Shep Hyken's Blog, page 157

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of December 3, 2017

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online 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.

Rethinking Federal Customer Experience by Frank Konkel

(Nextgov) This eBook looks at how agencies are baking customer experience into their missions.

My Comment: Let’s kick off this week’s Top Five with an interesting concept: That the United States government could provide excellent customer service. Now, that’s an interesting concept! The government admits to delivering poor customer service. President Obama, during his second term in office, set out to change that. President Trump is continuing what’s been started. This could be an amazing case-study, as the government, generally thought to be at the very low end of customer satisfaction, works to turn public sentiment around. You’ll have to fill out a form to download the report titled, “Rethinking Federal Customer Experience.”

Priorities For Marketers In 2018: Refining The Customer Experience by Eric Cosway 

(Forbes) The marketing landscape has seen a tremendous shift in the last five years, largely due to data aggregation, and 2018 will be no different as communicators continue to gain a greater and increasingly granular understanding of customers.

My Comment: The Forrester CX Index indicates that customer experience declined this year. That’s a great opportunity for a business who wants to buck the trend. Work to keep your existing customers and impress new ones so they will come back. As this article points out, and rightly so, “The poor state of customer service is your biggest opportunity.”

5 Last Minute Holiday Customer Service Tips You Can Employ Now by Emily Johnson

(HuffPost) Service and support teams need to be ready to handle the influx of eager shoppers—both online and in store. That means that your teams have to do more than guarantee a terrific on-site customer experience. They have to ensure customers’ online experiences run smoothly.

My Comment: For many businesses (even if you’re not a retailer), holiday sales are higher than the rest of the year. Every business must be prepared in busy times for the increase in customers. This is an opportunity for an increase in sales, but if not handled well can be frustrating for customers. This short article has five customer service tips on how to deal with the holiday rush – or any other busy time.

Forget Happiness, This Is the Top Emotion for Customer Support by Jeff Toister

(Toister Solutions) I went from feeling frustrated and anxious to feeling relieved. For support teams, customer relief is much more important than happiness.

My Comment: When it comes to customer emotions, happiness seems like a good one. And happiness is what customers will feel when everything is going right until something goes wrong. Then an even more powerful emotion needs to kick in… relief. Relief can take you back to happiness, and maybe even create customer confidence (a key to creating loyalty) along the way.

5 Customer Experience Lessons from the World’s Biggest Brands Marketing by Kristian Bannister

(Brandwatch) In this blog post, we explore five customer experience lessons from the world’s biggest brands to inspire your strategy. Learn how to offer a better customer experience than your competitors—and increase your bottom line.

My Comment: The title of this article sums it up perfectly. Here are five great customer experience lessons from five iconic rock star brands. Regardless of how big or small your organization is, there is something here for any size and any type of business.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact 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 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of December 3, 2017 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: Customer Communication: Bots are Nice, But Humans are Better

This week we feature an article by Stephanie Jones about the importance of human interaction in the customer service world. While bots are helpful in many ways, the human touch is still so imperative, and so craved by the customer.  – Shep Hyken

Robots are cool. I watched “The Jetson’s” as a kid and was obsessed with all the tasks robots handled. George could get showered and dressed with one robot. Alice does everything else around the house and their car flies them anywhere they need to go.

The Jetson’s reality is rapidly becoming our own.

In the home and in business, bots are everywhere. They are convenient and help businesses be more productive by eliminating their most menial conversations. Advances in mobile technology have made it possible to go a full day without talking to a single human being.

Yet, in a world where we appear to be more connected than ever we are starved for human connection.

Bots are a great customer service tool, but they aren’t the ultimate solution to your service woes. There’s only one, true way to create personalized service that delights…

Offer Human Support

Believe it or not, people like to talk to other people. No matter where they fall on the mood spectrum–angry to delighted–customers prefer to chat about their thoughts or issues with a real human.

Phone calls or social media messages from customers requesting basic information (business hours, return policies, the physical address or phone number for a business) aren’t difficult to take, but they are a huge distraction. Using a bot or an auto-attendant is a terrific way to offload those basic conversations.

