Ross's Topics
 - Motivation
 - Customer Experience / Customer Loyalty
 - Customer Empathy
Ross Shafer's Topics

Motivation
NOBODY MOVED YOUR CHEESE 
High energy and hilarious keynote - perfect for setting the opening tone or the closing message for your conference.  From small town pet shop manager...to Emmy award winning TV host…to renowned business author and speaker, Ross is a fierce proponent of taking personal responsibility (and being accountable) for what happens in your professional and personal life.

The Take-a-Ways:

1) How to shed blame toward the economy, management, another business unit, or your competition. Real growth and opportunity only follows when you accept that nobody cares more about your career and success than YOU do. Success will be your own fault.

2) How to avoid time-robbing distractions. Staying focused and "on task" promotes confidence in your coworkers and allows you to become a trusted advisor to your customers/clients/patients. You'll see how the "world's best" accomplish this feat.

3) Advertising and marketing aren't powerful enough to grow your business (or your career). You must work to transform your customers/clients/patients into unpaid spokespeople for YOU and your company.  Exponential growth happens when your biggest fans insist their friends do business with you.

4) How to jump start your curiosity engine to create instant (yet highly genuine) rapport with team members and customers. These methods go beyond "transactional acquaintanceship." Respecting and collaborating with people, "as people,” helps reduce costly miscommunications, inspires productivity, resolution, and stimulates fresh ideas across teams. 

5) How to keep your business and personal life in perspective. Understanding the difference between Making a Living and Making a Life is what will keep you curious, hungry, and excited about your profession; as well as your place in the world.

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Customer Experience / Customer Loyalty
ARE YOU RELEVANT?

In this energizing and enlightening keynote, Ross boldly shares the most innovative practices he has gleaned from dozens of organizations who continue to thrive in any economy. You will be inspired to cross-pollinate the best of these ideas for your organization. You will be more aware of cultural shifts that can endanger your market share - shifts that can revolutionize your industry and catch your competition off guard. After this session you will be convinced that your top priority is to matter to your customers, your clients, and your team members.

The Take-a-Ways:

1) Realizing that "Best Practices" are a moving target, you'll learn what you need do to avoid extinction. We've see complacency kill off some of the world's best known brands. We will discuss why they couldn't predict their demise...and how YOU can.

2) There is no recession when you innovate. Economic times are always in flux yet some organizations refuse to participate in a downturn - and continue to flourish. You'll learn how to generate the same kind of small (but powerful) innovations other smart companies have invented to revolutionize their industries from within.

3) Customer Service (as we know it) is obsolete. Today's world is so complex, customers and clients don't want “service” anymore. They want Empathy from you. They want you to understand their pain and frustration. And, they want you to be their trusted advisor. The distinction between service and empathy is so profound we created the Customer Empathy Institute to coach this dramatic behavioral change.

4) Why do the same people win all of the awards? There is a reason the best salespeople consistently win the top awards - and make the most money. The best salespeople are like talk show hosts. They are trained in the art of curiosity and showing extreme interest in other people. We'll coach these skills so you can apply them tomorrow.

5) You will be able to alert yourself to culture shifts & emerging trends. Reacting - and wisely adapting - to these shifts can dramatically spike your revenues.

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Customer Empathy

THE CUSTOMER EMPATHY SOLUTION – Part I

Our clients often add this high energy Keynote as a much longer Break Out. The idea is revolutionary, yet highly profitable in execution. If you want lifetime loyalty, stop training customer “service”...and start coaching customer EMPATHY.

This dramatic attitude shift goes straight to the heart of the customer experience. Ross defines Customer Empathy as: the ability to identify, interpret and appropriately respond to the customer’s emotional state - before, during, and after the transaction.

After 14 years of writing, researching, and producing Human Resource training films, Ross unveils frightening case studies of organizations that ignored the customer because they were blinded by fantasy sales goals, outdated operational procedures, and frozen mission statements. Then, he reveals the smart (yet humble) teams who gobbled up market share by responding to their customers’ evolving emotional state. 

The Take-a-Ways:

1) Learn why your customers/clients/patients feel so vulnerable, helpless, anxious, and out of control, today. The customer has been through a stock market collapse, home equity meltdown, two Iraq wars, rising fuel prices, and daily news of dire unemployment. You'll see how these (emotionally draining) cultural events dramatically change their buying habits. 

2) Customers want Empathy...NOT service from you. Empathy, as a sales and collaboration skill, means you need to become an expert at reading faces, body language, and voice inflection. You will learn how to listen to learn...not listen to respond.

3) When people love you, they will give you more money. You'll actually learn what your customers/clients expect from you in order to garner their lifetime loyalty. When your customers feel an emotional connection with you, they will literally stop dating other companies - and start spending more time and money with you. 

4) Why the iPod, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace have made it vitally important to create a "personal brand" with your customers. Because personal identities and social networking have become such an enormous part of our culture, the best brand differentiators today revolve around the personal brands you create for your customers and clients.

5) Learn why “Customer Evaluations” can do more harm than good. We look to evaluations to help us gather valuable feedback and input. But customers see these as a nuisance…an irritant that can severely degrade their experience. You'll learn which types of evaluations enhance the customer experience - and which types of evaluations destroy the customer relationship.

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The Customer Empathy Solution – Part II
This is a great follow up to Part I - same point of view but with tons of new stories, interesting new case studies, and more inside customer psychology.  All of Ross’ programs are funny and there is plenty of audience interaction. This is the deep dive material he uses in full day seminars and workshops.

THE ULTIMATE MC
Because Ross is a trained talk and game show host (who has hosted over 1,000 network broadcasts) he is the perfect choice for moderating your executive panel discussions and leading award banquets. Ross will keep the programs lively and on task, drawing on his vast experience and lightning quick wit to navigate even the most unpredictable situations.

TALK SHOWS
Ross is adept at handling back-to-back breakout sessions that may feature a myriad of presenters. He has hosted such luminaries as Jack Welch, Colin Powell, Bob Dole, James Carville, Larry Bossidy, Tom Peters, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to name a few. Since many high profile presenters are more comfortable being interviewed by a “pro,” Ross is able to show the utmost respect via the introduction and the Q & A - yet he doesn’t shy away from asking the probing questions your people want answered (but may be too intimidated to ask).

GAME SHOWS
Ross is also a popular favorite for hosting custom game shows. Not only do these formats lend themselves to imparting important training information about your company (in a fun way), but they also encourage participation of the entire audience. Ask us how he and his team at “Game Show America” can create a custom TV show for you.

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