The Merchant Stand a blog by Bob Williams

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A customer service hack to win the day

Posted onJanuary 26, 2023January 26, 2023AuthorBob WilliamsLeave a comment

Some years ago, I attended an in-house training course on customer service principles named Customer Experience Owner (CEO). It was required training for new employees to teach client relationship techniques during conflict, negotiation, and service delivery. The company produced customized commercial print pieces and customer service was essential for maintaining Read More …

Beat the bloat of software subscriptions

Posted onJanuary 7, 2023January 7, 2023AuthorBob Williams

With another season of budget planning now in the books to execute anew, it’s time to self-reflect on your budgeting process to find learnings for next year. For technology spend, an area of opportunity to reduce costs is to find redundant and underutilized software subscriptions. Not only does consolidation and Read More …

Shadow IT

Posted onAugust 14, 2022August 14, 2022AuthorBob Williams

(Note: this is not an advertisement for product. I’m just a regular dude relating a product I use to the business environment.) A few years ago, while my family and I were on summer vacation at the beach we noticed a few other families using a different kind of beach Read More …

Blame the process not the people

Posted onMay 22, 2022May 22, 2022AuthorBob Williams

One of the hardest things in business “This is not a criticism of him. I’m saying something is off and we need to look at our process.” Those were my words in a recent operational review of service metrics. I was setting the expectation I wanted to improve our process Read More …

What makes your best supplier relationship special?

Posted onMarch 13, 2022March 13, 2022AuthorBob Williams

What makes your best supplier relationship special? I’ve been examining key providers of technology solutions in my environment over the past year. I’m interested in where their technology provides solutions for business delivery, potential overlap of services, underutilized solutions, and supplier involvement in our business relationship. A relationship characteristic I Read More …

Who was the first person to believe in you?

Posted onJanuary 16, 2022AuthorBob Williams

Here’s a shout out to everyone who has helped someone start in a new career, industry, or education. It’s a great thing when people with authority, influence, or knowledge use their position to help someone with their first steps on a new journey. They are like an Angel Investor that Read More …

About Job Descriptions

Posted onJanuary 10, 2022January 12, 2022AuthorBob Williams

Why are job descriptions so long? Is it just me or are most job descriptions overly wordy and complicated? When a job description exceeds one page, I start asking what’s important in the role. When a job description exceeds two pages, I’m lost. Long job descriptions are well intentioned. The Read More …

Learning this changed my career

Posted onMay 10, 2021May 10, 2021AuthorBob Williams

The year was 2001. I was in a room presenting a 1.0 version of an internal browser-based utility that enabled our billing department to generate a current customer price card without running a program and print job from the mainframe. It was a leap forward with technology use, but more Read More …

Two Chrome features to make you look smart

Posted onApril 21, 2021April 21, 2021AuthorBob Williams

Picture this….You’re researching a competitor, reading industry news, learning how to make something new, learning how to fix something that broke, or just randomly consuming content someone else created for your entertainment. Oh wait, you don’t have to picture it, you’re probably doing it right now. You use Chrome as Read More …

Modeling servanthood in life and at work

Posted onMarch 30, 2021March 30, 2021AuthorBob Williams

I lost a friend this month who taught me about life and how to live with others. My friend was not someone that we would label a role-model. He lived a life that was far from perfect life. He made mistakes on his journey that cost him relationships, health, and Read More …

Be an entrepreneur at your job

Posted onMarch 3, 2021March 3, 2021AuthorBob Williams

One important lesson I’ve learned in life is I don’t have to be an entrepreneur to act like one at my job. Entrepreneurs have characteristics to help them envision, organize, and create successful business ventures. While there is no single list of character traits to reference, Kelsey Miller of Harvard Read More …

How to find out who is selling your email address

Posted onFebruary 15, 2021February 15, 2021AuthorBob Williams

Years ago, I created my first free email account with Yahoo. My motivation was to separate my email address from my internet service provider. Not long after, SPAM email multiplied in my inbox like weeds in early Spring. As the internet became a part of everyday household activities and my Read More …

Foundations for digital culture (part 3 Envisioned Future)

Posted onJanuary 18, 2021January 18, 2021AuthorBob Williams

Influencers Part 1 Building Blocks Part 2 So the future can look like this Customer success as a motivator The first building block of the digital culture is to obsess over the customer and not technology. I believe when team members are obsessed with the customer, they are more motivated Read More …

Foundations for digital culture (part 2 Building Blocks)

Posted onJanuary 11, 2021January 11, 2021AuthorBob Williams

Influencers Part 1 A narrative to create a digital culture… for the customer (part 2 Building Blocks) So now we should make the digital culture from this Obsess over customers, not technology A fundamental learning from the past several decades that has influenced modern methodologies and organizational layouts is running Read More …

Foundations for digital culture (part 1 Influencers)

Posted onJanuary 5, 2021January 5, 2021AuthorBob Williams1 Comment

A narrative to create a digital culture… for the customer (part 1) In the past Over the last five decades, information technology departments evolved from independent groups to entire companies with specialized technology-based products and services. An industry sector is named for technology and many companies today are changing their brand Read More …

Keeping 2020

Posted onDecember 11, 2020December 11, 2020AuthorBob Williams

2020 is a year we’ll never forget. I read expressions of disapproval from many people wishing 2020 would disappear from memory. Why not? Lost jobs, pandemic deaths, political negativity, canceled events, and destructive acts of nature are just a few of the headlines this year. The lives of me, you, Read More …

Fighting Headwinds

Posted onNovember 29, 2020November 29, 2020AuthorBob Williams

I’ve been a recreational runner for the last twenty-five years. It all started with an invitation from a neighbor to run the Peachtree Road Race, a 10K, in Atlanta. In October 2010 I started logging my mileage and in the past decade I’ve now logged over 10,000 miles! I run Read More …

What I’ve learned to appreciate

Posted onNovember 9, 2020November 10, 2020AuthorBob Williams

When I was in college, I worked for six academic quarters in a cooperative education work program. The experience was valuable because my employers gave me meaningful work assignments in a broad range of technology areas. That translated into credible work experience and helped me secure a job a month Read More …

The Merchant Stand

Bob Williams - IT Executive and Business Technologist

Merchant Stand is a blog by Bob Williams

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