In this episode of Getting to Aha!, Darshan Mehta is joined by Joseph Michelli, Chief Executive Officer of The Michelli Experience. They discuss Joseph’s aha! journey; why you should tap into your natural curiosity; how business leaders coped with the pandemic; and why you should always listen to your employees. They also delved into the importance of humanizing your customers, as well as what it truly means to be a brand!

Joseph is an internationally sought-after speaker, psychologist, author, and organizational consultant. He passes on his knowledge in ways that encourage workplaces to be joyful and productive, focusing on the customer experience. He has been the CEO of The Michelli Experience - a full-service, human experience delivery company that helps leaders attract and engage customers - for over twenty-five years; is an Opinion Columnist at CEOWORLD magazine; and has also won the Asian Brand Excellence Award.

Whatever Joseph doesn’t know about customer experience, it isn’t worth knowing…

Tune in to this week’s episode of Getting to Aha! to find out more!

👉Joseph began his career in radio after winning a competition to visit a radio station when he was thirteen. By the time he finished college, however, he had realized that his career would be in something quite different, which is what led him down the path of customer experience. But he’s always stayed in touch with the man who gave him that job and considers the lessons he’d learned from him to be one of his Aha! moments.

👉Part of being successful means you need to tap into your natural curiosity. Whilst it is true that as we go our way in life, we lose some of our drive and curiosity, but we must always try to keep on challenging ourselves and be willing to go to the next level. Never be afraid to learn new things, it’ll benefit you dramatically in the long run!

👉 During the pandemic, one thing became exceedingly clear to Joseph: leaders didn’t know what they were doing. It was a very difficult and unpredictable time for everyone, and even they admitted that they were clueless on how to respond - as a result, it was Joseph’s job to help them retain customers. He asked them what they were relying on and what tactics they had in place, and found himself giving advice to more and more people, which is how he came up with his next book.

👉A philosopher once said, “the first duty of love is to listen,” but Joseph has altered that to “the first duty of leadership is to listen,” and then added, “the second duty of leadership is to listen more”. The most important part of being a business leader is to listen to the people around you and to figure out how to lead them in the best way possible. 

👉In the early days of the pandemic, Joseph tells a story about when they’d call customers simply  to thank them for visiting. Naturally, customers were very skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a very authentic, genuine way to make customers feel appreciated. Since then, they’ve put more time and energy into appreciating their customers, not just monetarily, but humanistically.

👉Brands tend to confuse the need to be interesting as a goal, when really, they need to be interested. If a company is interested in its customers, then the customers will eventually become interested in them. All relationships, even in the B2C world, are a two-way street - there has to be some give and take rather than just take.

👉 To Joseph, “customer satisfaction” means meeting expectations, but “customer delight” means exceeding those expectations. The latter is far more emotional, and you can feel it in your chest when a company goes above and beyond for you. 

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