Shep Hyken's Blog, page 188

Five Reasons Your Company May Fail at Customer Service

Customer Service Culture

There are a number of reasons that companies fail at customer service. As I read dozens of articles each week, numerous books on the topic throughout the year, as well as conduct some of my own research, there are some very clear reasons. Sometimes it’s not what you are supposed to do, but what you should avoid doing. If you’ve been following my work, some of this may seem like a review, yet we must constantly be reminded of these reasons. So while there are many, here are five common reasons that companies fail at customer service:

There’s no clear definition of what customer service looks like in the organization. You can’t just say, “Let’s give great customer service.” You have to define what it is, what it looks like and what you want the customer to experience. It has to be crystal clear. I just worked with a company that created a four-word mantra, as I like to call it. A short one sentence phrase that is easily understood and remembered. Put the customer first. But, to just say it is nothing more than lip service. This company created an entire program around those four words. Every employee is participating in training sessions and the effort will be ongoing, not for a few days or weeks, but hopefully for years to come.


Good people are in the wrong jobs. A customer service culture starts with the people. And, there are plenty of good people out there, just some of them aren’t suited for a truly customer-focused organization. It starts with hiring the right personalities to fit the culture. But, what about current employees? Make sure they buy into your customer service definition and are ready and willing to be a part of the initiative.


There is a lack of proper training. Training is not something you do one time. It’s not something you teach during orientation and never bring up again. It’s an ongoing effort. The best companies have ongoing reminders and trainings to keep customer service front of mind.


They treat customer service like a department. For a truly customer-focused culture to work, everyone has to be aware of how they impact the customer’s experience. One of my favorite sayings has always been that customer service is not a department. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by every employee, from the CEO to the most recently hired.


They treat employees one way and expect the employees to treat the customers a different way. The behavior of leadership and management toward employees is incongruent with the customer service initiative. The remedy is my Employee Golden Rule, which is to treat employees like you want the customer treated – maybe even better.

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 © MMXVI, Shep Hyken)

 

 

The post Five Reasons Your Company May Fail at Customer Service appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Amazing Business Radio: Michael Bungay Stanier

Michael Bungay Stanier on Coaching for Customer Service

Shep Hyken speaks with coaching and retention expert Michael Bungay Stanier on coaching for customer service. They discuss coaching methods and tips from Michael’s new book, “The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More, & Change the Way You Lead Forever.” Great customer service starts by hiring the right employees. Then you not only train, but coach them to success. Michael shares tips, techniques and strategies to coach your employees to customer service victory!

Click here to listen and subscribe to Amazing Business Radio on iTunes.

“It is more powerful to help people learn for themselves rather than just give advice.” – Michael Bungay Stanier

The post Amazing Business Radio: Michael Bungay Stanier appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of June 6, 2016

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.

4 Ways Innovative Companies are Changing the Face of Customer Service by Laura Norman

(Salesforce) Here are four ways innovative companies are supporting customers differently (and how you can too.)

My Comment: Want to know what the most innovative companies are doing to change the face of customer service? Here are four ideas. And, the first three are within the grasp of virtually any type of business. Just remember that first and foremost, before any innovation, be easy to do business with.

3 Ways to Turn Your Website into a Powerful Customer Service Channel by Endri Hasanaj 

(Customer Think) Here are three simple yet effective ways to integrate customer service into your website.

My Comment: Many times, the first place a customer goes to get support is a website. This article shares three simple tips (and the first one is REALLY simple), to use your website as a first line of customer support.

99 Customer Experience Stats Experts Trust to Improve CX by Tricia Mool

(Doorman) We’ve painstakingly pieced together the top 99 most important customer experience stats, with key actions you can take, and created an infographic to help you mete out what’s integral to your specific customers’ experience.

My Comment: This isn’t so much an article as it is a compellation of stats and facts about customer service and experience. Worth the time to read and think about how you can be on the right side of these stats.

