Shep Hyken's Blog, page 171

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 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.

Customer Service Track Shines at Social Media Marketing World by Dan Gingiss

(Winning at Social) Although it is, at its essence, a marketing conference, the annual Social Media Marketing World gathering in San Diego is constantly adapting in step with the ever-changing world of social media. In 2016, the conference organizers added a Customer Service track to the list of 20 or so other tracks. This year, attendance at several Customer Service sessions reportedly doubled from last year.

My Comment: The Social Media Marketing World 2017 conference concluded just over a week ago, and one of the major tracks was the social customer care track, headed up by Dan Gingiss and Daniel Lemin. This is a hot topic and Dan wrote a short, but very informative summary of some of the overarching concepts. I was honored to speak at the conference (Thanks Dan and Daniel!), and while there is a short summary of my presentation, he also highlights some of the takeaways from Jay Baer and Blake Morgan, two other experts in the industry.

Improve your work relationships by stealing a page from customer service by Lisa Quast 

(Seattle Times) Whether you work with external customers or internal employees, now is the time to put your customers at the center of everything you do.

My Comment: When employees are treated the right way, they treat the customers the right way. The concept of internal customer service is important, yet it is often overlooked as part of the customer service and experience strategy. This short article makes the case for why internal service is important and teaches us a few questions we should be asking our fellow employees (internal customers).

10 Traits of a Great Hotel Front Desk Agent by Rupesh Patel

(SmartGuests) How do we know if the front desk person we just hired is the right fit for the job? Do they have hotel experience? Did they come from another hotel? Are they bringing negative vibes or bad habits from their last job? In this article, I share the ten things that can make your front desk agents stand out.

My Comment: Here is a short article with ten tips from hotelier Rupesh Patel. One of the most powerful ways to think of customer service is with a “hospitality mentality.” There is a lot that any company in any industry can learn from the hotel and hospitality industry.

Want Loyal Customers? Prioritize Your Customer Service With These 4 Tactics. by AJ Agrawal 

(Entrepreneur) What makes a brand strong in 2017? If you’re thinking top-notch social media strategy and cutting-edge product development you’re not wrong — but you’re still overlooking a critical component: customer service.

My Comment: This excellent article has four insights you must consider if you want to deliver better customer service. Develop customer insights, get feedback, be transparent and create a welcoming environment – simple and time-tested concepts that will help any company drive more customer loyalty.

Customer Experience Spring Cleaning: Your 5 Best Investments by Blake Morgan

(Forbes) Customer experience is something many of us take for granted. We don’t really think about it until someone points it out. Then we see it everywhere. Good or bad. I feel like someone who has been to the dark side. I’ve seen too much. I know too much. So everywhere I go it’s all I see. Whether customer experiences are abominable or amazing, I spot them right away.

My Comment: Customer experience expert, Blake Morgan, shares a list of five trends impacting customer experience. It’s a quick read and may give you the idea you need to take your organization’s customer experience to the next level.

BONUS

New Guide for Customer Service: How to Exceed Expectations of the Modern Consumer by Jenny Roy

(Gladly) With a competitive marketplace and a consumer base that is making an array of decisions each day, brands need to prioritize customer service and ensure that they’re offering their customers the best possible experience. By failing to exceed customer expectations, brands are making themselves vulnerable to losing business.

My Comment: Our friends at Gladly shared a short article and some slides with quotes from some fellow customer service/experience experts (including myself). The focus is on personalization, which is a hot topic in customer service.

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

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Guest Blog: How to Give Your Service Mantra Real Meaning

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my colleague, Jeff Toister, explains why creating a customer service mantra is essential. When it comes to your customer service promise and vision, every member of your organization must be in alignment. – Shep Hyken

A customer service mantra is a powerful part of any service culture. It’s a statement that describes the type of service everyone in your organization should strive to provide. Having one can give your employees clear direction.

