Shep Hyken's Blog, page 233
January 17, 2014
Guest Blog: Are Your Customers Telling a Beloved Company Story?
This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague and friend Jeanne Bliss writes about beloved companies. She shares how a company can become beloved and how it influences the customer.– Shep Hyken
Beloved companies blend commerce with their humanity, they blend their personal lives with their business lives, and they make decisions that are congruent with honoring the person on the other end of the business transaction.
Beloved companies know they are defined in the fleeting moments of customer interaction. (These are moments of truth for the beloved company.)
Beloved Companies Know:
Actions that come from their decisions indicate what the company values.
Actions show how much the company considered the customer.
Actions reflect back on the company — giving customers a glimpse of who they are as people.
Customer love is a reward for (what some consider) irrational business behavior. Companies who grow because of their bonds with customers do so because they aren’t always looking over their shoulders at what each decision will get them. In a world where products and services are available in a hundred variations, beloved companies get a disproportionate piece of the pie because of how they treat their customers.
Studying the decisions made by beloved companies can give you a view of the inner workings that enable a company to become beloved. For beloved companies, making decisions that drive customer loyalty is how they enable moments of “Wow!” in a world of customer-experience “vanilla.”
Decision 1: Beloved Companies Decide to Believe “We trust our customers. We trust those who serve them.”
Decision 2: Beloved Companies Decide with Clarity of Purpose “Our iron-clad integrity and clarity guides the direction of our decisions.”
Decision 3: Beloved Companies Decide to Be Real “We have a spirited soul, humanity in our touch, and personality that’s all ours.”
Decision 4: Beloved Companies Decide to Be There “We must earn the right to our continued relationship with customers.”
Decision 5: Beloved Companies Decide to Say Sorry “We act with humility when things go wrong. We will make it right.”
Take Action to Become a Beloved Company in 2014:
What story is emerging about who you are and what you value?
Are your decisions reflecting what you intended?
Do they indicate to employees and customers how much you honor them?
When you make decisions that respect and honor customers you will earn their respect—eventually their love.
Are your decisions compelling customers to tell others to try your products and services?
Are your customers telling a beloved company story?
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
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January 15, 2014
Customer Service Strategy: To Serve and Protect
Customer LoyaltyI’ve been writing customer service articles for over 25 years and always appreciate comments and stories that come from our readers. Jacques De Villiers responded to one of the articles, which was about shifting your vocabulary. The concept was if we called our customers something other than customers, how could that change the mood, feeling and even the culture of the company? For example, an Ace Hardware store started calling their customers “neighbors.” That one word change in their vocabulary positively impacted the culture. While a simple change of words may not have dramatic impact to a company’s culture, it can at least contribute to what the company is trying to achieve. There is a reason that Disney calls their customers guests. Or a gym might call their customers members. It changes the way you think about the customer.
So, back to the comment that Jacques sent. First, he wrote that he refers to his customers as clients. That’s nothing new. When I think of the word client, I think of someone who does business with a law firm, accounting practice – some type of professional services business. Well, the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of the word client confirms that and more. One of the definitions is “a customer in a shop or hotel.” So, a customer, in the traditional sense, can be a client, and thinking of them as such may bring a different meaning or feeling about how you refer to and treat your customers. But, Jacques said there was something even more interesting and worth considering. The full definition included the following:
“One that is under the protection of another.”
Now, that’s a twist on the concept of client. What does that mean in terms of customer service? Here are a couple of examples.
To protect our client – or customer – we always put their interests first. It might mean selling them what they need, versus what they think they want, even if it is less money. You find that out the old fashion way, by communicating with them and asking the right questions.
It might mean making suggestions to buy additional products or services. Some would call this upselling, but if it is about making sure the customer – or client – has the best experience it’s the right thing to do. For example, if the customer is buying a can of paint, it makes total sense to make sure they walk out with a paint brush if needed.
It’s our job to serve and protect our customers from making bad decisions. The payoff is that we earn more trust and confidence from our customers, which over time converts to coveted customer loyalty.
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)
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January 13, 2014
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of January 13, 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.
Creating An Intentional Culture That Engages Employees by Barbara Porter
(Forbes) As the empowered consumer comes of age, companies are focusing more effort on improving the customer experience. Yet despite this, recent studies show that customers remain unhappy with the majority of services provided.
My Comment: Before you can expect to have a customer-focused culture, you must first focus on your employees. As Barbara Porter from Ernst & Young points out, the development of the employee-focused culture must be intentional. Beyond defining it, it must be measured, just as you might measure customer satisfaction and other important metrics to your business.
