Chip R. Bell's Blog, page 18

Sprinkling Service Surprise

Imagine you are a cookie. Life begins as a ball of dough someone kneads and rolls flat. Patted into a circle you are placed on greasy cookie sheet and thrust into a hot oven. After a long wait in a dark oven, you are dragged out for cooling. But, then something happens special. Someone dashes colorful sprinkles on you, converting you into a cookie even a bashful diner could not resist.

Imagine you are a customer. Life begins as a need and expectation someone hears and registers recognition. Yo...

What if Your Service Were an Animal

It was a really cool interview questions in the 80’s—if you could come back as an animal, which would you choose? It was used in team building to help participants peel back the emotional veneer. I recall one hard-nosed manager revealing he would come back as a duck. Those who knew him were quite surprised. “Not just any duck,” he continued. “You know when they fly in formation and one duck is out front? That duck!” Then, it all fit.

What if your customers were asked to select an animal to cha...

All Good Things Are Wild and Free

Henry David Thoreau wrote those words many moons ago. Wild and free are two vital features of innovative service.

Good service is like meat and potatoes…core sustenance is its driving force. It is your hotel room being clean and comfortable. Great service is like dessert…extra is its spearhead. It is the front desk clerk remembering your name and special requests. But, innovative service is like sprinkles…surprise is its mainspring. It is a lottery ticket or foreign coin left on your hotel pi...

Luxury Sprinkles: Turning Customer Experiences Purple

Luxury. The dark side spells opulence, conceit, and gluttony. It can be also be associated with excellence, majesty, and worth. It is the choice of the rich and famous and the aspiration of wannabes. “Luxury is fundamentally a state of mind,” says David Williams, North American director of The Orient Express. It is foremost an expression of excellence—particularly acts that exhibit fine craftsmanship, obvious pride, superior training, and a perpetual attention to detail.

What if you examine yo...

Sprinkles Won’t Cover a Bitter Cookie

I forgot to add baking soda that was called for by the recipe. But, the cookies looked good when they came out of the oven. When my granddaughters added lots of colorful sprinkles, the cookies looked great. We were all excited. Yet, the look on their faces when they bit into their first cookie told the tale—the cookies looked awesome; they tasted bitter. And, we had to dump them out and start over.

Customers use detail management as an indicator of a service provider’s commitment to deliverin...

Make it a Happy and a New Year For Customers!

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot…” has a special meaning every year about this time. As the familiar song ushers in the New Year, I reflect on those service experiences that left me with a sweet aftertaste; the ones that got my emotional motor revved up the highest level. Those were all focused on a happy experience that was also new…not just great. It led me to consider 2015 as a time to focus on “happy” and “new.” Happy New Year!

What makes us happy? It is when the service provider is foc...

Scaling Monogrammed Service

Their sheer size alone is a case study in scale. Over 250 million customers visit one of 11,000 Wal-Mart stores in 27 countries each week. That means that 1/3 of the U.S. population crosses the threshold of a Wal-Mart store every single week. They have 2.2 million employees and, with 1.3 million just in the U.S., they are the largest private corporation in the U.S. and Canada. How in the world could you expect anything more than assembly line treatment that is focused on speed of service with...

Your Customers’ Visions of Sugar Plums

It is the holiday day season–a time of joy, giving and celebrating. People decorate their homes, send out cards, cook amazing delicacies, and spend timing thinking about the perfect present for those on their list. Parties punctuate the community; neighbors give salutations with “merry” and “happy” in their greetings. Is it any wonder retail stores count on 30% of annual sales come from the holidays?

What are the lessons learned from the holiday days that can instruct us for great customer exp...

Is Your Customer Experience 4D?

We broke the bank and bought a widescreen, high definition 3D television for our den. The hope was it would attract more visits from our three granddaughters. So we stocked up on the best kids movies available in 3D—Frozen, Brave, Tangled, Finding Nemo, Toy Story 3…the best. It was exciting to watch their first experience. After donning the special glasses, they squealed as the colorful images projected into the room.

Then, a terrible thing happened! They went to Disneyworld and saw 4D! In ad...

What Color is Your Service Flame?

It’s that time of year when fireplace pilot lights get lit. And, the gas logs in the den at my river house needed readying for the winter. It can get cold in the mountains of North Georgia. But, the pilot light would light, but not stay lit. So, I called my local fireplace guy to get his advice.

“What color is the flame?” he asked. I thought about the sheer provocative symbolism behind the question. “If it has a red flame and burns like a match, your pilot light is worn out and will need to be...