I like to ask audiences I speak to for examples of companies with customer-focused cultures. A lot of companies make the list every single time and they all have service mantras:

Zappos: Powered by Service
The Ritz-Carlton: We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.
JetBlue Airways: Inspire Humanity

Employees at these companies are absolutely obsessed with customer service. They take pride in their brand, support their coworkers, and go out of their way to help customers. Somehow, employees at these companies always seem to do the right thing.

This might lull you into thinking you can create a customer service mantra for your organization and Presto! you’ll magically have a customer-focused culture too.

But simply having one isn’t enough.

The real secret of these amazing companies is their mantras have deep meaning for employees who use it to guide their daily actions.

Here’s how you can give your service mantra real meaning too.

Step 1: Clarify the Meaning

I once worked with a credit union that had recently created a customer service mantra. The credit union hired me to assess how well employees knew the mantra and recommend some next steps.

My study found that 95 percent of employees could recite the mantra word-for-word!

That’s pretty impressive, but there was still a big challenge. Nobody agreed on what the mantra actually meant! Even the credit union’s CEO disagreed with his top executives on the meaning.

It’s critical that everyone understands what the mantra means so they can use it to guide their actions. One way to do this is through the use of stories that exemplify the mantra.

For example, you may have heard the story about a Zappos customer service representative spending 10 hours on a call with one customer. It’s an extreme example, but it tells the story of what the Powered by Service mantra means.

Another great way to clarify your mantra’s meaning is to offer training to help all employees give consistent answers to these three questions:

What is our mantra?
What does it mean?
How can I contribute?

Step 2: Empower Your Employees

Many people think of employee empowerment as giving people authority to serve their customers, but that’s only part of it.

Empowerment consists of three things:

Authority
Resources
Procedures

One of my favorite brands is In-N-Out Burger. Their service mantra consists of just three words: Quality, Cleanliness, and Courtesy.

In-N-Out employees have the authority to take care of their customers. For example, there’s a not-so-secret secret menu where they’ll make your burger just the way you like it so long as they have the ingredients.

They also have extensive resources in high-quality, fresh food and plenty of staffing to keep each story running. In-N-Out also has carefully documented and trained procedures for nearly every facet of its operation that ensure a consistent and high-quality product and experience.

Step 3: Reinforce, Reinforce, Reinforce

Chances are you had a combination locker in high school.

Back then, you could open it in seconds without even thinking. But what about now? Assuming the combination hasn’t changed, most of us couldn’t get our lockers open no matter how much time we’re given.

That’s how our memories work. We retain information we consistently use and forget information we no longer need.

This means the only way to ensure your employees remember the customer service mantra is to repeatedly reinforce it. There are three big ways to do this:

Model it, so employees see you lead by example.
Communicate it often, so employees hear it repeated.
Align it with strategy, so employees must live it.

Conclusion

Creating a customer service mantra is essential, but the only way it will guide your employees’ actions is if it has real meaning.

Jeff Toister is a consultant, trainer, and author of The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article: The Best Loyalty Programs Go Beyond Rewards

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Social Customer Care Cannot Be Ignored

Just last week I attended Social Media Marketing World in San Diego. So, what does a social media marketing conference have to do with customer service? Plenty!

It’s been said that customer service is the new marketing. If that is true – and it is – then social media customer service is the updated version of that. And, if you’ve been following my work, you’ve heard me talk or write about how social media is a viable way to deliver amazing customer service. Regardless of the customer interacting with you in person, on your website or through social media channels, the experience should be one that brings the customer back, and more important, gets the customer to talk about you to their friends and colleagues. Customer service done right is one of your best marketing strategies. And, social customer service allows you to take the interactions with your customers to an even higher level.

This is the second year in a row that Social Media Marketing World has had a social customer care track. A special thank you to Dan Gingiss and the SMMW team for putting this together. It is proof that social customer care is something that companies cannot ignore. Social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. have gone from being an alternative channel for customer service to a primary channel. So, if you aren’t already tied into social media customer service, the time to do it is… Now! Here are a few simple strategies that any and all companies can do to stay “social” with their customer service.

