Who owns the customer experience? This question has probably caused more organizational leaders to point fingers and reach for antacids than “why are we failing to meet projections?” Of course, the easy answer, the consultant answer, is “everyone owns the customer experience.” Drop the mic. Put the bill in the mail. The real answer, however, […]

One key to designing great customer experience touch points is to understand the way our minds process and retain information. Customers do not remember every moment of a customer experience equally. First impressions and primacy effects demonstrate that the beginning of an experience can have outsized importance. Similarly, the peak-end rule informs us that specific portions […]

No matter how great a customer experience your organization provides, you will always have a need for service recovery. Part of creating great customer experiences is not just designing fantastic, memorable experiences but planning and preparing for the service issues that inevitably occur. No matter how good the product or service, no matter how effective […]

In my conversation with hospitality service expert Christoff Weihman, we covered a number of topics surrounding hospitality customer service, including how it is evolving and how it differs from other service models. How to Give 5-Star Hospitality Customer Service Christoff believes that 5-Star service is about feeling – how customers feel during their experience with […]

One of the more popular concepts in modern customer experience thinking is the idea of the internal customer. But who exactly are internal customers, and why do they matter? An internal customer is anyone in the organization who needs assistance or interaction from another to fulfill their job responsibilities. This manifestation can happen in virtually […]

Vampire customers exist in every organization. You know the ones — the ones that are excessively needy, that are overly demanding, and that can often be downright unpleasant. In short, the ones that suck the life out of your team. If your organization is like most, then I’m willing to bet that a small handful of […]

National Customer Service Week 2016 is just around the corner! Starting on Oct 3, National Customer Service Week is an opportunity for you and your team to shine a spotlight on the importance of customer service to your organization. A good starting point for celebrating national customer service week is to adopt a theme for the event. Having […]

You don’t have to be a customer service expert to know that respect is an immensely important part of customer service. In fact, we consider respect a cornerstone of any customer service philosophy, and we include “being disrespected” as one of our 7 Service Triggers, the seven customer service hot buttons that are guaranteed to […]

Research on first impressions confirms two very fundamental facts: first impressions happen rapidly and subconsciously. The old adage is true: you never get a chance to make a first impression. Because once that impression is made, our tendency towards confirmation bias means we are looking for evidence to support that impression and ignoring evidence that […]