As services go, American Express has built a brand for itself in offering consistent customer delight. A while ago, I upgraded to the Platinum card for $450–not sure why I did, though. After a couple of months, their service desk called me to offer 4 nice benefits:

• A Premier Pass card that allows me access to all business lounges worldwide, a product worth $400 a year
• A Global Entry pass worth $100 every five years
• No fees on foreign transactions
• $250 in ticket change fee at domestic airlines

No, I have not been paid by AMEX to write this, but wanted to point out how we service providers could think up of ways to engage with our customers relevantly, in real-time, and in ways that will delight them. It should become a quarterly marketing plan to figure out how your sales and delivery teams performed, and how you could bring these to your customers’ attention in innovative ways that show you really care for them.

This flies in the face of normal: we are always on the look-out to bill clients for change requests and additional resources. Fair enough, but where have you built in ways to study what your customer has been doing, and developed plans to see if you can surprise them with ideas that could help them achieve goals?

I would be delighted to hear your opinions.

Karthik