Chip Bell

What do Google, NetFlix, Apple, Nike and Amazon have in common other than rapid growth and amazing profits? They all are considered among the most innovative companies, perpetually seek ingenious ways to delight their customers. Remarkable service for today’s picky, fickle and vocal customers requires a constant and deliberate pursuit of innovative ways to make the customers’ experiences sparkly, but consistent; enriching, but profitable. Since value-added has gotten way too expensive; smart organizations focus on value-unique-novel, not just more. Innovative service paves the way for a “take their breath away” experience that can overcome customer resistance to price during challenging economic times. Based on three of his national best-selling books The 9½ Principles of Innovative Service, Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers and Sprinkles:  Creating Awesome Experiences Through Innovative Service, this lively, provocative session draws on Dr. Chip Bell’s 20+ years working with many of the world’s leading brands to help them stay ahead of their competition by maintaining best-in-class customer experience strategies. Attendees leave with countless cutting-edge techniques and a head full of ideas for either reinventing or reigniting the customer experience they deliver to those they serve.

Recall the absolutely best customer service experience of your entire life. What were the features of this profoundly remarkable memory? Today’s customers do not talk (remark) or tweet about good service; only experiences they find unique, special, and ingenious. Research shows value-added (taking what customers expect and adding more) will not provide a solid ROI. But, value-unique (delivering an unexpected, compelling surprise) creates animated advocates and fuels bottom line impact. Based on Bell’s newest best-selling book, Kaleidoscope, this high-energy session provides the tools, tips and techniques for leading and delivering innovative service that sparkles.

If ten years ago you had invested $100 in a fund made up of the most customer-centric companies in the U.S. (according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index), your investment today would be worth over $650. Additionally, operations that put their customers in the center of their planning and execution attract the best employees and retain the best customers. They are repeatedly listed on the Fortune “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Chip Bell has worked with many of the most customer-centric operations-Ritz-Carlton Hotels, USAA, AMEX, Marriott, Harley-Davidson–and shares the secrets of what makes them so successful. This provocative and powerful keynote can be tailored for first-line supervisors to senior executives.  It provides the insights and tools for creating experiences that turn satisfied customers into loyal advocates.

Your customers have been forever changed by a perfect storm-the convergence of anxiety created by a resilient and tough recession, frustration fostered by too much high tech service without high touch, and the power of being able to voice displeasure instantly to thousands via social media.  Organizations that recognize the emerging “customer revolution” and adjust to this new normal customer will thrive; those that continue to use the “tired and true” methods of the past will fail.  Today’s customers are picky (demanding value), fickle (quicker to leave), vocal (assertively telling all) and vain (expecting personalized service).  Customer expectations are 33% higher this year over last year.  And, since word of mouse (social media) today has five times the impact of word of mouth, it takes rethinking strategies and tactics to select ones that change today’s “customer as king” into tomorrow’s “customer as partner.”  It requires insuring frontline employees have the authority and capacity to effectively serve in a multi-channel environment.  It involves reinventing experiences that create customer ease and delight resulting in loyalty or “stickiness.”  Based on his international best-selling book by the same title, this powerful, high-energy keynote draws on Dr. Bell’s deep experience consulting with many of the elite service-providing companies plus his cutting edge customer research. Attendees learn proven techniques and tactics needed to drive business growth and reputation.

Distinctive service in the professional or B2B world can be vastly different than the approach used by a merchant to win a consumer. For the business-to-business world and/or the space of sophisticated products or specialized expertise, the path to success has become a long-term, profitable relationship, not just a glitzy experience.  When those you serve feel like valued partners in a power-free relationship, their expectations are more realistic, they are more forgiving of mistakes, more ardent advocates, and their economic investment in the firm or organization deepens.  Research convincingly demonstrates it is the depth of the relationship, not the quality of the product or expertise, which retains the relationship. Even in the B2B world with its extreme price-sensitivity and the watchful eye of purchasing czars, the quality of the relationship has become a key component in how value is defined.  Based on his international best-selling book Customers as Partners, Dr. Chip Bell’s insightful, fresh program provides audiences with provocative, yet practical tools, tips and techniques for building profitable relationships that last.

Go behind the scenes in those organizations renowned for inventive and imaginative service and you will find leaders with exceptional practices and special competencies. These courageous leaders understand the culture and leader-follower relationships that are most suited for resourcefulness in delivering value-unique experiences that awe, not just wow. Leadership is an echo that best resonates in a setting of responsible freedom, compelling cause, supportive connections, infectious curiosity and affirming excellence. Dr. Bell’s riveting keynote uses profiles of successful innovation leaders who foster frontline ingenuity and nurture opportunities for breakthroughs and discoveries. Based on his best-selling book, Take Their Breath Away, this powerful presentation leaves audiences with fresh insights and clear instructions on ways to stimulate, nurture and cultivate innovative service.