Turning Emotional Connections into Magical Memories by Ian Golding

(Ritz Carlton Leadership Center) How far would you go to leave your customers with a magical memory? To the ends of the universe if you take inspiration from The Ritz-Carlton!

My Comment: Anytime the Ritz-Carlton teaches what’s in their “secret sauce,” I get excited. They are one of top customer service and experience brands in the world. This article proves it as well as shares how they go about it.

If you want raving fans, act like a great artist! by Ben Motteram

(CXpert) What can businesses learn from performing artists that will help them to create raving fans? Here’s the list I came up with.

My Comment: This excellent article draws the similarities between what a musical artist does at a concert to wow their fans and how a business can do the same. If you want to be a rock star in business, then read this article.

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 June 6, 2016 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: Good Customer Service Is More than Good PR

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my friend and colleague, Patricia Fripp shares a story that demonstrates why everyone in any business can make a difference. Please join Patricia and me June 8 when we discuss how good customer service drives sales. – Shep Hyken

Perhaps you agree that every customer counts and that we must never forget our customers’ perceptions of us. One single negative contact can ruin your reputation in the eyes of not only that one customer but also those of everyone else he or she knows. After all, word of mouth can work both for or against you.

Are you confident that everybody in your organization believes that they play an important role?  Each department depends upon and dovetails into the other to produce quality service or product. Everyone makes a difference. The sales force, the service technicians, the clerical staff, the PR department all work together toward the same goal — keeping the customers satisfied.

A perfect example of how everyone makes a difference occurred when I was in a Nashville hotel attending the Board of Directors meeting for the National Speakers Association. After the meeting, several of us went to the coffee shop to continue our deliberations. Each of us asked for exceptions or additions to the menu items; we wanted separate checks, and, to make things even more confusing, speakers that we are, we also talked to each other the whole time the waitress was patiently taking our orders.

I said, “My dear, all this confusion is going to be worthwhile; these guys are big tippers.”

She said, “I’m not being nice for a tip. It doesn’t matter if you tip or not. If we give you good service, your group will bring its business back here and not to the competition.”

Isn’t that a marvelous attitude from someone on the frontlines? I was so impressed, I wrote a letter to the hotel manager saying, “Congratulations on your customer service training and expectations. Your staff was superb, especially Mary, the waitress at the coffee shop.” I related my conversation with Mary.

I never received a reply. Mary wowed me with her service and her attitude, but the manager’s lack of response almost nullified her customer service savvy. Everyone makes a difference. I think the manager and the waitress should change places for a couple of weeks. She knows more about good PR than he does.

As the late, great radio personality Paul Harvey said when we spoke on the same platform at a convention in Las Vegas, “For a company’s advertising strategy to work, it has to be handled corporately and also individually.”

Mary knew that. Do your associates?

Patricia Fripp is a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, executive speech coach, sales presentation skills trainer, and on-line training expert.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article: Man Versus Machine — The Self-Service Customer Service Revolution

 

 

The post Guest Blog: Good Customer Service Is More than Good PR appeared first on Shep Hyken.

The Customer’s Perception Is the Only One That Counts

What does your company or brand stand for? When you advertise or market your company and your products, what is the image that you’re trying to create? What is your brand promise?

I Googled the definition of the term brand promise and here is what came up first:

A brand promise is the statement that you make to customers that identifies what they should expect for all interactions with your people, products, services and company. It is often associated with the company name and/or logo.

After further searches, I found a few brand promises that we can use as examples.

Walmart promises “Save money. Live Better.”

Geico is the insurance company that promises “15 minutes or less can save you 15% or more on car insurance.”

BMW promises “The Ultimate Driving Machine”

Some may say these are advertising slogans, but I think they are more. They are promises that the companies want to deliver. So, do these brands deliver on their promises?

There is little doubt that shopping at Walmart will save you money on the large selection of merchandise they have to offer. This is what they are known for, and I don’t think anyone could argue with that. The “Live Better” part of the promise is open to interpretation, but it would be hard to argue that saving a few dollars wouldn’t make life a little better.

