What if every customer was a celebrity? Geoff Ramm on the service shift that changes everything

Renowned among today’s top marketing speakers, business speakers, and inspirational leadership speakers, Geoff brings a fresh, energetic perspective to the world of customer service and brand loyalty.

With two bestselling books and a portfolio of clients including Emirates, Specsavers, and Toyota, he has inspired organisations worldwide to elevate service standards and exceed expectations.

In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Geoff shares why simplicity, storytelling and human connection still beat automation—and how unlocking a “celebrity mindset” can transform not just customer experience, but business performance at every level.

Q: Your ‘celebrity service’ approach has gained widespread recognition for its impact. In what ways does this concept help businesses stand out and outperform their competition?

Geoff Ramm: “It's in its simplicity. Celebrity service is very, very simple to just get straight away. And with the CEOs, line managers, people on the shop floor—everybody in the organisation can get celebrity service in minutes. So it's very much in its simplicity.

“Where I bring celebrity service to life is the stories and the techniques. So the stories within the keynote will hopefully inspire the audience into another level of service.

“But also, the real takeaways—the huge value that I offer in my interactive sessions—are when we get the teams together and we challenge each other to come up with incredible customer service experiences.

“So yes, I keep it lively, very energetic. We have a lot of fun—always fun—but there's always a huge business value at the end of it. Because what I want to do is leave that room and that team, that organisation, can take the baton of celebrity service and run with it. And that's the key. It's something so simple, but inspired to do something so different, will lead you to some of those incredible results.

“Now I'm conscious I've mentioned celebrity service right now, and if anybody who doesn't know me or doesn't know about celebrity service, this is what it is.

“So right now, you and your team watching this video, right now, you're currently delivering a good level of service—a pretty good level of service. If I said to you, on the scale of one to ten, where one is abysmal but ten is incredible, what number would you be?

“I can pretty much guarantee the global average from my research over the last 20 years—the global average is an eight. OK, I get this with audiences all about: on the scale of one to ten, how would you rate yourself? And people say, “Geoff, I'm pretty good, we're on average an eight.” That's a really high number.

“However, I ask the question, “But what happens if a celebrity were to become your next member, guest, client, passenger?” What would that level of service look like?

“And I also say to people, you're delivering a high level of service—but if a celebrity would walk in—and I'm not talking about any celebrity here, I'm talking about an A-list celebrity, Hollywood god or goddess—your service levels go from there to there. And that's the gap. That's the gap you don't realise exists within yourself, within your team, within your brand.

“But it's a gap that, if you can fill, there's not a competitor in your marketplace can touch you for the service and experience you could deliver straight after my talk.

“So, very much, celebrity service is in its simplicity. People can get it straight away. But I bring it to life with the stories that inspire people to think differently and deliver differently. But also through the group challenges and the interaction that we do, you actually create these moments—these celebrity service moments, that I call them. You can create them live in the room, and that is really special.

“To give you an example—look in the back of the two books that I've written so far—there are tons of pages, there's tons of pages on results. What people have gone on to achieve when they've embraced celebrity service.

“In fact, on my website—I'm very proud of it—there's a page just called "Results", and I've just highlighted some of the results. What have people gone on to achieve when they embrace celebrity service?

“It could be increased Net Promoter Scores. It could be an award that they've got—you know, a plaque, an award that they've been yearning for for years. They may have gone from a four- to a five-star service. They may have increased profits. They may have attracted more clients. I don't know what service success is going to look like.

“But I do know, with celebrity service—when you embrace it—that's when the magic happens.”

Q: With the rapid rise of AI and digital automation, how do you see customer experience evolving—and what should businesses prioritise to stay ahead without losing the human touch?

Geoff Ramm: “You know, we're in this thrust at the moment of AI and, you know, jobs and people—you know, we're getting taken over by robots and AI. They'll be able to deliver so much service—greater service for you. I... I fear. I fear this level of technology. I do.

“I'm not a dinosaur. I love technology. We've all got apps. We can all, you know... you know, on the chat on websites. But I fear that we are jumping too quickly. And there is nothing—nothing will ever beat that human contact, that human interaction. If that human interaction and contact is great, by the way. Because you have some very poor people who do deliver in service, who don't get back to you, who don't fulfil their promises.

“There's this huge changes, you know, on the horizon. My fear is that we're always looking for the next shiny toy. “Oh, look! Oh, we can save money! We can save money if we get rid of this department and we bring in this... this chat box.”

“I do fear. Because if it's done well—then brilliant, go for it. However, how many times—think about it—have you needed some advice on a website? There's no telephone number. “I just need to speak to somebody.” Because guess what? Your frequently asked questions are never frequent.

“So your little chat box, “I can help you!” and you type in how they can help you—and you give them a question—and within half a second, there's a 15-paragraph response. And I'm thinking... and it's just another computer putting you off, sending you down the lane of not getting the response and the answer that you want.

“So, wonderful—wonderful that we can bring technology. Wonderful that we can change and we can improve. You're never going to beat the human. Ever. And that personalisation, that thing—that somebody can help you and really help and support you with—I can't see it.

“Look, I'll just—I'll leave you with this, right? Terminator—that great movie—but look what happened when we start turning to the machines. It doesn't end well.

“You know, the funny thing is—to improve the service within your department, within your team, within your brand—you get people in together. You inspire them together. You've got to focus your vision. You've got to lead them into a greater service experience for that customer, for that client, for that member, for that passenger, for that guest. That's what you do. And you culture, and you shape, and you mood, and you're brilliant.

“Who trains and who inspires the computer? The modem? The cloud? The downloadable? Who does that? Who does that?

“A really interesting question somebody asked me—this comes about quite often—“Geoff, can you give me some great examples of digital customer experience?”

“And I always say: “You first. You show me. You show me.”

“Just don't hide your humans. That's all I'll say.”

This exclusive interview with Geoff Ramm was conducted by John Hayes of The Champions Speakers Agency.

For More Information: Champions Customer Service Speakers