Dear Friends,
It happens every December, like clockwork. Some news bomb gets dropped right when folks aren’t focused.
The bomb this time: A report from the Associated Press alleging that charter schools are racially isolated.
We’re emailing you — our most active subscribers — because this kind of outrageously inaccurate analysis cannot go unchallenged. As our CEO Jeanne Allen wrote on Twitter this morning, “ .@AP report on charter schools lacks data integrity, understanding of variations in charter laws, local context & any research base. Actual analysis isn't even available for review.”
As civil rights pioneer Howard Fuller tweeted, “The issue for low income Black children is how to get an effective education. I don’t oppose integration. I support excellent education for poor Black children wherever they can find it. Blaming charter schools for the lack of integration is bogus.”
Added 50 CAN Director Derrell Bradford, "It’s funny to me how whenever black excellence is clustered it’s a threat to the republic and needs to be dismantled. Look at selective high schools in NYC which are largely Asian...everyone wants to get in on that."
Even Robin Lake, a choice skeptic and University of Washington researcher said, “No evidence that charters are more racially concentrated than schools the student would have attended; implies that racial segregation causes low performance. Not responsible reporting… The only thing this story shows is that charter schools are serving the kids we asked them to serve: at-risk populations. It presents no evidence that charters are exacerbating racial segregation.”
We’ll be following-up tomorrow with additional info. For now, we’d encourage you to add your important voice to this debate — whether via social media or email.
Thank you!
Best Regards,
Jeanne Allen
Founder and CEO
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Quick Quack Car Wash
Award winning car wash chain remodels former Auto Spa Express and opens with free washes from December 13 to 22
We are thrilled to quickly enter the Salt Lake market with this acquisition and remodel. We are ready to show Midvale how Quick Quack can make a real difference to our customers and communities.”
— Dallas Hakes, Owner and Regional Development Partner
MIDVALE, UTAH, USA, December 5, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Quick Quack Car Wash, a fast-growing chain of express car washes, has announced the acquisition of Auto Spa Express Car Wash. The newly acquired and remodeled car wash is located at 7610 Union Park Avenue in Midvale, Utah. Quick Quack will be giving away free car washes for ten days to celebrate the Grand Re-opening from December 13th through December 22nd. The car wash is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The new location in Midvale is the first Salt Lake County location for Quick Quack Car Wash, but the eighth Quick Quack Car Wash to open in Utah over the past 18 months. With a focus on customer convenience, Quick Quack is on track to have 40 Utah locations by 2020 in Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Cache Counties.
In conjunction with the Grand Opening, Quick Quack will also hold a special “Preview” Fundraiser on Monday, December 11th from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. to benefit Rosa Lopez and her family as they recover physically and financially from her fight with breast cancer. Cars will be washed for free during the fundraiser and Quick Quack will be matching donations from customers.
“We are thrilled to quickly enter the Salt Lake market with this acquisition and remodel,” said Dallas Hakes, Owner and Regional Development Partner for Quick Quack Car Wash. “We are ready to show Midvale how Quick Quack Car Wash can make a real difference to our customers, teams and communities.”
Quick Quack Car Wash frequently sponsors local events and athletic programs, including facilitating and contributing to community groups’ fundraising efforts. Quick Quack is regularly named the favorite or best car wash in the areas where it operates and has been recognized for sustainable business practices and water conservation.
Aside from a big yellow duck named Quackals, Quick Quack Car Wash is best known for its free vacuums and unlimited, “wash-all-you-want” car wash memberships starting at only $17.99 per month.
About Quick Quack Car Wash
Quick Quack Car Wash has forty locations in Utah, California, Texas, and Colorado. The Quick Quack Car Wash concept grew from a desire to get cars clean using the best technology and to do it extremely fast. Fully automated and computerized, the high-quality and environmentally-friendly car washing system uses neoprene foam, soft cloth and filtered, recycled water. The customer stays in their vehicle while being automatically guided through the car wash where the vehicle is soaked, soaped, washed, polished, rinsed with spot-free water, and dried, all in a matter of minutes. More information is available online at www.DontDriveDirty.com.
Travis Kimball
Quick Quack Car Wash
916-256-2384
email us here
Quick Quack Car Wash Midvale Grand Opening
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Are You Making Your Customers Feel Special? Three Ways Customer Success Builds Extreme Engagement with Your Brand
Membership Economy expert Robbie Kellman Baxter says the emerging field of Customer Success (not to be confused with the unrelated field of Customer Service) is a powerful way to engage customers in your product or service and maximize their lifetime value.
San Francisco, CA (December 2017)—Capturing a customer is hard enough. Keeping that customer is even tougher. For one thing, so many competitors crowd the marketplace that consumers can quickly and easily find a cheaper, faster, sexier version of what you offer. For another, customers simply expect more. They demand fast solutions to their problems, great experiences, and plenty of personalization and perks. Finally, it doesn't take much to lose a customer. They don't even have to have a bad experience; many customers leave because of perceived indifference on the part of salespeople.
The message is clear, says business consultant Robbie Kellman Baxter: companies must get very intentional about keeping customers engaged in using their product or service.
