Category Archives: Hospitality

September 17, 2025 · 8:30 am

The Rule of Three QUI Principles to Deliver the World’s Best Customer Experience.

The “World’s Best” experience is not as “the World” sees it, but as one customer personally FEELS it.

English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” So, I encourage you to remind yourself and your colleagues every day of

The Rule of Three QUI Principles to Deliver a GREAT Customer Experience.

As a customer service professional, you “think” like the customer. You rationalize the problem as you see it when you resolve any issue. But rather than think like the customer, be just one customer. Don’t just think like the customer, feel like that customer. If you think the product or service is over the top, but your customer feels that it’s ho-hum, then it’s ho-hum. If you feel that the problem is small, but your customer feels it’s A BIG DEAL, then it’s a BIG DEAL!

So, when interacting with customers, you must do more than just think like all of them. You must ”Be the Customer”. Yes, it would be easier for you, but that is not what customers want. Customers, each with their own unique feelings, want it to be easier for them.

QUI PRINCIPLE #1: Be the Customer.

Set aside your rational thinking to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. To earn customer loyalty, don’t get inside their heads. Get inside their hearts. Create an emotional connection. Don’t just think like the customer. Be the customer. Feel ike the customer.

QUI PRINCIPLE #2: Create Their Experience.

First, do everything you can to make sure there are no negative surprises. Eliminate any potential dissatisfiers. For example, remove forbidden phrases such as “I’ll be back in a second,” Can you hold for just a minute?” and “I’ll be right with you.” Such phrases only frustrate a customer when more than 60 seconds go by. Even “I’m new here,” or “I’m in training is a Forbidden Phrase. If your customers are going to pay their hard-earned money, do they want to be served by a rookie? When you say you’re in training, your service is a poor value for the experience you offer. Even more, they don’t care about your experience. All they care about is their experience.

Review all customer touchpoints to identify and neutralize any negative issues. Minimize wait times. Clean dirty restrooms. Create “no hassle” return or exchange policies. Then, as Larry Winget, the Pitbull of Personal Development, puts it, “Do what you said you would do when you said you would do it, the way you said you would do it.” That’s it. It’s that simple.

And when you take action, a negative customer experience has turned into a neutral one. But that’s not good enough. Satisfied customers feel their experience is good, not better, just average. Nobody raves about average. And satisfied customers will leave when they find an experience that is better or a price that is less expensive.

Don’t just serve to meet customer expectations. Serve to exceed their expectations. Serve to WOW them.

Don’t serve to satisfy customers. Don’t treat customers as they would expect to be treated. And don’t treat them as they want to be treated. Instead, treat them a little better than they want to be treated. Serve to WOW them. That said, remember this:

QUI PRINCIPLE #3. Be Magnificently Boring! and Be Magnificently Boring to CARE!

Customer loyalty is not ONE BIG WOW to a customer. It delivers little wows consistently to every customer. So, be Magnificently Boring! Consistently deliver a low-cost, no-cost “a little better than the average experience that customers expect” product or service so tediously repetitive that you feel it is boring, but to the customer, at that moment, you are Magnificent! For retailers, start opening 10 minutes earlier and closing 10 minutes later. For hotels, offer bottled water at arrival and departure. For auto service repair businesses, wash the car before returning the vehicle. For restaurants, personalize the menu with the customers’ names and special occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries.

But being Magnificently Boring may not be good enough for some customers. Remember that customers pay for THEIR experience, not yours. They make purchases with emotion and justify their decisions with reason. They seek the best emotional value in their entire experience, not the minutiae of your logically reasonable best price, product, or service, virtual or physical locations, AI, live chat, or face-to-face customer support, or the many other small details of your experience. If other businesses have delivered Magnificently Boring products or services, technological advances, and AI interactions to their customers, you have to do better.

Customers don’t seek B2B or B2C businesses. They engage in businesses that are H2H. Human to Human. One to One. Heart to Heart. Customers don’t care how big your business is. They only care how much you care about them. So, CARE BIG! Serve to WOW them! Serve to CARE.

