How has your business progressed its service excellence agenda? This is my big question for the upcoming International Customer Service Week that is celebrated in the first week of October annually. So next week, Monday 3rd to Friday 7th will be the week of celebrations worldwide. While the strict intention is to celebrate employees as …
Heavy is the head that wears the crown. The crown is heavy because effective decision-making rises and falls on the wisdom of the head that’s wearing the crown. This not only applies to the monarchy, it’s relevant to all heads of operation, like chief executive officers and other members of the c-suite. Because the chief …
One of the reasons why many businesses are stuck in customer experience stasis, is because they pursue service delivery strategies that do not yield best results for the customer. In order to move the experience needle, the results have to make sense to the customer and if the right questions are not being addressed, the …
There’s a new kind of customer in town. One who is no longer baited by bells, whistles and once-a-year, customer appreciation days. This new customer appreciates honesty. If the document isn’t ready for collection, as promised, this customer wants a representative of the business to say so and to acknowledge that, “we dropped the ball, …
The word teachable means “favourable to teaching.” To my mind, the parallel to this would be “favourable learning or open to learning.” To those of us who reside in the human resources, customer experience and people development domains, “teachability” is a coveted attribute within an employee community. When a business is, itself, a teachable entity, …
The vacuum cleaner that cuts carpet cleaning time in half, the smartphone that is a portable office, the hand baskets that are colour-coded to denote assistance needed or no assistance needed, the air tag that allows for luggage tracking. Businesses exist to sell, for the most part. But, the big question is always, “What is …
We have become so obsessed with digitalization, digital enablement and digital differentiation, it’s almost as if we have forgotten that we are still human customers, having ultimately, a human experience in the world of business. We are not unemotional robots or virtual beings who are fully wired to virtual experiences. The point of technology is …
I like to ask to ask leadership teams this question, “Were your competitors at the last conference or business gathering that you attended?” Of course the answer is often, “Yes.” The next question would be, “So which business is going to be most efficient at implementing what was shared?” This second question is designed to …
When was the last time that you walked into a business place and felt………nothing? No energy, no excitement and no vibe. Some businesses have no energy whatsoever. The décors may be pleasant, employees may be around, but the “feel” of the businesses is lifeless. It’s a mystery to me how many businesses get away with …
Every so often a unicorn leader comes along and walks the talk. I’ve had the good fortune to work with one such leader on a service transformation project. Now, there are two sets of forces at play in activating project success. One force is transactional and the other psychological. This leader commandeered both with finesse. …