Customer Loyalty Begins With A Smile It was a cold, dark January morning. The clock on my truck read 5:32am as I pulled out of my garage for a business meeting over to Portland. Two tons of steel was protecting me from the outside elements and I still shivered as the ice mist hit my windshield. My brain needed a jolt so I headed over to Dutch Brothers Coffee, pulled up to the window, and was greeted with a big smile - “Good morning, what can I make for you this beautiful morning?” I’m charmed by her positive, friendly outlook. The combination...

Admittedly, Twitter is an application that most business people never understand. You need to live the Twitter experience and study how other people are using Twitter successfully to connect with existing customers while finding new sales prospects. My goal in this blog post is to highlight how businesses should be using Twitter. I also plan to give you some examples of how businesses in different sectors should be taking advantage of Twitter. First, if you own a business and you’re new to Twitter or still, just don’t “get it”, let me give you a quick overview.  Twitter is a...

Forward: As a Change Management Executive I’m always interested in businesses that break away from traditional business methods. I applaud businesses that don’t get caught up in “it’s always done this way” and “you can’t do this and that”. I find it takes a lot of courage for management to ask “why not” and say “lets give it a try”. Tetherow Golf Club Management Martin Chuck and Teaching Pro Bob Duncan are examples of men who are working to change the way people learn the game of golf while building a business where people choose them over others in a...

Twitter is everywhere, as I write this blog entry Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) is approaching 2 million followers. @TheEllenShow has moved into 2nd place with 1.6mil and @cnnbrk is in 3rd with 1.5mil followers. According to TweetRush, about 8-9 million Tweets are sent each day. When I explain Twitter to my family and friends, the question always leads to: “How does Twitter make money?” Currently Twitter is working on managing the user experience, keeping the site up and running and learning how people and companies are using Twitter as it evolves before they announce their revenue model.  I must admit, each week...