Michael Hinshaw

Conventional wisdom says not just “yeah” but “hell, yeah.” That said, an issue with the “conventional wisdom” is that people rarely question it. And since this is a question I was asked earlier this week – and my response predictably slotted into the “hell yeah” quadrant – I thought it only fair to dig a little deeper. 

Do happier employees really mean happier customers? Without giving too much away, the results of my exploration will almost certainly surprise you. Not because happy employees don’t mean happier customers (in general they do). But because of the potentially worrisome connections between employee performance and happiness, and customer engagement. 

No Shocker: High Employee Engagement Yields Good Business Results. (But…)

Earlier this month, RagingWire – a data center firm that boasts the...

If you aren’t a gamer, then there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Razer. Until last weekend, the company was mostly known for making high-performance peripherals for playing video games (i.e., fancy mice and keyboards with a price tag to match).

Now, though, it might be the gutsiest, most customer-centric company you’ll read about all year. Here’s what happened.

Last week, reports spread about a coupon code for Razer’s U.K. site that gave customers 90 percent off of their orders. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an authorized promotion. It turns out that one of the company's partners added the coupon code for testing purposes, but never deleted or deactivated it. Thousands of orders were placed before Razer could shut it down.

The company had a variety of options. It could have canceled the orders, apologized, and offered a smaller discount as a goodwill gesture. Heck, it could have canceled...

Last week, SEC filings revealed that Ron Johnson, chief executive officer of JC Penney, saw his 2012 compensation fall 97 percent—from $53.3 million in 2011 to $1.89 million last year. This set off another media frenzy focused on the struggling retailer’s poor performance and probably hastened Ron Johnson’s firing as head of JC Penney. How did Johnson get so off course? Look no further than poor customer experience.

Johnson, former Apple retail chief and the person credited with forever changing the way computers are sold, was brought in with much hype and a great deal of hope.  I’m guessing they thought, “If he can innovate so...

It’s difficult enough that companies are losing influence with their digitally-enabled smart customers. Even worse, they’re losing their customers’ trust. And it’s not surprising. The fact is, many organizations are undeserving of customer trust.

Companies ravenously gather customer information, and use this data not to serve them, but to bludgeon customers with product and service offers they don’t want or need. Or, these same companies forget or ignore everything their customers said or did—right when their customers most need them to remember, like on a service or warranty call.

As customers, it often feels like companies don’t have our best interests at heart.  How could any customer trust a firm that doesn’t? You certainly wouldn't. Why would your customers behave any differently?

So if your firm is operating at a trust deficit (or if you suspect it might be), here are five things you can start doing now that will help you earn it…