Imagine my surprise as I was about to take my seat on a Delta flight yesterday and walked by “Economy Comfort” seats in the first couple of rows in the economy section. The words were spelled out in large letters on the front of each seat back.

My first thought was, is my seat in the “Economy Uncomfortable” section of the plane?

Delta Has a Branding Problem

What about my comfort?!

Who on earth thought up this name for seats that give you 4 inches more leg room and 50 percent more recline? Over the years airlines have developed various seat configurations and classes of travel — first class, business and economy — to satisfy customers and rake in more money.

But it sends the wrong signal to the passengers in regular economy that they are headed to a seat for a cramped and uncomfortable ride.

Reader reviews are generally positive about these seats (on Delta and partner KLM), but passengers have an expectation of comfort, without having to pay extra for it.

That’s what Delta CEO Richard H. Anderson said in the inflight video that was shown as the plane took off, “…we want your time with us to be comfortable and enjoyable.” Me too, Mr. Anderson.

Companies in the service business often conduct focus groups to test new concepts. If Delta tested names for the these premium economy seats, I’d love to see the results. That’s the danger of focus groups. People tell you what they like and want but it’s not necessarily what they will buy.

Instead of Economy Comfort

Delta, may I suggest that any of these names would have been better choices:

Delta Premium Economy

Delta Upfront Economy

Delta Upgrade Economy

Come to think of it, why brand these seats in big letters for every other economy passenger to see? While not a frequent flyer, I haven’t noticed any lettering on first class, business class or regular economy seats.

Companies know through research and personal experience that good customer service is the secret to retaining and attracting new customers. Yet many companies don’t do it well, as Richard Shapiro, a client retention expert, says in his new book The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business.

Richard Shapiro

They haven’t identified those employees — whom he calls “welcomers” — who are especially adept at engaging with customers so they buy over and over again.

Welcomers are essential to bricks-and-mortar retailers and to providing online customer service where it can be more difficult to provide that personal touch.

Secrets to Repeat Business

Shapiro shares his own experience as a teenager in his father’s haberdashery store. His father had the gift of being interested in customers as people.  As Shapiro says in his book, “What I learned then  is…customers are people first and customers second.” The Welcomer Edge describes how to make first time customers into repeat customers.

Shapiro describes four different types of employees:

• Welcomers are associates who draw new customers to a business and keep them. Welcomers can create a relationship that lasts a lifetime.
• Robots are staff who just go through the motions in their customer interactions and do not understand the need to make a personal connection.
• Indifferent employees overtly communicate that they really do not care whether you are a customer or not. They almost never say “hello” and certainly do not say “thank you” and may even walk away just when you need assistance.
• Hostiles are people who do not want to be at their jobs and make it abundantly obvious.

He points out that a welcomer is not the official company greeter that many retailers station near the door. Rather, a welcomer is the person who handles your actual transaction whether you visit, call, or email an inquiry to an organization.

Shapiro writes, “Welcomers are a special class of service and sales associates that innately make customers feel important, appreciated and valued. Welcomers establish an emotional connection with your customers. They make customers want to do business with your business again.”

Valuing Good Customer Service

In his book, Shapiro gives many examples of both good and bad customer service, such as the pottery shop owner who didn’t even look up when Shapiro entered his store.

Or Fay, the front desk employee at a Dallas hotel who always smiled and recognized him even with long gaps between visits. He even began to refer to the hotel as “Fay’s Hotel” because she was so friendly. He had no inclination to stay at another hotel.

Call centers are particularly notorious for their slipshod service (who hasn’t been enraged by those long menu options). Shapiro gives examples of how call center operators can be a company’s most important welcomers by simply asking how they can help and saying they’re happy you called.

Online customer service

Shapiro reminds you that a computer is a robot but a customer is not. When customers purchase products online for the first time from a new company, they don’t know who is behind that electronic curtain. Making a customer feel welcomed, important and appreciated is equally important, if not more so, when the transaction is electronic.

He skewers companies who send emails commanding that you DON’T REPLY TO THIS EMAIL without offering a way to contact the company, like the time he tried to cancel a subscription service.

I’ve written about my own experiences as a customer with Bloomingdale’s, Home Depot and Samsung — the good, the bad and the ugly. I didn’t know it at the time, but the employee who was so caring in the gift department at Bloomingdale’s was a welcomer.

