I love to travel, and part of the joy is in discovering what each new city or country I visit does better than anywhere else.
Many of you know I lived in Japan for several years, but anyone who visits for more than a couple of days will quickly see that there’s one thing Japan does impressively well:
Customer service.
- Walk into any department store and there are greeters at the doors who bow and announce your arrival with a welcoming “Irasshaimase!”
- Ask an employee in a grocery store where to find something and they graciously escort you to the exact location where it is.
- Buy a gift for someone at a bookstore and ask the cashier to wrap it for you, and what you’ll get in return is an intricate jigsaw puzzle of angled folds and creases along with the most perfect bow you’ve ever seen. (There’s a very good chance that the wrapping is far more impressive that whatever you bought that’s inside the box!)
It creates an experience that makes you think, “Wow! Why isn’t it this good everywhere?”
And most importantly, it makes you want to come back again… and again…
Someone else who knows a thing or two about the importance of the customer experience is Johann Wrede, Chief Experience Officer of Emburse, my guest on this week’s episode of the Speaking to Influence podcast.
Want to get some serious insights into your employees’/team’s understanding of their value?
Johann levies a great challenge: Ask each person how the work they do impacts the customer experience.
Wow.
In this episode we explore:
- What exactly a Chief Experience Officer does, and why more C-Suites should think about adding one
- How Johann was able to bridge the divide between his technical expertise and his creativity when it came to talking to customers.
- How he went about getting prepared to be assertive in a meeting with other executives in order to keep everyone focused, achieve his objectives, and ensure his meeting didn’t get hijacked by other stakeholders’ agendas.
- An approach he uses during negotiations to be collaborative as well as to highlight options.
Listen to the full conversation here (link) or watch the full interview on YouTube here (link).
One thing about creating the optimal customer experience is that it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Life is full of marathons, sprints, and even the occasional stroll. Here’s an invitation to join me for one of those!
As many of you know, a charity that is extremely near and dear to my heart is the Adoption Center, whose mission is to help older children (the traditionally hardest to place) in the foster care system to “find their forever families.”
Next month the Adoption Center is hosting a VIRTUAL 5K race to raise funds in support of that beautiful mission.
Once you register, you can do it any day in the month of February, at your own pace – walk, jog, sprint, whatever – and it still counts!
When I first learned about it, I was so excited to register that when I got my digital “runner’s bib,” rather than a typical 3-, 4- or 5-digit number, it showed that my registration number was just “3”!
Better yet – I’ve created a team: “Laura’s Love.” Join me in competing in our 5k leader board and adding routes to our online map! Join the fun here:
Here’s how it works:
- Sign up with your name and email, and join my team!
- You can walk/run anywhere, logging miles with an app on your iPhone or Android phone.
- Racery will keep track of everyone's routes plus fun stats like your total mileage, and best time of the week!
Let’s work together to give kids in foster care a chance to find a family that will love them forever.
Think about it – the love of a family to call your own. Is there any better experience in life than that?
