Shep Hyken's Blog, page 54

Three Powerful Ideas From a Former Amazon Exec

Whenever there is a chance to learn from an iconic brand like Amazon, I jump at the chance. Founder, Jeff Bezos, was an early adopter of a relentless focus on the customer experience.   

Did Bezos really believe that Amazon should be so good they didn’t need a customer service department? Did he really have an empty chair in his meetings to represent the customer? Those are questions I asked Bill Price, Amazon’s first global vice president of customer service and the founder and president of Driva Solutions. I interviewed Price on Amazing Business Radio, where he shared some powerful insights and lessons from his days at Amazon and from his latest book, The Frictionless Organization: Deliver Great Customer Experiences with Less Effort.  

When Price was interviewing for the job at Amazon, Bezos asked, “What’s your definition of customer service?” Apparently, Price had the right answer. He responded, “The best service is no service.” The gist of it was that we should be so good that a customer would never need to call us for customer support. Bezos loved the response, and he was hired. And by the way, that answer became the title of Price’s first book. 

Did Jeff Bezos really have an empty chair at the table to represent the customer?

So, Price became part of the executive team that would meet with Bezos on a regular basis. I had to ask him a question about something that I thought could be modern-day folklore. “When you were having those meetings, did Jeff Bezos really have an empty chair at the table to represent the customer?” 

Price said, “I was in the very first meeting at Amazon where Jeff left the chair empty. He wanted to keep the chair empty for the customer because the customer can never come to our meetings.” So, it was true! Bezos was so focused on customer service that he wanted everyone to keep the customer in mind, and having a chair at the table to represent the customer was his way of doing so. That’s truly customer-focused! 

Even though Price eventually left Amazon, he continued to focus on the customer experience. His latest book, The Frictionless Organization, is filled with ideas on how to deliver the experiences customers hope for. And there are advantages to being frictionless. Here are three we should all consider: 

Being frictionless reduces costs. When it’s easy, customers won’t need to call customer support, which can be very expensive.   Being frictionless drives customer and revenue growth. That’s a big reason behind Amazon’s success. They make it easy for the customer. And the perfect one to end on… Being frictionless gives you a competitive advantage. If you aren’t, you open yourself up to a competitor who will. In Bill Price’s words, “If you don’t make it really simple and easy for customers, someone else will do it for you.” 

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times, bestselling business author. For information on The Customer Focus customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Amazing Business Radio: Liza Smyth

Creating Defining Moments for Customers and Employees

Why Businesses Should Invest in EX (Employee Experience) as Much as CX

Shep Hyken interviews Liza Smyth, senior vice president of customer experience at Formstack, a company that helps organizations create workflows that enhance productivity. She shares how to make your internal and external customers feel seen and heard throughout their entire journey with your brand.

 

 

 

Top Takeaways:A defining moment for the employee or the customer is an event that truly matters to them. Even if they started with a bad experience, at the point you turn it around (the defining moment) is what shapes their perception of you.Every employee in your organization impacts a customer’s overall experience. Employees need to understand how they fit into the customer experience, even if they don’t directly interact with them.When you hire brilliant people but ask them to do menial tasks, they will feel like they are not bringing their best selves to work. They become process-driven instead of utilizing their talents effectively.When an employee interacts with a customer, the employee doesn’t represent themselves or their department. They represent your entire organization. You have to decide what your company’s voice is and what you want your customers to experience when they engage with you. This experience needs to be consistent across the board.Employees are your biggest assets at the company. Create an environment where there is a sense of belonging, their perspective is valued, and they can be their authentic selves.Determine your company’s “true north metric” (your mission, vision, mantra, etc.) and be sure that every employee understands how they influence it. Allow employees to feel like the job they do matters and that they impact the customers, their colleagues, and the organization.Formstack’s State of Digital Maturity report identified that 51% of surveyed workers report spending at least two hours per day on repetitive tasks, and 72% of employees felt that inefficient processes impacted their job.Plus, Shep and Liza share how to create an environment of belongingness with employees and colleagues who are outliers of the group.Quotes:

“A great employee experience delivers a great customer experience.”

