Shep Hyken's Blog, page 149

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 23, 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.

The Secret To Superior Customer Experience by Denise Lee Yohn

(Forbes) It’s no surprise that greater employee engagement leads to better customer experience (CX).  It makes intuitive sense and data proves the point.

My Comment: I’m a big fan of Denise Lee Yohn. She is a branding expert, and now she shares some insights on creating superior customer experience, which starts with the self-motivation of great employees. Amazing employees typically enjoy the interactions they have with customers, frequently do more than what’s expected, and have a customer-first mindset.

A Checklist for Superior Customer Service by Paul Selby

(CustomerThink) Are you a list maker? I am. I love to make a list. The more lists, the better. And the satisfaction of checking things off those lists? What an amazing feeling.

My Comment: Paul Selby from ServiceNow shares his “checklist” on what he believes will create “superior” customer service. The ten ideas are simple, yet powerful. And, by the way, simple doesn’t always mean easy. When it comes to customer service, simple means clear and easy-to-understand. I’m sure you’ll enjoy Paul’s list.

The Mechanics Of Customer Satisfaction: DMA Study Cites Obstacles And Goals by Ray Schultz 

(MediaPost) Brands are trying to improve their customer experience. But they are hampered by problems ranging from lack of data to siloization, according to “Elevating the Customer Experience,” a study by Winterberry Group presented by the Data & Marketing Association and sponsored by Pitney Bowes.

My Comment: A study by Data & Marketing Association, sponsored by Pitney Bowes, indicates that 96.6% of professionals say elevating the customer experience is a business priority, with 57% call it the top priority. Is your company in that 57%? Another interesting stat: personalization is a big area of opportunity. 80% of customers will leave a brand as a result of a poor personalized CX.  And, there are plenty more stats and facts, as this article is full of them.

AI – Customer Experience Friend Or Foe? by Dave Campbell

(Retail TouchPoints)  Today’s AI is more intelligent, contextual and can understand a customer’s intent to help them get to where they need to be.

My Comment: Is AI a friend to the customer experience (CX), or is it a foe? I’m in the camp that used the right way, AI is a great asset to CX. This short article sheds some light on the power of AI, when used correctly. It gets customers the right information at the right time. It helps ease the incoming requests and questions for agents. And, it helps create a tailored/personalized experience.

3 Ways to Put the Human Element into Customer Experience by Bruce Temkin

(CRM) Recognizing and celebrating our collective humanity is more than a lofty goal—it’s good business.

My Comment: Bruce Temkin is a customer experience guru, so anything he writes, I like to read. With all of the talk about AI, this year’s theme in the CX community, according to Bruce, is the “Year of Humanity.” Almost every conference I attend is talking about the balance between digital and human. In this short article, Bruce gives us plenty to think about on how we can improve humanity as CX professionals.

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: How Online Reviews Fit into the Customer Experience

This week we feature an article by Megan Wenzl who writes about the customer experience and online reviews. Ask your customers to post online reviews. This shows that you have confidence that you will take care of your customers by delivering a great customer service experience and taking care of any problems that may arise – in such a way that will earn you a glowing online review. – Shep Hyken

Customer experience (CX) is being talked about and thrown around in so many boardroom conversations. For good reason: CX has quickly become today’s most important business benchmark, as well as the most important way for firms to achieve success.

As you get started with your CX management strategy, it’s important to understand how online reviews play into this strategy.

Let’s begin by taking a step back and look at customer service (which is part of the customer experience) and online reviews.

Online Reviews and Customer Service

Customer service is the act of taking care of the customer’s needs by providing service and assistance before, during, and after the customer’s requirements are met. It’s part of the entire customer experience.

Customer service can be delivered by the front office executive who checks in the guests upon their arrival at one of your hotel locations. Or the sommelier who educates the diners about wine — and pours a heady glass for them — at your restaurant. Or the voice on the other end of the phone who provides step-by-step instructions for the smart TV owner who has run into a snag after trying to complete a software update.

You may already have customer service staff in your organization, reacting and responding to customers at certain points of contact (hotel check-in, restaurant visit, after-sales phone call, responding to online reviews).

