Just when you thought the beetle had been beaten to death in the woods we might have thought it had resurfaced on CBC radio – until you discover it’s about music while travelling across Canada. The radio station’s Grant Lawrence recently returned home following an epic trek in a Beetle, capturing live performances all the way from St. John’s, NL to Victoria, BC. His entertaining Beetle Roadtrip Sessions include this visit to “the mosquito capital” of Canada.

Speaking of journeys, Matt Dixon has spent the past five years in pursuit of “the ideal customer experience”. In The Effortless Experience, Dixon concludes that reducing customer effort is the single most important thing we can do to better serve customers. Says Dixon: “Meeting baseline customer expectations in service interactions drives the same loyalty benefit as exceeding expectations.” He argues that “most customers would rather self-serve,” adding “most companies still manage their service operations to the preferences of a 77-year old customer”. I found his five myths related to the ideal customer experience particularly pertinent in midst of the rapidly changing world of lumber distribution.

BCWLA “Night at the Nat” – July 24