Shep Hyken's Blog, page 169

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of May 8, 2017

Each week I read a number of customer service and experience 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.

10 Content Marketing and Customer Experience All-Stars by James A. Martin

(CIO) From the recent Adobe digital marketing conference, here are 10 examples of brands (and in one case, an Australian entrepreneur) that are killing it with their content marketing and/or customer experiences.

My Comment: Let’s start this week’s “Top Five” roundup with a fun article that includes ten outstanding examples of how companies are using content marketing and customer service to enhance the customer experience. You will easily find a story here that relates to what you do and the industry you’re in. Great examples that we can all learn from.

A Quality Perspective From a Recent Flying Experience by Jeremy Watkin

(FCR) I recently flew on one of the major airlines and observed many opportunities for improvement (a phrase we like to use in contact centers). So many in fact that I started taking notes on my phone. Without naming names, let’s go through my notes and talk about these opportunities. By the way, these align with the things we expect from our colleagues at FCR on every customer interaction.

My Comment: With all of the negative press that has come out on the airlines since the United incident a month ago, this article shares some positive insights and is a breath of fresh air. Jeremy Watkin shares seven observations from a recent flight that are excellent examples and lessons that you can apply to your businesses.

What a Customer First Strategy Means Today by Denyse Drummond-Dunn

(C3 Centricity) A customer first strategy is not so hard. Just think customer first in everything you do. So how come most businesses get it spectacularly wrong? I think the reason is because they don’t see the immediate return and it costs money to implement. What do you think?

My Comment: Here is a deeper dive into the concept of “Customer First.” There are plenty of stats and facts – and some charts – to back up the concept that a customer-focused approach should be at the top of your list for your organization’s culture and strategy.

The Exhaustive Guide to Dealing with Angry Customers by Harsh Vardhan

(Hiver) It is already a widely accepted fact that customer service can make or break a company. At the same time, how a company behaves while dealing with an angry customer is a huge determinant of how their brand is perceived.

My Comment: This is an excellent guide to dealing with angry customers. The article starts off with why customers get angry and has more than two dozen different ideas, tactics, tips, etc. to move that angry customer to one that is not just satisfied, but willing to share their positive experiences with their friends and colleagues. A great resource!

14 Customer Experience Stats That Just Might Blow Your Mind by Joanna Beerman

(Salesforce) According to research, brands are struggling to pull together a compelling experience. Based on insights from consumer surveys, there has never been a greater opportunity to redefine the customer experience, across marketing, sales and service.

My Comment: If you are a B2B operation, don’t think that this retail focused article isn’t for you. The information in this article is relevant to any type of business. These statistics and observations are not only what is happening in today’s world of business, but an indicator of how our customers want (or will want) to do business with us.

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

Save

Save

The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of May 8, 2017 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: Don’t Waste My Precious Time

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my colleague, Dan Rood, writes about the precious commodity of time and why we must use the latest technologies to help customers save time and have amazing customer experiences. I think a great self-service option is key for everyone. – Shep Hyken

Anyone who’s had to suffer the never-ending chore of navigating a phone tree will tell you that the experience is unpleasant — often made even worse by that disembodied voice repeating “your call is important to us” while your precious time ticks away. In case you think the horror is confined to voice interactions, don’t forget the sense of dread you feel when clicking through 13 webpages on your smartphone while your data charges rack up just to reach the appropriate contact button.

It’s no wonder that customers want to do more by themselves, saving them valuable time, money and effort. Three-quarters of U.S. adults surveyed expect to get an answer via self-service. Whether filling out an application for a loan or troubleshooting a technical problem, self-service functionality gives users more control and faster results. But not every company offers self-service options to its customers, which brings us back to more time-consuming and often irritating means of contact.

Time is the one thing nobody seems to have enough of in today’s world, and it’s infuriating to customers when you waste theirs.

Forrester Research reports that 73 percent of customers surveyed last year say the most important thing a company can do to provide good service is value their time. Common customer frustrations include having to repeatedly explain a problem to multiple people and the inability to find a quick answer to a simple question.

So, what can be done to address the problem? Forrester predicts that in 2017 “a new wave of technologies that remake industries and customer experience will begin to emerge.” These include:

Engagement technologies for digital experiences harmonized across all points in the customer journey.
Insight technologies that deliver personalization and predictive analytics.
Supporting technologies that will drive new levels of speed and efficiency.

