Join the Convenience Revolution – How to be Easier to do Business With
When I started working with and writing books about Starbucks (The Starbucks Experience and Leading the Starbucks Way) in the early 2000s, Starbucks’ leaders sought to create the “third place.” Conceptually, the “third place” was a gathering location between work and home. When meeting at work was too formal and meeting at home was too…
Do You Want More Business Success? Here Are 6 Steps for Sparking Customer Value
Recently I typed “Business Success Books” into a Google search and got 1.6 million results. Is business success really that complicated? In one of those 1.6 million books (my latest one titled Stronger Through Adversity), I reduce business and customer experience excellence down to six components of value creation and exchange. Here’s my take: 1. Explore value: Before…
Cherish and Challenge Your Legacy | How to Deliver World-Class Customer Experiences – Leading the Starbucks Way
This is the final post in a 5-post series about my book Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles to Connect with Your Customers, Your Products, and Your People. In the context of Cherish and Challenge Your Legacy, I asked, then CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz what he wanted his legacy to be. He responded, “I want to…
Mobilize the Connection | How to Deliver World-Class Customer Experiences – Leading the Starbucks Way
This is the fourth in a 5-post series and we’re continuing on through the business concepts in my book Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles to Connect with Your Customers, Your Products, and Your People. In the context of my principle, Mobilize the Connection, I talked with, then CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz about digital transformation. He…
Reach for Common Ground | How to Deliver World-Class Customer Experiences – Leading the Starbucks Way
This is the third in a 5-post series, How to Deliver World-Class Customer Experiences – Leading the Starbucks Way, as we continue through the business concepts in my book Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles to Connect with Your Customers, Your Products, and Your People. In the context of my principle, Reach for Common Ground, I highlight…
Love to be Loved | How to Deliver World-Class Customer Experiences – Leading the Starbucks Way
This is the second in a 5-post series, “How to Deliver World-Class Customer Experiences – Leading the Starbucks Way.” In this installment, we continue to explore business concepts in my book Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles to Connect with Your Customers, Your Products, and Your People. When sitting across from Howard Schultz (the former CEO…
It’s Emotional – Focus on the Hole
This is the first installment in my series It’s Emotional–Creating an Unprecedented Team and Customer Experience in this Pandemic. This series is designed to offer tools to manage your emotions as well as support the emotional journey of your prospects and customers. This week’s installment is titled Focus on the Hole. I take exception with the…
Imagine it is 2025 – How’s Your Customer Experience?
What will customers expect and encounter when they interact with you and your business in 2025? I know that the question is asking about a distant horizon line, but it wasn’t long ago that 2020 seemed like it was forever far away. As a consultant to Fortune 500 companies, I have had the privilege of…
Starbucks Continues on the Journey to Customer Experience Excellence [Infographic]
When you bundle these five recent announcements together, you get a sense of Starbucks’ willingness to aggressively champion evolving customer experiences and streamlined service ecosystems. In my book, The Airbnb Way, I explore the growth mindset needed to be effective in customer experience (CX) today. CX success requires an understanding (as Marshall Goldsmith puts it) that…
How to make EVERY DAY Customer Experience Day
October 1st is Customer Experience (CX) Day! Quite frankly, I think every day should be CX day – meaning that each day we should strive to deliver the best possible experience for our internal (team members) and our external (paying) customers. CX day wasn’t on the radar when I first started my career in what…