Shep Hyken's Blog, page 150

Are You Keeping Up with Your Customers?

I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you no longer have to keep up with your competition; the bad news is that now you have to keep up with your customer – meaning your customer’s expectation of the service that makes you competitive.

Perhaps you just heard that your competitor is working hard to take away business from you – maybe they’re announcing a new product; maybe they’re advertising a major sale; maybe they’re opening a new location. Will any of these decisions cause your customers to leave you to do business with them?

Perhaps. After all, that is their goal. But what if you heard that your competition wasn’t competing with you on product, price, or location? What if you hear that they’re implementing a new customer service initiative? Their goal, you heard, is to have the best customer service in the industry.

Here’s my take: good for them. Let them go head-to-head with customer service and experience expectations based on the existing industry standards. I have a better idea: don’t let them set your bar. Let the best of the best, regardless of industry standards, set your bar.

What company do you think has the very best customer service? Is it Nordstrom, Apple, or Zappos? Is it the restaurant down the street that knows you by name and makes you feel like a guest in their home? Is it the inside sales rep from one of your suppliers who somehow always accommodates your deadlines and special requests, and always does so with an amazing attitude?

None of these companies or people may be in your industry, but they can be your benchmark for amazing customer service – service that is not based on customer expectations for your industry, but expectations from the best people and companies they’ve ever encountered.

Let me give you this message in a short, 11-word sentence:

The best customer service sets the bar for all customer service.

Customers know what good service is and their expectations today are formed by whoever gives them their best service experience, whether in or out of your industry.

So, back to the questions … What company do you think delivers the best service? Is it one of the iconic brands previously mentioned, or that local company? What is it that this business or person does to make you think they are the best? And, here is the more important question:

What do they do that you don’t do that you can do?

That’s where you start. Maybe it’s something you can copy although my suggestion is not to copy but to adopt and adapt. Adopt the strategy, but change or tweak it to make it uniquely yours. If you’re open to the best customer service practices from every industry, then you will spot trends and strategies before your competition. At that point, keeping up with your customers will be nothing but good news for your bottom line.

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

The post Are You Keeping Up with Your Customers? appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Amazing Business Radio: Peter Ivanov

Could You Benefit from Virtual Power Teams?
What could virtual power teams do for you?

Shep Hyken sits down with Peter Ivanov, author of Virtual Power Teams, and discusses the benefits of teams that are spread across the globe but joined by one central focus.



 

 Top Takeaways:

A virtual power team is a team that has a strong gravity, a group of people bound by one central purpose, working together toward one central goal.
There are three groups of people who can benefit from virtual power teams:

The team members – This option allows employees to not have to relocate because of a project. They can work from wherever they like.
The manager – He or she is given access to the best experts in his or her given field. The manager is not bound by one location to find the best team members.
The organization – The organization can get outstanding results because it is able to have a hand in every market worldwide, because of team members working from all over the globe.


10 key success factors for retaining the gravity in a virtual power team:

Personality and focus
Strength metrics
Interdependent goals
Structured communications
Knowledge management
Regular feedback
Recognition
Diversity
Winning spirit
Next generation leaders



Quotes:

“In a Virtual Power Team – Everyone shines like a Star!” – Peter Ivanov

“Virtual team is like an atom where the team members are the particles and the nucleus is the purpose of the team.” – Peter Ivanov

“Outstanding performance deserves outstanding rewards. ” – Peter Ivanov

“Virtual Power Teams enable collaboration and structured communication in remote Teams!” – Peter Ivanov

About:

Peter Ivanov is an internationally sought-after keynote speaker, business consultant, executive coach, and author. He has led virtual teams of 100+ people spread across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. 

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:

What is a virtual power team?
What are the benefits of virtual power teams?
What are the benefits of telecommuting?
How can I implement virtual power teams?  

The post Amazing Business Radio: Peter Ivanov appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 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.

Three Important Considerations for Customer Service Surveys by Paul Selby

(CustomerThink) A lot has been written on performing customer service or customer satisfaction surveys. I would like to offer just a few best practices to consider based on my own experience being on both sides of the survey.

My Comment: Here’s a short, but excellent, article on the right way to do a customer survey – at the right time, the right length, the right questions, and how to use the results.

Sales & Happy People, Guaranteed: Customer Support That Works by Lightricks

(Medium) Ever been put on hold for three hours? Forced to listen to fake-happy ‘customer care’ puppets reading from scripts? The dissatisfaction you’ll be left with goes both ways: the cost of disappointed customers is high for companies, too.

My Comment: Do you want more sales? Do you want happier customers? (Yes and yes!) Then, take a minute or two to read this short article with some basic, yet important, tips to deliver authentic customer support. Customers want empathy, honesty and more.

Customer service could start living up to its name by The Economist

(The Economist) “YOUR CALL IS important to us,” a recorded voice tells resigned customers as they wait endlessly to speak to a human agent. AI is starting to help companies improve the quality and consistency of their service in order to persuade customers that they do in fact care about them.

