Blog
On The Other Side of Innovative Service Basics
“When USA Today, Temkin Group, and Business Week all picked Amazon.com as the #1 best service company—an on-line fulfillment company—it’s proof good old fashioned service is dead.” The comment sounded like a “kids are going to the dogs” statement someone’s grandfather...
Focusing on Your Customer’s I-Chart
I love Tabasco pepper sauce…on just about everything. Having lived a while in New Mexico and having working a lot in Mexico and Central America, I have a strong preference for hot spicy food, especially if it has a Hispanic style. A good breakfast is not a perfect...
Adding a Special Attraction
Betty’s is an antique all-purpose grocery store in Helen, GA. Started in 1973, the store provides walls full of antiques as well as a cavalcade of off-the-beaten path items. They also provide the usual high quality meats, canned goods, fruits and vegetables. Need...
Disrupting Ahead of Your Customer
“If I had asked people what they wanted,” Henry Ford is rumored to have said, “They would have said faster horses.” Now, before you fire the market research department, it is important to remember Henry Ford’s arrogance about customers also lead him to chide,...
How to Get Your Team Thinking Out of the Box
It's my pleasure to host my friend, Mary Lippitt, this week with a guest post. Mary is an award-winning author and founder of Enterprise Management Ltd. Enjoy! In today’s world with change the only constant, we need to consistently strategize in order to increase...
Are Your Customers Getting Ubered?
Uber is a six-year old transportation company that works like a combination of a car service and a taxi. Now in over 50 countries and 200 cities, Uber is transforming the taxi industry. Uber is also a metaphor of what customers are coming to expect. Not tried Uber?...
Innovative Service as a Calliope
Make my service engaging and colorful. Make it perfectly fit the situation and setting. Compel me to be a part of it, not just a spectator or bystander. Influence me to want more and more of it. Entice me to smile, even laugh. And, make it as nostalgic as an attic...
The Taste of Customer Disappointment
“Because of Winn-Dixie” was a 2005 hit movie based on the best-selling novel by Kate DiCamillo. In one scene the movie’s star, 10-year old Opal (played by AnnaSophia Robb) with her new dog Winn-Dixie, visit the local storytelling librarian, Miss Franny. The...
What if Service Were a Treasure Hunt?
We had our granddaughters visit one weekend at our lake home. There is absolutely nothing more jarringly creative than a five-year-old or more innocent than a three-year old. Grandparents wonder why their grandchildren can’t stay “puppies!!” One morning we decided to...
The Voice of Innovative Service
“What do you think sprinkles would sound like if they could talk?” my always-thinking-out-of-box granddaughter asked me over a mouth full of cookie dough. As any good grandparent would do, I turned the question. “What do you think, Annabeth?” Without a second’s delay...
The Sprinkles Power of a Loaner
It was not a fancy restaurant. My hotel did not have a restaurant so I walked a block to this simple diner. I was there for a late breakfast before beginning my work with a client in the afternoon. There were only two people in the restaurant…a couple waiting for...
Sprinkling Service Surprise
Imagine you are a cookie. Life begins as a ball of dough someone kneads and rolls flat. Patted into a circle you are placed on greasy cookie sheet and thrust into a hot oven. After a long wait in a dark oven, you are dragged out for cooling. But, then something...
What if Your Service Were an Animal
It was a really cool interview questions in the 80’s—if you could come back as an animal, which would you choose? It was used in team building to help participants peel back the emotional veneer. I recall one hard-nosed manager revealing he would come back as a duck....
All Good Things Are Wild and Free
Henry David Thoreau wrote those words many moons ago. Wild and free are two vital features of innovative service. Good service is like meat and potatoes…core sustenance is its driving force. It is your hotel room being clean and comfortable. Great service is like...
Luxury Sprinkles: Turning Customer Experiences Purple
Luxury. The dark side spells opulence, conceit, and gluttony. It can be also be associated with excellence, majesty, and worth. It is the choice of the rich and famous and the aspiration of wannabes. “Luxury is fundamentally a state of mind,” says David Williams,...