Lessons for How to Swim in a Blue Ocean from the Girls Auto Clinic
Often entrepreneurs reach out to me to discuss “customer-centricity” and the likely viability of their innovative products or services. To give you a sense of some of the key filters I use to evaluate the probable success of various ideas presented to me, let me offer an example of a small business that I think…
Is Business a Game? Customer Experience Lessons from Gaming
Over the years, as a customer experience consultant, I’ve increasingly become a student of “game theory” and of the “gaming industry.” I sense I am not the only one. For example, Thomas J. Watson the founder of IBM is quoted as once saying that “business is a game.” As you likely know “game theory” is a branch of mathematics that postulates…
Fine-tuning Your Service Expectations and Your Consistent Delivery of Service Behaviors
We’ve all had it happen. As customers, we’ve encountered a service provider who unfortunately chose to attend to something of interest to them instead of attending to our needs. As a result of their self-preoccupation, we were left to feel like we were intruding on their text messaging session, their online purchase, or interrupting their…
Customer Experience Excellence – The Science and the Craft
Every time I develop a customized customer service training tool for a client of mine, I caution that the tool is a “guidebook” for customer service behavior and that no tool can fit every application. As such, a customer service toolkit is only as good as the judgment and skill of the person using it. Additionally, tools…
Customer Resolution 2017 – Perfect Experiences
I am proud to say that Horst Shultze, the founder of the modern-day Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, has been a mentor. One day, I was asking Horst about a client of mine that was struggling to engage customers. As I presented the challenge to Horst, I explained the efforts the company’s leaders had exerted to, “improve…
As A Speaker Don’t Try To Be Purrficct {Guest Post by Bill Lampton, Ph.D.}
{This is a guest post from Bill Lampton, Ph.D.} Yes, I misspelled perfect because I wanted you to see that it’s OK to make a mistake. You still knew what I meant, didn’t you? Now the good news is that audiences will get what you mean and understand you clearly even though you make a bobble…
Legacy Schmegacy – What Will You Be Known For?
Political pundits recently have been opining about the likely legacy of various global political leaders including Fidel Castro and President Barack Obama. Certainly, the word legacy seems fitting for leaders who play on the world stage, but what about the rest of us – ordinary people trying to lead our families, communities, and businesses? Is the…
Thanksgiving & Your Business Year-Round
Author Melody Beattie once noted that: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. “ I’ve taken the liberty…
From Online Search to Conversation and Then From Conversation to Sale: The Importance of Channel Relevance
Writing in Automotive News, Vince Bond, Jr. asks a question that is mission critical for many businesses today, “How do you quickly turn an Internet search into a conversation and turn that conversation into a sale?” In general, I believe all marketing involves disruptively creating interest. Once a prospect demonstrates that interest (for example in…
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