Leadership

What‘s Value Got to Do With It | Team Member and Customer Experience Value

How do you create value for team members and customers? In Stronger Through Adversity, Amir Dan Rubin, Chair and CEO of One Medical, discussed how he adjusted value drivers in response to the pandemic. For more about the role of value creation in the future of customer experience success, please pick-up or gift a copy of my book Stronger Through Adversity or download one of my many complimentary eBooks at josephmichelli.com.

Make it Simpler & Less Cluttered

According to retired four-star general Colin Powell, “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” I would argue extraordinary customer experience brands are also great simplifiers.
This is the fifth and final post in a series titled "How to Deliver Memorable Experiences in a Pandemic and Post-Pandemic World."
In the midst of all that confusion, team members and customers rushed toward leaders and brands that simplified their experiences and made their lives as easy as possible. In Stronger through Adversity, Ben Salzmann, President & CEO of Acuity Insurance offered insights on how to simplify the employee and customer experience by effectively leveraging technology and empowering team members through training.
Have you looked at your customer experience and sought to remove complexity, corporate-speak, and unnecessary steps?

Faster into the Future | How to Deliver Memorable Experiences in a Pandemic and Post-Pandemic World

Racecar driver Mario Andretti once said that “if everything seems under control you are not going fast enough.” His words are appropriate for automobile racing and apply to customer experience delivery as well. Is your average response time from customer service below 5 minutes?

Emotion Drives Memory | How to Deliver Memorable Experiences in a Pandemic and Post-Pandemic World

"Our memory is enhanced by the emotion attending the event. The more intense the feelings, the more accessible the memory." Those words from Professor Robert Dykstra have profound relevance given the intensity of emotions experienced from early 2020 to the present day. The pandemic has produced sustained and heightened emotions of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, sadness, isolation, and loss. As such, the actions of leaders, team members, and brands are more vividly recallable than pre-pandemic events. Against that backdrop, it has become increasingly important to look for elements of a team member or customer journey that produce pain or pleasure. During the pandemic and into the future, are you demonstrating competence, consistency, responsiveness, and reliability that fuels positive emotional experiences?

Deliver Memorable Internal and External Customer Experiences in a Pandemic & Post-Pandemic World

Brian Solis observed, "Each business is a victim of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to exploit it." Calling back to Brian Solis' quote, do you believe your business is experiencing digital Darwinism - reflecting an expedited evolution of consumer behavior, COVID-19, and technology advances?

How to Deliver Memorable Customer Experiences in a Post-Pandemic World | We Are Forever Changed

Many of my clients ask what they need to do to engage team members and customers well-past the pandemic. While I have my hunches, I prefer to look at data on what people say they want from their employers and companies with whom they do business. In addition to self-reported preferences, I watched consumer behavior dating back to research conducted as the virus first took hold in China.
This is the first post in a series titled How to Deliver Memorable Internal and External Customer Experiences in a Pandemic and Post-Pandemic World.

The Gifts of the Pandemic | Stronger Through Customer Experience Elevation

"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together." Those are the words of civil rights leader Desmond Tutu.
This is the final post in a series titled The Gifts of the Pandemic.
For me, one of the most significant benefits of this unwanted crisis has been a recommitment to the human experience. By that, I mean, leaders have demonstrated more compassion and respect for their employees' needs. Team members have made sacrifices for one another and exceeded customer expectations.
For more about human experience elevation, please pick-up or gift a copy of my book Stronger Through Adversity, which provides more than 20 pandemic forged lessons from 140 plus leaders like the CEOs and Presidents of Target, Verizon, Kohl's, Microsoft, and Marriott. To elevate the experience of those fighting COVID-19, I'm donating a portion of the book's proceeds to the international nonprofit Direct Relief, which provides food and supplies to those on the frontline.

The Gifts of the Pandemic | Stronger Through Gratitude

It’s easy to remember a time when someone failed to acknowledge our contribution. However, it’s almost impossible to know how often people walked away from interacting with us feeling underappreciated. Based on my experience this last year, I’ve noticed leaders expressing gratitude more frequently to their team members. Michelle Gass, CEO of Kohl’s, exemplifies this unintended benefit of the pandemic.
Michelle told me one of her top priorities during COVID-19 has been to “consistently express my tremendous gratitude and thanks to our 100,000 associates. In every message, I’ve been very intentional about saying thank you. Sometimes it was in recognition for people who are on the front lines in our e-commerce fulfillment centers. Other times gratitude would be expressed for those who made curbside pick-up possible."
To learn more about the role of gratitude in crisis, please pick-up or gift a copy of my book Stronger Through Adversity, which provides more than 20 pandemic forged lessons from 140 plus leaders like the CEOs and Presidents of Target, Verizon, Microsoft, and Marriott. As an expression of my gratitude, I’m donating a portion of the book’s proceeds to the international nonprofit Direct Relief, which provides food and supplies to those on the frontline. 

The Gifts of the Pandemic | Stronger Through Purpose

The indoor roller coaster ride, Space Mountain, at Disney World lasts 2 minutes and 30 seconds, plummeting riders into darkness and a heart-pounding adventure. Now imagine you strap into your Space Mountain ride, and it lasts more than two and 1/2 minutes. Imagine you're still going for two and ½ hours, and you have no idea when the ride will end. Such is the state of disequilibrium most of us have experienced during the pandemic.
This is the fifth post in my series titled The Gifts of the Pandemic.
Keeping with our Space Mountain example, you've likely struggled to manage the speed of change needed to navigate the continual twists and turns of the pandemic. You probably had few options to slow or stop this ride. So where do you turn?
For more about the gift of purpose, I hope you'll pick-up or gift a copy of my book Stronger Through Adversity, which provides more than 20 pandemic forged lessons from 140 plus leaders like the CEOs and Presidents of Target, Verizon, Kohl's, Microsoft, and Marriott. My purpose is to "serve those who serve well," so I'm donating a portion of the book's proceeds to the international nonprofit Direct Relief, which provides food and supplies to those on the frontline.
I'd like to invite you to join my guests and me for LinkedIn Live conversations every Thursday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern. 
 

The Gifts of the Pandemic | Stronger Through Adaptivity

This is the fourth post in my series titled The Gifts of the Pandemic.
So far in this series, we've looked at pandemic gifts or teachable moments that include:
Learning
Humility
Empathy
Upcoming installments will focus on:
Clarity of Values
Gratitude
Human Experience Elevation
I realize the title of this series can be a bit jarring. How can the pandemic provide "gifts?"
When it comes to adaptivity, the pandemic forced many companies to pivot or perish. 
For more about adaptivity and "pivoting with purpose," I hope you'll pick-up or gift a copy of my book Stronger Through Adversity, which provides more than 20 pandemic forged lessons from 140 plus leaders like the CEOs and Presidents of Target, Verizon, Kohl's, Microsoft, and Marriott. When you purchase the book, you're helping those who are fighting the pandemic since a portion of the book's proceeds is donated to the international nonprofit Direct Relief, which provides food and supplies to those on the frontlines.