Start by having an account on social channels. I’m amazed at how many companies choose not to participate on social media. This is no longer an option! And, when I’m asked which channel a company should participate on, I respond with a simple answer: “Wherever your customers are.”
Monitor those channels to catch any mentions of your company. This can be done with various software programs, some that are even free. You want to know whenever anyone says anything about your company – in real time.
Respond to all mentions, not just complaints. One of the worst things a company can do is ignore comments – especially complaints. Social media is a public forum. If someone leaves a comment, there will be others watching for a response. While this is especially important if a customer complains, all comments should be acknowledged and responded to.
Respond quickly. If you are going to respond to every post, as you should, do it correctly. That means respond quickly. Don’t wait for hours, or even days. Respond within an hour – ideally within a few minutes.
Be real. When responding to comments and complaints, make it personal. In other words, don’t use copied and pasted responses. People are watching and you’ll get caught with canned, impersonal responses that make it look like you don’t truly care about your customers.
Proactively engage with your community. This means you don’t wait for a customer to post something about your company. Your brand needs to push out content to customers that is interesting and relevant. This is not blatant promotion, like a discount coupon. Just provide great information that adds value to your customers. Some call this marketing, and I won’t disagree. But, then I go back to what I mentioned in the beginning, customer service is marketing!

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)

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Amazing Business Radio: Anthony Goonetilleke

Anthony Goonetilleke Discusses How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Customer Service

Do you want to embrace technology and provide your customers a better experience?

Shep Hyken interviews Anthony Goonetilleke, the President of the Amdocs Product Business Group.

First Up:

Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how companies are currently incorporating artificial intelligence into their customer experience. For example, 1-800 Flowers uses GWIN, which is powered by IBM’s AI system known as Watson, to help you pick out gifts. GWIN asks you questions, you give “her” answers, and then “she” makes recommendations to you based on the answers you give.

Shep says that if you are not onboard with artificial intelligence, don’t understand it, and are not at least considering AI for your business, then you may find yourself playing catch up with your competition. You want to be ahead of the game.

Featured Interview:

Shep begins his interview with Anthony Goonetilleke by asking if we have reached the point of HAL, the computer in 2001 A Space Odyssey? Should we be nervous or scared of that type of technology?

Anthony Goonetilleke says rather than being intimidated by new technology, we need to reach the customer where they are. For too long, we have thought that if you need to interface with Company X, you should be required to use the customer service application from Company X. But Millennials and Generation Z want more convenient service on the technologies that they prefer. If they are on Twitter, they want to tweet something out. If they are on Facebook, they will want to message or post on there. When you talk about the customer experience, you can incorporate a layer of intelligence and then start adding these various channels on top.

It is important to note that we don’t even know what channels will be available two years from now. But once you have the proper framework built to provide a customer experience system, adding these unique channels when they become available, should be just like adding an a la carte menu.

Artificial intelligence should interact with you as though you are communicating with another human. This is because AI can know who you are, your story, and has the ability to contextually learn what’s going on. For example, if all you need to do is change your billing address, rather than calling and waiting on hold for 10 minutes to talk to a person, using AI can get you through this basic customer service interaction in a matter of seconds.

Top Takeaways:

Artificial Intelligence tools are available today. What we are in the process of doing is stitching them together in the right way, to make the process seem more human.
A lot of developmental work is also being done within artificial intelligence trying to analyze customer sentiments and conversations. A frustrated customer is a great precursor to churn. The faster you can determine the frustration the better the experience will be for the customer.
Artificial intelligence won’t take jobs away from people. Artificial intelligence won’t replace humans, but it will replace many basic tasks that humans don’t want to do.

