Turn off email alerts. Only accept meetings with an agenda. Take a morning to catch up after vacation. So simple yet so daunting.

Serving our customers can feel the same way. We know what we should do but putting it into practice feels like the day after vacation (good intention to start your day right away but you're not sure where to begin).

This week our team breaks down two simple ways to better serve your customers.

Know everything you can about every customer

The more you know about your customers the better you can customize your solutions, services, offers, sales, and marketing to them. When you reach the right customer with the right thing (solution, service, offer...) at the right time, your sales increase and your customers are happier.

Seems simple enough but where should you start?

Andy Starr, VP, reveals how to build a path to customer success through data. He infuses reality (get ready to change some minds and mindsets; don't expect change overnight) with benefits (data will help you streamline service and subscription renewals, uncover upsell and cross-sell opportunities, and predict customer behavior.)

Read Andy's blog to learn more.

Pay attention to every customer every step of the way

Last week I shared why I only buy Acura and how it's relevant to your sales and service strategy. The big reveal? The service I get after the sale keeps me coming back for more. We looked back at some of the best post-sale strategies. But here's the thing: we need to pay attention to our customers every step of the way not just in one part of the journey (I warned you we were going back to basics!).

Again, seems simple but where should you start?

Kelly Crothers, Director, and Kelli Kirwin, Senior Manager, explain why (and how) you should start by building and end-to-end lifecycle practice. Analysis shows that partners that take this approach are significantly outperforming those that don't. Kelly and Kelli share tips and tools to get started and to take the next step. They also reveal the key differentiator for our most successful partners.

Read this blog to learn more.

What's next?

>> Fast Forward:We'll share 5 tips to create customers for life and talk more about profitability, customer success, and architectures.