Drew Schiller

Posts tagged as:

service

Don’t Be A Dime A Dozen

June 8, 2009

Answer this question: What business are you in?
If you answered with the type of product you sell (i.e., “I’m in construction”), you’re wrong. Products are commodities, and companies that focus only on the products are a dime a dozen. Companies that focus on the service they deliver have the opportunity to create uncontested market space.
Every [...]

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Always Be Serving

May 8, 2009

“It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.” – Napoleon Hill
We have all walked into a business (or contacted a customer service department, etc.) and felt [...]

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Your World, Only Smaller

April 29, 2009

How big does your business need to be to be effective?
John’s Grocery, a tiny 61-year-old grocery store located in downtown Iowa City and near the University of Iowa campus, used to be a corner store that offered staples like dry goods, breads, etc. to feed families. Growing with their audience (while staying the same physical [...]

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A Tale of Two Parking Tickets

April 22, 2009

Part 1: The Good
While visiting my jeweler last week (sorry wife, no new bling, it was simply a business discussion) I was surprised to learn that he gladly pays for any parking tickets his customers get while shopping in his store (whether they make a purchase or not). Not only is he happy to pay [...]

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What’s your white tablecloth?

April 21, 2009

While in Barcelona a few years ago, my wife and I wandered into a little restaurant around the corner from our apartment on a Friday night. We had heard this place had good food, and we were excited to try it.
After the typical Catalan/English/Broken Spanish dance, we communicated that we in fact had no reservation, [...]

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How to beat the Internet

April 16, 2009

The low overhead, drop shipping, and economy of scale of Internet businesses make it impossible for local businesses to compete on price. So don’t even try.
Local businesses need to compete on value. Consumers want the lowest price available, but they are almost always willing to pay for services “included” in that price.
If you shop for [...]

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Follow-through

March 10, 2009

When I played tennis in high school, my coach taught me that my serve would only be as effective as my follow-through. When I followed through the stroke completely I had a good serve, but when I stopped my swing short I would miss-hit the ball and the shot became unpredictable (and it usually landed [...]

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“No” is not a service

February 23, 2009

Last week, Seth Godin wrote a post about his experience trying to rent a movie in London. The frustrating thing for Seth is that he didn’t care where he rented the movie from or what the movie cost, but the movie store employee simply said, “Oh, you’re from the US. You can’t rent here.” Seth [...]

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