About:

Anthony Goonetilleke is the Group President – Chief Technologist and Head of Product at Amdocs. Amdocs is a leading software & services provider to the world’s most successful communications and media companies, enabling their digital and network transformation through innovative solutions, delivery expertise and intelligent operations.

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

 “There is a big revolution going on right now. It’s the digitization of the network, the virtualization of the network. This will have a material impact on the customer experience, because it will just happen, you won’t have to think about it.” – Anthony Goonetilleke

      

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

How are companies currently using artificial intelligence (AI)?
How will artificial intelligence revolutionize customer service?
Will artificial intelligence take away jobs from people?
How can we use artificial intelligence to reduce customer turnover?
Can artificial intelligence recognize customer’s emotions and sentiment?

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5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of March 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.

Customer Experience, Innovation and the Slow Death of Famed Brands by Augie Ray

(Which-50 ) Now is perhaps a good time to look back and consider how Sears’ struggles are similar to those of other famed brands that failed, such as Borders, Kodak and Circuit City. We can also look at those competitive brands that have, if not flourished, at least survived, such as Barnes & Noble, Fujifilm, and Best Buy.

My Comment: In 1984 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, Jr. wrote one of the great business books of all time, “In Search of Excellence.” The focus was on the 43 best run companies from the Fortune 500. Today many of those companies are gone. This article takes on the same topic and recognizes the main reason some of the greatest brands of today may not be around in the near future. The reason comes in the form of a question: Is your brand preparing for tomorrow’s customers’ needs?”

5 New Rules To Winning The Customer Loyalty In The Digital Age by Shama Hyder

(Forbes) Traditionally, the approach to creating customer loyalty has had a particular formula and countenance. It looked like a mix of good advertising, good values, and good product. And though that formula is still important, there are other considerations that businesses can’t afford to neglect.

My Comment: Loyalty in the “digital age”… is it really that different from any other age? Sure, things have changed, but the fundamentals can still be found in many of the “new ways” we approach creating customer loyalty. They just need to be updated to keep up, and this excellent article includes five ways to do exactly that.

100 Call Center Management Tips: Expert Insights and Advice for Hiring and Training Call Center Agents, Motivating and Engaging Your Team, Workforce Management, Technology, the Metrics That Matter, and More by Robert Stanley

(Callminer) From hiring for the right fit to effective training, motivating and engaging your team, workforce management, and more, we’ve rounded up 101 tips and sage advice from some of the most influential leaders in call center management, leadership, customer service, and more.

My Comment: This is a HUGE list of 100 tips. While they focus on the contact center world, many of them are appropriate for any company (and department) that is customer-focused.

NPSBenchmarks.com Becomes The World’s First Open Source Net Promoter® Benchmarking Community by Cvetilena Gocheva

(LinkedIn) Leading Net Promoter® community challenges the status quo by providing a free and open space repository for NPS benchmarking.

My Comment: Have you ever wondered how your company compares to some of the iconic brands like Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Starbucks and many others? Our friends at CustomerGauge have a report that you can download (for free) that includes the Net Promoter Scores of these brands and many others (more than 2,000). Also included are articles with many tips and ideas to help increase your organization’s score!

1 Lesson Every Entrepreneur Can Learn From Elon Musk On Customer Experience by Lisa Calhoun

(Inc.) Tesla’s Model 3 ramp up is the biggest customer experience challenge yet.

My Comment: There is a lot that any business can learn from Elon Musk and Tesla. Don’t let the title fool you into thinking this is an article just for entrepreneurs. The author, Lisa Calhoun, shares a Musk philosophy that applies to any business. He has the ability to “paint the road backwards from his vision, and forward from his customer.”

