Blog

Steve

Where theory and application meet

The term job purpose permeates my writing. It’s not lost on me that some readers will be asking, “What’s the point of articulating a job role’s purpose? Isn’t this just a theoretical exercise with little or no application or benefit inside the real world of work?” That’s a question that,

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Steve

The presence of purpose – Part 2

I was talking with my daughter about a friend of hers who had applied to work at the reception desk of a local health club. Her friend anxiously rehearsed the organization’s mission statement in order to recall it during her job interview. She got the job and later shared that,

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Steve

The presence of purpose – Part 1

I routinely ask groups of managers, by a show of hands, how many would consider themselves to be a purpose-driven leader at work. I see a lot of hands. Next, I ask how many would consider themselves to a values-driven leader at work. Sensing a trap, audience members are more

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Steve

Happy Accidents

Can your customers count on superior product and service quality regardless of the employee involved? Or is the quality of their experience reliant on the employee they happen to get? Most employees view their total job role in terms of the requisite job knowledge and job skills needed to reliably

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Unique knowledge separates the best from the good

Voltaire, the 18th-century French philosopher, said, “The best is the enemy of the good.” I love this quote because, to me, it highlights the distinction between extraordinary and ordinary, excellence and mediocrity, and exceptional and average customer service. Earlier this year, I attended a conference at the InterContinental Hotel in

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Customer service is everyone’s job

Yesterday, I brought merchandise returns from two different departments into Nordstrom. I entered the north entrance of the store on the second level and approached the nearest salesperson, Stacy, asking, “I have a couple of returns, including an online return. Should I take them to Customer Service on the third

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Let me see what I can do…

This is the final post in a series that has identified 10 different customer service advantages that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you have capitalized on one or more of these advantages in your own business? The tenth advantage is to recognize that exceptions require

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Service Elevated!

Over the years, I’ve had conversations with hundreds of frontline employees in the service industry. All of these employees were passionate about something but, more often than not, their passion had little to do with their job roles. Many described their jobs as boring, routine, and monotonous. These conversations have

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The Revelation Conversation

The Revelation Conversation is Here!