Customer Service for the Airlines
Customer service for the airlines is so important these days because the weary traveler is already upset with the treatment, heightened security at the airports and the cut backs of meals on planes and other amenities. What can an airline do to increase customer service to insure a pleasurable flying experience these days?Surely they can do something seeing as staff has been cut at the ticket counters, baggage and ground crews to save costs and keep the airline flying. A better attitude would also be nice although this is also tough with pensions being raided, lay off announcements and increasing fuel costs meaning the money will be made up somewhere, probably including pay decreases, lessened benefits or less sick time.No matter what if the airlines do not have good customers they will watch their best customers migrate to other airlines and that means disaster down the road. Currently, we see customer service awards being awarde

Change Management at General Motors in Oct of 2006
It looks like General Motors is getting ready to lay off a whole bunch of people in the tens of thousands. Recently Mr. Kirk Kerkorian has been trying to buy up more shares of General Motors and continue to take over the company. It makes sense from his standpoint to buy General Motors stock on the cheap and then repair the mistakes and watch the stock go back up again. He stands to make a tremendous amount of money when General Motors recovers.One of the board members who is on Kerkorian’s side has left the board and one has to wonder if he has left the board because he was thrown out or because General Motors is getting ready for massive layoffs and they do not want their main guy involved in board decisions when employees are being laid off. Because in the future the employee unions would not respect the board members who were on the board at the time of the layoffs.It would be much better to leave the board now and c

Remind Yourself Why You're A Mortgage Professional
You've probably had one of those days since starting your own mortgage business. It seems like work is piling up, your bank balances aren't where you want them to be, and part of you is yearning for those "employee kind of days" when all you had to do was give the company eight hours and collect your regular pay check.You know better than to do that again, of course. But it seems temporarily inviting doesn't it? If you want to rejuvenate yourself and find an extra incentive to push you forward with your small mortgage business, take a moment or two to remind yourself of exactly why you're here.Call a former co-worker you know who's still on the job and ask them if they'd like to meet you for a cup of coffee at two in the afternoon on a weekday. Listen closely as they decline, explaining that they just can't leave work like that.Ask either an hourly or salaried employee that you know what he or she must do if they want to ch

Sell the Benefits in Your Advertising
Ignoring a product or service's benefits, choosing instead to focus on features, is considered by many marketing experts to be one of the most widely committed sins in advertising.Features are important, no doubt. Features are the things that create the benefit. For example:Feature: Powerful 250 hp V6 engine. Benefit: Go up hills without losing speed and getting other drivers mad at you.Feature: The most powerful graphics processor. Benefit: Never again get fragged by your friends due to low frame rates.Notice that I try to cater the benefits directly to the target market. For the graphics processor, I didn't say that the benefit was "faster rendering of 3D maps in AutoCAD". My target market for the graphics processor is video gamers, not map builders. I also spoke in their language ("frag" is common terminology among gamers that means to have your game character kill or be killed by an opponent.)If my targe

Your Picture of Success
I'm sure you've heard that the best way to achieve something is to have a clear understanding of your goal. The more detailed your picture or statement, the more likely you are to reach your desired milestone.Most people want to succeed in a career that is more fulfilling and meaningful than what they have now. In addition they want to be happy and live a good life. Of course each person has their own take on how they envision this goal.What is it that you want in your life? How do you picture your success? Can you describe your personal definition of success?As you think about your vision of success do you find any worries and concerns bubbling to the surface? It’s possible you have conflicting definitions of success simultaneously running around in your mind. Your internal conflict creates confusion and turmoil as you try to make progress toward a goal that's at cross purposes with itself.As a way to explore what’s

5 Marketing Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make
In virtually every area of business, there will be pitfalls along the way. Marketing is no exception. Time and time again, businesses of all sizes make the same costly mistakes. But knowing how to avoid these mistakes can save you energy, disappointment – and money.Mistake #1: Eliminating marketing efforts when times get tight.When cash flow slows, advertising, direct mail and other forms of marketing are the easiest expenses to reduce, right? But cut these, and you eliminate the very activities that will bring in new customers to turn your business around.This is the time when you may be spending more time analyzing the results of your marketing efforts. But by stopping marketing efforts, you will be setting yourself up for additional loss of business.Mistake #2: Not measuring results.Don’t wait until times get tight to start measuring the results of your marketing efforts. By analyzing regularly, you w