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Be Amazing - 4/23/24


Watching Michael Jordan steal a pass and then dunk a basketball is amazing.  Taking a rocket to the moon is amazing.  The taste of my mom’s homemade beef soup is amazing. We all have our personal examples of what is amazing.  Usually, it’s something that we cannot comprehend, that we Read more

Talk About Yourself to Build Customer Confidence - 4/16/24


When you’re dealing with somebody who is anxious or nervous about a situation, a customer who feels like they don’t have much control, an individual who is unsure and uncertain, it’s important to put the customer at ease.  It’s important to build their comfort level.  It’s important to help Read more

The Proven Value in What You Do - 4/9/24


Forbes wrote an article last year based on a compilation of the results of research on customer service and the customer experience; it was titled:  100 Customer Experience Stats For 2023. In reading the article, you’ll note that many of these key research findings are about you – the value Read more

A Tale of Two Texts - 4/2/24


Having to get allergy shots once a week is never fun, and for Janet, it became an even bigger frustration. She had the shots typically scheduled on Tuesday around 10:30 in the morning, figuring she would avoid the morning rush as well as the lunch rush by going mid-morning.  However, Read more

The Secret Sauce for Great Customer Service - 3/26/24


I was working with the League Office for a major American sport several years back, and one of the executives asked me to describe our Secret Sauce that helped our clients improve the fan experience and customer retention.  I gave him a sense of what makes us unique and Read more

The Miracle of an Apology - 3/19/24


Unfortunate but true story… The manager basically lost his mind.  He terminated his employee on the spot.  She had told the customer that there was going to be a delay in the shipment.  The employee called up the customer ahead of time to let the customer know what was about Read more

It’s Not About the 5-Minute Wait - 3/12/24


Robert went into his supervisor’s office to update her on a situation at the payment desk.  Robert said that a customer was about fourth or fifth in line, waiting to be served, and the customer was complaining loudly about the wait.  He was there to make a property tax Read more

Lessons from the Greats - 3/5/24


I was recently facilitating a workshop on the customer experience, and I made the point that it’s usually beneficial to look at your personal life for great experiences; identify what really resonates with you in a positive way in order to uncover ideas to improve your own customer service. So, Read more

The Empathy Roadmap - 2/27/24


For some people, empathy comes naturally.  There’s an innate desire to learn about the other person and to sincerely convey that sense of interest and caring.  But for many of us, sometimes it helps to have a communication plan.  It helps to know what to do in order to Read more

“You’re the Boss” - 2/20/24


Terrence is excellent at what he does.  From a technical standpoint, he knows how to keep the facility clean.  He’s the lead custodian, and he knows that keeping things straight does not necessarily mean keeping things sanitary.  He knows what chemicals to use and not to use, how to Read more

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Put Your Fans’ Names on Your Uniform

Posted on June 21, 2012 in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

You may have heard of “Harley Loyalty,” where some customers are such fervent fans of Harley-Davidson motorcycles that they’ll have the Harley-Davidson logo tattooed somewhere on their body.

Well one Italian soccer team is turning the tables. According to an article in Metro.co.uk, “Fans of Italian club Parma have been recognised in a unique way by their club, after it was announced the name of every season ticket holder will be sewn into their new shirt.”

That’s right. Imagine that happening in sports in the US. If you’re a season ticket holder of the LA Kings hockey team, your name would have been on their jersey during the Stanley Cup run. Maybe you’re a season ticket holder of the Miami Heat; your name would be on LeBron James’ jersey. How about Eli Manning of the New York Giants dropping back to pass in the Super Bowl with your name on his jersey – wow!

Sometimes it’s not about how to make your fans more loyal, but it’s about how to show loyalty to your fans. And sometimes it doesn’t take a ton of money to do so. Try not to focus on perks and benefits all the time; focus on methods of recognizing the fans.

We recently co-hosted a Twitter Chat about fan relations/loyalty (see our #fanexperience innovation center for details), and few of the ideas shared cost a lot of money. That’s because the ideas were based on relationships, access, and recognition.

Get creative. Find ways to put your season ticket holder’s name on your uniform.

Listen to our latest podcast episode on “Delivering the WOW Experience!”

See more sports-related blog postings at: http://serviceadvice.wordpress.com/category/sports/


Do You Have Harley Loyalty?

Posted on April 8, 2010 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

Your customers are loyal. They wouldn’t consider going to another business for their products and services because your integrity, quality, customer service, and price are too good. They are loyal to a fault. Or are you loyal to a faulty belief grounded in hope or assumptions rather than fact and proof?

What outward signs do you have of your customers’ loyalty? Well Harley-Davidson, America’s most well-known motorcycle manufacturer believes it has proof that few can touch. The company believes the "definition of customer loyalty is when your customers will tattoo the name of your company on their arm."

How many people have "IBM" or "Microsoft" or "McDonald’s" tattooed on their arms? Less than 10…less than 5? That’s not to say that McDonald’s customers aren’t loyal, but how does the company know who’s loyal and who isn’t?

Long-term success is more easily achieved if your existing customer base is loyal. They will fight for your company, drive by competitors to get to your store, pay a higher price than alternatives to your service, and recommend you to their closest friends.

But unless you have all your customers walking around with your company logo tattooed on their arms, you need to generate objective measures of loyalty. Try these methods of gaining solid loyalty data:

· Survey customers and have them estimate the total amount of annual purchases of your types of products and services, regardless of whom they buy from. Calculate their purchases from you as a percentage of the total.

· Distribute loyalty cards. Track either their frequency of use or how often you’ve given discounts/rewards when customers hit a targeted number of uses.

· During purchase transactions from new customers, ask how they’ve heard about your company. Track referral rates to gauge the prevalence of effective recommendations made from your existing customers to others.

In lieu of tattoos, get solid data to confirm your customer loyalty.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/