Shep Hyken's Blog, page 145

5 Top Customer Service Articles for the Week of July 2, 2018

Each week I read a number of customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

11 Types of Difficult Customers and Ideas for How to Handle Them (INFOGRAPHIC) by David William

(Small Business Trends) A critical part of running a successful business is managing customers.

My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five articles with a combo article and infographic on different types of “difficult” customers and how to handle them. Suggestions in the form of short bullet points will have you managing these customers’ experiences like a pro.

3 Ways To Rethink Customer Relationships In The Age Of The Consumer by John Hall

(Forbes) I think we can all agree that the world of buying and selling today looks drastically different than it did as little as 10 or 15 years ago. With the advent of the internet and the proliferation of content, consumers are more informed than ever.

My Comment: Here is a list of three ideas that will make you and your company stand out. Number one is my favorite of the three: Don’t just think about the sale. Think about what happens after the sale. Good info that everyone should consider if they want to build a stronger relationship with their customers and give them a better experience.

5 Tips for IT to Better Manage the Customer Experience by BizReport

(BizReport) Customer experience is no longer just a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) strategy for winning and retaining customers. Thanks to “consumerization” – where employees are bringing their often-superior personal-life experiences of services, support, and customer service into the workplace – it’s also increasingly relevant to internal IT service delivery and support.

My Comment: Almost every week I’m asked if our training programs will help IT departments deliver a better internal customer experience. This is obviously an important topic, and these five tips will help any IT department create fans on the inside of the company.

How to Really Hear and Use Customer Feedback by Jason McCann

(Entrepreneur) Listening to criticism pays off big time. Here’s how to identify — and encourage — the customer love that makes brands flourish.

My Comment: Feedback is a gift! When your customers share it, good or bad, embrace it, appreciate it and act on it. This short article has four ways to get and use feedback – ideas that will work for any and every company.

No Joke! The Role of Humor in Customer Experience by Joseph Michelli

(Joseph Michelli) Isn’t it remarkable how things we learn at one point in our life come back to us as welcome gifts later?

My Comment: Customer experience expert Joseph Michelli has a serious message about using humor in customer service situations. He’s a fan of using humor, and in this short article, he will share how and when to use humor in customer service situations. Sometimes, humor is serious business!

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information on The Customer Focus customer service training programs go to www.TheCustomerFocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Guest Blog: Struggling with Bad Customer Service? Top 4 Factors Your Business Needs to Investigate

This week we feature an article by Laura Bourne who shares four important factors that can help you achieve success and avoid customer service problems. – Shep Hyken

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. – Bill Gates

There is no denying that loyal customers are the bread and butter of an organization. Retaining current customer satisfaction while securing more is fundamental to the growth of a business. If customer service is something your company is not strong with, it is imperative that an effective strategy is employed before doing anything else. Research from NewVoiceMedia discovered that approximately $62 billion is lost by U.S businesses each year as a result of bad customer experiences. Make sure that your organization is not the ones losing money. Solve your customer service problems before they exacerbate by looking at the following factors which are possibly attributed to the issues.

Employee Standards

You have likely heard the phrase ‘treat your employees like you want the customer treated,’ well it works. Look at every touchpoint of customer contact in your business. These touchpoints are a representation of the company and should be demonstrating excellent customer service skills. For example, a sales team may be the first point of contact for customers. Without even realizing it, their approach to dealing with customers may be damaging the company’s reputation. If you think this is the case with your business, do something about it. Ensure staff receives additional training, monthly performance reviews and most of all, motivation. If your staff is lacking motivation, it is important to look at why this is happening. Better employee incentives may need to be in place to remedy it.

Business Management System

To provide excellent customer service, you need to decide on an effective management system which keeps your business efficient. For instance, a building maintenance company who deal with customers daily, either online or face-to-face, may find it beneficial to invest in field management software. This kind of cloud-based software typically provides features to help manage your business like job tracking, scheduling and invoicing.

