Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D., is an internationally sought-after speaker, author, and organizational consultant who has been described as “catching what is right in the world and playfully sparking people and businesses to grow toward the extraordinary.” Dr. Michelli transfers his knowledge of exceptional business practices through keynote presentations that explore ways to develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on the total customer experience. His insights encourage leaders and frontline workers to grow and invest passionately in all aspects of their life.
Dr. Michelli recently was recognized by Focus as “one of the top five Customer Service Influencers to Track in 2011.”
Dr. Michelli's latest book, Prescription for Excellence: Leadership Lessons for Creating a World-Class Customer Experience from UCLA Health System was released in May 2011 and has achieved bestseller status on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Nielson BookScan lists. His prior bestselling books include The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary, The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, and When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace which was co-authored with the owner of the "World Famous" Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. His book The Zappos Experience will be released in the fall of 2011.
Dr. Michelli believes his greatest accomplishment is his ability to learn from the laughter and humor of his children, Andrew and Fiona.
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Speech Topics
The Zappos Experience – 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and WOW (Book release date October 2011)
Culture, culture, culture! This presentation highlights tools that have created a rich and unorthodox service culture at Zappos. Against all odds this online business (known primarily for selling shoes in a playful and emotionally engaging ways) has revolutionized social media strategies, developed an environment which has earned it a consistent spot in the top ten of Fortune Magazine’s best places to work, created zealous fans, and attracted Amazon.com as a purchaser for more than 1.2 billion dollars. In this keynote or workshop, Dr. Michelli outlines the 5 principles leaders and frontline worker can use to “zappify” enduring success (Serve a Perfect Fit, Make it Effortlessly Swift, Step Into the Personal, S T R E T C H, and Play to Win). It’s time to integrate (not balance) work and fun. It’s time to benefit from the unique and effective employee and customer engagement techniques of Zappos!
Prescription for Excellence – Leadership Lessons for Creating a World Class Customer Experience from UCLA Health System
Imagine running a business that requires the innovation of Apple, the commitment to safety of NASA, and the customer service of The Ritz-Carlton. Further, imagine your mandate demands you are a world-class educator, your work product holds life and death in the balance and you are responsible for discoveries that shape the future of medicine – that is the charter of UCLA Health System and as such UCLA offers a view into a diverse set of challenges faced by most businesses. Borrowing from transformational leadership at UCLA, Dr. Michelli outlines lessons on how to catapult your business to preeminence at an unusually rapid pace, transform the satisfaction and engagement of your customers through a service-centric approach, achieve enviable profitability during economic downturns and re-design, elevate, and humanize your customer experience. Through the context of business principles like Commit to Care, Make the Best Better, and Create the Future, Dr. Michelli offers insights to elevating service excellence by consistently executing against the highest service standards.
The New Gold Standard: Leadership Principles for Creating Legendary Customer Experiences
In this presentation, Dr. Michelli examines how to deliver legendary customer experiences such as those consistently offered by The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The New Gold Standard presents cutting edge leadership strategies for selection, training, and retention of the “right” staff. It demonstrates how leaders and front line workers can drive staff engagement and ownership behavior that ultimately produces transformational customer experiences. Expounding on leadership principles such as “Define and Refine,” “Empower Through Trust,” and “It’s Not About You,” this presentation examines ways to keep your service relevant to changing customer needs and shifting economic times.
The Starbucks Experience – 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary
By strategically focusing and executing on the details of the internal and external customer experience, Starbucks has become an employer and coffee provider of choice. In essence, Starbucks has become a name synonymous with coffee itself. While most people see Starbucks as a coffee company that serves people, its success is based on the inverse. It is a people company serving coffee. In this keynote or workshop, Dr. Michelli shows frontline workers and business leaders how to “stage” and perform on their brand’s promise. He analyzes the importance of identifying a desired emotional connection with the customer. Further, Dr. Michelli helps participants see the important distinction between “good” and “bad” profit ( for example, bad profit is that made at the expense of the customer need). Using principles like “Make it Your Own,” “Surprise and Delight,” and “Embrace Resistance,” Dr. Michelli shows how to create the ultimate customer experience. Lights, camera, action – your experience awaits.
When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workforce
Dr. Michelli helps you create a unique and durable experience that energizes employees and draws customers. Excerpting from his book of the same name, Dr. Michelli reels in the complete fish story behind the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle (where they are known for throwing fish and engaging antics). In this keynote or workshop, Dr. Michelli examines core principles like “Commit It,” “Be It,” and “Coach It” which create Pike Place Fish’s uniquely vital and creative culture. A culture that leads to excellent customer service, legendary employee morale, a fun and dynamic work environment, and ultimately makes a “World Famous” difference in the lives of those they serve. This presentation offers a cohesive strategy for achieving world famous results for owners, managers, front-line workers, and customers alike. If Pike Place Fish can achieve world fame from a small storefront, with zero advertising in a smelly, physically arduous profession, just think what is possible for your company!
Service Excellence and Customer Experience Presentations:
Sample presentation for Senior Leaders:
Service or Experience? Defining your Way We Serve Statement™
Let’s face it – consumer behavior has fundamentally changed since the third quarter of 2008. While some business leaders have decided to drop prices to the lowest possible level, others have sought ways to add value to their existing goods and services. In this presentation, Dr. Michelli presents customer trends verifying the wisdom of adopting a cost-effective commitment to elevating service and customer experience. Building on data showing that even in these difficult times 50% of consumers are paying more for a better experience and 50% of customers are still leaving businesses because of bad experiences, Dr. Michelli shows how to strategically design a relevant experience targeted to customer retention and acquisition of your competitors’ disgruntled customers. The experience design process begins with crafting a Way We Serve Statement to help all staff members understand the nature of the optimal experience to be delivered. In this keynote, Dr. Michelli also demonstrates how to make cost-conscious decisions that drive customer loyalty and increase customer spend.
