Shep Hyken's Blog, page 233

How to Create a Customer-Centric Culture

Deliver Great Customer Service

Creating a Customer Centric-Culture.  That’s a lot of words that begin in C.  Well, this article is about D’s.  Growing up, in school a D wasn’t a very good grade.  And, where I went to school, sometimes a D was slang terminology for a demerit, which meant I spent a Saturday morning at school in study hall.  Not a great way for a kid to spend a Saturday.  However, you and your company will want the following D’s, especially if customer service and building a customer-centric culture is important to you.  And, I know it is!

The Six D’s of Creating a Customer-Centric Culture

Define it.  Customer service is part of your brand promise.  It is what you want your employees to deliver.  It is what you want the customer to experience. Make it clear and make it simple.  For example, Ace Hardware, known for their customer service, is known as the “Helpful Hardware Place.”  They have defined customer service as being Helpful, and in their hiring, training and customer interactions, they make it clear that Helpful is what they are all about.

Disseminate it.  Don’t keep it a secret.  Just because you’ve defined the customer service experience, at this point it’s just lip service.  Now you must train your employees on how to deliver it.  The Ritz Carlton hotel chain has laminated cards with their “credo” and several other important core values printed on it.  Each employee carries the card with them, and in many cases, has memorized it.

Deploy it.  It’s time to execute.  The employees have been trained.  Now it is time to implement and act on the customer service initiative.  Everyone must know it and be on board with it – even people who don’t have any contact with your customers.  They have internal customers who they support.  Customer service is everyone’s job.

Demonstrate it.  Now that everyone knows it and has been trained, everyone must demonstrate it.  Leaders must, through their actions, show everyone how it’s done.  And, everyone else should do the same.  Everyone becomes a role model for how to deliver amazing customer service.

Defend it.  If you see someone doing anything contrary to what you want the customer to experience, you step in to help.  This isn’t about reprimanding or calling someone out for doing something wrong.  This is a teaching opportunity, and treated as such, creates a culture that comfortably empowers employees to deliver great customer service.

Delight in it!  Take pride and delight in the success you have with your customers.  Celebrate the success of the company and individuals who have demonstrated amazing customer service.

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)

The post How to Create a Customer-Centric Culture appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of December 9, 2013

TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE AND BUSINESS ARTICLES

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.

7 Things Stew Leonard’s Can Teach You About Your Customers by Noreen Seebacher 

(CMSWire) Forget data driven decision-making and advanced analytics for a moment. Maybe the best way to measure customer experience is the simplest — and is crystalized in a single cup of lemonade.

My Comment: Stew Leonard’s is a customer service icon. There is much to learn

from the way they do business. Here are some of the classic reasons they

are so successful. Any business can adapt these ideas.

Are Customer Loyalty Programs Right for Your Business? by Ivana Taylor

(QuestionPro Blog) Whether the stores are grocery, retail chains or food establishments, it seems as if customer loyalty programs are more popular than ever. And with the marketplace being more competitive than ever, perhaps customer loyalty programs really do keep customers for the long-term. Let’s look at how the programs work and how you can start one for your business.

My Comment: Are loyalty programs really loyalty programs? Or are they marketing or discount programs? As mentioned in this article, the best companies have a loyalty program that offers more than points and other incentives to come back. They offer value. In the end, it is value that makes a customer truly loyal.

7 Critical Social Media Challenges for Contact Centres by Cassie Bendall

(Sentiment) We’ve also decided to collate our notes, back them up with a wealth of recent statistics and create a really useful infographic (below) which highlights the seven key challenges you’re likely to experience with integrating social into the contact centre.

My Comment: While this article and infographic has a theme of how social media is impacting contact centers, I think it is important for any type of business and every department to understand the impact social media is having on a company’s brand and perception.  Great stats and facts for all businesses to take note.

Happy Birthday! Two Words Customers Love by Chad Brooks

(Business News Daily) Wishing customers “happy birthday” is an easy way to earn their repeat business, new research shows.

My Comment: This is so simple.  Why don’t more companies do it?  Saying “Happy Birthday” by sending a card is a fantastic touch point.  All customers like to feel appreciated – and remembered!  What better way to do it than to say, “Happy Birthday.”

