Blog
The Innovative Customer Experience Appetizer
Walk in a theatre for a Broadway play in New York and the appetizer you are given between the ticket counter and your seat is the Playbill. It not only is a tool to tell you about the plot and characters, it sets the mood for what you are about to see and hear. Walk...
Service as a Carousel
Innovative service is like a carousel. Customers enjoy service that is animated—as alive as the big horses felt to Kaylee. It means finding ways to ramp up the joy in the customer’s experience.
Mentoring Traps to Avoid
There are countless traps along the path of mentordom. Mentoring can be a power trip for those seeking an admirer, a manifestation of greed for those who must have slaves. Mentoring can be a platform for proselytizing a cause or crusade, a strong tale told to an...
Innovative Leaders Leave the Door Open
Watership Down is Richard Adams’ best-selling novel about a group of wild rabbits forced to abandon their warren and travel across England in search of a new home. Along their journey they encounter a group of caged rabbits--pets of a young boy. Opening the cage door,...
Make Service Personalized
He sat on the right side of the pew a row up from me. Wearing noticeably expensive trousers, alligator shoes without socks and a new dress shirt, he looked like a wealthy man on holiday that, on a Sunday morning impulse, elected to stop by our quaint mountain church....
The Law of Kindness
My cousin, Joann Wall, recently passed away in her eighties, She had been in poor health for a long time. During her eulogy at her funeral the minister quoted a passage from Proverbs 31 that outlined the features of a virtuous woman…”and on her tongue was the law of...
Ensuring the Transfer of Learning
There are many advantages to being raised on a farm. You learn a lot about how nature really works. Instead of watching milk come pouring out of a carton, you get to see it come squirting out of a cow. Before high-tech milking machines, milk made its way to your glass...
Service Resolutions for the New Year
As 2013 draws to a close and we welcome another new year filled with endless possibilities many of us will resolve to do things differently in 2014. This year, resolve to deliver truly innovative service to your customers. I've put together 7 resolutions designed to...
Are You Creating Protégé Cuttings?
Legacy is one of the strongest arguments for effective mentoring. It leaves behind a remnant of mentor greatness that helps perpetuate wisdom gained through experience.
Putting Innovation in Your Brand
When people view themselves as “a Harley guy,” or “a Ritz-Carlton traveler,” or a “gotta have my Starbucks” person, you are not just witnessing a case of voluntary identification with a motorcycle, hotel, or coffee, but customers sporting the “brand” of loyal connection to them. What does it take to provoke this “loyalty to the ranch” phenomenon?
Innovation Leadership is Made of Spears, Not Sand
“What do great innovation leaders do that other leaders fail to do?” It was a pointed question from a way-too-obvious skeptic during the Q&A following my keynote. I prefaced my answer with a line often spoken by my good friend, Bruce Fritch, “True leadership is on the order of spears, not sand.”
Holiday Punch List for Innovative Customer Service
It's almost over! With Christmas Eve just one week away, the holiday shopping season is winding down. Folks on both sides of the cash register are feeling the pressures of the season. For many customers, panic is setting in. They're tired, they're frustrated, they're...
Customers Want to Be “Home” For The Holidays
Whatever happened to old fashioned customer service? The kind you remember as a kid…especially if you grew up in a small town or close-knit neighborhood. The butcher gave your dog-in-tow a fresh bone… there were no rules back then preventing pet dogs from coming into a butcher shop.
Leadership as a Christmas Ornament
Sooner or later it happens if you decorate enough Christmas trees. At some point you discover that almost all of the ornaments are handmade or have some special meaning. Discarded are those generic, store bought ones that looked pleasing to the eye but had no short...
Give the Gift of Inspiration
Innovative service is a hand-made original surprise. Its originality and imagination telegraph an innate commitment to excellence. Its “hand-made” distinction signals an unmistakable spotlight on the customer.