Caring for or about your customer?
It is a subtle but powerful distinction – do you care for or about your customers? I’m not suggesting that you can’t do both but I am asserting that most businesses struggle to do the former let alone the latter. The “caring for” dimension emphasizes service competence while the “caring about” aspect focuses on the…
Why you have to earn trust!
I recently had 3 contractors give me bids on a minor home improvement project. The three bids ranged from $350 to $10,500. WOW – did these three building professionals actually bid the same job? Upon receiving these bids, I wasn’t sure if the high bid reflected price gauging or if the low bid evidenced a…
Tell me a Story – Amplify and Humanize
I will make a bold assertion. To be an effective leader YOU MUST be a consummate story teller. The art of inspiring people to engage in consistently extraordinary service behaviors begins and ends with stories. While I can teach many transactional skills, amazing service is not a paint by numbers enterprise. It takes impassioned, other-focused…
Why your staff won’t think or act!
Ok, I know the blog title is harsh but today I observed a defining moment in staff disempowerment. I was in an airport (which shall remain nameless) watching a staff member at a food cart take complaint after complaint about a non-functional coffee vending machine by their cart. Each time the employee told the customers…
She held her brains in with her hands – Misperception Abounds
I was drawn in by a story that was shared on the radio by a typically reliable source. The announcer shared that recently a couple went to a business establishment and the wife waited in the car as the man engaged in an extended appointment. Upon returning to the car the man noticed his wife…
Back from Sabbatical:Product OR Experience?
It is terrific to be back from my “blogging sabbatical!” During my absence, I have been blessed with the opportunity to complete two customer experience book projects. Both books will be published this year by McGraw-Hill (one about UCLA and one about Zappos). In fact, the first Prescription for Excellence will be released on May…
Who’s in Charge? The Customer or You
I see it all too often but today the confrontation was epic! Let me set the stage in my best boxing ring announcer voice…. “In the red corner, a loud, brash, entitled customer and in the blue corner a poorly selected and ill-trained staff…..” Cesar Ritz, the founder of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, iscredited with…
Zappos – Workplace Culture Not Perks
This week Zappos soared to #6 on the Fortune Best Companies to Work For 2011 list! Just one more case example of the empirically demonstrated correlation between happy employees and happy customers. But here is something that might be missed, in 2009 (Zappos’ 10th year in business) the company debuted on the Fortune list in…
Lessons from the Road
I have been traveling and consulting a great deal lately and each day serves as an amazing learning lab. Here are some random lessons from my journeys, which I hope will relate to your business: 1) A man in a coffee shop started talking to me about a concept he called “otherness.”. This made me…
Starbucks Trenta – Can your experience get “too big?”
I knew “Trenta” was coming but I continue to be amazed at the media storm and second guessing Starbucks receives. In case you missed it, Starbucks launched their new 31oz drink size option (named Trenta) in 14 states this week including Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Hawaii and Arizona and will add California to the Trenta…
FREE RESOURCES
The Starbucks Experience: Leadership Tips eBook
Elevating Care in Healthcare: Lessons from the UCLA Health System eBook
