If your goal is to provide an Ultimate Customer Experience®, here are five ideas that could help you achieve your target. However, there are always reasons NOT to take action – so I’m going to go a bit backward and present “Cons and Pros.” First, you’ll see a reason why you should not take the recommended step, followed by an incentive to overcome the potential objection.
Implement a personalized experience: Customers want to feel special and recognized, and using their data to personalize their experience can go a long way. This includes personalized recommendations, customized offers, and tailored communication.
Cons: Personalization requires access to customer data, which can raise privacy concerns if not handled properly.
Pros: Customers feel valued and appreciated, leading to increased loyalty, spending with your organization, and enhanced engagement.
Offer a seamless omnichannel experience: Customers expect to be able to interact with your company through various channels, from social media to email to phone. Ensuring a seamless experience across all channels can improve customer satisfaction.
Cons: Maintaining consistent messaging and branding across channels can be challenging and requires investment and commitment.
Pros: Customers will be able to interact with your brand in a way that is most convenient for them, leading to increased engagement and satisfaction. How can it be an Ultimate Customer Experience if it’s difficult for customers to connect with you in the manner they desire?
Continuously gather feedback and improve: Customers want to know that their voice is heard and that the brand is listening to their feedback. Continuously gathering feedback and using it to improve the customer experience can lead to a better overall experience.
Cons: Gathering and analyzing feedback can be time-consuming and resource intensive.
Pros: Customers feel heard and valued, leading to repeat and referral business – the lifeblood of profitability.
Create a community: Customers want to feel like they are part of something bigger than just a transaction. Creating a community around your brand through social media, events, and other initiatives can foster a sense of belonging and connection.
Cons: Creating and maintaining a community can take a lot of effort and monitoring. You need to have team members ready to respond when your customers provide input.
Pros: Customers feel a sense of loyalty to the brand and are more likely to advocate for it. If “word-of-mouth marketing” is truly impactful, this is a dynamic way to stimulate more of it.
Deliver the Ultimate Customer Experience®: Customers now expect quick and effective solutions to their problems. Providing support, offering multiple channels for customer service, and empowering employees to make decisions can all contribute to a positive customer service experience. It’s your primary opportunity to improve retention and referrals – and create the kind of organizational culture that inspires productivity from your team.
Cons: Providing this level of high-quality customer experience can require additional training and investment.
Pros: Customers feel heard and valued, leading to increased loyalty and repeat business…and profit!
You can always find a reason not to do what needs to be done to deliver an Ultimate Customer Experience.® However, for every action, there is an ROI. As I’ve written before, ROI can mean what we customarily assume – Return on Investment – or it can have another impactful meaning: Return on Inaction.
What if your competition decides an investment in the Ultimate Customer Experience® is worthwhile – and you do nothing? What if your customers become attracted to your competition because they are serving them at a higher level where they feel known, heard, and valued?
The “pros” of the Ultimate Customer Experience outweigh the “cons” – and by a significant margin. Now the question becomes, what action will you take?
My new book is about eight weeks from release – and it’s titled (as you might expect) “The Ultimate Customer Experience: 5 Steps Everyone Must Know to Excite Your Customers, Engage Your Colleagues, and Enjoy Your Work.”
This book is NOT about theories, complex strategies, or customer journey maps. It’s about the five steps that every organization must ensure that each team member knows in order to create the kind of customer experience that ensures repeat and referral business.
It’s available for price-protected pre-order from Amazon and other retailers now:
If you want to get better at what you do, there are few limits to how far you can go. With the right mindset, you can become more successful than ever before.
(That’s why Jason Bradshaw and I are conducting the “Stand Out / Earn More” program this week. You’ll discover how to register for FREE at the end of this post!)
As with any skill, learning new things and improving takes time and effort. Here are some tips for lifelong learning that will help elevate your career and your business:
Learning is how we grow as professionals
Learning is a lifelong process, and it’s not just about getting a degree. Learning is about keeping up with trends and new technology. It’s about staying ahead of the curve to keep providing your best work for customers and continue to be an asset to your company or organization.
If you want to stay current, there are many ways to learn while working:
Attend conferences and conventions related to your field (if possible).
Plan out time each week for learning new skills – whether through books, online courses, or other resources — even if it means reading just five pages daily!
