The Magic Castle Hotel in California is relatively nondescript with one exception it is painted a bright yellow and as far as I know is the only hotel with a “Popsicle hot line” where guests can call anytime during the afternoon and request a free popsicle that will be delivered to them anywhere on the property with a smiling room service attendant donning white gloves and holding a delicious popsicle at no cost.

One mortgage company has someone personally deliver a copy of the deed and ceremoniously delivers it to a client who pays off their mortgage at no cost.  Most mortgage companies charge a fee to unceremoniously send you your deed.

As you and your team outline the total customer experience from first touch to final touch where can you create a moment of magic that will set you apart from your competition?  It doesn’t have to happen at every touch point, just one or two that will be big differentiators for your customers.

Our Consulting firm is unique because we offer 100% of our customers who take our Developing Executive Relationships program the opportunity to call and get coaching to reinforce the learning for all participants.  We have been coaching clients out of the classroom for over 13 years.  We only consider ourselves successful when the participants are confident and fully own what we teach them and no longer need assistance.  Access to one fo our Executives for confidential private coaching is extremely valuable.

Where can you create a moment of magic for your clients?

When you hear someone complain the orientation of their “rant” is often focused on themselves and how they are impacted and feel vs how others are impacted and feel.  These seeds of negativity simply express the situation instead of change it.  If all you do is complain there will not be any positive change. In fact if you complain too much, do you think others respect you and enjoy being around you?  Ask yourself how much you enjoy being around a complainer?

How much faith and hope do you communicate when you complain?  Very little.  That is why as a leader you should consider a “NO COMPLAINING” mandate.  Institute a policy that says you and your team will look for the good in all circumstances and you will look for solutions before you utter a negative complaint.  Commit to being a part of the positive change that will distinguish you as a leader.

1.  Vision is the essence of leadership and you own creating the vision and getting the team bought into the vision and their role in achieving the vision.
2. Hiring and on boarding employees.  Your people are everything and you ultimately own the decision making on hiring and the welcoming and acclimating employees to the organization.
3. Praise, recognition and discipline.  You want to catch employees doing things right and praise them for it as this is how you establish a great culture.  Likewise you own correcting bad performance and behaviors and holding people accountable which is also a part of creating a culture of accountability.
4. Leading change.  Change is often met with resistance and your ability to cast the vision of a reorganized and modified future including the steps to get there is your responsibility.
5. Performance appraisal and employee and self development.  You want to remain committed to learning and growing personally as well as developing your team.  You own setting the expectations, inspecting and reporting performance against expectations in a review ( we suggest quarterly) and securing the right development tools, processes and coaching is your responsibility.

• What am I learning?
• How can I make work fun?
• Are you celebrating success?
• How well am I impacting those I am doing life with?
• What new tools can I add to my business tool kit?

I have been privileged to be invited to give speeches where others give their time to hear me and I realize that I need to spend time practicing giving the speech and perfecting the notes; the words and I need to study and practice my delivery getting the cadence, tone, volume and pregnant pause just right.  I need to use my vocal range to stir a question in my audiences mind and I need to use my body and cover the physical space.  I use my eyes to make contact with the audience and my hands to emphasize my points.  If you want to be someone worthy to be listened to then you need to practice the verbal and non-verbal delivery of your message.  The human voice is used everyday and is worth developing.