We’ve all heard the idea of being customer-centric, but how you utilizing your leadership to best serve your customers.
Today’s post is by Chip R. Bell, author of Kaleidoscope.
The very thirsty crow came upon a pitcher of water. But, the water was deep and the neck of the pitcher narrow. Aesop’s Fables tells us the rest of the riddle. The crow picked up small pebbles and dropped them one by one in the pitcher causing the water to rise high enough for a drink.
I needed a prescription refilled for an eye ointment, and my usual pharmacy was unable to get it for a week. So, I called the pharmacy attached to the local grocery store. The “I’m having a horrible day” cashier-receptionist answered my phone call to fill the prescription. When I arrived at the pharmacy, she stood guard over the cash register with a scowl telegraphing the same attitude I had heard on the phone. Behind her were the pharmacy manager and two pharmacy assistants.
“Are you having a great day?” I asked cheerfully in a rather loud voice. “Not particularly,” she said.
“Well,” I announced, putting a pebble in the water pitcher so to speak, “I am here to help your day get a lot better.” She was unmoved. One of the pharmacy assistants nervously smiled at my way-too-obvious attempt to get her “happy water” to rise in the pitcher.
“How much would this ointment cost without insurance?” I asked her in my very best happy-go-lucky cheerleader voice. I had Googled the answer in advance. “Three hundred and fifty dollars,” she answered. “Gee whiz,” I teased. “How much would it cost just to get new eyes?” The other pharmacy assistant laughed to herself without looking up. But the cashier was not joining in the fun. “I know you are going to fix me right up!” I added, still trying to alter the mood!
My last attempt at a bit of happy talk: “Is your day getting a little bit better?” I asked. “Not really,” she said, flatly.
The expressionless pharmacy manager standing six feet from her finally looked up from his work. His countenance clearly conveyed his condemnation. He was not amused at my attempts to elevate the attitude of his front-line ambassador. This pitcher of customer delight remained out of my reach as I vowed to go back to my old pharmacy where I didn’t have to work so hard to get a fraction of positive service.
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260302-Glass-of-Water.jpg?fit=1920%2C1281&ssl=112811920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2026-03-02 08:02:542026-03-01 23:01:30How Leaders Quench the Service Thirst of Customers
Understanding how people want to feel, and delivering on those emotional benefits, can be your greatest competitive advantage.
Today’s guest post is by Kevin Perlmutter, author of BRAND DESIRE: Spark Customer Interest Using Emotional Insights.
Do you often wonder how to differentiate your business from the competition?
When many competitive brands are offering very similar products or services, sometimes it’s challenging for a brand to stand apart. Maybe you’ve tried adding new things to your core offering. Maybe you’ve tried increasing your advertising budget to increase awareness of your offering. You may have even thought about or tried lowering your prices, which is unfortunately a race to the bottom.
What I’ve discovered, guiding the evolution of brands of all sizes with leaders who face the same challenge, is that the reasons why people choose a brand’s product or service are not always what the business or brand leaders think.
While there’s a tendency to want to emphasize product and service offering details, we know that people’s decision-making is greatly informed by their emotions, their desires, and their interest in having their needs met.
How do people want to feel?
Maya Angelou famously said, “People won’t remember what you said. People won’t remember what you did. But people will always remember how you made them feel.” This incredible insight is consistently backed up by research. Forrester has reported year over year, for well over a decade, that “emotion is the largest driver of loyalty” for brands – meaning, how a brand experience makes us feel has the most impact on our desire to have that brand experience again.
Think about brand experience in your life. How about the last time you bought a car? Would you enthusiastically go back to that dealership to buy your next car, or will you actively avoid going back? How about working with your accountant or financial advisor? Do they seem ambivalent to your business? Or do they make you feel “valued, appreciated, and respected” – the three most influential positive emotions that lead to loyalty, according to Forrester.
For you and your business, this means that no matter how similar your offering is to that of your competition, you can create meaningful differentiation by addressing how people want to feel through your brand experience. You can also attract people to your brand by letting them know it’s where they can find emotionally compelling benefits.