Let Customers Have it Their Way by Sonny Singh
(Bank Systems & Technology) Following the lead of successful retailers should be the goal for financial services customer experience.
My Comment: Any customer of any business (retail, banks, B-2-B and B-2-C) has the right to “have it their way.” I remember the Burger King commercial from years ago. “Hold the pickles. Hold the lettuce. Special orders don’t upset us…” It was their “Have It Your Way” campaign. Every company should have a similar campaign.
Retail trends in customer experience for 2014 by Dr. Gary Edwards
(Retail Customer Experience) The feedback of individual customers is important. But for today’s retail brands, successful customer experiences aren’t limited to reacting to the comments and complaints of individual shoppers — they are about the aggregation of feedback from many different sources into actionable insights that target multiple dimensions of the customer experience. With that in mind, there are at least four trends that will help shape the retail customer experience in 2014.
My Comment: Even though this article focuses on retail, the trends cross over into the B-2-B world. Using Big Data, omni-channel feedback and more can be used by any business in any industry. It seems that customer experience is becoming an initiative for many companies. The key is that they don’t just talk about it. They do something about it.
7 Steps to Map and Drive the Customer Experience by David Clark
(Target Marketing) In this new world, where the customer is in control, brands must continuously enhance, optimize, enable and support the customer journey through an effective CXM strategy. The reality is the customer experience cannot be managed; it can only be enabled and enhanced because the “C” in CXM is now in control. That being said, there are sound CXM practices that brands can utilize to acquire, serve, retain and drive commitment from their customers. The following seven steps offer a framework for marketers before, during and after activities.
My Comment: This great article has several ideas worth considering. First and foremost, every company, if they haven’t done so, should do a customer journey map. I also like the idea of looking at what other companies (even competitors) are doing as “best practices.” If it is a competitor from your own industry, don’t copy. Adopt and give it a different spin to make it your own. Copying is just keeping up. That said, bringing in best practices from other industries (that your customers might appreciate) can give you a competitive advantage.
3 Key Benefits of Live Chat for Customer Service by Gianluca Ferranti
(Vivocha) Now, more than ever, businesses need to fully support the online customer experience and provide them with quality online support. In addition to phone, email, self-service, and video customer support channels, live chat is a great tool for online customer support that can lead to happier customers, increased conversions, and a reduction in service costs. But should your business use live chat for support? Here are three benefits to consider.
My Comment: While not all of us need “Live Chat” to support our customers, this article has some interesting stats and facts that every business needs to know regarding how customers are using online communication channels.
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)
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January 10, 2014
Guest Blog: Five Customer Service Myths Busted
This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Nick Toman shares research about those pursuing the ideal customer experience and information that is being overlooked during the process. He shares five service myths related to the ideal customer experience that is food for thought! – Shep Hyken
Recently Bloomberg BusinessWeek released a report claiming that it pays to be a hated company. They found that customer satisfaction levels are inversely related to company stock price performance. The Colbert Report’s coverage of this story helped propel the world of customer service to the national forefront over the past few days.
While some leading experts in the customer service space have been quick to highlight flaws in Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s analysis*, for others this comes as little surprise. The relationship between customer satisfaction and commercial outcomes has long been known to have little correlation.
Based on years of research in the customer service and support space, much of which is detailed in our latest book, The Effortless Experience (Penguin/Portfolio), Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s findings don’t come as a huge surprise. We’ve analyzed over 125,000 unique service interactions and over 5,000 frontline service reps and have come to understand that companies in pursuit of the ideal customer experience are often overlooking far more meaningful drivers of the customer experience in the process – the very elements that materially impact customer loyalty and drive commercial performance.
In no particular order, here are the top five service myths related to the ideal customer experience…
Myth #1: Delighting customers in service interactions drives loyalty.
Reality: Simply meeting baseline customer expectations in service interactions drives the same loyalty benefit as exceeding expectations.
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Our data shows very clearly that delighting customers, while it may feel like the “right answer” does not lead to commensurate loyalty. In many cases, those grateful letters that customers send detailing how they were delighted are followed by no further advocacy, no incremental spend, and in many instances a phone call to cancel their service or return their product. The next myth details why this is the case…
Myth #2: Customer service positively impacts customer loyalty.
Reality: Customer service largely drives disloyalty.