The sum of all these points of contact is the customer experience.

Some define CX as the interactions between a company and a customer over the duration of their relationship. Others view CX as a kind of digital benchmark: the sum of user interactions and points of contact on, say, a business’ website or mobile app or booking platform. Others, still, see CX as an organization’s ability to respond to and solve the questions and problems of customers.

Customer experience is the cumulative impact of all interactions and experiences between your business and the customer, at every touchpoint across the entire customer journey –  and viewed entirely from your customer’s perspective.

What does this mean exactly?

Online reviews help you see your business through customer’s eyes. The idea behind customer experience is that you become truly proactive and intuitive, always seeing through your customers’ eyes and having a better understanding of their needs, wants, and expectations. Online reviews are part of that lens.

The scope of CX isn’t limited to a single point of contact. It encompasses the entire customer journey, through multiple processes, policies, and people.

It can include a customer’s initial awareness or discovery of your product, service, or brand, and it can begin long before the customer makes direct contact or sets foot in your physical business location. This is likely to happen online. According to the 2018 ReviewTrackers Online Reviews Survey, 63.6 percent of consumers report they are likely to check reviews on Google before visiting a business.

Google is the main place where consumers will discover your business.

It’s clear that online review management is just one aspect of the overall customer experience. This means that your customer service and marketing departments — along with the rest of your organization — will benefit from understanding the kind of CX you’re delivering, and from analyzing the entire customer journey from beginning to end.

When your customer service, marketing, and all other departments in your organization understand the customer experience, your company can better meet and exceed customer expectations.

Megan Wenzl is the associate editor for ReviewTrackers, an award-winning customer feedback software that helps businesses measure and transforms the customer experience.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Articles:  Oracle’s Modern Customer Conference Provides Plenty Of Lessons

Getting Customer Support From Companies Will Be Easier In 2018

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Do Loyalty Programs Really Create Loyalty?

Lately, I’ve been asked about loyalty programs. Any company can create a loyalty program. But, there is some confusion around what exactly a loyalty program is. A Wikipedia definition of a loyalty program summed it up well: Loyalty programs are structured marketing strategies designed by merchants to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of businesses associated with each program.

“Structured marketing strategies.” Now, that’s an interesting way of putting it. Anything you do to get a customer to start to do business with you – and gets them to return – could fall under the concept of a marketing strategy. I’m good with that. But, when it comes to a loyalty program, that is going to drive repeat business, there are three types. One is a discount or perks program. Another is a relationship program. The third is a membership program.

A discount or perks program is exactly what it sounds like. When you buy five sandwiches at a restaurant and you get the sixth one free. Or when the airlines give you a free trip or upgrade to first class based on how many miles you’ve accumulated. These programs may drive repeat business, but don’t always create loyalty. If you took the benefits away, would the customer continue to do business with you? The danger here is…

Sometimes customers are loyal to your loyalty program and not your business.

But, then there are other loyalty programs that offer you something quite different than what can be deemed a financial incentive to do business with them.

Nike is a great example of a relationship program. When you sign up for Nike’s program, it’s about content and connection, not discounts. If you are buying running shoes and have identified yourself as a marathon runner, Nike may send you news and videos related to exactly that. You won’t receive content related to basketball. They personalize your Nike experience. Their content educates you, lets you know what new products are coming out and more. They know you, they know what you like, and they make you feel connected. Currently, Nike has over 100 million members in their “loyalty program.”

The third type of program is a membership program, which can also drive repeat business and loyalty. Amazon’s Prime program is the perfect example. I love this program, and I’ve written about it before. You pay for being a member, and once you do, you get access to perks and amenities, such as Prime video content and more. However, your perks don’t get better based on how much you buy. Everyone is treated the same. You are simply part of a membership program that doubles as a loyalty program. After all, if you paid good money to be part of the program you’ll probably want to take advantage of all it has to offer.

Is one type of loyalty program better than the other? I like any loyalty program as long as you recognize what you’re trying to achieve. To me, one of the best perks you can offer any customer is an amazing customer experience that makes them want to come back. Combine that with your “official” loyalty program and the discount and perks are “the icing on the cake.”

