International speaker visits Alaska: encourages businesses to succeed.

• Author: Cutler, Debbie
• Position: From the Editor

San Francisco-based Cindy Solomon, a self-described born entrepreneur, doesn't call herself a motivational speaker. But she is motivating and has amazing energy. And she doesn't have a degree beyond a bachelor's in business, but she's highly successful, learning lessons from experience and her ferocious appetite for business news, especially regarding what makes businesses tick in the areas of customer service, customer loyalty, employee retention and leadership development.

This author of three books (two to be soon released) and internationally recognized speaker (18 years on the job and a member of the National Speakers Association), writer and executive coach leads a staff of more than 20 and works with companies large and small, even with multi-billion-dollar legacies. Solomon was brought to Anchorage, which she dubs "magical Alaskaland," by KeyBank for its Key4Women Forum, held last month at the Dena'ina Convention Center with more than 200 in attendance, as part of a larger tour in 18 markets across the U.S.

"I popped out of the womb speaking," she said, laughing. "I wake up every day, so excited to do what I do."

ABM had an opportunity to sit down with Solomon the eve before her keynote speech and discuss the three elements most important to business success. Here are her major points:

1. Find a way to create a partnership with customers who get from your business what they want 100 percent of the time, In turn, you get from them what you want, meaning a low-maintenance customer who is buying what your business is selling,

   Businesses of any size spend a lot of time and energy focussing on getting the new client she said, adding true profitability lies in creating loyalty with the current customer base you already have.

   "If we're able to do that, keep that loyalty base, those fabulous customers who come back to us time and time again, they will actually drive new sales for you so you don't have to go out reaching for the bright shiny new customer as much as you do today. Research currently shows over 80 percent who leave a product or service are actually satisfied. So if you think about that for a second that should frighten every business out there. What it means is it takes much more than satisfaction to drive true loyalty. And I think that's where businesses make mistakes today; simply looking for satisfied customers when that doesn't keep them coming back time and time again. So what does keep them coming back is, No. 1, creating...