5 Common Mistakes That Derail Your Customer Experience by Flavio Martins

(WinTheCustomer!) It’s always wiser to learn from others’ customer service mistakes and not your own. If you don’t watch for the little customer service traps, you’re bound to fall like the rest.

My Comment: I love a good list of ideas, strategies or tactics that make me think about how to improve, especially when it comes to the customer experience, and this list does exactly that. Many companies fall into the trap of making not just one, but potentially all of these mistakes. And as the fifth “mistake” points out, none of these can be fixed quickly. They will take time to fix, but the effort will be worth it.

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)

The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of December 9, 2013 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: Actions Really Do Speak Louder Than Words

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my friend and colleague Annette Franz Gleneicki shares a famous quote relating to the customer experience.  I couldn’t agree more with how important honesty, integrity, and trust are in every aspect of business and life in general. – Shep Hyken

It was Mark Twain who said, “Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.” This has become my favorite saying, both with regards to customer experience and to life in general.

I’ve used this quote recently with my kids, and it’s an important code to live by. It speaks to honesty, integrity, and trust. It’s something that is just as important to your business and how you interact with them as it is to your friends and family and those relationships. As a matter of fact, if we raise our kids on this principle, perhaps they’ll become a part of the solution and never have to question the intentions of businesses of the future. We can only hope.

Why do I bring this up now? I have a few examples that I want to share that, pardon the pun, speak volumes on this topic.

In October, Debbie Laskey wrote a blog post about an experience she had at Office Depot that was celebrating a grand opening; what struck me (and her) was the sign on the outside of the store; it states:

“NOW OPEN. Be a part of our new experience.”

What exactly does that mean? It seems that sign would set an expectation that, perhaps, great things are in store. Based on Debbie’s experience, Office Depot needs to work on various aspects of the experience, not the least of which is the employee training.

The sign reminds us that actions speak louder than words. If you have to say that you have a new experience, a great experience, or focus on your customers, then I’m suspicious. Just show me… don’t tell me. And then disappoint.

Next, Bernadette Jiwa wrote a post around the same time that elicited the same response.  Her post takes a different angle, but it conveys the same message: “You can market all you want, but in the end it’s your intention, not your marketing that shines through. The truth is that people will know and that’s not a drawback, it’s an opportunity.”

Don’t tell me what you’re going to do to try to make me love your brand, show me. Especially once you tell me, don’t disappoint – or else, game over. Now you’ve lied to me; how am I supposed to trust you in the future?

Here’s a different example. A few days ago, I saw a Blue Shield of California (BSC) commercial where they touted that they were for the second year in a row. What does that mean for the consumer? BSC was awarded for their ethical business practices, but how does that translate to the actual customer experience? Apparently the two are not entirely related, as they received an “about average” rating for overall experience in the latest J.D. Power and Associates rankings.

Customers have their own expectations, but when you influence or raise expectations as a result of your words, your marketing efforts, then you need to deliver.

Expectations – Performance = (Dis)Satisfaction

Last year, Shep broached this topic from a different angle, and I like his closing statement:  Actions do speak louder than words. And when the words make a promise or set an expectation, meeting and exceeding that expectation is the big step toward creating “Customer Amazement.”

Amen to that.

Talk doesn’t cook rice.  -Chinese Proverb

Annette Franz Gleneicki is a customer experience executive focused on improving both customer and employee experiences. Through her blog, CX Journey, Annette shares her passion for helping companies understand the importance of the employee experience and its role in delivering an exceptional customer experience, as well as how to transform their cultures to ensure the customer is at the center of every conversation.

The post Guest Blog: Actions Really Do Speak Louder Than Words appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Charging Your Customer for Loyalty

Loyal Customers

Companies covet customer loyalty.  They understand the benefit to having loyal customers.  Statistics show, over and over again, the financial advantages to customer loyalty, versus the continuous quest for new customers.  So how do some companies achieve customer loyalty? 

The company creates a loyalty program that tracks their customers’ purchases and rewards customers for their repeat business.  For example, airlines give their loyal passengers early boarding privileges, free upgrades and points toward free trips.  Or a sandwich restaurant that gives the customer a free sandwich on their tenth visit.
And, there are companies that build relationships and deliver a level of customer service that is so good that their customers wouldn’t consider going anywhere else.  Personally, this is my favorite.
Then there is a third way. The customer pays the company for the privilege of being a part of their loyalty program. What a concept!  Seriously, this is powerful, if not interesting.