Differentiating on brand experience
ServiceByte is an example of a brand I’ve worked with where we discovered that brand experience is what sets their work apart, and it is now the anchor for how the brand attracts new customers. ServiceByte is a small business in the New York City area, specializing in managed services IT support for other companies. They provide computer and email help desk support, and, overall, help companies monitor and maintain their IT infrastructure. They have many competitors who do the exact same thing.
When beginning the work with founder Kish Melwani, he told me that he founded ServiceByte with a concierge-style service ethic that prioritizes the customer experience. He did so after recognizing that most IT support teams leave people feeling annoyed or frustrated, fueled by a lack of empathy for the disruption to their business.
Years later, ServiceByte has many loyal customers and a slew of 5-star reviews. However, Kish was still eager to attract more customers and didn’t know how. Up to that point, marketing prioritized the service offering. Kish agreed, it was time to prioritize the emotional benefits of the brand experience.
To understand more about what sets ServiceByte apart, I suggested that, as part of the Insights Discovery phase of my Limbic Sparks® Brand Strategy approach, I interview ServiceByte customers to hear more about the brand experience from their perspective, in addition to other investigations.
Here are some soundbites of what I heard:
“Kish sets a tone, culture, and personality that comes through in the team.”
“Working with ServiceByte reminds me of how I like to do business.”
“We can get our work done knowing the engine runs well.”
Overall, we learned that the most important thing that both ServiceByte and its customers care about is being “Always On.” For ServiceByte that means always monitoring and always enthusiastically providing a good experience. For customers, “Always On” means they care most about their business being up and running – with no downtime.
“Always On” is what I call the Shared Emotional Motivation – what both the brand and its customers are trying to achieve, individually and with each other. As a core input to brand strategy, it led us to the Brand Idea and customer-facing Tagline:
“We Do Our Thing So You Can Keep Doing Yours”
This Brand Idea, by definition, using this emotion-centric brand strategy approach, is a compelling brand benefit and invitation (not an “about us” statement). It lets potential customers know that ServiceByte is where they can get the benefits that we’ve discovered they crave – in this case, business continuity from people who they know have their backs.
It now sets the tone for all brand messaging – in sales materials, on the company website, and in customer support communications. It also ensures that the ServiceByte support technicians are always focused on delivering on the brand promise.
How can you differentiate on brand experience?
The thing to remember is that people are emotionally driven, and understanding the emotional motivations of your customers is the place to start.
Whether you’re ready for a big brand evolution, or you just want to fine-tune your current sales and marketing approach with more relevant and compelling brand messaging, here’s what you can do.
You can embrace what I call a Limbic Sparks Mindset. It involves three questions you can always ask to guide your approach:
What are people’s frustrations, unmet needs, and motivations?
How do people want to feel?
What should your brand say and do to make people’s lives better?
Understanding how people want to feel, and delivering on those emotional benefits, can be your greatest competitive advantage. It can spark interest in your brand and sustain ongoing brand loyalty.
Kevin Perlmutter, author of BRAND DESIRE: Spark Customer Interest Using Emotional Insights, is Chief Strategist and Founder of Limbic Brand Evolution, a brand strategy and neuromarketing consultancy which puts emotional insight at the center of how brands attract and retain customers. Based near New York City, he works with business and brand leaders to create stronger connections between their brand and the people they want to reach.
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We’ve all heard the idea of being customer-centric, but how you utilizing your leadership to best serve your customers.
Today’s post is by Chip R. Bell, author of Kaleidoscope.
The very thirsty crow came upon a pitcher of water. But, the water was deep and the neck of the pitcher narrow. Aesop’s Fables tells us the rest of the riddle. The crow picked up small pebbles and dropped them one by one in the pitcher causing the water to rise high enough for a drink.
I needed a prescription refilled for an eye ointment, and my usual pharmacy was unable to get it for a week. So, I called the pharmacy attached to the local grocery store. The “I’m having a horrible day” cashier-receptionist answered my phone call to fill the prescription. When I arrived at the pharmacy, she stood guard over the cash register with a scowl telegraphing the same attitude I had heard on the phone. Behind her were the pharmacy manager and two pharmacy assistants.