My Comment: Here is a bold statement: AI will change customer service as much as the telephone did in its day. As you think about some of your past experiences where AI chatbots stand between you and a support rep, you may be skeptical of this statement, but what’s coming will change your mind. AI is getting better at what it does. It will be beneficial to both customers and the companies that implement a good AI system. This article will give you more insight into how AI will make customer service better.

Mirroring is good in customer service; disappearing isn’t by Susan Lahey

(Relate by Zendesk) Customer service is weird. For a certain number of hours a day, customer service agents are expected to let other people’s needs supersede their own. It’s a level of hospitality that, outside of the workplace, might lead one to be labeled “codependent” or “a doormat.”

My Comment: The concept of mirroring your customer is interesting. If not done well, it comes off as fake and patronizing. If you have direct interactions with your customers, you might enjoy some of the ideas and techniques shared in this article.

Why Self-Service is the Future of Customer Support by Kaan Ersun

(Solvvy) Customer support has become an area of fierce competition among companies, and there’s evidence that the competition is only heating up.

My Comment: Self-service support is becoming more and more popular with customers who want their questions answered quickly. Companies are getting smart about creating robust answers that can easily be found by customers seeking help. Companies that implement a good self-service solution save money, time, free their support people up for higher level issues, and most important, create a better experience for their customers.

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

The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 2, 2018 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

How to Turn Social Media Customer Service into a Marketing Strategy

Earlier this month I attended Social Media Marketing World, the largest conference on social media marketing in the world. Over the last few years, customer service has shifted from traditional phone support toward social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others. Dan Gingiss started the Social Customer Care Track and interest has grown exponentially. The room I spoke in this year was three times larger than last year’s room, and we packed the house.

Social Media Changes Customer Service

Customers have a louder voice than ever before. The 1979 study by the Technical Assistance Research Program, commissioned by the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, found that a complaining customer might tell 8-12 people about a negative experience they had with a business. Happy customers tell an average of 6. However, because of social media, those numbers have dramatically changed. A positive or negative experience shared on social media can garner thousands of views. Even millions!

A great example of a positive customer service experience reaching a broad audience is the story of Joshie, a beloved stuffed animal that a young guest left at the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island. The father of the child who left Joshie behind shared their experience in a blog post. Since then, the story has been retold and shared by many others and has gone “viral.”

One of the best examples of a complaint that went viral was Dave Carroll’s YouTube video about when United Airlines broke his guitar. When United refused to fix or replace the broken guitar, Carroll wrote a song about the experience (as any good musician might do), turned it into a video, and posted it on YouTube for all the world to see. At the time of this article, he’s had almost 18 million views.

Good and bad experiences handled the right way, make social customer care far more important than basic customer service. It blurs the lines between customer service, marketing, and even sales.

Social Proof

Scientific data validate the importance and power of social media customer service.

According to Bain and Company, research from 2011 indicates that when brands engage or respond to customer requests over social media, those customers spend 20-40% more on average. A more recent study from by Twitter that appeared this year in the Harvard Business Review found that a response to a complaining customer – even if it’s not the response the customer may want to hear – significantly improves the odds that they will not only come back but also spend more on your products or services.

SocialSprout’s research claims that 89% of social media messages from brands go ignored. Other studies found similar results. Some claim this number seems high, but even if it was half that – or even a quarter– the number is still too high.

According to Groove, “failure to respond to customer complaints or questions on social media can lead to a 15% increase in churn.” Can any business afford to lose customers at this rate?!

Two Choices in Social Customer Care: Reactive and Proactive

Many companies I work with have the social care concept wrong. Their version of social customer care is to monitor popular review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor, as well as channels like Twitter and Facebook, and react to complaints and questions. That’s a good start, but there are so many more opportunities. The best companies not only respond to complaints and answer questions, they thank customers and comment on positive reviews. And the companies who do it best go beyond just reacting to what customers post – they proactively interact with their community of customers.

Reactive Social Customer Service

The traditional way customers reached out to a company for help was via telephone. They still do, but a growing number are turning to social media channels as their first choice. Many customers post a question or problem not as a rant, but as a basic cry for help. But that isn’t always the case. When customers leave a scathing review on Facebook or send a nasty tweet, it is often because the first effort, whether on the phone, through social media, or even in person, was not handled to the customer’s satisfaction. Regardless of the reason, responding the right way can springboard your customer service reputation. The world can see how you respond in real time. My friend and colleague, Jay Baer says, “Social media turns customer service into a spectator sport.” When your customer makes a “public complaint,” the world is watching to see how you respond. A well-handled problem can be your best PR opportunity; mismanaged, it becomes a PR nightmare.

Speed Counts

Reaction time is important. The time that it takes a company to respond is crucial to take advantage of this PR opportunity. A few years back, I wrote about the Eptica study that evaluated 500 US retailers’ ability to respond to customers. The average amount of time it takes for many of these companies to reply was, to say the least, disappointing. For email, the average response time was 7 hours and 51 minutes. For Facebook, the average response time was 1 day, 3 hours, and 7 minutes. For Twitter, the average response time was 1 day, 7 hours and 12 minutes.

Numerous other studies validate these numbers and, in some cases, found even worse statistics. Simply put: nobody wants to wait nearly eight hours for a response to their complaint in the lightning-fast world of social media.

