Last month we attended A3's annual Business Forum. It's an event we look forward to not only to meet up with others in the robotics industry, but also for the opportunity to learn more about upcoming issues, trends and forecasts for the coming fiscal year. The keynote speakers are always excellent, but this year Dennis Snow of Snow & Associates, Inc.'s presentation, titled "Leading a Culture of Service Excellence; Lessons from the Mouse," particularly struck a chord with me. As a former Disney employee, Snow learned from one of the most service-oriented organizations in the world how to perfect the art of customer service and teach others how to put their best foot forward with customers at all times. His presentation included three tenets that Disney follows: Involvement, Vision and Accountability. But Disney isn't the only organization whose success is directly tied to its superior service. In the consumer world, there's also Nordstrom - whose staff goes through a rigorous training program - and L.L.Bean, which has a "we'll take anything back, anytime" return policy that is virtually unheard of. But what about robotics? How can we take these lessons from the consumer world and employ them within our industry [...]