Bots lose their appeal when a customer has a complex issue. This is where live chat and phone support really shine.

Offering human support creates loyalty; a whopping 55 percent of consumers say easy access to information and support can make them fall in love with a brand.

Customer communication isn’t rocket science, but it does take some effort to get it right. Here are the three support channels you should make as human as possible.

The Phone

When a customer has a complex issue with your business, there’s no other channel they’d rather use; 46 percent of customers prefer to talk to customer service on the phone about complicated issues.

The crux: it’s not easy to always pick up the phone, especially for busy small business owners. And not answering your business phone can lead to unhappy customers who don’t leave voicemails and never return.

Ensuring your customers have a person to connect with on the other line shows how much you value them. Don’t have time to take support calls or need help? Outsourcing your calls makes it easy to provide that high-level, personal service your customers seek.

Live Chat

While the phone is still the preferred channel for complex issues, customers are more likely to reach out over live chat for quick questions.

I use SproutSocial to manage PATLive’s social media accounts. I chose it for its robust reporting and monitoring, but I fell in love with it because of their support team.

Sprout really encourages its customers to reach out with ideas and issues, and within the software there’s the option to connect with live service or support. If I run into something that seems buggy or if I have an idea for improvements, I just open the chat client. The support team is always so kind and helpful – a real win in my book.

Not all of your customers want to use the phone. Offering live chat with a human is a superb way to connect with customers and help them with issues on the fly.

Social Media

Speaking of social media, customers are using social media channels for support more and more every year. Bots are definitely helpful in this realm, but human service should still be a priority on social media.

We all know that speed is everything in social service, and failure to live up to customer expectations can really put a dent in your customer counts. In fact, organizations that fail to respond to customer inquiries on social media can expect to see a 15 percent increase in churn.

Whether you implement a social monitoring tool or use a customer service management tool, it’s imperative you add a human touch to your social service.

Humans are better for customer communication.

Yes – bots are easy. Yes – bots are convenient. Yes – bots help businesses offload some of the more tedious conversations. I’ll admit it – bots are really cool. However, if you’re looking for a total service solution, bots are not the answer.Humans still play a fundamental role in customer communication; people give a voice to an organization, empathize with our issues and relate to use as only human beings can. There’s a comfort in feeling connected.

Can a bot do all of that?

Stephanie Jones is a content writer and the social media manager for PATLive, a 24/7 live answering service for businesses. Stephanie’s  posts on the PATLive blog cover a range of service and experience topics with an emphasis on customer communication.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article: AI Is Super-Charging The Customer Service World

The post Guest Blog: Customer Communication: Bots are Nice, But Humans are Better appeared first on Shep Hyken.

It’s Showtime!

“It’s Showtime!” Those are typically the words you hear right before hitting the stage or when the cameras start to roll in the studio. However, for John Lewis, a high-end retail department store in the UK, the retail floor is the stage and the employees are the actors.

John Lewis is providing 322 employees, whom they refer to as “partners,” acting lessons at The Oxford Playhouse to help “teach them the art of outstanding service.” They are being taught the same lessons in voice and body language that actors are taught to help them create a better customer experience.

The first thing I thought when I heard this is that they are teaching employees how to engage with customers by acting out a scripted response. However, there is a different form of acting that is very appropriate for anyone who interacts with their customers… and fellow employees.

In an interview with The Guardian, Simon Tavener, the secretary of the Oxford Theatre Guild, said, “Selling requires you to have a sort of script in your head. Not one you recite, but one you tailor to your own voice … a form of improv, if you like.”

Improv is a unique form of acting. There is no script. It’s about being so focused on the other person, that you can engage and respond appropriately, without a script. And, in this case, the other person is a customer.

When the employee gets to work, it’s time to put on the show. Step up and be your best. Regardless of what’s happening outside of the store, its’ time to block it out and focus on the customer. That’s what great stage actors do. Richard Burton, the famous actor who was recognized for his amazing performance in Hamlet, felt the same way. He was known to say something like, “I want to be so good tonight that I cheat the audience that was here last night.” In other words, be better today than yesterday.

