How To Destroy A Legendary Brand Through Awful Customer Experience - The Legendary Luxury Hotel in NYC Story

If you are looking for the CliffNotes version of this story it is quite simple – lean on your great heritage and cut costs at your guests’ expense.

The hotel’s advertising was very clear: “Each one, the greatest of them all.” You cannot create higher expectations than that. And with those expectations I booked a long awaited 4-day vacation at this luxury New York City legend. At $600 a night I could have gone to any luxury hotel in New York City. I chose this hotel. After all it’s the greatest of them all.

The reality I faced was by far different and the great expectation eventually evolved into an even greater disappointment.

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Customer Journey Mapping – Doing It Right

How is it that great intentions of customer experience professionals oftentimes dwindle to little action or impact? Is there something wrong with the customer journey mapping methodology? Was the final map not detailed enough? Did we miss something? These factors might have made a small impact, but the real reason for the little impact has to do with the intention.

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Effective Ways to Create a Cynical Culture

Cynicism requires a great deal of negligence to emerge in organizations. For a cynical culture to be created, it only takes one employee to start following the proven rules that will ensure Cynicism will spread into the hearts and minds of each and every employee.

Unlike other corporate initiatives, cynicism does not require sponsorship from top executives. It does not require consensus and acceptance by all. All it takes are a few woeful leaders who will neglect their role, fail to engage employees and cynicism, and who will quickly become an essential host citizen in your corporate hallways to spread the epidemic.

Here are three ways to start spreading Cynicism:

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The Guiding Assumption

Your guiding assumption—what you really think about your customers—can be the biggest obstacle (or catalyst) to your success. In an era when customers are scrutinizing every move you make, you can not afford to assume that they are all not trustworthy.

Trust your customers. And if you don’t, find new customers you can. Running a business and establishing a relationship on the conviction that everyone around you is out to get you is not a recipe for business (or personal) success.

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A Rant On Engagement

*A portion of this blog post is republished with permission from SiriusDecisions, Inc. To read the full post, please visit:http://www.siriusdecisions.com/blog/a-rant-on-engagement/*   I’ve got a gripe with the term engagement. I think it’s misleading. What most marketers are calling engagement is really content consumption. The content may be presented contextually; it may be presented dynamically by industry…

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The Chemistry of Enthusiasm

How is it that year after year, JetBlue Airways ranks first in J.D. Power and Associates North America Airline Satisfaction Study for the low-cost carrier category, with high levels of customer loyalty and advocacy? The key ingredient: JetBlue employees treat customers’ problems as their own.

Running late for a flight? You might be escorted by a JetBlue counter agent to an “employees only” security line, right through to the gate. Putting together a complicated multistop trip? The call center agent will work with you to arrive at a satisfactory solution, not rush you off the phone. JetBlue staff members focus intensely on making the customer’s life easier, and customers repay the courtesy by spreading the word to others.

Organizations have been trying for years to cultivate employee engagement. Like JetBlue, they persist in their efforts for good reason. One of the most powerful factors that spur customers to become advocates for a company is employees’ positive behavior and attitude.

But, how do you cultivate that culture in your organization?

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3 Good Reasons to Refresh Your Online Presence

Consider this: the online experiencenow encompasses mobile, cloud, big data, social networking, and gamification. You probably didn’t deal with any of that when you initially got online. Then consider the devices connecting today, 15 billion mobile devices alone expected by 2015, estimates Cisco, plus the usual array of laptops, netbooks, desktops, thin devices. And who is connecting: Hispanics spent 5.15 billion through mobile devices this past holiday shopping season, according to Zpryme, a research firm. Did you get much of that?

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The Voice of the Customer Lies Hidden In Your Unstructured Data

Why is the customer’s voice so important?

First of all, you want to keep them as your customer. Secondly the customer has become your unpaid sales staff. It is called word of mouth. Happy customers will recommend you to others, and consumers tend to listen to their friends (especially millennials).

Lastly the customer is a testing ground for your products and services by providing feedback on new offerings. You don’t want to believe that you are conducting tests on your customers but that is exactly what happens. Customer feedback is necessary for continual improvement, and continual improvement is necessary to keep pace with your competitors.

All the information we gather about our customer’s experiences is important when it comes to improvements, reputation and ultimately, the bottom line.

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Moving Social Media Analysis from the Platform to the Individual Level

Creating engaging content and encouraging your audience to engage with your brand are important pieces of a successful social media program. This is evident when you speak with many social marketers who tend to focus a great deal of effort on increasing engagement levels and expanding their audience.

Less attention seems to be paid to who is engaging, how often they engage, and what they are saying.

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