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

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Guest Blog: How Companies are Using Bots to Enhance Customer Experience

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my colleague, Manuel Grenacher, writes about how using bots can help manage and improve the customer experience. Used properly, I believe bots can be an customer service excellent tool. – Shep Hyken

Booking an appointment—say, a plane ticket—used to be so easy. Just pick up the phone, dial a number, and speak to a friendly person on the other end to arrange everything. Then the internet arrived with its promise of increasing efficiency. Suddenly, each airline had its own website, with its own esoteric booking system, full of opaque requirements and mandatory fields. Add in the confusing multitude of airline ticket aggregators and obscure credit card rules, and you have a recipe for a headache. Have you ever wondered what it would take to get back to the old days?

You aren’t the only one. Over the past year or so, company after company have launched new, super-intelligent chatbots to manage some of their processes. Companies like Dominos Pizza and Mila, an on-demand tech support startup, have seen great success integrating chatbots into their business models. Want a pizza? Chat up Dominos on their Facebook page. Need some tech support? Send a message to Mila and they’ll sort you out with a technician in no time. So, how’s it work?

Kind of like it used to. When a user wants to accomplish something, they now have the option of skipping the tedious forms. I mean, how many times do you need to select “pepperoni” from a drop-down list to get sick of it, right?

Now, the process is much the same as it used to be—it starts with a message.

“Hello, how can I help you today?”

When a customer gets in touch, the bot replies instantly. This alone is a huge step forward, especially for smaller companies that can’t afford to keep someone on staff 24/7. This constant availability can help your company keep users engaged and interested.

But simply an automatic answering machine does not make a bot. What sets these apart is their intelligence. The bot’s advanced programming allows it to semantically parse the user’s chats, identify missing information about the request, and ask clarifying questions about exactly what the user needs. It can also collect other important data points like location, time, and payment details—all semantically, in the context of a naturally flowing conversation. At the end, the bot presents the user with the request it’s formulated for confirmation.

“So, that will be a large combo pizza with a side of medium-spicy hot wings delivered to 123 Fake St., Chicago, Illinois. Did I get all that right?”

That’s it. Just like in the good old days, the customer has arranged an appointment with an actual conversation, not by filling out a series of annoying forms. The only difference is that they never spoke to anyone—rather to an intelligent computer program, capable of parsing the complex semantics of human speech. What a time to be alive.

Bots as the future of booking

In a way, it makes sense to go back to semantic booking. The new generation of Facebook and app-based bots combine the human feeling of just talking to someone to explain what you want with the fantastic improvements in efficiency and processing made possible by computerization. One only needs to look at the recent strides made by Google, Apple, and Amazon in the field of digital personal assistants to see that semantic interaction with our devices is way of the future

As digital voice technology continues to improve, it’s not that outlandish to imagine that one day, most of our customer service issues could be solved once again simply by picking up the phone and speaking to a customer service representative. Only this time, they’re a robot.

Written by Manuel Grenacher, founder of Coresystems and Mila.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article: Seven Lessons From A Moving Company: How Service Leads To Sales

 

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Four Customer Service Lessons from a Stevie Award Winner

Congratulations to Squaremouth, who just won a Gold Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year – for the fourth time! (For those that don’t know, the Stevie is an international business award that recognizes top performing organizations in several categories including customer service.) Squaremouth is an online travel insurance company that compares travel insurance products from every major provider in the United States. They allow travelers the opportunity to compare and purchase travel insurance using their “comparison engine” that has over 40,000 customer reviews.

So, how did Squaremouth win the Stevie? Steve Benna, one of their marketing specialists, shared some of their “secret sauce.” Here are four of the many reasons why Squaremouth won, and how they deliver Amazing Customer Service:

Customer service is everybody’s job. – Let’s start with the most important reason first. Customer service is not a department, and Squaremouth knows it. Every employee spends time on the phone with customers. They get to hear what customers are thinking about, asking about and more. Direct contact with the customer is usually the responsibility of people in customer-facing jobs, such as sales and support, yet there is no better way to get all employees to understand how their good work impacts their customers than for everyone to have some facetime with customers.