When employees of any type of business come to work, they get into character and deliver the best performance they can give. Each day, they come to work with the goal of being even better than yesterday. The company provides training – and in the case of the John Lewis stores – even acting lessons. They rehearse, practice, and get direction.

The ability to communicate is paramount in any type of business and for any type of employee, especially someone who talks directly to customers. Teaching acting and improv techniques to employees can create confidence and help their ability to sell and service their audience, also known as their customers.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, 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

(Copyright © MMXVII, Shep Hyken)

The post It’s Showtime! appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Amazing Business Radio: Jeff Nicholson

The Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Experience
Shep Hyken Interviews Jeff Nicholson, Customer Engagement Thought Leader

Jeff Nicholson enlightens listeners to what he refers to as The Seven Deadly Sins of the Customer Experience Journey. He shares the importance of understanding what customers need, meeting those needs, and the best methods of delivering it to them.

 

Top Takeaways:

There are seven deadly “sins” along the journey of meeting customers’ needs:

Proximity – Are you aware of, or are you close enough to, your customer’s moment of need? Customers want to be able to cognitively offload their need onto the company. The resolution or fulfillment may not come immediately, but the offload of the need can happen sooner and the customer will feel better knowing it’s being taken care of.
Accessibility – Your service, is it fit for function, and in the way that the customer wants to consume it? Companies often offer services in a way that works well for them, without keeping the customers’ needs in mind. They offer answers on their own terms, not on the terms of the customer.
Duration/Expediency – How fast can you resolve an issue? Some processes will take time, but where can you speed up the process? Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that you rush your customers.
Visibility – Are you transparent? Customers want to know where they stand. Even if something is not yet resolved, customers want to know what step of the process they are at. If something can’t be quick, let the customer know; keep them in the loop. When they are informed, they feel valued.
Disconnectedness – Is there continuity across all channels? Is your business consistent on the website, on social media, et cetera? Can customers find all of the same information no matter the chosen source?
Irresolution – How accurate are you? Did you resolve the problem, or just resolve the call? Is the customer all set, or will they have the same problem again? Are you in such a hurry to resolve the situation that you fail the customer in their journey? Never leave a customer needing more help.
Amnesia – How well do you remember the customer and their information? When the customer returns to a channel, does their information get saved or is everything lost, causing them to start over from scratch?

About:

Jeff Nicholson is Vice President of CRM Product Marketing at Pegasystems. Jeff leads Pega’s CRM market on vision and strategy. A recognized customer engagement thought leader, Jeff works closely with industry analysts and has been a frequent presenter at CRM industry events on subjects including consumer engagement strategy, customer analytics, digital marketing, and customer journey best practice.

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

“It’s not that businesses don’t want to fix broken (customer) experiences or journeys. It’s that they just don’t know where to start.” – Jeff Nicholson

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

Do I recognize my customers’ needs?
How do I create better customer experiences?
Where do I start improving the customer experience?
How do I keep better records for my customers?
How can I be consistent across multiple channels?

The post Amazing Business Radio: Jeff Nicholson appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of November 27, 2017

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online 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.

A 4-Step Formula to Create Freakishly Loyal Customers by Josh Linkner

(Josh Linkner) In our transactional world of fickle customers, how do we snag the prize? It turns out that cracking the code is easier than you may think. Just follow this four-step approach, and you’re sure to create wild raving fans

My Comment: If there were four things you could do that would ensure your customers would come back, what would they be? Josh Linkner, innovation guru, shares four core ideas that build loyalty. Some of you may think these are common sense, but then think about how often you don’t experience these when you’re a customer.

CIOs need to focus on customer experience now by Zavalaeus Kerr

(CIO) A Five9 survey shows customer service experience has overtaken price, product quality and all other factors as the top factor for customers when deciding with whom to do business.

My Comment: Here is an interesting article with stats that confirm the importance of customer service. Yes, you already know that, but consider that Five9 surveyed 1,138 people to determine the role customer service influences purchasing decisions and found that 91 percent cited “Great Customer Service” was the top reasons followed by “Price” at 90 percent.

