Scoreboard: Company Interests 1 – Customer Needs 0
What a week! Amid a travel filled 5 days of consulting and speeches, I had the good fortune to speak at a conference for a large American Banking Association conference. The timing of my presentation could not have been better (or worse depending upon your perspective) as it followed a scathing op/ed article that was…
Taking a Bold Stand for Service Excellence – How about you?
Raise your hand if you think service and convenience stores are opposing concepts. You can put your hand down now, since this is a blog and I can’t see you. My general impression has always been that convenience stores sell….well convenience and commodities. But my perception was challenged by a fairly recent strategic course adjustment…
Middle Child Customer Experience Syndrome
Ever since Sigmund Freud’s time, psychologists like Alfred Adler have written about the role of birth order and personality. Subsequently, researchers have even defined a cluster of behaviors which they dub the “middle child syndrome.” While I am not here to argue the merits of the label (in fact, recent data calls the concept somewhat…
Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs
Recently while driving down the long peninsula that is Florida, I paid witness to a myriad of billboards, most of which featured restaurants promoting heaping food portions at attention-getting low prices. Enticing as many were, it was Cracker Barrel’s message that grabbed my attention. Alongside a picture of a pegboard puzzle were the words “Games,…
Screw it up and WIN!
Here’s a reality check. Your business, as well as mine, is going to make mistakes – lots of them. Assuredly we are trying to limit those breakdowns; however, some of our customers wont be raving and may even be raging about a subset of experiences with us. If there is a light at the end…
Why Zappos will be fine despite the criminal privacy intrusion!
The 24 hour news cycle has already begun whirring. Headlines talk about “Zappos being zapped by hackers” and commentators are asking why a company known for customer service has closed down it’s customer loyalty team phone lines to process customer questions through email. Even Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, has been quoted as seeing this hacking…
The Power of Story – Betabrand
I was backstage with Chris Lindland CEO of Betabrand recently at a Zappos All Hands meeting and I couldn’t help but conclude that he may have best demonstrated the power of an “engaging story.” In fact, I would dare to say that for awhile his entire brand with a fable without a deliverable product. Lest…
The Real Reason Your Team Doesn’t Trust You
Today’s guest post is by Mike Figliuolo, the author of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership. Here’s Mike: Your team doesn’t trust you. Honestly. They don’t. Trust is key to effective working relationships; yet, as you climb the corporate ladder, trust seems harder to earn and easier to lose. What…
Intention is Fine but Where’s the Service?
You are going to have to indulge me for a moment because the following service breakdown story may initially seem like I’m venting but it is presented to highlights how “good service intentions” just don’t cut it . For me things did not start off well with a new utilities provider. When I called to…
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