AMC Theatres loyalty program, called AMC Stubs, charges their customers $12 a year to be a member.  That’s just $1 per month.  What do customers get for that?  AMC waives fees for online movie ticket purchases, credits the customer $10 for every $100 spent and gives free upgrades to larger popcorn and drinks.  So, if you are the customer who paid to be part of the loyalty program, why would you waste your money and do business with any other movie theatre?  Most people wouldn’t.

Then there is my favorite, the Amazon.com Prime program.  Amazon actually refers to this as a membership program, but many of their customers, along with industry experts, consider this to be a loyalty program.  For an annual fee of $79, the customer gets free two-day shipping, free movie streaming and Kindle book rentals.  There’s no tracking about how much business the customer does with Amazon.  The benefit is the same for the customer who buys one $10.00 book as for the customer who spends thousands of dollars on merchandise.  So, how can this really be considered a loyalty program?

My take on it is that the customer spends enough money on the program that they will think twice before doing business with one of their competitors.  The customer may even look for reasons to do business with Amazon, just to take advantage of the membership fee.

And, here may be the most important part.  To get customers to pay this fee, Amazon has to do two things so well, that the customer views the $79 fee to be a bargain.  First, they are amazing retailers and sell what customers want.  Second, they deliver amazing customer service. That’s a winning combination.

So, here are two questions for you to consider:

Is your company so good that your customers would be willing to be loyal to you with or without the incentive of a loyalty program – or even be willing to pay to be a part of a loyalty program?

If the answer is “Yes,” you are in some amazing company.

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)

The post Charging Your Customer for Loyalty appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of December 2, 2013

TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE AND BUSINESS ARTICLES

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.

What irritates customers most? The top five irritations revealed! by Ian Golding

(IJGolding) I am delighted to reveal the findings to the question ‘what irritates us most’. A question that potentially leads to the ‘opening of floodgates’, I experienced mixed emotions reading the 240 responses. I found myself switching from laughter, to sadness, to anger, to empathy as I immersed myself into the pain and frustration of others – pain that I myself have experienced all too often. So in order to avoid running the risk of irritating you, the reader, by rambling on, let me reveal the results.

My Comment: It doesn’t matter if you’re a B-2-B or B-2-C company, any of these five “irritations” will erode your customers’ confidence and loyalty. Make sure you’re not guilty of committing any of these “offenses.”

The great customer service debate by Business Technology

(Business Technology) Gartner analyst and customer satisfaction guru Ed Thompson explains how trust, touching and team spirit are at the heart of every genuine service-led company

My Comment: Here is some very sage advice and information from Gartner analyst Ed Thompson. Customers are smarter, willing to complain more (to the company and the public). It seems that customer service would be at the top of the list of important strategies and initiatives. (Yet, as Mr. Thompson points out, experts say this is nothing more than lip service.) Excellent information!

The Evolving Role of the Chief Customer Officer by Jennifer LeClaire

(CIO Online) While the activities a chief customer officer might engage in are legion, there are seven that are most common and important regardless of company size, industry, or chief customer role. Even if your company doesn’t have a chief customer officer, to become truly customer centric, an executive needs to be held accountable for customer activities.

My Comment: It is refreshing and exciting to see how the Chief Customer Officer’s role is evolving. What used to be the function of someone in charge of customer service, it now includes a number of important roles that include analytics, processes and more.

5 Ways to Use Mystery Shopping to Improve Your Business by Silvia Planella

(Business2Community) Mystery Shopping exercises allow businesses’ owners to get a quick, reliable and quality feedback from the customers perspective. It is an invaluable tool in aiding the evaluation of teams customer care performance levels, training budgets and company mission statements delivery to core customer sector.

My Comment: While most people think that mystery shopping is for the retail industry, I believe there are many advantages to mystery shopping just about any type of business. Here are some compelling reasons a business should consider a mystery shopping program.

Omnichannel customer service report by Zendesk

(Zendesk) How are companies around the globe doing in implementing omnichannel customer service and sales strategies to meet consumers’ expectations? Loudhouse, an independent research agency, surveyed 7,000 consumers in seven countries (U.S., U.K., Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, and Japan) to find out.