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Most leaders think of customer as a single “pie.” The reality is that loyalty really behaves like two separate pies – one for positive gains in loyalty, and the other is disloyalty. The positive pie is driven by things like the brand, product quality, and value. The negative pie, however, is dominated by customer service. The reason is that service engages customers who are already in a sub-optimal state of mind. At the least, they have a question. More commonly, they have a concern or an issue. The primary goal of customer service is to mitigate disloyalty, not drive positive gains in customer loyalty. For those who are sports fans, the best analogy here is that customer service is best positioned to play defense, not offense.
Myth #3: Customers want to be showered with discounts, givebacks, and WOW moments.
Reality: Customers want ease. Getting back to their busy lives quickly matters more than anything.
The greatest driver of disloyalty is the amount of effort you require your customers to put into their service experience. Customer effort includes repeat contacts, repeating information, channel switching (e.g. starting in Web and ending up on the phone), transfers, policies and procedures, and the general hassle factor that most service interactions create.
Simply stated, reducing customer effort is the most important thing your company can do to better serve customers.
Myth #4: Your customers want to talk to you.
Reality: Your customers would much rather self-serve.
Most companies manage their service operations to the preferences of a 77-year old customer. That’s the age where customers prefer the phone 2.5x more than self-service, which is the ratio that most executives believe customers prefer to interact with their company. But consider that nearly 60% of all phone interactions saw the customer start on the company’s website. Companies are forcing customers to switch from self-service to phone – and creating significant customer effort along the way. The trick isn’t getting customers to try to self-serve, it’s getting them to stay in those channels. It’s what customers want, and what our CFOs want, so why aren’t we focused there?
Myth #5: Customers will be satisfied by having many choices in how they interact with a company.
Reality: Customers want to be guided to the simplest, easiest resolution possible.
Only 16% of customers are steadfast in their service channel preferences (the majority of who view the phone as the ONLY option for their service needs). The remaining 84% of customers prefer guided resolution, where a company essentially recommends the best way to resolve an issue. Herein lays the problem however… Most service websites have between 25 and 45 initial choices for a customer to make when trying to resolve an issue – each choice equally right or wrong. The lowest effort websites aren’t the ones trying to “keep up with the Joneses” and instead focus on simplicity and clarity. Amazon.com epitomizes guided resolution, where customers select their issue in a series of 3 drop down menus and are then prompted as to the best channel to interact with Amazon. What’s more amazing, is when phone is recommended, the customer is asked to input their phone number and a rep from Amazon calls and immediately starts to resolve that specific issue.
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*[Admittedly, there are a LOT of other variables that drive stock price performance, so we also agree that these results should be taken with a grain of salt as it’s unlikely that the analysts controlled for extraneous variables like operational efficiency, impact of supply chain and materials, sales and marketing investments, not to mention analyst coverage, etc. across the analyzed companies.]
Nick Toman is a senior director in CEB’s Sales & Solutions practice, overseeing the global research operation and product development around Sales, and co-author of The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty. Nick is a frequent contributor on sales and customer service topics for a number of blogs, including that of the Harvard Business Review and Freakonomics. For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com
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January 8, 2014
You Must Have the Answers to These Two Customer Service Questions
Customer Benefits
In a recent newsletter I shared a number of customer service questions to ask yourself and your team. These were meant to be “conversation starters” and they managed to spark a lot of good conversation via feedback and ideas from our Shepard Letter readers and our YouTube video subscribers.
One of the most popular customer service questions was the first one, which was:
What three things do you do best that differentiates you from your competitors?
These must be benefits that the competitors won’t be able to say about themselves. For example, if you say, “We provide great customer service,” or, “Our people are really friendly,” don’t think the competition doesn’t say the same thing. They do. By the way, whatever you come up with needs to be important to the customer. It shouldn’t just be different. It should be a benefit. It should make a difference. Some better examples might be:
We are the only manufacturer that can offer a 24 hour turn-around on special orders.
Or, we are the only seafood restaurant in town that catches their own fish daily.
We are the only store in our area that is open 24/7, in case you need something in the middle of the night or on a holiday when other stores are closed.
That question sparked some great conversation with a colleague, Dennis Snow, a wonderful speaker who worked at Disney for 20 years. We did a Google Hangout together, which I refer to as a Customer Service Hangout, and he has a very cool customer service question:
What three things do you want your customers to say about you when they walk away?
This is part of what you promise your customers. It’s your brand. While your competition may be able to deliver on some similar things, you still want your customers saying this specifically about you. Some examples might be:
They have the most knowledgeable people that always have the answers to my questions.
