The snow has melted for now, although a foot of snow is forecasted overnight as I draft this. The lake ice is gone, and folks are Jonesing for open water fishing. Back in the day, when my father was still with us, we fished to eat because he said so. In our home state of Minnesota, that meant we fished walleyes, which are attractive fish (there are ugly fish – catfish, carp, believe me) but boring. My mission was to fill the live well with the limit and get on to some real fishing for pike and muskies. They are…
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This week, I am joined by someone who actually knows what she is talking about: Kristin Laursen, our Director of Marketing and Business Development. The two of us attended the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) Spring Conference in Salt Lake City last week. The theme of the conference was marketing and customer engagement. Marketing and customer engagement is moving at Mach speed. Campaigns and outreach that may have gotten program managers over the finish line in time five years ago, three years ago, or even last year, are likely on the verge of obsolescence. My simpleton assessment is that…
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Ross Shafer delivered the keynote speech at AESP’s 2016 National Conference in Phoenix a few weeks ago. Mr. Shafer is a former late night talk-show host/comedian, game show host, author, and speaker. His message for AESP was excellent. He was engaging and funny, but most importantly, he presented sound, valuable advice for business; specifically customer satisfaction and experience. I cannot recall a single thing of substance he said that I disagree with. In fact, I passed along much of his advice to our team at Michaels via The Daily, our employee-only blog. One area of advice from Mr. Shafer was:…
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I did some research on features and benefits, in general. A quick internet search of features and benefits revealed that definitions vary from one source to the other. Indeed, we surveyed our own management team for features and benefits of the services and programs we provide. I found that one person’s program description was another’s features. Going further, what I found was that benefits aren’t necessarily the end of the story to the buyer. What is the value of the benefit, and how does that relate to customer satisfaction? Customer satisfaction is a benefit of energy efficiency programs to any…
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