Joseph Michelli, Ph.D.

Joseph Michelli, Ph.D.

The Michelli Experience
Joseph Michelli, Ph.D., an organizational consultant and the chief experience officer of The Michelli Experience, authored The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and the best-selling The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary.
  • Screw it up and WIN!
    1 comments 530 reads
    Posted on 2012-02-07

    Here’s a reality check. Your business, as well as mine, is going to make mistakes – lots of them. Assuredly we are trying to limit those breakdowns; however, some of our customers wont be raving and may even be raging about a subset of experiences with us. If there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel, its the comfort that comes from from knowing that our competition is invariably also failing customers and that we have a chance to distinguish ourselves by our commitment to make things great when things go wrong.

    So here’s a challenge, can you create a culture where your shortcomings are actually the source of your business’ greatest strength? Rafe Needleman writing for CNET shares his perception of striking difference in the service mindset between Dell and Apple. According to Rafe, when he encountered a problem with a Dell PC tower, Dell’s outsourced repairmen inconvenienced his schedule by requiring in-home maintenance and then the repairman failed to show up for the...

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  • Why Zappos will be fine despite the criminal privacy intrusion!
    0 comments 770 reads
    Posted on 2012-01-16

    The 24 hour news cycle has already begun whirring. Headlines talk about “Zappos being zapped by hackers” and commentators are asking why a company known for customer service has closed down it’s customer loyalty team phone lines to process customer questions through email. Even Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, has been quoted as seeing this hacking incident as a setback for a brand that has invested so much in garnering customer trust.

    Before you take a “sky is falling” perspective on Zappos, I would suggest it will weather this storm well and so will it’s customers. Here are a few of my reasons:

    1) Zappos has truly obsessed about customer experience and trust for its 12 year existence. Those types of investments pay dividends when unforeseen and malicious attacks occur.

    2) Zappos is a value based culture accustomed to making business decisions in accord with its foundational values. At times like these, open communication, humility and other core Zappos values will...

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  • The Power of Story – Betabrand
    0 comments 477 reads
    Posted on 2011-11-10

    I was backstage  with Chris Lindland CEO of Betabrand recently at a Zappos All Hands meeting and I couldn’t help but conclude that he may have demonstrated better than anyone I know the power of an “engaging story.”  In fact, I would dare to say that for awhile his entire brand with a fable without a deliverable product.  Lest you think I am being harsh, let me offer Chris’ own words

    “I have been in the fashion business for 6 years and it started with one product Cordarounds – horizontal corduroy pants.  It began with a dumb question that went too far.  I asked why don’t people turn the corduroy material horizontally?  I then decided to take action on that question and designed such a product in my basement.  If I were to act like a real clothing company, I would have hire a designer, a quality manufacturer, and a photographer to take pictures of my product for online sales but I am a communicator – so I just made the pants myself (...

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  • Intention is Fine but Where’s the Service?
    0 comments 790 reads
    Posted on 2011-11-04

    You are going to have to indulge me for a moment because the following service breakdown story may initially seem like I’m venting but it is presented to highlights how “good service intentions” just don’t cut it .

    For me things did not start off well with a new utilities provider.  When I called to have a natural gas tank filled they told me they would “try to come out” later in the week. Try as they might – they never showed up.  I called up to set-up a new appointment and they said “they had nothing for the upcoming week but would call me back in a couple of days to set something up.” A couple of weeks later, I realized they hadn’t called so I contacted them yet again.  Upon telling the call center staff person  that I just “want the company to send someone else to provide service” she told me how my service request had “come at a very busy time for her company.”  I did feel bad for them but would have rather her had her acknowledge her...

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  • Customer Experience Then and Now!
    0 comments 1,152 reads
    Posted on 2011-11-02

    I read the strangest things!  Right now, I am finishing a short book by P.T. Barnum entitled “The Art of Money Getting: Golden Rules for Making Money.”  I wasn’t attracted to the book because I need to make money (on that front I have been blessed beyond my wildest imagination), I picked it up because I thought “the greatest showman on earth” and the first show business millionaire might have some insights on creating “craveable” (albeit spectacular) customer experiences.