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: Patrick Reynolds

Ushering in the Next Evolution of Brand Loyalty and Customer Experience

What does the future of brand loyalty look like?

Shep Hyken sits down with Patrick Reynolds, Chief Marketing Officer for SessionM, to discuss how technology is transforming traditional customer loyalty programs into a dynamic and personalized customer experience.



 

 Top Takeaways:

In the past, it was enough for loyalty programs to offer a “punch card” with a buy-nine-get-one-free approach. Now, the quid pro quo is that in exchange for personal data, the customer receives experiences they might not otherwise. You can’t get keyless hotel entry or automated coffee pickups if you aren’t willing to share your “data,” which many times is just basic information such as an email or phone number.
If you are part of the Nike loyalty program, you won’t get a discount coupon, you get access to content and materials that others don’t. That’s what makes brands so “sticky” and so compelling for so many years. With Nike, if you buy a pair of tennis sneakers, you may receive content that shows how Roger Federer works out on the off season to achieve greatness, which fuses product and content into an experience that you can only get through their loyalty program. It makes customers feel like they’re getting a peek under the tent that they can’t get any other way and makes for extremely compelling content. Another example is the ability to purchase new sneakers in advance of anyone else.
You’re looking to drive incremental behavior, transforming a single purchase into a second and third purchase. If you’re coming into my coffeehouse every day, why would I you a free coffee every other Friday? Don’t give a discount to someone who would otherwise pay full price. Instead, give an offer that rewards that customer for coming in later in the same day when they don’t normally go.
The future of brand loyalty is going to look like everybody interacting with the same brand, but very differently based off their ambitions, purchase behavior, how they want to interact, and so on. It’s like how there is one Netflix, but we all have our own personalized Netflix.
Any loyalty program is a defining opportunity for a business to demonstrate its loyalty to its customers by delivering amazing experiences, not the other way around.

Quotes:

“We’re delivering the kinds of experiences that are actually making consumers behave loyally. They’re coming more and they’re spending more each time.” – Patrick Reynolds

“The whole point is to make every customer feel like Norm from Cheers, where the whole room lights up when they seem him… ‘and everybody knows your name.’” – Patrick Reynolds

“The future of brand loyalty and customer experience is going to look like one brand with a thousand faces.” – Patrick Reynolds

About:

Patrick Reynolds is Chief Marketing Officer at SessionM, and has over two decades of experience in various businesses, media, and creative leadership positions at multiple top-tier advertising agencies.

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 I start a loyalty program?
How do loyalty programs work?
What is a loyalty card program?
How can you earn customer loyalty?
How do you create loyal customers?
What is brand loyalty in business?
How do you increase customer loyalty?

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5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 16, 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.

This Is The One List That Retail Businesses Want To Avoid by Dan Gingiss

(Forbes) Retail signs and displays communicate more about your brand than just what’s on sale. The popular marketing tactic of using “doorbusters,” “endcaps” and other eye-catching displays to drive purchases can be quite successful, but it can also backfire spectacularly when there are unintended mistakes.

My Comment: We start with a fun article by customer experience expert Dan Gingiss who writes about how signs and displays may communicate more about your brand than you might think. It’s like an episode of TV Bloopers but in the retail world. This one will make you smile.

7 Top Tips to Build Trust Faster with Prospects by Susan Friesen

(Business2Community) Our biggest goal as business owners who have an online presence is knowing how to build trust fast with prospects.

My Comment: One of the most powerful customer experiences strategies you can deliver to your customers has nothing to do with customer service. It has to do with trust, which creates confidence and comfort with your customers. It ties to a customer’s emotional side and can be an important reason the customer chooses to do business with you. This short article has seven tips that will help build a confidence-building CX.

8 Tips for Raising Your Customer Service Standards by Bobby Amezaga

(Salesforce) It’s time to review your current customer service standards and see where your service team can improve and make a deeper impact on the customer experience.

My Comment: Do you have customer service standards? What are the “non-negotiable” behaviors and processes that drive a consistent high-level customer experience? If you don’t have them – and even if you do – here is a list of some of the “standards” you may want to consider.