"It used to be that if you offered a good product or service and just did a good job, that was enough to keep customers happy," says Baxter, author of The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue (McGraw-Hill Education, ISBN: 978-0-071-83932-7, $28.00, www.peninsulastrategies.com) and creator of Sales: Customer Success, a class on LinkedIn Learning and Lynda.com. "But now, constant engagement is crucial for creating those forever transactions with customers."
Whether they realize it or not, customers crave more value from their relationship with brands, and brands must find ever more innovative ways to provide it. Once you get customers emotionally invested they will stick with your brand, buy more, and spread the word about you to other potential customers. (This provides much greater ROI than your efforts to acquire new customers.)
"You have to work at making existing customers feel special," says Baxter. "You absolutely cannot ever take them for granted. You can't show up just when you want them to buy something. And you absolutely cannot make them feel you're spending too much time and energy chasing prospects at the expense of servicing them.
"One way companies are building this extreme level of customer engagement is through an emerging function called Customer Success," she adds.
The push for exceptional customer experiences is part of a shift toward what Baxter calls the Membership Economy, a model based on customer-centric strategy using topics like subscription price, inclusiveness, and digital platforms that draw people in and win their loyalty. People today expect to be engaged, and if they don't experience engagement with your organization, they will find it somewhere else.
This is where the Customer Success function comes in. Not to be confused with Customer Service—which mostly handles complaints when the customer has a problem—Customer Success Managers (CSMs) and specialists foster engagement by being the consumer's BFF insider to the brand.
Customer Success goes beyond the more traditional sales, marketing, and customer support functions. Teams are being created to manage the customer life cycle and drive adoption, renewals, upselling, and advocacy. Customer Success is one of the hottest B2B trends since the advent of the subscription business model.
"Customer Success departments were first established by Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)," says Baxter. "But now, innovative companies of all kinds are adopting Customer Success services to help build deeper engagement with their products and services. Brands like Zipcar, Dun & Bradstreet, and Visa already have thriving Customer Success departments. This field is even generating the development of new side industries. Companies like Zuora, Gainsight, and Totango have invested in software optimized to support CSMs."
If you want to engage with your customers and build a deeper level of loyalty, Customer Success may be a smart solution. Keep reading to learn about what a Customer Success specialist could do for your brand's engagement capabilities.
Customer Success focuses on the customer's experience (not just retention). While retention is probably the most important metric these organizations track, good CSMs don't focus on renewal alone.
"Trying to win a subscriber back after they've canceled is very hard," says Baxter. "It's much easier to make sure that they make your offering a habit in the days, weeks, and months after they sign up. By the time you get to renewal season, especially in businesses with annual subscriptions, the customer has already decided whether they have made this product a habit and whether they're going to cancel or not."
Customer Success treats the consumer like a friend. "As with Customer Service, Customer Success starts with a phone call, but it's about more than fixing a problem," says Baxter. "If your mom or a friend called you to ask for help, you'd go out of your way to do what you could for them. You'd use your smarts to find the answer to their problem, even if it wasn't in your manual. You'd be honest about whether they should or shouldn't upgrade. You'd share insider tips and tricks to get the most out of the services they're paying for. This is what you should do in Customer Success. And you don't just wait for the call to come in. Instead, you might make an outbound call to see how your customer is doing."
A CSM is ultimately judged on customer engagement, which is a leading indicator of retention, which leads to revenue and profitability. Additional metrics beyond engagement and retention might include net promoter score (a customer's likelihood to make a referral), actual referrals made, and willingness to serve as a reference. All of these metrics tie to lifetime customer value (LCV).
Customer Success generates profits while building relationships (unlike Customer Service, which is a cost center). Customer Success is proactive and a profit center. From the moment of the initial transaction, Customer Success Managers are reaching out to customers to ensure that they are getting value from the products and services they are already paying for. In contrast, Customer Service is about solving problems when customers complain. It is a cost center, and the goal of most Customer Service teams is to resolve complaints as quickly as possible. It's reactive, as reps wait for calls and then respond. While both services are important, Customer Success focuses on connecting with customers and strengthening their attachment to the product.
"Many brands now recognize that long-term engagement is the way to build deeper customer loyalty, and this is why you will see more and more Customer Success departments springing up in the future," concludes Baxter. "Keeping in touch with your customers, helping them get the most from your product, and overall giving them the BFF treatment shows them that you really do care and makes them feel good about sticking with you for good."
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For more information on the class Sales: Customer Success, please visit LinkedIn Learning here, or Lynda.com here.
About the Author:
Robbie Kellman Baxter is the author of The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue. She is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, a consulting firm based in Menlo Park, CA, that helps companies excel in the Membership Economy. Her clients have included large organiza¬tions like Netflix, SurveyMonkey, and Yahoo!, as well as smaller venture-backed start-ups. Over the course of her career, Robbie has worked in or consulted with clients in more than 20 industries.
Before starting Peninsula Strategies in 2001, Robbie served as a New York City Urban Fellow, a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, and a Silicon Valley product marketer. As a public speaker, Robbie has presented to thousands of people in corporations, associations, and universities.
Robbie has been quoted in or written articles for major media out¬lets, including CNN, Consumer Reports, NPR, and HBR.com. She has an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
For more information, visit www.peninsulastrategies.com.
About the Book:
The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue (McGraw-Hill Education, 2015, ISBN: 978-0-071-83932-7, $28.00, www.membershipeconomy.com) is available from major online booksellers.
