Blog
Rocky Horror Service
I love Halloween. It comes with permission to dress up as something or someone else giving you the license behind the mask to be very silly and extreme. The accouterments that accompany this special day are also super cool—pumpkins with scary faces and candles inside,...
Hurricane-Force Service
Jerry’s Bait and Tackle is a watering hole near my lakefront home. It is an old-fashioned, all-purpose grocery store that sells everything from gasoline to fish bait to lottery tickets. Jerry’s know where the fish are biting, the latest community gossip, and where to...
Are Your Customers ‘Leaf’-ing?
Fall leaves are a lot like customers. They typically don’t depart simply due to the lure of a competitor like gravity invites a leaf to the ground. They are pushed out by the negative force of poor or indifferent service. All my life I thought that Fall leaves...
Customer Service Week – Friday Hero
How would you feel if the grand opening of your new upscale steakhouse restaurant was in the fall of 2008? As your doors were opening, the Dow was falling 3600 points. Discretionary income was suddenly zero. And, your patronage was only 10% of what normal time would...
Customer Service Week – Thursday Hero
Neighborhood Cleaners on Lake Oconee has been my dry cleaners for a few years. Like all great dry cleaners, they pick up and deliver if you prefer. They are as ecologically sensitive as they are interpersonally friendly. They’ll do off-the-beaten-path requests like...
Customer Service Week – Wednesday Hero
Georganne Mires at Colwick Travel in Dallas has been my travel agent for over twenty years. When my friends chide me about why I don’t have tons of money by booking my flights and hotels on Tripadvisor, Orbitz or Expedia, I just tell them a Georganne story. “Assume...
Customer Service Week – Tuesday Hero
I walked into the restaurant at the Park Inn west of Harrisburg, PA. From the back of the restaurant I heard, “Good morning, how would you like your coffee?” When I said black, the voice warmly responded, “Take any table you like and I’ll have your coffee there before...
Customer Service Week—Monday Hero
Today is October 2. National Customer Service Week will be this week--October 2-6. Over the next five days, I will celebrate heroes who deliver over-the-top innovative service. And, I start with a master shoe repair person—David Cooper! I took my beloved Lucchese...
Plain Vanilla Service Sucks!
I have a true confession; I almost always go for the “off the beaten path” choice. Tried and true is typically trumped by “I’ve never had that before.” So you can imagine my reaction when the waiter seated us and handed us the breakfast menu with the...
Special Delivery Service
I pulled into the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot and what to my wondering eyes should appear? The sign you see above. Two special parking spots reserved for “Veteran Parking Only—Thank You for Your Service.” Since I am a proud veteran, I pulled...
Insuring Swimming Pools Against Theft
I recently had my car served. When I looked at the bill, it showed a charge for a front end alignment. It just so happened that the week prior to this routine oil change, I accidentally ran over a curb and took the car into the same car service business for a...
Signing Your Customers
I live on a large lake known for great fishing and boating. My neighbor put a large sign on the lake side of his boathouse that read: “Put Bimini Top Down.” The sign does more than warn the driver of the boat to lower the aluminum frame supported canvas cover...
Innovative Service as a Summer Camp
We are in the season of summer camp! My three granddaughters all went to camp in July...for two weeks and in another state. Two went to camp in a neighboring state. But, Kaylee, the oldest, flew cross country to California to an exclusively outdoor camp without...
What’s In Your Customer Rolodex?
It had been over two years since I had stayed at the downtown Chicago Marriott. I hardly recognized the lobby interior given their renovation since my last stay. But, the desk clerk assumed I had the memory of an elephant and said, “You stayed on the 31st floor on the...
How is Your Service Egress?
My mountain river house has a really cool feature. About 50 feet from the back porch there is a platform that sits right on the river bank. It is a romantic spot to sit and watch/hear/feel the river rushing by, especially on a clear starry night. Between the porch and...