Geico’s promise is very specific. It’s a brand promise that can be kept, because it’s measurable. You don’t hear a lot of people saying that they spent 15 minutes with Geico and only saved 5%.

BMW promises something a little more abstract. Can they really deliver the ultimate driving machine? There’s plenty of other car manufactures that feel they provide the best in class. Tesla is combining performance with an electric card. Mercedes promises performance and luxury, as do many other brands. It’s subjective.

And, subjectivity is what brings us to the point that no matter what you promise, you can’t control what customers think. It is their perception – their reality. You can only hope that what you want them to think syncs up with how they perceive you to be. You can’t argue with measurable promises, unless they don’t measure up. You can argue with abstract and subjective promises like providing the ultimate of anything.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what the company believes its perception to be. For example, we can tell everyone we’re friendly, but if the customer has a different opinion, what you believe doesn’t matter. It’s only the customer’s perception that counts. So, make a promise that intrigues the customer, makes them want to do business with you, and is a promise that you can keep.

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 © MMXVI, Shep Hyken)

The post The Customer’s Perception Is the Only One That Counts appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Amazing Business Radio: Vala Afshar

Vala Afshar on the Future of Marketing: It’s Customer Service

Shep Hyken talks with Vala Afshar about how customer service is the future of marketing. Vala is the chief digital evangelist for Salesforce and author of “The Pursuit of Social Business Excellence.” He was named the most influential social media contributor on twitter for CMOs, CIOs, and CFOs. In this lively conversation Shep and Vala discuss how technology has evolved customer service into the “new marketing.” Vala shares how you can leverage technology to improve your customer service interactions, and in turn increase customer satisfaction. You can’t afford to miss this episode on cutting edge customer service technology!

Click here to listen and subscribe to Amazing Business Radio on iTunes.

“Customer experience has over taken price and product as the #1 brand differentiator.” – Vala Afshar

The post Amazing Business Radio: Vala Afshar appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of May 30, 2016

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.

Automate or Humanize? The Great Customer Service Debate by Judith Aquino    

(1to1 Media) Can companies trade the human touch for automation without sacrificing the quality of their customer service?

My Comment: This is a hot topic right now. Technology (includes automation, robots and digital) or human. More and more customers are accepting and actually hoping for self-service solutions and other types of automation. Many times it’s quicker and easier. But, there always has to be a human to back up the technology. And, the back-up plan can’t be a hassle. It has to be an easy, quick and seamless transition to the human.

4 Ways to Destroy Your Company Through Bad Service by Flavio Martins

(Win the Customer) Often times bad customer service happens, not on purpose but because of the lack of organization of existing customer service actions.

My Comment: Flavio Martins is a smart dude when it comes to customer service. The four tips he shares in this article are common sense – almost basic – but I’m surprised how many companies struggle in these areas. The tip about “not blaming the customer” is powerful. This is something everyone needs to understand. Customers don’t know as much as we might. And, they may not always be right – but they are always the customer. Don’t blame them for that!

Customer experience: Who’s in charge here? by Adrian Swinscoe 

(LinkedIn) The headline finding of the study showed was that there is a direct correlation between customer experience and profitability and CEO engagement.

My Comment: Who’s in charge of customer service and experience? It starts at the top. Leadership, which includes all members of the C-Suite, must define, communicate and be role models for an organization’s customer service and experience initiative. It all starts at the top!

Study: What CEOs Really Think About Customer Experience by Tom Hoffman

(1to1 Media) While some past studies have revealed a disconnect between the quality of the customer experiences the CEO believes a company delivers to its customers and what customers’ actual perceptions are, a recent survey of CEOs finds that many chief executives view customer experience as the most effective opportunity for obtaining a competitive advantage.

My Comment: One of the sentences in the first paragraph of this excellent article read: “…a recent survey of CEOs finds that many chief executives view customer experience as the most effective opportunity for obtaining a competitive advantage.” The momentum is building. Customer service and experience are becoming the most important way to compete.

