For The Economist's 2010 Ideas Economy conference on Human Potential, I spoke about the need for businesses to embrace trust if they're going to deliver great customer experiences.

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Peter Merholz
President, Adaptive Path
e: peterme@adaptivepath.com
t: @peterme
The Economist, Ideas Economy: Human Potential
September 2010

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BusinessWeek’s 2010 “Customer Service Champs”

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Photo of whiteboard from sessionPhoto of whiteboard from session

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Win
Win
Lose
Lose
CUSTOMERS
BUSINESS
YAY!

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CUSTOMERS
/EMPLOYEES
MANAGEMENT

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27. Southwest
35. JetBlue
55. Continental
79. Delta
85. United
113. Northwest
121. US Airways
Forrester’s 2010 Customer Experience Index

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“Colleen [Barrett] is primarily responsible for the humanistic culture
that we have at Southwest today...One of the really significant
things she did was give our people on the front line a lot of
flexibility. Basically, she ascertained that we could not anticipate
every situation that would evolve in a given station at a passenger
terminal. Therefore, she told our employees--and meant it--that
as long as you are leaning toward the customer, you are OK... They
did not need to ask permission from anybody to do so.”
Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines

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Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations.
There will be no additional rules.
from Nordstrom’s Employee Handbook

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Slide from CEO Reed Hasting’s “Culture” presentation

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ForeSee Results Top 100 Retail Satisfaction Index 2010

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Blockbuster Video
Netflix

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Trust

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Human Potential?

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Potential to
be Human

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Thank you!
e: peterme@adaptivepath.com
t: @peterme