6 Key Statements to Propel Your Customer Experience Program by Bill Price

(CustomerThink) Sometimes we get wrapped around too many axles defining and dimensioning customer experience programs. Instead, if we examine these 6 key statements and re-shape processes, energies, and investments behind their definitions, we will see significant opportunities to increase customer experience.

My Comment: What I like about this article is that the author took six ideas and turned them into statements you can share with others. These are perfect conversation starters to have with your team. Take one each week and discuss it… and act on it.

Zappos for Good Bolsters Company Culture and Customer Experience by Jim Tierney

(Loyalty 360) Loyalty360 talked to Steven Bautista, the head of charity at Zappos, to find out more about Zappos for Good.

My Comment: I’ve always believed that “giving back” is part of a customer service and CX strategy. People like doing business with the companies they know care about others. Zappos is an amazing retailer that aligns with this concept. Here is some insight into their “Zappos for Good” program, direct from Steven Bautista, the head of charity at Zappos.

3 Ways to Make Your Loyalty Program More Social for the Holidays by Barry Kirk

(Maritz Motivation) Most consumers join loyalty programs with self-serving motives.  This makes perfect sense considering that the explicit promise of most programs can be distilled down to “do this, get that.” But, that doesn’t mean that consumers don’t appreciate brands who give them the flexibility to use their points and miles to give to others.

My Comment: It’s holiday time, and this article about customer loyalty programs during the holidays seemed very interesting to me. Maritz Motivation suggests some flexibility in how customers can redeem or use their points. While the article is focused on retail, take a quick look (It’s a very short article.) to see how a little creativity and flexibility could enhance the typical loyalty points program.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact 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 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of November 27, 2017 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: How to Use Social Media to Provide Great Customer Service

This week we feature an article by Brooke Harper who writes about the importance of using social media to provide great customer service. If you’re not monitoring what customers are saying about you and your company on social media, what are you waiting for?! – Shep Hyken

Are you paying attention to what your customers are saying on social media? If you’re not, it’s time to start. There are relevant conversations surrounding your brand across multiple social networks, and if you’re not listening or contributing, then you’re missing out on opportunities to deliver customer service in a timely and relevant fashion. In fact, many of the most successful companies in the world have begun using social media as one of the ways they address and resolve customer concerns—with fantastic results. In fact, when a company engages their customers through social channels in this way, those customers go on to spend 20 to 40 percent more on products and services from that company. In other words, if you’re not engaging in this practice, you’re losing opportunities and profits alike.

It Starts with Effective Social Listening

The first step to being a great social listener is to figure out which social networks your customers and ideal audience use most, and tailor your approach to fit that. If your services fall under the B2B umbrella, for example, your customers are more likely to engage with you on LinkedIn as opposed to in B2C businesses.

Not sure where your customers go when they’re online? Then try asking them, through a survey. Communication is key to great service.

When you know where to engage, you can start to collect information through messages, mentions, and more. Are people asking for customer support? Are they providing feedback—and how much is positive versus negative? How is the best way to respond?

Timing Is Everything

To deliver great social media-based customer service, you have to be able to respond in a timely manner—not in a week, not in a few days, but ideally within a few hours or even within a few minutes. In fact, nearly half of consumers expect a response within one hour of reaching out via social media, so don’t leave them hanging. Having a centralized customer service platform that is integrated directly to your social channels is a great way to accomplish this, as it empowers you to look at each item from each stream, prioritize them based on seriousness—e.g., technical, account, and payment issues first, followed by more minor concerns—and assign tickets to them. You can also see if there have been previous interactions with the same customers, and how those were resolved, which could save you even more time.

Put Great Care into Each Interaction

Just because a customer interaction happens through Facebook or Twitter doesn’t mean that you’re allowed to slack or be less professional. Being polite and courteous, as well as making a customer feel cared for, are always key elements in the customer service field, and will never be less important. Provide the same level of service that you would in person or over the phone, take any opportunity to go the extra mile, and who knows—perhaps someday, you’ll be looked at as the prime example of how others should be using social media!

