenue or spend less money?

Make your goal reasonable and measurable.  Write it as a promise to yourself: In the next 30 days, I am going to do this thing and it will result in $X of saved expenses or additional revenue. Then create your strategy by continuing in a checklist: To do this thing in 30 days, the following has to happen. Go make it happen.

Just try creating the goal and the measure and schedule time each day to work on your goal and check on its progress.   Give yourself something you can accomplish fast that has true profit implications.   Hold yourself accountable every workday to that goal.  Plan for it in your budget, your processes and throughout your organization. By making this commitment, you avoid procrastination and assign real money to the goal.  This is one reason resolutions fail.  There is no clear measurement, strategy or integration into your life. The resolutions that succeed?  Those people did these things in your personal life.

Go now.   Think hard.  Create the 30 day profit-driven goal.  Then in February, create another short-term goal and a medium term goal.  Repeat this strategic exercise until you are constantly working on immediate, short-term and long-term goals related to your organization’s profitability. Delegate, bring in contractors if you can, test, strategize, think–make something happen. Then come back here on February 1 and tell us how much profit you generated.

Image:  manos by xololounge via morguefile