Innovation – What it is, and is NOT

By Don Smith “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.” Inigo Montoya’s famous line from The Princess Bride instinctively pops into my head (sometimes muttered under my breath) when I read yet another article on the thin, worn topic of “innovation”. In its often misunderstood overuse, …

Hub-of-All-Things: Breaking Data Silos for a Better Service

The advent of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) in today’s world of connected things and connected people has made it possible for firms to harvest lots of real-time customer data – information from people and objects, and indeed everything. This is compounded by individuals spending much of their time generating data for others about our lives, placing …

What Service Innovators Can Learn From Coproduction in Prolonged Complex Services

By Jelena Spanjol While frontline employees are critical in creating positive service encounters, many customers are left to their own devices to fully extract the potential value from a service. Across industries such as education, personal finance management, and healthcare, customers are the primary agents in the production of value from services provided by companies. …

Bruce Temkin on Service Innovation, New Trends and Challenges Faced by Service Companies.

By Darima Fotheringham Bruce Temkin, CCXP, is a Co-Founder & Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association and the Managing Partner of Temkin Group. He is widely viewed as a leading expert in how large organizations build differentiation with customer experience. As the Managing Partner, he consults for leading global companies, is a keynote speaker at top …

The Next Wave of Service Delivery: Success Accelerators!

By Randy Wootton The Challenge Today, more and more companies depend on software as a service (SaaS) to operate essential parts of their business, such as managing their relationships with customers, driving sales performance, and maintaining employee communication. As the industry and surrounding ecosystem that delivers these services matures, it faces a growing demand for accountability and results. …

Service Innovation – The Experience Is Not Enough

By Lance A. Bettencourt I just got off a flight from Indianapolis to Chicago. Checking my email, I see a survey from American Airlines. They want to know: “How was the flight experience?” I’m on a flight right now from Chicago to Montreal. Guess what will be in my email inbox when I arrive? As a …

Human Resources: Strategic Partner for Services

By Bob Giacometti Traditionally, the role of Personnel, as Human Resources (HR) was once known, centered more on administrative and support activities such as hiring and transferring, maintaining employee records, and administering appraisal, compensation, benefits, equal opportunity, and other employee relations programs. While important, many HR teams still operate outside of the strategic planning process …

How to Influence Patients, and Clients, to "DIY"

                                      By Kathryn K. Eaton Over the last year, I have had the remarkable opportunity to work with the Obesity Solutions Initiative, which is a collaboration between Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University.  My work with this outstanding team of people has been varied and challenging, but my background in marketing has been a perfect …

Putting Customers at Ease: The Patient’s Point of View

By Andrew S. Gallan Sally, a married 54-year-old mother of two teenage girls, had just returned from her mammogram follow-up appointment with a troubled look on her face. “What’s the matter?” asked her husband of 25 years. “Again, something showed up, so I have to go for another mammogram and some additional tests,” she responded. …