Shep Hyken's Blog, page 227
April 30, 2014
Six Differences Between Customer-Focused Companies and Operations-Focused Companies
Better Customer ExperienceSome companies really understand customer service. They know how to hire for it, train for it and deliver it. Other companies claim to give customer service, but in reality, they are grounded in an operations mentality with rules and policies that allow for little flexibility, preventing them from being anything more than just average or satisfactory. Here are a few observations of the differences between customer-focused companies versus operations-focused companies:
Empowerment: A customer-focused company empowers employees to make decisions that are for the benefit of the customer. They have guidelines versus rules and take the approach that if it isn’t illegal, immoral, won’t cost the company money (although sometimes that’s still okay), and won’t harm the company’s reputation, then consider doing it to take care of the customer. The operations-focused company requires a manager’s approval for anything that is outside of their policies or typical way of doing business.
Hiring: A customer-focused company hires people who fit the culture, which means they have the personalities and core-values that align with the company’s vision and mission. Certain jobs may require skill, but skill alone won’t get the applicant hired. An operations-focused company will hire for skill, filling a position with technical strengths. The applicant’s personality may or may not fit with the corporate culture.
Training: A customer-focused company spends time and money training for soft skills such as relationship building and customer service. The company recognizes that it takes both, technical and soft skills, to break away from being average. The operations-focused company spends most of their training dollars and time on technical skills and product knowledge.
Leadership: The leaders of a customer-focused company set the vision and mission of the culture, and then they lead by example. The leaders of an operations-focused company sets the vision and mission of the culture, but sometimes will have the “Do as I say, not as I do” approach. Sometimes their behavior is incongruent with what they want to achieve, often leaving the employees confused and less than motivated.
People First: The customer-focused company knows the importance of putting people first – specifically employees. They develop a culture of happy, engaged and fulfilled employees that deliver a better customer experience. Customers like this and continue to come back. An operations-focused company develops a culture focused on systems, procedures and the bottom line. While this is important to any company’s success, they miss the culture part of the equation.
Customer Service: The customer-focused company looks at customer service as a philosophy to be embraced by every employee of the company, recognizing that there are both external and internal customers. The operations-focused company sees customer service as a department.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)
The post Six Differences Between Customer-Focused Companies and Operations-Focused Companies appeared first on Shep Hyken.
April 28, 2014
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 28, 2014
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.
How Social Media and Online Video are Shaping Customer Service by Camille McClane
(Viral Gains) Here are some of the biggest ways that social media has changed customer service today.
My Comment: Video is an excellent social media channel to enhance customer service. I remember having difficulty putting a Ping-Pong table together. It took a simple call to the manufacture, who pointed me to a video that made the job so much easier. People and organizations should take advantage of this very inexpensive medium to communicate with customers, offer value in the form of content and answer customers’ frequently asked questions. And more than customer service, done the right way, it’s also great marketing.
15 ways for companies to increase customer lifetime value by Graham Charlton
(Econsultancy) A recent Econsultancy report found that 64% of companies rate customer experience as the best tactic for improving customer lifetime value (CLV), followed by better use of data and personalisation.
My Comment: While this article seems to focus on the retail industry, I can see how most of the fifteen “ways” to increase customer lifetime value can work for just about any organization. Understanding the lifetime value of a customer can help make customer-focused decisions easier.
Don’t forget the importance of email in customer service by Julian Sammells
(EpticaUK) Email is still a critical customer service channel for consumers, generally ranking second (to telephone) in customer preference studies. But the latest Eptica Multichannel Customer Experience Study reveals that many companies seem to be placing less value on email, despite the importance of this channel to their customers.
My Comment: If a customer sends an email, most likely they want an answer… NOW. They don’t want to wait an hour or a day. They want immediate response. So, why do companies not respond to emails over 50% of the time? Personally, I like doing business with companies that treat me right, and that includes quick response to any request, using any channel. This article focuses on email, one of the main “pipelines” of communication between a customer and company.
Top 5 Reasons Why ‘The Customer Is Always Right’ Is Wrong by Alexander Kjerulf
(Huffington Post) Here are the top five reasons why “The Customer Is Always Right” is wrong.
My Comment: The customer is NOT always right, but they are always the customer. That said, some customers really are not a good fit for a company. Case and point is made with the old Herb Kelleher story (one of my favorites). This is an excellent article that points out why some customers aren’t right, but also what the impact is to an organization.
