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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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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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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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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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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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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I dropped into the bus seat next to a complete unknown.  Returning to the hotel after an evening conference excursion to Chicago’s Second City Comedy Club, I supposed the conversation would be good.  Little did I know. This conference was exclusively for Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) members of the National Speakers Association.   A CSP is an earned certification that is held by less than 2% of professional speakers. “Hi, I am Kordell Norton.” “Well, hello, my name is Jill Konrath.” “You are kidding,” I said wide eyed.  “THEE Jill Konrath of SNAP Selling?” “Yes” “I am reading your book right
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