customer service
The Loyalty Gap: The Difference Between Repeat Customers and Loyal Customers
Shep Hyken | March 16, 2023
By Shep Hyken Or, In a recent Shepard Letter, I discussed the Trust Gap, which is the difference between an organization’s belief that their customers trust them and the percentage of customers who actually do. I’ve covered different gap concepts in the past, and it’s time to add yet another to the list, and that is the Loyalty Gap. By the way, this is a perfect time to mention International Customer Loyalty Month, which happens every year in April. It is a time to focus some extra care and attention on your loyal customers. You can learn more at www.CustomerLoyaltyMonth.com. So, back to the Loyalty Gap. This is ...
Complaints and Problems Are Opportunities to Show How Good You Are
Shep Hyken | March 9, 2023
By Shep Hyken I love hearing about complaints and problems that are solved to the point that the customer wants to tell the world about the experience. That’s exactly what happened to Bill Paretti, one of our faithful Shepard Letter subscribers. He was so excited about what happened that he shared it with me, hoping I would share it with you. Here’s the short version of the story, followed by my commentary and the lesson we can take away from his experience. Bill and his wife went to Cancun on vacation and stayed at the LeBlanc Spa Resort. This an “all-inclusive” resort where everything is included in the daily rate. ...
Ten Reasons Why You Should Deliver an Amazing Customer Experience
Shep Hyken | February 23, 2023
By Shep Hyken Ten years ago, I wrote an article about why delivering an amazing customer experience is important. While many of those concepts are still valid today, it’s time to modify the list and give a few of the original reasons a facelift to bring them into current times. First, a reminder that an amazing customer experience isn’t about being over the top. It’s simply consistently meeting or (ever so slightly) exceeding expectations. It’s the consistent and predictable experience that makes customers trust you and come back. So, here are today’s 10 reasons why you should deliver an amazing customer service e...
Getting Back on Track: Service Recovery in a Networked World
PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management | February 21, 2023
In today’s travel and events industries, multiple service providers work together to shape unique, complex and multidimensional customer experiences. However, such connectedness can come at a cost. Within a network or ecosystem of service providers, a single service failure can have cascading effects on all stakeholders. Yet we still know little about the optimal strategies for service recovery in such networked contexts. Filling this gap in the literature, Dr Karin Weber and Professor Cathy Hsu of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University shed light on how customers perceive and react to serv...
What Company Do You Admire Most?
Shep Hyken | February 16, 2023
By Shep Hyken Do you remember being asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” When you’re a child, the typical answers are aspirational, such as being a doctor, a fireman, a superhero, an athlete, and more. I have a grown-up version of this question. It’s not about what you want to be. It’s not even about you. It s about your company. You may be grown up, but your company should always be developing and evolving, so the question is now about your company’s aspirations. Specifically, it’s about what company you aspire to be like. Consider this question: If your company could be like any other company, what...
Hotel Hospitality Stories I Learned While Training One of the Best Banks in the World!
Doug Kennedy | February 15, 2023
By Doug Kennedy One day a few months back, the main phone line rang at our headquarters office. Can you imagine the surprise when our receptionist heard a man’s voice saying this: “Hello, this is Doug Kennedy calling for Doug Kennedy.” At first, she thought it to be a prank, but thankfully she did not hang up on him, because it was in fact Doug Kennedy, President & CEO of Peapack-Gladstone Bank, which is a regional bank based in New Jersey that offers personal banking through its branch network, robust wealth management services and commercial banking solutions. As it turns out, Doug Kennedy had been personally spearheading ...
Seven Ways to Show Your Employees Some Love on Valentine’s Day
Shep Hyken | February 9, 2023
By Shep Hyken If you show your employees a little love this Valentine’s Day, they will reciprocate with a little love for you, your company, and your customers. Earlier this year, I shared a business prediction for 2023: Companies will focus as much – maybe more – on their employees as they do on customers. If you’ve been following my work, this isn’t anything new. However, with what is being referred to as The Big Quit, The Great Resignation, and other clever names to describe a problem plaguing many businesses today, we must focus on the employee experience more than ever. What appears to be a mass exodus of emplo...
Upgrade Your Customer Service to a First-Class Experience
Shep Hyken | February 2, 2023
Many years ago, a friend shared some advice with me: It doesn’t cost much more to enjoy a first-class experience. He was referring to spending just a little more in certain situations to get much more out of the experience. It could be a nicer hotel, a better seat in a theater, a better cut of meat at the grocery store, and more. He found that it often doesn’t cost much more to upgrade. So, I started thinking about this advice and how we can apply it to the customer experience. Essentially, I was thinking that we can proactively give our customers a better experience by bumping our efforts up a notch. In most cases, it do...
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