“Are you having a great day?” I asked cheerfully in a rather loud voice. “Not particularly,” she said.
“Well,” I announced, putting a pebble in the water pitcher so to speak, “I am here to help your day get a lot better.” She was unmoved. One of the pharmacy assistants nervously smiled at my way-too-obvious attempt to get her “happy water” to rise in the pitcher.
“How much would this ointment cost without insurance?” I asked her in my very best happy-go-lucky cheerleader voice. I had Googled the answer in advance. “Three hundred and fifty dollars,” she answered. “Gee whiz,” I teased. “How much would it cost just to get new eyes?” The other pharmacy assistant laughed to herself without looking up. But the cashier was not joining in the fun. “I know you are going to fix me right up!” I added, still trying to alter the mood!
My last attempt at a bit of happy talk: “Is your day getting a little bit better?” I asked. “Not really,” she said, flatly.
The expressionless pharmacy manager standing six feet from her finally looked up from his work. His countenance clearly conveyed his condemnation. He was not amused at my attempts to elevate the attitude of his front-line ambassador. This pitcher of customer delight remained out of my reach as I vowed to go back to my old pharmacy where I didn’t have to work so hard to get a fraction of positive service.
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/20250706-Water-Pitcher.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2025-07-09 08:02:492025-07-08 22:31:54How Leaders Quench the Service Thirst of Customers
In an age of too many options, four simple questions can provide a clear approach to making those frequent decisions in a way that saves us time.
Today’s post is by Jack Quarles, author of Expensive Sentences
We live in a time of unprecedented options. Those of us in developed economies of the 21st century, even with average incomes, have more choices than ever before in what we eat, what we wear, our jobs, where we live or travel, our entertainment and education… and the list goes on.
Our ability to customize the details of our lives is dazzling, but it is not free. Abundant options require abundant decisions, and decisions require energy. Life’s never-ending buffet brings byproducts: too many options can paralyze us, and fear of taking the wrong option can haunt us.
We can benefit from thinking about how we make decisions, and intentionally adopting practices that help us manage the cost of decision-making and feel more confident in the choices we do make.
Let’s examine a class of decision that we face every day: stay or go, fish or cut bait, keep on the same path or change direction. More specifically, we’ll consider people and companies we pay, whether at work or at home:
Do I like my accountant, or is it time to switch? Should I change gyms? Do we need a new marketing consultant? Is our lawn care guy charging us too much?
There are both cost and benefit components to these questions. If your gym is nearby and your friends go there, it may be worth twice the price of a different gym with the same equipment because you’re more likely to go and use it. That’s an easy case. Other decisions aren’t so easy, and sometimes those questions of “Am I paying too much for this?” keep lingering in our mind without a clear answer.
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Leaders who empower their team members get better results. They make faster decisions, have the ability to act, and create dramatically better experiences for customers. Here’s how you can empower your teams.
Today’s post is by Dianna Booher, author of What MORE Can I Say?
“Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” observed the Russian philosopher and novelist Leo Tolstoy. The same might be said of large retailers. Successful retailers operate on the same principles to achieve happy customers. Struggling retailers fail for different reasons.
Recently, I had to replace two major household items in the same week: a clothes washer and a TV console. The experience at Retailer A to buy the washer proved a disaster. For starters, we asked the salesperson several questions before making our final decision: 1) Is the advertised in-store sales prices the same as the online price? 2) Can we get next-day delivery? 3) Are both colors available now? 4) Are the “pedestal” drawers deep enough to store typical detergent containers? She answered yes to all four questions.
As it turned out, Retailer A could not deliver our color choice for a month. We opted for second choice. When they delivered the washer, it was badly damaged. The optional purchase “pedestal” drawers were not deep enough to store even the shortest detergent containers. When we called to get the damaged machine replaced, the contractor who delivered it confirmed that Retailer A had a backlog of “at least” another month before they could replace it with another machine. And it took more than an hour on the phone with two levels of management in three different departments (warehouse, scheduling, credit) to get the paperwork handled and the replacement machine rescheduled for delivery.
But by comparison, the tale at Retailer B put Retailer A to shame.