Moreover, it might be that you need to develop your company’s leadership effectiveness. Creating a mentorship program which provides staff with one-to-one coaching to improve their skills. Just remember, implementing a new business management strategy takes time and money. Therefore, ensure to conduct enough research and discussions with colleagues before deciding on one. Once you have found a system which works for you, customers will notice better efficiency with your business and will be impressed.

Social Media Engagement

It is no secret that social media continues to increase in popularity by the day for customer support. In a 2017 report by Conversocial, it was stated that customer service interaction made via Twitter have increased by 250% in the last two years. Knowing this, it is vital to get your business clued up on all social media platforms. If you are already established on social media, look at ways in which you can engage with your customers more. Posting regularly, using videos to promote your brand and responding swiftly to comments/messages are all fantastic ways of utilizing social media. With a dedicated marketing team as well as an improved customer service team, you will see a difference in how people perceive your business.

Nowadays, most people are on-the-go and use portable devices such as mobile phones and tablets to complete tasks. To catch up with modern times, it might be time for your business to make the upgrade to mobile functionality. By having more than one platform for users to access your product or service, this gives flexibility to your customers.

Customer Feedback

Looking at feedback from customers – especially existing ones – is the greatest way of finding the underlying problems. Whether your customer service team need to be quicker when answering queries or customers need regular check-ups with a product/service, finding out what will please your customers is one step closer to a successful business. Of course, the most obvious way of collecting feedback is through customer surveys. Other ways are conducting phone interviews, creating short polls through social media, implementing comment boxes at the end of your website pages and using an emailing system. A rigorous commitment to collecting, organizing and sharing customer feedback will give you a clear view as to how your company can improve its customer service approach.

Hopefully, by following these tips your business can make the necessary changes it needs to improve customer relations. Creating a lasting impression with your customers is vital not only to business success but how your company grows with the modern age and the reputation it builds.

Laura Bourne works as Content Marketing Assistant for Joblogic , one of the UK’s leading providers of service management software. Joblogic provides building maintenance contractors with a logical workflow system that is the top choice for hundreds of service management companies. Laura enjoys writing for business audiences and bringing them advice about the latest trends and new

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Articles:  Customer Service Professionals Gather In Las Vegas For CEX … And Much More

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Three C’s of Customer Service Success

There is an old saying in the real-estate industry: The three keys to success are location, location and location. I have a similar take on the customer service and customer service world. The three keys to customer experience success are consistency, consistency and consistency.

Of course, there is much more to delivering an amazing customer experience, but if there is something that is a non-negotiable to creating customer loyalty, it is a consistent and predictable experience – one that customers can count on every time they do business with you. The entire experience must be consistent. You can’t be great one day and just okay the next. The moment there is inconsistency, you start to lose the customer’s confidence, and ultimately you might lose the customer.

So, let’s talk about the different ways an organization delivers a consistent experience.

The quality of the product or service must be consistent. Whatever the company sells must meet the expectations of the customer, every time. It doesn’t matter how good your customer service is, if the product doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, the customer will find another company that better meets their needs.
The different channels customers interact with you and your organization must be consistent. Today’s customers connect with the companies they do business with in multiple ways. The traditional way a customer communicated with a company was in person or on the phone. Then along came emails, then chat, then chatbots. And, then there are social channels and other messaging apps. This is all part of the digital revolution, and the modern customer expects to have a consistent experience regardless of the channel.
The attitude of the people who work at the company must be consistent. I’m not suggesting that everyone be a clone of each other. It is the positive attitude and the effort the employees make to take care of their customers that must be consistent. It shouldn’t matter if the customer talks to John one day and Jane the next, everyone comes to work with the plan to do their very best, every day. Regardless of who picks up the phone or responds to a message, the customer will always have a good experience.

