Gummy Worms and Customer Experience Excellence!
July 15th was National Gummy Worm day and while that might not be the type of information you would expect from this blog, it turns out to have significance in our office. Specifically, National Gummy Worm day served as an opportunity to “surprise and delight” many of our clients and business partners. Additionally, it allowed…
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…
Can you “Gamify” your Customer Experience? Lessons from the Highway
Have you thought about “gamifying” your customer experience? Over the past number of months, I’ve been spending time with senior leaders on the Starbucks Digital Ventures team. Given the rise of popularity of mobile technology, Starbucks has “gamified” such things as Foursquare check-ins at Starbucks cafes. Designers have also developed a customer reward program interface…
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…
Taking a Bold Stand for Service Excellence – How about you?
Raise your hand if you think service and convenience stores are opposing concepts. You can put your hand down now, since this is a blog and I can’t see you. My general impression has always been that convenience stores sell….well convenience and commodities. But my perception was challenged by a fairly recent strategic course adjustment…
Middle Child Customer Experience Syndrome
Ever since Sigmund Freud’s time, psychologists like Alfred Adler have written about the role of birth order and personality. Subsequently, researchers have even defined a cluster of behaviors which they dub the “middle child syndrome.” While I am not here to argue the merits of the label (in fact, recent data calls the concept somewhat…
Starbucks blocks electrical outlets in its cafes – What?
As you may have heard from the media, some Starbucks stores are blocking electrical outlets. Since I have been involved with the company and written The Starbucks Experience, I am often asked about decisions that affect Starbucks customers. For today’s blog, I thought I would share my response to a recent inquiry concerning the “outlet…
Back from Sabbatical:Product OR Experience?
It is terrific to be back from my “blogging sabbatical!” During my absence, I have been blessed with the opportunity to complete two customer experience book projects. Both books will be published this year by McGraw-Hill (one about UCLA and one about Zappos). In fact, the first Prescription for Excellence will be released on May…
Lessons from the Road
I have been traveling and consulting a great deal lately and each day serves as an amazing learning lab. Here are some random lessons from my journeys, which I hope will relate to your business: 1) A man in a coffee shop started talking to me about a concept he called “otherness.”. This made me…
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