You can keep getting better with discipline and action
It’s possible to keep getting better at your craft with discipline and action. That’s because self-discipline is a crucial ingredient for success. You might not know precisely what it takes or how much time it will take for you to do something well—but if you’re disciplined enough, this will show itself over time when nothing else matters but doing what needs doing right now! Whether you want to be an expert in programming, marketing, or sales, the only way you’ll get there is by setting goals and following through on them.
Track your progress
Track your progress and celebrate your achievements as you go. This will help you stay motivated, focused, and on track.
One way to stay motivated and on track is to set a time-based goal. For example, if you want to run a marathon in under 3 hours, set a date and commit to training. Once you’ve completed this goal, select another one that will help keep you motivated.
Having multiple skills is an essential part of being a professional
To be a distinctive professional, you need to have multiple skills. There are many ways that you can learn new skills: taking classes online, attending virtual summits, reading books about it, observing someone who already has those skills (i.e., watching your boss), and so forth.
Learning builds confidence so your efforts are taken seriously
Confidence is a key part of being a distinctive professional. As your experience grows, so does your credibility and, thus, your confidence. Learning new skills helps build this credibility and also helps to keep you interested in what you do.
Learning new skills helps us gain both confidence in ourselves and attractiveness as an employee or entrepreneur because our customers know we are always looking for ways to improve ourselves professionally.
Lifelong learning is key for the true professional
Lifelong learning is critical for the true professional. Lifelong learning is a skill that can be developed, taught, learned, and improved. It’s not just about what you know today; it’s about how you’ll be able to apply that knowledge in years to come.
The world is changing. To survive in this dynamic environment, it’s essential to be flexible and adaptable. Lifelong learning allows you to do just that—it keeps you informed about the latest trends and developments so that you can stay current with the ever-changing landscape.
In the end, lifelong learning is essential for anyone who wants to keep getting better.
Professionalism isn’t just about keeping up with the latest trends or being busy all the time; it’s also about taking time to reflect on your skills so that you can use them well in the future. Learning new things is important because it gives us confidence in ourselves and our work, moving people to take us more seriously.
Why wait? Go forth and learn!
This is my personal invitation to you to attend our “Stand Out / Earn More” event this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday – and I hope to see you there! You can attend for FREE!
It’s hard to describe how nervous I was to meet with my new speech coach. My career was ascending rapidly, but Ron Arden was the coach to the speaking heavyweights — Brian Tracy, Ken Blanchard, Patricia Fripp, and many more. I had invested an amount that made us really stretch for his insights — and now it was the time for our first meeting at his home in San Diego.
As our meeting began, he asked a simple question: “Tell me something that would describe your speaking style.” Being sincere and transparent are qualities essential to me.
I told him, “I speak from my heart.”
“Oh Lord,” Arden replied, “not another one. Not another speaker saying they ‘speak from the heart.’” I didn’t understand. What could possibly be wrong with doing that for your audience?
“Let’s say your wife calls right before you go onstage to tell you that your son has stumbled from his bike and broken his arm. They’re on the way to the ER. Do you really want to speak from the heart now? What if you get a call from your attorney and your business partner has embezzled thousands from you? You’re going to share your heart with the audience?”
He continued, “The audience is not your therapist. If you’re a professional speaker, you work for them. That means you WRITE your presentation from your heart. But when it comes time to deliver for your customer…you SPEAK from your SKILL. Our job is to develop your skills.”
It was one of the most significant examples of coaching I could imagine.
We all need coaches.
Ron Arden’s coaching was a turning point for me. He showed me that it’s essential to be genuine and sincere when speaking from the heart but that you also need to have the skill to back it up. Public speaking is not about sharing your feelings with the audience; it’s about delivering a message to help them achieve their goals. Coaching is critical to advanced success in any field. Whether you’re a CEO, a manager, or an individual contributor, having a coach can help you take your career to the next level.
Public speaking can be a daunting task for many. However, with the help of a good coach, it can be an enriching experience. Coaching is critical to advanced success, as it helps speakers develop their skills and deliver effective and engaging presentations. To be a successful public speaker, it is crucial to write speeches from the heart — but speak from your skill when it is time to deliver your presentation. With the help of a good coach, you can learn how to do this and become a more successful public speaker.