Now I’ll know when I walk into a store or shopping online whether I should stay or leave. And it won’t take me much time to decide now that I know to look for the welcomers.

Do you have any horror stories — or stories about good customer service — that you’d like to share? And if customer service is your business, you might want to pick up a copy of Richard Shapiro’s book.

Hurray, my hometown New York Giants won the Super Bowl. Yet another fourth quarter comeback for the Big Blue. They also won big with a record-breaking number of mentions on Twitter and Facebook.

The team’s owners scored big time with the leadership and enduring commitment to a philosophy that produces winners. It’s a lesson that other CEOs could emulate that I’ll discuss later in this post.

Super Bowl Site Traffic

Twitter tweeted that in the final three minutes of the Super Bowl there were an average of 10,000 tweets per second.  That is mind-boggling, really – 10,000 x 60 x 3 = 1.8 million tweets.

The Washington Post reported that sports fans sent about 11.5 million comments during last night’s game over social media networks (quoting All Things Digital), about six times higher than last year’s game. The Giants were interacting with fans on Twitter and Facebook before, during and after the game.

Giants Leadership

Eli Manning was the game’s MVP for leading his record-breaking fourth quarter comeback. But I want to talk about the team management’s leadership that has made the Giants one of the most respected franchises in sports history. It is a lesson for every company that wants to build the core competencies that will lead to success over the long haul.

It began in 1925 when Wellington Mara bought the NFL franchise Giants for $500. Over the years the Giants went through some very bad patches. But in the last 20 years the current ownership has honed a philosophy that you pick the right people, stick by them when things are tough and love your fans and players.

A Winning Philosophy

This philosophy has led to four Super Bowl victories, including this year when fans and media were calling for coach Tom Coughlin’s removal when the team lost four straight games. But the owners publicly continued to support their coach. They committed to him and their team and they were rewarded with the ultimate prize – the Lombardi trophy.

The Mara family still owns a half interest in the Giants, along with the other owner, Steve Tisch, from another respected New York family, (you can read about their leadership philosophies in a New York Times interview of the owners and Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots who lost to the Giants 21-17).

Loyal Fans

The Giants fans are among the most rabid and loyal fans in football. The Giants have never had a “blacked-out” game. If a team doesn’t sell-out the game, it is not televised locally. The waiting list for season tickets is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 years. Seven hundred fans paid $5,000 each to travel to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl.

In post-game interviews, the players, the owners and Tom Coughlin repeatedly mentioned how much the fans contributed to their victory.

Employees, like Giants fans, want to see their team succeed. Do you have a winning philosophy of hiring the right people, providing them with training and showing your love and respect for them? If you do, they will work their hearts out for you.

What more could you want?

Richard J. Mast

A few weeks ago I was in Bloomingdale’s when a friendly young store employee approached me to ask if he could help. I wasn’t obviously shopping at the moment so I asked him who he was and learned he was Bloomingdale’s Director of Customer Loyalty, a new position in New York. This led to the following personal  interview about the store’s robust customer loyalty program with Richard J. Mast, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Bloomingdale’s 59th Street in Manhattan. Mr. Mast discusses how understanding and responding to customer needs engenders customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Why did Bloomingdale’s create the Director of Customer Loyalty position? Is it part of a corporate branding program?

If you’re in the retail business you know that satisfied customers will continue to shop with you. So it’s our responsibility to enhance the customer experience. We’ve had employees assigned full-time to customer loyalty for several years. There are four Managers of Customer Loyalty in the Manhattan store but we decided to strengthen the structure by appointing a Director of Customer Loyalty with the other MCL’s reporting to him.

What are the responsibilities of this position and who does the Director report to?  

The role of the Director of Customer Loyalty is to interface with the senior executives in charge of ready-to-wear, Men’s Young World, the Home Store, Fine Jewelry and other departments. They tell the Director what they need and what customers want, and then these needs are translated to the MCLs assigned to these departments who then implement the actions to be taken.

The Director of Customer Loyalty reports directly to me. I don’t see him a lot because he and his staff need to be out on the selling floor interacting with customers. Nothing replaces the experience of talking to customers.

We also conduct focus groups – I sit in on these, too, so I get to hear directly from customers about what they like or don’t like and what would make them have a more satisfying customer experience.

