What Does a Leader Really Do?

When we think about the importance of designing a great customer experience, it’s easy to get hyper-focused on the frontline staff. This makes sense because these employees are the ones with whom the customers will be interacting the most, whether they are the servers at restaurants, cashiers at retail stores,…
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Lessons from Amazon

In this week’s blog, we’re going to cover Shep Hyken’s recent video, *How Amazon Sets the Standard for Every Business.” Before we even get going, consider how evocative that title is. It’s easy to imagine that there are a lot of business owners out there thinking that they don’t compete…
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Hospitality is King

For this week’s blog, let’s take a look at Danny Meyer’s outlook on the art of hospitality. Meyer is the CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, which oversees the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, which in turn is a restaurant that is often voted #1 in any given year…
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Repeat Business vs Customer Loyalty

For our last dive into Shep Hyken’s ACA 2021 report, we’re going to take a closer look at rewards programs, and how they generate repeat business—and how this differs from customer loyalty. As we have in previous blogs on the ACA 2021, let’s first consider some numbers. Hyken asked his…
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Positive vs Negative Reviews

This week’s topic covers part five of Shep Hyken’s ACA 2021 report, which is all about how customers rate and review their experiences at different businesses. We all know that word-of-mouth is critical to maintaining a good reputation and driving referrals, but what do the numbers actually say? The first…
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The Human Touch

The next part of Shep Hyken’s Achieving Customer Amazement 2021 report deals with customers’ preferences regarding self-service and human-to-human options. Specifically, Hyken asked, “When you have a problem or issue with a company or brand, which solution do you prefer to help solve your problem?” According to the report, “41%…
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The Communication Age-Gap

The next part in Shep Hyken’s Achieving Customer Amazement 2021 document covers Communication Preferences, as ranked by the four different generations Hyken surveyed: Gen-Z, Millennials, Gen-X, and Boomers. As with the previous sections in his report, there are several noteworthy differences—but also plenty of common ground—when it comes to each…
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The Value of Customer Service

Returning to Shep Hyken’s Achieving Customer Amazement 2021 report this week, let’s take a look at how much consumers value quality customer service. To begin, let’s consider this number: a 52% majority of people reported that they were willing to pay more if it meant they would receive a higher…
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How Does Age Affect What Customers Value?

Age plays a large factor in influencing customer expectations for a great experience. The level of employee helpfulness, friendliness, empathy, knowledgeability, as well as the ease of shipping/delivery and returns all matter to each age group, but there are certainly stark differences on how much each of these matters to…
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