Blog

Don’t break your brand promise

Many companies have brand promises that look good in ads, and emblazoned on websites, banners and buttons, but often these promises have little credibility among customers or employees. They are simply a set of words brainstormed at an ad agency that usually promise more than employees are prepared to deliver,

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Service quality is high at Lowe’s

On Monday of this week I attempted to return a Price Pfister kitchen faucet purchased last year to Lowe’s Home Improvement store. The cashier, Karen, understandably denied my request citing Lowe’s 90-day return policy and the manufacturer’s 12-month warranty. (Although I no longer had the receipt, I estimated that 19

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Poor service is our policy

This post is the third in a series that will identify 10 different obstacles that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you will have encountered one or more of these obstacles in your own business? The third obstacle is customer-unfriendly policies. I recently stayed at a

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Power to the people

It’s a shame when service-based organizations use safety, liability, and policy as justification for delivering average customer service. “Your safety is our highest priority” is the mantra of most airlines. On the surface, it appears noble. The airlines have done a masterful job of limiting customer service in the name

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Does your customer feel like a guest or a nuisance?

Many companies use terms like “guest” and “partner” to convey the intimacy they have with their customers but the reality is that most employees, when given the opportunity, do not behave as though they are serving a valued guest. If you’d like to test this assertion, simply show up at

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Compete FOR customers, not AGAINST them

Have you ever sensed an adversarial, “us vs. them” mentality from employees of service organizations? Perhaps you were on the receiving end of what you would describe as rude or abusive behavior? Or perhaps it was more subtle—like dismissive body language or an exasperated sigh? Maybe it did not even

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Customer-unfriendly policies

I recently stayed at a full-service hotel in Scottsdale, AZ that offered a nice workout facility with treadmills and stationary bikes that faced a set of wall-mounted flat screen televisions. The audio for each television was accessed individually at the exercise equipment in order for each guest to listen to

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I scream, you scream, we all scream for service!

Last night, my family and I visited one of those ice cream parlors that use a heated stone to meld together savory concoctions of an array of sweets and premium ice cream. Because each order is usually custom-made, it takes a bit longer to fulfill orders here than in typical

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