Death by 1000 cuts
October 21st 2020 by
Lingchi (Chinese for lingering death) was a horrendous torture method used for hundreds of years before being banned in the early twentieth century (I know, that recent). It’s horrendous and I’ll leave the detail to your imagination. We often think something ‘suddenly’ happens, but could the truth be that we killed it with 1,000 cuts? The family business transitioning to the next generation. The new owners are happy to take some […][...]
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Take your shoes off
October 8th 2020 by
I was recently presenting a 5 Star Service Zoom webinar to a group of estate agents. At the end, I was asked this question: ‘What’s the one thing estate agents could do to provide better customer service?’ Obviously a brilliant CRM system, great representation, using Omnichannel effectively, etc. comes to mind but my answer was: ‘Take […][...]
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Is it going backwards?
January 30th 2020 by
I picked up my friend Jamie at Newcastle; he’d just had a 3-hour train trip from London and commented that the service was getting worse. The once brilliant Apple have dropped the ball three times (with me) over the last 12 months. BT told me less than the truth, failed to fix a problem and mis-sold […][...]
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How I would save UK Retail
July 10th 2019 by
On its knees! Amazon has killed our retailers! The high street is dying! The hyperbole is increasing daily and the solution is complex. But how about we start with this …. Retail Staff – instead of chatting to your mates – how about doing some selling and serving? Is it just me, or has the […][...]
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When Customer Service Doesn’t Matter
May 15th 2019 by
I was looking to book 3 nights in a really nice, relatively new hotel on one of the Spanish Islands. It was for the height of summer, so I wanted to plan ahead. I didn’t need a deal. I wasn’t fussed about an upgrade. But I wasn’t prepared to pay more than list price for […][...]
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How Good Service Becomes Brilliant
April 30th 2019 by
I was recently tagged in a Twitter post about customer service. Normally, it’s a reader having a rant and suggesting the culprits ‘check out @MichaelHeppell and get your staff trained’. They never do … but I’m honoured for the shout out. This particular tweet was about a simple but effective design in a hotel room to aid sleepy guests on the […][...]
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3 Great Customer Service Stories
January 22nd 2019 by
I thought it was time to share some inspirational service stories. As usual, your job is to keep thinking, ‘How can I use this?’ Shopping Nightmare Imagine the dread of buying £70 worth of shopping and then realising you have no method of payment. This is what happened to one of our clients, Nikki, […][...]
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Do you speak my language?
November 13th 2018 by
I needed to change an online booking but the only way to do it was to call the contact centre. I visited the store but was asked to email my comments to the service department. I called the help line and was instructed to put my request in writing. I responded to the tweet and […][...]
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66% of people ….
November 7th 2018 by
I enjoy a good statistic And I love a good quiz. Let’s combine them both. 66% of people: A. Have never seen snow B. When they leave work, don’t know what they are going to have for tea C. Suffer from Nomophobia – the fear of being without your mobile phone Which one will you […][...]
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Why Our Retailers Must Step Up
October 31st 2018 by
I’ve presented at several retailer conferences this year. The atmosphere has been buoyant at some and desperate at others. Sometimes, when I’m giving a keynote, I use fear as a motivator to give the audience a whack on the side of the head. For retailers, I used to name the shops which no longer exist […][...]
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