Regardless of social media channel, reaction time is paramount. Social Bakers released a study that found the average wait time on social media is nine hours. American Express Global Customer Service Barometer indicates that 25% of customers who complain on social media expect a response in less than an hour.

I was on a flight back to St. Louis with a short layover in Dallas. As we were approaching the Dallas airport, the Captain announced there was bad weather and we would be circling the airport until it was safe to land. Using the airplane’s internet, I checked to see if I would make my connection. Unfortunately, the delay was going to mean I’d miss my flight. So, I went on Twitter and direct messaged American Airlines that I was going to miss the flight. Within minutes, they responded that I was now protected on the next flight. That’s the way social customer care should be handled. Their response time was excellent. It wasn’t their fault the bad weather caused a delay, but they stepped up and seized the opportunity to make a passenger happy. By the way, I “went social” and tweeted about the great way AA handled my problem.

Stay on the Same Channel

If a customer starts on Twitter, stay on Twitter. The only channel to consider switching to the is the phone. In my American Airline example above, they didn’t ask me to switch to Facebook. It started and ended on Twitter.

Finish Strong

Regardless of how upset a customer is, once the problem is resolved, circle back to the original post and leave a comment thanking the customer for bringing the problem to your attention and for giving you the opportunity to make it right. In a perfect world, the customer will come back and acknowledge that you took care of them.

The Opposite of Reactive is Proactive

Being proactive with comments, content, and engagement is giving your customers a great customer experience. Here are ten ways to proactively deliver a better social media customer experience.

Push Value-Added Content : A good content marketing campaign is one of the strongest ways to deliver a better customer experience. It’s not about asking for business, it’s about delivering value and contributing to the overall customer experience. For example, a company could share relevant research or a white paper; a hardware store can create how-to videos on the most common household repairs and projects; a restaurant can share a popular recipe or even hold a recipe contest and invite customers to participate. When customers enjoy your content, it can become part of your self-service customer care solution, which we’ll cover in just a bit.
Scale Important Messages : Use multiple channels and devices (e.g., emails, texts, tweets, Facebook posts, robo-calls) to get important messages out. Last year, there were at least two major airlines with computer outages that stranded thousands of passengers. Frequent and regular messaging would have given passengers information they wanted and needed. In addition, employees of the airlines would possess the information and answers to passengers’ questions and would have answered them consistently.
An App Creates Interactive Engagement with the Brand: Consider developing an app. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It can include information about new products, better ways to use products, relevant articles, and more. For example, Starbucks has an app that drives their loyalty program by rewarding frequent visits and giving incentives for customers to come back more often. It’s very sophisticated and was very expensive to develop. But you don’t have to spend a lot of money. App developers like GoodBarber provide templates for inexpensive apps that are easy to create with no coding or programming. (Check out my app by going to the app store on your Apple or Android device to see an example of an inexpensive, yet effective app.)
YouTube is an Amazing Social Media Tool : Video content is one of the best ways to deliver amazing value to your customers. Create content that interests your customers and compels them to comment. This allows you to respond and start conversations. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on production. These are YouTube videos, not theatrical releases. Reasonable video quality is important, but sound quality is critical. Make sure they are easy to hear and understand and include captions for the hearing impaired or viewers who can’t listen while they watch.
Self-Service is a Strong Option : Socializing customer service is a perfect way to bring self-service solutions to your customers. Plus, self-service is available 24/7. You can have an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website. Also, YouTube may be one of your most powerful self-service solutions. Companies sometimes have hundreds of videos on their YouTube channel. For example, if you use Salesforce and have a question, just search it on YouTube. You’ll find great videos produced by Salesforce – as well as some by their customers – that will give detailed instructions. My favorite example is when I bought my daughter a ping pong table. The instructions were hard to understand (they were in German), so I just typed the manufacturer name and model number into the search bar and within seconds I was watching a video that showed me how to put the table together step by step.
Create LinkedIn and Facebook Groups : These groups are the perfect places for customers to hang out and answer other customers’ questions. And if an unhappy or angry customer shows up, your happy customers (who I like to refer to as customer evangelists) will come to your rescue.
Dealing with Negative Social Media Posts : Everyone is worried about receiving negative reviews. Proactively monitor the internet for any mentions of your company and then respond respectfully. Beyond social media channels, there are other review sites to monitor as well. While TripAdvisor and Yelp are two of the most popular review sites, almost every industry has a forum where customers can talk about the companies they do business with. A negative review is upsetting, but again, it’s an opportunity to turn a rant into a rave by showing how you step up and take care of the customer. A few thoughts to consider when it comes to negative reviews:


Speed counts! When in reaction mode, be proactive about monitoring the internet so you can respond quickly.
Acknowledge the complaint and apologize for it.
Let the customer know you want to help and ask to get into direct contact to work on a solution. Even if the customer doesn’t respond, anyone watching will see that you made an attempt to right what the customer thinks is wrong.
Once in DM mode, work out the solution. You may have to move the “conversation” to the phone. That’s fine, as it may give you the chance to resolve the issue much faster.
Once the issue is resolved, go back to the original post and thank the customer for allowing you to resolve the issue.
As mentioned earlier in the article, the best outcome is to have the customer come back and acknowledge the resolution.
If the customer gets hostile, emphasize that you’d like to reach out directly to work out the solution, but don’t engage in a public argument.
Remember: you don’t want to win the argument, you want to win the customer.
A perfect average review score can sometimes seem too good to be true. Northwestern University did a study that showed a rating between 4.2 and 4.5 (on a scale of one to five, with five being best) was found to be the most credible and authentic.