COMMUNICATE with every customer with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each customer transparently and interactively of the product’s or service’s function, liabilities, and advantages to them. Listen empathetically to understand the customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.

ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to you and your business.

RESPOND promptly and empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.

ENRICH the experiences and, ultimately, the lives of every customer.

Then, be Magnificently Boring to CARE!

Consistently CARE for your customers so repetitively that you feel it is boring, but to every customer, at that moment, you are Magnificent! And when you do, customers have an emotional connection. The more emotional the connections, the more memorable the experiences, and the more loyal the customers are. Loyal customers will return, again and again, raving about you to others.

Magnificently Boring consistency builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships build loyalty. Loyalty builds your business.

So, remind yourself and your colleagues to
Be Magnificently Boring! and Be Magnificently Boring to CARE!

When you follow the Rule of Three QUI Principles, you will deliver a GREAT customer experience.

________________________________________________________________________________________

#customerservice #customerexperience #custserv #custexp #cx

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The QUI Rule of the Top Three Reasons Why Customers Hate Your Customer Service.

The QUI Rule of the Top Three Reasons Why Customers Hate Your Customer Service. Why only three? Because nobody can remember Number Four.

Although there are several reasons why customers hate your customer service, here is the QUI Rule of the Top Three Reasons Why Customers Hate Your Customer Service.

Not living up to your promises. Employees always opening the store well after the posted time or closing even minutes before “closing time” is a broken promise. An item is not considered a menu or sales item unless you specify a limited quantity.
An attitude of indifference among your employees. One employee can kill your business, and you won’t even know it when it happens. It could be your new employee who can’t answer questions about your product or is ill-equipped to handle customer problems. It may be a long-term employee who carries on a personal conversation with another employee while not acknowledging a customer’s existence in front of them. It may even be you when you fail to promptly respond to an email or phone call from a loyal customer.
Not saying, “Thank you.” Odds are that your company does not have a monopoly on the product or service you sell. Not every customer has to do business with you. If you take their patronage for granted, you are simply saying you are okay with them shopping elsewhere.

Rather than serving poor or satisfactory customer service, earn customer loyalty to be Magnificently Boring to CARE.

COMMUNICATE with every customer with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each customer transparently and interactively about the product’s or service’s function, liabilities, and advantages to them.
ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to you and your business.
RESPOND promptly and empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.
ENRICH the experiences and, ultimately, the lives of every customer.

Consistently CARE for your customers so repetitively that you feel it is boring, but to every customer, at that moment, you are Magnificent! Customers have an emotional connection with you. The more emotional the connections, the more memorable the experiences, and the more loyal the customers are. Loyal customers will return repeatedly, spend more money, and rave about you to others on social media. Consistency builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships build loyalty. Loyalty builds your business. CARE Magnificently!

QUI Takeaway: Be Magnificently Boring to CARE! When you are Magnificently Boring to CARE, your customers are WOWED and happy, intent to return repeatedly, spend more money, and rave about you to others on social media.

#customerservice #customerexperience #custserv #custexp #cx

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Future-proof the customer experience.

Future-proof the customer experience. First, analyze the journey to ask your people, “What are the potential dissatisfiers and how can we remove them?” By taking action, you can turn a negative customer experience into a neutral one. But that’s not good enough. Satisfied customers feel their experience is good, not better, just average. Nobody raves about average. And satisfied customers will leave when they find an experience that is better or at a lower price.

So don’t serve to satisfy customers. Don’t treat customers as they would expect. Don’t treat them as they want to be treated. And don’t treat them as YOU want to be treated. Instead, treat them a little better than they want to be treated. Serve to WOW them.

Ask your customers the Rule of Three questions (Why only three? Because nobody can remember Number Four):

“What happened?”

“How did it make you feel?”

“What if?”

Remember, the customer is not always right. But you want the customer to feel they are always your customer.

Listen and allow the customer to vent. Angry or frustrated customers generally won’t listen to or accept your apology until they have had an opportunity to voice their frustrations.

