Archives for Kordell Norton

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
Continue Reading

Culture – The #1 Job

If your culture has you focusing on the B and C players, then your culture is communicating that you sanction mediocrity. The environment in this organization approves "getting by". The core values scream that you can take your foot off the gas and coast a little here and there.
Continue Reading

Why Your Customers Want YOU Sneaky

In the case are four Apple fritters sequestered amongst powdered, Halloween sprinkles, and beautiful glazed doughnuts. I have heard about these legendary treats for years but have never been able to be here on Wednesday, the only day that they are made, to claim one for myself. Because George sells out of doughnuts, all of his inventory, every day by noon… You have to time your arrival on the exact date to get into Apple heaven.
Continue Reading

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.
Continue Reading

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.
Continue Reading

“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
Continue Reading

What happens when you charge for free things

Can it be that simple? That the customer feels certain resentment about a $1.00 charge for air when the competitor is free. That the customer FEELS like they are being nickel and dimed. (Which would not be hard to do with the price per gallon of gas). When all things are equal, is there an attitude that shifts the customer’s loyalty when customer FEELS like they are being taken?
Continue Reading

Do you know how much fun chocolate is?

There is the science of this brown stuff. Chocolate contains all these awesome chemicals.  Phenylalaine elevates mood and increases amiability and helps the brain manufacture serotonin . . . which is linked to mood stability.  Beside the small amount of caffeine, chocolate also contains theobromine  which makes the nervous system more alert and improves concentration.   For decades, Hershey had a business of extracting theobromine from their discarded cocoa bean shells and selling this compound to Coca-Cola, who then put this powerful chemical in their soft drinks to add pep.  This continued until the 1950’s, when Coke found a less expensive
Continue Reading