Have Fun : Sometimes you can interact with customers using humor. Humor done well can endear your brand to customers and go viral. One of my favorite examples is when Clayton Hove tweeted to SmartCar USA.

Couldn’t have been one bird, @adtothebone. Sounds more like 4.5 million. (Seriously, we did the math.) pic.twitter.com/aLYScFR3

— Official smart USA (@smartcarusa) June 19, 2012

Use Social Complaints, Questions, and Reviews for Research: Comments on social media can be your best research and development. Real-time customer feedback tells you what customers love, hate, and more. The complaint you hear over and over again needs to be fixed. We work with our clients to recognize the top three problems customers complain about. One of my favorite questions to ask is, “Since you know this is the top complaint, why is it still the top complaint?” We drill down to understand what drives the complaint and then how to eliminate it, or at least mitigate it. Social media gives customers the voice a company is looking for to understand what’s working and what’s not with their product and services. It’s a giant focus group or research project. Embrace the complaint and see it as an opportunity to show how well you respond and how you can improve your products.
Be Real: Your responses should be personal and real. Use the customer’s name; be specific about what’s being addressed; don’t send a canned response that you’ve used a dozen times that week – customers recognize “fake” sincerity. With AI and chatbots becoming popular, it’s easy to come across as impersonal and diminish the relationship.

It takes both reactive and proactive social customer service interactions to move you and your organization toward social care excellence. The magic is in the mix. In most business relationships, be it business-to-business or business-to-customer, people want to do work with people they know, like, and trust. The knowing and liking is easy, but trust must be earned. Traditionally, people received support in person or over the phone. In today’s social media landscape, trust is earned through communication on more than one channel. It’s in the cloud or cyberspace. It’s a faceless representative who engages with the customer through social media channels to support, build trust, and even save a relationship. So respond, react, engage, and interact, and you’ll experience more appreciation and loyalty – plus higher ratings – from your customers.

Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE is the Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author and a hall-of-fame speaker. For information on The Customer Focus customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

The post How to Turn Social Media Customer Service into a Marketing Strategy appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: Key KPIs You Must Monitor for an Optimal Customer Experience

This week we feature an article by Julien Rio who writes about the most common KPIs and how to understand them, select the right ones and how to improve them.  – Shep Hyken

Depending on whether your Customer Care department is an extension of your marketing or your customer service strategy, the KPIs you give yourself may be different. In this article, we will review the most common KPIs, how to understand them, how to select the right ones and how to improve them.

CSAT

Type: Customer Centric

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) is the most common KPI companies track when it comes to Customer Care. Using a simple survey sent to customers/visitors after each conversation, you are able to analyze the level of satisfaction.

Unfortunately, a few elements make this approach quite unreliable. First of all, depending on the length of your survey (using a smiley or star system or a more complete question/answer survey), you would get different results. The trigger for sending such questionnaire also matters: is it sent to every person you had a conversation with or to a specific sample? You may also keep in mind that dissatisfied customers tend to share their feedback more easily than satisfied ones.

Overall, CSAT is something you must track consistently (using always the same method) to have results that can be compared and evaluated over time. The possible variations in companies approaches make it impossible to compare with your competitors but also make it an essential KPI to monitor internally to analyze your evolution.

NPS

Type: Customer Centric

Originally used by marketers, the Net Promoter Score is another very common KPI used by Customer Care departments. Knowing that referral usually is the best yet most uncontrollable vector of sales, the NPS calculates the probability that a customer would recommend your brand. The calculation is fairly simple: after asking people whether they would recommend you with a 10 points scale, you divide answers into three categories: 0-6 (detractors), 7-8 (passives) and 9-10 (promoters). You then take the percentage of promoters and deduct the percentage of detractors: that is your NPS.

As is, the NPS doesn’t tell you anything. It is hardly comparable with your competitors as the method varies (who do you ask too? At what stage of their journey?) and, while your CSAT is mostly focused on the experience with an agent, the NPS covers the entire customer experience, beyond the borders of your Customer Care department.

Nonetheless, similarly to CSAT, the NPS is a great indicator of your progress over time and an important one to track.

First Response Time

Type: Performance Centric

Speed is always a major component of customer satisfaction. No one likes to wait. Being able to respond quickly is always a good start to a positive conversation. But beyond customer satisfaction, your FRT is an important KPI of productivity and performance.

A high FRT is usually the reflection of a long backlog or a poor message allocation: messages are coming faster than you can treat them, they accumulate, and the delay in responses increases over time.