Those people are the friendliest people I have had the privilege of working with.
Whenever I make an appointment with that business, I can always count on them being on time.
Dennis’s question perfectly complements the question about what differentiates you from your competitors. One question is the why and the other question is the what.
Here are the three reasons why you should do business with us, and these are the three things we want you to experience when you do business with us. You really need both.
If you come up with the answers to these questions, you’ve just doubled your Triple Threat. I guess that makes you a Sextuple Threat!
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)
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January 6, 2014
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of January 6, 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.
Streamlining the Customer Experience with Social Media and Mobile Tech by Rick Delgado
(Social Media Today) With the rise in use of smartphones and tablets, it’s time for businesses to start thinking about how they can reach out to the mobile consumer and use mobile technology to their advantage.
My Comment: On the first read of this article I thought it may be relevant to just B-2-C. However, I believe that any business can benefit from delivering a better social media and online experience. Perfectly summed up in the second sentence of the article: “If we ever came across a company that didn’t have a website, we’d not only be surprised but also pretty annoyed and take our business elsewhere.”
Five predictions for customer experience in 2014 by Mike Wittenstein
(Retail Customer Experience) Here are five things that I believe will impact customer experience in the coming months.
My Comment: We won’t know for another twelve months if these predictions are accurate, but I especially like number two, which basically says that B2B brands will start adopting B2C practices. Great food for thought!
Five Simple Customer Experience Improvement Tips to Jump-Start 2014 by Jeannie Walters
(360Connext) The calendar has turned, friends. After a month of making predictions, we are now on the road to a full 2014. Instead of talking about what you should PLAN on doing, let’s talk about what you can DO to improve your customer experience. Today. Like right now.
My Comment: A very simple but powerful list of things to do to enhance the customer experience. How many companies do you work with that really do focus on the customer, listen to them, listen to employees, think about the future and never criticize a customer behind his/her back? Would be nice if everyone we did business with followed this list.
Seven fearless CX Predictions for 2014 by Stan Phelps
(9 INCH MARKETING) Baseball legend Casey Stengel once said, “Never make predictions, especially about the future.” It’s strong advice for today’s unpredictable climate. Yet we enjoy prognosticating, especially at the end of the year. So, here are my seven fearless predictions for customer experience in 2014.
My Comment: While the article refers to these as seven predictions for customer service/experience, I think it is a darn good list with ideas worth implementing. My prediction… If a company can make any of the predictions a reality, they will have more success in the form of more business and loyalty.
5 Lessons All Departments Can Learn From the Customer Service Department by Blake Landau
(Huffington Post) Forget Robo Cop. Do you want security for your business? Go gaga over service. A service oriented approach to business is the only choice for the future. Those who don’t recognize this will not be here to make mistakes in the future. Here are my five tips from support. Feel free to share yours in the comments section.
My Comment: There is a reason that other departments can learn from the customer service department. It’s because customer service really isn’t a department at all. It’s a philosophy; an attitude. It can be the sales, marketing, HR, IT, etc., we all have customers, either internal or external. Take all of the standard “outside customer” techniques and bring them inside of the company to the internal customer, and you will be an amazing place to work and do business with.
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)
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January 3, 2014
Guest Blog: The Danger in Leading with Cost Plus Fear
This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Jeff Shore writes about the costs and fears that prevent a customer from doing business with you. I like how he talks about serving the customer which can lead to an Amazing customer experience. – Shep Hyken
Years ago I created a formula by which people make purchase decisions.
People buy when:
Current Dissatisfaction x Future Promise > Cost + Fear
There is a lot to unpack in that little formula but I would like to address the right side of the equation, those costs and fears that prevent a customer from doing business with you.
Customer service means many things but one thing it does not mean is instilling fear into buyers. While that might sound so obvious as to be ridiculous, fear is often what both salespeople and companies inadvertently lead with.
If you make a point to notice how often cost and fear are the stepping off points for customers, you won’t have to look far. Go to almost any retail store or look at stores online and note how often salespeople, signage, and the overall purchasing vibe begins with an attempt to lower cost and insert fear into customers. Salespeople have been conditioned to launch into the “Deal of the Day” discussion as soon as a customer walks through their literal or digital door. This is not “service,” this is stress!