If you want to advance your speaking skills, I’d love to help. I’m only taking six people for a 90-day sprint to speaking success. As of this writing, two of those slots were filled. Just connect with me here for more information.
And, if now isn’t the time but the idea of speech coaching is something you’d like to pursue, just let me know. I will gladly recommend a top-flight coach who can help you achieve your goals.
It’s time for you to become a distinctive speaker!
We recently booked two major events for me as a keynote speaker in January 2023. One was a group where a member of the C-Suite had me speak at his meetings for two previous employers. The other was from a CEO of a group I addressed about a decade ago. He contacted me and said, “It’s past time that we had you back!”
The important aspect I wanted to share about this is not that I have booked a couple of really terrific programs for great leaders. The critical point is that I’ve stayed in touch with both of these clients (in a non-“sale” oriented manner) on an ongoing basis.
Relationships matter significantly in business; as a result, referrals are often the lifeblood of our success.
I’m not saying that all of my business comes through word-of-mouth recommendations. However, I have found that the more time I invest in nurturing relationships with colleagues, clients, and associates, the more likely they are to refer me or work with me again. And when it comes down to it, isn’t that what we ultimately want – a strong network and engaged community?
Here are three ways to enhance the relationships you have with clients and prospects:
Keep in touch regularly. It doesn’t matter whether it’s through a quarterly newsletter or a simple “thinking of you” card. DON’T SPAM! Engage! Bring value to the conversation by helping, not selling.
Deliver help without expectations – offer to introduce them to a colleague or share an article you think they might find valuable. Show interest and invest in their success by providing thoughtful advice or insights that may benefit them.
Make time for in-person conversations and connections, whether it’s a coffee meeting or attending their industry event. We strengthen relationships through face-to-face interactions. Catch up on what’s new in their world. Share valuable information or resources with them.
Investing in relationships can pay off tremendously in the long run.
Build trust and loyalty by consistently demonstrating that you value the professionals you work with and for, then watch as your network grows more robust and engaged.
So, reach out to colleagues, clients, and associates today and strengthen those connections. You never know where they might lead!
Mistakes are a natural part of life. We all make them — and goodness only knows, I have personally made more than my share!
One of the challenges in today’s world is the plethora of online “gurus” and so-called experts seeking to show you how to be successful, wealthy, famous, and anything else you’d want. Part of what they promise is that they’ll provide the solution to whatever your problem might be in business or life. Sometimes that message is wrapped in an air of invincibility that may lead some to imagine that their prospective teacher has never failed or made their own missteps – or that the teacher’s slight errors will prevent you from making any blunders of your own.
The difficulty with this approach — and I certainly hope I’m not guilty of it, as all I’m trying to do is deliver insights that will assist you — is that we all must make our own mistakes and learn from them in order to progress. Mistakes can teach us important lessons and help us to become better people.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting that we should be out there intentionally making blunders! However, it’s impossible to stand out if we are in fear of not always being correct or impeccable. There are no distinctive organizations or leaders who haven’t made significant errors in judgement or choices at some point!
An essential step is understanding that personal responsibility is critical when it comes to moving up from mistakes. We must take ownership of our mistakes and learn from them. This process is not always easy, but it is essential for growth. Blaming others or our circumstances might make us feel momentary vindication for our errors, but it is also a roadblock to personal and professional development.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for dealing with mistakes. What works for one person may not work for another. However, seven principles will help you find your way forward:
Accept responsibility for your mistakes. This is the first and most crucial step. Denial will only prolong the pain and prevent you from learning the lessons you need to know. You must own up to your mistakes in order to move on from them.
Acknowledge your mistakes to yourself and others. This can be difficult, but it is essential for rebuilding trust and relationships. Trust is vital for any healthy relationship. Honesty is always the best policy. It’s also a necessary aspect of building and maintaining trust with those you work with and live around.
Seek forgiveness from those who you have harmed. This is not always possible or necessary, but it can be a helpful step in the process of moving on. Forgiveness can help to heal old wounds and allow you to move forward with your life.
Learn the lessons your mistakes have to offer. Ask yourself what you can do differently in the future to avoid making similar mistakes. What went wrong? What could you have done differently? How can you prevent similar mistakes in the future? These are tough questions to answer, but they’re fundamental for learning and growth. Mistakes can teach us important lessons if we are open to learning from them.
