Peer Power Blog

We travel a lot.  In fact, we travel way too much but it is what it is.  As such, we have status with a number of airlines, hotels and car rental companies.  Let’s just say that they are not all created equal.  And where the major differences seem to occur is in the little things – the customer service areas where some go above and beyond and find ways to say yes while others don’t make those same decisions. First in the airline arena.  I’ll just say it clearly – I am a Southwest Airlines fanatic.  They may not offer some of the perks that other airlines do – like no such thing as first class seats or meals or even assigned seats for that matter.  But they do provide benefits no other airli... Continue reading

This past week Christy and I were in Dallas to take a look at potential venues for our next spring Summit in 2012.  This blog post is not about our selection – we aren’t done with that yet – but rather about the unbelievable customer experience we had on our visit.  I was actually in Tampa on Tues – Thurs at the ConnectWise advisory council meeting.  That was in itself a great experience as we focused on talking about how ConnectWise could continue to help us grow our companies.  It isn’t about features – it is more about learning how to truly leverage the functionality to drive business.  We discussed the reality that all of us have way more tool potential that we need to put into action.  ... Continue reading

In January 2011 we experienced a very different set of experiences regarding our hotel stays in China. We arrived in Shanghai on January 6, 2011 and were taken by taxi to the Renaissance Shanghai Pudong Hotel. We were greeted and checked in for a delightful two days in the city. We were located conveniently close to the Metro for the Science and Technology Museum and found the service and the staff to be very helpful. We stayed at this property using our Marriott Rewards Platinum Premier points.After two days in Shanghai, we took the train to Hangzhou where we were scheduled to stay 10 days at a different hotel chain. This was a fairly new hotel and we were booked using points through our ho... Continue reading

This is the ninth blog post regarding the 10 Things I Accidentally Learned on the Path to Growth. Ther reality is that we must always keep our eye on the customer. It seems so simple and almost foolish to include - but I am amazed at how many of us lose connection with what customers truly want and we miss the boat completely in our solution and service offerings. We have to be willing to get back to basics and listen carefully to what customers are asking for. It isn't about them buying what we want to sell. It is about us offering what they want to buy. We tend to get it backwards sometimes. After all, we are the experts aren't we. We know best what they need. And we go to events where we ... Continue reading

The Harvard Business Review daily email last week had some comments on Strategy's Golden Rule. I found it rather intriguing. They stated that:The single most common competitive mistake investors, CEOs, and entrepreneurs alike make is this: striving to do slightly better what their fiercest rival already does incredibly well. The result is usually a muddled, incoherent mess of a strategy — one that fuels not disruptive, explosive differences between a firm and its rivals, but their very opposite: bland, boring similarities. Most companies are competitively challenged — and the Golden Rule of Strategy is how I triage them. It says:"What your fiercest rival does badly, do incredibly well." In d... Continue reading