Arnold Beekes

Yesterday I had a meeting in a hotel. We were having a great conversation until someone started vacuum cleaning in our area. It was around 11AM.   We had to almost shout towards each other to make ourselves heard. Actually, I have had this experience in other hotels as well. Around mid-morning they start vacuum cleaning. It looks like that it is a standard procedure in the housekeeping manual. This indicates 2 types of problems: 1.     The employee is clearly disengaged. Otherwise she would have waited or would have asked us whether she was disturbing us. Neither action happened. 2.     The management in the hotel has no clue what happens on the work floor. Or even worse, they also don’t care. This kind of behavior has a negative influence on the customer experience. So, I suggest to regularly change roles (be a customer) in order to get to know what the impact is of what you are doing. This is especially needed for the manage...

Last week I did go to Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. It was a costly trip by train and the admission fee was also much too high. Oh yeah and it rained cats and dogs, so that sets the scene! Basically (former) students are sharing their work in various places. However I did not see anything that I would consider to be useful, with the exception of a good-looking bike. The intent was to allow the manufacturing to happen here, rather than in China. The rest of the pots, carpets, lights and sites was not making me enthusiastic. I might be mistaken, but isn’t the goal of good design to make a connection between the product and me, the customer?   And it was not only my experience; I did hear the same reaction from more people, that the show was very disappointing. It looks like something is wrong with the way we are educating students. They should learn to design with the customer in mind, right from the start! Also I did ask the Design Academy whether they were focus...

It seems like a no-brainer, but I still encounter many leaders who are ‘jailed’ in conference rooms and hardly ever see a real customer. Yesterday I was playing golf and the director of the course passed us by in a buggy. You could tell that it was even hard for him to say hello. He made sure that there was enough distance so we could not talk. However, this was an excellent opportunity for him to ask us how we (the customers!) were doing and maybe even ask whether we had some suggestions for improvement. It was not busy, so he could have easily done this. The response from my golf-buddy was that this director clearly doesn’t understand his business. Instead of creating goodwill and receiving valuable feedback, the director ‘escaped’ and left us with a rather negative impression. A missed chance for learning, connecting and building a true relationship with your customers. Are you, as a leader, meeting directly with customers on a w...

Many studies indicate that people working in retail as well as in restaurants are the lowest paid employees. They also have the highest turnover rate. At the same time, they are crucial for the interaction and the relationship with your customers. Customers highly appreciate it if these employees know your name and your preferences. The better this relationship, the more likely it is that customers will return, over and over again. It is also more fun and rewarding for employees to work in an environment in which they are valued themselves. From a customer’s point of view, I have a relationship with these employees rather than with the manager, the director or even the brand. So, I think it is crucial to be aware of this important position of frontline employees. Employers should carefully work on the empowerment and the appreciation of these employees. Are you valuing the capacity to build relationships with your customers? Enthusiasm drives Excellence! w...

A few days ago I did buy a combination ticket (entrance, train and bus) for visiting the Keukenhof. The Keukenhof is one of the main attractions here in The Netherlands. As a flower show, it is open for only 2 months and has already received 900.000 visitors this year. So, you would expect a seamless approach for selling me the combination ticket. That was, unfortunately, not the case. The number of clicks and visits to different sites is way too much. It starts at the Keukenhof, then to the Spoordeelwinkel (the shop from the railway), then to the bank, then back to the Spoordeelwinkel. And when you think that you are finished, you do receive separately two confirmation mails (from the railway, respectively the Keukenhof). Via theses mails you have to go to the respective sites and PRINT the documents! Yes, it even is mentioned that showing the docs on an electrical device is not valid! This buying experience took an hour or so. And then I had to take the printed docs with me o...