That perfectly describes an omnichannel customer experience platform. While such a collection of engagement tools and capabilities may be new to some industries, they’re already well-established and advancing rapidly in the customer experience space.

It’s understood in our digital age that customers want to interact with vendors and service providers the same way they do with friends and colleagues—through conversations that originate and stretch across multiple channels (email, chat, web and social media). Think about it — consumers already manage all of their communication through one device. Omnichannel enables businesses to manage all types of customer experiences through one place, too. It provides for mutually aware channels in which context is shared throughout customer journeys. Properly implemented, omnichannel platforms guarantee that customers receive an individualized experience that considers their preferences and history and doesn’t require them to explain their problem more than once.

So why isn’t efficient and personalized customer experience the norm? The fact is that our technology innovation cycle has outpaced many companies. Customer experience technology is evolving to match changing customer behaviors, but legacy on-premise IT systems — with their long deployment and upgrade cycles and high capital costs — can’t be adapted quickly enough to integrate this new functionality.

Modern omnichannel platforms must use the power of the cloud.

Cloud platforms let organizations modernize customer contact operations quickly, without expensive and time-consuming hardware and software installation. They offer the following advantages:

Cloud applications allow for unlimited scale and accommodate state-of-the-art security.
Software updates are automatic and transparent.
Standardized web services and APIs for federating silos of data and connecting applications ease integration.
Cloud deployments are global by nature, freeing organizations to deploy resources for business growth.
Pay-as-you-go models curb operating expenses and eliminate the need for large up-front capital outlays.

The cloud also facilitates next-generation time-saving technology — the use of predictive analytics to further streamline customer interactions. The benefits of offering promotions based on known customer preferences are striking. For example, “According to a MyBuys study of more than 100 top internet retailers, recommending products in the shopping cart based on a user’s purchasing or browsing behavior resulted in a 915 percent increase in conversion rate.” Such personalization saves time and increases loyalty. Half of customers surveyed by Forrester rate personalized recommendations as the feature they would most like companies to offer.

Valuable predictive mechanisms extend beyond the retail sector and can be applied to omnichannel customer experience platforms for any enterprise. But they require systems that can “sift through massive sets of data to identify patterns and signals that can predict future behavior.” Such data-driven capabilities can only be delivered effectively via the cloud.

The lesson to companies is clear. Customer time is a precious commodity and respecting it in the modern age requires embracing the technologies that save it.

Dan Rood is the Senior Director, Product and Content Marketing at Genesys. He is passionate about creating memorable user experiences, resulting in tools that are valuable to businesses globally.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article: Six Ways Listening Improves The Customer Experience

The post Guest Blog: Don’t Waste My Precious Time appeared first on Shep Hyken.

How the Phone Is Answered Is an Important First Impression

When was the last time you called your business?

I recently spoke at a conference. After the speech, the client gave me a gift: the list of everyone in the audience with their contact information. She suggested I pick up the phone and let everyone know they should hire me to speak at their next meeting. (Now, that’s a nice gift!)

So, a week later our team picked up the phones and started “smiling and dialing.” We connected with a good number of the people who responded positively to our calls, but that’s not what this is about. It’s about how a company’s phones are answered – and you can probably guess, this is more rant than rave. The number of companies that messed up their first impression was ridiculously high. About a third of the way into the calls I realized we should have done a formal study.

To begin, there are two main ways the phone call could be answered: live or by an Interactive Voice Response system, also known as IVR.

Let’s talk about the live answered phone first. I’ll categorize a live response as either an operator who would connect me to the executive, or a direct number to the executive that is picked up by an assistant or voice mail. Most of these calls went well. The people answering the phone were pleasant and helpful. The voice mails were what you would expect: the executive leaving a friendly and direct message. And, on a few occasions we actually got through to the executive on the first try.

And, then there is the IVR. Not all Interactive Voice Response systems are created equal. One was great. You simply had to announce the name of the person you wished to speak with. The system confirmed your response, and then connected you to the person. Wonderful! But, some of the ways companies set up their IVRs were terrible. Having to listen to a menu of five or six, and sometimes more, choices can be frustrating. Some of the systems asked for us to key in the executive’s name. A few set up their IVR efficiently, and it was easy. But, in many cases where the phone was answered by a computer, it wasn’t.

