article thumbnail

10 Elements of an Outstanding Customer Service Culture

Skip Prichard

At the same time, I’ve also noticed a distorted mashup of what people think this culture is – from road bikes adorning a wall to illustrate a “commitment to work-balance” to beer taps in the boardroom to ensure a happy (or intoxicated?) Rather, it requires an orchestrated effort and a deep commitment to improve.

Airlines 113
article thumbnail

How to Become a Healing Leader

Skip Prichard

Appletree Answers is a call center company created through a “roll up” of smaller companies. They got her into a hotel that night, and helped her get an apartment, helped furnish it, helped with the deposit etc. And healing leadership demands a continuing commitment to healing oneself. How is that acceptable?”

How To 86
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

The Third Ring: Enhanced Service That Delights Customers

The Practical Leader

It’s those intangible signs of personal care and commitment that say, “We’re pleased to serve you. Third Ring enhancements are often small monetary investments with huge pay?offs. The Third Ring is where the human touch is added. We want to do whatever we can to make your relationship with us as delightful as possible.&#

Sharpe 53
article thumbnail

We Appreciate Your Business. Please Stay on the Line.

Harvard Business Review

I experienced a similar asymmetry when a credit-card company informed me that the terms and conditions for claiming hotel rewards had changed. For example, the number of miles needed for a free night in a top-category hotel room had gone from 125,000 to 160,000. "If So that''s how I spent the next 31 minutes.

article thumbnail

Experiment with Organizational Change Before Going All In

Harvard Business Review

Furthermore, once we start down a path and invest resources in it, we tend to justify our past investments by continuing down that path even when new information suggests that the path is unwise, a phenomenon known as the escalation of commitment. Identify a target outcome. This outcome must be something specific and measurable.

article thumbnail

A Step-by-Step Plan to Improve CMO-COO Collaboration

Harvard Business Review

It is the same card he used to buy the plane ticket and book the hotel. For example, a call center may pride itself on completing X percentage of service calls within 30 seconds, but that’s not a valuable metric for determining overall customer satisfaction – or what the customer then does after that service interaction.

COO 8
article thumbnail

What Circuit City Learned About Valuing Employees

Harvard Business Review

Initially rebuffed, he flew to Boston and called again only to be told the professor was still unavailable. Finally, he said, "I am staying at the XYZ hotel and will wait here as many days as necessary to see him." In a few minutes, the secretary called back and arranged an appointment for the next day.