As a business keynote speaker, I spend a lot of time speaking about the need for employee autonomy in customer service and business operations in general.  And a lot of time talking about the need to set and maintain service and brand standards.  The bottom line?  You need to balance both. Business works best when […]

My son and I were eating barbecue together recently.  The restaurant in question is one of those excrutiatingly cheerful, homogenized theme restaurants.  Not my cup of cuisine, to say the least. My son, however, is (please don’t say this to his face), just a little kid. With taste buds to match.  His take on the

When I boarded the commuter ferry on Saturday, it seemed unusually crowded. A crew member explained:  “We have a capacity crowd — about 2,500 souls — aboard on this crossing.” Think about that: Not passengers.  Not customers. Souls. Now, I have scientist friends who have dissected the human body and failed to find anywhere for

Here’s hoping Walgreens, CVS, and/or Rite Aid don’t spit in my prescription bottles after hearing this podcast,  but it was a fun and raucous interchange with Micah Solomon (that’s me), Bob Phibbs, and James Bickers on questions of retail loyalty programs (and actual loyalty!) , customer service, branding, Victoria’s Secret,  and more.  Live (more or

Never forget: Your customers are likely to use the different sales channels you offer in different ways. Some of your customers may buy exclusively over the web but visit your brick and mortar stores to see, feel, even sniff your products (or, I suppose, your personnel) before they go home to order.   Customers may,

  A good equation for value is as follows:  Value = Personal Benefit minus Cost and Inconvenience. But the “personal benefit” variable can easily override the cost factor for a significant sector of the market, at least up to a certain point. Not everybody values money the same, clearly: If commerce were all about low

Great customer service –what I call anticipatory customer service — requires more these days than simply not being a jerk and not hiring jerks. It means building your non-jerk attitude into systems, facilities, and processes. Traditionally, great customer service has meant selecting and training employees to work empathetically one on one with customers, anticipating “even

Everybody loves a firefighter. But do we give that same kind of admiration to a mom up on a stepladder, checking the batteries in the smoke detector to keep her family safe?  Or the employee who faithfully does rounds in the morning, making sure that no emergency exit is blocked? Zappos.  Legendary for spending more

Don’t pretend you care — or a customer may call your bluff.  Let me illustrate. I recently booked a reservation at a spendy and apparently well-regarded hotel, located in a major American city and boasting a complete concierge staff. In other words, a hotel that should be up to any challenge a guest could throw

Receptionist. Host/hostess. Greeter… …In many businesses, it’s the front desk receptionist, the hostess, or another human greeter who welcomes and bids farewell to visitors, whether in person, on the telephone, or via email. So, it’s crucial that the person in this position convey a warm welcome when customers arrive and a gracious, heartfelt farewell when