Do you want return calls from sales prospects? Focus on the personal!
I’ve long championed a simple truth “all business is personal.” That’s why I believe customer experience is as much about relationship building as it is about product and transactional excellence. A recent study conducted by Reachable powerfully demonstrates the criticality of relationship building when it comes to gaining access to make sales. Here’s the big payoff…
Customer Experience – Art or Science? The answer is YES
Crafting engaging customer experiences requires a blend of art and science. The science often hinges on effective use of empirical data concerning consumer need states, use patterns, and changing trends. To that end, I offer some recent results from Bitly’s research’s on viral social media content. As you probably know, Bitly is a service that…
Customer Experience Limbo – How low can it go?
Dive in – the data is fine! If you want to get a quick pulse on the state of service experiences globally, look no farther than the recently published American Express Global Customer Service Barometer. Beyond painting a woeful picture of tragically dissatisfying service levels, the American Express study shows that much service deteriorates to…
Giraffes are ESSENTIAL to your customer experience!
I ran across a very interesting video blog by Chris Hurn, the CEO and co-founder of Mercantile Capital, so I had my Social Media and IT director, Andrew, post it on our Facebook page. Since I wrote a book about service excellence at the Ritz-Carlton, Chris’ blog post, “Joshie at the Ritz-Carlton: An Extraordinary Customer…
Business partners and a FREE Zappos Gift
T0day, I was fortunate enough to get to speak to an audience regarding co-branding and business partnerships! To draw out core concepts, I asked the group the following questions and thought they might help you consider your essentials of partnering: In your personal life or in business, where have you accomplished more because you partnered…
What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?
I’ve watched Zappos twitter posters and Zappos bloggers effectively deploy questions like that one to engage their social media tribe. I was speaking at an event in Las Vegas today and heard a panelist offer one of the best distinctions between the lead generating benefits of a web page and the relationship building benefits of…
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…
Building the road with hope and positivity
Half full or Half Empty? A new Gallup poll suggests optimists outnumber pessimists 2 to 1 – at least when it comes to expectations for the US economy in 2011. Given that data, I have a series of questions for you and your company: Do you share optimism for 2011? If so, how are you…
An honest letter from YOUR customer. Do you dare read it?
I KNOW that my brain works in strange ways. But for some reason, I started thinking about what a customer would say to owners and leaders about their honest wants, needs, and desires if they wrote them in a compact letter. Here’s my take…. Dear Business Owner/Leader: Please do what you say you will and…
AT&T vs Verizon – A seriously improved customer experience?
Much will be written about the battle of the titans – AT&T vs. Verizon! Thanks, of course, to AT&T’s lost monopoly on the Iphone. AT&T will argue they have a “faster” customer experience and Verizon will suggest they are more “reliable.” In the end, prices should come down on Iphone data plans and features…
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