Brands That Use AI To Enhance Marketing (Infographic) 2018 by Karthik Reddy

(16Best) We all know how marketing can enhance sales. However, enhancing marketing requires real skills and creativity. Or does it?

My Comment: Here is a short article and infographic that describes how 16 brands – many of them recognizable – are using AI to fuel their marketing, but also to create a better customer experience. Great examples and I’m sure you’ll be surprised by a few of the ways these brands are embracing AI and technology.

5 Customer Experience Trends to Watch by Dom Nicastro

(CMSWire) Delivering strong customer experiences (CX) ties directly to your bottom line.

My Comment: Are up ready for a scary prediction? Forrester’s recent Predictions 2018 report (a fee is charged) states that customers’ expectations will outpace a company’s ability to “evolve or invent experiences.” Furthermore, this decline in CX performance will “translate to a net loss of a point of growth.” So, what are you doing about this? Start by reading this article on five CX trends that may give you some insight on what you need to do to stay ahead of your customers’ expectations

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: Is Your Contact Center Using the Right Customer Feedback Tool?

This week we feature an article by Jaime Bailey who explains why your company is best served by considering every possible source of insight about customer behavior, goals, and expectations, and implementing the tools that most effectively serve your needs.  – Shep Hyken

As has been widely noted in today’s marketplace, your customers’ opinions and expectations – for good or bad, reasonable or not – are your company’s new benchmark. The reasons we accept these ideas are simple: It’s been proven that keeping a good customer is usually many times cheaper than acquiring a new customer; that your loyal customers help your business grow through their referrals; and finally, in the world where airing grievances is only a few seconds and clicks away, every satisfied customer is one less complaint you have to address publicly.

These reasons are reflected by the CCW Executive Report on Contact Center Priorities for 2018, where increasing the “voice of the customer” strategy is the #3 contact center priority this year. Your company is best served by considering every possible source of insight about customer behavior, goals, and expectations, and implementing the tools that most effectively serve your needs.

Before Soliciting Feedback

It’s important to achieve clarity on your organizational goals from the information gathered. For example, is the goal to improve your customers’ experience, and if so, which facet? Is there a specific product or service that needs an update? Are you wondering which channels should receive the majority of your resources? And finally, once the data is gathered, who’s going to have access to it, and what will they be encouraged to do with it?

Surveys

CCW’s report confirms that the customer feedback survey remains a centerpiece of the “voice of the customer” strategy: 63 percent of respondents call it a priority. The reasons are obvious: surveys help your business understand the emotional and psychological factors that drive customer behavior and affect your metrics.

At its most basic, a survey is any set of questions you ask your customers and invite them to respond. The digital transformation has provided plenty of channels through which to survey: email, IVR, text, outbound voice, and even IM. For best results, tailor the structure and purpose of your surveys to each channel you use, such as:

Short chat surveys can provide feedback on whether the chat experience was helpful, and if not, why not; this information can help refine the data that defines your chatbots.
IVR can quickly and automatically survey your callers who fit a certain profile, ideally using a just few carefully worded questions that can collect effective data through the standard numeric keypad in two minutes or less.
Email is good for soliciting candid feedback from new customers with one or two open-ended questions; however, an individual email is also more personal, so it’s important to respond to these emails and let respondents know they’ve been heard.
Proactive voice outreach is best saved for delving into customer’s thought processes, attitudes, goals, and habits. Hearing their voices also helps make judgments about their satisfaction and emotional state. Since this type of survey is effort-intensive, reserve it for high-potential customers or those with whom the business relationship is well established, and assign outbound survey calls to your agents with the best interpersonal and customer service

Polls

Polls ask one or two questions in a quick format and then provide the response breakdowns to each respondent, making the act of replying a sort of communal game. These are handy for identifying overall trends that can influence business decisions. Polls can be implemented on your website, through social media, and even by text.

Social Media

CCW’s report lists “indirect social commentary” as an important source of intelligence, and 50 percent of respondents plan to make social media monitoring a priority in 2018. As well as active listening and responding to customers on your business pages on sites like Yelp and Facebook, it’s important to proactively use a tool like Google Alerts, which helps monitor your reviews and even provides information on competitors’ feedback.

