Last week, in Coyle’s ‘The Company’ segment, we heard from top CEOs about paying attention to warning signs and confronting reality. Today, we hear from a Bryant University professor who espouses the philosophy that leaders should be anthropologists. That is, leaders should get out of their offices and become...
Blog
Customer Feedback is a Two-Way Speech
Jim Coyle, , Blog, Quality Review, 0
This article by Gary Schwartz reminds us that guest feedback is a dialogue and that a healthy dialogue with anyone can be ruined when one party simply drops out of the conversation unexpectedly. You begin a conversation by asking someone how they feel about you, and after they give...
What Service Customers Really Want
Jim Coyle, , Blog, Quality Review, 0
This Harvard Business Publishing article discusses the importance of guests being able to reach knowledgeable employees on first contact. Although the article studied call centers, it stresses importance of how hotel and restaurant employees need to be able to efficiently handle requests, inquiries, and complaints on their first shot....
Parsing the comfort food menu
The Center for Culinary Development (CDC, http://www.ccdsf.com), a food and beverage product development company, recently took a look at consumer behavior and how it relates to ‘comfort food’ in a study of over 3,700 customers. The CDC looked at the comfort food preferences of different demographic groups they described...
Fundamentals for Retaining Quality Staff
Hiring valuable hospitality staff and training them to meet the demands of the guest is agreeably a vital part of best practices in any economy. According to research by Cornell University faculty, the turnover cost for a line level position could be estimated at $6000. Are there ways to...
Rebrand and Regain Trust
With the economic meltdown and the many sources available for online chronicling, companies must rebrand to win back consumer trust. A September 2009 article from BusinessWeek reports large corporations like AmEx must produce ads that resonate differently, that show they are not greedy villains but another entity that helps...
Video: Danny Meyer’s Speech on His Book–Setting the Table
Danny Meyer’s is arguably one of the leading authorities on delivering a great guest experience. His secrets, discussed fully in his book Setting the Table, all stem from the overarching notion of service vs. hospitality. In the video, Meyer starts by explaining great hospitality is ‘how staff make people...
Innovative Employee Program that Promotes Company’s Core Culture
Jim Coyle, , The Company, 0
In Tuesday’s (9/22) addition of Coyle’s ‘The Company’ segment, Jennifer Vollmert discussed McKinsey & Company’s “Leadership Lessons for Hard Times.” One of the key points from this article was on the importance of building and protecting a company’s culture, even in tough economic times. In today’s segment, I wish...
U.S. Carmakers Make Strides in Customer Satisfaction
This article in the NY Times talks about how the American auto makers have made unusual strides recently in the University of Michigan’s Customer Satisfaction Index. At GuestIQ, we looked at two studies in Guest Satisfaction last week, and this article illustrates how the statistics can be misleading. Improved...
Leadership Lessons for Hard Times
Jim Coyle, , The Company, 0
Last week, in Coyle’s ‘The Company’ segment, we discussed the importance of aligning action and values, and a feature about “Wow” customer moments demonstrated that, even in times of prosperity, to bring a company’s values to life requires continued, concerted effort. But what about in times of economic hardship?...