5 Key Words of Advice from the World’s Most Famous Customer Service Representative by Tricia Morris
(LinkedIn) Here are five key words of advice for any customer-focused organization from The World’s Most Famous Customer Service Representative.
My Comment: Tricia Morris has done us a great service by compiling five great tips (from five great articles) from one of the icons in business and customer service, Sir Richard Branson. Creating and managing expectations, hiring the right people and empowering them to deliver amazing service, and more, we should all take notes and learn from a master.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)
The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 28, 2014 appeared first on Shep Hyken.
April 25, 2014
Guest Blog: How to Make Decisions to Tell the Story You Want Told by Customers
This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Jeanne Bliss talks about the importance of knowing the story your company wants to tell and how it influences customer perception of your organization. – Shep Hyken
Making the right decisions to tell a story you’re proud of begins with holding up a mirror to yourself and your organization.
You need to ask the right questions to review your current decisions and understand the story the decisions reveal about you today. You need to know the important decisions to make for the future.
Darwin Smith, CEO of Kimberly-Clark from 1971 through 1991, is considered by many to be one of the top ten CEOs of all time. Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, introduced the story about how Smith moved his company from a languishing business to the world’s highest performing paper-based consumer products company, by asking questions and moving rocks.
When Smith took over the helm of Kimberly-Clark in 1971, he worked to grasp what direction to take the company. In the quiet of the evening at his Gotrocks Farm in Wisconsin, he would contemplate the situation by unearthing rocks on his property and moving them into piles. When his wife Lois heard the scrape of a backhoe in the middle of the night, she knew he was thinking over a decision. In the morning, the extent of his thinking would stand in large piles of rocks that had been moved from one pile to another as he contemplated his course of action.
Those rock moving sessions in the evening didn’t bring Smith answers; they brought him questions. Questions he would ask his leadership team and people inside his company for months.
He wanted to know:
what Kimberly-Clark should stand for
what it could be known for
how it could grow financially
The answers to his questions told Smith the story of his company. Smith learned where Kimberly-Clark stood and what decisions and actions had been made to get the company to its current position. From those answers, Smith realized what initial actions he needed to take to move the company in a new direction. The answers to Smith’s questions led him to his first steps in leading Kimberly-Clark onto the path of its success.
Darwin Smith moved rocks to find his questions. Through this process, he accomplished three things.
1. He determined the right questions to ask.
2. The answers then told him the story of his company.
3. That story led him to his course of action.
Connecting your answers will tell you how you are seen from the outside looking in. The sum of your answers will reveal the story of who you are and what you value as defined by the decisions you make and the actions that tumble from them.
Jeanne Bliss is the President of CustomerBliss and co-founder of Customer Experience Professionals Association. Jeanne is a customer loyalty speaker and business author. Follow Jeanne on Twitter at @JeanneBliss.
For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com
The post Guest Blog: How to Make Decisions to Tell the Story You Want Told by Customers appeared first on Shep Hyken.
April 23, 2014
The Evolution of Customer Service: Adapt and Adopt or be Left Behind
Customer Support
When I was a kid, there were five TV Channels; ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and a local channel. I remember it was a big deal when another independent channel was added – and it needed an additional antenna that attached to the back of the TV. Now there are hundreds of channels. And, we have choices of the type of system or company we want to do business with. We can get our TV via the phone lines, cable, satellite dish and devices that allow you to watch TV via your computer using the Internet. I always smile when my kids say to me they can’t find anything to watch on TV.
Well, it appears that business, and specifically customer service and support, is going through a transformation that is not unlike the traditional television of yesteryear. There used to be only two or three ways to communicate with a company when you had a customer service issue; the phone, in-person and written correspondence. Now, like TV, there are many channels the customer can use to communicate with the company, get customer service, purchase merchandise and more.
So back to the concept of the evolution of customer service. Most clients I work with recognize that customer service and support has changed. Phone, while still viable, is falling to newer technology. Email and instant-chat are almost old-school.
Who would have thought that “self-help” customer service would be acceptable? Well, it is. Companies have developed websites that make it easy for a customer to find answers to their questions. Taken to another level, some companies have set up “support forums” that are run by their customers to support other customers. Customers helping other customers, what a concept!
Then there is social media. There are over 243 million active users on Twitter and over 1.23 billion on Facebook. Many of them are using these social channels to communicate with the companies they do business with. If you aren’t interacting with your customers on multiple channels, you can bet your competition is.