It would seem that good customer service leads to customer loyalty. Are employees trained in customer service?  

Our employees are trained in what we call our “b-connected” system. It’s love at the point of sale. Employees are trained in relationship selling and not simply transactional selling. When a customer using a Bloomingdale’s charge card buys something, that information is entered into our database so we begin to build a profile of that customer. After a second or third visit we understand his or her level of spending and interests. We call it “client telling.”

This benefits the customer because capturing this information draws customers into our “family.” We can send them information about events they may be interested in attending, or invite them to private sales, or suggest making an appointment with a personal shopper. Whatever we can do to strengthen the customer relationship.

Is Bloomingdale’s undertaking any customer loyalty initiatives?

Yes — throughout the store we’re making changes based on what we’ve learned our customers want. For example, we learned that a woman in a dressing room becomes very annoyed when she needs a different size garment and there is no sales associate to help her get it. So in our Intimate Apparel dressings rooms on the 4^th floor, we’ve introduced phones in each room. When a customer picks it up she is connected to someone who can help her. The associate helping the customer also leaves her business card in a slot on the door.

In our shoe department our initiative is called “4 to the floor and 2 out the door.” Sales associates are trained not only to get the particular shoe a customer requests, but also to bring out four different styles. That gives the customer a broader choice and may lead to an extra sale.

Another example is in our men’s department. Our customers have told us that when they pick up a suit that’s been altered, they would like to see a selection of shirts and ties to go with the suit. Don’t just hand them the suit.

Sometimes it’s the simplest changes. We’ve learned that people tend to buy shoes and belts at the same time. So we’ve moved belts to the shoe department and we’re selling more belts than ever.

What has customer response been to your customer loyalty program? Is it working?

They love it. The customer experience begins when a customer steps in the store. We have what we call Brand Ambassadors stationed at all the entrances and strategically around the building. They are there to greet customers and answer their questions or take a customer to the department if he needs that extra help. Our Concierge desk will help with your shopping needs but also purchase theater tickets for you and book restaurant reservations.

Bloomingdale’s is a leading destination for tourists. We invite them to visit our International Visitors Center on the balcony for help and special offers. At the end of the visit, we’ll give them a gift just for shopping with us.

We’ve made great strides in customer loyalty and satisfaction here at the Manhattan flagship store – there is always more that can be done. But it’s working and other stores in the system are following our lead with more robust customer loyalty initiatives.

Richard J. Mast is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Bloomingdale’s New York City Flagship Store, with responsibility for 150 Executives and 2500 selling and sales support associates. He has been with the company for 28 years, having held various operating, financial, and merchandising positions both in the flagship and in branch stores.

Coke has done it again – tampered with its brand by changing the color of it famous red cans to white for a holiday promotion with the World Wildlife Fund.

The promotion was to raise funds to bring awareness to the plight of polar bears, an endangered species. It caused a huge kerfuffle among consumers.

Many confused the holiday Coke can with the silver Diet Coke can — horrors. Coke was forced to recall more than a billion of the white cans and restock their shelves with the familiar red ones.

Not the First Mishap

You’d think that the #1 brand would know better. Back in 1985 the company changed the formula of its venerated soft drink, calling the new sweeter version New Coke. The uproar was instantaneous — and after only two weeks the company was forced to bring back the old formula with a new name — Classic Coke.

The company had taste tested the new formula with thousands of customers, the majority of whom liked it better than the old Coke. But never did customers believe the company would ditch the Coke they had come to love and drink over the years.

Lessons Learned

What lessons can other companies learn from this latest stumble by the world’s number brand?

• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. When I was managing advertising at a global financial services company and then at a New York bank, corporate management would often ask, “When are you going to start a new campaign? Aren’t customers tired of it?” My answer was no, if the campaign was still working. My experience was that the company insiders would get itchy because they were bored and wanted to see something new. That happens even today more than you may think.
• Ask the right questions. If you’re doing market research, ask the right questions to be sure you understand the spoken — and unspoken — needs/desires of your customers. Steve Jobs famously never did consumer research because he said consumers didn’t know what they wanted and it was Apple’s job to tell them. But how many geniuses are there like Steve Jobs. Did people know they needed an iPad?
• Learn how you are positioned.  A brand is how you want to be positioned, or perceived, in the marketplace. Your positioning is how customers actually perceive you. Hopefully they are in alignment. If you have the budget, find out. In the case of a small business without the money for research, put together an advisory panel of your own employees, customers willing to participate, and vendors. Ask for their opinions. Learn their perceptions of your brand and use this information to improve your offerings and communications.