Agent Input

If the goal is to find out what’s on the minds of your customers, it makes sense to ask those who deal directly with your customers all day, every day. Your agents’ anecdotal evidence can provide insights to drive other feedback tools, so develop an in-house reporting tool they can use at will. Here again, encourage them by demonstrating how their input is affecting their company’s goals.

Observation

Incredibly useful feedback can be gathered by watching your customers interact with your brand — hence, the popularity of customer journey mapping, which was rated #4 on CCW’s priority list for 2018, and predictive analytics, which uses past patterns to predict future actions and needs. Customer journey mapping observes how your customers and prospects flow through your channels, what their goals are, and perhaps most importantly, where their efforts are inadvertently thwarted or bottle-necked. This is actionable feedback that your customers may not be able to articulate.

Take Action

After feedback comes in, don’t rush to judgment. Carefully consider the information gathered and take advantage of opportunities for improvement. Remember that regularly taking positive action after negative feedback is one of the most meaningful ways to guarantee your business’ future success.

Jaime Bailey is the Vice President of Marketing at VHT. With more than 16 years of experience, she stewards a team focused on understanding the customer experience, applying new marketing techniques, and maximizing ROI.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article:  Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Independents: Who’s Disrupting Whom?

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The Difference Between Customer Focus and… NOT

A potential client called for help. His plea was, “We are so NOT customer-focused, and we need to be!” He then shared what may be one of the most crystal-clear examples of the difference between a company that is customer focused and one that isn’t.

By the way, the name of the company has been “changed to protect the innocent,” as they say. We’ll refer to them as Company X.

Two brand new identical buildings were built, side by side. One was a well-known bank. The other was Company X. In front of each building was a parking lot with about 30 spaces, while across the street were much larger parking lots. The parking spaces in front of the bank building had a sign that read: Visitor Parking. The parking spaces in front of Company X’s building didn’t.

The bank employees parked across the street and walked over. Company X’s employees insisted that they get to park close to their building. The first ones there that day got the best spaces.

My client – wow, I’m already referring to him as my client – confided that he wanted the visitors to be able to park in the closer spots without crossing the street, but he said you would have thought I’d taken away their “first-born child.” Obviously, a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

While it’s not that inconvenient to walk across the street from the parking lot to the building, not giving the closer parking spots to customers sends a message – not to the customers, who may or may not notice, but to the employees. The message is linked to the culture and values that employees grow to know and understand about the company they work for. If the employees won’t let their customers park in the spaces most convenient to the entrance, what other “anti-customer” decisions are being made? What other unfriendly processes do they have? And, that’s where our discussion really started to take off.

We had a tough discussion about his people. Some people would embrace and be excited about a new customer-focused culture, although he confided in me that many would not. I shared that the cost of keeping employees who aren’t in alignment with a company’s vision can be financially detrimental to the company. And achieving alignment is a big project. We also talked about the various processes and procedures that could be changed. I could write a small book about that discussion.

Whether you’re customer-focused or not, this exercise is helpful. Identify all the touchpoints your customers have with your people and your organization’s processes. Where is the potential for friction? Is it easy for your customers or not? For example, when they visit your website, are there self-service options available to them? And if those self-service options fail, is there an easy way for them to reach a human? Rate these touchpoints and interactions one of three ways: company focused, customer focused, or neutral. That will give you an idea of whether your policies and procedures are more focused on what’s easiest and best for your company or what’s easiest and best for your customer? If you aren’t focused like a laser on your customers, then you are at risk of losing them to a competitor who is.

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: Lars Kristensen

Use Moments of Magic to Transform Customers Into Superfans
How can you get happy customers to become your greatest marketing tool?

Shep Hyken sits down with Lars Kristensen, founder of NiceJob, to discuss the importance of customer reviews and making them effective marketing tools.