And now we are entering an era that takes us even further than social media. There are mobile apps on our smart phones that connect us to our customers. GPS tracking tells us when our customers walk in our stores. Some businesses have apps that enable customers to pay for their merchandise with their smart phones. If you aren’t developing an app or some other technology to enhance your customer’s experience, there’s a pretty good chance your competition is.
The idea behind customer support isn’t changing. It’s how we go about it that’s changing. And, it’s changing faster than ever. It’s not that each year there is something new in the world of customer service and experience. It’s each month. So, what does all this mean? Adapt and adopt – or be left behind.
QUESTION FOR YOU: What is the coolest, latest and greatest technology you’re using to enhance your customer service and the overall customer’s experience?
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)
The post The Evolution of Customer Service: Adapt and Adopt or be Left Behind appeared first on Shep Hyken.
April 21, 2014
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 21, 2014
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.
Everything I Need to Know About Customer Service, I Learned at Nordstrom by Marie Rosecrans
(Desk.com) That first job at Nordies helped me understand what it meant to deliver great customer service, and a few key things have really stayed with me throughout my 20+ year career (yes, it’s been that long!).
My Comment: Three words that belong together: customer + service + Nordstrom. This very short article is another great story and demonstrates that not only does Nordstrom have a great system in place, they also have a great culture.
5 Things Customers Hate about Customer Support (And How to Address Them) by Adel Zsurzsan
(Merlin) We listed 5 things customers hate about customer support, so that we know what we can do to lessen these pain points in our daily operations.
My Comment: It doesn’t matter if you are a small company without a true customer support department or a large company with a large call center, at some point a customer is going to call for help or support. When they do, is it an opportunity to show how good you are? Or, a disappointment and confidence-buster for the customer? I know what I want: No or short wait times, knowledgeable reps that help me on the first call, someone that treats me like me and not a number and someone that focuses on reasonable solutions and not policies.
The Five Agreements of Customer Experience by Annette Franz
(CX Journey) Have you thought about how the Five Agreements relate to customer experience management?
My Comment: Love this article! These “agreements” work for customers, employees – and in life. They are about a positive way to think and the right way to treat people. They create personal confidence and customer confidence. If you ever thought about creating a set of core values for a company, this would be a great place to start.
Capitalizing on Customer Lifetime Value By Anna Papachristos
(1to1 Media) While brands recognize the importance of customer lifetime value, many fail to calculate its true impact, for most are still unable to offer the type of holistic customer experience that builds loyalty and retention from the first interaction onward.
My Comment: Every employee should understand the customer lifetime value. It makes it easier to make customer focused decisions. Years ago Stu Leonard used to say the average grocery story customer was worth about $5,000 a year. So, when the customer complains that the carton of milk was spoiled, don’t hesitate to give him/her another three dollar carton of milk.
Why We Do All Hands Support at Olark by Ben Congleton
(Olark) Our hope for All Hands Support Month is to provide templates that other companies can use to create their own take on All Hands Support.
My Comment: The idea of letting non-front-liners experience what it is like to be on the front line is a great idea. Olark is a case study on the benefits of such a program. Everyone should experience what it is like to be in customer support.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)
The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 21, 2014 appeared first on Shep Hyken.
April 18, 2014
Guest Blog: 4 Simple Tips to Making Your Real-Time Customer Support a Success
This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Nic Bryson discusses why his company started using real-time customer support and its benefits. I believe the speed with which we respond to our customers is critical. – Shep Hyken
In today’s “always-on” and connected world, where customers can interact from anywhere around the globe 24/7, the decision to introduce real-time customer support in our company came quite naturally. It helped us increase customers’ satisfaction, earn trust and reputation, and of course, extend our customer network (nothing motivates a user to share his positive experience more than an immediate and thorough resolution of his problem 
) However, its successful implementation was not an easy task to perform, and here’s a few lessons we’ve learned along the road:
1. Define your communication channels
Depending on your product and customer base, you may choose live chat or phone for real-time support In my experience, the first is more suitable for the cases where you need to provide a customer with screenshots and step-by-step instructions. And the latter works better for less technical customers as they seem to be more interested in talking the problem through over the phone. No matter what you choose, make sure you have enough resources to stay true to your real-time promise.
2. Prepare a FAQ
Most of the questions that come to our support team repeat themselves. So having a FAQ page helps a great deal. In the case of real-time support, there’s no time to go through the whole list of questions every time, so make sure your team is well acquainted with the constantly updated guide (assuming you keep it updated – which you better do!)
