A few weeks ago I called my optometrist's office to confirm an upcoming appointment. An automated answering machine took the call instructing me to leave my name and number and someone would soon return the call. Seven days later, I received the return phone call. I...

No one is perfect and service failures are likely to occur. When they do, the better the staff is trained and prepared to handle the service recovery, the better. Here's a story which exemplifies good, efficient recovery from a service failure. I had ordered two items...

A couple of weeks ago I met out-of-province friends at a downtown restaurant. My friend's wife was first to order and asked for one of the specialty burgers but without chipotle, which normally came with this particular burger. The waitress said this wouldn't be a...

Years ago, I worked in Bermuda for the Bank of Bermuda's IT Department. I'll never forget a lesson I learned as a result of an internal campaign the Bank adopted for all its departments. The campaign was called "Do it Right the First Time / Zero Defects". This brand...

Another practice for creating awesome customer experiences is providing customers risk-free transactions. Some companies do this very well. Here are some examples: Home Depot: Home Depot takes much of the risk away from their customers by providing an exceptional...

Have you ever filled out a website online form, hit the "Submit" button and received an error? Or, clicking "Submit" and left with what appears to be a completely non-responsive button or form? No message, no feedback, nothing? This can happen with contact forms or...