Maz Iqbal
What Can The Hotel Industry Learn From Homelands B&B?
During November, whilst on business, I stayed at Homelands Bed & Breakfast and thoroughly enjoyed my experience. It was so good that staying at Homelands occurred as staying at a home away from home. My experience lived up to the five star rating that...
On Customer Experience, Brand Values, and a “Sense of Honour”
Let’s start today’s conversation with the following passage: By strategy, Bourdieu… does not mean conscious choice or rational calculation. The strategies employed by the Kabyle are not based on conscious, rational calculations but on a “sense of honour” that guides complex manoeuvres of challenge, riposte,...
Experience Engineering: How Do You Engineer Authentic Humanity Into The Customer Experience?
I have been working in Cheltenham for a few weeks now. I like, really like, the folks (at the client) that I find myself working with. It has something to do with their kind of accueil- a word that my French family often use. Let’s...
Latest Musings on Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, and Agile
It’s been a while – quite a while since the last conversation. During this period I have experienced that which I have experienced and in the process some aspects of human existence inside organisational worlds have revealed themselves to me. Today, I wish to...
State Of CX 2015 – Nunwood’s UK Analysis: What Are the Key ‘Findings’ (Part...
It’s the time of the year where I share my take on the latest CX research published by Nunwood. Worth pointing out that Nunwood has been acquired by KPMG so is now KPMG-Nunwood. Back to the research titled: A New Era of Experience Branding....
Customer Experience: Beware The Data Trap
Data. It is being made out to be sexy – really sexy. Many folks even think that collecting mountains of data and stuffing it into CRM and/or marketing automation systems is the access to delivering great customer experiences. They are mistaken. Collecting mountains of...
Customer Experience: The Road Less Travelled
It has been a while since the last conversation. First, I took time out for a month of holidays. And then in September I was asked to lend a hand in a CX centred next generation CRM and omnichannel programme. Given the demands on...
Customer Experience Through The Eyes Of The Frontline Retail Employee
Perspective. If we are to improve the performance of human worlds (couple, family, neighbourhood, team, department, business, nation…) perspective taking is essential. It occurs to me that the simplest form of perspective taking is attentive-receptive listening to those who find themselves embedded in the...
How Well Does The Behaviour Of Customers Conform To Customer Experience Dogma?
CX Dogma: In Today’s World The Customer Experience Is Critical What do the CX gurus say? Do they not proclaim the critical importance of Customer Experience? Do they not assert that in the age of social media Customer Experience is everything? Do they not say...
The Customer Speaks: Customer-Centricity Through The Eyes Of The Customer
I hear you. I hear you say that you (as an organisation) are customer friendly. I hear you say that you (as an organisation) have a strong customer orientation. I hear you say that you (as an organisation) are committed to delivering great customer service.…
Erich Fromm On The Central Challenge Of Cultivating Meaningful Relationships With Customers
What Is The Central Challenge Of Building Meaningful & Profitable Relationships With Customers? Is this challenge about opening up 24/7 access to your business through any and all channels? Is it about coming up with new products and services that attract customers like bright lights...
Cultivating Goodwill Involves More Than Reducing Customer Effort
Is the access to building meaningful relationships with customers merely a matter of improving the customer’s experience of your organisation by making it easy for the customer to do business with you? The temptation to orient oneself this way and thus the pull of approaching...
On Zappos, Holocracy, and The Exercise of Leadership
Tony Hsieh Has Opened Himself For Criticism By Embracing Holocracy Let's start this conversation with the following statement by Michael Lowenstein in his recent post on holocracy at Zappos: In unilaterally moving his company to an arguably more utopian style of operations, an initiative some…
Leadership Involves Mastery of ‘Initiative Conversations’
Effective Leaders Excel At Initiative Conversations I say that a leader is s/he who brings about a future that wasn't going to happen anyway. I also say that human beings are beings who live in-through language. This leads me to conclude that a leader is...
What Is The Single Most Critical Factor in CRM / CX / Digital Success?
Recently I was pitching for new work and the question that keeps coming up came up. This question is alway some form of “What is the single most critical factor in ……..?” Examples include: What is the single most critical factor in coming up...
Competency: The Untapped Lever For Improving the Customer Experience And Cultivating Loyalty?
It took me over nine months to get my eldest son to consult Sandra about his shoulder/back pain. It took only one consultation for him to book another four sessions with Sandra. Why? Because Sandra is excellent at what she does. How does Sandra demonstrate...
Does Customer Experience Leadership Require Straight Communication And Fair Business Practices?
Are UK Supermarkets Conning Customers? According to the press, the consumer watchdog Which? has been investigating the UK’s dominant supermarket chains for the last seven years. Based on the ‘findings’ Which? put forth a super-complaint against the supermarkets. A super-compliant is not something that is...
What Does It Take To Close The Customer Experience Gap?
A few well known brands are renowned on the basis of how their customers experience these brands. Year after year, the situation remains the same: the same brands stand out in terms of the customer experience, and of the rest most of them are...
How to Make Sense of the Outstanding Success of Steve Jobs’ Leadership Style?
Are There Are Any Flaws In Today's Hot Theories on Leadership? What does it take to cultivate strong relationships with the folks that you find yourself leading/managing? Is there a specific personality (style) that is most effective at leading? Put differently, is there a specific...
CX 2015: Where Does The UK Stand In Relation To The USA?
Some folks at Nunwood (CX research and consulting company) have been kind enough to email over their latest report: Have A Nicer Day, Learning From the USA’s Customer Experience Leaders. I found it to make interesting reading. In this conversation, I wish to focus...