Posts tagged customer service
3 Easy Ways to Make Products Sticky
3 Easy Ways to Make Products Sticky

When I first started working in the financial industry over a decade ago, the  bank that I worked for talked about making their products “sticky” for their customers.  They explained that the more products we sold, the stickier our company would be for them and the harder it would be for them to leave.  Stickiness was their main customer retention strategy.

I now fully understand what they mean and why they focused on "stickiness."  In fact, I still bank with that organization even though I haven’t worked there in nearly a decade.

But why?  Because the services I have with them truly are sticky - it would be a major headache to switch banks.

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Sales Hacks, Business Hacks, General Business StrategyAdam Witmercustomer service, Strategy, innovation
Hotel Innovation: Hacking the Do Not Disturb
Hotel Innovation: Hacking the Do Not Disturb

The hotel industry is one that I would probably never want to be in.  With the intense competition today, just one upset person on Yelp can deter potential guests.  This means that if a hotel is doing something differently than other hotels, it can be perceived as being a problem.  For this reason, it seems that most hotels operate in a very similar manner.  Best practices and customer services are often safer than hotel innovation.  

Great customer service and certain industry best practices are expected by guests, so these best practices often become the norm for most hotels: free wifi, a continental breakfast, flat screen TV’s, loyalty rewards, and consistent housekeeping.  But every now and then a hotel is able to hack this model - they provide a hotel innovation that stands out.  I recently spoke in Whitefish, Montana and stayed at the Grouse Mountain Lodge.  To my surprise, they hacked a standard hotel best practice that really made my day.  

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Business HacksAdam Witmerstrategy, innovation, customer service