The point of this is to make you think about the effort a customer – or anyone else – must make to reach someone in your company. It may sound like I’m against a computer answering a phone. No, that’s not the case. I’m against a computer – or a person – answering the phone if it creates any amount of difficulty for the person calling in. By the way, I also understand that an assistant must also be a gatekeeper whose job is to screen calls. Just handle the call well, with respect and diplomacy. Any friction or extra effort the customer goes through to reach their party starts the call at a deficit. The first impression of that interaction is ruined.

So, back to the original question: When is the last time you called your business? Take a minute to do this. Find out if it’s anything less than easy and efficient. If it is, what can you change to better manage this important interaction that sets the tone for whatever is to follow? What can you do to manage this Moment of Truth and create a Moment of Magic®?

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote 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

(Copyright © MMXVII, Shep Hyken)

Save

Save

The post How the Phone Is Answered Is an Important First Impression appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Amazing Business Radio: Chris McCann

Chris McCann, CEO of 1-800-Flowers, Shares How to Gain the Competitive Advantage

Can listening to your customers’ needs and wants actually provide a new strategic direction for your business?

Shep Hyken interviews Chris McCann, the President and CEO of 1-800-Flowers, who talks about how they built their business to more than a billion dollars in revenue based on customer feedback.



First Up:

Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on 1-800-Flowers’ competitive strengths, which all companies should be focusing on to provide outstanding customer service:

Provide amazing response times.
Think outside the box (or, in the case of 1-800-Flowers.com, thinking “outside the vase”).
Make doing business easy and seamless.
Exceed customers’ expectations, especially when responding to customer’s questions, problems, and complaints.

Featured Interview:

Shep begins his interview with Chris McCann, president and CEO of 1-800-Flowers, by asking what has given his company a unique advantage over other florists or other floral networks. Chris said that from the beginning, they tried to stay in touch with their customers to understand why they were doing business with them, and what customers expected and wanted. By listening to customers, they expanded their product line to include gourmet foods (rather than only floral arrangements) which has become more than half of their business.

They found that as they added these products, the customers didn’t buy less flowers, they only bought more often. The company constantly works to figure out, how to enhance the value that they bring to their customers? As a result, 1-800-Flowers went from being a retailer selling a product to becoming a value-added service solving customers’ gift-giving needs.

Top Takeaways:

Getting thousands of independent business owners to join a network – When 1-800-Flowers started out, they weren’t trying to build a network of thousands of florists. Instead, they started working with people who knew the industry, who had design capabilities, and were hired for their commitment to customer service. Once they mastered that strategy, they expanded their network into thousands of independent business owners that represent their brand.
Response times – 1-800-Flowers has a service level target of handling 80 percent of phone calls within 20 seconds (3 rings). They respond to an email within two hours. Customer expectations on social media are very different. The company’s initial response target is 5 minutes. As Chris McCann says, “We’re in the business of delivering smiles. A smile for some emotional reason. People can’t sit and wait, wondering what is going to happen when they try to tell a loved one ‘I love you’.”
Gifts When You Need (GWYN) – 1-800-Flowers worked with IBMs’ Watson platform to create GWYN, an early-stage artificial intelligence (AI) product. GWYN gives customers the ability to interact with her via text in a conversational manner to find the right gift for the right person at the right time. Further, the amount of learning they are getting from GWYN allows them to constantly tweak their questions based on the responses they are getting from their customers.

About:

Chris McCann has been 1-800Flowers’ President since September 2000 and Chief Executive Officer since June 2016. Mr. McCann is a member of the Board of Trustees of Marist College.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert , best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

“Always ask yourself, ‘What is the job the customer is hiring us to do?’ When we know what that is, it’s pretty simple.” – Chris McCann

 

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

How can artificial intelligence (AI) impact the customer experience?
How do you gain a competitive advantage on your competition?
How does 1-800-Flowers use technology to improve the customer experience?
How can you prepare for your industries busy season?
How can innovation impact the customer experience?

Save

Save

The post Amazing Business Radio: Chris McCann appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of May 1, 2017

Each week I read a number of customer service and experience 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.

1 simple reason why every business should be on Twitter by Mark Shaw

(Mark Shaw) I got into some Twitter banter with a friend from Twitter, Gregg Weiss @greggweiss at the top of Greg’s profile is his pinned tweet. This to me is perhaps the single most important reason why brands and businesses need to be on Twitter.

