Blog

How to win customers in 2016

With the New Year upon us, I was asked by a blogger to comment on trends that will influence customer experience in 2016. My reaction was to reply with insights into the rapid growth of consumers’ mobile connectivity across socioeconomic categories and the impact this trend is having on the

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Be kind

My next-door neighbor, Behzad, has an interesting story. Although he was born in San Antonio where his father was stationed in the Army, his family returned to their home country of Iran when he was still a baby. In 2006, at the age of 25, he returned to the U.S.

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Esprit de corps

The French term “esprit de corps” means a feeling of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty shared by members of a particular group. When I read about the most admired corporations or the best places to work, the common thread among these articles is the presence of an engaged, committed workforce.

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Celebrate customers more frequently and less formally

It’s Customer Service Week (Oct. 5-9) and, since I work in the field, I suppose I should contribute to the conversation this week. Let me start by saying that celebrating the customer is a good thing – especially when you consider that, without customers, there wouldn’t be much else to

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You’re not entitled to a 10

Earlier this week, I hired a local handyman service to knock out my “honey-do” list so that I was assured a weekend of uninterrupted football watching. The handyman, Eric, was prompt, even calling to let me know he was running ahead of schedule if that worked for me, which it

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Approachable customer service

I recently completed a consulting project for a network of county libraries. One of our objectives was to identify ways to incorporate exceptional customer service into the day-to-day processes at the libraries. As a part of my preparation, I read a research paper by Jennifer Bonnet and Benjamin McAlexander titled,

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Excellence doesn’t require permission

Whenever I go on record saying, “Most employees don’t choose to deliver poor customer service; they just don’t choose to deliver exceptional customer service” (or something similar), there are always pundits who emerge from the dark recesses of the Internet to lay the blame on management for employee indifference toward

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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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Customer experience Q&A

The following post contains a recent interview by Erica Marois of ICMI: 1. In your book you mention that 80% of companies claim to provide superior service, while only 8% of customers agree. Where are companies missing the mark? Too many companies focus exclusively on teaching their employees WHAT to

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