What Can a Carnival Fortune-Teller Teach Us About Customer Experience? By Desiree Grace Imagine a fortune-teller at a carnival. You walk into her tent, engulfed in the smell of incense, and there she sits with her crystal ball. “Welcome,” she says. “I am Madame Desdemona. I know you have questions. With the help of the spirit world, I have answers. Sit, and I will tell you what you need to know about the future of customer experience in the B2B world.” I’ve sat in enough customer experience reviews to know the questions sound eerily similar. She gazes deeply into your eyes, as if she can see into your soul. “I see you have concerns about AI,” she says. “If AI could replace good customer service, it would have already done it.” The conversation continues. You discuss how AI can improve and predict problem resolution, especially for routine issues like lost order tracking, proof of delivery, and invoice discrepancies. You realize that many of these challenges can be anticipat...

A Distributor Channel Marketing Moment Super Bowl Ads:  Advertising’s Most Expensive Bargain By Desiree Grace What do celebrities, generative AI, and nostalgia all have in common? The Super Bowl. You can expect all three on Super Bowl Sunday this February. Super Bowl LX has sold all available advertising at an average cost of $7 million per 30-second spot . With last year’s viewership totaling 127.7 million viewers , that’s a lot of eyeballs. With consumer brands like Budweiser, Grubhub, Pringles, and Ritz on the advertiser list, you can also expect celebrity appearances from names like Sabrina Carpenter, Post Malone, and Peyton Manning . Rumor has it the Clydesdale horses will make an appearance, too. So why all the hype? Studies consistently show that people actually pay attention to Super Bowl commercials. They’re often controversial, funny, emotional, and occasionally ridiculous. That alone sets them apart from the average TV ad and makes them great fodder for watercooler co...

Retailing Done Right: The Art and Science of the Sales Counter By Desiree Grace Reading the latest news about yet another bankrupt retail legend, I shake my head. In‑person shopping is not dead. What is dead is retail done wrong . An overemphasis on cost‑cutting instead of value‑adding led to the demise of K‑Mart, Sears, and now Saks Fifth Avenue. I’ve been in retailers, large and small, recently that are busy. Retail spaces also exist inside distribution businesses, often in the form of sales counters. These spaces can drive sales, influence customer engagement, and spark lucrative impulse purchases. Even in a B2B environment, the counter matters. Ignore it, or underinvest in it, and you leave money and loyalty on the table. There are lessons to be learned from those who survive and thrive.  Retail done right looks like this: Staff with knowledgeable people who care A counter should never feel like a wasteland. Greet customers when they enter and ask if they need help. If the an...

Numbers Speak Truth By Frank Hurtte We work in a world obsessed with numbers. Measurements on schematics. Gross margin percentages. Sales quotas. Minutes on our phones. Days until vacation. I’ll admit it, I like numbers, too. Numbers give us something concrete. They help us understand where we’re performing well, and they make it harder to ignore where improvement is needed. Many times, we think we’re producing at a certain level until we see it on paper. Reality has a way of showing up when the numbers are clear. That same truth applies when evaluating business relationships. Whether you’re trying to understand the value of an employee, a distributor, or a manufacturer partner, it’s important to have a clear and consistent way to measure performance . Without that, discussions quickly become emotional, subjective, or based on assumptions rather than facts. The challenge, of course, is honesty. It’s much easier to evaluate others than it is to evaluate ourselves. But self-eval...

Substance Over Style: A Better Way to Market B2B A Distributor Channel Marketing Moment By Desiree Grace We all know it when we see it: the Patagonia commercial that motivates you to hit the hiking trail, or the Nike ad that nudges you back into the gym. Selling an idealized lifestyle or self-image is the essence of aspirational marketing. It speaks to what people care about. This approach is especially successful in B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing. But don’t write off aspirational marketing as exclusive to B2C. I would argue there is a meaningful place for it in our B2B (business-to-business) world. Hear me out. Aspirational marketing can speak to an ideal future state at work , and it can also be a powerful recruiting and retention tool. Let’s start with that ideal future state. Whether you’re creating internal messaging for your team or external marketing for customers, values like safety and quality matter. None of our B2B buyers want to work with an unsafe suppl...

Evolution of the Customer Care: Modernize or Get Left Behind By Desiree Grace Much like Neanderthals evolved into modern humans, Customer Care is evolving. No longer a knuckle-dragging, clerical, reactive role, Customer Care has become a smart, analytical, strategic business partner, and a true competitive differentiator. Whether you call this role Customer Experience, Customer Operations, Customer Service, or something else, the role itself is now modern and mission-critical. Why? Increasing Complexity of Customer Expectations Customers now expect faster, more accurate, and proactive communication. Traditional clerical tasks are no longer sufficient. Customer Care Units (CCUs) must be equipped to analyze customer behavior, anticipate issues, and support increasingly complex order management scenarios. Customers have been “trained” through B2C interactions to expect advance shipping notices, tracking information, and real-time updates. For large bills of material (BOMs) an...