When customers talk about the consistent company, they will say things like, “They are always so helpful.” Or, something like, “They are always so friendly and knowledgeable.” When they use the word always followed by something positive about the company, you know there is consistency. Delivering a consistent experience creates confidence. Confidence can lead to trust. And, trust leads to potential loyalty.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Amazing Business Radio: Doug Bell

Everybody Deserves a Voice

How does participation create a customer experience culture?

Shep Hyken sits down with Doug Bell, a customer experience consultant and founder and CEO of The Experience Manager, to discuss the benefits of creating a customer experience movement.



Top Takeaways:

A company customer experience movement starts by giving everyone in the company a way to communicate with leadership.
Customer service must start with a dialogue, giving employees a voice that allows them to share how they want to interact with customers. This process gets everyone engaged, ultimately creating a better customer experience. From the top to bottom everyone has an impact on the customer Someone behind the scenes in the warehouse may never see the customer. But, if they don’t package the product properly and it is damaged when it ships, the customer will have a bad experience when the package is received. Even people that have no contact with the customer can have a big impact on the customer
To ensure that employees have a forum to speak to executives about ideas, two things must happen:

Communication must be transparent throughout the entire organization.
Employees should have the ability to share their thoughts anonymously. This allows executives to get the truth to make necessary changes.


There are many ways to begin a customer service initiative. In the beginning, someone must take ownership of the internal customer experience and open up the channels of communication. Employers are tasked with sharing ideas to improve how the company currently operates. Consider using a business social platform that allows employees to share their ideas with the entire company. It creates an open environment ideas are shared in one place. Employees can expand on ideas, share feedback and offer suggestions while executives are able to watch the conversation and learn what employees are thinking.

Quotes:

“From the frontline to the executive boardroom, everyone in the company impacts the customer experience, either directly or indirectly.” – Doug Bell
“The number one thing to start a customer experience movement is to give everyone a voice.” – Doug Bell
“Stirring the pot is what makes innovation happen, It’s what makes business go to the next level.” – Doug Bell
“If you’re sharing ideas with the customers’ best interest in mind, and the company is truly dedicated to a customer-first culture, then there really are no bad ideas.” – Doug Bell

About:

Doug Bell is a customer experience consultant. He is the founder of The Experience Manager, an experience management platform for experience leaders, designers, and producers.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions … and more:

How do you introduce customer service into a company’s culture?
If you don’t directly interact with a customer, how do you impact their experience?
How can you start a customer experience (CX) movement?
How can employees engage with executives?

The post Amazing Business Radio: Doug Bell appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles for the Week of June 25, 2018

Each week I read a number of customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

Keys To Earning Sustained Loyalty From Your Employees by Charle Brown

(Chief Executive) Having strengthened millions of relationships for brands and causes worldwide, we’ve identified five critical steps to achieve the sustained loyalty your business needs.

My Comment: The opening sentence caught my attention: “Companies with a highly engaged workforce outperform those without by 147 percent.” I like that stat! How can you get engaged and loyal employees? This article shares five ways to do so.

Personalization Matters: 12 Ways For Brands To Increase Customer Loyalty by Forbes Agency Council

(Forbes) According to the Center for Retail Management at Northwestern University, up to 15% of a business’s most loyal customers account for 55% to 70% of a company’s total sales. For this reason alone, it is imperative that you make your first impression with a customer count.

My Comment: The concept of “personalization” is hot right now. Our friends at Forbes have shared twelve ways that a business can personalize the experience, which can turn into customer loyalty. Ideas range from the simple to the complicated. There’s something here for any type of business.

Customer experience is ‘tipping point’ for choosing a brand by Marianne Wilson

(Chain Store Age) One bad experience can turn off a customer.

My Comment: Here is a great recap of some of the pertinent facts and stats from Medallia’s “Customer Experience Tipping Point” survey. To start with, 64% of consumers say they have avoided a brand because of a bad experience in the last year. We can’t afford to give our customers a bad experience. Even if you are a B2B enterprise, while the numbers may not be the same, the concept of why customers leave or stay is.

