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

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. John Gerzema, the CEO of Harris Insights and Analytics, once observed, "Transparency, honesty, kindness, good stewardship, even humor, work in businesses at all times." I believe those qualities...

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. Let's talk this week about formal listening, which includes inviting customers to attend virtual feedback sessions (focus groups) or sending surveys to employees. Formal approaches like surveys...

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 borrow wisdom from Greek philosopher Epictetus who said, "We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak." Throughout my conver...

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 wrote, "The more things change, the more they stay the same or so it would seem from reading Marcus Tullius Cicero's writings.” In conversations with leaders t...

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 suggest that practicing employee obsession is an ominous concept since, in its most negative connotation, obsession means a disturbing preoccupation. I go on to...

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. I wrote the following in Stronger Through Adversity , "Unfortunately, many leaders lose perspective on their limitations and carry an inordinate responsibility for the success of their organizat...

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. During my conversations with leaders, many referenced having no roadmap for leading in the pandemic or suggested their previously crafted maps didn't apply. That prompted me to recall a lesson I...

Thank you for joining me for this series titled "Stronger Through Adversity." This series highlights key takeaways from my upcoming book of the same name. That book is based on conversations and work with more than 140 global leaders. This installment is titled "Put Your Mask On First." Leading through the pandemic has been an adventure. According to the CEOs and board members with whom I interact...

I pitched and had the concept for Stronger Through Adversity accepted by the publication board at McGraw-Hill. In the next two months, I engaged in over 140 conversations with remarkable business, nonprofit, and public safety leaders. CEOs and Presidents of companies like Target, Verizon, Kohl's, Microsoft, Farmers Insurance, Dairy Queen, Mercedes-Benz, Zappos, United Way, Salvation Army, and so m...

Thank you for joining me for this series titled "Make it Technology-Aided and Human-Powered." This series provides tools to help you position your customer and employee experience for relevance in a COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world. This is the final installment in this series.   Like all retail and restaurant brands, Starbucks took a massive hit throughout the pandemic, but as of today, 90% of it...

Thank you for joining me for this series titled "Make it Technology-Aided and Human-Powered." This series will provide tools to help you position your customer and employee experience for relevance in a COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world. This installment is titled "Map the Hybrid Journey."   I now know how my mom felt when I lost my driver's license at age 16 for repeatedly speeding in my '57 Chevy...

Thank you for joining me for the second installment in the series "Make it Technology-Aided and Human-Powered." This series provides tools to help you position your customer and employee experience for relevance in a COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world. This installment is titled "Compassion in Action."   In my last post , I distinguished between compassion, empathy, and sympathy. I also shared that...

Thank you for joining me for this new series titled "Make it Technology-Aided and Human-Powered." This series will provide tools to help you position your customer and employee experience for relevance in a COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world. This installment is titled "Be Compassionate."   People are in love with technology these days, and well, they should be. It's hard to imagine how we would hav...

Have you ever wanted to have a business do-over? In golf, we call it a mulligan. It's when you are forgiven your first shot and allowed to take another because, let's just say, the first ball didn't go where you intended.   Guess what? COVID-19 has hit the GIANT reset mulligan button for every business.   If pre-pandemic, you had cumbersome processes, now is the time to shed them and act like a st...

For me, the "old normal" world of business was too often like going to a chamber of commerce or networking event where everybody was selling, and no one was buying. There are a lot of business cards passed around, but very few people listening and understanding how they can be of service.   In this "Better than Normal" world, more people are willing to share input, and some companies are capitaliz...

I used to use the word empathetic until a researcher in the field corrected me. She said, "'Empathetic is wrong and empathic is correct." She added, "There is nothing 'pathetic" about empathy. Henceforth, I'm in the empathic camp.   Now that's out of the way, let's look at how the world has gotten better thanks to an upsurge in empathy.   As you likely know, the word empathy comes from a German wo...

I love thinking I'm invincible - look at me who'd want to go toe-to-toe with me? Then again, when I look a little more closely I realize I'm not all that. What a gift COVID-19 has been when it comes to putting a humbling mirror up to most business owners and leaders. Growing up in my Italian home, I was told never to say things like a pandemic is a gift, so I hope you forgive me. My point isn't th...

This is the second installment in a series titled “Better Than Normal – Designing Transformative Experiences,” which will provide tools to help you position your employee and customer experience for relevance in a COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world. I have been busier than I’ve ever been before during the pandemic, but in those rare moments of reflection, I have been able to evaluate what brings val...

This is the first installment in a series titled “Better Than Normal – Designing Transformative Experiences,” which will provide tools to help you position your employee and customer experience for relevance in a COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world. I don’t know about you, but I am already eager to put the phrase “new normal” out to pasture! When most people say it, I hear the pain in their voice and...

I suspect you may be at least a little like me. I like spontaneity, but only on my terms. I’m a fan of agendas, plans, and being confident that my position on an issue is well informed. Then came COVID-19, a sub-microscopic infectious agent, roughly 1/1000 the width of a human hair.  I am lucky to date in that the virus has not rendered me or those I love ill, hospitalized, or worse. But it, along...

Let’s face it, COVID-19 forced most business leaders and entrepreneurs to alter their operations, service delivery, and customer experience overnight. If, before COVID -19, you sold flowers in a traditional retail store, suddenly; you had to find a way to take your entire business online. Service providers leveraged technologies to maintain relationships with their clients and minimize revenue los...

I have an unusual perspective when it comes to the emotional impact of this pandemic. My view is shaped by working as a licensed clinical psychologist early in my career and helping people deal with anxiety, depression, loneliness, and isolation. It’s also affected by the last 20-plus years of my career, where I’ve helped mostly Fortune 500 leaders create positive emotional bonds with their custom...

Thank you for joining me on this third installment in my series “It’s Emotional – Creating an Unprecedented Team and Customer Experience in the Pandemic.” This series is designed to offer tools to manage your emotions as well as support the emotional journey of your prospects and customers. A couple of installments back I talked about my dislike for how the word unprecedented is being used in the...

This is the second installment in my series “It’s Emotional–Creating an Unprecedented Team and Customer Experience in This Pandemic.” This series is designed to offer tools to manage your emotions as well as support the emotional journey of your prospects and customers. There are days in this pandemic reality that quite literally seem upside down. While disorienting at times, I am heartened by how...

This is the first installment in my series It’s Emotional–Creating an Unprecedented Team and Customer Experience in this Pandemic. This series is designed to offer tools to manage your emotions as well as support the emotional journey of your prospects and customers. This week’s installment is titled Focus on the Hole. I take exception with the overuse of some words these days, particularly when t...