And listen to their complaints with the intention of taking action, not just explaining. To a customer, when something is wrong, your explanation is an excuse. Customers want action, not excuses.

When you ask, listen intently, respond empathetically, and act promptly to take appropriate corrective action, your customers feel respected, appreciated, and valued. They are WOWED and happy, intent on returning repeatedly, spending more money, and raving to others on social media. Understanding customer needs and innovating to exceed future customer wants will maximize the ROI of CX.

So, always be asking, “What happened?” and “How did it make you feel? Lastly, always be asking, “What if?” Constantly be innovating to future-proof the customer experience.. Don’t be just good. Always be GREAT out there!

#customerservice #customerexperience #custserv #custexp #cx

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Filed under Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Hospitality

Tagged as customer experience, customer loyalty, customer service, Hospitality

January 26, 2023 · 12:00 pm

In hospitality, your people are NOT your most important assets.

In hospitality, your people are NOT your most important assets.

In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins writes that “People are not your most important asset. The right people are.”

Stephen Covey, the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, claims that success in any job is 20% knowledge and 80% interpersonal skills. Ultimately, success in hospitality is all about interpersonal skills.

There are a lot of people wanting to enter the hospitality business. And for an industry set to take advantage of travel and tourism that will be generated by Gen X and baby boomers, that is good news. Unfortunately, while there are people who want to work in hospitality, there are many who simply are not the right people. As a resort general manager who personally interviewed every candidate finalist and as a former college instructor interacting with students and displaced workers from other industries, I feel that many people lack the necessary interpersonal skills because they have grown up or interacted with others in a generation far different from our own.

I am convinced that people can only deliver an experience that they themselves have experienced. In order to succeed in retail, they would have had to personally experience and learn from great examples of others exhibiting stellar interpersonal skills in their day-to-day interactions with travelers and guests.

But those opportunities to learn firsthand from face-to-face interactions have all changed in less than a generation. Not too long ago there was no direct deposit or internet banking. If we wanted to deposit our paycheck, we would have to go weekly to the bank. After a while, the teller got to know who we were, where we worked, what we did there, and regularly asked how work and our company were doing. Remember when gas station attendants checked your oil and tire pressure, cleaned your windshield, and asked you if there was anything else they could do for you for a little over a dollar per gallon? How bad has customer service gotten when we never see an attendant and actually pump our own gas for more than four dollars per gallon?

The average Facebook user today has 338 friends. When a person posts on his or her page, they don’t have a loss of self-esteem when only 50 “like” the post. The other 288 have ignored them and they are OK with that! Today, we have cell phones. But what are many doing with their cell phones? I’m so old I remember someone actually laughing out loud on my phone. Texting is really one-way communication. You don’t hear voice tone or inflection or a pause. In real life, there is no “delete” or “backspace”.

Where is the reinforcement of interpersonal skills in those experiences?

So, the experiences for many people are not full of good examples of emotional intelligence, body language, or verbal communication that only face-to-face interactions can teach. I believe that translates into the real world that is OK to ignore the guest and your co-workers. You don’t have to greet your co-workers every morning or every traveler who walks through the door. Having not experienced often enough good examples of communication, collaboration, or relationship-building skills, how will those people entering hospitality, the people you entrust to travelers and guests, be successful? And if you allow yourself to accept that level of performance as adequate, how will your businesses succeed?

The answer is that you, as manager, are responsible for the education of those who do not have those skills. For you to succeed in this very competitive travel and tourism marketplace, you will need the right people. You will need people who know how to consistently welcome your guests with eye contact and a smile, inform each traveler openly, transparently and interactively, listen and respond empathetically, and bid them a sincere fond farewell. So, you will need to ask the proper interview questions with the specific intent of finding out if the candidates have the necessary skills of expressing sincerity, empathy, and trust. And you will be the one who will have to educate the people you select to deliver that experience for your travelers and guests. Interpersonal skills training cannot simply end after the first-week orientation. It must be consistent and continual. Only then will you build the interpersonal skills of your staff to drive their success and yours.