My Comment: If you’ve been following me at all you know I’m a huge fan of social media customer care. If a company doesn’t have a presence on Twitter, they are missing a huge opportunity, and this article is proof of that. It’s short and sweet and makes the case for why every type of business needs to be on Twitter (and any other social channel for that matter).

3 Tips for Successful Social Customer Service by Krysta Gahagen

(TotalRetail) These trends combine to mean that social media is an increasingly important factor in retail brand differentiation. Consumers seek on-demand customer service as they shop both online and offline.

My Comment: When an author tells me that I’m about to read an article that is going to give me a lesson (or three) from icons in the customer service world (such as Nordstrom and Zappos), I take notice, and you should, too.

5 Ways Offline Retailers Can Compete in Amazon’s World by Zach Goldstein

(Colloquy)  The online-shopping giant may have won the retail battle, but brick-and-mortar stores can use data to win the war. In-store shopping lives on, but technology will dramatically change what it looks like.

My Comment: How can a retailer compete with Amazon? How can any type of business compete with a competitor that is ten times larger (or more)? While this article focuses on retailers competing against Amazon, it is a lesson for any type of business in any industry.

Customer Experience is the New Marketing and Customer Experiences are the New Brand by Brian Solis

(Brian Solis) My friends Rob Cottingham, Gerard Francis Corbett and I have had some fun lately. One way to gain perspective on our modern reality is to do so through humor. So when a several big brands in the beverage, transportation, banking and airline industries were suddenly in the global media hot seat, we had a laugh and productive conversations behind the scenes. As a result, we set out to build upon these unfortunate opportunities with a couple of pithy but poignant cartoons hoping to spark a bigger dialogue. Our goal was to not further chastise brands, but instead call attention to the fact that every company can, at any point, fall to the experiences that customers have and share.

My Comment: Not only is this article filled with important information about how to focus on the customer experience (CX), it is also entertaining. So laugh a little, or at least smile, while you learn a lot from Brian Solis and his friends.

7 Tips to Turn First Time Shoppers Into Repeat Customers by Richard Shapiro

(TCFTR) Brick & mortar retailers are complaining about the dramatic reduction in customer traffic.  But, very few companies have a plan in place to turn a first time shopper into a repeat customer. In fact, most companies don’t have that concept, creating repeat business, front and center as a vital piece of their overall approach.  Most repeat purchases are a result of either convenience, the store is in a good location or the store is offering a promotion.  Repeat business is not built on a foundation of customer loyalty. Repeat business by accident is a failed strategy and missed opportunity.

My Comment: Every interaction we have with a customer is an opportunity to build customer loyalty. This is especially true the very first time a customer does business with us. What are we doing at that moment that will make sure that customer comes back the next time they need what we sell? Here’s seven tips that any business (not just retailers) can use to help bring the customer back next time, every time.

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

Save

The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of May 1, 2017 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: Why Does My Customer Service Team Need a Single Customer View?

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my colleague, Murph Krajewski, writes about the importance of a single customer view when it comes to serving your customers. This will help lead you to forming important relationship with your customer.  – Shep Hyken

Customer service needs customer data

Priceless customer information is generated every time a customer interacts with you.

The question is: are you collecting it, storing it in a centrally-accessible “source of truth,” and using it to create a complete understanding of your customer? What we’re talking about here is a single customer view.

John Rampton, entrepreneur and investor, defines single customer view as:

❝…an accessible and consistent set of information about how a customer has interacted with your company, including what they have bought, their personal data, opinions, and feedback.❞

Over the course of multiple customer service interactions, this pool of customer data becomes an increasingly valuable asset. Having a full account of historical information and tools to help you get insight from it lets you tune your operations to provide intimate customer experiences.  These discrete experiences become the building-blocks of customer loyalty.

Bruce Springsteen once said:

❝Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.❞

It’s hard to argue with the Boss, and even though his context was music the principle remains the same. People appreciate consistency, which makes inconsistent customer experiences a problem.

A single customer view allows every frontline agent to have an up-to-date, 360-degree view of a customer. This makes it easy for an agent to form a connection with a customer and treat them like the individual they are. Do this time after time, and you’re now forming a relationship.

Let’s start connecting some dots.

