The Detroit International Automobile Show 2012. Among the hundred thousand square feet vendor booths, and the multimillion dollar backdrops complete with state of the art multimedia, and eye candy models . . . both male and beautifully coiffed women; sits the center of attention. It is all about the cars. There are cars. Each collection is often changed out each day for maximum exposure. Audi might have a new metallic paint the invites you to touch it’s too-strange-too-be-true finish. That is OK because some t-shirted youth, armed with polishing rags and dust wands wander incessantly to make sure nary a
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Archives for Customer Wow
Customer Satisfaction — hogwash –what about your Employees? – The 5 ABC’s that separates winners from losers.
Sorry about the absence. I took a few months off to fight off cancer. That is done and I AM BACK! Let me introduce you to Denise and Leslie. At my Seidman Cancer Center . . . these two ladies were at the front desk. One day I stopped to get a sucker out of their candy bowl. When I came back out one reached up and put the candy bowl down by her phone. I thought, “I didn’t ask earlier . . . I wonder if I did something wrong?” So the next day I asked them, “Does the
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When Cannibals Eat Chocolate instead of. . . .
Creating Customer Experiences with Lessons Learned from Chocolate
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“Excuse me. You have a French fry sticking out of your nose.”
Five Guys hamburgers. Visions of red and white checked decor, with peanuts in shells to distract you while your burger is customized in it’s assembly and you are assaulted with the French fry experience. Assaulted? By French fries? Experience? To the uninitiated. You can pay less to get a hamburger at almost every other fast food joint in town. But then you are not vacuumed into the experience of a Five Guys . . . “burger and fries” (I know the rhyming is too much). The added price is worth the price of admittance. There on the wall is the
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Minus 36 degrees . . .Cookstoves . . .Carrott . . . How to make email and voicemail that connects.
Research shows that 80% of all interaction in the workplace is done with you communicating with some sort of technology. Voice mail, email, etc. So how do you “get through?” I arrived to 36 degrees below zero temperatures. When it I got up the next morning and started the car, the transmission was frozen. I had to let the car sit in idle for 15 minutes before it worked. Canada in March. The coldest cold in my life. I was there for a series of presentations over three days in various Alberta and Saskatchewan cities. And then there was the
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I am Steamed Up. . . and that is a good thing!
The carpets in our Cave Dwelling had never been cleaned since we moved into our new home. With a social event on the horizon, the Supreme Commander undertook the task of getting someone to come and shampoo a few rooms of carpet. The TV advertisments for Stanley Steemer are masterful. There is the one that says, “Our certified AND BONDED employees will safely clean your carpets.” That “BONDED” thing is powerful. It causes the customer to have an internal conversation that goes something like. . . “Do I want someone who is NOT bonded to come into my home? I
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Paul Newman whoops up on James Bond
Maybe it is the blue eyes. The Customer Experience is so dependent on the dedication of those who deliver it. In a recent interview with Daniel Craig, the newest in the James Bond stars, he was reflecting back on some of his previous films. He was talking about working with Paul Newman in the 2002 film Road to Perdition. “The best thing I can say about Paul Newman was he worried about his craft and about what he was doing. He talked it through, and when he got it right it pleased him and when he got it wrong it
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"It's a Funny World". . . .everybody says that . . .but no one is laughing
We think of the Customer Experience as those moments when something is being bought or sold. “Not so Kemo Sabe” Since employees give their support to management by continued work and contribution, savvy organizations understand that employee surveys and 360 performance reviews are a must. In the middle of all of this comes some recent research by Fabio Sala on boss/employee laughter. He found that the top performing leaders elicited three times more laughter from their subordinates than the average leaders did. What does this say. When people are having fun, can laugh at themselves and their environment; where
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Merger of Disney and Wal-Mart Announced
Disney is about to announce a major merger between themselves and Wal-Mart Stores. Each has their individual claim on the customer and leads their industry in creating a unique customer experience. Disney has over 25 million visitors to their theme parks each year. In one recent news story it was suggested the price for a family of four and a visit to Florida would put the trip at $5000 or more. Wal-Mart on the other hand, gives the customer an experience starting with their “Greeter” and cookie cutter store plan, right through to the check out. 84% of all Americans
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Welcome to the Customer Experience
Ah . . .the Customer Experience.The wedding, the graduation, the poor customer service, the stage play, the buying of that new appliance, the relationship with the visiting salesman, or the relationship you have with your doctor. Done right, they create experiences and events that change and mold our lives. They create drastic change in direction, are the fodder of sweet memories, and staging points for a return to “do it again.” They cause us to marvel and look in awe at the organizations who produce them. Done wrong, they are the core of anger, frustration, lost productivity, evaporated profits and
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