#customerservice #customerexperience #hospitality #custserv #custexp #cx

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Tagged as Hospitality

December 24, 2022 · 9:00 am

Merriest of Christmases and Happiest of Holidays and New Years!

Ever since I had my stroke in April last year, writing has been literally a labor of love. I hope that you have gained some insight into how to Deliver the World’s Best Customer Experience by not just serving to satisfy customers, but rather to WOW them.

I want to thank each of you for reading my blog this year. I very much appreciate you. In appreciation, and in paying it forward, for this New Year, I don’t wish you good luck in the future. I wish you GREAT success and fortune, literally and figuratively.

Merriest of Christmases and happiest of Holidays and New Years! May your New Year be GREAT out there!

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Filed under Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Employee Engagement, Hospitality, Leadership, Training

Tagged as customer experience, customer service, Employee Engagement, Hospitality, leadership

May 2, 2021 · 6:00 am

Three Steps to Proactive Customer Service

Too often, businesses focus solely on the negative feedback from their customer surveys in CSI fashion, identifying the pain points and taking the steps to eliminate them. While this reactive analysis is critical, it is just as important to embrace a proactive approach, taking as much time examining the positive comments for clues in the experiences that customers raved about in their surveys. Here are three steps you can take to move from reactive to proactive customer service.

STEP ONE: Thank ALL customers who gave you survey feedback. Businesses do a good job at responding with a “mea culpa” message to customers who were dissatisfied. But in this age of opt-in privacy guidelines, many do not reply to customers who offer complimentary feedback. That is just wrong. If you were my customer, and you say to me, “You were great! Thank you very much” and I don’t respond, you would think I was downright rude. My bad manners would certainly taint your perception of my previous excellent service. And would you say anything to me in the future? So how do you think your customers feel when you don’t send a response to their surveys?

Remember that people buy from people they know, like, trust AND want their business. The best way to show customers you want their business is by saying thank you. Acknowledging a customer’s positive remarks begins to build a relationship. I would send a letter to customers which, in part, said,

I thanked the individual personally, included your comments in our weekly internal newsletter and forwarded it to our corporate team so they could recognize the employee on your behalf. Please let me know when you return so that I might meet you and thank you in person.

Many of them did just that and they have been loyal guests ever since. If you aren’t responding to all feedback, start today.

STEP TWO: Recognize employees who have earned positive comments. If you want your employees to make it a habit to deliver exceptional service, you need to make it a habit to thank them when they do. Thank them in person and publicly. I forwarded to everyone any email I received from a customer who raved about an employee. We posted positive comments in our social media private group, created a slideshow of the positive comments with a photo of those employees and played it on mounted backstage big screen monitors, and included the comments in our weekly e-newsletter. Remember that what gets recognized gets repeated. So acknowledge your people regularly.

STEP THREE: Brainstorm with your employees to define if there are steps everyone can take to have raveable moments happen more often. In most organizations, there are a few superstars that earn more raves from their customers. Get them together and ask them what works for them in creating an emotional connection with their customers. We found out that our superstars would look for cues, such as a familiar city or state, team logos on caps or shirts, or guests celebrating a special occasion. When these employees took the time to move from transaction to interaction, customers were happier and more inclined to let us know that. Generate ideas and educate others to replicate the opportunities to deliver outstanding service.

QUI TAKEAWAY: Spend as much time analyzing the positive customer comments from your surveys as you do the negative ones. Recognize the actions of your employees who have delivered exceptional customer service. And seek to identify the methods they used so that they might be practiced by all employees. Practice these three steps consistently and you will certainly earn more rave reviews.