The right contact center technology for a SCV

By and large, the only way to ensure the personal connection customers demand is to tap into all the data that’s being generated every time they contact you. I won’t sugarcoat it…that’s a lot of data, and dealing with it isn’t child’s play. The good news is, a powerful customer experience platform can provide a clear look into the realm of Big Data.

Rampton adds:

❝To achieve this single customer view, an organization must have some type of system that unifies all the available information on that customer.❞

Too many companies aren’t working with a SCV, aren’t doing so as well as they could, or are collecting information but doing so in disparate, disconnected systems for voice, text, email, web chat, and social media.

The right technology will help you bring cross-channel customer information together, eliminate channel/organizational silos holding valuable data hostage from your team, and gain a complete picture of each individual customer’s entire journey.

Simply gathering data is a half-measure, though. Think of it like buying a giant telescope, pointing it at the heavens, and never putting your eye up to it. Once you have this rich data, the right system will also have tools to process, view, and draw actual insight from it.

Once you’ve gotten a look into the data, you can accurately plot a goal for customer experience based on what your customers actually want. Next, you may need to re-tool some existing processes or systems to reach that goal.

Challenges to achieving SCV

Many customer service teams face significant challenges holding them back from realizing a complete customer view, including:

Unifying disparate systems. More than one third (34%) of companies say that difficulty unifying different sources of customer data is one of the main obstacles in delivering a great customer experience. The challenge today is finding ways to get systems which were designed to operate autonomously in the past to work together as a single, well-oiled machine.
Relying on outdated legacy systems. Legacy call center solutions—and data collection technologies and processes—can’t keep pace with changing customer behaviors and the new communication channels they’re using to connect with businesses. At some point, you’ll have to replace these systems. The good news here is that modern technology has evolved to the point where you can fix legacy problems and prepare for the future at the same time.
Looking at single customer view as a one-off project. SCV is anything but a one-time thing. It’s is an investment in your future. You’re not simply plugging-in technology. You’re re-prioritizing… beginning with your most important asset (your customers) and working backward.

If these barriers sound familiar, if you’re even nonchalantly nodding in agreement, you’re not alone–83% of companies struggle to link customer information across channels.

Providing real-time, contextual service for each customer relationship isn’t easy, and there’s no shortcut. However, given that Millennials are now the largest living generation, the largest generation in the work force, and the largest spending generation, businesses have to find a way to suit the expectations. (Author’s note: though I’m a GenXer, myself, I confess that the Millennial world has changed the way I think about being a customer. It’s not ALL about Millennials.)

With the “digital native” generation now squarely in the majority, the rest of the world must flex. For businesses, a single customer view is the way to keep track of the fast-moving change that is now the new normal.

Customers pick and choose how they communicate

Customers have more choices than ever before. With virtually any communication channel available at their fingertips, customers want to dictate when, where, and how they will contact the customer service department. Your task is to know their preferences, and to be ready to provide the same quality of support regardless of when and where a customer reaches out.

Recent Forrester data shows that in the past 12 months, the following percentage of U.S. online customers have used these channels for service:

84% used web/mobile self-service or FAQs
83% used the phone
76% used email
65% used chat
56% used communities
43% used Twitter

“Responding quickly” is rated by customers as the most critical aspect of a great customer experience, so agents need to be equipped to support each of these media types with instant access to the same customer information.

The line separating how customers expect to interact with brands vs. how they communicate with friends and family is blurring. Customers today expect their interactions with companies to be as easy, personal, quick, and satisfying as if they were calling a family member or friend for advice or a favor.

When I text my friend about getting together for lunch, I expect to get a text message back fairly quickly, in a continued conversation. We’ll work out a time, then pick a place.  Done.

Over time, this level of instant response has conditioned people to have the same kind of mentality when it comes to interacting with their favorite brands.

Donna Fluss, founder and president of DMG Consulting, says:

❝Customers do not understand organizations not having one standardized view of all their interactions.❞

Similarly, customers expect to contact a company however they choose, and to be able to receive service on that channel, right then. And they expect the agent they speak with to know their full history with the company–from the moment they connect.

Conclusion

Ultimately, achieving a single customer view will require researching and studying your customers. You’ll have to make your customer service operations, contact center technology, and company culture all point to the target of a satisfied, loyal customer. The value and usability of all the data you’re collecting will skyrocket–as will your agent satisfaction, overall CSAT, and customer loyalty (the holy grail of sales).

