Jane Edwards-Hall is the Vice President of Synovate Retail Performance, but this only tells a faction of her story. Her true passions in life are good food, good wine, excellent service and great company; that's why she's passionate about Customer Experience research and management. Although Jane has experience in nearly every facet of market research, the last eight years have been dedicated to understanding Customer and Brand Experience - mainly through mystery shopping and loyalty solutions.

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A couple of months ago I was fortunate enough to be in the audience at a highly memorable Customer Experience presentation in LA. Jim Knight, Sr. Director of Training and Development at Hard Rock International hotel group spoke at the Next Generation CE Conference. The Hard Rock approach resonated with me, so I asked Jim if he would be kind enough to give an interview. Here’s a synopsis of what he told me about their unique approach to Guest Experience Delivery:

Jane Edwards-Hall:  Jim, you told me that you recruit only the world’s misfits – tell me more about that!

Jim Knight: There’s no silver bullet but we do truly recruit for attitude and not necessarily hospitality skills or experience – we can teach that. We look for people who can be themselves and provide an “unpredictable” guest experience – and we take this philosophy worldwide. We want people with a master’s degree in Personality! We have a rigorous process supporting our recruitment methodology. We interview people who are basically square pegs trying to fit into round holes and who honestly wouldn’t get jobs elsewhere – we want the world’s weird!

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You probably haven’t ever heard ‘hot’ and ‘mystery shopping’ in the same sentence. But, the world of mystery shopping is spicing up as more traditional researchers deploy mystery shopping programs in ways you would least expect.

Government agencies, hospitals, healthcare providers, and even schools are using mystery shoppers to ensure their service delivery chains are functioning within required operating procedures. As panels become more specialized, more and more professional and B2B services are employing mystery shopping solutions as well. [Read more]

In the competitive and chaotic world of Customer Experience Management, there is a tendency to overlook the basics. When it comes down to it, the old adage “treat others the way you wish to be treated” rings true now more than ever.  In our attempts to differentiate our business, and in our obsession over ideal customer service delivery, have we lost sight of this? I’m hoping not!

Exceptional customer experience begins with respect and relationship building. I believe there are several fundamental truths that resonate regardless of the industry, type of service you provide, or your target audience.

Here are my five core values to great Customer Experience delivery: [Read more]

OK, so my last posts mostly critical; this time I thought that I would compare a negative experience with a positive one instead.

How do you handle having to go back to a store or service provider to return a defective product or to point out a mistake in a transaction? Would you feel a little awkward, intimidated, or defensive? Many customers often feel very strong, negative emotions when faced with the prospect of going back to a store or service provider to tell them of their dissatisfaction with a product or service. Some customers may enjoy gearing up for a fight, others may have to psyche themselves up for the encounter, while some others may consider it an annoyance or a waste of time.

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A couple of years ago I picked up my parents from Miami airport after a long, trans-Atlantic flight. They looked travel weary, but ever-so well dressed for their trip. Really cute, I thought!

I do hanker after the days of PanAm in the ‘50s and long, Orient Express-type train journeys; but, sadly, it’s over.

And, as I believed naively that things couldn’t get more insulting with regards to long-haul air travel, I recently took a 10 hour flight from Miami to Paris (yes, in all that snow!) and was deeply horrified by my torturous experience.

The airline shall remain unnamed – this is a tale of endurance: [Read more]

In my search for the Nirvana of Customer Experiences, and being the Spa junkie that I am, I decided to see if what Conde Nast would have us believe is true. By that I mean “do destination Spas delivery the ultimate experience?”  My sampling area? Miami.

My answer, sadly, was pretty much “no”.

Of Course, the “presentation” of the ultimate experience was provided, at least initially; but the mechanics and the details did not live up to the promise of the Zen-like get-away from the hardships and perils of today’s world. And certainly not if you take account of the hundreds of dollars treatments cost.  Maybe it’s time destination Spas got back to the basics of customer experience. Here are five areas I found could use improvement:

1. Start off on the right foot: Being kept waiting 15 minutes while you get checked in at the ‘ultimate detox destination spa’ when you want to enjoy the facilities before your De-Stress Chakra Ritual doesn’t prepare you well for your day of detoxification of mind and body.
2. Keep it clean: Having to sit among somebody else’s sandwich crusts and green-tea old teabags while waiting for a treatment at a classic, Coconut Grove, Miami hotel because “we don’t have the cleaning staff today” is pretty nasty!
3. Timing is everything: Sitting in the hot-tub at a ritzy Miami North Beach hotel spa and having three different staff members scream out your name and “would like to come for your treatment earlier” isn’t the reason why you came to the Spa early to decompress your mind before your facial! Instead it makes you feel like an awkward client because you were not enabling your beautician to leave early – as she was ready for you, even if you were not ready for her.
4. Know the limits: Lounging around the ladies’ locker room and enjoying the last moments of your Spa-afternoon while showering can be destroyed if staff members at a Downtown Miami spa hotel take it upon themselves to have their “break” in the ladies’ locker room and shout, laugh and use the products and services provided for their clients.
5. Service doesn’t end at the door: Having to wait 25 minutes for your valet to return while you hang around the hotel lobby pretty much negates the effects of your “detox” massage at a recently renovated South Beach 5 star hotel!

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An article in the Sunday New York Times magazine (June 21sT: – Rob Walker- 2009) entitled “Favor Enhancement – Real Gratitude Can Be Profitable. How Then To Create It?” dealt with a new concept in the process of enhancing the total customer experience and so drive loyalty.

It refers to a program introduced by Hyatt Hotels whereby employees are empowered to provide random acts of generosity by picking up a guest’s bar tab, or paying for their spa treatment, for example. The argument being that something that is given as a surprise and out of the blue manifests itself in feelings of loyalty almost through “guilt” on the part of the receiver.

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