Who the heck is Jim Kilts? My oldest brother is friends with Jim Kilts. Mr. Kilts was the Chairman of the Board of Gillette before it got sold to Procter and Gamble. It was at Gillette that Kilts developed a relationship with Warren Buffett and where they came to know each other’s strengths. When Buffett resigned from the board of Coca Cola he recommended Kilts to take his place because “he is one of the great businessmen in America.” Turn the clock ahead and Gillette gets sold to P&G and Kilts is “in between jobs.” It was during this time
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Archives for Customer Service
Lessons at the door of a hotel: The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing Your Business
It was 3:00 in the morning at a Marriott hotel in north Dallas. You know how you awake to that feeling that something is just not quite right. I heard a loud argument through the wall to the next room, looked at the fire red clock display and thought, “Are you kidding me, who has the energy to be awake and arguing at this hour?” There came the slamming door in the hallway. A few minutes of quiet where interrupted by banging on MY door with the accompanied female yells of “LET ME IN!” I hurried to the door and
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I stole a souvenier from the Ritz – Kordell's antics are fixed by Nine Professionals
It has been ten years. That is what the celebration is all about. Ten years ago Jim Gilmore and Joe Pine wrote the book, the Experience Economy. If you have not read it . . . you probably ought to consider it. More about that in a moment. I met Jim for the first time when he was a consultant to our company in Texas. I had no idea that he would, in the future, co-author a book that would change my life and the way that many Fortune 500 companies did business. I have to say that my first
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I Almost Ran Over Mister Incredible – an incredible customer experience
I was just finishing a meeting at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Columbus when pulling out of the hotel breezeway, I was brought to a screaming stop by Mr. Incredible. Actually in the world of Customer Experiences, there is not many that measure up to The Arnold Classic. Each year 150,000 atheletes and visitors converge on the Columbus, Ohio Convention Center for this yearly event. What started as a body building expo for steroid and testerone overdosed Herculian types has now morphed into competition for fencing, archery, karate, and a dozen other sports. Now the interesting thing to note is
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A GREAT Cure for your Virus – If you are reading this on your computer, you need to know about this GREAT Customer Experience.
I don’t know how the virus got through, but attack it did. I had a computer that had a mind of its own, and was as ill behaved as a college freshman away from home for the first time. As I discovered the name of the virus, the prognosis did not look good. As a former executive at one company who had 2,600 computer “engineers” on the payroll (for example, we had 26 people on-site at Microsoft to fix their computer problems) I knew that this problem was going to either 1. cost me a lot of money to fix,
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And they make good shoes as well
I am writing an article for an association magazine and recall seeing a set of rules that came from Nike in the 1980’s. Referred to at the time as an escaped email from within Nike it outlined 10 Principles that supposedly represented the dogma and maxims of Nike as they went out and competed in the market in the early days of their existance. In searching through the Internet, I had a hard time finding them. Finally I resorted to calling Nike’s PR arm in New York City. Leaving a message I thought, “well, they will never call back .
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When Doctors Give Bad Service . . . YOU DIE!
There is a large medical care organization who approached me about working with their leadership. A proposal was created and then, when my phone calls were not returned I got the message . . . “thanks, but no thanks.” Now I am OK with that. If you get 100% of all the business you are shooting at then you are either priced too low, or you are lying. But then I got thinking. If an organization who has the lives of their customers literally in their hands . . . does not have enough professionalism and follow up to call
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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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The AT&T Death Star . . . Stands Down.
Every since I was a Vice President over several call centers with 500+ agents on the phone, I have been amazed at the antagonistic ways of AT&T. Over the years their shenanigans have been epic. Like the month that they charged me $1200 for dial up Internet service. Or there was the Herculean effort in demeaning service in a retail store one day. But alas . . . they have surprised me. My wife and I had stopped in an AT&T phone store to shop for cell phones for our daughter. The new Blackberry Bold had it’s release set
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