 

 Top Takeaways:

Lars explains how marketing is often based a company’s budget, not the kind of work or product they delivered. With NiceJob, the marketing hub isn’t an overpriced agency, but the individual customer who becomes a vocal fan of the company. This approach increases trust and reach for a fraction of an agency’s cost.
Customers who have a special experience will want to give a glowing review online or share with family friends. After a customer referred a friend, a NiceJob employee found their favorite NFL team on their FB page and ordered them a team jersey. That customer made multiple recommendations since then. Shep emphasizes there’s no need to send branded merchandise, as customers will never forget where a sincere gift came from.
Only 13% of companies ask for feedback. Compared to a referral, Google or Facebook reviews reach every one of the customer’s friends on social media, plus people they’ve never met before. Reviews can refer thousands of people through one awesome review.
Lars explains the best way to ask for a referral is to start by making it personal, not a form email, and to use the customer’s name. Then frame the request to emphasize how a referral will both help the company and their friends and neighbors.
When asked about the best way to ask for a request, Lars explains that customers rarely follow up on a verbal request. Give a verbal head’s up, then contact the customer preferably through mobile since it’s in the customer’s pocket at the point of peak excitement.
Lars says to include specific instructions and the link for leaving a review. The easier you make it, the more likely the customer will follow through. Shep asked if a company should do something with the written review. Lars suggests choosing a powerful review and using it on social media and website along with photo of the customer service experience, which creates social proof. Posts with photos get triple the engagement.
A bad review is an opportunity to show the kind of company you truly are. How you deal with a bad review creates a story you can use over and over. You can transform any negative to really positive review. to win the argument, it’s to win the customer. Instead of making it good again, make it exceptional, and make it public, so others will see what you’re willing to do to make it right.
For his final thought, Lars emphasizes the importance of turning your customers into fans. It’s not enough that you do that great service – you’ve got to take those customers and get them talking.

Quotes:

“If you want to turn your customers into raving fans it’s all going to start with the customer experience.” – Lars Kristensen

“You’ve got this marketing nugget, your customer’s review. This is an amazing piece of content, and you want to use it.” – Lars Kristensen

“Don’t panic about negative reviews. They can open up the doors to some of the best marketing opportunities.” – Lars Kristensen

“Getting your customers to be a little marketing hub for you, that’s the golden ticket.” – Lars Kristensen

About:

Lars Kristensen is the Founder of NiceJob, a marketing service that helps companies improve their public reviews and use them to reach a broader customer base. Kristensen used his marketing agency experience to create a low-budget marketing app that yields big returns.

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:

Why is feedback so important?
What are reviews for?
How do I respond to a negative review?
What are the best review sites?
How do I promote my business online for free?
How do I market on social media?

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5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 9, 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.

3 Ways Amazon Has Raised the Bar on Customer Experience by Joey Coleman

(destinationCRM) Customers across industries now expect a better overall experience thanks to Amazon, and here are a few ways your business can follow their lead.

My Comment: Joey Coleman is one of the leading customer service and CX experts. His brand new book, “Never Lose a Customer Again,” is just out. When he talks – or writes – I pay attention. This is his take on how Amazon has raised the bar on customer service – and how you can too!

Bad Feedback Is the Best Feedback. Are You Listening For It? by Jeannie Walters

(360Connext) Bad feedback from employees and customers alike provides a way to prevent little annoyances from becoming reasons for good people to leave you.

My Comment: Everyone wants customer feedback. Or, do they? Too many companies ask for feedback and then don’t do anything with it. And, how about employee feedback? All the feedback you get should be embraced as an opportunity to improve. And that includes improving your bottom line. Jeannie Walters offers up some excellent insight into the power of feedback.

How Chatbots Can Improve User Experience [Infographic] by Sophia Bernazzani

(HubSpot) If artificial intelligence, or AI, feels like a far-off thing of the future, you might be mistaken: In our research, we found that 63% of people don’t realize they’re already using AI technologies.

My Comment: Chatbots are getting really good. Hubspot’s research found that 63% of people don’t realize they’re using AI technologies. Used the right way, chatbots and AI improve the customer experience. And, this technology is not just for large companies with deep pockets. Even smaller companies can use chatbots to improve their customer experience. This short article and infographic have some interesting ideas on how to effectively use chatbots.

How to Build the Ultimate Loyalty Program Explainer Page (With Examples) by Patrick Trochaniak

(Smile.io) Your explainer page is what convinces your customers to join your loyalty program. Since you want to maximize the number of members in your program, building your explainer page should not be an afterthought.

