Day: April 18, 2013

Customer experience can ultimately be an organization’s primary competitive advantage, if it is managed correctly. Exceptional customer service produces loyal customers who buy more, refer friends, resist special offers from competitors and forgive the occasional mistake. A new research report on customer experience sheds new light on the “seven sins” of customer experience — key missteps that make organizations stumble when it comes to customer interaction.

The Guardian newspaper’s Tim Dowling, Laura Barnett and Patrick Kingsley spoke to seven CEOs including AOL, Vodafone, Virgin Money, and Ericsson about their work/life habits and learned than most CEOs start their day by rising as early as 5:00 Am in order to sort through their commitments. The reporters sought to learn how seven successful people manage their affairs and become high effective.

17 months after he recruited former Apple retail executive Ron Johnson to run J.C. Penney, hedge fund manager and activist investor William Ackman led the revolt that ousted his own pick. Other Apple veterans who followed Johnson are headed for the exits as well. Could any of this have been prevented? What were the major mistakes that led to the ouster? Time magazine’s Brian Tuttle points to five big mistakes that led to Johnson’s ouster.