Building and burnishing your brand is a continuous process of refinement. It’s awfully easy to mess it up like Coke did.

Related articles

• ‘Radical’ Coca-Cola cans get wintry reception ()
• White Coca-Cola Cans Freak Consumers Out (thedailymeal.com)

Richard Shapiro, President, The Center for Client Retention

National Customer Service Week is being celebrated from October 3-7. I have a question: are you delivering the best customer service you can? That is the key ingredient to generating repeat business, increasing customer satisfaction, and building your company.

A company’s front line employees can be an organization’s “secret” competitive advantage to securing repeat business.

Too many companies don’t understand that while delivering excellent customer service is the key ingredient for repeat business, it’s that special personal relationship between customer and employee that provides the link between customer satisfaction and customer retention.

The service delivered by front line employees must be viewed as the first step in the journey of loyalty. Your employees can be your most effective brand advocates.

10 Tips for Generating Repeat Business

1. Make sure that every one of your front line associates is capable of making a good first impression. Positive or negative opinions are formed within the first 10 seconds. You never have a second opportunity to make a warm and welcoming first impression.

2. Show appreciation to your customers. Thanking customers in a meaningful and thoughtful manner in every customer/front line encounter shows customers you care and appreciate their business. This seems obvious but not everyone does it.

3. Review your letters and email communications to ensure that they sound welcoming, personalized and make your customers feel important and appreciated.

4. Create a culture whereby your associates are treated as family and neighbors and they will, in turn, treat your customers the same way. Customers notice and appreciate when a company values its associates.

5. Answer questions from customers by not only responding to their direct inquiries, but by providing them with additional useful information. Customers often want to learn more about a potential purchase than what’s written on a tag or in a brochure.

6. Understand that the underlying ingredient of customer service is “helping” people. Make sure that every front line associate is trained to help people — to give that extra 10% of service. It will almost guarantee a great customer service experience. Employee training will improve customer service and satisfaction.

7. Say hello and smile. People are more stressed than ever as technology takes over our lives. Getting a big, warm hello can go a long way in giving a customer the feeling of “Hey, this company is really happy to see me.”

8. Make customers feel comfortable about returning an item to a store. Then, offer special attention to help them find what they need. Customers don’t like making returns, so be sure the return process is enjoyable and non-defensive. Customers will really appreciate it!

9. Listen to customer comments such as “This is the first time I used your site”, “I just moved into the neighborhood”, “I just happened to stop by,” etc., and leverage those opportunities to engage customers to learn what their needs are. Then find a way to meet those needs. In doing so you will  build a relationship and lifetime of loyalty.

10. Reward front line employees who make every customer feel welcomed and important. Be sure that you continually thank the employees who are the lifeblood of your company.

Remember, the customer relationship starts with the first hello in person or over the phone, or the first response to the click on a link to your site. A company’s front line associates are the “voice of the company.”

Are employees who “touch” the customer properly trained to build a customer relationship? If they aren’t then give them the training they need. Employees want to do good work because if the company is successful it will thrive and grow and they will, too.

###

Richard Shapiro is the founder and president of The Center For Client Retention (TCFCR) and author of the forthcoming book, “The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business” (Feb. 2012). His company designs and conducts customized customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement systems for Fortune 100 and 500 corporations and small businesses. This post is adapted from a blog originally posted on his site.

That’s the conclusion of a new report Civility in America 2011.  The 2011 online survey* was conducted in May among 1,000 American adults to assess attitudes towards civility online, in the workforce, in the classroom and in politics.

I was particularly struck by the statistics on workplace civility: 65% of the respondents blame corporate leadership for making the workplace more uncivil.

More than 70% of Americans consider political campaigns, pop culture, the media, government and the music industry hubs of incivility. Not surprisingly, Congressional Democrats, Congressional Republicans and Tea Party supporters are all viewed as more uncivil than civil.