Great Social Media Examples

You needn’t look far to find terrific examples of how to conduct yourself online, either. Take a look, for example, at Microsoft’s official Xbox Support Twitter account. They have an entire team dedicated to answering support questions through Twitter, 24/7—and have actually won a Guinness World Record for “most responsive corporate account on Twitter.” Does this mean you have to compete with them to be successful? No. But it exemplifies the importance of timely, always-available service.

Buffer is another great example on Twitter. A quick look at their feed showcases how each reply is kindly-worded, and personalized with a signature from the individual support worker. This is a simple and effective way to make each customer feel that their time and patronage is valued.

Brooke Harper is a seasoned writer and sales consultant and has written hundreds of articles and white papers covering all aspects of B2B sales, phone marketing, and advanced sales strategy. Brooke is one of the top writers on Quora in B2B and her answers get over 100K views a month and growing.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article:  IBM Helps Retailers Get Ready For This Year’s Holiday Shopping Experience

The post Guest Blog: How to Use Social Media to Provide Great Customer Service appeared first on Shep Hyken.

How To Get More Customers To Take Your Surveys

There is a place I get my car worked on. They do a great job. The repair center’s employees are friendly and knowledgeable. The car always comes back cleaner than when it goes in for service. This is the way business should be done.

The head of the service department mentioned I would be getting a survey emailed to me and asked if I would take a few minutes to complete it. Sure enough, a day later the email survey showed up in my inbox. I will always remember the first survey. With that great experience, I was happy to show them a little love and give them positive feedback about how well they took care of me. So, I started the survey. There were some pretty good questions on that first page. And, more on the second page. By the time I got to the third page of the survey, I was experiencing Survey Fatigue. I was tired with this survey. I was already almost six or seven minutes into it, and it looked like I wasn’t even halfway to the end. This wasn’t a survey. It was a major homework assignment!

About a year later, it was time to go back for another oil change and routine maintenance. Once again, they provided stellar customer service. And, then a day later came that dreaded customer service survey – the same survey! I would have thought that maybe it might be different for a repeat customer. I told my friends about the ridiculously long survey and joked that it took longer to fill out the darn survey than to get the oil changed. By the way, I didn’t fill the survey out – and haven’t since the first one I filled out years ago.

What made me think about that story was that in the past few weeks several subscribers to our newsletter emailed me about how to get more responses to their customer surveys. That’s a great question, and here are two of my favorite ways to do so:

First, don’t wait two weeks – or even two days – to send a survey. Consider getting the survey to customers within 24 hours while the experience is still fresh on their minds. Maybe even get it to them within just minutes. When I take an Uber, as soon as the ride is over I receive an email asking me to rate the driver and leave a tip, if appropriate. I respond every time.
Second, don’t make the survey too long. You don’t want to frustrate the customer with Survey Fatigue. Consider short surveys that take one or two minutes to complete. A short NPS (Net Promotor Score) survey question with one or two follow-up questions that take a minute or so to complete will boost response numbers. If you want answers to more questions, create different surveys and rotate them as you send them to customers. Shorter is better. That same Uber survey just mentioned asks me to click on one through five stars, click on a few boxes, and if interested, I can leave a comment. Without the comment, the survey takes 15 seconds or less.

So, the next time you want customer feedback in the form of a survey, send it quickly and make it short. Then, watch for an increase in the number of customers who respond.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, 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

(Copyright © MMXVII, Shep Hyken)

The post How To Get More Customers To Take Your Surveys appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Amazing Business Radio: Robert Weideman

AI Fuels Virtual Assistants in the Customer Service World
Shep Hyken Interviews Robert Weideman on the Merging of AI and Customer Service

How would you like to utilize innovative technology that makes your business more efficient in order to create better customer interactions?

Shep Hyken sits down with Robert Weideman, a leader in merging customer service and Artificial Intelligence. Robert gives insight into what customers want and need, and how businesses can deliver it most effectively with the help of AI.