“Seek to understand. We all come with our own biases and perceptions. When we seek to understand, we learn something about an individual and why their behaviors show up the way they do.”

“Understand what your employees want to do in their career and help them evolve into that role.”

About:

Liza Smyth is the senior vice president of customer experience at Formstack. She leads customer care for the company’s more than 25,000 customers. Before joining Formstack, Smyth worked for top tech companies, including Apple and LinkedIn.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.

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

Why is it essential to invest in employee engagement?What is a defining moment in customer experience?How can customers meet customer needs in real-time?How do you empower employees to provide a great customer experience?How does employee experience affect customer experience?

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5 Top Customer Service Articles of the Week 11-7-2022

Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various 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.

If You Don’t Love Your Customers, Someone Else Will by Melissa Henley

(CMSWire) Can you power an organization with love? Whether you call it compassion, or kindness or respect, love for customers is key to setting your organization apart. “All You Need Is Love.” It’s not just a Beatles song, it should be your customer experience ethos. Because if you aren’t showing your customers that you love them, you can bet someone else is knocking at the door to show them just how important they are.

My Comment: The title says it all. The author plays off of Gary Chapman’s international bestselling book, “The Five Love Languages,” and applies the ideas to our customer relationships. While all five ideas may not apply to every type of business, at least one or two of them will. Show your customers some love, and watch how they respond. I think you’ll like it!

4 Questions to Measure — and Boost — Customer Trust by Ashley Reichheld and Amelia Dunlop

(Harvard Business Review) Every business leader knows that trust is critical to a company’s success and that lost trust often has financial consequences. An Economist magazine analysis of Volkswagen, Wells Fargo, and six other corporations calculated that a company loses 30% of its value when it loses trust, at least in the short term.

My Comment: People like doing business with companies and brands that they know, like, and trust. The knowing and liking is easy. The tough part is trust. That’s what this article is all about. The most trusted companies outperform the stock market and “are more than 2.5 times more likely to be high-performing revenue organizations.” Here are four areas to focus on when you want to build trust with your customers. I’ll add a fifth, and that’s customer experience. Our CX research finds that 83% of customers trust a brand more if they provide an excellent customer experience.

Surveying the New Landscape of Customer Loyalty in the Wake of the Pandemic by Fastco Works

(Fast Company) In recent years, much has been written about the shifting relationships between consumers and companies. Consumers these days expect more from the companies they patronize, from elevated customer experiences to more personalized attention. Meanwhile, companies’ business-to-business relationships have undergone a similar transformation, as B2B customers are expecting more from the companies they work with. To navigate this new environment, many firms have turned to partners to help them better serve both their business and retail customers.

My Comment: The pandemic (just two years ago) forced most companies to step up their customer service game. Customers expected a different level of service that was more than just good service. They wanted more empathy and understanding than usual. Customers wanted a connection, and the companies and brands that delivered found a new type of customer loyalty.

6 Tips for Offering Better Customer Service by Phone (Even in a Tiny Company) by José Luis Martín Cara

(MITechNews.com) The quality of the customer service and support you provide has to be solid, regardless of the scale at which your business operates. If you’re failing to meet expectations, loyalty will take a hit, and growth will be out of reach. When it comes to communicating with customers over the phone, there are thankfully a number of ways to keep them happy and engaged, in spite of having limited resources available.

My Comment: You don’t have to be a big company with a contact center to provide excellent customer service over the phone. These six tips are a “back to basics” reminder about what customers appreciate when they reach out for support. By the way, our customer service research finds that 71% of customers prefer the phone as their first option for customer support. Regardless of the size of your company, some of these “basics” are essential to giving your customers the experience they want.

Strategizing for a downturn: CX leaders prepare for 2023 by Anna McKibben

(CX Network) Earlier this month, British newspaper The Independent reported that economists foresee a “0.3 percent fall in gross domestic product (GDP) for 2023 as a whole” – and that’s only in the UK. The IMF’s World Economic Outlook report, projects that global growth will slow from 3.2 percent this year to 2.7 percent in 2023. Post-pandemic financial restraints have prompted many businesses to change how they deliver the customer experience, but the scale of that change is far more significant than initially realized.

