At Fueled, outstanding customer service is one of our most essential principles. When we talk about premium digital experiences, we can also consider the process – not just the outcome – to be an inextricable component of that value proposition. 

Inspiration for an elite customer experience comes from many sources for our diverse team – for the many foodies at Fueled, we find it in the experience afforded to guests at a Michelin-starred restaurant. This philosophy isn't just about good customer service; it's about setting a high standard of excellence that defines our culture and operations.

Six Ways Michelin-Starred Service Inspires How We Treat Clients

1. High-Touch, Thoughtful Client Communication

A great restaurant doesn’t just deliver food; it curates an experience. Similarly, a great digital agency doesn’t just build products—it creates an effortless, high-touch service experience.

• Proactive Responses: If a client asks for a file, we don’t just say, “Check your inbox.” Instead, we respond, “Of course! Here’s the link again. Let us know if you need anything else.”
• Personalized Communication: When scheduling a meeting, we don’t just send a calendar invite—we reply in the thread to confirm and provide an agenda, ensuring clarity.
• Anticipating Needs Like Michelin-Starred Restaurants: Just as fine dining servers top off water glasses and adjust service based on the table’s mood, we anticipate our clients' needs—whether that means sending proactive updates, identifying potential issues before they arise, or offering additional insights before being asked.

These small touches build trust and reinforce that we care about the details.

2. Setting Clear Expectations to Reduce Uncertainty

Just as a top restaurant lets you know if a dish will take longer, we prioritize proactive expectation-setting in all communications.

• Timely Acknowledgments: If a task will take 48 hours, we don’t wait two days to respond. Instead, we reply within 24 hours: “Got your request! We’re working on it and will have it ready by Wednesday.”
• Preemptive Updates: If a project deadline is approaching, we check in before the client asks, updating them on progress or potential adjustments.

This level of transparency builds confidence and minimizes uncertainty.

3. Encouraging Experimentation & Continuous Improvement

At Eleven Madison Park, staff were encouraged to experiment with unique ways to surprise guests, creating moments of unreasonable hospitality. Similarly, we foster a culture where our team members can innovate, experiment, and optimize processes.

• Inspired by Will Guidara’s Culture of Creativity: At Eleven Madison Park, a server once overheard a guest reminiscing about NYC street hot dogs and surprised them by buying one mid-meal. We encourage our teams to listen closely to clients, identify their hidden needs, and respond with unexpected solutions.
• Iterating on Client Experience: If a common client request keeps coming up, we explore workflow improvements – potentially leveraging AI – to streamline it. As with the toolkit we built for PDF Accessibility Audits, we didn’t need to be asked to innovate and create efficiency.
• Encouraging Thoughtful Experimentation: Our team members are made to feel comfortable testing new design trends, AI tools, or UX optimizations to push boundaries and elevate our work.

A culture of continuous improvement leads to better products and stronger client relationships.

4. Personalized Client Experience & Relationship Management

High-end restaurants remember their regulars’ preferences—why shouldn’t a digital agency?

• Tracking Client Preferences: Our account managers remember client-specific details, so we can say: “Last time we discussed performance optimizations—are you satisfied with the work we’ve done to address this?”
• Surprise & Delight Moments: Just like a Michelin-starred restaurant might send a complimentary amuse-bouche, we can surprise clients with unexpected value—such as a performance audit, competitor analysis, or UX recommendation beyond their initial request.
• Seamless Client Continuity: Instead of clients having to reintroduce themselves to new team members, we document history and context and carefully plan any personnel transitions so every touchpoint feels seamless.

5. High-Touch Issue Resolution: Service Recovery

Mistakes happen, but how we recover defines us. Just as a Michelin-starred restaurant replaces a subpar dish without hesitation, we must handle issues with grace, transparency, and generosity.

• Inspired by Ritz-Carlton’s Service Recovery Model: If a guest at Ritz-Carlton experiences an issue, employees don’t just apologize—they actively solve the problem and often overdeliver on the fix. At Fueled, when something goes wrong, we take ownership, communicate proactively, and ensure our clients walk away feeling valued and respected. We deliver a formal, templated incident retrospective, so clients not only see a detailed diagnosis and the resolution, but how we will prevent it from recurring.
• Proactive Monitoring & Fixes: If a client encounters a bug, we don’t just fix it—we update them on progress, provide a preventative recommendation, and ensure it won’t happen again. This prevention-first approach has led to a focus on systems and tooling innovation, leading to solutions like Monitor, which proactively scan and monitor website health.

Great service recovery turns frustration into loyalty.

6. Hiring Outstanding Talent & Trusting Their Judgment

Just as top-tier restaurants empower their staff to provide outstanding service, we believe in giving our project teams autonomy to make smart decisions for their customers without undue red tape.

• Autonomous Client Service: Project teams and budgets have the flexibility to fix small client issues without waiting for approval, even if it might ding the budget. If a client needs a minor adjustment to a deliverable, our team handles it without delays.
• Encouraging Creative Problem-Solving: If a client casually mentions a pain point in a meeting, we don’t wait for a formal request—we proactively explore a solution and offer suggestions.
• Inspired by Ritz-Carlton’s Service Model: At Ritz-Carlton, employees are empowered to spend up to $2,000 to resolve guest issues or create wow moments without manager approval. While we may not have a specific dollar figure, our team knows that long term client experience is #1, and are entrusted to use their judgment to delight our clients and solve problems in real time, with confidence that we can figure out the cost implications and use our resources responsibly.

This autonomy fosters a culture of ownership, where our team feels trusted to deliver exceptional service.

Good Service Doesn’t End With Clients: Why We Also Think of Our Staff as Customers

The same way we expect high-touch service from our project teams to clients, we believe that operations, finance, IT, and other internal functions should operate as a Michelin-starred service provider to our staff. Our people are our most valuable asset—as a service business, they are the product and business.

How This Shows Up in Our Culture

• Inspired by Chef Cédric Bourassin’s Leadership Approach: Michelin-starred chefs don’t micromanage—they set high standards for their teams to execute. At Fueled, we provide teams with clear goals and documented standards and guidelines, and then give them autonomy and space to deliver on the larger goals.
• Seamless Internal Support: When someone has an administrative issue—whether it’s a payroll question, a laptop issue, or a contract approval—we don’t just give them a ticket number and send them on their way. We walk them through it, follow up, and ensure the issue is resolved smoothly.
• Trust & Empowerment: Just as we empower our client-facing teams, we trust our internal teams to make decisions that enhance the employee experience. Within the bounds of responsible data and information security (often required by clients) and team safety, we err on the side of setting permissions, processes, and access to tools in the direction of autonomy and efficiency, not restriction.

At Fueled, we combine world-class digital product execution with the same high-touch, anticipatory service you'd expect at a Michelin-starred restaurant. By empowering team members, anticipating client needs, and continuously improving, we create an experience that turns both clients and our team into long-term advocates.