Think about this cost plus fear approach for a moment. The message to the customer is this: “I can hit you up front with a price that is so low you will have to pay attention to my deal, even if you don’t like or need the product, and I’m going to have you fearful and stressed out about missing a good deal!” While worry-inducing approaches such as this may result in single sales, stressing people out does not make for loyal customers. Customers will feel served if they are in fact served, not threatened.
When customers are “served” via price claims and fear, they tend to ask themselves questions such as, What’s wrong with this item?…Why doesn’t anyone else want it?…Should I pay more for better quality?…Will this go on an even bigger sale tomorrow? If customer service is all about listening to people and providing solutions for their problems, inspiring a string of stressful questions like these is the exact opposite of what you want to provide for your customers.
More importantly, when customer service takes the form of a frantic “buy now or else” fear-filled price pitch, customers are reduced to bank accounts and knee-jerk reactions. Just like you, customers are people. If you resist the trend to lead with price and fear and aim to truly serve individuals, you will create satisfied and loyal customers.
About the Author:
Jeff Shore is a highly sought-after sales expert, speaker, author and executive coach. His latest book, Be Bold and Win the Sale: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone and Boost Your Performance, (published by McGraw-Hill in January 2014) illustrates Jeff’s innovative BE BOLD methodology and teaches you how to change your mindset and change your world. Learn more at jeffshore.com or follow Jeff on Twitter.
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January 1, 2014
14 Customer Service Questions to Ask for 2014
I love a good list of customer service ideas, and since it’s the New Year, I thought it would be appropriate to share a list. These customer service questions are for you to ask yourself and others in your company. These are conversation starters you can use to have discussions about delivering amazing customer service.
What three things do you do best that differentiates you from your competition? Really look at how you are different. What is it that your competitors can’t say about themselves that you can say about yourself?
You can’t be the best at everything, so what is it you are not good at doing? Don’t try to change what you are not good at. Focus on what you are good at and improve upon where you excel.
What does your competition do that you can learn from? By the way, don’t copy the competition. Learn from them and improve on what you learn.
What do you do to make people want to be around you at work? The focus of this question is on your internal customers. Do they enjoy working around you? If so, why?
What, if anything, do you do to come up with creative and innovative ideas? Does your company have some type of employee suggestion program?
How does your company train employees in customer service and relationship building skills? Many times companies spend a lot of money and time on training technical skills. The best companies also train soft skills, like customer service.
What policies or processes stand in the way of delivering amazing customer service, and can they be removed? In other words, how easy is it to do business with you?
What does your company do to actively seek out complaints and problems? A complaint is an opportunity to show how good you are. Seek them out.
How do you or your company debrief negative experiences, turning them into teaching opportunities? Use a negative experience or bad review as a learning opportunity to get better.
How do you celebrate success with your employees? When you have success, let everyone know they are appreciated.
Have you mapped out the typical customer experience and examined the impact from all touch-points at the front line? The customer journey map is a powerful tool for spotting opportunities to improve existing customer service.
Have you identified how everyone behind-the-scenes impacts the front-line customer experience? Everyone has a customer – and sometimes it’s an internal customer. Jan Carlzon, former chairman of Scandinavian Airlines says that if you aren’t actually supporting the customer, you are probably dealing with someone who is.
What do you “give back” to your community? Community can be defined as local, global, causes you are involved in, etc.
Does everyone understand that customer service is not a department, but a philosophy? It’s also an attitude!
What questions would you add to this list? Let me know.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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 ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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December 30, 2013
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of December 30, 2013
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.
The Secret to Delighting Customers by Dilip Bhattacharjee, Bruce Jones and Francisco C. Ortega
(Harvard Business Review) There’s only one way to create emotional connections with customers: by ensuring every interaction is geared to delighting them. That takes more than great products and services — it takes motivated, empowered frontline employees. Creating great customer experience comes down to having great people and treating them well. They will feel more engaged with the company and more committed to its goals. The best companies make four activities habitual.
My Comment: When Harvard Business Review offers the “secret” to anything, I pay attention. Here are some straight forward insights to delivering customer service. The article poses the question, “Why is customer experience so difficult to get right?” The answer is “The main hurdle is translating boardroom vision into action at the front line.” I’d change the last four words. It’s translating the vision into action… for the entire company. HBR, thanks for sharing the secret!
5 Phrases That Should Never Be Used in the Customer Service Business by Steve DiGioia
(Hotel News Resource) Customer Service’ is a term that too frequently is used as a catch-all for the experience received or given in today’s business world. But what customer service is to me may be different from what it is to you and what you expect, or tolerate.
