Valued but Not Equal – A Case for Customer Segmentation
Customers aren’t always right and certainly don’t contribute equally to your business’s success, but…customers always pay your bills! I am struck by two groups of business leaders – those who treat customers as an afterthought to profits or products and those who treat customers as the reason they exist. I have always ascribed to Peter…
The Art of pARTnership: Maximizing Win/Wins
I ran across this quote while researching a book that will be released in 2025 (more on that soon). The quote credited to Mother Teresa is: “I can do things you cannot; you can do things I cannot, and together, we can do great things.” Since the leaders I am writing about are exceptionally skilled…
Silo Busting Your Way to Customer Loyalty and Referrals
“We’d have happier customers if the sales team didn’t overpromise.” “Our customers would be more loyal if our service team was more responsive.” “Our systems don’t talk to each other. We need IT to fix our customer experience issues.” Alas, we’ve all seen how organization silos create friction and lead to customer experience breakdowns. When…
Emotional & Cultural Value: Lessons from Inca Cola & Starbucks (Infographic)
In this week’s blog, I discussed about how you can create emotional and cultural value. For more information on the topic, please refer to the blog. Otherwise, this infographic visually summarizes the blog’s content. To learn more about our team, please visit josephmichelli.com. To speak to me about your CX journey, please go to josephmichelli.com/contact
Emotional & Cultural Value: Lessons from Inca Cola & Starbucks
Imagine being an executive at Coca-Cola, one of the most recognized global brands. Your role with the company is to grow market share in Peru. Despite your extensive marketing efforts, you continually miss your sales goals because of a local drink: Inca Kola. Developed in 1935 by Joseph Robinson Lindley, Inca Kola’s distinct lemon verbena…
Excellence in Operations: The Not-So-Secret Recipe for Repeat Business & Referrals
In my book, The New Gold Standard, I deeply dive into how operational excellence and process improvement lay the foundation for top-tier service, as exemplified by the ladies and gentlemen of the Ritz-Carlton. Let’s look at the spa in the Ritz-Carlton Dubai as an example. If you were to book a 45-minute massage at that…
Why You Must Overcome Continuous Partial Attention & How to Do It!
Former Apple & Microsoft executive Linda Stone coined the term “continuous partial attention” to describe repeatedly splitting attention between multiple sources. Most of us think of this as multi-tasking. In the context of serving customers, “continuous partial attention” is a growing challenge for service professionals – mainly thanks to electronic devices. You’ve likely received subpar service…
Cornerstones of Effective Customer Service: Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management
Welcome to the modern world of customer service, where confrontations increasingly resemble boxing matches! You can picture a loud, brash, and entitled customer in the red corner and a poorly selected, ill-trained staff member in the blue corner. According to the 2022 National Customer Rage Study: 74% of Americans reported product or service problems in the…
How to Gain Competitive Advantage through Brazen Customer Experience: 4 Tips from Starbucks
You are likely in an industry where competition is fierce and customer retention is critical. Since globalization has led to products and services that are increasingly similar, a well-crafted and consistently executed customer experience is a powerful competitive differentiator. Here are four tips for designing and delivering differentiated customer experiences courtesy of my work with…
Service Recovery: How to Apologize and Build Strong Customer Relationships (Infographic)
In this week’s blog, I discussed about ways to differentiate your business through service recovery. For more information on the topic, please refer to the blog. Otherwise, this infographic visually summarizes the blog’s content. To learn more about our team, please visit josephmichelli.com. To speak to me about your CX journey, please go to josephmichelli.com/contact.