After a 20-year career with Marriott, in 2006 I ventured into a second act speaking, writing, and consulting, primarily on the topic of customer service. Over the years, I’ve read dozens of business books to glean insights and keep abreast of trends. Two books have shaped my post-Marriott service philosophy
For many years, I’ve gone on record saying that the reason you and I, as customers, consistently receive predictably poor customer service is because exceptional customer service is voluntary; employees don’t have to deliver it, and most don’t. It’s true. While there are things that employees have to do, providing
“That business purpose and business mission are so rarely given adequate thought is perhaps the most important cause of business frustration and failure.” This Peter Drucker quote is a driving force in my work with clients to identify, instill, and reflect purposeful actions and behaviors that will attract and retain
I was thinking about the widely-read business book Blue Ocean Strategy, which was published 20 years ago, and the application of its central premise to purpose-driven work today. In the book, red ocean strategies represent the way business is approached in most industries: competing for contested—and often shrinking—demand and market
According to a recent Gallup article, by the end of 2023, 33% of U.S. employees overall were highly engaged, meaning they were highly involved and enthusiastic about their work and workplaces. Unfortunately, engagement levels slipped in the first quarter of 2024, dropping 3 percentage points to 30% among both full-
Whenever I present to managers about articulating and revealing guiding statements, organizational purpose, or core values to frontline staff and connecting them to their daily work activities, I get the question, “What if they don’t buy in to these corporate ideals?” Now, you might ask, “Why on earth would they
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
This is the eighth, and final, post in a series aimed at supporting the efforts of leaders, managers, and supervisors to create an inspired workforce. In summary, the first seven steps are to 1.) discover the total job role, which consists of both job functions (duties & tasks) and job
From time to time, I get a question similar to this: “What do you do if someone doesn’t buy-in to the company mission or purpose and resists your attempts to link these ideals to their job responsibilities?” It’s true that not every employee will buy-in to the organization’s mission, vision,
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