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April 25, 2021 · 6:00 am

Lessons from the Pandemic to Improve Your Customer Experience Now

When first confronted with this pandemic we moved quickly to identify the high risks for our employees and our customers and then worked to define the action steps required to minimize those risks. We got everyone involved at all levels of the organizations, followed local, state, and federal guidelines which changed week-to-week, and innovated, looking at every possible solution to keep us safe. Within the hospitality industry, we considered everything from hand sanitizers to Plexiglas shields, from floor and door decals to HVAC filters, reallocating the funds to cover the costs. We sought recommendations from experts, vendors, and our competitors to see what they were doing in response. We established protocols when someone was sick or had symptoms. What would have taken many months to implement for any other initiative took only a few weeks. Many of us had to make the difficult decisions to reassign, furlough or lay off employees. We had to make many necessary, yet tough decisions, but we did not hesitate because the need for quick action was crucial.

We can learn from the processes we took during this pandemic to establish the same steps to reassess and create our customer experience in what is the new normal. While improving customer experience is not literally life and death, without offering a good experience we stand the chance to lose the customer forever.

With restrictions being lifted and vaccinations for everyone available soon, now is the best time to assert yourself to reinvent your customer experience. As a direct result of the pandemic, customer expectations have changed dramatically. So, the experience before the pandemic is no longer good enough. Take this time now to make a similar determined effort to evaluate what needs to be done to offer an experience that is simply better than before the pandemic.

QUI Customer Experience Strategies from the Pandemic

Define who is the CX Champion and the key players on the CX team. In our case, during the pandemic, the champions were the director of housekeeping and director of loss prevention because they were responsible for guest and employee safety. Pre-COVID, the CX team may have been directed by the marketing leader. Now is the time to ask yourself who should champion customer experience improvement. Who is the leader of the team who has the most face-to-face customer interactions that can create a raveable customer experience? Be sure to include as co-champions and team members the employees who interact daily with your customers. Choose the group’s internal social influencers so that the message can be amplified throughout the organization.

Identify the experts who deliver an exceptional customer experience. Mystery shop your competitors in person and online. Google the Top Ten Best list, not only in your industry but also in the business category where your customers buy products or services. Is there any idea you can CASE and tweak to make it your own? For example, CASEing the practice of complimentary beverages on an airline flight, we began offering bottled water to guests who were checking in AND when they were checking out. With daily housekeeping services being suspended during the pandemic, the bottled water served as our “peak-end” experience enhancement.

Assess every position. Is the job description of each employee pre-COVID the right job now? In hospitality, for example, could a front desk position be changed to be a pre-arrival concierge calling multiple-day stay Guests to offer their assistance in planning sightseeing activities, making restaurant reservations or celebrating a special occasion? Does each role in your business enhance the customer experience or can it be modified to give customers a better one?

Allocate resources. Review each budget line item. Given the new environment, is that the best use of the appropriation? Is it time to consider upgrading to a customer relationship management application instead of using the contact feature in Outlook?

Involve everyone. As you did in announcing the safety protocols, make sure you publicize internally the action steps and outcomes of your focus on customer experience improvement. Create a channel, whether it is via email, a private Facebook or Yammer group, or a “What are you hearing” voice mailbox to constantly solicit for staff feedback. And make sure you share the feedback and let them know what you are doing as a result. Without the involvement of every employee, there is no commitment to maintaining the newly defined customer experience standards.

Continually remind your people. During the pandemic, we plastered doors and floors with social distancing decals, and walls with CDC guidelines posters. At our hotel, we had safety reminders run on the guest in-house TV channel and on the employee backstage TV channel. Safety reminders were part of the daily 15-minute staff huddle and the weekly e-newsletter. Use the same methods to continually remind your team of your foundational values and daily performance standards. Repeat it everywhere and often to make it stick.

QUI TIP: Maintain a sense of urgency. Choose a date like June 1 or July 4 to define the internal reopening of your establishment with the “new normal” customer experience. Back plan action steps using that date.

QUI TAKEAWAY: At the start of this pandemic, we all worked with a real sense of urgency, innovated, spent money, and elevated our safety game. Now is a great time for you and your team to put in as much critical thought and intense energy to revamping your customer experience.

