Chip R. Bell's Blog, page 23

The Cream in My Coffee

“You’re the cream in my coffee” is the opening line and title of a song written in 1928 by Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown. It was a song recorded by many famous musicians like Nat King Cole, Les Brown and the Ray Conniff Singers. It provides a powerful metaphor for the difference between great customer service and innovative service.

Great service is the delivery of all the basics done superbly plus something extra. Think of the baker’s dozen, upgrades, complimentary whatevers. Great service is l...

Delivering Signature Service

Eddie Taylor was the lead nerd in my high school in the 60′s. He carried way too manyink pens, spoke ham radio, and never got more than three feet from his slide rule (justGoogle it!). Rather than wearing faded jeans like the rest of us, he wore black dresspants that revealed too much of his white socks. But, he was the first kid in our schoolto own a stereo. And, he had amazing records that made the sound of a jet plane “fly”across his bedroom. As I work with organizations on delivering inno...

Every Employee an Entrepreneur

Publix gets accolades for being at the top of the heap for great customer service among grocery stores. Consumers Reports puts it #3 behind Wegmans and Trader Joe’s, neither of which are in my area. Publix is clean, convenient, and does not cost you an arm and a leg—all table stakes in the world of full-service grocery stores.

But, my attraction is the entrepreneurial style of their employees.

When I go to the seafood section of the meat department, I do not get a tired, overloaded worker bee;...

Innovative Hosting

My business partner, John Patterson and I were en route to a meeting and stopped for lunch on the run. We are major fans of McDonald’s French fries—the absolute best on the planet. We also enjoy the salads at Chick-fil-A. Luckily the two fast-food restaurants were right next door to each other.

We parked between the two and walked first into Mickey D’s for the fries. It was much like a human vending machine—fast, accurate and functional. But, the Chick-fil-A experience was completely different...

The Tactile Side of Innovative Service

During the 1960’s, except for the Sears Roebuck catalog, store shopping was about the only means for acquiring merchandise. Well, there was the ice cream truck and Farmer Brown who sold their products through the neighborhood. But, they only came through on Saturday, ringing a bell or playing a calliope song like the piped piper. Customers wanted to feel the product to help gauge its quality.

Today, we go online in seconds (without trying to find a parking space). We can go directly to the ite...

Value-Unique Trumps Value-Added

Value-added literally means taking what the customer expects and adding more. As new value is added, up also go the customer expectations setting up a path to a dead-end street. At some point, the additions exceed what is cost-effective. The solution: innovative service (value-unique)! There are unlimited ways to surprise customers. And, there is far more “bang for the buck” in a simple but unexpected surprise than taking the predicted experience and simply adding more. Innovative service tha...

Give Your Customers a Back Door

I watched three deer come into my backyard this week. I live on the banks of a large lake. An inch of snow had made foraging for food more challenging for the deer so they ventured beyond the woods nearby. They seemed cautious and quickly left without any attempt to find food. At first I wondered why their short stay on this quiet early morning. Then, it hit me! They were positioned between my house and the water with no woods at their back to scurry into should they encounter danger.

Customer...

Lessons in Protégé Power: Growing Up Means Stepping Out

Welcome to the fourth and final post in the Protégé Power series. If you missed the first three, you’ll want to catch up by reading one, two and three. If you’re caught up, let’s continue! When we left off from our last post…

Dale takes your affirmation in stride and continues to offer a few more suggestions. However, this time his advice is interspersed with questions . . . as if he were poking through a minefield, using your reactions to the questions as guidance on where to step next.

You ar...

Is Your Customer Experience Like Grape Jelly?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like grape jelly. And, you always get it with your toast or biscuit when you order breakfast at a restaurant…from the five-star gourmet type to the “what’s a star” truck stop. Can you remember the last time you had grape jelly at a restaurant? Probably not. You probably don’t recall the salt and pepper either. And, therein lies the service challenge.

There is nothing really bad about a customer experience that is like grape jelly. It is functional, meets expectations...

Lessons in Protégé Power: Accepting Gifts Without Guilt

Welcome to the third post in the Protégé Power series. If you missed the first two, you’ll want to catch up by readingthisand this. If you’re caught up, let’s continue! When we left off from our last post, Sage was saying to you, the protégé. . .

SAGE: “Let Dale know you’re eager to get into the thick of the mentoring session. Dale needs your signal now.”

YOU: “Dale, I’m feeling really excited about how this session is going. I’d like to throw out a problem I’m having and get your thoughts on h...