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Dealing with angry customers can be one of the greatest challenges you face. Here are 7 tips for dealing with those difficult situations gracefully and effectively.
Today’s post is by Mark Goulston, author of “Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone”
One of the things that all irate customers have in common is that they have an attitude that says “I rate better service than this and now that I have you on the phone, you’re going to pay for it!” And one of the other things about them that gets to you is you feel unjustly accused of having done this to them and that can make it difficult to remain calm.
That is why the first three tips are about ways to remain or regain your calm and the final four about what to do next.
1. 3 Strikes and You’re Calm – 1. Think of the first thing you want to say or do in response to an irate customer (which is about defending or protecting yourself). Don’t do it, take a breath and exhale. 2. Then think of the second thing you want to say or do (which is about retaliating). Don’t do that, take a breath and exhale. 3. And finally think of the third thing you want to do (which is about finding a solution) and do that.
2. Assume innocence – Unless you are dealing with a truly evil person, assume that nothing is going right in the person’s life and they have chosen this interaction with you to displace all their frustration as a way of not taking it personally when it is meant for your company or product and not you.
Customer loyalty takes just as much energy to build as new customer growth. Unfortunately companies spend too much time focusing on new customers and not taking care of the ones they already have.
Today’s post is by Noah Fleming, author of The Customer Loyalty Loop.
Most executives I talk to feel like they’re drowning in data and yet anyone and everyone within the organization is telling them they need more and more data! Do you ever feel overwhelmed with all the things you need to worry about, let alone the collection of “big data” with the belief that data might help you generate better customer relations, or a more loyal customer?
I’m going to let you in on a big secret. The companies and clients that I work with who are at the top of their games, or continuously increasing revenue are only really placing a concerted effort on three key areas. I’m going to warn you, there’s nothing ground-breaking here that you don’t already know, but how these companies are focusing on these areas might surprise you.
I’ll tell you until the cows come home that most organizations are too focused on the new customer at the expense of their existing customers, but I’m also a realist. The current customer is the beating heart of any great business, but you need new customers to grow. Anybody who tells you otherwise should be thrown from your office. Today we’re going to about new and existing customers.
The first area that these companies excel in is their uncanny ability to sell to their existing customers more often. I said sell, not just “market to,” and not just putting offers in front of them, but selling. You need the same level of gravitas and effort that is put towards new customer acquisition, applied to selling more to your existing customer base. That requires a customer retention process. Most businesses have a sales process but not a retention process. The best companies do.
I once heard an author and marketer say that all great sales and marketing is just about sharing your message over and over again. He might have been half right, once. A decade ago, maybe a quarter right. Now, it’s more like a tenth.
If you want to sell to your prospects and existing customers either the first time or the sixth time, then you need to get three things right. But you need to get them right, all the time and every time.
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There is a scene in the Tina Fey/Amy Pohler film “Sisters” that is hilarious. The scene takes place in the dressing room of a trendy shop where the eponymous sisters go shopping for dresses for a party they are hosting that night. They go to a boutique and try on a number of party dresses, but they are clearly clueless. Each dress the sisters put on is completely unflattering as they wear the dresses in all sorts of inappropriate ways.
The shop clerk watches them in deadpan horror and her face expresses what we are all thinking: each dress is worse than the next. The clerk, however, doesn’t help them put the dresses on correctly or offer them sizes that fit; rather, she says “that looks amaaaazing” in a completely flat tone. This character is the epitome of the lackluster clerk who clearly has been told to compliment the customers. No. Matter. What.
Service that is inauthentic, unhelpful or pushy is the stuff of horrible Yelp reviews and comedic movie scenes. But service doesn’t have to be like that. Businesses that take time to connect authentically to their customers will build a client for life. And businesses that ignore service in the sales moment are doing themselves great harm as sales are based on a human connection. Here are some easy ways to connect with your customers that will make the sisters of your business – service and sales – shine.
Establish Customer Quotas, Not Sales Quotas
Too many businesses focus on the number of sales rather than the number of customers. You must remember that customers make sales. Ask your salespeople to create relationships with every type of customer – not just the ones they already know.