Social Media is Bad for Customer Service

Social media is bad for customer service. Whether ranting or raving, customers are telling stories online about businesses whether those businesses are listening or not. With customers using platforms like Twitter and Facebook to complain loudly and sometimes virally to the world, companies have had to add resources to respond accordingly. But I am not against monitoring social media or using it as a responsive customer service channel. On the contrary, I believe social media has been literally and figuratively priceless for small businesses. Those businesses offering exceptional customer service don’t build their brand through advertising. Their customers build it for them via their raves on social media.

So, it is critical to know how to respond on social media, especially to the rants from dissatisfied customers. If you feel you need to get better at social customer service, don’t look to me for advice. If you want to become a millionaire, don’t ask me. I am not a millionaire. I’d tell you to go to Las Vegas or play the lottery. If you want to become a millionaire, ask people who have worked hard to earn a million dollars.

If you want to get better at social customer service, I would recommend the experts who have “been there, done that” like Marsha Collier, Jay Baer and Dan Gingiss. Or be sure to read “Delivering Effective Social Customer Service” by Carolyn Blunt and Martin Hill-Wilson.

When I say social media is bad for customer service, it is because, for retail, hospitality, healthcare, and other bricks-and-mortar customer service positions, it has created a pool of candidates who are lacking in the social skills to connect with and please customers. Millennials have already overtaken Baby Boomers as America’s largest generation. By 2025, Millennials will comprise 75 percent of the global workforce.

While today’s technology can create the opportunities to personalize customer service, it is still up to a person to deliver it. Yet this incoming generation can only deliver to the level of service that they themselves have experienced. And their experience has mainly been without in-person interaction. Text messaging and social media have made their interactions one-way communication. Baby Boomers have cellphones, and the subsequent generations have cell phones. But what is Gen X, Gen Y or Millennials doing on their cell phones? “OMG. LOL.” No real live conversations. I’m so old I remember hearing on my phone someone actually laughing out loud. I contend two text monologues do not make a real dialog. Texting is one-way communication. You don’t hear voice tone or inflection. Even a pause is dubious. Was it because they were thinking about what you said or is it because they got busy with something else for a minute?

Likewise, a post and a reply on Facebook do not make for real dialog. The average Facebook user today has 338 friends. When people post on their page, they have no loss of self-esteem when only eight “like” the post. The other 330 have ignored them – and they are OK with that! Even those that “like” the post rarely leave a comment to begin an interaction. A meager “thumbs up” is all the acknowledgement given to a friend. Really?

Despite all the buzz about how social media keeps people connected, social media is not really social. Look around you. Social media and text messaging have turned people into digital zombies. Walk into your staff break room and see what is going on. Did anyone even look up to acknowledge you? Do you hear any real conversations going on?

At the same time, retail technology in the form of self-service or contactless purchases may have made it more convenient for the customer, but it eliminated the human connection.

As a result, the experiences for many people are not full of good examples of emotional intelligence, body language or verbal communication that only face-to-face interactions can teach. I believe that translates in a real world where it is OK to ignore our co-workers and worse, ignore the customer. Many don’t feel it is important to greet our co-workers every morning or every customer who walks through the door.

People buy from people they know, like and trust. Likeability is perceived by a smile. Trustability is driven by eye contact. Yet, self-service technology and social media have reduced the number of human interactions for potential candidates to not only experience it for themselves but also to understand the value of its importance. Having not experienced good examples of communication, collaboration or relationship-building skills, how will your people whom you entrust to take care of your customers emotionally connect with them? And if you allow yourself to accept that such a level of emotionless transactions is adequate, how will your business build customer loyalty to succeed? Remember that satisfied customers are not necessarily loyal ones.

QUI CUSTOMER SERVICE LEADERSHIP STRATEGY

For you to succeed in this very competitive marketplace, you will need the right people. You will need people who know how to consistently welcome your customers with eye contact and a smile, listen and respond empathetically, and bid them a sincere fond farewell. You should not assume that every candidate who applies for your open positions will do that just because you put it into your job ad. Finding and keeping the right people starts with the selection process to welcoming them at first day orientation and continues every day thereafter for as long as they are with you.

