The Getty Gets the Art of Customer Service

Historically, arts and education organizations have not focused on customer service, perhaps because they did not see themselves competing with other attractions. But they do compete for discretionary spending, and some have begun to recognize the value in providing an excellent visitor experience. Excellent customer service helps turn visitors into donors.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Customer Service | Philanthropy | Education

2 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 12:49 AM

How to Almost Enjoy Tax Day

Author and traveling storyteller Donald Davis recalls the shock of receiving his first paycheck at his first job and finding the amount considerably smaller than he expected. He was furious, and told his father - a banker -how badly the government was treating him. His father took the teenager over to the local library reference section and pulled down a copy of the most recent federal budget. 

"Spend a little time going through this," advised his father, "and find something that you like. Then, pretend that's what YOUR tax dollars pay for."  Donald read through the massive document grudgingly, until he came to the allocation for national parks. For many decades since, Donald Davis has taken some solace on April 15 by reflecting on the real estate he owns all over the continent!

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Categories: Philanthropy | Economics | Environment | Optimism

9 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 6:25 AM

Coworkers and Community

By Dean Zatkowsky

Lately I've been talking to small businesses about strategies for surviving and possibly thriving through today's economic uncertainty. I've been urging owners and managers to stay focused on customers, coworkers, vendors and community, rather than monetary policy, legislation and regulation. By all means, let your representatives know what you think, but remember that if your delivery vehicle has a dead battery, it's highly unlikely that Nancy Pelosi or Timothy Geithner is going to come over with some jumper cables.

One of the strengths of Kinko's original partnership model was the fact that even when we had 126 partners and over 1,000 stores, we continued to operate like small businesses in our communities. I used to joke that we combined all the disadvantages of franchising with all the limitations of sole proprietorship. But it was just a joke: the passion and connectedness of local involvement was good for the business and good for the communities we served.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Customer Service | Philanthropy | Management Skills

2 comments - Posted by Dean Zatkowsky at 11:19 AM

The High Cost of Not Giving

For the first time in my history as an entrepreneur, I’m trying to help some organizations go out of business. The United States has too many “perpetual” private foundations, driven by tax rules to focus on minimum distribution requirements rather than doing the great deeds for which they were founded.

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Categories: Philanthropy

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 11:45 AM