Orchestrating a SCV is crucial. Check out more resources that show how “Not Knowing Your Customer is Costing You.” These will elaborate on this post, and help you get started on your path to really knowing and serving your customers.

Murph Krajewski is the Vice President of Marketing for Sharpen, a cloud-native contact center platform that helps companies create perfect customer experiences and improve agent satisfaction.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article: Social Customer Care Is The New Marketing

The post Guest Blog: Why Does My Customer Service Team Need a Single Customer View? appeared first on Shep Hyken.

It’s a Little Thing… But It Makes a Difference

Every week I stay at different hotels around the world as I travel for my speaking engagements. And, every morning I get up in these hotels and take a shower. I reach in to turn the knob for the water, which is usually a few feet below the showerhead. I turn the knob to what I hope is the correct water temperature and pull my arm out just as fast as I can – to avoid the cold water that is about to shoot out of the nozzle and hit my arm or other parts of my body.

Okay, that doesn’t seem like a big deal – and it’s not. That is, until you experience something better.

On one of those mornings, many years ago, I noticed that the housekeeper had turned the shower head toward the wall so that the guest – that’s me – wouldn’t have to experience the cold water that first came spraying out of the shower. Such a small thing, but a thoughtful and much appreciated gesture.

Small, but what a brilliant customer focused idea. And, it may seem like a little thing, but it makes a difference. Since that time, every time I turn on the shower I look to see if the shower head is aimed at my arm below or at the wall. If it’s aimed straight down, I’ll turn it away.

Now, how many times do you think I’ve had to turn it away? You probably guessed, almost every time.

This simple act of turning the shower head toward the wall so the guest won’t get sprayed with cold water would take the housekeeping staff two seconds. That’s it!

There are some hotels that have figured this out. One morning I reached in to turn on the shower and didn’t see the knob. Where could it be? On the opposite wall! The wall that didn’t have a shower head looming above it, waiting to spray me with cold water. I smiled and took my time turning on the water.

That was just a little improvement. A nuance of a positive change. Very, very minor, but it made me think, “Why can’t this be the norm? Why is almost every shower, in almost every hotel I’ve stay in, not designed this way?” This is a rhetorical question. I don’t need an answer.

With today’s acute focus on the customer experience, the best companies are paying very close attention as they design the customer experience. They look for ways to improve the experience or avoid a mistake. Something as simple as putting the knob on the opposite wall of the shower head, or at least turning the shower head toward the wall, is an example of a minor improvement that may go unnoticed, until it later is.

So, what’s your organization’s version of the shower head? Where can you make a minor change that improves the customer’s experience, if even just a tiny bit? Talk about it with your colleagues. Brainstorm it. And, then make it happen. Here’s to a better, even just a tiny bit better, customer experience!

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote 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

(Copyright © MMXVII, Shep Hyken)

Save

Save

Save

Save

The post It’s a Little Thing… But It Makes a Difference appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Amazing Business Radio: Scott Moorehead

Scott Moorehead on How Your Company Can Do Better with a Culture of Good

Can your business do better by doing good?

Shep interviews Scott Moorehead, co-author of Build A Culture of Good: Unleash Results by Letting Your Employees Bring Their Soul to Work, who discovered that it is possible, as he went through a process that reignited passion and loyalty in his employees.

 

First Up:

Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on the benefits of being part of something bigger than yourself – when you give back to your community, if not the world. And, when you do this right, two things happen:

Your customers appreciate that you are willing to give back and reciprocate by doing more business with you.
It creates a feeling of fulfillment, especially to your employees, when they recognize that the company they work for is doing something bigger and better than just trying to make money.

Our willingness to give back to the community may be our best measure of our success.

Featured Interview:

Shep begins his interview by asking Scott Moorehead to tell about his journey which led him to create a Culture of Good. Scott shared that when you have a company with under a hundred employees, it’s easy to have camaraderie, trust, and fun and he didn’t want to lose that as his company grew.

As Scott’s company got larger, none of the new employees knew what it was like to be part of the experience in the beginning. What used to be a very small, family-owned, Midwestern values-based company was becoming a big company with a lot of bureaucracy and less trust. Policies and procedures needed to be implemented. The environment began to feel more robotic. People started to feel less valued.