My Comment: This short article is a reminder that in spite of the economy, customer service must continue to be a priority. Supply chain issues, employment problems, and the economy are going to be tough on some companies. If there are going to be cost-cutting measures, stay away from anything the customer might notice, especially your customer service.

BONUSESThe Intersection of Public Relations and Customer Experience by Brianna Langley

(CMSWire) At its core, public relations (PR) is all about managing the reputation of a company. It’s about crafting and disseminating stories that will either make people want to associate with your brand or run from it. Whereas customer experience (CX), as we know, is all about creating positive interactions between a customer and a business.

My Comment: If you were to ask me for a theme song to describe a good customer experience, it would be Bonnie Raitt’s song, “Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About.” For many years I’ve said that a good customer experience can be some of your best marketing. That also includes PR. You want people to talk, tweet, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc., about you. That’s PR and marketing. Yes, there is an intersection between PR and CX.

14 Best Customer Service Blogs to Follow in 2022 by Tetiana Shataieva

(HelpCrunch) In this post, you can find the top 14 customer service blogs to follow in 2022. Feel free to subscribe to one or all of them, so you can keep up to date with trends and practices in customer service.

My Comment: HelpCrunch listed the top customer service blogs, and it is an honor to be included at the top of this list with some other amazing and smart customer service experts. Read some of these blogs and increase your customer service IQ.

[image error]Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. Go to The Customer Focus to learn more about our customer service training programs. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Guest Post: 6 Ways BPOs Can Boost Customer Experience

This week, we feature an article by Baphira Wahlang Shylla, a digital marketer at Knowmax, a SaaS company that provides knowledge management solutions for various industries that are seeking to improve their customer service metrics. She shares how BPOs can enhance your customer experience.

With rapidly evolving technology in today’s digital age, the BPO industry is bombarded with opportunities to improve customer experience (CX) in ways unthinkable a few decades earlier. From self-service portals to omnichannel support options and knowledge management systems, BPOs have greatly enhanced customer service.   

Despite all this dynamic change, one thing has always remained constant: people’s love for convenience. This makes it all the more crucial to delivering a top-notch customer experience, otherwise, people are sure to take their business elsewhere! 

According to Statista (2021), 57 percent of companies use BPOs so that they can concentrate on core issues and operations of their businesses and minimize costs. BPOs not only help you win customers, but they are a proven method of generating revenue as well. In India alone, the IT BPO industry generated around $154 million in revenue in 2017-2018, according to Brandongaille. 

Let us look at six ways in which BPOs can increase customer experience for your business.  

Self-Service for Timeless Customer Support  

In today’s world, with people’s attention spans becoming shorter by the day, resolving issues quickly and efficiently is every company’s goal. Consumers not only want ever-ready solutions to their problems, they also want them with the least amount of friction. A report by Harvard Business Review shows that 81 percent of all customers opt for self-service solutions before contacting a live representative. 

This is why most BPO companies opt for the self-service option, as most customers have now come to expect it. Self-service portals provide the option of easily and readily accessible information anytime and anywhere, irrespective of the call center’s opening hours.  

Self-service channels like FAQs, guides, and a knowledge base for self-service allow the customer the autonomy to help themselves. It also allows them to choose the medium they are most comfortable with, thus empowering the customers. 

Leverage the Power of Knowledge Management System 

The current key aim of the BPO industry is to provide high-quality service to both its clients and customers. With the use and integration of knowledge management software in their operations, this technological upgrade has revolutionized the way BPOs provide satisfactory customer experience. 

For example, it can take up to 5-6 weeks to provide training to new agents at a call center. Moreover, the high annual turnover rate of up to 26 percent of permanent agents does not make the case any better. It only results in excess wastage of resources and capital for the company only for the agents to leave in a few months.  

Instead, by using an efficient knowledge management system, the center can reduce its agent training period up to 40-50 percent. By using a Natural Language Search (NLS) to empower agents against a central knowledge base repository, the agents can have ready access to basic knowledge and resolve queries promptly.  

