Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Make sure every interaction you have with your customers inspires a positive emotion.

In her 30 years with Ford Motor Company, Nancy Lee Gioia’s learned a thing or two about teamwork, sparking innovation, and being a driving force in what was once considered a man's industry.

You'll likely take a revenue hit and strain your operations.

Essential lessons about life turned out to be lessons for business. In my speaking engagements, I often get asked how I decided to focus on culture and employee engagement as the most important drivers for my business

How do you know if your company will succeed? Venture capitalists give their perspectives on traits that define the best start-ups

How many are you putting your customers though? I'm sure you, like me, have spent too much time in customer service hell as a consumer. With apologies to Dante, it’s at least nine circles: The never-ending voice mail phone tree The requirement to repeat your name, account number, etc., ad infinitum Hold, hold, hold The ominous sound, mid-conversation, of the dial tone The disappearing clerk The line that's always 20 people deep The agent who doesn’t understand your question The “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the authority to do that” response The clerk who's busy texting someone who's clearly more important than you I'm sure there are more

How one company re-incentivized its sale force to pursue high-value customers. All customers are not equal

There's one simple way to make your customers trust you: be open and honest with them from the start. My co-founder Bill Haney said recently, "In an age where you can look up the top nearby Indian restaurant on your phone, order at a fixed price, and have your food delivered within a half hour to your doorstep all without even talking to a live person, it's insane that for the largest expenditure most Americans make, our homes, we have so little ability to make the building process transparent." He means transparent in terms of cost (building on a fixed price), customization options, and building schedule.

In the early days of a startup, it can be tough to find good data to help with decision-making. Put a priority on these three numbers, and you'll be fine. To make good decisions, you need good data.

In the 30 years since In Search of Excellence was published, critics have found flaws in its methodology, its content, and even its writing style.

How you use technology not only reflects on you personally, but also on your company and its reputation. We now have the possibility to be connected continually: text messages, emails, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn… all of which can be accessed from our smartphones, our iPads, our computers

Most would say you'd have to be crazy. But this Chinese gadgetmaker proves being crazy can make you $100 million a year

It's a mistake to refuse an apology to angry customers. Here's how to get really good at saying 'I'm sorry.' Years ago when working for a large corporation I attended a meeting that was hosted by our corporate counsel and loss prevention department. The gist was to educate all of us on the pitfalls of saying "I'm sorry" when dealing with a customer service issue or complaint.

It's a mistake to refuse an apology to angry customers. Here's how to get really good at saying 'I'm sorry.' Years ago when working for a large corporation I attended a meeting that was hosted by our corporate counsel and loss prevention department. The gist was to educate all of us on the pitfalls of saying "I'm sorry" when dealing with a customer service issue or complaint

Calling a decision-maker but getting voice mail again and again? Here's how to get the ball moving, even without a live conversation