Tourism - Service Design Interaction

Are you not often wondering, why you don't
get the information before hand about certain
activities in the city you visit on holiday (or
even you home town)?

Changing the game through this in close co-
operation with the local visitor information
and marketing institutions opens fully new
paths - and best of all, you need your own
mind (not the consultant's ;-)).

Customer Experience - that could be nicer ;-)

TaraHunt with recent flight experience with AirNewZealand.

Always a hazzle, when hierarchy is not helping to solve customer

problems - as small as they may seem.

What is the purpose of an airline? Holding their customers back or

letting them fly in the best remembered way?

Customer on the train - an alien or money bringer?

Graham Hill (Twitter), a former Toyota executive and now independend consultant has written about a disturbing experience of a friend with the German Railway (Deutsche Bahn AG). The story is not that unfamiliar and we all know of even harsher stories where kids where thrown out of the train some kilometers from their final destination for not having the right ticket (even other passengers were not allowed to pay for them).

Strange behavior and yet just a negative symptom of a system that is not focusing on its sales base (the CUSTOMER) rather the cost savings and getting money in the first place.

What are the possible structures that make such behavior of conductors happen in real life?

Pressure to stick to the rules (otherwise layed-off -especially in areas with  high unemployment a rather big threat)

We have done it in the past, will continue to do in the future

The plan of going public urges railway people to get customers to pay

Too many different laws, rules (especially where different bodies of operations, that the German Railways operate for exist, such as in the Ruhrgebiet, Rhein-Main Area)

.....how could that present reality be changed towards a more customer orientated behavior that would also have mid-/long-term benefit for the German Railways as well?

Best

Ralf

PS.: Due to present changing of responsibilities and people around the German Railways, even if you try to make some ideas present to the management - nobody knows who is the RIGHT person and if you get the right person, this one is notoriously overworked (MURI, as we Lean Thinkers say) and you don't get a positive answer as well.

...couldn't there be a positive change? It would be quite easy, as customers' voices would be heard by management:-))

Customers - are they relevant for CEOs?

Twitter is a cool tool:-))

So I got notice of the following article at HBR:

How CEOs Should Work With Customers

...there surely is way to more success and it leads to the customer and with the customer.

Cheers,

Ralf

Customer stakeholder No. 1

Two days ago, while on the web chatting with somebody via Skype, the following flew into my mailbox:

"Making the most of customer complaints

... in the new edition of Business Insight"

edited by MIT Sloan Management Review (if you don't know it yet - check it out!).

The authors of the study bring the CUSTOMER into the focus.

To quote just the first three lines (link provided further down):

"NOBODY'S PERFECT. That's a fact, not an excuse.

Which is why it is crucial for companies to realize that the way they handle customer complaints is every bit as important as trying to provide great service in the first place. Because things happen. ...."

Have you with your customer/client "hat on" been valued in the past? What was missing?

Cheers,

Ralf

PS.: The above mentioned article can be read at 

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/wsj/insight/brand/2008/09/22/

Is service valuable and accountable?

Good morning everybody!

Isn't that happening that you feel not appreciated as a customer sometimes? Standing in a 50 m queue at a check-in counter at the airport? Waiting to be served in a Restaurant (perhaps even with a Michelin star)?

Of course it should be like:

1. Online-chat hotline at Yugma (a small and free of charge communication software tool to share your desktop with somebody on the other side of the planet to discuss a matter), where you get instant help by a real person - awesome:-))

2. Metro (a small freeware - doesn't cost a nickel- to find your way around in foreign cities, especially on buses, trams and trains), where you can send your personal improvement ideas and up-to-date data to the programmers in order to get it directly in the data

3. Danish Railway Company, where have leaflets at every seat which explain how to get out the window (in case of an -hopefully never to become true- emergency) - I felt save like on a plane. Still you can do more when you moving not 10.000 m above the earth.

....and there are numerous examples -bad and good- around the world. Let us share the stories and find out what could be done better for us -the customers- and give the companies perhaps some hints on how they could provide a better service (without spending more extra money).

See you and your stories right here;-))

Best regards

Ralf