3. Don’t leave them hanging
Unlike regular support, real-time requires instant reaction to the customer’s request. Remember that you are there to establish trust, and if it takes you longer than a few seconds to respond, the customer is probably wondering if you forgot about them. If we are talking about social media channels then it’s important to remember the results of a recent study from The Social Habit. According to the study, among the customers who contacted a company through social media 42% expect a response within 60 minutes or less. Show respect for your customers’ time and respond fast.
4. Leverage the power of Social Media
A recent survey by customer experience advisory thinkJar showed that 60% of businesses in the US and the UK use social media for customer service. Oddly enough, another survey found that almost 60% of these companies don’t respond to customers on social media when asked a direct question. I find this statistic alarming.
We have many customers who ask support questions via Twitter. If it’s a small question or issue we try to resolve it right there. If the answer doesn’t fit in 140 characters, we revert to e-mail or even phone, depending on the customer’s preferences.
Using social media tools for support reasons has several advantages. First of all, it’s transparent: if there’s an issue, we can openly admit it and instantly let all of our customers know once it is fixed. Second, it’s a great addition to our FAQ: users can simply browse through our recent messages and maybe even find the answer to their question. And, finally, and most importantly, it brings us closer to our customers. You know how they say, be where your customer is.
When you have great real-time support, customers will talk to you more often because they have confidence that they’re going to get great service. When customers are contacting you proactively, customer success is a natural byproduct.
Do you think real-time support is already a business necessity or an unnecessary luxury? I’ll be happy to see your thoughts in the comments.
Nic Bryson is the Vice President of Customer Success at Wrike, provider of the popular task management software. Passionately leading a global customer care team, Nic drives forward Wrike’s open innovation strategy through a constant dialogue and productive co-innovation with its customers from 50+ countries.
For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com
The post Guest Blog: 4 Simple Tips to Making Your Real-Time Customer Support a Success appeared first on Shep Hyken.
April 16, 2014
An Opportunity to Walk in the Customer Support Center’s Shoes
The Customer ExperienceNo doubt that customer service is a great differentiator. This is especially true in a world where a customer, depending on what they need, has many choices of businesses to choose from, all selling similar, if not exactly the same, products and services.
Okay, that’s most likely nothing new to you. And if you’ve been following my work, you know that I’m a fan of every employee being a part of customer service, not just the customer service department or others on the front line. Some companies take this to a higher level than others.
Here’s an interesting story to make the point. Olark is, today, a live chat software company. Olark was founded in 2009. The very first project started by the founders, in 1998, was a web hosting company. This evolved into what Olark is today. The founders immediately recognized that delivering great service would differentiate them from their competition. The four guys that started the company realized that one person couldn’t handle all of the customer service calls, so they decided to share the responsibility evenly between them. As the company became more successful and added employees, they continued to split the customer service function between all employees. They actually named this practice All Hands Support. Customer service was part of their culture.
This idea is brilliant, as everyone employed at Olark learns just how important customer service is at many levels. They learn about customers, they hear about all of the different issues and problems, and they have an opportunity to see how their responsibilities can impact the customer experience.
Years ago I wrote about Anheuser-Busch executives would take one day out of each quarter to spend with a sales rep in the field. This gave them a better understanding of their customers. Undercover Boss, the popular TV show, demonstrates just how important it is for higher level executives to experience what happens in the field and on the front line. In many cases, the boss finds it to be an eye opening experience.
But, that’s just for the leadership of the company. What about the rest of the organization? Why can’t everyone, like the employees do at Olark, experience what it’s like on the front line, dealing directly with customers? What kind of reaction do you think your employees would have when they discover, first-hand, the reactions of your customers to your products and customer service?
Imagine the guy who boxes up the product on the phone with a customer who received a product that was missing parts. Or someone from the accounts receivable department on the phone with a customer who has been overcharged. If even for just a few hours every few months, consider giving all employees an opportunity to walk in the customer support centers shoes. It could only help everyone understand just how important their roles and responsibilities are to the customer experience.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)
The post An Opportunity to Walk in the Customer Support Center’s Shoes appeared first on Shep Hyken.
April 14, 2014
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 14, 2014
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.
Three Steps to Achieve Consistency of Customer Satisfaction by Hansen Lieu
(SAP) As the authors admitted, delivering a consistently good customer experience – over time – is very difficult. It requires discipline and a laser focus on customers. But, if your organization can do this, it gives you a strong competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate.
My Comment: This, unfortunately, is a story that is told too often. The quality of the customer service diminishes with small negative interactions. The key is consistency. Consistency, assuming the experience is consistently good, creates confidence. Confidence leads to potential customer loyalty. Without confidence there can be no loyalty.
