In this keynote or breakout speech, Jim will teach you how to Stop the Stupid Stuff.  What is the 'stupid stuff' that makes your customers or clients frustrated, upset, go elsewhere, etc.?  Find out and then change.  Because the marketplace is growing in ways never imaginable 15 or even 5 years ago and they no longer have to rely on only a few companies. They can purchase a similar product or service from a myriad of companies.  So the customer doesn't have to change. Your company does. Jim will teach your audience how to evaluate current practices and create goals to create change that will bring your customer back again and again.  

American business is in trouble. Decisions are being made that are contrary to both good business sense and building consumer loyalty. Most organizations' marketing is usually an exercise in figuring out what to do - what promotion, what advertisement, what strategic plan, what THING that will get current or potential customers to spend a few dollars more with your business, store, hotel, restaurant, airline, park, golf course, etc.

I'm suggesting the notion opposite of doing something. That is, the art of finding and deciding what things to stop doing. To Stop Doing the Stupid Stuff.

Now, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: Stop Doing the Stupid Stuff is not some cost-cutting methodology. Nor is it a system for the analysis and elimination of the ineffective use of marketing dollars.

Rather, Stop Doing the Stupid Stuff means finding out what annoys, frustrates, inconveniences, or confuses your customers - and stopping it. It's about learning the things that, at their worst, keeps customer from spending their money with you - and stopping them from ever happening again.

Northwest Airlines, American Airlines and other carriers now want to charge to speak to a "live agent." That's Stupid Stuff in two ways. First, they've chosen to penalize customers who want to continue getting what they've always gotten - one-on-one attention.

Worse, they've done it by saying they will charge more for this previously standard level of service. How many customers will they lose because they decided to charge more for talking to a live agent, instead of offering a discount for booking on the Internet?

I know of at least one.

Other major airlines are facing bankruptcy. Yet to a one, none of them is making the effort to provide more customer service or more competitive policies. Instead, they seem to be making their cabins more uncomfortable and looking for new ways to cut costs and add charges, from eliminating in-flight meals to fuel surcharges.

Is it any wonder the small airlines are now the industry leaders?

There are more subtle, but no less damaging, stupid things businesses need to stop doing.

So start stopping!