My Comment: Loyalty programs are designed to drive repeat business and in some cases true loyalty. (Some loyalty programs are more about discounts than actually creating true loyalty. Yet, they all – or at least should – drive repeat business.) This is an excellent article with numerous examples of successful loyalty programs from several different industries.

Net Promoter Score® 101: The Complete Guide by Anna Pogrebniak

(Lumoame) How do you make important or day-to-day consumer decisions in your life? Whom would you consult if you were choosing a hairdresser’s saloon or a new car to buy?

My Comment: We close out this week’s “Top Five” list not with an article, but a comprehensive guide to understanding Net Promoter Score (NPS). I’m a huge fan of NPS as it is one of the easiest and direct ways to get customer feedback. Even if you’re already using NPS, you will pick up an idea or two.

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: How to Keep a Tab on Customer Experience with Continuous Testing

This week we feature an article by Anand Srinivasan who looks at a few ways a business can keep tabs on the customer experience through continuous testing.  – Shep Hyken

Continuous testing is a term that is commonly associated with software development. The objective of this process is to reduce the time it takes for developers to gather user feedback data and use it to tweak the product. This brings down the time it takes to fix bugs and usability issues on the user’s end and thus contributes to a better customer experience. In some ways then, continuous testing can also be looked at as a marketing strategy. In this blog, let us look at a few ways a business can keep a tab on customer experience through continuous testing.

Conversion optimization

A website that does not provide clarity on the product or its pricing tends to frustrate customers who are then more likely to bounce. Conversion rate may thus be a good indicator of how good the visitors’ experience is on your website. Typically, user testing for conversion optimization is only performed during a webpage redesign or product launch. Once the test results confirm the predefined hypothesis, marketers abandon these user tests.

This is a problem because customer experience and conversions are impacted by dozens of different parameters that may not be summed up in a handful of hypothesis. Instead of investing in testing specific hypothesis using A/B or multivariate testing tools, it is a good idea to instead invest in tools that offer session recording of real users. This way, it is possible to build a database of user journeys that may be tested on dozens of hypothesis. Optimizing for conversion can thus become a process of continuous testing.

Randomized experience assessment

While visitor session recordings help test customer experience on a continuous basis, they may not always provide objective assessments of bounces. For instance, if a visitor abandons the checkout process midway, a session recording may not tell you if they quit because of the high shipping charges or if it was because the user could not find the product in their favorite color. Randomized experience assessment studies help reach out to customers during their buying journey to understand their thought process. Disney Store uses a tool that pops out a short survey once in a while during the buying process to understand the customer’s thoughts. This, combined with digital replays of the user’s navigation should provide insights into the dozens of factors that go into a successful customer transaction that may have been ignored in a binary A/B testing process.

NPS tracking

The Net Promoter Score is a metric that measures the average likelihood for a customer to refer your business to their friend or family. NPS is one of the most effective continuous customer experience monitoring systems available. The NPS is usually tracked at the end of a buying process or immediately after the customer has completed an engagement with your support staff and is usually plotted as a chart to monitor customer experience over a period of time.

Omni-channel assessment

A customer journey is not a single continuous process. It could involve several interactions across multiple devices like print, desktop and mobile phones. Monitoring customer experience over one session may thus fail to provide the marketer with all the information that they need to assess the true experience being delivered. An Accenture report calls for a 7P strategy that begins with ‘Presence’ across all channels that a prospective customer is available on and then persisting and personalizing the experience over each of these different channels. By bringing together the experience of a unique customer across multiple channels and form factors, it is possible to establish a continuous experience monitoring system that spans throughout the customer’s journey.

Customer experience is a subjective term that is measured with objective parameters like NPS scores or conversion rate. While such metrics may not always be accurate in determining experience, they do provide a general trend when measured on a continuous basis. From a marketer’s perspective, this can be critical and is something that every business must monitor.

Anand Srinivasan is the founder of Hubbion, a free to use project management app for SMBs. Hubbion has been ranked among the top 20 collaboration apps by Capterra.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article:  Your Best Opportunity For Growing Business: The Customer Experience

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