Top 5 European companies with highest customer loyalty by  Fernando Moncada Rivera

(European CEO) European CEO lists the top European companies that consumers love to go back to time and time again.

My Comment: Can you list the top five European companies with the highest customer loyalty? Even if you can’t (I couldn’t), you will recognize all of them. Then you’ll agree, even before reading the summary of each one. What do these companies do to earn such loyalty? Read the article to find out!

Gartner Reveals Three Customer Experience Myths. Says Leaders Are Pulling Away From The Pack by Joseph Brookes

(WHICH-50) Speaking at the Gartner Customer Experience and Technologies Summit in Sydney, Thompson busted three customer experience myths and argued industry leaders are successfully ignoring some of the strategies that have become synonymous with customer experience.

My Comment: “Don’t delight the customer!” Really?! Well, it’s true. Read this article to find out why, along with two other misunderstood ideas that include “Don’t innovate,” and “Don’t correlate data.” The reasons are a bit counter-intuitive, yet worth considering for your customer experience strategy.

BONUS

The Top 10 Customer Experience Keynote Speakers by Blake Morgan

(Blake Morgan) Join the conversation and make customer experience a focus in your organization by bringing in an expert as a keynote speaker for a conference or event.

My Comment: Bake Morgan is a customer experience expert, and this week published an article on her site that lists the “Top Ten” keynote speakers in the area of CX. I’m honored to have been named to her list. (Thank you, Blake!) And, there are other great speakers that are worthy of your consideration at a future event where you might need a speaker.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information on The Customer Focus customer service training programs go to www.TheCustomerFocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Guest Blog: Building Trust with RCS – The Customer Experience Tool You Never Knew You Needed

This week we feature an article by Oisin Lunny who writes about a key to providing top-notch customer experiences, Rich Communication Services (RCS). – Shep Hyken

Technology is a vital part of our daily lives, but it’s notorious for its impersonality when it comes to business-to-consumer (B2C) communications. This reputation stems from the fact that most customer interactions are still driven by business convenience, not what makes things better for the customer. The key to providing top-notch customer experiences comes down to one simple word: empathy – the act of understanding and preempting what makes a customer truly happy.

The need for empathetic customer experience (CX) has been amplified by our collective evolution to a species of Phono Sapiens, where anything that can be done on our ubiquitous mobile devices usually is. Our mobile companions greet us with alarms first thing every morning, stay with us all day, and rest within arm’s reach while most of us are sleeping. This move away from the occasional access model of PCs to the constant access of the mobile means that we view any interactions on our mobile devices as being infinitely more personal. This applies especially to interactions with brands. While consumers are hungry to interact with brands via their mobile devices, many B2C communication channels are losing traction and consumer trust.

Scott Galloway, one of the 50 best business school professors in the world, recently outlined in his talk “Alexa, Do You Dream?” that while trust is eroding as a representation of the value that consumers attach to brands, our mobile phones are one of the last remaining trusted communication channels. He noted, “The place where trust still survives is your (mobile) message inbox. We open every text message.” This hard-won trust is excellent news for the savvy marketer and CX professional.

Scott’s viewpoints on SMS are backed up by recent industry surveys revealing that text messaging is the preferred channel for customers when engaging with businesses because it’s convenient, fast and easy to use. Text messaging has the advantage of unmatched global ubiquity and lightning speed; over five billion consumers currently use text messaging, and 83 percent of millennials open messages within 90 seconds of receiving them. In addition, text gives businesses the power to reach customers in exact moments and precise places while simultaneously delivering hyper-personal, one-to-one interactions on a global scale – what OpenMarket calls “empathetic interactions”. Moreover, the text message is evolving to meet the growing demands of our Phono Sapiens species.

