Author: Robert Bacal
You Know You Are A “Real Writer” When….
People write for all kinds of reasons. Some do so because they feel it’s a good business strategy to create blog posts. Others write because they have a passion about a particular subject. There’s one element that will help you…
Eleven Pillars Of Radical Customer Service
So long as you do what everyone is doing in customer service, you have no chance at using customer service as a competitive advantage. The basic principle behind radical customer service is simple, and applies to many other areas in…
How Good Does Voice Recognition/Artificial Intelligence Have To Be To Be Useful For Customer…
Q: Since Watson’s successful debut on Jeopardy, there’s been a suggestion that computers can do natural language processing to improve customer service. What do you think? Robert: I think it’s fascinating, and promising to imagine a computer can handle and process customer…
Teachers Who Make A Difference: The Gift That Lasts A Lifetime!
Some forty years ago, I learned that the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. I have to admit that I’ve never been called upon to use that information, any more than I’ve been called upon to recite the various…
Supporting Your Support Staff So They Can Support You
They usually do the most repetitive job tasks. They answer the phones, keep things organized, keep track of finances, make sure you have what you need when you need it, and are often the first contact a customer or member…
Case Study: How Efforts To Increase Website Engagement Can Backfire — Winning the Battle, Losing…
Acme is an online book store and publisher, with a relatively successful and profitable website. Their daily traffic runs at about 3,000 unique visitors a day, and while they don’t sell a ton of books the website is a profitable…
Robert Bacal’s Brief Biography
Robert began his career as an educator and trainer at the age of twenty (which is over 30 years ago!), as a teaching assistant at Concordia University. Since then he as trained teachers for the college and high school level,…
Winning With The Impossible Colleague: You can’t shoot difficult colleagues, but you can manage the relationship to reduce aggravation and disruption
The Challenge For the past few years I have had to work fairly extensively with a colleague who is just impossible. He is arrogant, stubborn, sometimes abusive, and acts like he is right about almost everything. At first I tried…
For Small Businesses It Can’t All Be About The Benjamins —Passion Counts
There are a lot of people who start their businesses because they believe their ideas are fabulous and unique, and they also believe that the operation of a small business is going to make them rich. Often they believe riches…
Uncommon Comments On Social Media and Human Communication
As social media moves into a more mature phase, there’s still a lot we don’t know about its usefulness to the majority of businesses. Below are a number of short snippets, quotes and comments on social media. Whether they are…
The Problem of “Thin Relationships” On Social Media
Umair Haque, the Harvard academic, posts on The Harvard blog, a thought provoking idea about the limitations of social media and the kinds of relationships that are forged via social media. He speaks of “thin relationships” Here’s a quote that expresses the…