 

Top Takeaways:

Chatbots differ from virtual assistants in that virtual assistants can do more and provide more information. There is more data that goes into a virtual assistant than a chatbot. Chatbots are much simpler and geared toward one specific platform.
AI is measured on a spectrum. A chatbot could be compared to an elementary school student, and a virtual assistant could be compared to someone with a Ph.D. Virtual assistants are able to have conversations, whereas typical chatbots cannot connect separate sentences.
Virtual assistants are intended to be mimicking a human. In order to do that, the following must happen:

Understanding the words being spoken
Ability to talk back using text to speak
Ability to identify someone by their voice
Understanding what is meant within the context
Ability to have a conversation through advanced dialogue systems


Combining AI with human interaction leads to a much more effective interaction with the customer. The customer’s questions can be answered or problems resolved much faster than if done by human alone.
As a company, you must automate all channels because that’s what customers want: to be able to reach you on Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. They want to be able to reach you on the platforms they are already using daily. Customers want control of how and when they connect with companies.
When multiple platforms are used, customers become “friends.” They can text a simple message, in the same way they could to a family member, and get the necessary response.

About:

Robert Weideman is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division, responsible for customer self-service solutions that are used by leading organizations around the world to automate and optimize the customer care experience – from the call center to the Web and mobile devices.

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

“AI is mainstream. And in fact, it’s evolving from the ship’s computer in Star Trek to Jarvis in Iron Man. It’s getting really, really sophisticated and really, really powerful.” – Robert Weideman

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

How can I implement AI in my own business?
Am I making myself available to my customers on enough platforms?
How can AI improve customer experiences?
Can anyone use AI or chatbots?
Is AI going to replace customer service jobs?
Will AI replace people?
How advanced is AI?

The post Amazing Business Radio: Robert Weideman appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of November 20, 2017

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online 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.

Is CX tied to revenue gains? A case study by Idaho Central Union by Avinash Bhaisa 

(Omoto) Quite a few organizations, even today, consider customer experience as a tertiary function. They assume that in the order of priority, it comes after customer acquisition. When I probed into the reason behind this, I understood that this belief stemmed from the idea that there is no concrete proof of whether CX is tied to revenue gains. Hence, unfortunately, when it comes to cost cutting or deprioritizing, customer experience initiatives are the first ones to face the brunt.

My Comment: This is a great case study that proves that CX impacts the bottom line. Jerry McGuire (from the movie of the same name) said, “Show me the money!” Well, this article will do exactly that!

One-to-One Personalization in the Age of Machine Learning by Karl Wirth & Katie Sweet

(Evergage) In this book, discover what one-to-one personalization is all about, how it’s evolved and what the future entails. Learn how it’s driven by machine learning, delivered across channels and powered by in-depth customer data. Get inspired by the potential for your business and gain insights on how to develop your own personalization strategy and program. Discover how to turn the one-to-one dream into a reality.

My Comment: This isn’t an article, it’s an entire book! And, it’s free. One of the big topics driving the customer experience today is “personalization.” With the right data, you can create an experience that sets you apart from your competition with a better CX. Stats and facts prove that a personalized experience allows you to upsell, cross-sell and create customer loyalty.

6 Best Practices for Thriving in the ‘Post-Human’ Customer Service Age by Anand Subramaniam

(Retail Customer Experience) To assess today’s state of self-service, eGain did some mystery shopping on leading websites, including those of retailers.

My Comment: AI fueled customer service is under a microscope. From the customer’s viewpoint, is it good, bad or frustrating? But, this article has even more information. What are the top three frustrations for customers trying to get service from the companies they do business with? Different answers from different support reps. Some support reps just don’t know the answers. And, can’t find the answers on the company’s website. Good article about the balance of AI/machine and human support.

Why Customer Experience & Tech are about Less than More? Stop Counterintuitive Design & Cut the Waste by Ricardo Saltz Gulko

(Eglobalis) This article will help you as a leader to decide or help your teams to decide where to cut useless features and functionalities. There is no sustainable customer experience without its real pillars: quality, design, great products, services and a human-centric design. But to get to those pillars, you need to remove complexity and useless feature from your products, services, design, and experience.

My Comment: I’ve been including a lot of Ricardo Saltz Gulko’s work in this roundup over the last couple of months. He’s focused on a topic we all need to pay attention to. He calls it simplification. I call it convenience. Be easy – or simple – to do business with. In this excellent article, Ricardo shares 20 ways to get rid of the waste – the extra steps and friction we may be putting our customers through when they do business with us.