    Now to put the rest of this blog in perspective, you have to realize that P.T. Barnum was born just over 200 years ago in 1810 and wrote The Art of Money Getting when he was 70.  The book looks back at lessons Barnum learned about achieving success and significance.  What is striking about the book is its timelessness.  I dare say it relevant to customer experience challenges of today.  For example, take this excerpt from Barnum’...

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  • You’ve been Faced at the Bathroom Blogfest 2011
    0 comments 707 reads
    Posted on 2011-10-26

    How fun is this?  Another year participating in the Bathroom Blogfest! For more on this week of blogging on bathroom and customer experience related themes check out http://www.bathroomblogfest.com/

    Now, faster than you can hit the “flush lever” let me “plunge” into my content…

    I was standing at a urinal in Zappos Headquarters (probably more information than you needed) reading a flyer that had been posted at my eye level.  The headline on the flyer read “have you been faced?”  With that tease, I had to read on….

    The flyer essentially was alluding to...

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  • Starbucks blocks electrical outlets in its cafes – What?
    0 comments 955 reads
    Posted on 2011-09-30

    As you may have heard from the media, some Starbucks stores are blocking electrical outlets.  Since I have been involved with the company and written The Starbucks Experience, I am often asked about decisions that affect Starbucks customers. For today’s blog, I thought I would share my response to a recent inquiry concerning the “outlet issue” as posed by reporter from the  Ma’ariv Newspaper in Israel.  So here’s my take..

    “I should preface my remarks by noting that to my understanding the decision to block power outlets was not a corporate one but instead was being made by some Starbucks store managers. The stores that I am aware of are in NYC where seating space is difficult to secure given that some customers huddle around power outlets for hours.  These store level decisions are consistent with an...

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  • Business partners and a FREE Zappos Gift
    0 comments 1,224 reads
    Posted on 2011-09-23

    T0day, I was fortunate enough to get to speak to an audience regarding co-branding and business partnerships!  To draw out core concepts, I asked the group the following questions and thought they might help you consider your essentials of partnering:

    • In your personal life or in business, where have you accomplished more because you partnered with someone else?
    • Who was/were your partner(s)
    • How did you select them?
    • What competencies did they bring to the table?
    • What was their level of investment?
    • What reward did you derive?  Was the reward known/discussed going in?

    These questions set a foundation for broader distinctions between those who are business partners in name only as opposed to those who integrate with our own business processes.  While I will expand on these types of distinctions in future blogs, I would love to hear your answers to the above-referenced questions and the insights you gain from...

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  • What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?
    0 comments 1,431 reads
    Posted on 2011-09-21

    I’ve watched Zappos twitter posters and Zappos bloggers effectively deploy questions like that one to engage their social media tribe. I was speaking at an  event in Las Vegas today and heard a panelist offer one of the best distinctions between the lead generating benefits of a web page and the relationship building benefits of Facebook and Twitter.

    The panelist used an interesting example.  Let’s say you are a financial advisor at a cocktail party.  Would it be appropriate to interrupt the party to start analyzing the investment portfolios of the people you meet in that setting?  There is a time an place for everything and it might be more fitting to ask about a favorite breakfast cereal. So I am asking, what’s your favorite breakfast cereal? (In my youth it was Quisp. I even had a Quisp stuffed toy….ok so I still have the toy)

    Sometimes quirky questions allow us to connect in relaxed ways and gives us information we can later leverage for the good of the...

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  • Wounded but Alive – Surviving Zappos Fun Experiences
    0 comments 1,584 reads
    Posted on 2011-09-20

    I was at Zappos HQ today delivering an advance copy of The Zappos Experience book to Tony Hsieh and colleagues (the book will hit bookstores by Oct 15th). Honestly, I was minding my own business when I became a casualty of an errant foam dart flying across the Zappos Insights work area.  You have to understand that I was so ill equipped for battle that I had to recycle the weapon that struck me to actually initiate a counter attack.

    As the laughter subsided, I asked myself how I got so involved in the type of game I might have played as a child or with my children.  How can anything get done with all this falderal?  Having worked closely with Zappos staff for years now, I can tell you that work made fun gets done and the passion and drive of Zappos employees are second to none.

    Zappos leadership has challenged the...

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