Unique perks can help create job fulfillment and add to the company culture. – A great customer experience starts with the employees. What’s happening on the inside of an organization is felt on the outside by the customer. Employees at Squaremouth enjoy their company culture and the customers can feel it. Squaremouth has several perks that are typical of larger companies – and a few that aren’t so typical – that are greatly appreciated by their employees. One perk that stands out is the Squaremouth boat that is used for employee “sunset cruises” after work, which is also available for employees to enjoy on their free time.


Build trust by “down-selling” the customer. – This is a very customer focused strategy. Most companies try and find ways to add on to a sale or “up-sell” a customer to something more expensive. Squaremouth goes the opposite direction and actually suggests lower priced products that are perfectly appropriate for the customer. This creates trust and confidence with their customers. Their customers know when they buy from Squaremouth, they are paying for exactly what they need and nothing more.


Have a guarantee that creates customer confidence. – Let’s end with a powerful concept, which is to guarantee your products and service. The right guarantee creates confidence, which leads to potential repeat business. Squaremouth has a Zero Complaint Guarantee. That’s quite a bold statement, but it’s true. If a customer has a problem with one of the insurance companies that Squaremouth recommends, they will mediate on behalf of the customer. If the complaint is not resolved to Squaremouth’s satisfaction, they drop the insurance company. This concept generates a tremendous amount of customer confidence and is one of the many reasons Squaremouth has enjoyed phenomenal success.

These four ideas can work for any company. Customer service really is everyone’s job. The culture of a company is the heart of its customer service. Don’t sell something to customers they don’t need. And, create a guarantee that instills customer confidence. Does all of this just seem like common sense? To some it may, but then why doesn’t every company win the Stevie?

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)

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Amazing Business Radio: Diana Oreck

Diana Oreck on How to Be a Customer Service Rock Star

What lessons can we learn from rock stars in the world of customer service and customer experience, like Ritz-Carlton?

Shep Hyken interviews award-winning training and development expert, international consultant and speaker, former VP of Ritz-Carlton Leadership and current Executive VP of Owner Experience at NetJets, Diana Oreck, about the traits that make for good customer service.

First Up:

In Shep Hyken’s opening comments he relates an experience from the customer service workshops his company conducts for client companies. In these workshops, attendees are asked, “What is a quality that all customer-focused employees possess?” After a list is tallied, an interesting observation can be made. While a few of these qualities, are the skills required to do the job, the clear majority of the qualities are attitudinal traits. What Shep then challenges you do to is to make a list of all the attitudinal traits that you think would be required for a truly customer-focused employee, specifically in your organization. Then choose ten of them. Combine this top ten list with the skills that an employee must have to do their job. When you find a candidate that possesses all the qualities on the list (both attitudinal qualities and skills), you will likely have your next amazing employee!

 

Featured Interview:

Shep begins his interview with Diana Oreck, who served as the Vice President of the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, and is currently the Executive VP of Owner Experience at NetJets, about what makes customer service and the customer experience at Ritz-Carlton so special.

Oreck says it all stems from their often-quoted motto: “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” We should all expect respect and kindness. That’s how the Ritz-Carlton treats people, both internally and externally. They have truly hardwired the concept of the most important word, which is always. Because always leads to consistency, which leads to trust, which leads to profitability. That spirit to serve, regardless of your role in the company, is wired into people’s DNA. And management at the Ritz-Carlton is fantastic, because they walk the talk.

Top Takeaways:

If you are in a service industry, competence is the price of entry. We left the transactional economy years ago.
Easy to do business with has now become a greater predictor of customer loyalty than customer satisfaction.
We shouldn’t be calling them “soft skills.” There is a connotation there that they aren’t really that important. They are. We should call them “real skills” instead.

About:

Diana Oreck is a nationally and internationally recognized, results-driven, creative, senior executive with 30 years’ experience in the hospitality industry. Additionally, Oreck is an international consultant in corporate culture, branding, leadership, employee engagement and legendary service.  She was named 2011/2012 Professional Woman of the Year by the National Association of Professional Women. After a 12-year career at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Oreck is currently the Executive Vice President of the Owner Experience for NetJets.