Seek out support from others. We all need, as the Beatles sang, a little help from our friends. Talk to someone you trust about your mistakes and how you’re feeling. This can be a great way to get some perspective and start moving on.
Forgive yourself. This can be difficult but is essential. We all make mistakes; it’s part of being human. What counts is how we learn from our mistakes and become better people and professionals as a result. Obsessing over your errors with anger and resentment will only eat away at you and prevent you from moving forward.
Put your mistakes behind you. Once you have learned from your mistakes and taken the previous steps listed here, it’s now time to put them behind you and move on. This doesn’t mean forgetting about what happened; it just means that you refuse to continue dwelling on it. As the old saying goes, there’s a reason the windshield is larger than the rearview mirror. You have to keep looking forward. Holding onto mistakes will only drag you down and prevent you from achieving your fullest potential.
My great friend, Skip Prichard, wrote a remarkable book about this subject — it’s even titled “The Book of Mistakes.” I highly recommend it.
Mistakes are a natural part of life, but that doesn’t mean we have to like them! As mentioned earlier, I’ve certainly made them — and will undoubtedly continue to do so. However, it’s impossible to create distinction without sometimes making a misstep. Move on from your mistakes and continue progressing in your personal and professional life.
One way to avoid unnecessary mistakes – or to maximize what you learn from them – is through professional coaching. We offer coaching to a limited, select few leaders. If you’d like more information on our Distinctive Coaching, just reach out to us and let’s talk!
Make an enemy of certainty and befriend doubt. When you can change your mind, you can change anything.
Kevin Ashton
As Tammy and I sat in church this past Sunday, our minister, Vince Antonucci, began his sermon on a topic not often discussed in many religious services: the importance of doubt. Vince’s insights started me thinking about the importance of doubt — and why we should embrace ours.
Doubt creeps into our thoughts and lives in every regard — not just in religion and the meaning of life. We doubt our abilities as leaders, professionals, and parents. Typically, we try to eliminate all our doubts — but perhaps that is not the best course of action.
Doubt can be a healthy thing. It can help us examine our viewpoints and question whether they are accurate. Doubt can also lead to greater confidence because we know that we have thought through our positions and are not just blindly following them.
However, doubt can also be confusing and frustrating. It can make us feel like we are not good enough or are not progressing. If doubt is constant, it can lead to anxiety and paralysis.
“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.” ― Francis Bacon
Here are three steps to dealing with doubt:
Acknowledge your doubt. Everyone has doubts at times. Doubt is a normal part of the human experience. When you find yourself doubting your abilities, it is crucial first to acknowledge the feeling. Do not try to push the doubt away or ignore it. Just accept that it is there and allow yourself to feel it.
Examine your doubt. Once you have acknowledged your doubt, you can then examine it. Examining your doubt means thinking through why you feel doubtful and what is causing the worry or fear.
What is causing you to doubt yourself?
Is there evidence to support your doubt?
Or is your doubt based on irrational thoughts?
Is there a specific event or situation that is making you question things? Or is it more generalized anxiety?
Try to identify the source of the doubt and explore it further.
Find a balance. Once you have examined your doubt, you can then work on finding a balance. It is essential to have some doubts in order to question our perspectives and ideas. But too much doubt can lead to paralysis and anxiety. Try to find the middle ground where you can listen to your doubts, but also trust yourself and your abilities.
It’s not my goal to make a political statement here, but I have to wonder if a bit of doubt and questioning of himself might have served Mr. Putin well in the current crisis. Many outside observers believe that he entered the current conflict with overwhelming (and inaccurate) certainty. It is also reported that he surrounds himself with “yes-men and women” who refuse to question or challenge his ideas and perspectives.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, John Kennedy constantly challenged his advisors to offer contradictory viewpoints. He embraced doubt and rejected his Generals when they presented approaches with abject certainty. He relentlessly played the “what if” game with his team to analyze every possible move and potential response. The result is the world was spared a nuclear war.
Learn to listen to your doubts and question them. But also learn to trust yourself and your abilities.
It’s not that iconic professionals and leaders are without doubts. Instead, they know how to embrace and leverage their doubts into greater productivity and performance.
