Wow, despite our free book offer, and despite a rousing positive conversation last night with my close friends Jamie and Trent trying to elicit a positive story out of them I came up with nothing.
Hmph. Either no one is reading this blog or you are all still stuck in a negative wormhole. Are you used to coming up with why things are wrong?
Have you forgotten about the times when things go right?
I’m giving you a PPFS (Proverbial Positive Face Slap).
Instead of regaling us with the amazingness of your business (and winning a free book and free advertising while you are at it), you will have to listen to me talk about the Glasgow Airport’s Security Screening Area. Don’t yawn yet – it’s actually quite exciting – especially if you love travelling and hate airport screening.
Memorable Client Experiences at Airport Screening
Appreciative Inquiry Questions : Tell me a story about your best Airport Screening Experience? Where was it? What made it so great? What made it memorable for you? (Instead of: Tell me about why Airport Screening is always so unpleasant? What is your major pain point about airport screening?)
Last March I got the opportunity to visit my family in Scotland for a week with my Dad. It was the most amazing experience meeting family I’d never met before. My Uncle David and Aunt Jean, My Cousins Hayley and her daughters Deany and Samara were the sweetest family that, prior to that week, I’d never met. After a week I was over the moon for them. Leaving was TOUGH. With our early flight home to Toronto and my father not trusting the GPS (or SATNAV as its called there), I was not looking forward to the airport process.
I was pleasantly surprised! Here are the things I LOVED about the experience:
- the line-up had information all along the way to keep us occupied, and so that we were completely prepared when we arrived at the x-ray area.
- the x ray area had really long counters, so you never had to wait for someone to take off their shoes, belt, jackets (it’s a bit like a striptease isn’t it?), take out their laptop. Everyone was ready to go by the time they needed to put their bins on to the conveyor belt.
- They cared about what customers thought about them. They had computer screens that allowed you to vote on your experience on the left hand side, and then on the right they had screens showing what the average ratings were. Wow! That’s brave! Not alot of companies collect voice of the customer data, let alone publish it right there at the airport!
- In my opinion, because of the above, the line moved FAST! I never once thought about how many wickets they had open, I just enjoyed a pleasant customer experience.
Now if we had many customer experience stories from airport screening I bet we’d hear some key themes –
*wait times (perceived or real)
*clarity of expectations
*process efficiency (perceived or real)
*feeling like they care about us
What are the key themes in your “Best [insert Customer, client, interaction etc.]”?
How do you take this lovely tale and turn it into making your business #betterfastercheaper?
Well you’ll have to find out next week, where I force Ruth to read the Appreciative Inquiry Books in 3 days and write a blog about the next steps. Otherwise we’ll probably have to read a story about Hawaii (yawn).
Or I’ll give you ONE more chance to win a free book and free advertising on why your organization is great (and Ruth an extra week to learn about Appreciative Inquiry):
Think of your story – we’d love you to share with us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or @whiteboardcons using #betterfastercheaper.
Share your positive business story to be the focus of our next blog (hey that’s like free advertising) and we’ll send you a business book on a topic of your interest (value of up to $40). Click to Tweet! Sounds like a deal. Best positive story wins! Be descriptive. Tell me the story. Set the stage. Introduce the characters. This is your chance to be business-ey and creative.
Consider yourself challenged…..
Until next week,
Nicole