So, Scott set out to create a Culture of Good for his company, the largest Verizon Authorized Retailer’s (3,000 employees at 800 stores) in the U.S. What began as a movement—in which employees have done everything from dressing up as superheroes for a children’s hospital to distributing hundreds of thousands of backpacks for kids—has grown into a business teaching other companies that inspired employees can ignite positive change in the world and at the same time, positively impact the bottom line.

Top Takeaways:

Scott knew what his employees were signing up for (a paycheck), but if he expected them to stay, he also had to give them a why.
Your why is all about what is making the people who work for your organization want to stay and want to care.
Scott needed to determine the answer to two key questions: 1) What is our company purpose? 2) What is our company’s greater mission? If the mission was simply to make more money, that mission will not keep people in their jobs.

About:

Scott Moorehead, co-author of Build A Culture of Good: Unleash Results by Letting Your Employees Bring Their Soul to Work, is the co-founder of Culture of Good, Inc., and also the CEO of TCC Verizon. Scott is a recognized thought leader on what it takes to create and develop purposeful for-profit organizations that abide by the philosophy of doing well by doing good.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert , best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

“Unleash your business by allowing your employees to bring their soul to work.” – Scott Moorehead

    

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

Can your company do better by doing good?
Why should a company give back to the community?
What is a Culture of Good?
Why should companies care about implementing a “culture of good?”
How can companies build their own culture of good?
How can you motivate your employees to be passionate about their job/company?

Save

The post Amazing Business Radio: Scott Moorehead appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 24, 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.

Hidden Secrets of Exceptional Customer Service From Amazon, PriceFixer, Netflix and Tesla You Could use to Command Your Customers’ Loyalty by Vicky Law

(The Huffington Post) Practical lessons any business could learn from the way big and successful companies have nurtured and retained their customer base by inspiring loyalty.

My Comment: Want to learn from some of the masters of customer service? Then read this article as the author shares some valuable tips from companies like Tesla, Amazon, Netflix and more. Great information that any company can profit from.

2017 Customer Service Expectations Survey by Gladly

(Gladly) Trends and insights from surveying 1000 consumers on customer service.

My Comment: Our friends at Gladly have released their 2017 Customer Expectations Survey. This is a short synopsis of the report with some very interesting stats and facts. After you read this, you will want to download the full report. It has some fascinating information. Keeping up with our customers’ expectations is crucial to the future of our business!

How To Power A Better, More Personalized Customer Experience by Manuel Vellon

(Forbes) While attending CES 2017 in Las Vegas, I spent a lot of time meandering around slot machines looking for meeting rooms, restaurants and taxi stands. I couldn’t help but think that casinos and other large hotels would benefit from a far superior customer experience akin to the indoor navigation technology used by Carnival’s Ocean Medallion project. This project, announced in the CES keynote, provides not only better navigation, but also personalized service, tailored recommendations and many other guest benefits.

My Comment: A “personalized” customer experience is a hot topic. There are many ways a company can give a custom feel to the customer’s experience. This short, but excellent, article shares some valuable fundamentals for building an experience that gets your customers to come back again and again.

Why Customer Support and Loyalty Initiatives are Worth the Investment by Josh Brown

(LiveAgent) When a customer makes a purchase, they’re not just paying you for the product they’re walking away with. They’re paying for the service they receive from the moment they show an interest in what you have to offer to the moment they shell out their hard-earned cash – and beyond.

My Comment: Is customer service worth the investment? This is actually a rhetorical question, but if you want proof, then read this article. Great stats and facts that make the case for putting some dollars behind your customer service and loyalty initiatives.

Taking a chance in Service Training by Cassie McInnes

(LinkedIn) Key take-out: Great service doesn’t start with the CEO, your manager or your partner. It starts with you. Don’t get me wrong, if your leadership team or CEO drives Service, it will help dramatically. However, if we all take responsibility for Service, starting from ourselves – we can all commit to making the world better – not just your organization.

My Comment: Cassie’s McInnes is a performance consultant at the Red Cross in Australia and has an incredible passion for customer service. I’ve been reading her articles over the last year or two and thought she should be introduced to our readers and followers of this column. Cassie writes about how what she is doing to help her organization develop a customer service culture. This article is her take on customer service training and is a great introduction to her work.

BONUS

Top 10 Customer Service Blogs to Follow in 2017 by Daniela Puzzo

(Fonolo) Since Fonolo is a popular customer service blog contributor, we understand how hard it can be to find top-notch content from reputable sources. To save our dedicated readers some valuable time, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 customer service blogs to follow.

