One of the problems causing poor service in a business is lack of alignment. In other words, everyone on the team not being on the same page. But what page? You see, like a rowing crew, everyone in a business must be rowing together in sync. Everyone needs to understand that they serve. Every employee … Continue reading Great service requires rowing together.

Here’s one question that comes up regularly: Is a company’s customer service competing with their direct competition or others as well? Many years ago, I took a class in Quality Customer Service at the Disney Institute in Orlando. In one activity, they asked attendees to make a list of all of Disney’s competition. As you … Continue reading Do you know who you are competing with? You need to think bigger.

What’s the biggest problem with companies delivering great service? That’s a big question. To answer this, I will begin with two short stories. The first one concerns a plane trip where, after boarding, I sat in my aisle seat next to an elderly woman. An announcement came from the captain that we would be a … Continue reading The fundamental reason so much service stinks and the first step in moving beyond it.

“So... how do we do this customer experience thing anyway?” I hate this question. It sounds like customer experience, a.k.a. CX, is something you start doing by flipping a switch.  Well, it’s not. CX is like culture, it happens whether you “do it” or not.  CX is everything a customer encounters having to do with … Continue reading You don’t “do” customer experience.

I read a blog post by Ozan Varol (it was originally published in December of 2022) and it resonated with me. If you don’t know him, Varol is an astrophysicist turned inspirer (that’s the best term I could come up with to describe what he does). Anyway, the post is a great expansion on the … Continue reading There are dangers in focusing so much on science that you miss the art.

At the restaurant chain Chipotle, they boast about cutting up the vegetables and making things “by hand.”  Doug Conant, former CEO of Campbell Soup, handwrote in excess of 30,000 notes to employees over the years. Despite all the talk and hype about ChatGPT and all manner of other AI, we humans like and need the … Continue reading How about less GPT and more TLC?

Aspiration. I define it as what you want to be or what you feel called to become. Mark Miller defines it as the hopes and dreams for your culture. While these two definitions may have slight differences, both look to the future and a desire to be the best you can be, and it is … Continue reading Mark Miller says Culture Rules and I could not agree more. BOOK REVIEW: Culture Rules by Mark Miller

If you were to ask me the biggest thing that has crippled workplaces today, it would be Milton Friedman’s 1970 assertion that “the purpose of business is to generate profits.” In modern parlance, this idea has been labeled shareholder value theory. Why, you may ask, is this idea so damaging? What exactly has this thinking … Continue reading The thing that has most crippled business and why we need to move on.

Danny Meyer, the great restaurateur of Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Café, and Shake Shack fame, defines the difference between service and hospitality like this, “service is the technical delivery of a product, hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes its recipient feel.” This clearly identifies two dimensions. One, service, is more technical, it … Continue reading The difference between service and hospitality and how to leverage that for business success.

Each of us has an opportunity to make our workplaces—not to mention our homes and communities—better by being a more helpful contributor ourselves and inspiring it in others. In other words, we can create a better world and life for ourselves and those around us if we become more giving and service focused. But mention … Continue reading If you want your business to deliver better service, it starts with you. Here’s how to be more service oriented and help those around you to be as well.