English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” So, I encourage you to remind your colleagues, people, and yourself of one of the QUI QUOTES for QUI TAKEAWAYS. With that in mind, here is today’s:
QUI TAKEAWAY: To customers, their perception is reality, image is everything, and their feelings are the facts.
It’s not about what you THINK AFTER their experience. It’s about how your customers FEEL DURING their experience.
When it comes to their experience and your service, don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!
“No other country in the developed world has “for-profit” health insurance. And you know what, that’s why they have lower healthcare costs than we do. Their people aren’t burdened with the cost of supporting billionaire health insurance executives millionaires who work for them.” Dr. Thom Hartmann
For many years, there has been a stranglehold of the “Profits over People” mentality among health insurance CEOs. These profiteering leaders care more about Medicare reimbursements, pharmaceutical costs, their patients’ payments, and their profits than they do about their patients.
Last year, the health insurance industry reported $70.7 billion in profits while 41% of Americans are stuck with medical debt.
Listening to the sweet cha-ching sound of profits, these health insurance CEOs do not hear the complaints of their emotionally and financially distressed patients. They care more about their profits and could not care less about their patients.
Well, no more! Let’s be revolutionary to improve the patient experience. Let’s not allow corporate health insurance CEOs to be the middlemen between patients and doctors, Medicare, and pharmaceutical companies. Ultimately, the lives of patients and caregivers will be enriched.
This is our time. Let’s be revolutionary! Let’s make healthcare reform GREAT out there! Vive la Revolution!
On January 20, 2025, “We, the People” of our United States, under Constitutional Law, declare our independence from the cohort of health insurance CEOs and billionaire corporate CEOs like Elon Musk, Day One dictator wannabe Donald Trump, his MAGA Nation oligarchy.
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 about each one of The Rule of Three QUI TAKEAWAYS to Customer Service and Customer Experience. Because nobody can remember Number Four.
I am here to tell you that if you’re not in the Top Three, you don’t even exist in the minds of your potential customers. Here’s why. Who was the first president of the United States? Of course, George Washington. Who was Number Four? Who was the first person on the moon? Neil Armstrong. But who was Number Four?
Why do we have so much difficulty remembering who is Number Four? It’s because most of us can only easily remember up to three things. In the very beginning, only three TV channels used only three letters: ABC, NBC, and CBS. How many wishes do you get from a genie? When you were in school, what did they teach you if you were ever to catch on fire? Stop, Drop, and Roll. If good things come in threes, what does that make Number Four?
By the way, the answers to who was Number Four were James Madison and Alan Bean.
But I digress. Here are The Rule of Three QUI TAKEAWAYS to Customer Service and Customer Experience:
QUI TAKEAWAY: You are happy because customers were satisfied with their purchase of your product or service. But that’s not good enough. Satisfied customers feel that their experience was good, not better, just average. Nobody raves about average. And satisfied customers will not return as soon as they find a better experience or a less expensive price.
So, don’t just serve to sell your products or services to customers. And don’t just serve to satisfy customers. Instead, serve to WOW them. Serve to CARE.
COMMUNICATE with each customer with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each customer transparently and interactively of the product’s or service’s function, benefits, liabilities, and advantages to them.
ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to you and your company.
RESPOND empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.
ENRICH the experiences of every customer.
And when you CARE, each customer feels respected, appreciated, and valued. They are WOWED and happy, intent on returning repeatedly, spending more money, and raving to others on social media.
QUI TAKEAWAY: Customers pay for their experience, not your product or service. And it’s THEIR experience, not yours. They buy with emotion and justify their decision with reason. Customers seek the best emotional value in their entire experience, not the minutia of your logically reasonable best prices, products, or services.
The best emotional value to customers is in your personalized interactions with them, not their “cash or credit” sales transactions with you.
The customer’s relationship with you, not their purchase of your product, is the conduit where true customer experience value flows.
To you, relationship capital is the only real currency of value to grow your business. So, when it comes to your customers and you and your business, think RELATIONSHIPS or Go Broke. Literally.
QUI TAKEAWAY: Customer loyalty is not one BIG WOW to a customer. It’s one little wow delivered consistently to every customer. And when you consistently deliver a little wow, you transform an average, satisfactory customer experience into a positively WOW Experience.