My Comment: There is a lot that any business can learn from the hospitality industry. I’m a big fan of lists and this one is excellent. These five phrases are “loyalty killers” and erode the customer service experience.
4 inspirational customer experience quotes and how to leverage them in your business 2014 #cx by Sven-Olof Husmark
(CustomerThink) Today, customers are in power and business success is based on how well companies can meet their demands and expectations. Customers have many choices and it is critical to make their experiences as simple, consistent, and relevant as possible as they make their customer journey. I have selected 4 great customer experience quotes and used them to deliver some practical advice for the new year 2014.
My Comment: Here are four very powerful customer service quotes and commentary about them. I’m going to use them at my next four team meetings to stimulate some great discussions around customer service.
Making Our List… Checking It Twice… The Ultimate List of Customer Service Skills by Joanna Jones
(Impact) Our ultimate list of customer service skills includes some of the top skills used by some of the most renowned customer service companies. If you can help your company achieve all of the items on this list, you will indeed have wonderful customer experience awaiting your customers – during the holidays, and beyond.
My Comment: The theme of articles and blogs being posted this time of year include lots of lists. This is a list worth paying attention to. When it comes to delivering amazing customer service, read this list, check it twice – and then repeat as often as necessary until everyone gets it!
Why Stellar Customer Service Is Key to Building Your Online Brand by Scott Levy
(Entrepreneur) In his book Tweet Naked, online marketing expert Scott Levy provides the critical information entrepreneurs need to craft a social media strategy that will boost their brand and their business. In this edited excerpt, the author explains why the most important factor to succeeding on social media is exceptional customer service.
My Comment: Some say that a company’s brand is what the customer perceives the company to be. A big part of that perception comes from customer service. The best companies, like Zappos mentioned in the article, get it and embrace it. The brand promise complements the customer service promise. By the way, this works for both online and offline companies.
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 ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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December 27, 2013
Guest Blog: Customer Service, Don’t Make Things Right, Make Them Better
This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Kelly Gregorio talks about elevating the customer experience. When mistakes happen it is important to handle them correctly and turn them into opportunities for amazing service. – Shep Hyken
To most people, customer service seems like common sense. There is a client that needs to be catered to, in some cases a mistake that needs to be dealt with and almost always, the desire to leave them wanting to come back for more. Yet, despite the simple explanation, some people just don’t “get it.”
When it comes to exceptional customer service, arguably the most important thing is how we handle our mistakes. There is a common misconception that, being in the customer service industry, our job is to make things right; when in reality, our goal should be to make them exceptional.
Even Things Out
When dealing with a client related issue the first thing you have to do is hear a person out. Understand what has gone wrong and where they are coming from. Gauge what they would like (and you reasonably can do) to even the situation out.
The steps are as follows: reiterate their issue for confirmation, apologize for it, and fix it as quick and efficiently as humanly possible. Afterwards be sure to follow up with a final apology and the assurance that things are better now. But, wait! It does not stop there…
Turn Mistakes Into a Surprise
Just because you’ve evened things out does not mean you’ve won your customers over in any sort of way. Chances are the issues they encountered were an inconvenience that- in a perfect world, would have never happened at all. You’ve made things right, now its your chance to make them better than expected.
The accommodation here will vary from industry to industry. An online merchant might offer free shipping, a marketing agency might throw in the perk of free promotional items, a photographer might take it upon himself to frame the best photo from a set….
It’s all about going the extra mile, pushing the mistake and your sales aside for the sake of your future with this client. Your goal is to get them to forget about the former issue and instead marvel at your additional step.
Paint Their Picture, Know Your Boundaries
In the case of exceptional customer service you are the artist. With a brush in your hand you do have the power to paint an ugly misstep into a beautiful picture. Advice like this is that much more important when considering the power of word-of-mouth via social media. People are going to talk about their experience regardless; when your business is mentioned do you want the results to be unfavorable to unforgettable?
In the same breath it is important to understand your limits. Unfortunately we cannot make everyone happy; stubborn thorns will try to stick in your side, but don’t let them. The point is that you make the effort and try; not just to even things out but to make them exceptionally better. After all your reputation is at stake with every interaction that you make.
What tips do you have for elevating a customer experience?
About the author: Kelly Gregorio writes about small business trends and tips while working at Advantage Capital Funds, a company that provides businesses working capital. You can connect with her through the comments section of her daily business blog here.
The post Guest Blog: Customer Service, Don’t Make Things Right, Make Them Better appeared first on Shep Hyken.
