Stan Phelps
The Origin of Blue Goldfish and Convergence of Big Data & Little Data
What’s the inspiration behind the BLUE in Blue Goldfish? Here is an excerpt from the book Blue Goldfish: (BONUS: On 2/2 and 2/4, the Blue Goldfish eBook will be free for download on Amazon. Click here to get your copy) Blue Goldfish brings together two…
Doing More – How Unexpected Extras Hold the Key to Business Transformation
This was a guest post I wrote on Convince and Convert: Dr. Harry Coover discovered the material Cyanoacrylate in 1942. He was searching for a substance to use on a clear gun sight for a rifle. Cyanoacrylate was unsuited and ill-equipped for the purpose. It...
Are You Leveraging Info-Sense to Improve the Customer Experience?
On May 11 in San Diego I presented my first Ignite talk. What is Ignite? Ignite is presentation format for a five minute talk. Presenters use 20 slides that auto...
Purple Goldfish Hall of Fame Class of 2014 announced
Each year I recognize nine companies that embrace the concept of signature added value. These little extras are called a purple goldfish. Here is an updated Slideshare with the class of 2014: These Hall of Famers are purple goldfish. A purple goldfish is your one...
Want a Job at Google? Why it’s Almost Ten Times Harder Than Getting into...
This post by Stan Phelps was originally featured on Forbes: It’s almost ten times harder to get a job at Google than it is to get into Harvard. With more than two million applicants a year, it seems like everyone wants to work at the search...
Heroic Customer Service by Senior Executive Anjali Kumar at Warby Parker
This post was originally posted on Forbes: Does the senior team at your company talk about superior service and the importance of going the extra mile for customers? If so, how many actually walk the talk? To steal an immortal line from the former Texas…
TD Bank Canada Leverages the Awesome Power of Thank You
This post was originally featured here on Forbes: It was a good Friday for both employees and customers of TD Bank. Last month over 20,000 TD employees across Canada distributed green envelopes containing a $20 bill to every customer in more than 1,100 TD branches. In...
Are You Treating Customers Like Family? Two Lessons From Red Lobster and Frontier Airlines
This post was originally featured on Forbes: Are You Treating Customers Like Family? Two Lessons From Red Lobster and Frontier Airlines Two acts of corporate kindness hit the news recently. The first involved a delayed flight on Frontier Airlines and the second a touching dinner at Red Lobster. Both…
A Spot-On Example Of Extending Advertising Into Customer Experience by Chick-fil-A
This story was originally published on Forbes: This is the story of a renegade cow. Nearly two decades ago, paintbrush in mouth, a cow painted three words on a billboard… EAT MOR CHIKIN. It was an instant success. Created by Dallas-based The Richards Group, Eat Mor Chikin was…
Starbucks Teen Barista Rebukes a Customer By Defending a Mother’s Right to Breastfeed
This post was originally published on Forbes.com: It’s Wednesday morning in Ottawa, Canada. Julia Wykes is out shopping with her 5-month old son. She decided to visit the Starbucks on Trainyards Drive. According to Monica Beyer at the website She Knows, “She’d planned on getting a drink to go,...
Three Marketing Lessons in Lagniappe from the New House Whip Steve Scalise
This was originally posted on Forbes: Three marketing lessons in lagniappe from the new House Whip Steve Scalise A month ago Steve Scalise was an obscure member of the rank and file in Congress. Two week ago he made the successful ascent into the Republican leadership. The five-year representative…
There is no such thing as just meeting expectations. An interview with Stan Phelps...
This interview was originally posted on Ashton Media. It contains a question and answer session where Mark Abay and I speak about customer experience at the Customer 360 Symposium: The psychology of the customer journey Mark: Stan, in your presentation, you focused on the psychology of the customer journey. Tell us a…
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.-Dalai Lama I love this quote by the Dalai Lama. It gets to the heart of exceeding expectations. It’s always possible to find ways to do MORE. Why not seek out ways to be kind. Figure out...
Tilley Hats has a little extra that’s guaranteed
I was in Key West last month speaking at PRSA Counselor’s Academy. I had the opportunity to buy a hat at Lippy’s Hot Hats on Duval Street in town. Not just an ordinary hat. A Tilley. What’s special about a Tilley? Tilley Hats are Canadian. They are…
The Two Most Vital Elements in Marketing and Sales
In our evolution as humans, we were forced to develop skills integral to our survival. One of which was the ability to make snap judgments about our surroundings with a high degree of speed and accuracy. As we walked out of the “cave” our...
Golden Goldfish Excerpt – Retention vs Acquisition
The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book, What’s Your Golden Goldfish? (available on Amazon May 1st): Chapter 2 RETENTION VS. ACQUISITION “The search for meaningful differentiation is central to the marketing effort. If marketing is about anything, it is about achieving customer getting…
Golden Goldfish Book Excerpt – Pareto and a Pea
The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book, What’s Your Golden Goldfish? (available on Amazon May 1st): Chapter 1 THE GOLDFISH AND THE PEA “The law of the vital few and the trivial many.” – Joseph Juran, Founder, Juran Institute The setting is Paris…
Lie Back and Think of England, But Do It For Denmark
Sex Sells…Vacations Credit: Washington Post Spies Rejser has caused a stir. The Danish travel agency has touched upon a major issue. Similar to many western nations, Denmark has a seriously low birth rate. With only 10 births per year / per 1,000 residents, something needs to…
Southwest Airlines does a creative little extra for a passenger
My good friend Keith Green of Synergy sent me a creative example this week. He was flying Southwest Airlines from Liberty in Newark to Midway in Chicago. Here’s what happened in Keith’s words, “The flight attendant came on near the end of flight, called out…
Nailing the first and last impressions. Lessons in CX from Disney and Kimpton at...
I’m currently in San Diego for the Next Gen CX conference. While attending the event, I came across two new examples from Purple Goldfish Hall of Famers. First Impression Making a memorable first impression is key. Jodi Martin from Disney Stores talked about their quest to…