Maggie Lang, Kimpton Hotels: Creating Great Experiences Online and Off by Brent Leary
(Small Business Trends) Maggie Lang, Senior Director of Guest Marketing for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, shared with me how the boutique hotel chain is taking a strategic, unified approach to customer experience development to take on the big hotel chains in the battle for the modern day traveler.
My Comment: Great interview that reinforces how important social media is to the customer service and experience strategy of a business. And, it just so happens that Kimpton, one of my favorite hotel chains, is the case study. Social media is much more than another channel for us to monitor for customer complaints. For Kimpton, because of social media, the experience can begin before check-in, or continue long after check-out. There is no reason that other companies in virtually any industry can’t do the same.
Why Great Customer Service Isn’t Enough to Be Customer-Centric by Xand Griffin
(PeopleMetrics) What I discovered was that while lots of people talk a whole lot about customer-centricity, most don’t understand what it means.
My Comment: Customer service is just a part of a customer-centric organization. As mentioned in this article, if a business were truly customer-centric, putting the customer in the middle of every decision, there might not be a need for a customer service department to field any issues, complaints or problems. Sounds like perfection, which is not reality. However, what if the customer-centric company were to deliver the perfect experience? What would that look like? What would or could a company do differently? This article is a great conversation starter.
Richard Branson on Why Making Employees Happy Pays Off by Richard Branson
(Entrepreneur) Happy employees are central to the success of a business. We all instinctively know this, but it can be hard to pinpoint why. Nobody would argue that employees should be sad and downtrodden, yet it seems as though some businesses and their managers set out with the intention of presiding over a group of miserable people, and then succeed in doing just that.
My Comment: The “always amazing” Sir Richard Branson should be listened to when he speaks – or writes! The numbers from the studies regarding happy and engaged employees confirm the higher productivity. So does the success and stock prices of many of these companies. Sir Richard gets it. This reminds me of what Herb Kelleher, another maverick in the commercial aviation industry, said when asked the question, who is more important – employees, passengers or shareholders? His response was that happy employees meant they were more likely to work harder to make the passengers happy, which meant the passengers would fly again on his airline. That in turn would make the airline more successful, which made the shareholders happy.
6 Tips for the Best Online Customer Support by Anneke Steenkamp
(Zopim) By adjusting the way in which your online customer support system is run, you can impact the overall success of your business.
My Comment: Online support is gaining in acceptance. Customers are realizing that it is sometimes easier and more efficient than even a phone call. The key, as the article points out is consistency in all of the channels that the customer uses to communicate with the company. The online experience must be as good as an in-person experience. As the author points out, these tips are a good start and should make anyone who provides online support something to think about.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)
The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 14, 2014 appeared first on Shep Hyken.
April 11, 2014
Guest Blog: Why Employee Happiness Is The Key To Brand Success
This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Adele Halsall writes about how important it is to support your employees in order to achieve brand success. I have always believed that you must treat your internal customers the way you want them to treat your external customers. – Shep Hyken
In almost every case of failed business performance or poor customer service practices, there is usually a large element of employee dissatisfaction or disengagement. Without employment engagement there can never be any real team solidarity, and without team solidarity your brand can never begin to establish itself or start to flourish.
This is why employee happiness is so important in achieving brand success. Your employees are your greatest assets, so aside from making sure you hire the right minds to start off with, you need to make your team is happy, healthy and well.
Happy employees provide a strong support structure from inside the company and they make much better brand ambassadors.
So how do you go about doing that?
1. Empowerment Is A Great Tool
Empowerment is one of the greatest gifts you can give to your employees. It is often empowered employees who are able to take matters into their own hands and create those ‘wow’ moments that keep customers coming back. By empowering your employees to make responsible decisions on their own and take control of a situation, they’ll be in a better position to help customers without being limited to the ‘red tape’ that comes with traditional policies and procedures.
It’s never too late to empower your workforce. Introducing weekly training sessions in your workplace can slowly encourage your staff to start thinking more proactively and confidently, without being told what to do. Exercises that boost self image and self belief will also play a huge part, as the more positive your employees feel about themselves and their own capabilities, the better they will be able to reflect and communicate this to customers.
Try to favour training programs that approach sessions as social forums rather than formal ‘classes’ or seminars. This will offer a more dynamic and interactive learning process and provide longer term results.
