What Happened To 5 Star Service?

What Happened To 5 Star Service? Regular readers know I love brilliant customer service.   I wrote a book on it.  I’ve trained over 100,000 people on how to deliver it.  I’ve consulted with some of the best organisations in the world on how to create it.  And you know how much I avoid negativity.  But…  […][...]

The key to brand loyalty

When it comes to creating brand loyalty, I believe TRUST is top. In the simplest (real life) terms: I don’t trust Hermes* to return my product to Amazon, but I do trust Amazon to refund me anyway. Therefore, I comfortably buy from Amazon, but I wouldn’t choose to send anything via Hermes. Trust is key […][...]

Just One Touch

Mrs H & I enjoyed a few days away to celebrate the completion of our most successful Write That Book Masterclass (more on that later). We spent our weekend in Cartmel, in the south Lake District and started with lunch at L’Enclume. This isn’t a foodie blog – it’s a people blog. Although L’Enclume totally deserve their […][...]

Doing Their Best

My favourite pub, The Rat Inn, has chosen to close on Mondays. Not due to Covid. It’s because they can’t find enough staff to provide the service they are known for. They’ve tried letting patrons know and still some customers kick off. After a horrendous 18 months, the hospitality industry is being hit again with the challenge of not being able to find enough people. And […][...]

Could 2021 be the WORST year for British Hospitality?

There’s a boom happening. Staycation, holiday at home, let’s go ‘out out’, the great British getaway. Whatever you want to call it – it is happening. There are record sales for domestic holidays. And with them… record prices. 200-500% increases in some cases! Many coastal and country hotels are fully booked for months. And the idea of […][...]

Death by 1000 cuts

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 […][...]

Take your shoes off

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 […][...]

Is it going backwards?

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 […][...]

How I would save UK Retail

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 […][...]

When Customer Service Doesn’t Matter

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 […][...]

Would you like to be coached by Michael FREE for the next 90 days?