Joseph Michelli
Customer Experience Lessons from the African Bush
Every morning I wake up with deep gratitude for the blessings in my life.
In the past ten days, for example, I had the extreme honor of working with entrepreneurs in South Africa who are seeking to deliver branded customer experiences that will give th...
Extending Kindness for Generations to Come
I am proud to call the United States my home! So on a week in which we celebrate America’s birth, I thought I would share a slightly updated version of a post I wrote some time ago. I offer it in the hope that we’ll remain passionate about our views wh...
Your Customer is Flawed but So Are YOU | The Gentle Side of Cognitive...
Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and author of the book Predictably Irrational is one of the premier experts on the mental glitches we all share. Dan describes these glitches or cognitive biases as “system...
Drive EQ to Improve CX & ROE [It’s Alphabet Soup Time]
I have long believed that CX (customer experience) is as much about perceived emotional value as it is about logical assessments of practical value. In other words, I think customers determine the quality of an experience based on the benefits and attr...
Not All Customer Moments Are Created Equal | Building Memories When It Matters Most
If I asked you to tell me about a concert that you attended, my hunch is your story would either be of a recent event, a favorite concert, or a live-event debacle.
I am not a gambler, but when it comes to predicting what is most salient in human memory...
Small-Town Lessons on Relationship and Business Reputation
Long ago in a galaxy far, far away…If I were to paraphrase the Star Wars opening, a long time ago was the 1960’s and 70’s and that far away galaxy was my small hometown of Florence, Colorado. The main street of Florence was comprised of, at most, 40 bu...
Are you Letting your Products and Technology Down?
Even though I spend most of my career helping brands meld technology, products, process, and people into optimal customer experiences I must admit I can become “wide-eyed” with the speed and benefits of digital solutions.
Take Starbucks’ deployment of ...
When the Customer Experience Goes Awry [Differentiation Through Service Recovery]
Forgive me for sounding braggadocious, but I AM PERFECTLY IMPERFECT! But then again so are you and so is your business.
Unfortunately, some leaders either don’t know they are imperfect, or they seek to fool consumers into thinking their businesses are ...
For All Those You Serve Close the Loop
For the Love of Mike (and all the others you serve) – Close the Loop!
The phrase “for the love of Mike” has a colorful Irish backstory wherein exasperation and frustration were redirected from God to Mick (or Mike).
I am exasperated with a particular h...
Rolling through the Highs and Lows | Where will your Customers Land?
I am always on the lookout for extraordinary customer experiences and sadly they are proportionally akin to the story of the princess and the frog – there are few princes and a lot of frogs. The other day, I encountered, count them, not one but two ext...
5 Things Not To Do in Your Journey to Customer Experience Excellence
Raise your hand if you remember the radio or television police drama Dragnet. For the rest of you here’s a link from the History Channel. I reference Dragnet, so that I can borrow one of the many signature lines from the show, “Only the names...
Your Customer Journey Map is Probably Not Enough
Once upon a time, many business leaders built their companies almost exclusively to achieve operational excellence – even if that meant customers were inconvenienced.
For my father’s generation (and to a considerable extent, my generation as well) busi...
The End: Sharing Brand Stories Differently!
One week’s episode might begin with Kate and Toby dealing with the challenges of their recently born premature baby boy only to have the next scene jump to an interaction between Kate’s parents (Jack and Rebecca) which occurred before Kate and her sibl...
Do not Forget to Sprinkle Emotion on Top of your Branded Storytelling
Donut Do not Forget to Sprinkle Emotion on Top of your Branded Storytelling
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve shared how brands can be described by perceptions held by customers and non-customers alike. I’ve suggested that those perceptions are shape...
Say Yes to a Dress | Developing Characters in Branded Storytelling
Southwest Airline said “Yes to a dress,” and that dress is an important character in this week’s brand story.
In my last post, I talked about the importance of clear brand identity – or brand essence – to shape the branded customer experience you seek ...
It Takes a Brand to Deliver a Branded Customer Experience – What are they...
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Once upon a time, drug companies couldn’t advertise. Those companies marketed to physicians, not to the end user. Now television ad rotations are heavy with pharmaceutical ads – many of which not only list possible...
Customer Experience Wisdom from a 96-year-old Business Legend
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Few people have actively stewarded a restaurant’s success for over 70 years. So, when such a person speaks about customer experience, I take notice and listen. I suspect we all should. During my many visits to New ...
5 Million Reasons to Deliver Effective Visual Storytelling Across the Branded Customer Experience
[unable to retrieve full-text content]When a brand spends 5 million dollars to air a 30-second advertisement (not including production costs) during a major sporting event, the resulting commercial should aspire to the heights of visual brand storytell...
Testing and Learning for Customer Experience Excellence
[unable to retrieve full-text content]On any given day I find myself playing the You know you’re old when… game. Here’s how it goes for me on broader social themes, You know you’re old when you have to explain to someone what a pay phone wa...
How to drive your brand voice through your customer experience
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Recently, I’ve been working with a group of entrepreneurs to help them drive a branded customer experience at each of their businesses. In prior working sessions, those leaders and I defined the optimal customer ex...