My Comment: My friends at Zendesk partnered with Loudhouse and created an information packed report on omni-channel customer service.  As customers are more comfortable getting customer service (and buying) across multiple channels, it is our best interest to keep up with the latest and greatest.  This report has some very valuable information to help you understand how communication with our customers is changing.  Go to the Zendesk site and download the PDF.

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)

 

The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of December 2, 2013 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: The Top 4 Essentials for Exceptional Customer Experience

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my friend and colleague Idit Aloni-Halfon talks about four ideas for providing an exceptional customer experience.  Focusing on every crucial point in the customer journey is key. – Shep Hyken

In a recent blog post we discussed the importance of brands understanding their customers’ individual journeys, and being there for customers during their make-or-break moments in a way that is personal and memorable. Some might even say that providing an individual customer experience will quickly become a strategic advantage in an otherwise identical service market.

So, what do organizations need to do in order to provide a personal customer experience and win over their customers? Here’s our checklist for providing exceptional customer experience.

Make Them Feel Unique: Focus on Each Individual Customer Journey

There is no denying that each customer has the need to feel special. Customers will take notice of enhancements in products and services and will greatly appreciate the more personalized experience that they are receiving because it speaks to them as individuals.

By using Big Data technology, organizations can examine all customer interactions and transactions. Over the course of time, patterns will become identifiable, and organizations will be able to use this information to better understand trends in customer needs and to decide how they can be proactive in meeting those needs.

Seize the Moment: Leverage Real-Time Analytics for Real-Time Actions

Brands are starting to take notice of the importance of being there for customers during their “decisive moments” – the make-or-break moments when a customer is in need for the organization to act.

Organizations can identify decisive moments in the customer journey by combining real-time data with historical data, and can then determine whether a specific action or contact is required. Actions based on smart decisioning engines, agent guidance and process automation, will have to be taken based on real-time capturing and analytics. At that point, the organization may choose to move the interaction to another channel, change the context of the conversation on the current channel, or create a new interaction altogether. By knowing when and how to act, organizations can provide proactive, satisfying experiences that are fundamental to brand loyalty.

Empower your People: Prepare the Organization 

With changing times and technologies, customers are becoming better educated about products and services that interest them through their own self-discovery and research. As customers become increasingly accustomed to serving themselves, they also have much higher demands for sales associates and agents. Customer-facing employees must feel empowered to take on this challenge.

Organizations need to ensure that the right agents are on the front line, with the training and motivation to succeed during these decisive moments. Using real-time guidance, they can ensure that agents do not miss a thing in this multifaceted environment – be it an opportunity to delight customers or capture sales.

Stay Restless: Instill Enterprise-wide Improvements Using Inside-Out and Outside-In Data

Each customer has his or her individual journey and, as this journey generates varying experiences, there is a lot to be gained from “closing the loop” by analyzing interactions and resulting customer feedback for operational and customer service uses.

This enables organizations to collect a wealth of customer input and use it to generate insights, on different aspects of their operation. These insights can be leveraged to deliver a more meaningful and memorable experience for the customer, and an efficient, effective and scalable service capability for the organization. 

So, how does your organization stack up to the challenge of providing exceptional customer service?

Idit Aloni-Halfon is a passionate Customer Experience professional, at NICE Systems . Idit has spent the last decade consulting and leading CX initiatives in large organizations in Israel and at Vodafone New Zealand. As she works with industry influencers, her passion is finding new ways to build exceptional Customer and Employee Experiences. Follow @NICE_Enterprise 

The post Guest Blog: The Top 4 Essentials for Exceptional Customer Experience appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Social Customer Service Equals Positive Experiences

Reactive Customer Service

I recently had the privilege of working with Hy-Vee, a grocery store chain based in the Midwest.  What an amazing, customer-focused operation.  Visit their stores and you will be impressed with their amazing employees and their excellent service. 

After my speech to the store directors, I met one of Hy-Vee’s executive vice presidents.  He was very proud, and deservedly so, about how they use social media to enhance their customer service.  He shared a story, which is an excellent example of how any company can use social media to take care of the customer.

By the way, this is an example of reactive customer service.  A customer complained and the company executed the reaction perfectly.

A customer was standing in the checkout line and Tweeted: Whenever I come go to Hy-Vee’s Chinese Express Department, they are always out of what I want. Mad!