Why Memory Is Your Most Powerful Tool For Building Customer Relationships by Yannis Kotziagkiaouridis

(Forbes) Leading brands like Amazon and Apple have set a new standard for attentive and thoughtful customer care, and companies striving for success today must meet or even exceed it. 

My Comment: Personalization is a hot topic. “Memory” can be a big part of that. A customer service rep’s or salesperson’s memory, sometimes supported by data and technology, can be a competitive advantage. Stats and facts prove that customers buy more and come back more often when their experience is personalized. Great article. Thanks for putting it out there!

BONUS

23 CX Experts Reveal the Best Ways to Measure Customer Experience Success by Editor

(Editor Guided Selling) We reached out to 23 customer experience experts and asked them two key questions: 1) What is your #1 tip for prioritizing CX initiatives? 2) What are your favorite metrics to measure the success of CX initiatives and why?

My Comment: How do you measure success? Here are some thoughts and comments by 23 CX experts brought to you from Guided-Expert.org. I’m honored that they included my ideas in the roundup. Lots of great ideas here. I’m sure you’ll find at least one you can use.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact 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 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of November 20, 2017 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: Why Online Reviews Are Important for Customer Engagement

This week we feature an article by Megan Wenzl about the importance of online reviews to your business and customer engagement. Asking your customers to post online reviews 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

A woman goes online to search for a hotel to stay at during her upcoming trip to New York.

She types in “hotels in New York” in the search box and results populate the page. She chooses the Refinery Hotel, with 680 google reviews. She reads through some of the reviews and decides to book her stay.

Customer engagement is the communication with customers through a variety of channels to create emotional connections that foster customer loyalty. Your brand must consistently engage with customers on the platforms and channels that are available at the time.

In the 20th century that communication was made through TV and radio advertisements, magazine print advertisements, and sponsorships.

Although the idea of customer engagement is still the same, what has changed in consumer culture in the second decade of the 21st century is the way businesses connect with customers. The way to create a connection today is to be transparent, to communicate with customers through digital channels, and to create a one-of-a-kind experience.

Customers today will engage with your business if they feel a connection during their entire experience interacting with your company. Customers need to feel heard and know that you care about them.

Online reviews are just one of the digital channels in which businesses interact with customers. The websites that host online reviews, such as Facebook and Google, are some of the most important platforms for customer engagement because these sites are an important research tool for customers when they begin their journey with you.

Reviews Help Customers Find You

More than a third of searches are local, according to research by ReviewTrackers.

When a customer searches for “pizza in Lincoln Park,” for example, the review quantity and velocity are one of the of the factors that determine where a place that serves pizza shows up in local search results.

You might be thinking: Customers find my business through friends and family recommendations. I don’t need online reviews. Talking to friends and family is one of the ways customers will find your business, yes. However, online research is another important method for customers to use to find out about your business.

In fact, 58 percent of local searches end up with the consumer planning a visit to your business within 48 hours. Sure, word of mouth recommendations are important, but for consumers today, local searches are an increasingly common way people research and decide to visit a business.

Reviews Help Improve the Customer Experience

What can you find out about your customers with data? A lot. You can investigate what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and what your customers think about their experience.

You can make operational changes based on what real customers have to say. You can innovate based on customer feedback analysis and overall, make a person’s life better and not just simply provide a service. To engage with a customer is to be more than a product or service – it’s to deliver an exceptional experience.

Here’s an example. ReviewTrackers analyzed baseball stadium reviews and found that the top stadiums gave fans something the lower ranked stadiums did not: character, good food, good service, and an enjoyable experience.

Companies that analyze trends within reviews can understand what customers like and what they don’t like about the operations at business locations. You will find that customers advocate for your business in positive reviews and that the data from online reviews can help you improve the customer experience to increase overall customer engagement.

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

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article:  Dreamforce Showcases The Fourth Industrial Revolution

The post Guest Blog: Why Online Reviews Are Important for Customer Engagement appeared first on Shep Hyken.