Our reader poll today asks: How would you characterize your organization’s attitude toward customer service?
We go out of our way to exceed expectations 61%
We do our best to meet expectations 32%
We try to meet expectations but don’t worry too much if we don’t 6%
We do the bare minimum to get by 1%
Is meeting expectations good enough? IN a hyper-competitive world, a clear majority of you are going out of your way to exceed your customers’ expectations. It doesn’t take much and it goes a long way. For those of you satisfied with meeting customer expectations, recognize that your competitors are trying to push beyond those expectations. Fall short enough times and you’ll find those customers are no longer yours. We all know it’s less expensive to keep an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one. If you’re one of those “meeting expectations” firms (or even the ones who don’t really care too much about meeting expectations) just recognize your marketing team will be very busy and very expensive but your finance team might not have a lot of work to do when it comes time to count your profits. Ignore customer service at your own risk!
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
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4 Make-Or-Break Customer Service Skills and How to Find Them
Today’s post is by Ken Crowell
The pandemic and economic and political turmoil has Americans stressed out, making customer service skills more important than ever for businesses to be able to thrive and grow.
Even before the latest economic disruption, poor customer service was blamed for costing American businesses billions each year. Meanwhile, ample evidence indicates that companies with friendly and attentive employees keep customers and attract new ones.
Customer service personnel are the first point of contact customers have with your company and can make or break your business. A service orientation also helps employees work together and independently to fulfill company goals, and helps create a culture of teamwork and collaboration.
We’ve compiled a list of what we consider to be the top skills to look for when hiring, as well as some questions that can help identify the candidates who possess these qualities. Look for candidates who demonstrate:
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Managing a team comes in many different forms and requires a lot of different skills, check your ego at the door and rethink how you’re promoting responsibility in your organization.
Several weeks ago, I had two experiences that reminded me of the nature of responsibility; and management’s role in promoting and sustaining a responsible workplace.
First, a student of mine sent me the following email, “Coach, there is next to no sense of responsibility here. Nothing happens when dates are missed, goals are ignored, etc… I may be going bonkers. Can we talk?” We talked.
Second, I was at the 10 am production meeting of yet another client when Dave, the day shift production coordinator made the following report to Mark, the plant manager. “Mark, the critical shipment to Quality Industries went out first thing on schedule. Raul and his crew got it 100% completed. It has been picked up. But Mark, you need to know that Raul had to work 32 hours of overtime.” At which Mark replied, “What is wrong with Raul? Didn’t he read the notice from the home office we got just this week that costs are over budget and for the rest of the year there will be no hiring, no expedited freight and especially no overtime? What is wrong with that guy? Can you get me his home number?” Dave responded, “I knew this would be an issue, so I asked Raul what happened. He told me that 4 of his crew, who carpool together, got into an accident on the way to work, a serious one. None of our guys were hurt, but the other driver was drunk and two of his passengers were taken away by ambulance. The guys said they would be a couple hours late, at least, and probably miss the entire shift, while the police investigated it. So, Raul held over 4 people from swing shift.” Mark replied, “Well let me advise the boss; there will be hell to pay by someone.” Dave interceded and said, “Hold on Mark, before you make that call, you’ll want to know this overtime was not just regular overtime but double time and a quarter. He only had a few minutes to decide and had tried to call you; but said no one picked up. It was 10:50pm.” Mark exploded “Holy shit, how am I supposed to explain that? This may cost Raul his job.”
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Our reader poll today asks: How often do you move team members around to cross-pollinate skills and culture?
Rarely: 34%
Occasionally: 30.88%
Never: 18.41%
All the time: 16.71%
Don’t let them get stagnant. Leaving your people in the same role, same location or same team for extended periods of time creates risks and misses opportunities. The risk is they get bored or disillusioned and when that happens, performance drops or they leave the organization. By not moving them around, you’re also missing an opportunity to spread and reinforce culture, build new skills and strengthen co-worker relationships. Granted, there’s a balance of how often you move them, but no movement at all is problematic. Think about how you can create some fresh experiences for the members of your team. These don’t have to be permanent reassignments — projects are a great way to get things moving around.
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
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