Many times, customers want to be heard and treated as important even if you can’t solve their concern — Sometimes it seems that it’s impossible to figure out what an angry customer really wants from you and your company. It’s not uncommon for an angry customer to continue to act out, or be abusive even though you’ve actually been able to resolve his or her apparent problem. …

It’s often the case that small businesses exist in a market that includes at least one, and often many other LARGE businesses or chains. On the surface of it, it would seem that the small business is in competition with these giants, but that’s more of an illusion or a…

Welcome to the fire of an unhealthy workplace. Leadership may be the cure — Summary: Some organizations have climates that are unhealthy for those that work in them. We call these organizations toxic organizations. Within toxic organizations conflict thrives like weeds. Read more about toxic companies. Toxic Organizations We can think of organizations as falling on a continuum. One end is anchored by organizations that function…

Why your search engine results get worse and worse. Have you noticed? You may finally be noticing that you simply cannot find what you need using Google and the other search engines. In fact, it’s fair to say that Google search results have slowly been declining in quality and usefulness…

Passive vs. active learning in lectures and presentations: The myth of “activity” — We do learn without observable action — Many trainers will talk about lectures and presentations as examples of passive learning, and spit on the floor to show their disdain for them. That’s more a reflection of the lack of understanding of modern learning theory than anything else. Usually, trainers call this kind of learning “passive” because there…

No. All those followers are NOT your “friends” — Umair Haque, the Harvard academic, posts on The Harvard blog, a thought provoking idea about the limitations of social media and the kinds of relationships that are forged via social media. He speaks of “thin relationships” Here’s a quote that expresses the concepts: Call it relationship inflation. Nominally, you have…

Passing thoughts on social media that will challenge your understanding and thinking about social media. As social media moves into a more mature phase, there’s still a lot we don’t know about its usefulness to the majority of businesses. Below are a number of short snippets, quotes and comments on…