Mr. Gui, whose name I learned when he introduced himself upon my entering his taxi, was an unusual cab driver. I have ridden in many cabs around the world and I can say that he was among the top 5 I’ve ever encountered.
Case Studies
A smile can yield unexpected kindness
It was a beautiful sunny day in Vientiane, Laos. One of my travel buddies, Susan, and I decided to rent bicycles ($3/day) and explore the Mekong River shoreline bike path 3 blocks away. Most of the way we had the path to ourselves, but occasionally we’d come upon boy monks or other explorers. We carefully wove among the shoreline sidewalk restaurants until we came to the end of the paved path after an hour.
Shangri-La Bangkok has thought through the customer experience
You expect 5-star hotels to provide more than basic amenities to their guests. But it is a joy to see how much a hotel’s designers think about the details of customer experience.
Unforeseen benefit of a chore
Sometimes doing a chore you’re not thrilled with yields marvels you’d never imagine.
Lessons from New Year’s Eve in Bangkok
Some people tell me that I live an exciting life as I do some interesting things. However, I feel I live a pretty tame life with gusts of excitement. I’ve been feeling that left to my own devices, I take the mundane road.
If you feel similarly, perhaps you’ll take a page from my experience in Bangkok on New Year’s Eve and see if you can apply my lessons to your life.
Are you giving lip service to great service at customer events?
Customers look at where you’re being congruent with what you say and what you do. When you say you believe the customer comes first yet act differently, the disconnect can be jolting.
When people are faced with conflicting information, they choose to believe the one that matches their view of the world. So if your inconsistencies are rare, people will continue to believe you are customer focused. But the more instances of inconsistencies, they will believe the opposite.
Recently, I attended a conference for 1500 bed and breakfast owners. The conference organizer is known in the industry for his focus on creating memorable guest experiences.
Yet, over and over again I noticed practices that weren’t congruent with the concept of guest comfort and regard.
Why do we put up with bad service?
Many of us denounce bad service and announce we will not frequent businesses that have such service. Yet we sometimes do.
Why?
What’s your perfect world?
My friend professional speaker and author Scott Friedman has a mantra for working with others. As he explores how they will work together, he asks, “What does your perfect world look like for our working together?” The person then explains what needs to happen — or not happen — to be their idea of the … Read more
Ways to further infuriate an upset customer
I’m remodeling my kitchen and selected the granite fabricators based on my neighbors’ reports on their great customer service. I found that to be true all along the way until the end.
When the granite was installed, we discovered they’d made the sink cutout template wrong so the overhang over the sink was right on three sides but not on the front. My contractor had several discussions with the rep beforehand ensuring the overhang was to be the same on all 4 sides, and reiterating it with the guy sent out to ensure the job template was right before cutting the stone.
It may not seem like a big deal, but 3/8″ can make the difference between brushed crumbs landing in the sink vs. on the sink edge, which would be a pain to clean.
When the granite was being installed, my contractor pointed out the problem immediately to the installers. The three installers wanted to scrap the $800 piece of granite.
I called the fabrication rep immediately and left him a message.
My contractor and I explored my options. If we made the fabricator tear out the granite, it would cost them $800 for the granite, 3 guys 2-3 hours at $50/hr to tear it out and install the new piece, an hour of fabrication time, plus repairing any damage to the cabinets. All in all, we figured the company would be out close to $1500 to make it right.
A week later, no word from the rep. However, I did get a bill, minus a 3.2% discount for the wrong template.
What????
Are you unknowingly insulting others?
For 3 months I’ve interacted daily with my remodeling contractor. He’s a sweet, thoughtful man who goes out of his way to make sure I’m feeling good about his work.
He recently shared with me that a new woman client refused to give him a key or use a lockbox at her house — she had to be home whenever he entered. This makes it difficult to get his work done. When he asked about other options, she said, “I want to be home when you’re here. I have daughters and I don’t want anything to happen to them.”
He was insulted.