Customers want experience more than they want service. Customer service is rolled out to solve problems and make customer complaints go away. Customer experience is performed so you never have a problem, and what you get are advocates that rave about your business because they can’t tell enough people how much you have helped them. So how do you create a customer experience? customer experience is created by customizing what the customer encounters enough that they feel taken care of. customer who feels taken care of becomes loyal. Getting a customer is always nice. MORE >>

A social media lesson from hibachi. The other evening, my husband and I tried a new Japanese restaurant that’s opened in our ‘hood. It bills itself as “hibachi steakhouse and sushi.” ” For anyone not familiar with “hibachi” restaurants, this is basically where several guests sit around an open cooktop, and their food is cooked in front of them (though those of you who are familiar with the concept may not have known that the type of cooktop we see in hibachi restaurants is really a teppenyaki grill… but I digress). It was a lot of fun. Really. MORE >>

Happy Friday everyone! Summer has definitely arrived for most of the country (except for Lisa Gerber , who got snow this week), which means summer hours at Arment Dietrich ! That’s right. If you make up four hours during the week and you work here, you can leave at 1:00 on Fridays. Hold on, hold on. Don’t send your resumes at once. We’re not hiring. And you’d have to be here for at least 90 days to take advantage of this little perk. So keep it in mind for next year! We also close the week between Christmas and New Year’s … just FYI.). What can I say? MORE >>

Drew’s note:  Here’s a guest post by Brad Shorr on a topic everyone wants to know more about — how to improve SEO. Don’t be daunted by the complexity of SEO – especially now. Google has introduced a ton of changes to their ranking formula recently, most of which penalize complicated, manipulative SEO tactics. As a result, SEO has become simpler. Today the keys are: • Having a clean site that communicates well with Google. Creating great content that naturally attracts backlinks. Here are 10 crucial items for a 2012 SEO tune-up. Update keyword research. Popular search terms change. MORE >>

When Heather Tweedy first began commenting on Spin Sucks , I knew we’d have lots in common when I saw she lives in Omaha. Now, don’t get me wrong. don’t love  Omaha. But I went to Creighton so I have a bit of an affinity for the city. And I do have a handful of close friends who still live there so I get back every other year or so. So it was my first common connection (other than our profession) to get to know Heather. And then she read Lisa Gerber’s blog post about why a PR firm leader should attend Counselors Academy and we got to meet her live and in person! MORE >>