Rarely do businesses look at their processes with a fresh pair of eyes -- a new customer's eyes. For example, I'm sure this city's leaders and the downtown merchant association thought the answer to scarce parking was a 3-story garage. The merchants probably saw an...
Do your staff share similar attitudes toward customers? I was recently struck by two people working for the same organization in the same function but with opposite perspectives. I like antiques so frequent estate sales. At a recent one, I found a set of 8 dishtowels...
I was engaged to help a team increase their customer responsiveness when I heard this tale which happened soon after I took the assignment. The manager of the customer first contact area decided to close that area for 2 hours to have a 1-hour meeting with staff to...
There was no signage touting "Free side order for new customers." Nothing to suggest I'd get a gift. So imagine my delight upon telling the cashier I was new to Smashburger and him comping me the fries I'd ordered with my burger. Astonished, I said, "Why am I getting...
I had to sign some documents at a bank as Board Secretary of Together We Can Change the World. I called the bank officer and arranged to come in the next day. I called her on the appointed day to tell her I'd be there in 20 minutes. When I arrived, I had to wait 20...
You've heard the old adage, "There is no such thing as trying; you either do it or you don't." I had a recent experience with this. Perhaps my lesson will be useful to you. I had been trying to lose weight for many years. I worked out 3-4x/week, logged my food intake...
Sometimes we have opportunities to examine who we are in a new context that is a metaphor for how we approach life. Recently I had such an opportunity to see if I was more likely to take an exciting path or a more mundane one. A few months ago I spoke on an 11-day...
Weeks before we arrived, I'd been communicating with the 5-star hotel's liaison to ensure my group of 10 could get checked in as quickly as possible as we had to leave within 45 minutes of our arrival at the hotel. The last time we stayed there, we loved the...
Arriving at the Singapore Airport, I saw a man with "Grand Hyatt" on his clipboard. I approached him, asking if they provided a shuttle. He said no, but he could arrange a town car. After confirming the price would be double that of a cab, I told him I'd just grab a...