“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” ~ President John Quincy Adams The Influence of Inspiring Interactions on Positively Outrageous Service® and Relationships https://youtu.be/pKXWNjtrMck Recently I heard these words, “inspiring interactions” – WOW! Five thoughts immediately came to …

You Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing! https://youtu.be/jRnlQRtClME Boss: “What do you think?” Me: [going to the bathroom] Boss: “Can you hear me?” Me: [getting another beer] Boss: “I think he’s on mute.” Me: [getting chips] Boss: “Hello?” Me: “Sorry I was on mute” @RodneyLacroix Do you feel exhausted after attending too many back-to-back virtual v…

https://youtu.be/5SgC6elyNVs “The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them—preferably in unexpected and helpful ways”. ~ Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group What Does Customer-Centric Mean? If you ask ten people, you may get ten different answers. If your organization’s vision is cus…

“One chord is fine. Two chords is pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.” ~ Lou Reed “FINE” Is an Open Door for Positively Outrageous Service® https://youtu.be/4ZhG41PsiJE “How are you doing?” “I’m Fine!” How often have you heard that! Business is all about relationships. Relationships are elevated or eroded by the experience one encounters…

https://youtu.be/14OA3aMMc4g “Think twice before you speak because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.” ~ Napoleon Hill Influence and Impact Intensifies Positively Outrageous Service® Don’t you love being the Sheriff! Where you walk into that situation where what you say and what you do …

https://youtu.be/vB3_UFIlDGc “The internal customer experience drives the external customer experience” ~ Andrew Szabo Don’t Overlook a Very Important Customer — Your Employees and Teammates! Who is your customer? Who are you serving? Whoever you provide a service to is your customer. Positively Outrageous Service® (POS) isn’t only about creating a…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs08-l5lJ-s “A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” ~ Dale Carnegie Names Are Important for Positively Outrageous Service® William Shakespeare, around here we call him “Bill,” wrote, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” In customer-speak, we guess Bill Sha…

https://youtu.be/JSw4_eEdvzU Fun and Playfulness are the Virus of Positively Outrageous Service® “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation” ~ President Harry S. Truman Rarely do we wake up in the morning thinking today I’m going to fail miserably, and I’m going to bring everyone down with me. I say “rar…

Find Ways to Say Yes to the Customer – That’s Positively Outrageous Service® https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOQigR3zCKM I roared into the microphone, “What’s the best hotel in the city?!” Three hundred employees in unison yelled, “Park Hyatt Washington!” “What’s the one word we never say?!” “NO!”, they all screamed. Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pix…

https://youtu.be/HwAFMGDkHwc Dealing With An Irate Customer or Frustrated Team Member When Positively Outrageous Servicing an infuriated customer or frustrated colleague, we need emotional intelligence. The Navy Seal Creed says it all: “The ability to control my emotions and actions sets me apart from other men.” ~ Navy SEAL Creed. In the last epis…

How do you regulate your feelings and respond to other people's feelings?https://youtu.be/_uNQ0cGyjmU“Emotions are one of the main things that derail communication. Once people get upset at one another, rational thinking goes out of the window.” ~ Christopher VossThere isn't a business that doesn't have difficult, emotional, or even angry customers…

Questions Create Engagement.Engagement deepens relationships. Richer relationships boosts revenue. https://youtu.be/O1nC3TgZJjI“How are you?”“When do you need that by?”“What’s the problem?”“What do you mean by that?”“Where did things go awry?”“Ideally, how would you like the outcome to be? ““How else can I help you?”“Judge a man by his questions ra…

How's Your Heart in Serving Others with Positively Outrageous Service®https://youtu.be/lhfJh0G49NcHere's a 2-minute touchpoint on what I find to be the heart of Positively Outrageous Service. How does your heart see your role in serving another with Positively Outrageous Service? (POS)."The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the servi…

A Special COVID-19 MessageHow are you caring for your team?Favor them with Positively Outrageous Service!https://youtu.be/xnN8JQ6vIw0"I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures." - Lao Tzu Connect deeper with your virtual teams - Check-in questions with your virtual teams: What do yo…

How caring in a time of crisis elevates customer loyalty.10 Ideas to Spark Your Creativityhttps://youtu.be/pPCZ0eG6W0M“Giving is not just about making a donation. It is about making a difference.” ― Kathy Calvin Give, give, give - During the NBA hiatus, Mark Cuban, the owner of Dallas Mavericks, immediately announced that hourly workers at the Amer…