2. Team Bonding Is Essential
Your team members don’t all have to be best friends (and that’s highly unlikely anyway). But promoting a kind, friendly work environment where your workers can feel supported, comfortable and accepted is the best foundation for stimulating creativity and productivity.
One of the first things you ought to do is eliminate gossip from the workplace, and make it known that any similar behaviour will not be tolerated. Gossip does nothing for workplace wellbeing; instead it simply isolates, fragments and detracts from growth and progression; whether that is individually or on a project scale.
Provide plenty of opportunities for your employees to get to know one another outside of work – this could be monthly or weekly lunches, after-work drinks, or even a weekend event. Whilst team-building seminars with plenty of activities can bring positive results, employees are more likely to respond to day trips that have teamwork embedded within them, such as paintballing or rock climbing.
3. Individual Success = Brand Success
Employees that feel a personal alignment with the company brand and demonstrate shared values are already likely to perform their job much more effectively.
But what about your employees’ own individual goals; aspirations; dreams; hopes, or plans for the future? If you’ve noticed a decline in your employees’ motivation or passion for the role, it may be because they’re feeling undervalued.
Brand flourishing isn’t always all about the collective. UK based company Npower’s customer services department is often said to have one of the best customer service departments within the energy industry, this is probably in no small part because they make a genuine effort to empower their employees and help them to progress in their career. By nurturing individual ambitions and personal projects, you’ll be fostering a positive environment of growth and flourishing, which will only serve to strengthen your brand’s mission overall. Try having a heart-to-heart with your employees individually to see what you can do to support their own talents and projects. Where do they hope to be in one to two years time? How about three to five years? Five to ten?
By making the traditional work dynamic more collaborative and two-way (rather than static and one-dimensional), your employees will feel more appreciated, valued and stimulated. They’ll be more likely to feel excited about coming to work and more likely to immerse themselves in working towards the goals and projects of the brand. And when a whole team is excited and passionate about what it is doing, magic things can happen.
[image error]Adele Halsall is a writer and researcher for Customer Service Guru. She is passionate about retail and consumer trends, and how this is shaped and governed by advertising and social marketing. She is particularly experienced in marketing and customer engagement, and enjoys contributing to ongoing debates related to best business practices, start-up culture, and the culture of customer relations. Email her at adele@customerserviceguru.co.uk or @gurucustomers
For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com
The post Guest Blog: Why Employee Happiness Is The Key To Brand Success appeared first on Shep Hyken.
April 9, 2014
The Chief Customer Officer Customer Service and Experience Is Now Part of the C-Suite
It is a C level title that is becoming more and more popular. The Chief Customer Officer now has an important seat at the boardroom table. The CCO’s job? To ensure that everything the company does on the front line that impacts the customer, and the processes behind the scenes that support the front line customer experience, is focused on the customer. This includes the obvious areas of customer service and customer experience, as well as a few not-so-obvious areas.
So who reports to the CCO? Or, who does the CCO report to? That is an interesting question because depending on the company that has decided to appoint the CCO, there are varied responsibilities. Here’s my take. And, it really isn’t that tough of an answer.
In my mind, there three important areas for the CCO to focus on: culture, systems and customer advocacy.
When it comes to the culture, either the company is completely customer focused or it’s not. That begins with culture. It’s how employees are hired and trained, and how the vision or mission is created or changed to reflect a customer-focused philosophy. Customer service and experience must be woven through the fabric of the entire company.
And then there are the systems that the company has in place. The CCO’s job is to help ensure that the systems are customer focused and that everyone – and every department – is working together. Silos must be eliminated, with the goal of creating a unified company that is focused on the customer. The CCO must constantly be asking questions that challenge the company’s systems and processes to be customer-focused. In its simplest form the question is:
Is this a customer-focused decision?
There are many variations of this basic question. The idea is to challenge every aspect of the company to keep the customer in mind. Policies, new products, new accounting programs, new software programs; these are just a few of the areas that should come before the CCO to consider if they meet the requirement of being customer-focused.
The third responsibility is customer advocacy. CCO is the manager of the “Voice of the Customer,” which includes direct customer feedback and data analysis. The CCO must understand both the business and the customer well enough to know what data is important and how to interpret the data.
The Chief Customer Officer has his or her hand in all aspects of the company, if nothing else than to ask the right questions and keep the company focused. And, at the same time he or she is the advocate for the customer. There must be a balance between how a company operates and what a customer expects. An effective CCO creates a sense of harmony between the company and the customer.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)
The post The Chief Customer Officer Customer Service and Experience Is Now Part of the C-Suite appeared first on Shep Hyken.
