Ritz Carlton is the epitome of superior customer experience (source)
Have you pampered yourself with a Ritz-Carlton experience? If you did, I’m sure the experience was unforgettable.
How did the world’s premiere hotel brand manage to achieve such lofty heights in customer service and experience? What is its secret formula?
Courtesy of Inside Retail HK
How can retail and service businesses differentiate themselves through service?
That is the age-old problem faced by numerous consumer-facing businesses here in Singapore and everywhere around the world.
Courtesy of Fortune
The situation was tense. Time was truly of the essence.
A Nordstrom housekeeping staff at Connecticut found a customer bag together with her receipt and flight itinerary in the parking lot…
Can you deliver what your customers want – before they even ask? (Designed by Freepik)
Remember the last time you visited a store which offered you a cup of warm tea on a cold day?
How did that make you feel? Warm, welcomed, and ready to reward your hosts, I bet.
Its the journey and not the destination (courtesy of dadadreams)
What is the best way to capture your customer’s hearts and minds? How do you make them feel a sense of ownership for your brands, products and services?
The secret lies in getting them involved as much as possible.
Image courtesy of Billboard
“Sorry” might have been one of the hottest hits by Justin Beiber ever (with over 3.15 billion YouTube views to date). However, it is still incredibly hard for companies to say.
And that has led to so many countless cases of organisational grief over the years.
To celebrate my dad’s 68th and my niece’s 10th birthday, my mum decided to book a restaurant for dinner last night at Tiong Bahru’s Seng Poh Lane. Going by the unassuming name of Por Kee Eating House (porky?), the outlet was your typical old-fashioned Chinese restaurant with red plastic chairs and an outdoor al fresco eating area. It was as unpretentious as you can get, with a clear focus on its food rather than ambience.
When we arrived, we were ushered to a space next to the public carpark outside, under the starry moonlit sky. As the evening was cool, most of us didn’t quite mind sitting outside. Especially with a beer or two!
Yesterday afternoon, my wife together with my son and maid got into an accident along CTE (I was attending a work lunch then). What happened was a tale of God’s divine providence mixed with extraordinary service excellence.
My wife was driving towards the city and encountered the usual Saturday afternoon jam. Traffic was extremely heavy and crawling at a snail’s pace. Unfortunately, a slick black BMW driven by a young 19 year old guy crashed into the rear of our car. He must either be driving his dad’s car or distracted by his girlfriend.
The shock was so hard that the beamer’s airbag popped up. Fortunately, my family didn’t suffer major injuries although my maid had a swelling on her head (currently under observation) while my wife’s back hurt. Both cars stopped and my wife took down the driver’s full particulars (NRIC, license plate, hand phone photos of damage, insurance company, car model).
Used car salesman (courtesy of Chaka Raysor)
I am always puzzled why companies spend a lot more energy and focus on trying to sell rather than pleasing their customers. If you don’t already know, customer retention is a far more profitable strategy than customer acquisition. That, plus the fact that word of mouth is taking off more than ever in this ad-saturated age of increasingly powerful social networks. Here are some sobering statistics which tells you why you should pamper your existing customers rather than court new ones:
(Source: Customer Are Always)
Studies have also shown that a Customer’s Lifetime Value (CLV) can be far greater than that of a single transaction. In fact, 70% of a telco’s revenue comes from 30% of its customers: those who stay for years and purchase increasing levels of service. There is a nifty way to calculate CLV here.
Now shouldn’t you start paying more attention to those customers who made you who you are?
A contender for SPRING’s Excellent Service Award?
Many of us would have heard about Singapore Airline’s legendary service. Or how every employee at Ritz Carlton, from GM down to housekeeping maid, is taught to resolve any guest complaint. Must quality service only exist in premium establishments?
The answer is no.