Customer service can set your business apart, or sink it
Posted On April 13, 2023
Business owners spend a lot of money getting customers to come in the door, creating marketing campaigns and buying advertising. Why is it, then, that so many of them send those same customers right back out the door with poor customer service? “Bottom line, it’s respect,” Pam Denham, one of Alabama’s leading customer service trainers, said of its importance. “It’s really not that hard to do these things and be set apart from other businesses because so few people are aware of it.” Denham, who joined us in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” has run her… Read More
Categories: Blog, Podcast, Training Industry, What's Working with Cam MarstonThe Post-Covid Workplace: The 4 Most Important Changes You Need To Make Now – Mark Sanborn
Posted On July 6, 2020
On Wednesday, July 15th at Noon Central, the What’s Working with Cam Marston radio show will feature customer service and leadership expert Mark Sanborn as our first webinar guest. Mark will discuss his research into the post-Covid work environment and what leaders and teams need to know about team formation, productivity, and sustainability and what customers will need that will be different going forward. Mark’s unique qualifications as a nationally recognized authority on leadership and customer service offer the What’s Working audience the unique opportunity hear the content directly from the expert himself. Covid has introduced permanent changes to the… Read More
Categories: Blog, Training Industry, What's Working with Cam Marston
The BP Method: Using reverse mentoring as a talent recruiting tool
Posted On July 5, 2019
A year ago, I spoke with Pershing Advisor Solutions CEO Mark Tibergien about reverse mentoring, where older business leaders enlist the help of younger employees to keep up to date on current trends and the issues important to millennials in the workplace. Now one of the largest energy companies in the world is utilizing the approach as well. According to a recent Bloomberg article, CEO of British Petroleum’s Upstream, 48-year-old Bernard Looney, is taking mentoring from 26-year-old BP petrophysicist Connor Tann. Looney’s goals are more than just making sure BP is meeting the needs of its millennial employees, however. He… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Recruiting, Training Industry, Workplace
How to master presentations and become a more confident communicator
Posted On June 27, 2018
Jerry Seinfeld once said that if most people had a choice at a funeral, they’d rather be in the casket than give the eulogy. Indeed, many of us are terrified of public speaking. Simply communicating, when asked to do it in front of a large group of people, can by paralyzing – but it doesn’t have to be. Our guest in this episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is Lou Solomon, an author, TEDx speaker, adjunct college business instructor, founder of Charlotte-based Interact Authentic Communication, and an expert in interpersonal communication and presentation skills. We know that, even as… Read More
Categories: Podcast, Training Industry
With unemployment cratering, the challenge now is to fill open jobs
Posted On June 21, 2018
People shouldn’t have much trouble finding a job right now. Unemployment in the U.S. was 3.8 percent in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics– an 18-year low. That’s great, right? Of course, if you’re a worker. If you’re an employer looking to hire, it presents a problem: Filling out a workforce. And filling it out with the right people. Our guest in this episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is Ed Castile, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Workforce Development Division, for the state of Alabama and Director of AIDT– Alabama Industrial Development Training. His job is to help… Read More
Categories: Podcast, Training Industry, Workplace
Coaching millennials: What a veteran Baby Boomer has learned
Posted On April 29, 2018
Herman Edwards has pretty much seen it all in a football coaching career that started in 1987 at San Jose State and ended up including head coaching stints in the NFL with the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs. But Edwards, who at 64 fits right in the middle of the Baby Boom generation, is having to learn a few new tricks now that he’s accepted a job as head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils. Since it’s his first coaching job since 2008 – he’s spent the last decade in broadcasting – what he doesn’t have a… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Training Industry
South Carolina is bringing apprenticeship back
Posted On January 6, 2015
With the movement of manufacturing jobs overseas, America largely lost the master-apprentice model of skill development. College transitioned from liberal arts to business prep. With manufacturing making a comeback, the need for vocational skills is growing and the labor force is not keeping up. In 2007, South Carolina recognized this gap and implemented an apprenticeship program with 777 individuals across 90 companies. In 2014, there are more than 670 companies participating and the program has reached 11,000 workers. NPR recently reported on the success of the S.C. program. Part of succession planning is passing along institutional knowledge from one generation… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Training Industry, Work, Workplace
Adultolescence and KGOY – what’s at risk?
Posted On April 24, 2014
I’ve talked here fairly frequently about the trend toward extended adolescence – younger generations holding off on typical adult milestones such as getting married, having children, and even moving out of their parents’ homes. There is a flip side to this, known as KGOY (kids getting older younger), where today’s children are entering into adolescence at younger and younger ages. Nine-, ten- and eleven-year-old children are now “tweens” interested in and exhibiting more behaviors that are typically considered teenaged than child-like. With the entrance and exit of adolescence being pushed earlier and alter, adolescence itself is getting stretched. That is,… Read More
Categories: Blog, Generation Y / Millennials, Training Industry, Work, Workplace
Game on: How one generation is changing the face of business
Posted On April 15, 2014
This is fascinating. We all know that technology has drastically impacted the daily workings of the business world. And we know the stereotype of today’s youth walking around with faces and fingers glued to some kind of mobile device or game system. Businesses are taking note. According to Gartner, by the end of this year (2014), a full 70 percent of Forbes global 2000 will be using some sort of gamification (an app or other software that uses game theory to influence behavior). This is up from only 20 percent in 2012 – a significant change in two short years…. Read More
Categories: Blog, Generation Y / Millennials, Training Industry, Work, WorkplaceLearning the Ropes: Human Resource Management Basics for Beginners
Posted On February 12, 2014
You answer the phones, handle employee complaints, and do the payroll now, so why do you need an HR person? Aren’t they a major drag on the company? They only collect a paycheck but they never actually contribute anything measurable to the company, right? Not so fast. Human resources jobs are a lot harder than they sound. HR personnel aren’t necessarily a drain on the company. They do plenty to earn their keep. For starters, they handle the bulk of your company’s paperwork. Even if you have a mostly paperless company, they fill in with computer work that you either… Read More
Categories: Training Industry, Work