5 Practical Tips For Increasing Customer Loyalty by Vahagn Aydinyan  

(Huffington Post Business) With technology transforming the communications world, marketers have various tools and techniques at their disposal to get closer to their customers. Instead of a customer simply being someone who buys a product from you, they can become much more than that; i.e. a brand ambassador who talks about your brand positively within their social and professional networks.

My Comment: Here is a great list of simple and practical tactics that will help drive customer loyalty. My favorite is number two, which is to personalize the experience. More and more companies are realizing the power of a personalized experience. 

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 May 30, 2016 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: Rolling Ahead of the Game with Digital Customer Experience

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post Shaista Haque writes about a very timely topic, the digital customer experience. Digital experiences are starting to mirror in-person experiences and you better be monitoring your digital customers now!  – Shep Hyken

Scenario 1: Mr. Henry forgot his Internet banking password and is facing issue logging in to his account. He picks up his phone and calls the customer service department. He has been put in queue due to peak hour. After waiting for long time and being transferred to different departments, Mr. Henry loses his cool and disconnects the call.

Scenario 2: Mr. Henry forgot his internet banking password and clicks on the forgot password option. He receives an automated email from his bank on the registered email id to reset his password. He is directed to a web page where he gets the option to create a new password and thereafter his issue gets resolved.

Which scenario looks better to you?

Obviously, scenario 2 is better than the first case where Mr. Henry got delighted with the impeccable experience provided to him. We all at some point in our life interact with a customer help desk to get our queries resolved but are we still relying on the traditional calling system? Or do we still have the patience of staying on hold for speaking to service agents?

Let me tell you the basic rule of excelling in the game of customer experience – “Digital strategy is the need of the hour and if you don’t have it, then you do not have a strategy at all.” Providing superior digital customer service through advanced technology is what organizations should aim at. Digital technologies are disrupting business models and changing customers’ expectations.

Digital revolution has provided brands with the power to engage with more relevant and targeted audience. Organizations with the help of customer engagement technology can now map the customer’s’ journey and record their buying experience through analytics and other platforms. The digital enablement has changed the way businesses communicate. Organizations now understand the importance of delivering true omnichannel experience by taking 360 degree view of customer interactions. The customer engagement technology has enabled businesses to capture huge amount of customer interaction data through various number of channels and applications. The captured data can be used to go beyond traditional engagement programs. This will help the organizations in developing granular understanding of segment behaviour, needs, expectations and buying preferences of potential customers.

The digital savvy customers have aggravated the concept of delight and raised the bar for satisfaction standards. Customers today have become the forefront of any organization. Previously, service departments completely focused on the unichannel mode of communication, where the customers interacted with brands through a single channel- phone. The tech-savvy millennials today expect more and seek for seamless and consistent customer experience online. Studies show that “67% of online buyers have made purchases that involve multiple channels in the past 6 months.” Thus the shift in consumer behaviour and buying preferences has created an environment where omnichannel mode has conquered the world of interactions.

Here are a few ways through which brands can ensure that their digital customer experience is on track to deliver great results.

Analyze Customer Analytics Data: Organizations seeking towards building a great user experience have understood the importance of digital darwinism. Customer analytics data consisting of speech and text interaction captured through customer engagement technology can be used for understanding the consumer demographics and buying behaviour. Based on the gathered information, brands can understand their buyer personas and can accordingly ideate on their strategies for creating seamless experience across all channels of interactions.

Create Customer Engagement Plan: Organizations aiming towards providing unified experience on various platforms need to build their customer outreach and engagement plan. From the very beginning, organizations need to be clear about their objectives. Customer engagement plan should be in synchronization with variety of different purposes for different industries. The main focus of brands should lie on increasing conversions and revenue to acquire new customers for creating brand advocates. A well designed engagement plan provides customers with a platform to express their user experience. For instance, customers can express their experience with a brand through social media, voice, text and other online assistance channels. This helps in letting the customers experience the power of true omnichannel availability of the brand. With the useful information received, brands can nurture customer loyalty and improve their business efficiency.

