Chip R. Bell's Blog, page 6
August 21, 2018
Are Your Customers ‘Gluten Intolerant’?
My brother and his wife and their two grown children with spouses and children are spending the weekend with us. With my reputation as Mr. Customer Service on the line, we want to be the “hostess with the mostest.” My brother’s son-in-law is gluten intolerant. It carries special exceptions when planning all meals. And, it has driven us to sections of the grocery store we never visit.
We have learned a lot about this culinary restriction. There is such a thing as gluten-free bread. Sounds to...
August 14, 2018
Preparing for ‘Lightning’ in Your Customer Experience
It was a sudden storm, one that blew up with little warning. I was in the hardware store near my home. Strong wind and driving rain falling at greater than a 45-degree angle caused me to worry about getting out to my car in the parking lot without becoming soaked. Then, a bolt of lightning hit nearby. The thunder that instantly followed sounded like a bomb in a warzone. The entire store went dark; everything stood still and silent.
But then emergency lights came on. Seconds later the store...
August 7, 2018
Applying the ’23 MPH Principle’ to Your Customer Experience
Walk into the lobby of the five-star Mansion on Turtle Creek hotel in Dallas and the first thing you notice are the extraordinary flowers in the middle of the lobby. They do not look like they came from the local nursery; they look like they came from the jungle.
Order a fruit plate at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles and it might contain something unexpected–passion fruit, heirloom figs, or slices of kumquat.
Weston Hotels sport everywhere a signature fresh memorable fragrance called white t...
July 31, 2018
The Magic of Willowy Customer Service
The straight-line winds came through the area at 60 miles per hour. Giant pines, maples and pin oaks came crashing to the ground. But, all the tall willow trees remained standing.
It was my neighbor’s nearby property in the mountains of North Georgia. Our property sits in a valley on the river bank so it was spared the destruction. I wondered about the willow’s story, especially since they have shallow roots just like the trees that bit the dust.
Willow trees are, well, willowy. Instead of r...
July 24, 2018
Are You a Disruptor?
“If I had asked customers what they wanted,” Henry Ford is rumored to have said, “They would have said faster horses.”
Now, before you fire your market research person, it is important to remember Henry Ford’s arrogance about customers also lead him to chide, “Customers can have any color automobile 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 a competitive advantage.
What do Bill Marr...
July 17, 2018
Give Customers an Uncloudy Day
As many times as I have sung the song in church, I never paid much attention to the implications of the words of the old Protestant song entitled “Uncloudy Day.” We don’t use that phrase anymore—days are either clear, partly cloudy, or cloudy. But, the backstory is of the title is contained in the lyric, “where no storm clouds rise.” An uncloudy day is one free of the stress that storms are coming.
Customers long for service like an uncloudy day. And, they are always on the lookout for signal...
July 10, 2018
Do You Want Fan, or Air Conditioned Customer Service?
The air conditioning system broke in the little country church we attend when we have a getaway weekend to our North Georgia river house. It was a hotter than normal day, even for the normally cool mountain area. So, the church ceiling fans were turned on! It was an improvement, but clearly not the same. It reminded me of customer service…but, then most things do!!
A fan moves the hot air around much like a sudden breeze on a hot July day. It is temporary and superficial, accomplished through...
July 3, 2018
‘Elegance Without Warmth is Arrogance’
The pinnacle of culinary excellence is arguably a meal prepared at the renowned Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. This institution is to food what Juilliard is to music. The world’s greatest chefs come here to learn their profession. Meals are prepared and served in one of several restaurants open to the public. Food presentation is much like the unveiling of a masterpiece or the premier of a magnificent symphony. Every morsel is a carnival for taste buds. Sight, sound, smell,...
June 26, 2018
Build a Balm in Customer Service
It happened in a large field after it started to rain. Three hundred people were in make-shift tents or thin ponchos on rural property owned by David Hill. It was a chilly night in late March and people huddled to keep warm. They were on a historic journey. All day they had been harassed and threatened by as the brave crowd walked along a 54-mile stretch of Highway 80 from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The year was 1965.
Some spoke of abandoning the march to the Alabama capitol steps to prote...
June 20, 2018
A New Model to Explain Remote Leadership
Guest post, by Kevin Eikenberry
Most people will agree that remote leadership feels very different from the way we’ve always worked in the past. It’s easy to point to factors like a lack of eye contact, or the inability to get answers to questions in a hurry to demonstrate the point. But how different is leading remotely, really? A new model may help answer that question.
In the book, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership Wayne Turmel and I created a model to help r...
