I was having a breakfast meeting with a client recently and it was interesting to notice the assumptions that were being made by the waitress who was serving us. Generally for the first few times coming to the table her focus was on me, my order and making an impression – my female client was almost entirely ignored. At one point she commented on this when the waitress went away… Read More »Were You Expecting a Tip?
Last night I attended a workshop put on by the recently launched Hamilton / Niagara chapter of the Canadian Society of Training & Development. It was a really fun event. – Using Laughter to Reduce Stress & Enhance Morale. The facilitator was a friend and colleague Sandra Summerhayes, the founder and organiser of the annual Leadership Expo. I did not know quite what to expect but Sandra soon had us… Read More »Laugh Yourself Silly!
Two interesting prospective client meetings today both with a similar theme. Its amazing how many times initial and early work that I do with clients revolves around getting clear on priorities and sticking to a well defined timetable. Technology was meant to be saving us time – more time for our leisure – the opposite seems to be true. Any thoughts?
The next 60 hours are being spent at a great learning retreat the Kingbridge Centre, just north of Toronto with half a dozen like minded coaches/consultants who are here with Chris Barrow our facilitator and coach for the next 3 days and he is blogging about the days as well. Last nights conversation really did turn a tad insane – see Chris' summary of it here As for this bog… Read More »Leave Your Ego Here
On calling a potential coporate client the other day I was greeted with what now seems to be the standard automated reception. "Thank you for calling XYZ Company, please listen carefully to ALL the options before selecting. 1. If you know the extension number of the person you are calling enter it NOW. Does that mean I do not have to wait for all the options then? ……….I guess so.… Read More »Is Your Message Clear?
The last long weekend we went away for a few days to New Jersey (more about some other customer experiences there later) and I left it to the last minute to do anything about canceling delivery of local newspapers. Too late you might think, get the neighbours to pick them up – but no – I went online and was able to cancel newspaper delivery all from my computer with… Read More »Newspapers Are Not Dead
If you went in to your local grocery store today, how much would you pay for a watermelon? $5…….$10.? How about $60! Now watermelons may not be a staple part of a diet, although they do count as a fruit towards your 5 fruits and vegetables a day recommendation. But would you really pay a 5 or even 10 times premium? At an upmarket grocers in Toronto that's exactly what… Read More »How do you like them melons?
You enter a new year full of hope that change will happen, new procedures, new approaches that will improve, fantastic new customer service experiences – until you come across Bell Canada – aaaggghhhh! I have already spent 25 minutes on the phone with 4 different people, been cut off once and now continue to hold – just to reconnect some of their anti-virus software that I am paying them for… Read More »2006 – Time for Bell to Change