Alas, no store would open prior to the start of the guest’s meeting, said Mark. But a solution was still possible, Mark thought, because the guest’s shoe size matched his own. “Mark offered to bring the guest a pair of formal shoes that he had worn only at his wedding. When the guest accepted the offer, Mark raced home and brought the shoes back to the hotel.”

This is one of the ‘Wow’ stories that Joseph A. Michelli narrates with verve in The New Gold Standard ( www.tatamcgrawhill.com), drawing from instances of ‘legendary customer experience’ in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. This example was selected as a companywide Wow story, informs Michelli.

The power of service, the author says, is magnified, when leadership acknowledges teamwork and efforts that break down traditional departmental-based or location-based ‘stove pipes.’

Valuable read.

“The role of the professional salesperson is to be able to win business when the product or service is not the cheapest, and that is why excellent companies invest in upskilling their sales people with professional selling skills,” says Denny in Winning New Business: Essential Selling Skills for Non-Sales People ( www.vivagroupindia.com).

He reasons that with a greater product knowledge and an ability to explain to customers the features and benefits of the products, your trained sales people will be able to justify the price.

Recommended study.

Aesthetics in Marketing Rajat K Baisya & G Ganesh Das

Aesthetic mix includes the ergonomic, auditory and olfactory aspects apart from the visual aspect, write Rajat K. Baisya and G. Ganesh Das in Aesthetics in Marketing ( www.sagepublications.com). They find that aesthetics can at times become ‘a surrogate for quality of the product, brand image, corporate image and brand equity.’