Monitoring your First Response Time and keeping it low and steady is the first brick of an efficient customer care. When this indicator increases, your first reaction must be to find the bottleneck: is there an unexpected peak of traffic? Is my team overwhelmed or understaffed? Are messages allocated to the right agents?

The best way to smoothe your customer relationships is to set expectations: let people know when they can expect to hear from you, and always over-deliver.

Average Handling Time

Type: Performance Centric

The AHT is an essential KPI since it gives you a great indication of the cost attached to each customer interaction. A lower Average Handling Time means more satisfied customers, more productive agents and a lower cost per interactions.

There are various levers you can pull to control this KPI: allocating messages efficiently to the right agent to avoid unnecessary transfers, providing your team with templates to reduce their workload, offering them regular training on customer care, products and offers, giving them authority to solve issues without having to refer to multiple supervisors, etc.

Reducing or controlling your AHT is vital since it will directly impact your customer satisfaction but also the size of your backlog and the cost of each interaction.

Employee retention

Type: Management Centric

“It is cheaper to retain a customer than acquire a new one” – what is true for customers is even more relevant for employees. Beyond the cost of recruitment alone, there are other aspects making employee retention an essential KPI: adaptation time (period during which the new agent isn’t productive yet), cost of training, difficulties to manage always-changing teams, etc.

Customer Care departments in general and Call Centers, in particular, are famous for having high employees’ turnover. The job is hard, the pay is low, there is often a lack of recognition and some tasks can be extremely repetitive.

Monitoring your Employee Retention is a great way to improve other KPIs by investing in your team. There are a few levers you can play with to improve this KPI: giving more autonomy and authority to individual employees, removing them from redundant tasks and giving them more interesting problems to solve, providing them with tools that make their lives easier and their jobs more interesting, “gamifying” their daily tasks, etc.

FCR

Type: Global

First Contact Resolution is my favorite KPI as this one impacts every other. Your FCR represents your ability to solve your customer’s problem in a single conversation, without dragging the issue over time.

When your FCR decreases, every other KPI improves: customers are more satisfied since they do not need to contact you multiple times, volume of incoming messages, workload and backlog decrease since customers contact you only once, First Response Time decreases in consequence of the reduction of workload and Employee Retention increases because of less redundant tasks and more satisfying conversations with customers. Ultimately, increasing your FCR improves all aspects of Customer Care and help you reduce costs.

To impact your FCR, you may need to train your team towards the single objective of “solving customers issues.” The goal is no longer to open & close as many “tickets” as possible, but truly to solve your customer’s problems and satisfy them within the first interaction. The extra handling time involved is quickly absorbed by the reduction of the number of incoming messages.

An increase of 1% of your FCR shall increase customer satisfaction by 1%, your cross-selling acceptation rate by 20%, your employee satisfaction by 1 to 5% and reduce your operating cost by 1%.

Once you have defined the right KPIs for your Customer Care strategy, set up a consistent method for analyzing them and monitor your progression over time. The next step is to identify the various levers you can act on to improve these indicators and fine tune your strategy.

Entrepreneur specialized in web marketing, Julien Rio has been developing online platforms and strategies for numerous companies across Europe and Asia for the since 2007. Passionate about Digital Customer Care, Julien leads the marketing effort at Dimelo and helps companies all around the world get closer to their customers.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article: IBM CEO Shares How Companies Large And Small Can Put Smart To Work

 

The post Guest Blog: Key KPIs You Must Monitor for an Optimal Customer Experience appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Which Department Handles Customer Experience? All of Them.

Loyalty can be measured and it can be monetized. The sales & marketing departments may get customers in the door. Why not have a loyalty department that will keep them coming back through the door?

— Shep Hyken (@Hyken) March 17, 2018

That’s a tweet I posted based on an article I wrote not that long ago. Ian Spindley (@IanSpindley) responded with the following comment:

As far as you know, has #industry always called it sales & #marketing (just because it flows/sounds better)? To me, it makes no logical sense – Marketing (positioning), #Communication (mainly #promotion/conversation), then #Sales (conversion). . .then #loyalty to retain converts?

— Ian Spindley #FBPE (@IanSpindley) March 17, 2018

What Ian is saying is that there are different departments working on the customer’s journey. From marketing, which positions the company in the marketplace, to communications, which pushes the message out further, to sales, which is the official name we’ve given to the process of the point where the customer buys. And then, once they are a customer, we try to get them to come back, moving them from one-time buyers to repeat buyers.

My original post was about creating a special department or team that focuses on creating loyalty from the casual or one-time buyer. I still believe that’s an effort worth investing in. But, Ian’s response warranted a response:

How about this… Do such a good job that your customers wouldn’t want to go anywhere else… and will tell everyone how good you are. That’s marketing, communication, sales, and loyalty all rolled into one… customer service!

— Shep Hyken (@Hyken) March 17, 2018

Customer experience is the job of all these departments and more. It’s everything that a company does that touches the customer or causes the customer to think about anything related to the company. And, when everyone does their job – when everyone understands their role as it applies to CX – then the customer does what all of us hope they will do: come back and talk about us.

