Vail Resorts was once the gold standard in customer service—a perfect "10." But over time, they’ve lost their way, turning their focus away from the customer experience. From outsourced call centers to disengaged employees, the magic is fading.

Contrast that with Amazon, which continues to dominate by putting customers first—adding $63.2 billion in sales in 2024 alone.

So what’s the secret to keeping your brand strong? It starts with leadership, training, and a relentless commitment to service. Read the full blog to uncover the cost of losing your brand’s customer experience—and how to get it back.


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	Northeast Delta Dental: The Most Powerful Customer-Driven Insurance Company in the World I have been working with Tom Raffio President of Northeast Delta Dental since 1990 when he implemented the Guarantee of Service Excellence in Massachusetts Delta Dental. In 1995 he became President of Northeast Delta Dental and implemented the Service Guarantee. The hard numbers are on our Delta Dental page on our website. View the charts and results starting from 1995. Here is the link for the February 2024 Newsletter so you can see what happened a year ago. All the previous newsletters are on our website. In both my “Relentless” and “Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service” books, I featured Tom Raffio and Northeast Delta Dental. Very few firms in the world provide Relentless customer service. This is the only insurance company in the world that implements a Service Guarantee. Their market share in their try-state region is: New Hampshire 56%, Vermont 61% and Maine 62%. They are only allowed to offer their insurance in these 3 states with a population of 1.402,000 million New Hampshire, Vermont 647,464, and Maine 1,396,000 for a total population of 3,445,464 Northeast Delta Dental’s Guarantee of Service Excellence These seven guarantees are very important to the companies and employees that use Delta Dental. Instead of saying, “I am sorry,” when they fail to deliver on any of these seven guaranteed services, they pay money to the company. The Guarantee: Accurate and Quick Turnaround of Identification Cards. Accurate identification cards will be available within 15 calendar days upon receipt of a completed enrollment form. Refund: Your group will be reimbursed $25 per pair of identification cards What Happens if They Fail to Provide Identification Cards in 15 Days? If a company with 100 employees signed up and the cards arrived one day late, or 16 calendar days after requested, Northeast Delta Dental would have to pay out $2,500. In 2024, they only had one client that was not delivered on time and they paid out $25 vs $400 in 2023. Here is the link for Northeast Delta Dental’s 2024 payouts. They only paid out $3,175 in 2024 with 6 requests. This is the only firm I know of that guarantees their promises with money. Very few firms are willing to gamble real money when they screw up. Maybe that is one of the reasons their market share is so high. View The Results From Northeast Delta Dental’s Previous 28 Years In 2024 total revenue increased from $482,531,334. to $521,109,400 a $38,578,066 increase, Total 2024 net income was $2,669,89. Northeast Delta Dental is a non-profit. The Reserve/Surplus is $191,309,178 vs $8,573,838 when Raffio started in 1995 as CEO with the GOSE plan. Primary subscribers are 605,517 and they Cover 1,096,754 individuals. The amount spent on training in 2024 was $125,500 Northeast Delta Dental has always measured the results each year. They understand the power of their Guarantee of Service Excellence. Tom Raffio’s books are available on Amazon, Prepare for Crisis – Plan to Thrive and there are No Do-Overs. Tom Raffio can be reached at traffio@nedeltal.com. Their website is www.nedelta.com Their office phone is 1-800-537-1715 or 1-603-223-1000. They are open from 8 am – 8 pm Monday - Friday, and a live person answers the phone. Try them I just did to make sure what I write about happens. Customers love having live support till 8 pm with people who know what they are talking about and answer in less than 10 seconds.) If you have a firm in New Hampshire, Maine, or Vermont, make sure you experience buying Dental Insurance from Northeast Delta Dental.


	Live and Virtual Customer Service Certification Seminar in Minneapolis May 12-15, 2025 Our next annual Customer Service Certification Seminar is May 12-15, 2025 in Minneapolis. The registration fee is $2,297. If you want to advance your career and credentials this is a huge opportunity. You also earn 18 credits toward your Master of Customer Service Diploma. If you need a visa you need to apply now. The US Embassy is super slow. It often takes months to get a visa appointment and then another month for the scheduled interview. Once a person has registered we send an invitation letter if needed. It might take 60-90 days to get a visa appointment with your US Embassy. Apply now if a Visa is needed. View this link for more information on our Certification Seminars and the hotel Leading Empowered Teams for an Awesome Customer Experience is for managers and leaders. All Certification participants receive the Leader Guide, PowerPoint, and participant material. This 2-day seminar focuses on what you have to change to become more customer-centric, how to drive empowerment, the skills of coaching for a customer-driven workforce, and teamwork. Most organizations do not know they are in customer service. They often think they are in insurance, healthcare, banking, retail, etc. John Tschohl does a two-hour service strategy seminar on the first day on May 12. "Feelings Service Retail" is used on the first day of the Certification Seminar. All participants in CCST receive the $1,199 Feelings Facilitator and participant kit. The video was recently updated. Here is a link to Feelings for Retail Service. The 12-minute video preview is in the upper right corner. The total facilitator and participant material each person receives is worth $1,871. The Certification Seminar licenses you to buy participant material at an 85% discount off the Certification Fees. Feelings participant kits are $22 each, and Leading Empowered Teams are $150 each. If you are working toward your Graduate of Customer Service or Master of Customer Service Diploma, it gives you 18 credits.


	John Tschohl Service Strategy Seminars If you have a major event and you would like to drive customer service and the customer experience reach out to Carmen or myself. The strategy starts at the top. I can get your team really passionate about awesome customer service. On March 29-30, I will be in Moscow working with Pavel Marisovich, CEO of My Evolve. View the website at myevolve.info. He also has me in Astana, Kazakhstan May 25-26 and May 27-28 in Sochi or St. Petersburg, September 10 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, September 12 in Tashkent Uzbekistan, September 16-18 Turkey, December 3-5 in Dubai and December 10 in Budapest Hungary. If you want to leverage my dates above and share in the travel expenses please let me know. Every presentation is customized. I can do keynotes for 60-90 minutes, a full day, or a 2-day seminar. I do these Seminars in person or on Zoom. Visit my speaking site If you want to use me for a keynote or 1-2 day seminar, contact our Channel Partners all over the world or: Carmen Velasco, VP of Latin America & North America Carmen@servicequality.com Whats App 1-619-862-7694 John Tschohl John@servicequality.com Cell/Whats App 1-612-382-563


	John Tschohl Selected #6 Customer Service Guru for 2025 John Tschohl is the guru when it comes to customer service, service strategy, empowerment, service recovery, and helping organizations create a service culture. John speaks all over the world. He has developed a 3-4 year service culture plan for organizations serious about creating a service culture from his suite of 29 customer service programs of which 12 are available online. Available in 7 languages. John Tschohl is the author of eight best-selling books, which are also available in a variety of languages. Relentless, is his new book, Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service now in its 13th version. Empowerment: A Way of Life. Loyal for Life (Service Recovery), Ca$hing In, The Customer is Boss; e:Service, and Moving Up.