Rich Communication Services (RCS), also known as “Next-Gen SMS” or “Smart Text” empowers businesses to deliver an even richer, interactive CX worthy of the smartphone age. RCS elegantly provides a lot of our favorite app functions such as images, animations, embedded movies, calendar invites, verified sender profiles and much more, but directly into a smartphone’s most used feature, the SMS inbox. The best part of RCS is that once handset makers and mobile networks have enabled it, consumers won’t need to install any apps to have this rich experience, it just works. For example, your airline ticket booking, seat choice, check-in and boarding pass delivery could all happen in your upgraded SMS inbox, and all your airline would need is your phone number and an opt-in to deliver this great experience.

For businesses, RCS opens doors to many CX opportunities. It enables brands to capture engagement data in a much more granular way similar to a mobile app or website, making it much easier to track engagements, understand outcomes and optimize customer journeys. This level of data granularity for text campaigns means that businesses can tailor their messaging specifically to their customers. More importantly, RCS will allow brands to create empathetic interactions throughout the customer journey.

Mobile CX leaders such as ITV, FICO, SKY and Virgin Trains are already trialing RCS, with spectacular results. At Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world’s most important mobile technology conference, Anne Cook from ITV compared the evolution from SMS to RCS as to when “TV moved from black and white to color.” Furthermore, new research from OpenMarket and the GSMA (the mobile industry body behind MWC) found that:

• Nearly 80% of consumers think that RCS is appealing

• Over 70% confirmed that RCS would make them more likely to communicate with a brand

• A significant proportion of consumers like the convenience of having RCS embedded directly into an RCS-enabled phone, with no need to install any additional apps

• 59% of respondents would prefer to have their brand-to-consumer communications through RCS versus additional downloadable apps

• 55% want company promotions and adverts to be as visual and engaging as possible

In my personal experience of demoing RCS, everyone who sees it wants to know how soon they can have it. I’m happy to say that time is now. RCS delivers a top-notch, empathetic experience to consumers by using a communication channel they already know and trust. As is often the case with new technology, we don’t know what we want until we see it and try it ourselves. For CX professionals, RCS is indeed the tool you never knew you needed.

Oisin Lunny is Chief Evangelist at OpenMarket, helping the biggest brands in the world to connect with their customers in the moments when it counts by using Empathetic Interactions.  For more information on RCS, we invite you to sign-up for OpenMarket’s RCS Early Access Program.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Articles:  Walmart To Use Drones In Stores To Provide Better Customer Service

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Five Ways to Disrupt Your Competition with Customer Service

The concept of disruption is interesting. If you ask most business people to name a company that is known for being a disrupter, you’ll hear answers like Amazon, Uber and Walmart.

Walmart disrupted local businesses when they came into a community. Uber disrupted the taxi-cab industry. And, Amazon started out disrupting bookstores and eventually moved on to disrupting the entire retail world.

While the companies just mentioned are household names, you don’t have to be a big company to disrupt. You can be a tiny company. Disruption is not about disrupting an industry. It’s about disrupting your competition. Doing something that is so noticeable that it pulls customers to you. So, here are five ways you can compete – and disrupt – your competition:

Stop comparing yourself to your competitors – This is a big one. Start comparing yourself to the best customer service companies you do business with. Today’s customers know what great customer service looks like. The companies and individuals who deliver amazing service set the benchmark for everyone.
Be amazing on social media – Social media is meant to be social. And, when it comes to customer service, it’s not just about responding to complaints. It’s an extension of your marketing and allows you to connect with your “community. It’s an extension of your marketing. Be appropriately bold and visible.
Respond quickly to every customer inquiry or comment – A quick response time can make a customer say, “Wow!” It shows you care, that you’re paying attention and that you want to do business. A quick response time creates confidence, which is one of the keys to creating customer loyalty.
Embrace technology – There are some awesome technologies out there that allow you to better connect with your customers and provide them a better customer experience. Something as simple as a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) program can help you keep track of your customers, what they have bought in the past and any issues they have had. Chatbots, when used properly can give your customers quick answers to their most common questions. There are many new technologies coming down the pike, but keep in mind the technology needs to make your customers’ lives better – not just yours.
Be Convenient – We’ll wrap up this list with a powerful concept that may be the biggest disruption strategy today. The concept of convenience is the new wave of customer service. There are many ways to be convenient for your customer. Call your customer. Don’t make them call you. Go to your customer. Don’t make them come to you. Have business hours that are focused on your customers’ schedules, not just yours. Make doing business with you easy. All things being equal, the company that is more convenient to do business with, wins.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Amazing Business Radio: Marilyn Suttle