Set Rules of Engagement: After creating a full proof plan, organizations need to set rules for their engagement strategy. These rules define the customer journey and ultimately help the organizations to build customer loyalty. Creating positive customer experience that has great impact on overall satisfaction level is one of the basic rules that organizations need to follow. Also personalizing communications can help in reflecting a cohesive strategy and brand voice.

“With Digital transformation the consumer, rather than the technology, is in the driver’s seat, and this matters.” – Forbes

Thus, in today’s business environment being digitally innovative is the key to transformation and sustainable growth.

Shaista Haque is a marketing enthusiast at Ameyo. She is extremely passionate about B2B marketing strategies for products that harness the web and social media as customer channels. Armed with this information, she writes about latest industry technologies and how it benefits organizations from small scale to global enterprises. Connect with Shaista on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article: Are You (And Your Industry) Ready And Willing To Be Disrupted?

The post Guest Blog: Rolling Ahead of the Game with Digital Customer Experience appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Three Ways to Create Confidence with Your Customers

I recently interviewed Nate Skinner, the VP of Customer Care for Campaign Monitor, a company that helps businesses use email to market their businesses. It was for one of my Forbes columns, Seven Ways to Use Email to Build Your Brand and Create a Better Customer Experience.

In the process of the interview, I asked Nate about his favorite customer service story. Without hesitating he told me about Jordan, one of Campaign Monitor’s sales and support reps, from Minneapolis. As I listened to Nate tell the story, it was obvious that he was proud of how Jordan stepped up and reinforced one of the most important reasons a customer does business with a company… Confidence!

The short version of the story is that one of Campaign Monitor’s customers had a new employee that set up a large email campaign to go to thousands of his customers. Now, when it comes to sending mass emails, there are certain laws that make “spamming” illegal. Campaign Monitor takes compliance very seriously and has safeguards that keep their customers on the right side of the law.

While this customer’s emails weren’t spam, the person working on the campaign did something during the set-up that caused, for lack of a better term, an alarm to go off, which caused Campaign Monitor’s system to prevent the emails from being sent.

This all happened on a Saturday. Somehow Jordan, who was out for a bike ride getting a little exercise, was alerted. He immediately headed home and set out to right what was obviously wrong. Jordan knew that his customer didn’t send email spam. He knew that it was just a mistake. Within a short period of time, all was “fixed” and the emails were sent.

That day Jordan became a hero – to both Campaign Monitor and to its customer. Regardless of when the problem occurred, even if it was over the weekend when he was officially “off duty,” Jordan stepped up to take care of the problem.

Here’s what we can take away from this story:

Customers don’t want “transactions.” They want something more. They want partnerships, with people that care about them and are willing, if necessary, to go the extra mile, which might mean doing a little work after hours. Basically, whatever it takes to get the job done.


Customers like to deal with companies and people that are proactive. The customer would have never known that there was a problem until someone came in on Monday morning and realized their emails weren’t sent. Instead Jordan, was proactive and took care of the problem – without being asked.


Customers want to have confidence in companies and people they do business with. If they didn’t already know, the customer now knows they can count on Campaign Monitor. Find a way to prove to your customers that they can always count on you.

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 © MMXVI, Shep Hyken)

 

The post Three Ways to Create Confidence with Your Customers appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Amazing Business Radio: Donn Sorensen

Donn Sorensen Shares Leadership Principles That

Drive a Customer-Focused Culture

Shep Hyken discusses how to create and maintain a customer-focused culture with Donn Sorensen, speaker, philanthropist, and Regional President of Mercy, a large healthcare organization based in St. Louis, MO. Donn shares his leadership principles and how they help to drive customer service and experience. He also shares tips from his new book, “Big Hearted Leadership: Five Keys to Create Success Through Compassion.” You can’t miss this episode on how to reshape your culture through leadership!

Click here to listen and subscribe to Amazing Business Radio on iTunes.

“Conversation is the currency of leadership and influence.” – Donn Sorensen

The post Amazing Business Radio: Donn Sorensen appeared first on Shep Hyken.