Hy-Vee has something they call the Listening Room.  This is where employees monitor – or should I say listen to – their customers sharing comments on various social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Reaction time in the Listening Room is important.  The employee who was “listening” immediately tweeted back to the customer to step out of line and wait in Aisle One.  Within moments the manager found the customer, introduced himself and was able to get the customer what he wanted.

The story ends on a positive note when the customer, who had a short wait in line to check out, Tweeted that he loves Hy-Vee and how they took great care of them.

Great story here, with a few lessons:

Your customers will talk about you, potentially broadcasting their experiences, good and bad, to the world using social media channels.  Don’t fight it.  Embrace it.
Companies need to monitor, or as Hy-Vee says, “listen to,” these social media channels for any customer comments.
If the comments are negative, act quickly.  Response time is one of the keys to a successful resolution.  Great companies respond within a few minutes.  In the Hy-Vee story, it was literally a few seconds after reading the Tweet.  Very impressive!
Companies need to resolve negative issues quickly; the faster the better – and more impressive.
A positive outcome to a negative situation can ideally end with the customer going back to their social channel of choice and broadcasting a complementary statement that turns into positive PR for the company.

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)

The post Social Customer Service Equals Positive Experiences appeared first on Shep Hyken.

5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of November 25, 2013

TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE AND BUSINESS ARTICLES

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.

3 Customer Service Lessons Learnt From Other Retailers’ Mistakes by Kelly Atkinson

(Business2Community) We took the key findings from the annual Global Consumer Pulse Survey and turned them into 3 lessons you can use to go one better than the competition.

My Comment: Sometimes we can learn from other’s mistakes. In this case, we get three simple, yet important, customer service lessons that we can use in any type of business, not just retail. My favorite of the three is about respecting your customers’ time.

7 Tips for Delivering Great Customer Experiences Over Live Chat by STELLAService

(Happy Customer) 7 lessons for those who have implemented live chat software, or those who are considering it as a customer service channel.

My Comment: Live Chat is becoming a mainstream channel for customer support.  If this is a technology your company is currently using, here are seven excellent tips for creating a better Live Chat experience with your customers.

Two More Customer Experience Facts and Suggestions You Can’t Ignore [INFOGRAPHIC] by Bob Hayes

(Business Over Broadway) For me, these two new facts help summarize the infographic. I’m also providing a couple of suggestions based on those facts. What do you take away from Keepify’s infographic.

My Comment: There is a lot of information packed into these two customer experience facts and suggestions, and even more impressive is the infographic about customer loyalty.  Many companies focus on customer acquisition.  The stats and facts included here really make the case for the importance of customer retention.

5 Ways to Keep Customers Knocking on Your Door For More by Rebekah Epstein

(Entrepreneur) While the pair spends a lot of time talking about analytics, their impeccable branding plays a big role in BaubleBar’s success. There is a lot to learn from Yacobovsky and Jain, so let’s take a look at why their customers are so loyal.

My Comment: This is a great list of five ideas to get customers to come in and come back. Customer service is marketing.  Take care of the customer and they come back, talk about you to others, which in turn gets new customers to start doing business with you. If that’s not marketing or branding, I don’t know what is.

The effects of a good and bad customer experience [INFOGRAPHIC] by Nicola Brookes

(NewVoiceMedia) Check out this infographic to discover the real impact of poor customer service, taken from independent research NewVoiceMedia carried out recently.

My Comment: There is so much information out there that makes the case for delivering great customer service; customers spend more for it, come back more often for it, etc. What is the cost of bad customer service? This infographic, created by NewVoiceMedia in the UK, has some pretty interesting information that all businesses should consider.

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)

The post 5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of November 25, 2013 appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Guest Blog: How To Engage with the Customer at the Point-of-Experience

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my friend and colleague Jason Hish writes about how important it is to engage with the customer at the point-of-experience. I agree that we must always be using unique ways to gather customer information. – Shep Hyken

Customer engagement strategies are increasingly challenging, especially for brick and mortar retailers. Not only is there competition between other brick and mortar locations, there is also competition with online retailers. Therefore, the importance of engaging with a customer base is ever-important. Even more important, is how to engage with the customer at the point-of-experience. Too often retailers default to the standard form of engagement; for example, intercept surveys, online surveys, mobile surveys, and so on.

