Chip R. Bell's Blog, page 17
May 18, 2015
Focusing on Your Customer’s I-Chart
I love Tabasco pepper sauce…on just about everything. Having lived a while in New Mexico and having working a lot in Mexico and Central America, I have a strong preference for hot spicy food, especially if it has a Hispanic style. A good breakfast is not a perfect breakfast without a few jalapenos on the side and a lot of Tabasco pepper sauce on top.
One morning I walked into the Huddle House near my home for breakfast and ordered scrambled eggs with Tabasco. Huddle House is not on my usual t...
May 4, 2015
Adding a Special Attraction
Betty’s is an antique all-purpose grocery store in Helen, GA. Started in 1973, the store provides walls full of antiques as well as a cavalcade of off-the-beaten path items. They also provide the usual high quality meats, canned goods, fruits and vegetables. Need 10 pounds of marbles, hard-to-find sodas like RC Cola, NuGrape and Bubble up, a couple of rutabagas, scuppernong wine, or one coffee filter not a package? Betty’s is the place. But, the most fun part is the fully operational beehive...
April 20, 2015
Disrupting Ahead of Your Customer
“If I had asked people what they wanted,” Henry Ford is rumored to have said, “They would have said faster horses.” Now, before you fire the market research department, it is important to remember Henry Ford’s arrogance about customers also lead him to chide, “Customers can have any color car they like as a long as it is black.” Not exactly customer-centric! But, visioning beyond the customer is the responsibility of every person interested in competitive advantage.
Disruptors are visionary c...
April 13, 2015
How to Get Your Team Thinking Out of the Box
It’s my pleasure to host my friend, Mary Lippitt, this week with a guest post. Mary is an award-winning author and founder of Enterprise Management Ltd. Enjoy!
In today’s world with change the only constant, we need to consistently strategize in order to increase effectiveness and position ourselves for the future. But how can leaders coach their staff to regularly think out of the box, when the traditional request is to dig-in and become more specialized?
The good news is that smarter, comp...
April 6, 2015
Are Your Customers Getting Ubered?
Uber is a six-year old transportation company that works like a combination of a car service and a taxi. Now in over 50 countries and 200 cities, Uber is transforming the taxi industry. Uber is also a metaphor of what customers are coming to expect. Not tried Uber? Here is a brief overview. As you read about it, consider your business through Uber lens.
Download the Uber app on your smart phone, fill out a simple application, and you are ready to get Ubered. Need transportation? Tap your Uber...
March 23, 2015
Innovative Service as a Calliope
Make my service engaging and colorful. Make it perfectly fit the situation and setting. Compel me to be a part of it, not just a spectator or bystander. Influence me to want more and more of it. Entice me to smile, even laugh. And, make it as nostalgic as an attic souvenir and as fresh as a first trip to Disney World. Make it like a calliope!
Calliopes were a part of the old-fashioned circus that came to my rural town. The circus parade preceded the circus opening. A long line of caged wild a...
March 9, 2015
The Taste of Customer Disappointment
“Because of Winn-Dixie” was a 2005 hit movie based on the best-selling novel by Kate DiCamillo. In one scene the movie’s star, 10-year old Opal (played by AnnaSophia Robb) with her new dog Winn-Dixie, visit the local storytelling librarian, Miss Franny. The storyteller spins a tale about her great grandfather who created a candy factory that baked feelings of sadness into a sweet candy he called “Litmus Lozenges.” Miss Franny gave Opal a decorative can of the antique candies to share with her...
February 23, 2015
What if Service Were a Treasure Hunt?
We had our granddaughters visit one weekend at our lake home. There is absolutely nothing more jarringly creative than a five-year-old or more innocent than a three-year old. Grandparents wonder why their grandchildren can’t stay “puppies!!”
One morning we decided to stage an elaborate backyard treasure hunt. The girls decorated their treasure boxes while we drew each a detailed map of the yard. While the two were off on a boat ride with their parents, we hid the “treasurers”—foreign coins fro...
February 16, 2015
The Voice of Innovative Service
“What do you think sprinkles would sound like if they could talk?” my always-thinking-out-of-box granddaughter asked me over a mouth full of cookie dough. As any good grandparent would do, I turned the question. “What do you think, Annabeth?”
Without a second’s delay she said, “They would tell the cupcake, ‘Happy, Merry, Trick or Surprise!’” It was clear she viewed the expression of sprinkles to be an over-the-top declaration and decoration that combined the sentiments of all celebrative seaso...
February 9, 2015
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 couple waiting for their check. The happy-go-the waitress poured my coffee and took my order. Moments later she returned with a small flower arrangement in a glass vase and a magnificence day starting announcement.
“My husband had these flowers delivere...