I always think back to what my friend Tom Baldwin, former chairman, CEO and president of Morton’s The Steakhouse, shared with me years ago about Morton’s customer service and CX strategy. He said their best marketing and sales strategy didn’t come from a department at the headquarters. It all was on the front line, where employees interact with and serve their guests. His philosophy was simple and profound: if the employees did a great job serving great steaks with exceptional customer service, customers tell others and come back. He believed that rather than investing in traditional advertising, instead, he would invest in people.

In short, your best marketing, communication, sales, and loyalty strategies, when working well, can all be thought of as one big customer experience!

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

The post Which Department Handles Customer Experience? All of Them. appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Amazing Business Radio: Joey Coleman

Stop Losing Customers, Start Creating Loyalty
How can accountability create Moments of Magic®?

Shep Hyken sits down with Joey Coleman to discuss how to “Never Lose a Customer,” which happens to be the title of his amazing book. Transform a single sale into a lifetime of loyalty.



 

 Top Takeaways:

Joey’s greatest insight is that regardless of the industry, somewhere between 20% and 70% of new customers will quit doing business with you before reaching the 100-day anniversary of becoming a customer
Brain science tells us when we make a purchase, our brain floods with dopamine because we’ve made a decision that we believe is going to solve our problems, answer our prayers, be the product of our dreams, and be the service we’ve always hoped for. When the dopamine recedes, those feelings of joy and euphoria and excitement are replaced with feelings of fear, doubt and uncertainty. This is what we call buyer’s remorse.
Joey Coleman’s eight phases of the customer journey:

1. Assess – When customer decides whether to do business with you or not. Your job is to preview the experience of being a customer.

2. Admit – When customer raises hand and admits they have a problem or need your business can solve. This is when the clock starts ticking.

3. Affirm – There’s a gap between purchase and when they experience your product or service. The gap is so great between the euphoria or purchase and the creeping doubt immediately following that you must immediately address it.

4. Activate – Energize the interaction with the customer to let the customer know that doing business with you is unlike any business experience they’ve had before, whether an amazing unboxing experience or a kickoff meeting. Sets the tone going forward.

5. Acclimate – Hold the customer’s hand and get them used to doing business with your company. Directions in the box don’t count. Do you read the directions before you use a new product? Do you read every contract? Statistically you don’t.

6. Accomplish – When customer achieves the goal they had when they originally decided to do business with you. Most businesses don’t take the time to ask what the actual goal is. Don’t sell a shirt without asking what it’s for? If you know the intention, you can track whether the customer achieves that and remind them that’s their goal.

7. Adopt – When customer says “I’m loyal to you and I’m taking responsibility for the relationship. I achieved my goal, I want to give you more of my business.” These are the loyal fans every customer is hoping for.

8. Advocate – When your fans become raving fans and referral sources, telling everyone they know to do business with you.

Quotes:

“All the research shows, somewhere between 20% and 70% of your new customers will decide to quit doing business with you before the 100-day anniversary.” – Joey Coleman

“Most businesses don’t even know what their defection rate is and when they lift up the hood they realize they’re hemorrhaging customers.” – Joey Coleman

“You spend all this time, money, and effort driving people to your door and they’re running out the back door as quickly as you get them in the front.” – Joey Coleman

“Don’t ask for feedback too soon. It’s like going on a first date and asking to meet the parents.” – Joey Coleman

About:

Joey Coleman is an award-winning speaker at both national and international conferences, and author of “Never Lose a Customer.” A former criminal defense attorney, Joey has offered counsel and advice to small start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike, and he’s an expert on developing customer retention strategies.

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 can I improve customer retention?
How do you retain a client?
What is customer retention strategies?
How can you earn customer loyalty?
How do you maintain customer loyalty?
What does a customer journey mean?
What is (CX) customer experience?

The post Amazing Business Radio: Joey Coleman appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of March 26, 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.

Southwest Airlines Had a Brilliant Reaction When a Passenger’s Wi-Fi Wouldn’t Work by Bill Murphy Jr.

(Inc.) This is a story about how kind, little things can go a long way. Doubly so when they’re unexpected.

My Comment: Let’s start this week’s Top Five with a great story featuring Southwest Airlines. You’ll love this story about how a member of the airline’s social media customer care team took care of a passenger during her flight. 

How Chewy Built a $3 Billion Business Based on Customer Experience by Mike DuPuy

(UJET) Stories about Chewy’s commitment to not just customer service, but the full customer experience are, at this point, legendary.

My Comment: And, here’s another story. This one is about Chewy’s, an online pet supply retailer that has, through delivering an amazing customer experience, built a $3 billion company. This is a typical story that represents their values and the commitment they have to their customers. 

10 Innovative Ways to Excite Your Customers by Deep Patel

(Entrepreneur) Excited and engaged customers bring in 23 percent more profits. However, with advancing technology and decreasing face-to-face encounters, companies are having to find new ways to get customers excited.

My Comment: I love a good list of actionable ideas – and this article delivers with ten innovative ways to create a better customer experience – or as the author promises, ways to “excite” your customer. There is something here for every type of business.  

The Psychology of Customer Service: Science-Backed Tips to Increase Customer Satisfaction by Marwan Jamal

(All Business) Customer satisfaction matters and can make or break your business. I’ve compiled a list of eight best practices that will improve customer satisfaction.