According to the study, “while more than one-third (39%) expected things to turn less civil when surveyed in 2010, now more than one out of two Americans — 55% — expect a lack of civility to become the norm. Only nine percent in this year’s survey expect civility to get better compared to 26% who expected some relief last year. Incivility seems to be here to stay.”

Workplace Incivility Hurts Sales

Approximately seven in 10 Americans (69%) have either stopped buying from a company or have re-evaluated their opinions of a company because someone from that company was uncivil in their interaction, says the study.  Not good for sales or a company’s brand. In another disturbing finding, over four in 10 Americans — 43% — have experienced incivility at work.

Respondents blame workplace leadership and other employees for the growing incivility problem. As I wrote in an earlier post, Treating Fired Employees Like Criminals, losing a job can be devastating. But when companies mistreat employees they are letting go, it poisons the workplace and, now we learn, can add to incivility.

With the 2012 Presidential campaign heating up, I guess we need to be resigned to even more incivility as the battle lines are drawn by politicians and we’re subjected to mud slinging in commercials. How sad.

*Study sponsored by Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate and conducted by KRC Research 

A company can make the best products, but if customer service is bad, there goes the company’s reputation – and sales. I was reminded of this the other day when doing a few errands.

Service with a Smile From TD Bank

TD Bank's Penny Arcade

I started at TD Bank, well known for its “Penny Arcade.” It’s an automatic coin counting machine in each branch that saves you the trouble of rolling all your coins. I save all my change in a plastic container and when it’s full I bring it to the bank – it’s usually around $100 (today it was $105.35) and treat it as sort of a present to myself.

Immediately on entering the branch on Third Avenue, a receptionist greeted me with a smile and asked, “Can I help you today?” She offered to help deposit the coins and then asked if I would like to open an account.

After the machine issued a receipt, I brought it to a teller who welcomed me and asked how I wanted my money. That was a nice touch – so I said in $20 bills. Then she also asked me to open an account. Not this time, but maybe next time? I left as a happy non-customer.

Too Busy for a Greeting at Ethan Allen

I walked a couple of blocks and entered the Ethan Allen store where I had bought an ottoman, which needs a minor repair. Two people at the reception desk. No greeting. Just bored expressions. Finally I told them what I wanted and one of them said in an unfriendly tone of voice, “we don’t do that here – you have to call customer service.”

Then she went back to reading messages on her iPhone while her colleague looked up the phone number and handed it to me on a slip of paper. I thanked them and said goodbye. No response. I like Ethan Allen products, but this kind of service doesn’t make me feel good about the brand.

A Helping Hand at Bloomingdale’s

Bloomingdale's little brown bag

My last stop was Bloomingdale’s to shop for a housewarming gift. As I wandered around the gift department seeking inspiration, a sales person came up to me with a big smile and asked if I needed help. Score a point. I found a very nice tray, a pitcher and some bowls and as I struggled to carry them, she immediately took them from me and brought them to the cash register while I continued to look. Two points.

I was happy with my choices, so she rang up the sale and packed them up. I left with a good feeling about Bloomingdale’s. (I also love the yogurt at the store’s 40 Carrots restaurant).

Burnish Your Brand

Companies spend millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to build their brands. But often the first contact a customer has is with a receptionist or a sales person. These employees need to be trained in proper customer service. Don’t think of this as just another below-the-line expense. Consider it an investment in your brand, which is your most precious asset.

[tweetmeme]I’ve been boning up on the newest developments in cyberspace at Social Media Week seminars in New York. This annual ritual is taking place in eight cities around the world with Twitter aficionados tweeting all the goings-on to their followers.

Today I attended a YouTube presentation. It was awesome. I learned there are five primary “pillars” into which most videos fall: informative, entertaining, conversational, useful and inspiring.

The two presenters, Lauren Siegel and Ali Pulver, are creative content specialists at Google, which owns YouTube. “Story telling is at the heart of YouTube,” they said. They called it the “digital campfire” with people gathering to hear new stories every day. The site also has the elements of a “general store” where you can pick and choose exactly what you want from an endless barrel of videos.

Just a couple of mind-boggling statistics and then I’ll move on. People are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube and every minute 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. Wow!

Lauren and Ali discussed each pillar and gave examples of how companies and ordinary individuals have developed huge followings.

