Monthly Archives September 2017

When are you too old? A lesson from my oldest sibling.

Today I got off the freeway to see the brand new corporate office building that will house my brothers company.   He started the company after he retired from working for “the man” in his sixties. In 1825 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow spoke to Bowdoin College.  His poem Morituri Salutamus is a classic on aging. We don’t study great poets much these days.  This one warrants some consideration. Who cannot be intrigued by: In mediæval Rome, I know not where, There stood an image with its arm in air, And on its lifted finger, shining clear, A golden ring with the device,
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You Know What "TIPS" stands for? When you give someone a TIP . . .what does the acronym mean?

TIPS = “To Insure Prompt Service” Our experience in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on a recent trip.  Dallas has incredible Tex-Mex food.  When I go there, I get to renew my love affair with this fare. Two Tex-Mex restaurants.  Basically identical food.  The final bills almost the same.  But one got the bigger tip. Both restaurants refilled my spouses caffeine-addiction-Diet-Pepsi glass three times.  But the better restaurant asked if she would like a “take home” glass of diet drink. Both restaurants had heated salsa and chips.   But the better restaurant brought a second bowl of “refill” chips without our asking
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Part 4 – Revelation & Vision for the Future – Skills That Will Create Significance

Today, and in the future, where mass-customization is the call of the day, we will do business “with” my Starbuck’s, my doctor, or my Disney vacation. “When I go to MY Starbucks,  they know me personally.   I appreciate that fact when they put MY name on MY cup of java.” Like the Pied Piper, the future will vacuum us into personal relationships with others and their organizations.   Disney’s Magic Plus, or a Harley-Davidson HOG weekend, or even the personalized shopping experience of a Zappos shoe purchase, will become the norm.  It will become the expected. Your competition will change from
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Part 3 – The Nuclear Power of Word-of-Mouth-Buzz – The New World Order of Dialog

Fifteen minutes of fame has become 15 seconds . . .  if you are lucky.  Mass customization is the call of the day, as big box stores retreat in the face of 2-day Amazon Prime delivery.   Librarians can no longer keep up with the cataloging of new information.  There is too much and it is coming too fast. Hollywood is grappling with the fact that instantaneous reviews of the latest movie on Rotten Tomatoes, is determining financial success immediately.  Like the outcome of the Super Bowl, now judgement is in hours, instead of days and weeks. In the new world
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Part 2 – How Steven Spielberg Killed Customer Service – The Secret of the Light Saber

Perhaps it started with Star Wars.  Maybe it was ET.  The satisfaction of movies in the sixties, gave way to religious fervor for the works of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.  Audiences not only went back to see a movie again and again, but they had to take their friends.  There was a quiet revolution as the public moved beyond customer satisfaction and moved to customer “wow”. Give the customer what they want . . . and then surprise them with an additional “wow”. In the 1990’s, the new focus was on the customer experience.  In a landscape filled with
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Part 1 – Sloppy Stuff for Boomers – The Birth of Reluctant Customer Service

I half joking, threatened to blow up my car on TV.  Detroit was turning out total crap in 1980.  The three TV networks had a virtual monopoly with their pedestrian programming.  Airlines lost your luggage with surprising regularity.  With a seeming unlimited market of demand by the baby boomers, business was producing poor goods and services and virtually printing money. Then the revolution began.   A few notables stood as pillars of quality.  Maytag made washing machines that worked.  Toyota made cars that didn’t break down, or had paint that stayed on the vehicle.  W. Edward Deming brought the doctrine of
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Customer Experience – The Yellow Brick Road That No One REALLY Gets

There is an intensity of facial expression on the bride-to-be, and maybe more so, her mother.   There is a calm countenance of father of the graduating college graduate as he no longer experiences the vacuum sound around his wallet.   The pure excitement in the faces of children while riding the bus to Walt Disney World is indescribable. The powerful life experience of the wedding, graduation, being born again, and a host of other major events encourage massive change in the participants. Customer Experiences as defined by most businesses might benefit by stealing from these big events. The wedding dress, the
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