Maneuver Through the Roadblocks to Repeat Patronage -- April is Customer Loyalty Month

With April being Customer Loyalty Month, its now time for business leaders to analyze their own customer-service related challenges. Questions to ask include: Has there been a slump in repeat patronage?" Do regular customers stop in less and less frequently?" Have our attempts at improving customer service, quality, staffing, and systems failed every time?" If an organization suffers from poor customer loyalty, strategic gridlock may be to blame.

(PRWEB) April 7, 2004 -- With April being Customer Loyalty Month, its now time for business leaders to analyze their own customer-service related challenges. Questions to ask include: Has there been a slump in repeat patronage?" Do regular customers stop in less and less frequently?" Have our attempts at improving customer service, quality, staffing, and systems failed every time?" If an organization suffers from poor customer loyalty, strategic gridlock may be to blame.

Author Pamela Harper describes strategic gridlock as the mysterious paralysis that occurs when persistent organizational problems snarl business performance." In her book, Preventing Strategic Gridlock: Leading Over, Under & Around Organizational Jams to Achieve High Performance Results (Cameo Publications, $19.95, ISBN 0-9715739-4-8), Harper describes the different roadblocks that business leaders frequently miss during planning. One particular roadblock she identifies that directly affects customer loyalty is the Magic of the Marquee" mindset, or thinking that just because you hang the sign, things will change.

Whether its a merger, acquisition, alliance, quality program, or reorganization, the pattern is the same," said Harper. The announcement about the new and improved organization goes up, and productivity and profitability mysteriously stay the same or, worse yet, they plummet."

Beyond identifying the roadblocks to increased customer loyalty, Harper provides a step-by-step process for overcoming the obstacles and moving toward success. To U.N.L.O.C.K. strategic jams, business leaders must U: Understand the full challenge; N: Negotiate stakeholder buy-in; L: Locate cultural advancers" and blockers;" O: Organize priorities; C: Communicate credibility; and K: Keep adjusting. With real-world examples and simple self-checks, Harper provides the tools to keep customers satisfied by starting from within the organization.

The systematic process of uncovering hidden roadblocks provides the missing link that leaders often leave out of the strategic thinking and planning process," said Harper. Putting the process to work will better enable you to transform your strategies into the high performance results required in todays competitive economy where customer loyalty is the foundation for success."

Pamela S. Harper helps business leaders transform their strategies into high performance results by identifying seven roadblocks that stall success. Founder and president of Business Advancement, Inc., Pam bases her in-depth knowledge of the impact of organizational issues on business growth on her 20 years of internal and external consulting to leaders of entrepreneurial, middle market, and Fortune 500 companies.

For more information, or a review copy of Preventing Strategic Gridlock: Leading Over, Under & Around Organizational Jams to Achieve High Performance Results, please call 1-866-372-2636 or send an e-mail to david@cameopublications.com.