The whole thing could be chalked up to me trying to be a team player. The thought saving a few bucks on behalf of my school and departmental budget was attractive enough to try and find some cheaper travel alternatives. Being a savvy shopper led me to look for various options for flight and hotel. Travelocity seemed like a good enough option. I made my reservations for air and hotel well in advance of my travel dates. Another task crossed off the list. Or so I thought. Read what happens as Gary tries to navigate Travelocity customer service and avoid sleeping under an overpass.
Read MoreEvery year we look forward to returning to Lake Placid, NY. The town in many ways mirrors its name. But what happens when you lose Wi-Fi, have three kids with electronics, and have a lodging staff not willing to help resolve the issue? And why are there no Eric Heiden monuments?
Read MoreThe following is a guest blog by Rebecca Tinkleman, a graduate student in the Human Factors in Information Design MA program at Bentley University. Rebecca produced a wonderful ethnography on the Park Slope Coop, located in Brooklyn, NY. What is striking about her work is the extent to which the coop seems to violate every pretense of customer experience that we might think matters and is essential. Nevertheless, customers have a very strong loyalty to and identification with the coop. In this blog, Rebecca explores the reasons for this commitment to the coop.
Read MoreCompanies might think of their own version of renewing their vows with employees. The on-boarding process exposes a new hire to the company culture, the business objectives, building relationships with co-workers and managers, and overall identifying as part of the team. Re-Boarding, then, can refer to the process of reaffirming what drew them together in the first place.
Read MoreAn experience arms race is heating up. Companies are being faced with the challenge of trying to provide not only timely service and quality products, but also an “experience.” Staging experiences can be tricky business when considering that others are trying to stage their own experiences. In a frantic world of constant demands and changing terrain, sometimes you just want the mundane experience.
Read MoreDefining what it means to be a “customer” should be relatively straightforward. A quick internet search for “customer” shows it can be defined as “a person or organization that buys goods or services from a store or business.” You come to a store to purchase something, and you are a customer. Coming on the heels of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday and coming up on Black History Month, it is a good time to consider the tenuous social status of being a customer.
Read MoreJetBlue airlines desperately needed some context this last week. On January 12, the story came out that the Wall Street Journal named JetBlue the worst airline for 2017.
Read MoreIt can be difficult to differentiate between customer satisfaction and customer experience. Such a close relationship can exist between the two that it is easy to think of them as the same. However, certain sales encounters can show us the distinction relatively clearly.
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