The "luxury" experience at a Four Seasons hotel stay was not produced by facilities. It was produced by human interaction.

I've found that one of the great things about being in the banking industry is that it gives us both opportunity and reason to learn about how various businesses operate.

The customer who would usually avoid taking a marketing piece will readily accept recipes and coloring pages for children — "sponsored" by the bank on the back of the flier.

My friend pointed out that in normal job markets, there was a tendency for bad hires, or people no longer happy in their jobs, to leave the company on their own. Now, his problems are twofold.

Properly training front-line employees before deploying them requires planning. It's far less expensive in the long run than making your customers pay for that training with their patience.

There is a sales group that is more hard core than car salesmen. I'm talking about Girl Scouts. In the eyes of the recipients of their sales pitches, you're a pushy salesperson.

If a bank's new account production is falling off, the institution might feel fine at the moment. Yet experienced bankers know that, without action, serious problems are imminent.

Your level of preparedness can be the difference between an unforeseen event being a setback or an opportunity.

I like to ask folks to think of their least-positive customer interaction or sales call during the previous month. I suggest to them that even the most cringe-worthy of recent impressions can likely be (at least somewhat) salvaged the next time you interact with that person.

Strive to make sure that you and your team's time and energy are focused on the things you can affect today.