Customer Experience University - Winning Loyalty & Engagement One Customer at a Time

I believe that even greater customer value comes from moving from services to experiences (rather than from products to services). I also believe physical and digital service experiences are not mutually exclusive. In other words, service is table stakes in the value equation of most customers, and well-designed branded, emotionally enveloping experiences are differentiators. Further, the future s...

Writing for the online magazine Simplicable , technologist John Spacey defines value creation as “any process that creates outputs that are more valuable than its inputs. For me, customer value often is more a function of reducing clutter as opposed to increasing complexity. Clutter removal often involves streamlining cumbersome processes that hamper value delivery. For more about the role of valu...

For the sake of example, let’s assume you purchased a beverage and you pay full price for it. Let’s further assume you received half as much of that beverage as you usually do for that price. You likely will perceive the transaction as having been 50% less valuable to you even though the price was the same as normal. Since perceptions of value are affected by far more than the quantity of an item...

How do you create value for team members and customers? In Stronger Through Adversity, Amir Dan Rubin, Chair and CEO of One Medical, discussed how he adjusted value drivers in response to the pandemic. For more about the role of value creation in the future of customer experience success, please pick-up or gift a copy of my book Stronger Through Adversity or download one of my many complimentary e...

According to retired four-star general Colin Powell, “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” I would argue extraordinary customer experience brands are also great simplifiers. This is the fifth and final post in a series titled "How to Deliver Memorable Experiences in a Pandemic and Post-Pand...

Racecar driver Mario Andretti once said that “if everything seems under control you are not going fast enough.” His words are appropriate for automobile racing and apply to customer experience delivery as well. Is your average response time from customer service below 5 minutes?

"Our memory is enhanced by the emotion attending the event. The more intense the feelings, the more accessible the memory." Those words from Professor Robert Dykstra have profound relevance given the intensity of emotions experienced from early 2020 to the present day. The pandemic has produced sustained and heightened emotions of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, sadness, isolation, and loss. As such,...

Brian Solis observed, "Each business is a victim of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to exploit it." Calling back to Brian Solis' quote, do you believe your business is experiencing digital Darwinism - reflecting an expedited evolution of consumer behavior, COVID-19, and technology advances?

Many of my clients ask what they need to do to engage team members and customers well-past the pandemic. While I have my hunches, I prefer to look at data on what people say they want from their employers and companies with whom they do business. In addition to self-reported preferences, I watched consumer behavior dating back to research conducted as the virus first took hold in China. This is th...

"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together." Those are the words of civil rights leader Desmond Tutu. This is the final post in a series titled The Gifts of the Pandemic. For me, one of the most significant benefits of this unwanted crisis has been a recommitment to the human experience. By that, I mean, leaders have demonstrated more compassion and respect for their empl...

It’s easy to remember a time when someone failed to acknowledge our contribution. However, it’s almost impossible to know how often people walked away from interacting with us feeling underappreciated. Based on my experience this last year, I’ve noticed leaders expressing gratitude more frequently to their team members. Michelle Gass, CEO of Kohl’s, exemplifies this unintended benefit of the pande...

The indoor roller coaster ride, Space Mountain, at Disney World lasts 2 minutes and 30 seconds, plummeting riders into darkness and a heart-pounding adventure. Now imagine you strap into your Space Mountain ride, and it lasts more than two and 1/2 minutes. Imagine you're still going for two and ½ hours, and you have no idea when the ride will end. Such is the state of disequilibrium most of us hav...

This is the fourth post in my series titled The Gifts of the Pandemic. So far in this series, we've looked at pandemic gifts or teachable moments that include: Learning Humility Empathy Upcoming installments will focus on: Clarity of Values Gratitude Human Experience Elevation I realize the title of this series can be a bit jarring. How can the pandemic provide "gifts?" When it comes to adaptivity...

For me, empathy is best exemplified by neuroscientific research, which shows when we observe the pain of others, it activates the same neural pathways as when we experience pain ourselves. We are hardwired to “feel into” the pain of others, which is the translation of the German root from which the word empathy evolved. Empathy is the gift of feeling into the emotions of others. For more about emp...

Let’s face it, most of us care a lot about what others think of us (especially if we are leaders in business, community, or family). We project “the best of” ourselves in public and reserve “the rest of” ourselves for private. That approach leads to 70 percent of people feeling what researchers Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes label an “imposter syndrome.” Social media amplifies this syndrome, sinc...

Here's a question for you, if you could, would you go back to the way it was before COVID-19? Let's imagine you could flip a switch that would re-instate your life and your business to how it was in November of 2019? Before you decide, let's also assume you didn't lose your business, you experienced no family member's death, and remained in relatively good health. Given those parameters, would you...

In 1650, the English Theologian Thomas Fuller wrote that often-quoted line, “The darkest hour is just before the dawn.” Quite frankly these days I’m just trying to get through the darkness of our time.  For me, when it's darkest, when I am horrified by nightly death tolls, or righteousness that prompts inexplicable violence, I look for light on the horizon. Sometimes it’s hard to see more than fli...

Whew 2020 is over! On behalf of our team, I wish you a safe and prosperous 2021. Next week I will resume our video series Stronger Through Adversity, based on the book I released last month, but for now I’ll simply share words of hope written by Anne Frank. She noted: ”What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet.” I’m looking forward to those “b...

Throughout December, I’ve been sharing a few excerpts from Stronger Through Adversity to provide stories and lessons on resilience and hope. I had lots of stories to choose from, thanks to the wisdom shared by over 140 leaders like the CEOs and Presidents of Target, Verizon, Microsoft, Marriott, and Mercedes-Benz. Today I’ll excerpt a section which features David Hudson, Commissioner and National...

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas. I told my family that the only “gift” I wanted this year is a safe way for us to be physically together in the days ahead. I want that gift for you as well. Until those days come, Merry Christmas from The Michelli Experience team.

My new book, Stronger Through Adversity features 140 plus leaders like the CEOs and Presidents of Target, Verizon, Microsoft, Marriott, and Mercedes-Benz, who shared their insights and wisdom. Today I'm sharing a section from the foreword of Stronger Through Adversity, which was written by my mentor Johnny Yokoyama. Irrespective of Johnny's recommendation to pick-up my book, I encourage you to tak...

Thank you for joining me for this series titled Stronger Through Adversity. The book by the same name is based on conversations I've had with more than 140 global leaders as they navigate through COVID-19. In Stronger Through Adversity , I play off the theme of "Bring your Son or Daughter to Work" day to emphasize the importance of bringing our authentic self to work every day. The leaders I spoke...

I wanted to interrupt my series Stronger through Adversity to simply say Happy Thanksgiving. For those of you across the US, I suspect, if you are like me, the Thanksgiving table will be quite different this year. While I wish I could be with my children and grandchildren, I am still filled with gratitude. If anything, this year has been a tremendous opportunity to gain perspective on what really...

Thank you for joining me for this series titled Stronger Through Adversity. The book by the same name is based on conversations I've had with more than 140 global leaders as they navigate through COVID-19. In conversations with leaders like Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon, Brian Cornell, CEO of Target, Matt Renner, President of Microsoft, and Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA, there were several c...

Thank you for joining me for this series titled Stronger Through Adversity. The book by the same name is based on conversations I've had with more than 140 global leaders as they navigate through COVID-19. How would you rate your communication transparency during the pandemic? More importantly, how would your team members rate you on communication openness? If you would like to learn more about St...