Color Your Customers’ World

How can you create strong customer loyalty while staying inspired?

Shep Hyken is joined by Marilyn Suttle, conference speaker, bestselling author, and coach, to discuss her new book, Color Their World – The Art of Creating Strong Customer Loyalty.



Top Takeaways:

The more automated things become, the more important it is to have strong customer service. Automated features can always go wrong, and when they do, someone has to speak to the customers.
Reinforcement is just as important as training. If an employee does not have the right attitude or behavior, a leader needs to step in and provide feedback. This reinforcement ensures expectations are met.
In a team, if you see someone who is excited about customer service, that excitement becomes infectious. This makes a greater impression than a manager approaching a team with tips or encouragement. Hearing from a peer, even if it is constructive feedback, has a better impact on employees. Finding a top performer to train their peers improves the employee experience, which in turn improves the customer experience.
Suttle’s new book, Color Their World – The Art of Creating Strong Customer Loyalty is not your typical book. It’s actually a coloring book that features a sentence starter on each page. For example, “If my best customers described me, they would likely say _____.” The combination of the two activities, filling in the blank and coloring, creates a unique situation that can improve focus and reduce stress, which helps retention of the answers to these powerful sentence starters. Transparency is key. You must be transparent, honest, and upfront with your customers to build trust. Without that trust, there will be no loyalty. Customers will find someone else if they do not have confidence in your business.

Quotes:

 “When you have a happy customer, that person is six times more likely to choose other things your company does.” – Marilyn Suttle
“Truth builds trust.” – Marilyn Suttle
“Employee engagement leads to customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction leads to higher profits.” – Marilyn Suttle

About:

Marilyn Suttle is a leading authority in service excellence, business and personal relationships, and content marketing. Her latest book, Color Their World – The Art of Creating Strong Customer Loyalty is available now.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions … and more:

How is communication important in a world of automation?
How does training and reinforcement impact employee attitudes and behavior?
What is peer learning and peer training?
What shouldn’t you say to customers?
How can coloring be beneficial to your customer service skills?

The post Amazing Business Radio: Marilyn Suttle appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of June 18, 2018

Each week I read a number of customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

5 Common Customer Service Complaints and How to Fix Them by Swati Kungwani

(Retail Customer Experience) A retail business can never be immune from complaints. If you want customers, complaints are complimentary. Turning these complaints into compliments should be your goal. Customer is the ultimate king. It’s never so easy to please the king because he will never settle for something lesser than superior.

My Comment: While this article has a retail focus, there is something here for every business. This is a good list of what companies do to stand in the way of their customers having an amazing experience. I can sum it up by asking, “What friction do your processes and methods cause your customers?” Once you know the answer(s), you have work to do.

4 Unexpected Tips That Will Make Your Brand Stand Out by Pia Silva

(Forbes) Collected here are four brand tips that are essential to developing a brand that gets noticed, remembered, and shared and doesn’t just blend in with the competition.

My Comment: I love this article. Four tips that will make your brand stand out. It’s simple: You don’t just create a customer experience that’s better. You create one that’s different.

5 Ways to Build Customer Loyalty by Christy Bieber

(The Motley Fool) Your company can model other successful businesses in encouraging customers to become repeat shoppers.

My Comment: Who doesn’t want customer loyalty!? There are many ways to build a relationship with your customers that get them to come back again and again. This short article has five tips, and two or three of them you may not have thought of before. I especially like number four, which is to offer something original – that the customer can’t get anywhere else.