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 repetitively 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. Customers have an emotional connection with you. The more emotional the connections, the more memorable the experiences, and the more loyal the customers are. Your loyal customers will return repeatedly, spend more money, and rave to others about you on social media. Consistency builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships build loyalty. Loyalty builds your business. Deliver consistency Magnificently!
Every morning, when you prepare your customer CARE people to engage and WOW your customers, I encourage you to remind your people during the daily briefing by reciting one of your favorite QUI TAKEAWAYS. In the end, you say, “Don’t be just good”, and everyone responds loudly in unison. “Be GREAT out there!”
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 of this:
QUI TAKEAWAY: In their book, The Experience Economy, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore define “Work is theater and every business a stage.” If you were an actor delivering a great live theatrical performance, the audience becomes wrapped up in the experience and as they walk out of the theater, they tell their friends that it was the best thing they’ve enjoyed in a long time.
It does not matter to the audience that the actors are performing for the 100th time. The audience has paid very good money to see the show and expects the actors to deliver their performance with the same passion as on opening night. Your customers expect nothing less. As it is in Great Theater, you have to “act it like you mean it”. Do not confuse this with “fake it till you make it”. Your customers, like any audience, can see right through that kind of performance. Do you always feel like working every day, five days a week, 8-10 hours a day, on your birthday, holidays, or even on scheduled days off? Of course not. But do you think the customer really cares how you feel? Absolutely not! No customer walks into your establishment and says, “Dissatisfy me now”. So you have to deliver Great Theater every day whether you feel like it or not.
When you perfect the delivery of the script, you perfect your performance. Break down your customer experience, act it like you mean it, and deliver Great Theater. For example:
ACT ONE. Scene One.
The Customer enters from offstage.
SERVICE PROVIDER: “Good afternoon, how may I help you?”
Motivation: Never say “May I help you?” If the customer is standing in front of you, he obviously needs help or he would have bypassed you completely.
CUSTOMER: “I believe I have a reservation. Last name is Smith.”
SERVICE PROVIDER: “Yes, Mr. Smith, we’ve been expecting you. Welcome to The Best.”
Direction: Maintain eye contact for at least seven seconds and smile as you say your lines.
Motivation:
As Dale Carnegie says in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” So start with the customer’s name.
What do you think is the very first question running through the mind of a customer when coming up to an airline counter, front desk, host stand, or reception desk? That question is, “I wonder if they have my reservation?” So to establish a great first impression, incorporate this statement into your welcome, “We’ve been expecting you.” It immediately removes that mental dissatisfier and puts the customer at ease.
Follow that up with the name of your business.
Let it all flow together.
“Mr. Smith” (you’re very important to us). “We’ve been expecting you.” (No need to worry about your reservation. We have it.) “Welcome to . . .” (Where did Mr. Smith feel the most comfortable in interacting with a company? With you, of course. )
Define each scene in the customer experience and practice it often offstage. Never practice on the customer. Role-play with your colleagues. Then perform your role so well that all your customers say to themselves and others that your service was the best that they have enjoyed in a long time. And when you deliver that kind of Great Theater performance consistently, you will build repeat business and customer loyalty.
QUI QUOTE: GREAT Service is GREAT Theater. Don’t fake it till you make it. Act it like you mean it. Don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!
QUI TAKEAWAY: You can’t satisfy customers with disengaged employees. Start there. CARE for your people first.
COMMUNICATE openly, interactively, frequently, and continuously any information your people need and want to know. Listen empathetically to their concerns, questions, and complaints. Express compassion and encouragement.
APPRECIATE your people’s roles and responsibilities.
RECOGNIZE and offer accolades for team and individual accomplishments and acts of service.
EMPOWER people to make the right decisions for themselves, their colleagues, and others.
When you CARE for your people, they will feel respected, appreciated, and valued. With your support and encouragement, you will inspire and empower them to develop, not the business, but themselves and engage others. When you create a GREAT experience for your people, they will do the same for customers. Soon, without a focus on profits, profits will grow. The experiences and lives of everyone, your people and their customers and you and your business, will be enriched.