As the manager, always remind yourself that you are only as good as the people who surround you. Your success is dependent on you identifying the right people among all the candidates by asking the proper interview questions with the specific intent of finding out if the candidates have the skills or potential to express sincerity, empathy and trust. The STAR interview process will better be able to identify the right candidate than the standard interview questionnaire.

Take ownership for the education of those you select to deliver the experience your customers are expecting. That education starts on the first day. Of course, you need to introduce the policies and rules required by your legal department or the state. But the first day should be as much, and I contend should be more about your company mission, values and performance standards. And that message should not be delivered by the Human Resources onboarding specialist. It should be delivered by the highest-ranking operations manager to convey the critical role your employees play in driving customer satisfaction. That manager, ideally the CEO, should convey the message that when employees interact with an individual customer, they ARE the company to that customer. As the general manager, I scheduled myself for every orientation to explain that with every single customer interaction, we were expecting them to commit to “Be the Company”. I shared a video of the CEO of the company headquartered in another state reinforcing that commitment to end orientation.

Customer service training cannot be a “Day One and Done” kind of thing. Soft skills reinforcement must be continuous. Define forbidden phrases like “No problem,” or “Sure, you bet,” and offer the proper alternatives. Role-play recent customer situations and the best responses. Explain the service recovery process and empowerment guidelines. Build in frequent opportunities to remind your team what great customer service looks like. Whether it is a daily 15-minute huddle or weekly update e-mail newsletter, be sure to reinforce often your customer service performance standards. Repeat it often to make it stick.

Regularly ask “What are you hearing?” to get feedback from those who are directly interacting with your customers. Listen, act, and let them know what you did.

And if you want your employees to make it a habit to deliver outstanding customer service, you need to make it a habit to thank them when they do. For example, share customer feedback and rave reviews you earn on Yelp or TripAdvisor with everyone.

QUI TAKEAWAY: Select the right people. Educate them on what great customer service looks like in your business. And then continually remind and recognize them when they deliver it. Only then will you strengthen the interpersonal skills of your staff to drive their success and yours.

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Filed under Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Hospitality, Training

Tagged as customer experience, customer service

October 14, 2019 · 6:00 am

Stacy Sherman: Yelp and SMS Turn Restaurant Experience from Mediocre to Great

This week’s post is from Stacy Sherman, a results-oriented Customer Experience (CX) and Digital Marketing professional with a proven track record increasing brand awareness, sales, and loyalty at B2C & B2B companies of all sizes and budgets. She’s worked on both the client side and agency environments leading projects for well-known Telcom companies (AT&T and Verizon) along with other reputable brands (Martha Stewart Crafts, American Girl, Perler Beads). Throughout her 20+ career, Stacy has gained expertise in developing and launching revenue-producing marketing campaigns, Customer Experience (CX) programs, and Voice of Customer (VOC) initiatives, as well as maximizing conversions through proven optimization techniques. Stacy is currently Director of Customer Experience (CX) at a global company, Schindler Elevator Corporation. Stacy continues to infuse customer centricity in all initiatives to cultivate profitability along with “close the loop” processes for ongoing success. Stacy’s contact information appears below her post. I highly recommend subscribing to her customer experience blog, Doing CX Right.

How many times have you gone to a restaurant that does not take reservations and felt frustrated about the wait time? If you’re like me, it is too many to count.

While many companies tend to focus on customer experiences at the point people are actually using products and receiving services, brand perception and customer judgments occur much earlier in the customer journey. People don’t care if there are internal company process challenges. If expectations are not met, customers will go elsewhere.

With the advent of technology and mobile applications like Yelp, companies can improve customer experiences and proactively address common customer pain points before they occur. My recent restaurant experience provides a great example of this.

Using Yelp to Save Time
Egan & Sons does not take reservations. However, they told me when I called that I could save time using Yelp. The app displays an estimated wait time to help in deciding whether to go to the restaurant and a choice to “check-in” to join the waitlist before driving to the restaurant. Having never seen this before, and always looking to save time, I was delighted to have this option.

