TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2004
THE QUOTES
"There can be no happiness if the things we believe are different from the things we do."
--Freya Stark
"The goal is not to retain employees. The goal is to build lifelong affiliation."
--Cindy Lewiton Jackson, Bain & Co.
For complete article from which this quote was taken see first site-seeing link below.
THE QUESTIONS
Ask 'n Answer
Have you set clear customer service standards within your business? What are they?
How have you ensured that everyone in your organization knows about these service standards?
THE STATS
Health care costs are rising quickly--without cuts in expenditure or an economic boom, it is forecast
that by 2008 the average Fortune 500 company may be spending as much on health care benefits
as it earns in profits.
|
Year |
Health Benefit Expense as a %
of Corporate After-Tax Profits |
|
1997 |
47% |
|
1999 |
56% |
|
2001 |
70% |
|
2003° |
80% |
|
2005* |
95% |
|
2008* |
122% |
°Estimated, *Forecast
--US Bureau of Economic Analysis: US Bureau of Labor Statistics: CMS, McKinsey Analysis
.....................................................................................................
A recent survey of small firms' most pressing concerns showed some significant changes in four years.
|
|
Ranking
in 2004 |
Ranking
in 2000 |
|
Health insurance costs |
1 |
1 |
|
Cost/availability of
liability insurance |
2 |
13 |
|
Workers' compensation costs |
3 |
7 |
|
Energy costs (not electricity) |
4 |
10 |
|
U.S. business income tax |
5 |
2 |
% of firms in 2004 that consider a problem critical:
- Health insurance costs, 65.6%
- Workers' compensation, 32.8%
- Cost/availability of liability insurance, 30.1%
- Energy costs (not electricity), 26.1%
- Federation taxes on business income, 23.2%
--The Wall Street Journal, September 2004
--National Federation of Independent Business
SITE SEEING
Build a successful alumni for your company.
Reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution:
Sam Geist lectures, facilitates workshops and conducts training seminars on sales & marketing, the changing marketplace, leadership, differentiation, customer service and staff motivation. His two books, "Why Should Someone Do Business With You... Rather Than Someone Else?" and "Would You Work for You?" are available in bookstores everywhere, published by Addington & Wentworth Inc.
|