Excellence Every Day: Make the Daily Choice-Inspire Your Employees and Amaze Your Customers

237 Pages·2008·1.62 MB·English

by  Lior Arussy

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More Praise for Lior Arussy’s EXCELLENCE EVERY DAY
“When employees take a moment to make a moment with customers, excellence
happens. In Excellence Every Day,Lior Arussy defines the why and outlines the
how by which employees can make daily choices resulting in delivering excep-
tional customer experiences.”
—John Moore, author, Tribal Knowledge
“Lior Arussy explores 23,000 responses to a global, year-long survey which asks
how employees feel their customer interactions have been as compared to the
recipients of those interactions. The results are astounding. This is a must-read
for companies that want to get the jump on their competition by delivering
excellence instead of mediocrity.”
—Sheri Greenhaus, Cyber M@rketing Services/CRMXchange.com
“Arussy cuts to the heart of the matter: Excellence is in the eye of the beholder,
and customer satisfaction is the benchmark by which every organization should
measure their success.”
—Greg Gianforte, CEO and Founder, RightNow Technologies
“Random acts of superiorcustomer service should not be a fluke or a perfectly
aligned circumstance—it should be captured and part of a repeatable interac-
tive process. There has been a power shift to the customer and companies that
do not recognize, understand or embrace this shift will continue to gamble
with and lose their customer’sshareof wallet. ... This book is a must-read from
the executive level of a company down to the people who actually interact with
customers.”
—Michael W. Thomas, National President, CRM Association
“Excellence Every Daybrings a fresh perspective to customer relationships. ... If
you want to differentiate your business, read this book.”
—Barton J. Goldenberg, author,
CRM in Real Time: Empowering Customer Relationships
“Excellence—as Lior Arussy has rightly defined it in these pages—is one of the
fewsustainable differentiators in today’s economy. The examples and stories in
this book are filled with character, vision and wisdom. Drink deeply, and you’ll
be better equipped to chartasuccessful course forward—for yourself and your
organization.”
—Brad Cleveland, President,
International Customer Management Institute (ICMI)
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LLiioorr AArruussssyy
Medford, New Jersey
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First Printing,2008
Excellence Every Day:Make the Daily Choice—Inspire Your Employees and
Amaze Your Customers
Copyright ©2008 by Lior Arussy
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any elec-
tronic or mechanical means,including information storage and retrieval systems,with-
out permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote
brief passages in a review. Published by Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton
Pike,Medford,New Jersey 08055.
Publisher’s Note:The author and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this
book but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsi-
bility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential
damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs
contained herein.
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their prod-
ucts are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and
Information Today,Inc. was aware of a trademark claim,the designations have been
printed with initial capital letters.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arussy,Lior.
Excellence every day :make the daily choice--inspire your employees and
amaze your customers / Lior Arussy.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-910965-79-8
1. Customer services. 2. Consumer satisfaction. 3. Success in business. 4.
Job satisfaction. I. Title.
HF5415.5.A778 2008
658.8’12--dc22
2008009170
Printed and bound in the United States of America
President and CEO:Thomas H. Hogan,Sr.
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher:John B. Bryans
Managing Editor:Amy M. Reeve
VP Graphics and Production:M. Heide Dengler
Book Designer:Kara Mia Jalkowski
Cover Designer:Lisa Boccadutre and Dana Stevenson
Copyeditor:Barbara Brynko
Proofreader:Pat Hadley-Miller
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Chapter 1: In Search of Excellence? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Excellence—Today More Than Ever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Excellence or Nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 2: The Excellence Myth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Admiring the Legends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Culture of Dilbertism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Theory of Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Now What? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Excellence Every Day? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Excellence Aptitude Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 3: Why We Fail to Delight Our Customers
(While We Think We Do) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Gaps Tell the Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
“I Wish I Could Do More” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
v
vi Excellence Every Day
Chapter 4: Excellence—Defining, Believing, Living . . . . . . . . 33
Excellence vs. Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Anticipating Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Response–Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The Art of the Human Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Early in the Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Sincerely Yours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Chapter 5: The Daily Choice You Make—
Delivering Excellence One Decision
at a Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Choices or Chores? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Does It Have to Be Every Day? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Twenty Years to Overnight Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Excellence Starts with You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
The Puzzling Paper Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Chapter 6: Creating Organizational Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Millions of Daily Choices Every Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
“You Must Smile Sincerely at All Times” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The New “E” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Generation Why? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Upside-Down Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Entrepreneurial Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
“We Just Do” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Fly the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Excellence and the Art of Persuasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Contents vii
Chapter 7: Leading Your People to Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Serving Your Employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Summer Santa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Live in the Customer’s Shoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Empowered to Make the Right Decision? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Permission to Fail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Mistake of the Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Recognizing Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Would You Go All the Way? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
I Will Take the Cynic Over Any Other Employee . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Tell Me a Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Celebrating the Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Excellence Enablement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Chapter 8: Making Excellence Personal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
When I Grow Up I Want to Be … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Mechanical Performance vs. Impact Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
“How Would I Want to Be Treated If I Were
on the Receiving End?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Inertia—Falling into a Performance Coma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Make It Personal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Hey, You! Yes, You! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Be Proud of Your Masterpiece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
It Is All Around Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter 9: Excellence Daily Choice—
Personal Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Performance at the Moment of Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
In Search of the Right Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
viii Excellence Every Day
To Tie or Not to Tie: That Is Not the Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Chapter 10: Excellence Daily Choice—
Taking Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Waiting at the Altar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Chocolate Chips to the Rescue! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Never Give Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
In Sickness and in Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Chapter 11: Excellence Daily Choice—
Creative Ways to Delight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
The Extra That Makes the Difference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Delighting Customers One Clip at a Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
The Old Is Dead—Long Live the Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Creating Customer Compliments in Five Minutes . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Chapter 12: Excellence Daily Choice—Wow! . . . . . . . . . . . 173
All You Need Is Love … in 11 Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Excelling at the Smallest Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
The Sweet Taste of Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
A Courier for a Day or Redefining On-Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Who Is Dr. WOW? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
A Beary Passionate Place to Be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Chapter 13: Excellence Daily Choice in Difficult Times . . . 187
Redefining “Getting It Done” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
With Patience and Perseverance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Everyone Listens to Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Contents ix
Chainsaw and the Art of Amazing Customer Experiences . . . . . . . 192
Wrenching Customers Away from the Competition . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Team Excellence or the Gifts Keep on Coming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Chapter 14: Just Imagine … Then Make It Happen . . . . . . . 201
Are You Ready to Deliver Excellence? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Lifelong Pursuit of Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Only 15 Minutes of Fame? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
It’s Showtime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Be Originally You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
The More You Give, the More You Have . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
I Think I Can … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Higher and Higher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Afterword: Moving Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219