Dr. Brad Harken, a dentist in Spokane, had just sat through my presentation at the American Dental Society’s National Convention. I had some free dental bib chains I wanted to give him. They are the small chain that has clips on either end, which keep a napkin on your chest while you are having dental work done. In this case the two chain clips said “Crest” and “Oral B”. Stay tuned. Even Proctor & Gamble can get it wrong. Dr. Brad noted that in his practice they don’t use the metal chains because when you put it around the patients
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Archives for Customer Service
Maddox – Good Old Fashioned Value and Manners.
Located on a back country highway, just outside of a small city in northern Utah sits Maddox’s. The parking lot is packed. The extremely wide hall way leading up to the hostess station is lined with wooden benches as people wait their turn to be gobbled up into the restaurant. In business, for many decades, I went for the first time with my new bride, who imbibed this place as a child. On a scale of 1 to 10 Food – 10+ Clean, fresh, and tasty to the max. Have you ever thought, that your chicken dinner has too much
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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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Who cares if the Handwriting is Horrible? – Thank You card from absolutely no one
You know the envelope. It has “that” shape. This Thank You card, arrived in the mail, complete with mass produced envelope with snazzy logo, and warm colors of ink on the return address. Upon opening the card, there on the inside were four signatures. One replete with it’s own smiley face :-). These were from people that I never even met. Why? The minor surgical “procedure” that was done while under anesthesia made it so if I met these ladies, I was probably drugged into total vacancy. Still the card arrived. “What a nice gesture,” I thought. In my
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Moving Past Success . . . .to Signficance – the 40/20/40 rule to Business Success
Like Christmas, weddings, vacations, birth of a child, pending retirement, and proms, each carries with it a potential for something big. For something significant. Half the fun is in this planning and looking forward. THIS ESPECIALLY APPLIES TO BUSINESS. Your business.
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Good versus Evil Profits – 3 minutes to read
When your customer ranks you “12” on a 1 to 10 scale. When you delight them beyond their expectations. Good profits are not mandated by some executive in a corner office. They are created by the personal interactions between one employee and one customer. There are many Starbucks coffee houses, and not all of them provide awesome customer experiences, but on the whole they try to create a customer experience that evokes a warm emotional and trust laden relationship. The coffee has to be good, but the interaction needs to be better.
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The first one to blink will . . . . .
Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were at the head of the respective lines waiting to perform their magic on the waiting masses of young lasses in Toon Town at Disneyland. It was clear that each “actor” had been chosen from thousands of applicants, since each was indeed an incarnate of their cartoon counterpart.
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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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The 10 Commandments of How to Handle Angry Customers
The 10 Commandments of Angry Customers By Kordell Norton I – Thou Shalt Assume That Thy Customer Has Rights . . . Including Anger Every decision is made by its decision maker. That person may not be the smartest, most qualified, or the right person to be making the decision . . . but it is still their decision. It is our job to persuade them as much as we can to make the right decision, or in our favor if that is the case. That decision maker has the title of CUSTOMER. If they don’t make it in our
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Stupid is as Wal-Mart does
Don’t get me wrong. I think Wal-Mart provides a great service for America. Today I needed to pick up some prescriptions at my local Wal-Mart. When I called to inquire on availability they informed me that the price was higher than I had been buying down the street at a K-Mart store. “Why don’t you match the price” I asked? “Because it is farther than 5 miles away.” “But if you don’t, I will just go back to K-Mart.” “Sorry” they said. So called the Wal-Mart that is a couple of miles further away but just down the street from
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