English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed”. So, this week, I encourage you to remind yourself and your colleagues of this:
Customers pay for their experience, not your product or service. They buy with emotion and justify their decision with reason. Customers seek the best emotional value in their experience, not your logically reasonable best price, product, or service. When they complain, they don’t complain about the price. They complain about the value of their experience for the price that you’re asking them to pay. On the flip side, when customers seek the best value in their experience, they will pay, no matter the price.
QUI TAKEAWAY: It’s not about the good service you render. It’s about the GREAT experience your customers remember. Don’t just be good. Be GREAT out there!
In 1976, while I was a 20-year-old student at Santa Clara University, CA, I became a part-time charter associate of Marriott’s Great America Theme Park. After graduating from college two years later, I joined Marriott Hotels and until 2021, I’ve been in full-service and luxury hotels and resorts. There was no such thing as CX, but I was doing more than serving to satisfy guests. I wanted them to have a “better than the average” experience that guests expected. So I served to WOW them. I served to CARE (Communicate. Acknowledge. Respond. Enrich). Big difference.
As a general manager/managing director for 27 of 43 years in hospitality, I planned to retire and be a customer CARE speaker, but, then, everything went south. Unfortunately, I suffered a stroke in April 2021. Overnight, I dropped from Mr. “Let’s be GREAT out there!” to Mr. Invisible. I have slurred speech and a dead right side. I hope to recover soon if my unconscious mind is willing.
Today, I can tell you that growing up and getting older are not the same. Growing up is looking forward to what is to come. Getting older is looking back at what might have been. When I was growing up wrapped up in the busyness of the business, I listened to my mental radio station WII-FM, focusing on “What’s in it for me?” Now, as I am not only getting old but already there, my focus is oh, so different.
Mark Sanborn has said, “You don’t need a title to be a leader”. So, I aspire to be a servant leader who will CARE for others.
COMMUNICATE openly, transparently, interactively, and frequently any information people need and want to know. Listen empathetically to the people’s suggestions, concerns, and complaints. Express compassion and encouragement. APPRECIATE the important roles, responsibilities, and efforts of people. RECOGNIZE, honor, and offer accolades for individual and team achievements, accomplishments, and acts of service. EMPOWER people to make the right decisions.
When I CARE, I hope to empower people to develop themselves. And, in paying it forward, they will be enthused and energized to engage with their colleagues and others.
So, today, my question is “What can I do for you?”
QUI QUOTE: You know you have customer CARE right when your customers don’t tell others what they bought. They tell others who they bought it from. Don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!
QUI TAKEAWAY: Customers pay for their experience, not your product or service. The customer’s best value in their experience is one that is “just perfect.” Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect … for your customers. Don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!
On July 4, Americans celebrate Independence Day. In part, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it … and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
With that in mind, we, as customers, proclaim our independence from the tyranny of “Profits over People” retailers who care more about revenue dollars, market share, stock prices, bottom-line profits, and even their competitors, than people – us, the customers.
To paraphrase John DiJulius’ battle cry, it’s time for a Customer CARE Revolution! Let’s be revolutionary to express this:
We, as customers, pay for our experience, not a company’s products or services. It’s OUR experience, not theirs. We buy with emotion and justify that decision with reason. We seek the best emotional value in our entire experience, not the minutiae of a company’s logically reasonable best prices, products, or services. And the best emotional value in our experience is in each retailer’s personalized interactions, not their “cash or credit” sales transactions. To earn our loyalty, don’t get inside our heads. Get inside our hearts. Create an emotional connection. Think RELATIONSHIPS or Go Broke. Literally.
We demand that every retailer service mantra to us is:
We are Customer CARE. We don’t just serve to satisfy customers. We WOW them! We CARE.
COMMUNICATE with each 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.
ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to us and our company.
RESPOND empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.
ENRICH the experiences of every customer.
When we CARE, each customer feels respected, appreciated, and valued. They are WOWED and happy.
Now is the time for our Customer CARE Revolution! Let’s be revolutionary! Let’s have our retailers not just serve to satisfy us. Let’s have them WOW us! Let’s have them CARE for us! And let’s have them be GREAT out there!
"People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed."
Samuel Johnson
This blog, along with my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, offer practical tips, insight and inspiration to serve as reminders on how to improve your personal delivery of customer service.
BILL QUISENG | Deliver the World's Best Customer Experience 