Blog
Paying Attention to Customer Details
It was an experience I will always remember. I checked into the Oakland Waterfront Hotel in Oakland, CA. The front desk clerk had a special gleam in her eye when I presented my credit card. “We are so glad to have you,” she said, with a strong emphasis on the “so.” I...
Customer Segments or Customer Need States? The Answer Is . . . Both by Joseph Michelli
It’s been said, it’s not “what you know, but who you know.” I take that wisdom a bit further to say, it’s not what you know or who you know, but what you know about who you know. This is particularly true when it comes to what you know about the customers that you...
Too Many Customers
I fired my pharmacy today. And, it was sad to me because I have been brand loyal for so long. I transferred all our family prescriptions to the grocery store pharmacy across the street. The front desk person at the grocery pharmacy laughed when I...
‘Twas the Night After Christmas
What do the days after a winter holiday extravaganza look like? They look like lots of wrapping paper trash. It looks like ornaments waiting to be taken down and packed, decorations to be hauled off, mismatched presents to be returned, a diet to be started, and carols...
Are Your Cash Registers Ringing Like Sleigh Bells?
The holiday season is here, and those who forge new customer habits through compelling customer experiences will win the sale. Forecasters anticipate consumers will shell out more than $730 billion dollars between Thanksgiving and New Year’s day, up 4% over 2018....
The Right Side of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving. We all know it as a day of gratitude. That is the left side of the word. While the origin of the day goes back to 1536 during the reign of Henry the 8th, in this country we associate it most with the Pilgrims in Plymouth in the early 1600s who...
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...
Success is Living Like Your Cat
I recently visited the Key West home of famed writer Ernest Hemingway. The descendants of Hemingway’s many six-toed cats still live on the grounds and join visitors as a part of their tour. His quote about cats got me thinking about what I learn from my...
Trick or Treat: Your Customers Are at Your Front Door
My granddaughters are in the annual early October throes of deciding on a costume for this coming Halloween. It is a chance for imagination and competition! Wonder Woman and Mal from Descendants, even Jasmine from Aladdin, are getting extra nods. It...
The Fall of Summer
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 service or indifferent service. All my life I...
Are You Secretly Judging Your Customers?
“Thank you for being my customers,” the clothing store manager said to a group of prospects who seemed to be loitering in his mall store. The uniqueness of his statement was that it was directed at three loud teenagers who seemed to be permanently attached to their...
Do You Really Care About Customers, Or Just Their Needs?
The bank promises your account will be secure, the hospital pledges to be clean and the flight is guaranteed to land in the right city. They all care about customers, right? Or, are they caring about their core offering, not its recipient? When organizations...
The Magic of Service Mystery
“You’ll nefver guess who will be the main attraction at our 6pm wine and cheese reception in the lobby. Last week we had a fortune teller everyone insisted was an extraterrestrial!” It was the “come on down” greeting on my guest room desk at the Hotel...
How to Get Customer Candor
There is an old off-color joke about an uncultured, farmer’s daughter from the backwoods who lands a scholarship to a finishing school. On her first visit back home, she is asked by a group of her friends what she had learned. She proudly announced that...
Who’s Your Target Customer?
Several years ago, my consulting firm worked with a large retail shopping center company. At the time this REIT owned over 300 shopping centers around the country. The question my firm was asked to determine was this: Will the customer experience in...