All Features
Annette Franz
Simon Sinek popularized the concept of finding your why, which he defines as the purpose, cause, or belief that drives you. He states that the concept is “grounded in the tenets of the biology of human decision making.” Once you find your why, you can live in alignment with it. Truly an important…
Dawn Bailey
The spirit of service—for a small clinic started in 1913 to provide free care to Los Angeles (LA)—lives today in the servant-leader aspirations of 2019 Baldrige Award recipient Adventist Health White Memorial (AHWM), a 353-bed, safety-net hospital.
The community of two million people that AHWM…
Clare Naden
Travel and tourism took a beating during the Covid-19 pandemic, with borders closed, airlines grounded, and many establishments shut for months. Now as the industry attempts to recover in this new context, constantly changing rules and regulations are making it a far-from-simple task. What’s more,…
ISO
There’s more than one path to service management. It refers to all the activities, policies, and processes that organizations use for deploying, managing, and improving IT service provision. In today’s technology-driven corporate landscape, the two leading methodologies come from the world of…
Nate Burke
How many of us remember walking into a holiday gift shop when younger (and before a global pandemic put a stop to the H word), and eagerly searching for a fridge magnet, mug, or pencil inscribed with our name?
Personalization is a tactic brands and businesses have been using for years to hook us…
Karla Raines
Total quality management (TQM) was in vogue during my undergraduate years and early career in industrial engineering. The United States was catching up to the Japanese in manufacturing production as their Toyota vehicles outperformed our Fords. A company couldn’t deliver a competitive product…
Harry Hertz
Each year after the Quest for Excellence Conference, I sift through my notes and try to identify themes I have heard in the presentations of the new Baldrige Award recipients. The most recent summary was after the 2019 conference (the 2021 conference included recipients from the last two years).…
Nate Burke
It has been more than a year since retailers were forced to temporarily shut their doors or put in place restrictions to limit the in-store experience. Now, as we return to some semblance of normality, it’s essential that trust and brand value are retained for those operating a digital-only…
Chip Bell
We live in an era of statue removal. Meanwhile the largest mountain carving in the world is under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota just 17 miles from Mount Rushmore. The final carving will be 640 feet long and more than 50 stories high. The subject of that carving? Crazy Horse.…
Chip Bell
Iam often asked by customer service leaders how to get the CEO to care about customers. They are convinced there is a missed tactic that, if implemented, would have the C-suite camping out in the contact center and inviting customers to board meetings. When I outline a number of possible approaches…
Nate Burke
Unfortunately, a website is no longer enough for a significant or successful digital presence. Essentially, a presence is nonexistent without some consideration of search engine optimization (SEO).
But this, too, has become one of the basics of “going digital”—a must, rather than a “nice to have…
Annette Franz
The terms “customer-centric” and “customer-centricity” get thrown around a lot; oftentimes, it’s quite clear that they’re being used out of turn. I believe “customer-centric” is often confused with “customer focus,” but the two are very different.
Let’s look at some definitions.
Customer focus …
Nate Burke
During the past year, we have seen more businesses make the digital switch and take services online than ever before. For many, an ecommerce offering was a means for survival during an incredibly volatile and unpredictable time. For others, an online focus has been slowly developing for some time…
Knowledge at Wharton
It’s a commonly held belief, one that gets played out daily in organizations around the world: Employees who receive performance feedback are much more likely to improve their performance than those who don’t get feedback. But research tells us that it’s simply not true.
Typically, performance…
Jim Benson
Respect is an abused word. Weak minds use it as a placeholder for fear. Weak egos will demand it up front. Weak hearts will use it to attach themselves to people of bluster, wishing they could be so outspoken.
We could do with a few more conversations about respect.
We can see here, sadly, that…
Nate Burke
Undeniably, the power of data is unmatched. With an abundance of data collection opportunities available online, and with an increasing number of businesses taking them, the potential and value of such information is richer than ever before. And businesses are benefiting.
Particularly where data…
Chip Bell
I was fortunate enough yesterday to get my second Covid-19 vaccine. It was a giant relief, one that more than compensated for 24 hours of arm soreness. It was the peace of mind that, despite vaccine shortage or administrative challenges, I am now protected—at least 95 percent. The feeling of…
Annette Franz
In 2019, I wrote about a marketing phenomenon that I kept hearing about, that customers are in control, that they have all the power. I never felt like that was right.
In that post, I wrote: “So, when you see those headlines about customer control and customer power, what are they really talking…
Yoav Kutner
Like business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce allows customers to purchase parts and supplies via an online portal. The difference is that in B2B e-commerce, both the customers and suppliers are businesses, and the customers may or may not be the end users of the…
Gleb Tsipursky
Stakeholder engagement is one of the more critical aspects of leadership, whether you’re a team leader or a member of a cross-functional team trying to lead team members to focus on quality. Stakeholders can be anyone from your colleagues to suppliers to business partners, and your relationship…
Nate Burke
Businesses are constantly looking for ways to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. And this will only become a more important focus as we continue to navigate the complex and volatile Covid-stricken commercial climate.
Fortunately, e-commerce is thriving. Unlike…
Chip Bell
All my life, I thought leaves departed trees in the fall because they got too old to hang onto the branch and gravity bested their grasp. It does not work that way. Trees literally release their leaves from the limb. Here is how a leaf becomes the prey of gravity.
As days get colder and shorter,…
Annette Franz
I’ll keep today’s article simple—and fun. Bob Farrell, founder of Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlors, shared the secret to a great customer experience in 1973 (yes, almost 50 years ago!), when he developed a motivational speech for new employees called “Give ’em the pickle!” It was based on a letter he…
Kate Zabriskie
Do any of these sound familiar?
“The lawn service had to go. I used them for more than 15 years, and by the last season, my lawn looked terrible. The spring seeding didn’t take, nutsedge and wiregrass consumed half the yard, and they just kept spraying chemicals. I wish somebody had just told me…
Chip Bell
Ever notice how some people always get the best table, the upgraded room, or the best cut of meat at the market? Great customer service is not an accident. Those who are served well follow a recipe that turns even a cold initial encounter into a warm one. Here are five tips for almost always…