A Special Coronavirus Message to Our Friends from Positively Outrageous Service!!!“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… Unless you fail to make the turn.”― Helen KellerLike many of you, Michael and I are rethinking our business strategies in this time of turmoil, turbulence and trouble. We are revamping some of programs and delivery mecha…

Love On Your Customers - Drop a Love Bomb or Two!Creating WOW Behind the Lines!Go to war against the negativity in the world. Be a disruptor by dropping love bombs. Ignite and equip behind the lines not with “drive by feedback” but with “love bombs”. The people you work with can lose perspective because “we live behind our eyeballs.”This mission is…

Giving Thanks to Your Customers, Clients, Suppliers and Employees“Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.” – Anne Lamott.Gratitude – Give thanks for who you are, what you have, and those around you.What you are feeling is more important than what you are thinking. What are you thankful for? Giving thanks builds community …

NOVELTY A Key Driver to the Positively Outrageous Service Pillar: “Random and Unexpected”The power of novelty is in “contextual” novelty. Doing something we expect in an unexpected way. We are all endowed with creativity. It takes many different forms. One may be creative in creating magic moments through listening; creativity through how we respon…

TACIT APPROVALNip it in Bud!Championing Positively Outrageous Service is both explicit and implicit. Tacit approval is the message that is being communicated when one doesn’t speak out. The unspoken implicit sets a precedent every bit as much as explicit championing. Actions of management speak as loud as the words communicated. Tacit approval of t…

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONSCreate on Purpose … Stay on CourseA culture is created and characterized by what you consent to, champion and celebrate. Who you are, is reflected by what you do. What you do reflects who you are.What is a champion? What we stand up for … the flag bearer who defends, corrects and adjusts to stay on course. How do you champion Po…

SHOW & TELL The Internet is Loud … Communicate Louder Repetition reinforces Reputation. Cut through the clutter of marketing messages with testimonials that build “social proof”. Don’t just create Positively Outrageous Service – capture the POS testimonial! The power in video testimonials? The viewer sees, hears and connects emotionally. Video has …

REVIEW ME! What are your Positively Outrageous Service Stories? Before the advent of Social Media, one would on average share a positive experience with nine people and a negative experience with sixteen people. Now we share customer experiences with hundreds, if not thousands of people with a potential rippling effect many times more. Encourage yo…

MY BOSS NEEDS SKILLS Toxicity is Viral Too Toxic bosses or behavior seeps into your customer service. The #1 reason people leave their jobs is not the work but the boss! Are you crafting positions that employees enjoy and leverage their strengths? Joy is contagious and will infect your customer experience positively. Good bosses influence behavior …

TWO FACE Is Your Internal and External Face Congruent? You can’t behave one way with a customer and another internally. Negative humor and sarcasm WILL spill into other areas of your life. Two faces lead to silos, communication breakdowns between departments and defensive postures. Consistency is key. Create WOW internally; it’s infectious creating…

SUPER HEARING “I am for you” What Are You Hearing? Hearing Past the Situation. When we get emotional we push out the logic in a service situation. Diffuse negative emotional situations through “super hearing” creating the bridge from where a customer is emotionally to redeem the solution faster. Start with open-ended powerful questions. “Tell me mo…

BULLET PROOF Inoculate Yourself Against the Tornado Develop your super-hero powers in toxic environments and situations. “I’m so glad you got me!” “You’re not yelling at me … you’re angry about the situation.” Diffuse the initial confrontations by not taking it personally and being “unoffendable”.Di Andrew Szabo & Michael Hoffman

ALIGNMENT IS A BEAUTIFUL THING Begin by Defining POS for YOUR Organization “The fish stinks from the head” First, leadership must define and align an organization’s service expectations. Second, align your departments, (in a larger organization). Third, create alignment in your hiring practices to the organization’s service expectations.Photo by JO…

Our Periodic Riff on Behaviors That Really Bothers Us!Clearly not Positively Outrageous Service!“There is a certain degree of patience and impatience in everybody. How to balance patience and impatience, and when to show which of them is the very thing everybody must endeavor to master.” ― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah Hiding behind the uniform, kiosk, or…