My Comment: Here’s another list (I told you I loved lists) with some great ideas on how to increase satisfaction. I love the examples the author shares with each idea, especially the Sam Walton example in tip number one. 

When Customer Service Enters the Home by Melissa Thompson

(CustomerThink) Here are some guidelines to follow if you’re a technician or service provider who makes house calls.

My Comment: And, we close out this week’s Top Five with another list. This one is focused on the customer service “to do’s” for service techs who enter the home, like a plumber or cable TV tech. While your business may not do field support, the list should spark some ideas on the right way to treat your customers.    

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

The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of March 26, 2018 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: Lead with Communication to Reduce these 5 Revenue Leaks

This week we feature an article by Denise Graziano who explains how essential clear, consistent, authentic communication is for companies to use when dealing with difficult news.  – Shep Hyken

What professional skill is highly overlooked, underrated, often treated as an afterthought, yet is as vital as fuel for any vehicle on a company’s road to success? Clear, consistent, authentic communication.

As CEOs and companies prepare to tackle some of the top concerns for this year, only the most successful will prioritize communication as part of their plans.

These five common revenue leaks, many of which are related to those top concerns, are directly impacted by enterprise-wide communication practices. Better practices that emanate from leadership can prevent or correct such leaks and perhaps turn them into growth opportunities.

Employee – mission disconnect

Situation:

Your mission statement has become, or always has been, merely words on a wall and not a philosophy embraced by employees. In other words, it is simply a statement with no mission, vision, or purpose.

Cause:

If your employees do not understand their role in the company mission or feel valued in the company’s success, it is not their fault. It is likely that company communication, from leadership and throughout the organization, does not adequately connect with employees and bring them into the company narrative.

Impact:

Employees with an emotional connection to their work are more productive. Recent findings in the Global Leadership Forecast 2018 found that companies that connected purpose to their mission statement outperformed other companies in their market by 42%. They had greater employee engagement and more loyal customers.

How to prevent and correct:

Companies that differentiate and dominate in their markets have a passion for the products or services they provide and the people for whom they provide them. The key: That passion and purpose must be communicated and conveyed effectively from senior leadership throughout management and all employees, so that they are more compelled to consistently deliver a superior product, service, and customer experience. Stating your mission once is not enough. Vitalize the mission by actions and words.

Losing top talent (current employees or prospects)

Situation:

A top goal for 2018 is hiring key talent. 63% of US CEOs are hiring, but they say it is more difficult to find the qualified workers they need (PwC 21st Annual Global CEO Survey). Talented employees are a company’s most precious asset and should be treated as such. Engaged employees look beyond the paycheck; they want to know the role they play in a company’s success. According to Mercer’s Global Talent Trends Study, 97% of employees value being recognized and rewarded for a wider range of contributions.

Cause:

32% of CEOs are concerned about the availability of key skills (PwC), yet not enough companies market to prospects as they would to customers. Retaining valued employees requires attention and effort far beyond benefits, pay, and bonuses.

Impact:

Fortune 500 companies that excel at recruitment marketing strategies have 62% higher average revenue per year than those with average scores, and 152% higher average revenue per year than those with failing recruitment scores (SmashFly’s Fortune 500 Report: 2018 Recruitment Marketing Benchmarks).

How to prevent and correct:

Attracting today’s top talent requires being visible to your prospects, not simply waiting for them to discover your job posts. It means being transparent, telling stories verbally and visually that convey the internal brand experience. It means being responsive to reviews on Glassdoor or Indeed.

Retaining valued people requires ongoing engagement, which is a multifaceted approach, dictated by the culture of an organization. What remains constant is the need for companies to articulate the path of their organizations and their employees’ roles in them. Leaders cannot “set it and forget it” and pass this off to Communications or HR departments; leaders must set the example.

Distrust of leadership

Situation:

Your latest employee survey reveals a decline of trust in leadership.

Cause:

Any size company, from small to global, can make false assumptions when they fail to monitor and nurture the relationship with employees.

Impact:

When employees become disengaged from leadership, it leads to fear and distrust, which negatively impacts productivity, customer experience, and morale. Disengaged employees cost organizations an estimated $450–550 billion each year (Gallup). Conversely, engaged employees are five times more likely to recommend their companies to others, four times more likely to do something good beyond that which is expected, three times more likely to work late, and five times more likely to suggest improvements at work (Temkin).

How to prevent and correct:

Companies should not treat employees with a need-to-know-basis approach, otherwise the staff is likely to fill in the blanks with their own details. Leadership must ensure that all levels of management provide a consistent message, so that information is not received differently across departments, locations, or shifts. Especially when difficult news must be shared, leaders must demonstrate trust in their employees and in their relationships by communicating a unifying message.

Negative customer reviews or feedback

Situation:

A pattern of negative customer reviews emerges from direct customer contact, or worse, publicly via social media channels.

Cause:

Customers are not adequately notified about upcoming changes that will affect them, or a company response to customer feedback about product quality, service, or experience is not swift enough to retain customers.

