Brands need to keep innovating. To stay ahead of the market, they need to offer the “what’s next” to stave off the competition. Innovation is about responding to the market, anticipating needs, and using a little magic to appeal to customers. I often wonder about the companies that don’t innovate. And then I remember some of […]

There’s a joke about being at the top in any small business. The title of founder or president, in its deceptively simple way, covers a multitude of jobs. You can’t just run the business by doing the work, you have to run the business by stepping in as chief technology officer, chief financial officer, chief […]

A client was really excited to share something: “We have finally done all our process maps!” She was the newly appointed customer service director, and she had heard mapping was important. Several months later, and they had stacks of pages of process flows outlining what they believed to be the processes which interacted with customers. […]

Brains are fascinating. The very thing that allows me to write this blog is both an abstract idea to me and a very concrete part of my anatomy. They are simple muscles in one regard and totally complex, almost spiritual, machines in another. The more we learn about brains, the more fascinating they become. We’re totally […]

Do millennials really approach everything differently than generations before them? Or are the challenges of designing for them simply the same challenges as designing and delivering experiences for any group? Yes, millennials approach the world a little differently. But so does every generation. What should we remember as we design workplaces as we update customer […]

I have a question for you today. Think about how much effort you exert every day. You have responsibilities. You work hard, you care about the results you get, and you are a leader in a professional sense. You also have the regular responsibilities of life. You have to eat, take care of yourself, do […]

When it comes to customer experience, there is no shortage of advice. Maybe your boss read “that book” on how to map your customer’s journey. Or maybe you were tasked with being the “customer experience” guy and dove into the many blogs, books, and podcasts about customer experience. There is just. so. much. It’s easy […]

We live in a digital world, constantly connected, where information is always at our fingertips. With all this information, businesses have the tricky task of standing out from all the chatter and building strong relationships with their customers. Millennials are changing the way brands market themselves and build those relationships. Today, millennials say they’re influenced […]

Customer experience is the new black. If you haven’t already heard, experience is HOT. Every savvy marketer, designer, branding strategist, corporate leader, social media blogger and keynote speaker is now a customer experience expert. I say this not with total sarcasm (only a touch) but with some excitement around the way people are finally, painfully, starting […]

By Joseph Michelli If your customers think you deliver an “average” service experience, there is NO shortcut to getting them to become emotionally engaged, loyal, zealots of your brand. Don’t get me wrong. A well-designed service improvement initiative MIGHT result in a temporary spike in satisfaction scores. However, it won’t produce sustained traffic or protracted […]