My Comment: It is truly an honor to be on Fonolo’s “Top Ten Customer Service Blogs to Follow in 2017!” (Thank you, Fonolo!) And in addition to them recommending my blog, there are nine other bloggers you may consider following. This is a great resource. Tons of great information for all of us to learn from. Thank you Fonolo for putting together the list, and thank you again for including me.

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 April 24, 2017 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: How to Handle a Know-It-All

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my colleague, Dianna Booher, shares ideas for handling tough personalities while offering great customer service. Solving customer problems is expected. The key is to do it in such a way that also restores confidence, even when the customer is difficult. – Shep Hyken

Know-it-alls walk the halls at almost every organization—from the basement to the executive floor. It’s not their title or expertise that’s the problem. Most everyone welcomes helpful information or experience when solving a problem. It’s the Know-it-all customer’s attitude and manner that gives you heartburn.

Know-it-all nastiness feels like a brick wall when you bump into it. “That’s impossible.” “No way!” “Doesn’t work that way.” “Let me be perfectly clear….” “The only way this will work is to ….”

So the first step in communicating with a Know-It-All is to assess whether you’re dealing with a real expert or a wanna-be. If you’re dealing with a pseudo-expert, then note what they have to say and go your own way.

But when dealing with a real expert who also happens to have a know-it-all attitude, you often face a dilemma—or several—in offering great customer service:

You may need their expertise to solve the problem with their account.
As your team member, their consensus may be necessary before you can move forward to solve a customer problem.
As your team member, they may have the power to sabotage your solution.

So here are a few techniques to communicate with a Know-It-All when you need to depend on their expertise:

Use Questions Rather Than Statements

The Know-It-All’s resolve stiffens when challenged. You’ll get much further by acknowledging their superior expertise on a topic and posing a question than by making a direct statement that challenges something they’ve said:  “Tyler, I know you’ve spent years on installing products like this for large clients, and I hear what you’re saying about typical implementations taking at least six months. I’m wondering if you’ve ever seen an installation done in a shorter time frame? Say, when the client had experienced staff working alongside the contractor?”

Notice that you’re still allowing the Know-It-All to be the final decision maker/expert with his or her answer to your question.

Give a Face-Saving Reason to Change Their Mind

If you intend to get a Know-It-All to change her mind, let her save face by offering a good reason: “You may not have seen the latest report that came out earlier today, but in light of that data, I’m thinking that we should do X.” Or:  “I don’t know if you were in the client meeting and heard what MaryAnn said about the new budget restraints. So it may be a good idea to change our approach to ….”

With such a lead-in, the Know-It-All can easily respond with, “Well, in that case, sure. I wasn’t aware that …,” keeping her ego still intact.

Lead Them to Argue “The Other Side”

On occasion, your expertise can be so limited on a technical topic that you can’t challenge a Know-It-All—yet you do need to know what alternative opinions and approaches exist. A good way to air more than one expert opinion—even when you yourself are not an expert—is to get the Know-It-All to present both sides of an argument.

For example: You may ask an attorney, “Sarah, is our organization libel for damages in this situation?”

Attorney Sarah:  “No, definitely not. The customer had been told twice not to enter that area of the warehouse. Also we had a ‘Danger’ sign posted.”

You: “That’s good to know because I’m certainly not an attorney. And it sounds reasonable to me. But one more question: Would all attorneys agree with you on that? What’s the attorney for the customer going to say? He’ll likely have a different opinion.”

Attorney Sarah: “Well, the client’s attorney will probably argue that we should have….”

And then Sarah will go on to give you the opposing legal opinion on the situation.

This technique works whether you’re talking about engineering, piloting, or selling. Works well with the Know-It-All when you need all expert opinions on the table.

Allow Time for Reflection

Sometimes, it’s best to pose a question or different approach in writing and suggest that the Know-It-All come back to you later after considering the new idea. Allowing time for reflection gives the person time to come up with a face-saving reason for changing his or her mind. After all, you don’t care why they change their mind—just as long as they give you their best thinking with minimal drama.

Dianna Booher works with organizations to help them communicate clearly and with leaders to expand their influence by a strong executive presence.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article: United Airlines Debacle Teaches Valuable Social Media Customer Care Lesson

Save

Save

The post Guest Blog: How to Handle a Know-It-All appeared first on Shep Hyken.