REALLY? Tell me this didn't happen... It Did!!!"Although your customers won't love you if you give bad service, your competitors will." - Kate Zabriskie, Founder Business Training WorksBoasting about your great customer service is NOT a good idea!“Pride comes before the fall.”You also take away a key principle of Positively Outrageous Service: “RAN…

Positively Outrageous Service – Principle #3Photo by Johann Walter Bantz on Unsplash“Unless you love everybody, you can’t sell anybody.” – Dicky Fox (Jerry Maguire)The third fundamental principle of Positively Outrageous Service: Create engagement by either getting the customer to play or get them involved in other ways. A service experience that i…

Positively Outrageous Service - Principle #2Photo: Bob Smith - "I'm in the service business. I mean, our sandwiches are pretty good; I don't know if they're extraordinary. But our service is." "Jimmy John" LiautaudThe second key principle of Positively Outrageous Service is creating a service experience that is "out of proportion to the circumstanc…

Be The Revolution of Excellence in Customer Experience with Positively Outrageous Service!You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”― Ursula K. Le Guin, The DispossessedA few years ago, I met some extraordinary Virgins! I was due to fly to a Healthcare Technology conference in Las Vegas from Dallas Love Field by the er…

https://youtu.be/tPAFN7MnOBsThank you. Thank you! Thank you!!! Thank you… I soappreciate you! We like to be thanked, don’t we? But there’s a bigdifference in being thanked through a text or an email or a simple handwrittenthank you card?When was the last time you received a handwritten thank you card? How did that make you feel? Probably valued, pr…

“Little details are vital. Little things make a big things happen” - John Wooden.Are you capturing and leveraging these details to elevate the relationship and create Positively Outrageous Service moments?Di Andrew Szabo & Michael Hoffman

Do you have a program for customer care or do you care for your customers? There’s a difference! Do you care or are you caring? – Positively Outrageous Service is the Distinction! https://youtu.be/jxalsacHuLEClick here to watch the video - or just read on!It really came to me during a hospital visit. For the first time in my life I was admitted to …

Positively Outrageous Service is Infectioushttps://youtu.be/8ZdOVzfNLu4My brother and I are out on a bike ride. We stop at a red light. It’s a major intersection, multiple lanes, cars coming from all directions and it’s rush hour. As we wait for the light to change, a DHL delivery truck to our left got the green light and turns left in front of us.…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTC4rh5tN9YTheatre owners actually have a name for it. It’s called “blow-by.” Believe it or not there are human beings capable of ignoring the compelling smell of, you guessed it, popcorn. What once was a tiny seed of hybrid corn eventually winds up with the power to bring this full-size man to a dead stop and drag m…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab8dziDZnNoGuess what I found? It’s an old fashioned box camera. I also bought a new camera and the specs on it are absolutely killer. Which of the two cameras do you think take the best picture? Which of the two cameras take the best photograph? All right that was unfair. Me asking you this way is really is a trick …

https://youtu.be/Y2EBsfkO3IcIt was his birthday. Michael Hoffman was on the road, again, alone, as usual. Michael had walked into yet another chain hotel and once again in spite of all the promises made by a marketing budget in the millions they still hadn’t figured how to get a guest room ready on time. But at least they had managed to be friendly…

https://youtu.be/m-aoucfhEKEThe behavior you get is the behavior you reward. Or put the other way around, the behavior you reward is the behavior you get. Here are a few examples; if you reward someone for being late to a meeting they aren’t going to be on time. Think about it, if you are last to arrive at the meeting you don’t have to wait on some…

https://youtu.be/xNA95PqRutsIs it me or does almost everyone have a story about awful airline service? Relax. You’re probably not the guilty one. Airline stories are abundant because the consequences of an airline screw-up can be so awful… missed flights can mean lost sales, ruined vacations… you get the point. Andrew was running late for his Virgi…

Slogans don’t provide service. People do.If you don't want to read it, listen to the podcast above or watch it on YouTube here!Have you ever noticed that airlines have some of the best slogans to describe some of the worst service? There was Delta is ready when you are and if you are really old you will remember when Continental was the proud bird …

The best customer service is given freely by people who care enough to anticipate on behalf of their customersIf you don't want to read it, listen to the podcast above or watch it on YouTube here!I wanted to write about anticipating customer needs. That’s a pretty simple topic at least on the surface. But as I thought about it I came to realize tha…