Informative: Making knowledge more accessible.

One example is Khan Academy with 1,700 videos, 24 million views and one faculty member Sal Khan, the founder. He covers subjects as simple as how to add, divide and multiple fractions. He’s got Bill Gates interested in exporting these learning tools to underdeveloped countries. “How to” videos is one of the fast-growing categories. In effect companies and individuals with a huge number of subscribers are becoming distribution channels for information.

Conan O'Brien

Entertaining: Bringing us into new worlds and extending the experience.

One example is how Conan O’Brian kept himself in the limelight until his non-compete with NBC expired and he could get on with his new cable talk show. The vignettes starring the host are really kooky and fun and he dubbed his followers Team Coco. That’s the name of his YouTube channel now where you can see episodes of his talk show.

Live streaming extends access to concerts such as those of the rock group Bonnaroo, sponsored by Ford. On-site attendance at concerts is 75,000, but the live streams reach 43 million viewers.

Conversational: Inviting dialogue and community participation

Toyota turned its YouTube video channel audience into brand advocates with 50 humorous and irreverent videos launching its Swagger Wagon. Millions of viewers tuned in. The You Tube promotion was just once piece of a campaign that integrated TV and other media channels.

Useful: Offering tools for engagement

Seal of the President of the United States

I have to say I was unaware that a few days before his State of the Union Address, President Obama made himself available to answer questions on a wide range of issues submitted by and voted on by YouTube users in “Your Interview With the President” moderated by YouTube’s Steve Grove. Obviously the President understands the power of YouTube in reaching constituents directly, unfiltered by traditional media.

By the way, YouTube offers a nifty tool called Moderator that allows you to “collect commentary, questions, or ideas on your YouTube channel and watch the best ones rise to the top. It’s easy – you bring a group of people together on a topic of your choice, and leverage their collective wisdom to vote on the best video and text submissions.”

Inspiring: Helping us to realize our potential

Lauren and Ali showed the case study of Panacea81, “the everywoman as beauty queen,” as they called her. Lauren Luke, a UK housewife, decided to make a series of video tutorials about how to apply makeup. Sounds simple enough. She now has 448,007 subscribers and her videos have had 104,224,397 views.

Well, if you think I’m giving you a link to visit my YouTube channel, you’re mistaken. That’s my next project. Me, on video? Should I lose weight or get a face-lift? Nah. I’ll just visit the Panacea81 lady for some tips on makeup.

Gunwel: Your local tax & bookeeping firm

[tweetmeme]Gunwel Associates is a boutique tax and bookkeeping firm that utilizes social media to enhance relationships with our current and future clients. We know that working with finances is a very intimate issue for everyone and social media allows us to build trust by providing valuable information. With only four people in our firm, this is a big commitment. But it has paid off for us and can for other small companies that want to forge strong bonds with their current clients and attract new ones.

We blog every day in addition to tweeting, posting to Facebook, doing podcasts, and publishing a monthly newsletter and daily Gazette. Our content is developed in house, not outsourced, and gives our readers a sense of our firm’s personality. The tax office model (or any business model for that matter) you grew up with is no longer the norm. In this environment you must connect with your clients outside the office through social media.

Building Lasting Relationships

We focus on client relationships throughout the year and not just on how many people we can get through the door during tax season. If we are in touch year-round we demonstrate to our community that we are not just tax accountants, but advisors that are available for all their bookkeeping needs. Social media, whether you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other networking channels, is critical in today’s marketplace. Tweeting, providing status updates and publishing blogs with useful tips will help to build lasting client relationships.

Thus far our strategy has been very successful. We have built a strong following of readers who frequently comment on our blogs and engage us in commentary across a wide spectrum of subjects. Blogging is a way of “conversing” with our clients and prospects when they’re not in our office, on the phone with us or reading through our marketing materials. Social media is the new form of loyalty marketing and, best of all, users are addicted to it.

If you’re not connected then you must get connected. And if you’ve given up on blogging, start doing it again. You’re investing in your business. Becoming active in social media can and will grow your business as well as build client loyalty. We’ve seen it happen and we’d be glad to share our experiences with you.

Christopher Sheehan is Director of Operations with Gunwel Associates Inc, 44 East 21 Street, New York, NY, 10010, info@gunwel.com.