Tag Archives: Unique Selling Proposition
The Human Experience – Lessons from the ICU bedside
My vantage point on customer service and customer experience have certainly grown in the past 5 years. Much of that growth comes in the form of empathy gained from encountering complex healthcare delivery. In the past series of days, for example, I have run the all too familiar gauntlet of being with a close family [...]
Can you handle the truth about social media hype?
Do you remember Jack Nicholson’s character in the 1992 movie, A Few Good Men, Colonel Jessep, delivering that powerful line “You can’t handle the truth”? Well, I suspect for some of you today’s post will carry a similar challenge as it relates to a hidden truth about success and social media. That truth is brought [...]
Connecting People to a Culture of Connection
In an interview recently, I was asked what is the biggest “small detail” business leaders overlook today. How would you answer that question? For what it’s worth, here’s my response: “I think many business leaders fail to teach their staff that true success hinges on emotionally engaging and not merely satisfying customers. Few leaders inspire their [...]
Do you want return calls from sales prospects? Focus on the personal!
I’ve long championed a simple truth “all business is personal.” That’s why I believe customer experience is as much about relationship building as it is about product and transactional excellence. A recent study conducted by Reachable powerfully demonstrates the criticality of relationship building when it comes to gaining access to make sales. Here’s the big payoff [...]
More to Business than Money!
My mother often exhorted me to appreciate that “if I couldn’t say something nice, I shouldn’t say anything at all.” I typically adhere to that motherly wisdom and it has served me well. On this occasion, however, I have to sidestep Mom’s sage input. Spirit Airlines, a low-fare, no-frills, air carrier based out of Ft [...]
Should You Ask for Complaints? Yes, No, Maybe?
During a consulting visit with one of my clients, a senior level leader stated “we don’t hear much negative from our customers.” He then asked an interestingly odd question, “should we be asking for complaints?” Like most questions of this nature, there are no easy answers! However, here were just a few of the highlights [...]
Giving Back – More than a Marketing Strategy
I’m fairly simple minded when it comes to business. I believe justice ultimately prevails and inevitably companies reap what they sow. So when people insert hidden fees, fail to be transparent in their pricing, or grab for more than what they deserve I assume those behaviors will ultimately be their undoing. Similarly, I contend that [...]
Service Excellence – A matter of Equality AND Inequality
While George Orwell’s 1945 book Animal Farm was intended to be an allegorical critique of Stalinism, one of the commandments which evolves during the book’s journey has always intrigued me from the perspective of client service and customer experience. That commandment reads as follows: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” [...]
Don’t Check Your Text! Serve ME
Former Apple & Microsoft executive Linda Stone coined the term “continuous partial attention” to describe the growing phenomena whereby we split attention between multiple sources of interaction such as pulling out our iPhone to check a text message chime instead of continuing to interact with friends or customers. There is something about a phone call, text [...]
Listen or Write the Obituary
In his outstanding blog post titled The Unexpected Demise of Great Brands, Peter Horan outlines the death or near death experiences of once mighty companies such as Kodak, Sears, Digital Equipment Corporation and Circuit City. Noting that these brands went from “great to gone in less than a generation,” Peter suggests: “These were major companies [...]
