Ross Shafer is Emmy award winning Television host, comedian, author, and popular keynote speaker on the subjects of market relevance, growing market share, and shifting customer trends.
So I buy a new iPhone. On that very same day while on a bike ride, my headset gets caught in my spinning spokes and jerks the phone from it’s holder, sending my new phone skidding 30 feet face down on the concrete. The phone was not in a case, it was on backorderd order…
Do you want to remain relevant for the next 50 years? Then take a few lessons from the band, The Beatles. The Beatles were international superstarts but they only had a TEN year career. They broke up in 1970…Yet in 2006 – almost 40 years later – they had THE top selling album of the…
Hey, Ross Shafer here. What does your car’s problem SMELL LIKE? Has anyone every asked you that before? I did a program for Autozone and found out that is one of their first questions. Right. If you have a problem with your vehicle, the technicians at Autozone ask you questions like “what does it smell…
How do you get ahead at a big company? Are the odds too high to be the top dog? If that’s what you think I’ve got something inspiring for you. I was the Keynote speaker at a recent Verizon Wireless meeting in Newark, NJ where an impressive woman spoke before I went on. Her name…
The average Facebook and Twitter users have hundreds of friends and followers and get hundreds, even thousands, of updates each day. If you’re a small business trying to get customers’ attention, how can you stand out? Try sending customers a handwritten note. That’s what DuO, a small clothing boutique in Austin, TX, does and it’s…
Ever buy something from a store and try to take it back and they won’t let you? A while back I bought new living room furniture from a store called Room & Board. It gets delivered right on time (December 18) and I couldn’t be more disappointed. All my fault, the couch I bought looked…
Michael Burger here. Just got back from a trip to Costco. Picked up a jar of Kirkland brand chocolate covered almonds. Why is this relevant? Jim Sinegal, the founder of Costco discovered by changing the shape of the round nut containers…to square nut containers, he could squeeze more jars on the pallet. Genius! By getting…
Whole Foods in Newport Beach, Calif. will now drive you and your bread to your car after you shop. I love the simplicity of this service don’t you? This works on a couple of levels…Offering to drive you to your car spares you from having to push that cart full of groceries with the one…
Why do grocery stores offer you free samples of food? Is it because they think you’re hungry and they care? No. Is it because they want you to sample the food and buy it? Perhaps. The main reason however, is they want to keep you in the store longer. If your hungry, you’ll leave. If…
I just had a great customer experience at Nordstrom’s Rack. I was in the store shopping and hear the sound of two beautiful voices behind me say “I’m here to check you out” and before I could let the compliment wash over me, I turn around and, they really were there “just to check me…