Traditional methods of gathering feedback and engaging with the customer yields some benefits, however they normally do not yield a high percentage of customer responses.  Traditional methods generally result in low response rates of 1% – 2%.  Although these methods dive into a deeper understanding of the customer’s experience, they fall short on a few elements.  For one, they do not represent a large enough customer base to truly represent enough segments in order to properly and accurately make corrective operational decisions.

Businesses need to offer a survey method in the store at the point-of-experience.  This method also needs to make the feedback experience quick and focused for the customer.  By asking one pertinent question at the point-of-experience and allowing for an anonymous response can lead to ten times the gain or more over traditional response methods.

Customers are busier than ever these days.  Therefore, it is important to engage with them at the point-of-experience and in a fun way.  This methodology will lead to more accurate and timely feedback, as the experience is fresh in the customer’s mind.  In addition, this will also lead to an increase of responses due to the inviting, easy and pertinent manner in which the survey is displayed and implemented.

Another thing to keep in mind is to keep it simple.  Utilizing technology can sometimes lead to adverse results.  Keep this in mind when you are selecting a method to engage with your customers.  To attract and gain feedback from all demographics you need to deploy a method that is inviting to all.  Stay away from the complicated kiosks with tablets and multi-layers of questioning.  You will only detract your customers from engaging and providing feedback with these kiosks.

These days it is more important to engage in a more simplistic and inviting manner.  Looking at ways to gain instant customer feedback and strengthening your social media messaging are essential in today’s challenging environment.  How do you engage with your customers?

Jason Hish is the president of Xavier Solutions, Inc., a consulting firm servicing the retail and commercial markets. For the last 12 years, Jason has worked with many organizations to provide simple, affordable and effective solutions.

The post Guest Blog: How To Engage with the Customer at the Point-of-Experience appeared first on Shep Hyken.

Exploit the Unique Talents of Your Employees

More Engaged Workforce

The Kimpton hotel chain continues to impress and amaze me.  I just had a wonderful stay at their Alexis Hotel in Seattle.  The staff was nothing short of amazing.  I did some “mystery shopping” for this article by engaging with several of the employees to find out a little about their culture.

One of the first things that impressed me was the longevity of the employees.  One of the front desk people had been there for 13 years.  Another since the hotel had opened.  The concierge had been with Kimpton for a number of years and had transferred to Seattle.  One of the servers at their restaurant, and I’ll get back to him in a moment, had only been there three years, but gave me the same answer that the more tenured employees had given me about why they love working at the Kimpton.

The general answer the employees gave me is that they love to service customers and Kimpton has given them the freedom to do so.  The lesson here is that Kimpton has created a culture that encourages their employees to meet and exceed their guests’ expectations.  Sometimes that means a little extra effort and even spending a little extra money to do so.  Service doesn’t always come cheap, but if the result is creating a loyal customer, the investment into the guest’s experience pays off with large dividends.

Carlos is the server in the restaurant I mentioned above.  I overheard one of his colleagues complementing him on a video.  I asked him about it.  He said he loved to create videos.  His manager, Jenne Neptune, encouraged Carlos to create a Kimpton video.  She gave him permission to film at the hotel and post it to YouTube.  Carlos said it meant so much to him that his manager would respect his passion enough to let him use it to serve the hotel.

This is the perfect example of a culture that exploits the uniqueness and the talents of its employees.  While hired to work in the restaurant, Carlos was given the latitude of using his talents and passion as part of his job.  As he told me his story, you could tell he was beaming with pride over his video project.  As a result, Carlos is more appreciative of his job, has great respect for his manager and has an overall sense of fulfillment.

Let’s take a lesson from another very cool company, Google.  Google wants its engineers to take 20% of their work-time – that’s one day a week – to focus on company-related projects of their own design.  They actually refer to it as “20% Time.”  This gives the employees a powerful sense of fulfillment deriving from their lead role in the new concepts being developed.  I’m not suggesting that every employee be allowed to work a certain amount of time on self-chosen projects, but this may be very appropriate for some of the people in your organization.

The concept of letting people do what they love and what they’re good at is powerful.  It doesn’t have to be 100% of their job, although that would be nice.  But there should be a part of everyone’s job that allows them to do what they love to do, exploiting their unique talents along the way.  The result is a more engaged workforce that will work for your company, and most important, your customers.

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)

The post Exploit the Unique Talents of Your Employees appeared first on Shep Hyken.