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

 

“Regardless of your title or wealth, always be gracious and remain humble, because you are here to serve. It is never above any of us to take care of a customer in such a way that preserves the dignity and respect of both sides.” – Diana Oreck

      

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

What makes the customer service at the Ritz-Carlton great?
Why is consistency so important?
What are the qualities of a customer-focused employee?
Should you hire for skills or attitude?
Are “soft skills” important?

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5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of March 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.

No More Nonpologies: Apologize to Customers Like You Mean It by Leslie O’Flahavan

(HDI) Sometimes, when things go wrong, when you are to blame for a problem, or when a customer is rightfully aggrieved, all you can offer is an apology, so you really must learn to do it right. Here are three tips for writing a heartfelt apology to a customer.

My Comment: I hate when I’m calling a customer support center for help and the apology for my “inconvenience” is scripted and insincere. This is a short article about how to apologize. It’s simple. Say you’re sorry, accept responsibility – even when it isn’t your fault – and the resolve the issue.

Want to Build Customer Loyalty? Smartphones are the Secret Weapon by Ken Kunz

(COLLOQUY) The devices are consumers’ constant companion. As brands compete in an increasingly demanding field, here are 3 tips for deploying smartphones in the battle for customers.

My Comment: One of the more powerful customer loyalty strategies a company (any company, not just retailers) can have is to be able to market to and add value to the customer through their mobile number. Done the right way, you can create a good relationship. Done wrong, you lose the customer permanently. If the customer is willing to share their phone number with you, treat it with respect it deserves.

As Social Media Evolves, Travellers Demand Joined-up Customer Service by Nick Vivion 

(Tnooz) Customer service has always been one of the most challenging areas of any service-based business.

My Comment: Social customer care has become mainstream in the customer service world. While this article has a focus on the travel industry, don’t let that stop you from reading it. There’s a lot we can learn from the travel industry. And, the article makes a great point. Social care is not just “customer service on social media.” It’s about a conversation between the brand and the customer that empowers them to pursue resolution through whichever channel is most convenient.

#SXSW: Emerging AI with a Focus on Greater Experiences by Jeannie Walters 

(360Connext)  The overwhelming theme this year is about artificial intelligence and using it for good, so here are a few themes that seem to be permeating the zeitgeist.

My Comment: Last week was SXSW (South By Southwest) and one of the technologies on “center stage” was Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how it will help improve the customer experience. While many are resistant to the concept, we better start getting used to it. Jeannie Walters reports on the current state of AI.

Why Your Sales Pitches Will Never Earn You Loyal Customers by Rachel Quetti     

(Commercial Integrator) At this year’s Business & Leadership Conference, Bob Lobascio, James Kane, Michael Shinn and Jay Myers said it’s time to ditch your old sales tactics and start focusing on building strong, meaningful customer relationships in order to grow your business.

My Comment: There is an old saying that goes something like this: People want to do business with people they know, like and trust.” The knowing and liking is easy. It’s the trust part that takes time. Building a relationship based on trust is a powerful way to not only make the sale, but to earn loyalty. Any traditional sales technique can be enhanced by “selling with service” – focusing on the relationship and adding value over anything else.

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

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Guest Blog: How to Ace Customer Service in the Age of Immediacy

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my colleague, Paul Comarto, writes about how the use of text messaging and live chat are influencing customer service. As companies are making an effort to provide better customer service, they must look at every option for their customers. – Shep Hyken

The rise of digital culture has shifted our world in so many profound ways, and topping the list is the lightning fast speed at which we expect things – information, answers, service, delivery and of course…

Gratification.

Nowadays a “real time” response is not just a nice feature – it’s an expectation.

