Steven Slater is a blogger’s dream. For anyone looking for that quirky story to opine about, Mr. Slater provided a remarkable set of actions that will earn him a bit more than 15 minutes of fame. In fact, I’ll bet the incident that took place this week on Jet Blue flight 1052 from Pittsburgh to [...]

Orange Juice has been on my breakfast menu for as long as I remember. Linus Pauling shined the original spotlight on OJ as he asserted the benefits of Vitamin C to cure the common cold and retard the impact of certain forms of cancer.
Since then, there has been great debate about Pauling’s claims and the [...]

I just signed up for the Virgin Atlantic loyalty program called the Flying Club. I have no immediate plans to fly on the airline. Nor do I really need another frequent flyer card, as I’ve got miles banked in three or four programs now.
The reason I joined the club is I just finished reading Business [...]

Air travel has changed from an exciting and privileged experience to something considerably less elegant. Leisure travelers absorb the shock from ever-changing TSA procedures at security checkpoints, and unknowingly contribute to the woes of their fellow travelers when they board loaded down with enough bags to make the Beverly Hillbillies look like minimalists.
For the business [...]

Up until a few weeks ago, I had little awareness of the InterContinental Hotels Group. Known by the acronym IHG, they operate brands like Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza which are part of the Priority Club Rewards loyalty program.
The main reason IHG hasn’t been on my radar is simple: for most of the past decade, [...]

Editors Note: Jim Kuschill is a patient man. Patient enough to have architected one of the world’s leading loyalty marketing software platforms while Chief Technology Officer of Frequency Marketing. DIRECTV got his goat and the following is worth a read, especially if you’re the person responsible for customer experience or customer service at your company.

I [...]

It’s probably no surprise that the great brands are able to combine excellent products with a superior level of customer service. After all, it’s this magic combination that makes them great brands in the first place.
Go to an Apple store to purchase their (in my opinion) superior products, and you get service from friendly, helpful [...]

Sam Walton’s vision of creating a retail giant that would stock shelves with every day low priced items and crush the competition is still standing tall, even in a tough economy. They have managed to wipe out nearly all the competition and are looking to take out what’s left via Project Impact.
Project Impacts is [...]

In the middle of bustling multi-cultural Miami, Coral Gables is an oasis of sleek affluence framed by Spanish and Mediterranean architecture.
The rhythm of the city at lunch is to skip franchise restaurants and instead seek out one of the many independent stops for a meal or just coffee.
Last week, lunch turned into a two-part experiment, [...]

If you’re like me and work on the creative side of the business, you’d like to believe that good communications and a healthy social dialog are the keys to building relationships and ensuring customer loyalty.
But the fact is, your company is often only as good as the people you have on the front line. One [...]