… Truth, Of Course. Naked, Gorgeous, and Always Worth a Look!

Consider the public…. Never fear it nor despise it. Coax it, charm it, interest it, stimulate it, shock it now and then if you must, make it laugh, make it cry, but above all … never, never, never bore the living hell out of it.
—Noel Coward

Dear readers and friends, crowd around. As when Noel Coward graced the tight-knit group around the Algonquin Round Table with his presence, having you here has given the room a little sparkle. I’ve invited new friends and old to stimulate conversation and charm us with their fresh perspective today. I hope you’ll enjoy getting to know them—leave them a comment, and come on back to share your thoughts around the Maximum Customer Experience Round Table!

Have you ever wondered why you can’t get more customers to buy from you? Are You Throwing Darts at the Right Customers? Warning: The next sentence contains the “f” word. This post from Charlie Pabst at Ignite Living is fantastic. And you know I don’t throw that word around too often.

So you throw the darts at the right customers, but do they land where they’ll notice? Earning Trust in Streams = Attention + Influence at Logic + Emotion. I’ll tell you a secret, the post itself lost me a bit. (Sorry, David!) But the illustration is simple and crystal clear. If you own a website or a blog, you need to know what David Armano knows about where trust resides (where your customers are paying attention) on your web pages. You’ll get all that from his aha! graphic.

42 Million U.S. Women Use Social Media from Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends. Read this one when you’ve got a minute: there’s some good info to dig into here on participation vs. influence, and though the research only looked at ladies in the States, most of the conclusions apply no matter who your Ideal Customer is.

Tim Berry, always telling the naked truth, whether you want to hear it or not: It’s a Full-Time Job at Planning, Startups, Stories. This does not get said enough! For all you who’ve ever felt inadequate because you can’t tweet 10x-post 2x-manage four social media sites-connect with influencers-and write the next BusinessWeek bestseller-while working full-time like Tim does… it doesn’t work like that, people. Tim’s got 24 hours like you and I do. Go read what he has to say, and rest easy.

In case that was too much naked truth for your (delicate and discerning!) taste, The Ad Contrarian helps out with Leveraging the Brand, where you will hear about the mind-boggling direct return on investment of writing one of AdAge’s top 150 blogs, but not one bit more truth than that. Bob Hoffman speaks more honesty when he’s making stuff up than most of us ever can.

The short video posted at Make the Ordinary, Extraordinary on Bill Hogg’s Customer Service That Astonishes is so wonderful I thought maybe the video was made up. No, it’s not; it’s just Southwest Airlines, delivering delight. All in a day’s Maximum Customer Experience, and a wonderful way to wind down our time together.

Thanks, as always, for the pleasure of your company and your commentary. Let’s do lunch again soon.

Love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Learn something fantastic as you clicked around? Think I missed the best one of the week? Have your say in the comments—you know you want to!

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

If you’re going to write, don’t pretend to write down. It’s going to be the best you can do, and it’s the fact that it’s the best you can do that kills you.
—Dorothy Parker

Last time, Mrs. Erickson and the Vision Circle (that’s you) entertained:

Longing, Frustration, and Crass Commerce, Oh My!

Craving dessert? Click here to see all the posts in the Round Table series, along with other great recommended reading from MCE!

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