How Good Are Your Customer Relationships, Really? by Troy Harrison

(Industrial Distribution ) Listening to those around me, Southwest has created a lot of loyal customers. How did they do it? Well, here are my thoughts.

My Comment: Do you have the kind of relationship with your customers where they will give you the benefit of the doubt? The author of this excellent article uses Southwest Airlines as an example of a company that has created such a great relationship with their customers (passengers) that they give the airline the benefit of the doubt and “cut them slack” when things go wrong.

How Customer Support Can Adapt to Keep Up with Customer Expectation by Steven Schuler

(MarTech Advisor) As customer expectations evolve and support technology advances, busineses are adapting to the shift. Customer support and service experiences are becoming the differentiating factors when people choose what software to buy and which companies to give business to.

My Comment: Here’s some interesting commentary, especially if you have a dedicated support or contact center. (Even if you don’t you’ll enjoy this article.) Customers’ expectations have changed, and they expect more than they have in the past, especially when it comes to customer support. If you want to meet those expectations, there are trends that you can’t ignore.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information on The Customer Focus customer service training programs go to www.TheCustomerFocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Guest Blog: Customer Support Chatbots – Striking The Right Balance

This week we feature an article by Ayush Chaudhary who writes about the social media customer support experience. Social customer service allows you to take the interactions with your customers to an even higher level. – Shep Hyken

If you’ve not been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard by now numerous projections about how chatbots are destined to take over customer support. In a recent press release, Gartner estimated that “25% of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant or chatbot technology across engagement channels by 2020, up from less than two percent in 2017”. Another study by UK-based Juniper Research estimates that chatbots will help businesses save more than $8 billion per year by 2022. These numbers are staggering. But how exactly does one get onboard with this trend?

Most of us think chatbots are sophisticated, AI-powered self-learning bots that leverage some form of advanced language processing to understand the customer’s intent and find a relevant answer. This category of chatbots sounds promising but is a few years away from mainstream adoption, mainly due to the error rates associated with their performance. In fact, the success rate of bot interactions in the healthcare sector was only 12% according to the same Juniper study. Moreover, the serious technical requirements can lead to apprehensions about the feasibility and effectiveness of such bots at scale.

Things aren’t as bad as they sound though. Chatbots that are designed to follow a specific scripted flow, supported by appropriate interfaces can work wonders for your business. For customer support, this translates to bots that present customers with a list of possible options and which can take specific actions in response to those options. Think of it as a telephonic IVRS analog for customer support. Both Facebook and Twitter support these kinds of interfaces, and of late, both have been actively developing and introducing new features which aid this level of automation. These chatbots find use cases with companies in the form of inbound funneling, requesting standard customer details to be filled out, or even gather feedback via a survey.

As you can see, these bots ensure that your support team members have all the relevant information by the time they jump in to help the customer. They are able to focus on helping your customers rather than spending valuable time on a back-and-forth, asking for information that can be easily automated. This results in response times which are otherwise impossible to achieve and helps drive higher levels of customer loyalty.

Setting up this process for your social media customer support is not trivial, obviously. Chatbots and customer support are two disparate domains. There are existing solutions that can help you create chatbots and then there are solutions that help you manage your social media inbounds. But this can lead to synchronization nightmares as your team members are blinded by the chatbot and vice-versa. What’s really required is a platform like Zelp that can connect both these use-cases.

Given that people today do not hesitate to contact companies over social media, it’s not a matter of if but when you incorporate this into your social media customer support experience. Businesses that truly care about their customers, strive to be leaders, and not followers when it comes to innovation in customer experience. This should be one of your top priorities if you are looking to transform your social media customer experience.

Ayush Chaudhary is the Co-founder at Zelp, which is a consolidated social media platform with inbuilt support for chatbots across Twitter and Facebook.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

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