Chip R. Bell's Blog, page 3
August 11, 2020
Getting Your Customers and Employees to Whistle in the Dark
As a young boy, I spent about as much time at my grandparents’ home a quarter mile away as I did at my own. We lived in the country and a rural highway separated our houses. Sometimes, I stayed with my granddaddy after sundown and had to walk home in the dark. As a six-year old with an imagination as big as Texas, it was very scary. I remember asking my granddaddy to drive me home in his truck. But he had a bigger lesson in mind.
“You are a big boy now and the road home during the daytime is n...
August 4, 2020
Customer Service: A Path to Burnout or Breakthrough – Guest Post by Eileen McDargh
All our businesses depend upon the good will, continued support, and referrals of external as well as internal customers. But, how we serve and care for each other in our enterprises will ultimately be reflected in those clients who pay the bills.
In May 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed burnout in its classification of occupational hazards. Around the globe, all manner of industries were reporting high levels of exhaustion, loss of productivity, cynicism, and disengagement. Fa...
July 21, 2020
How to Get Really Great Customer Service
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 getting really great customer service.
Check Your Pessimism at the Door
Enter the service scene with the expectation that greatness is about to happen and that it should happen to you. Visualize being...
July 7, 2020
Is Your Customer’s Experience Fresh?
William Shatner is a part of my morning start-your-engines. At least most mornings. At 6 a.m. with a cup of fresh hazelnut black coffee, my wife and I watch a few minutes of the news. It gives our day a fresh, up-to-date beginning. Most days, William Shatner does a TV ad for SoClean, the appliance for cleaning CPAP machines. The word you take away from the ad is “fresh,” spoken like Captain Kirk got an A in speech class. With full-throated “fresh” engraved in my brain, I think about customers’ e...
June 23, 2020
Nurturing Perennial Customers
The daffodils and crocus flowers greeted me this sunny morning as I walked out into the side yard. It was as if they were showing off their best behavior, aimed at enriching my life. They are my friends. They come back every year and seem to thank me for serving them well. We make sure the beautiful flowers are fertilized, weeded, and watered under the watchful eye of a landscaper and a reliable sprinkler system. It ensures they remain perennials, returning every year with their beauty.
Your c...
June 9, 2020
Are You a Protestor or a Champion?
It started and ended with wine and cheese on the veranda overlooking a manicured lawn. The black gardener had just finished mowing the lawn before the six ladies arrived in their luxury SUVs. In the middle of their chit-chat about the country club menu and the latest find at the flower shop, the subject of the protests came up. “I think we should do something about it,” said one woman as she took another sip of Chardonnay. “We could get Betty to make us some signs and we could all go together t...
June 1, 2020
George Floyd is Our Neighbor
The Good Samaritan is a story of kindness widely known across all faiths, not just those anchored to the New Testament. But, in many ways the back story is particularly instructive during these chaotic days of riots in the streets over racial prejudice and social injustice.
The story starts with the words: “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” That route was seventeen miles long descending steeply over two thousand feet and very difficult, rocky terrain.
The parable conti...
May 26, 2020
Today’s Customers Want a Barefooted Cowboy
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Yes, that photo is really me at eight years old with my younger cousin, Rick Bell. Rick was from Savannah and would come to visit me for a week at my rural home almost every summer. We pretty much lived in the woods and didn’t even turn “cowboys” off when we came to the dinner table. Two things to notice about this photo. I’m barefooted, and I’m wearing twin pearl-handled pistols. We only had one cowboy hat, so we took turns wearing it.
When you Google images of wholesomeness and genuineness...
May 12, 2020
The Quiet Power of “Please Don’t Buy from Us”
Pearl Harbor changed everything. The U.S. had managed to stay out of World War II for two years. It started in September 1939. But then, Japanese planes invaded Honolulu on December 7, 1941—a day that will live in infamy. Suddenly, the business of business became the business of war.
During World War II, 17 million new civilian jobs were created, industrial productivity increased by 96 percent, and corporate profits after taxes doubled. Much of the industrial world retooled to support the troo...
April 28, 2020
What the Ospreys Taught Me
We live on the banks of a large lake. Very early one morning, two giant birds with wingspans of almost five feet across landed in our backyard near the water’s edge. We are accustomed to seeing ospreys on platforms atop sky-high power poles. They are protected, and the power company aids their nesting by adding the platforms. But, we had never had these visitors in our yard. Using their talons, they grabbed a stick or a bunch of straw and headed to the top of a nearby large tree. It was breathta...