For many issues, there are plenty of fast and easy ways to access what we’re looking for, from a quick online search to AI, chatbots, and other automated responses. The point is speed, not nuanced customer service and niceties.

But once the customer isn’t getting the answers he or she wants, the next step is to speak to a human being. And often, that customer is now frustrated not just with the problem, but also with the time and effort it’s taking to find the solution.

At that point, the expectation remains for the response to be prompt, but also personal and genuine. Because after all, we don’t need machines to treat us like people, but we do want people to treat us like people.

Having a phone number that a customer can call to talk to a live person is one solid way to provide consumer support, although increasingly Americans prefer texting to phone calls. For that reason, among others, many companies are adopting a holistic approach to customer service by offering real-time messaging, including live chat and text, so that customers can connect in a way that’s most comfortable to them while still enjoying a personal, one-on-one experience.

While live chat, the pop-up bubble that connects users with a “live” customer service representative, and texting are similar (i.e., they both eliminate hold time, offer privacy, allow customers to copy and save information, etc.) there are also nuanced differences between the two. Live chat is limited by its technology — it’s not mobile friendly, the customer must stay on the same screen throughout the chat, and once the session times out, the conversation is gone forever — and texting may be better for shorter conversations.

When Zendesk launched their messenger app, they did so in large part because they realized the way people behave on messaging and live chat was very different. “Live chat is like talking to an attentive assistant in a store,” they explained, “but messaging and its mobile-first nature introduces a new paradigm.”

While your business might not have the size and scope of a Zendesk to create a proprietary system to leverage the power of messaging to make fast, personal connections, persistent team messaging platforms are a novel way to perform a similar service.

A Salesforce survey revealed that 57% of consumers say they expect companies they purchase from to be innovative.” Applied to the world of customer service, that means today’s connected consumers want a smart, responsive service experience – and that makes all the difference when it comes to both satisfaction and loyalty.

And so today we’re seeing more and more online communities cropping up on messaging platforms, thanks to the smooth flow of communication, which includes text chat, video chat and file sharing. For businesses, this can be a great way to invite certain customers to connect directly with your customer service team for support, encouragement and personal attention.

And while messaging platforms aren’t a replacement for other direct customer service like a call center, they do offer a fresh way to connect with clients, provide transparency, and reinforce that you and your team care about them.

Plus, chat gives you the opportunity to share gifs, send emoji’s and otherwise create a feel-good environment that provides an extra special touch, which can help cement your customer loyalty.

For B2B companies, team messaging platforms help them stay in close connection with clients.

For example, SEA Media, a social media marketing firm, sets up guest user accounts for its clients, which allows them to see everything SEA is doing for them on a daily basis. Seeing a long list of to do’s marked DONE is a powerful statement.

“That’s when [our customers] realize there’s ‘no way I could do all that— no way I could duplicate that — so where do I sign’?” says Sara Moore, SEA’s CEO.

Moore also appreciates the fact that the platform reinforces the company’s authenticity and transparency – and makes remote connections feel intimate and personal. Plus chat seems more real time, and responses are much quicker than email or other communication.

Moore’s customer service tip in a persistent messaging environment is to create specific teams for each client – because in the end, when you are at the human connection level, your customer service is only as good as the people providing that support. And it worked: SEA saw 267% revenue growth in 2016 over 2015, when they both systematized their workflow and integrated a vibrant customer service aspect into their team messaging platform.

Customers used to instantaneous responses when they have an issue with a product or service are the new norm, and it’s up to companies to innovate solutions that speak to their audience. Using persistent team messaging to invite your clients and customers into your virtual tent is a great way to get up close and personal with those who matter most to your business.

Paul Comaroto is a product marketing manager for RingCentral Glip, a team messaging and collaboration application. He is responsible for increasing Glip user adoption and incorporating user feedback into the Glip product roadmap. Paul began his career as an officer in the US Air Force and is now passionate about helping people to be more productive.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article:

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