Impact:

Snapchat made sweeping changes to their platform via an automatic update, which outraged users, including celebrity-user Kylie Jenner, whose negative tweet caused Snap shares to lose over $1 billion in one day. However, even when companies do prepare customers for change, as did L.L.Bean with their recent change to a longstanding return policy, they must expect outrage and have a plan to address concerns.

How to prevent and correct:

Companies should seek input and insights from client-facing employees about the state of customer relationships. Having this insight before a situation can erupt publicly is invaluable. Empowering customer service employees to resolve problems in real time can help contain potential problems. Training employees to listen to customers, acknowledge a problem, and take corrective steps can de-escalate a volatile situation. Certainly, prior to any significant product or service changes, consider the impact before taking action. When announcing any news, be authentic, provide details, and prepare for potential backlash.

Loss of customers after difficult news or a crisis

Situation:

Changes in customer policies, unethical developments, customer breaches, et al, have caused clients to exit, or threaten to do so, en masse, which can potentially have a devastating financial impact.

Cause:

Long-standing customer policy changes should be announced well in advance of the changes, so customers do not suspect or imply a cover-up or poor business practices. Unexpected negative developments or crises that are not swiftly addressed by leadership can quickly escalate into viral social media issues.

Impact:

Stock losses, negative press, fines, lawsuits, and severely damaged customer relationships are possible. For example, United Airlines suffered a 4% decrease in market share after the airline’s overbooking practices precipitated a passenger being dragged off a flight. The 2016 Wells Fargo scandal for opening unauthorized client accounts resulted not only in penalties but in stock declines and lawsuits.

How to prevent and correct:

Difficult news is just that. However, in order to retain valued customers, a proactive, honest explanation will often stem the tide of a mass exodus for matters to do with price increases, product changes, layoffs, closures, et al. In a crisis situation, however, swift, honest acknowledgement of the problem and a plan for corrective measures is essential to salvaging reputation and customer relationships. Delayed responses escalate, infuriate, and drive customers away.

Companies must remember that communication is a dialogue, not a monologue. Technology gives employees’ and customers’ voices unprecedented power to impact revenue, retention, and loyalty.

Ongoing communication is the key to any healthy, successful personal relationship. Employee and customer relationships also need communication to thrive, perhaps more than ever in our hyper-connected environment. For any plan, convey your intentions succinctly and deliberately, to avoid potential missteps along the way. Lead with communication.

A trusted advisor to the C-suite for decades, Denise Graziano truly cares about helping companies differentiate and gain a competitive advantage in their market, by leveraging the power of positive employee and customer experiences.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article:  How Southwest Airlines Keeps The Romance Alive With Its Customer

The post Guest Blog: Lead with Communication to Reduce these 5 Revenue Leaks appeared first on Shep Hyken.

How to Turn a Puck to the Face into a Moment of Magic®

I love a good hockey game, and my favorite team is the St. Louis Blues. I recently went to a game where a puck fluttered over the protective glass and hit a fan squarely in the head just a few rows in front of me. The blood started to flow and within seconds an usher was beside the gentleman who, other than the gash on his head, seemed to be okay. What happened next was a system or process that had been honed to perfection.

The usher looked up at the JumboTron scoreboard, where there are numerous security cameras that scan the fans in the stands, and she crossed her arms above her head, giving the signal that there was an emergency in her section. In under a minute, a crew of medics and security people were beside the fan, helping to get the situation under control. Fortunately, the fan was okay and they took him off to get that nasty gash taken care of.

The very next day I spoke at Peabody Opera House, which is the theatre connected to the arena where the Blues played the night before. Five of the audience members were employees from the St. Louis Blues hockey organization. During the presentation, I asked if anyone would share an example of turning a Moment of Misery into a Moment of Magic®; in other words, turning a complaint or problem into a positive experience. One of the employees from the Blues raised her hand and shared the story of what I had witnessed the night before.

What she added to the story is that they took the fan out to an ambulance where he was attended to, and the Blues got him an autographed puck, an autographed hockey stick, and tickets to a future game. As they closed the door to the ambulance, the fan said, “This is the best hockey game I’ve ever been to.”

This story is a perfect example of a system that works: a process that deals with a problem, complaint, or even an emergency. The first time something happens, people may not be sure of what to do – their instincts take over and hopefully all turns out well. That’s what might happen the first time, but it shouldn’t happen a second time.

While it’s nice to predict problems and how to deal with them before they ever happen, that’s not realistic. Sometimes things happen that you don’t anticipate. Yet, that first incident should be a lesson that results in a process that is used the next time. While not really a complaint, what happened at the Blues hockey game was a Moment of Misery, and the Blues logistics system did all it could to take care of him physically. Then they followed it up by showing the fan some “love” and gave him souvenirs. They showed they cared.

What could have been a devastating end to a fan’s night out became a painfully memorable event where he walked away with even more love for his home team. Although your problems may not include a minor injury at a sporting event, it goes to show that every crisis is an opportunity. And while there is no guarantee of a happy outcome, having an effective process in place can transform a minor mishap into a major win.

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

The post How to Turn a Puck to the Face into a Moment of Magic® appeared first on Shep Hyken.