Making the Journey Easier
After filling out the Yelp online form, the app displayed how many parties were ahead of me. That information helped me determine when to drive to the restaurant. While there was only one other person joining me for dinner, I did notice a useful feature within the app to share the wait time with others. I like that capability and the overall usability. Moreover, I noticed how easy and pleasant my dining experience felt before I even sat down to eat.

Just before I arrived at the restaurant, I received an SMS text to my phone informing me that my table was ready and I should check-in with the host. Within minutes, I was seated and ordering my dinner. Though my story pertains to the restaurant industry specifically, there are key lessons about DoingCXRight that apply to all companies:

Communication is an Important Driver of Customer Satisfaction
I really liked knowing how long my wait time was via the app and receiving a text notification that my table was ready.

Level of Effort is a Great Measurement of Customer Experience
It was EASY for me to request and get a table despite a large crowd. Without technology (both SMS and Yelp) I would have missed out on a great restaurant experience. And the restaurant would have missed out on my business. While I didn’t use the feature, the app allows people the option to leave the waitlist without difficulty (just a click of a button on my phone) making the entire experience simple. I will definitely use it again!

Employees Must Deliver on Promises
Based on the SMS text I received, I had an expectation to be seated right away. Upon my arrival, the host followed through without any wait creating a satisfying, wow moment.

Personalization Improves Cautomer Experiences
The app knew it was my first time checking in and provided me relevant content. It showed “check out reviews while you wait” along with food recommendations from past visitors. This is a great idea, especially because the restaurant has four stars and over 300 reviews.

Stacy Sherman
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stacysherman
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacysherman
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Blog: http://www.doingcxright.com/

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Filed under Customer Service, Hospitality

June 19, 2017 · 6:00 am

Two Questions Every Customer Service Manager Should Be Asking Everyday

Your most important assets are not your customers and your employees. It’s how your customers and your employees feel about your company. Your success as a customer service manager is directly proportional to your ability to drive simultaneously customer satisfaction and employee engagement. Happy employees are inclined to go above and beyond for your customers. And when your customers feel they are cared for, they will return. You can’t satisfy customers with disengaged employees. Start there first. So what can you do to ensure your employees are engaged? As a first step, begin by asking at least one employee these two questions every day:

What are you hearing? You cannot even begin to satisfy customers until you remove all the potential dissatisfiers within the customer experience. The American Customer Satisfaction Index found that the response rates for electronic surveys were averaging between 5% and 15% . So if surveys are your only source of feedback, then at the most, you personally know 15% of all your customers’ angst. If you are interacting with customers while you supervise employees, you may know between 20 – 50% of your customers’ dissatisfiers. But your employees know 100% of your customers complaints and concerns because your customers tell them everyday. So find out what they are hearing and act to systematically remove any potential dissatisfiers.

What can I do for you? Jan Carlzon, former CEO of SAS Airlines and author of the book, Moments of Truth said, “If you’re not serving the customer, your job is to be serving someone who is.” To serve the customer, your employees need the empowerment, tools and resources to take care of their customers. Without the tools and resources, they will not feel empowered to solve customer complaints or respond to customer questions. As much as you want your employees to fulfill your customers’ needs, you need to serve your employees to fulfill theirs. So at the end of every employee conversation, whether it is a group setting or a one-to-one conversation, ask, “What can I do for you?” Listen and then act on their suggestions. Seriously weigh every suggestion, no matter how small you might think it might be. If they mentioned it to you, it is a BIG DEAL to them. Otherwise they wouldn’t have said anything. And if it’s a BIG DEAL to them, it should be a BIG DEAL to you. Whether you are able to implement their suggestion or not, always personally get back promptly to the individual employee who offered the suggestion. It will reinforce their perception that you are committed to their success, as much as you are to your customers’ satisfaction.

QUI TAKEAWAY: The biggest complaint from employees of their managers and supervisors is a lack of communication. Ask these two questions every day to generate a flow of ideas to continually improve the employee and customer experience. Then act on the feedback you receive to drive engagement and empower your employees to deliver exceptional service that your customers will rave about to you and others.