The Customer Comes First – Right After your People

Earlier this week, I spoke at the RightNow Summit and discussed the customer-driven focus on service we have developed at American Express, and how we have reinvented our approach to deliver an even better experience to our customers. One question I anticipated hearing from customer experience professionals at the Summit following my presentation was “where do we start?” when it comes to delivering the kind of service that makes our customers feel valued and exceeds their expectations. The answer may vary somewhat (every company is different after all), but at American Express we found that we had to start with our most important asset – our people.