Omnichannel Customer Support Options  

The BPO industry is dynamic and constantly evolving, with many organizations realizing the benefits of omnichannel customer support. The 21st-century customer is spoiled with many channels to choose from- chatbots, self-service portals, social media and guides, and traditional phone calls.  

While some customers might prefer the around-the-clock self-service portals, others appreciate the traditional telephonic service. Often, the channel used by the customers also depends on their problem. For instance, many customers prefer direct contact with the agent when resolving financial inquiries. 

It is to be noted that with this multi-channel presence, the BPOs need to be careful that all channels provide quality and consistent answers and solutions to customer doubts and queries.  

Well-structured and Optimized CX Analytics  

Organizing data systematically is one of the fundamental priorities of any company in order to enhance customer experience. The more well-mapped the customer journey toward your brand, the easier it is to plan and implement customer experience strategies, increase customer engagement and maximize conversions.  

However, the problem is that not all companies are equipped to deal with this information on-site. This is where BPOs can come to your rescue. By outsourcing the work relating to CX analytics, BPOs can delve deeper into tapping the requirements of customers as well as implement effective strategies to meet their needs.  

By tracking the right metrics, BPOs can also measure the quality of their support and work on improving their service accordingly. The key here is to focus on the data in order to implement targeted and mindful improvements faster.  

Successful Remote Partnerships  

Besides saving costs and advanced technologies that BPOs employ, they also bring the competitive edge of global collaboration round-the-clock. With the work-from-home culture changing the way people work, engaging outsourced remote teams can change the approaches toward customer experience. 

For instance, customer experience outsourcing gives you the edge of working with top customer experience specialists and agents, provides multiple layers of tech security for remote teams, minimizes data breaches, and all-day service, removing any delay in conflict resolution.  

It’s a win-win overall as BPOs not only increase the company’s productivity and revenues, but it is also very customer-centric and ensures a positive customer experience. 

Call Center Scripts for Support Productivity 

Call center agents are expected to handle all sorts of customer queries and complaints. It is impossible to predict every possible interaction that could arise between the agent and the customer. However, using a flexible, well-thought-out call center scripting tool will surely enhance productivity and prepare the agents to handle customer-related issues effectively.  

Scripts are also a great way to reduce the training costs & time of new agents as they can use the scripts to learn the processes as well as use them as a guide whenever they need to. This is also a possible remedy to reduce agent turnover, as scripts reduce the pressure of memorizing for the call agents.   

This would, in turn, make them more confident while handling customer problems, enhancing the overall agent and customer experience.  

Conclusion  

Customer experience is all about catering to the customer’s needs, ensuring that their user journey is as smooth as possible. BPOs can go a long way to ensure that your customers are provided with top-notch service through some of the ways mentioned above. They also help the client maximize their productivity by focusing on core issues, reducing costs, and boosting sales. 

Baphira Wahlang Shylla is a member of the digital marketing team at Knowmax, a SaaS company that provides knowledge management solutions for various industries that are seeking to improve their customer service metrics. Other than her passion for digital marketing, Baphira is an avid reader who dabbles every now and then in painting and digital art. 

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes article: Forty-Three Percent Say 40-Plus Is Old: Discrimination In The Workplace

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Five Ways to Make Customers Feel Special

An important goal of a good customer experience is to make the customer feel special. That special feeling can come in many different forms. I was reading an article about customer retention, and it prompted me to start a list of ways to make customers feel special, want to come back, and even want to share their experience with friends, family, and colleagues. I’ll bet there’s an entire book that can be devoted to this topic, but for today we’ll keep it to the first few that came to mind. With that, here are five ways to make your customers feel special:  

Stop selling and start nurturing relationships. Selling is obvious. Building a relationship that fosters confidence, trust and connection is a less obvious sales technique. If every time you contact the customer, be it in person, over the phone, by email, texting, or any other form of communication, and all you do is sell, sell, sell, the customer will tune you out. If you are showing interest in customers outside of their wallets, you’re nurturing relationships. The customer experience shouldn’t just be a non-stop sales pitch.  Provide education. Make your customers smarter. More than just tips on how to be more successful with your products, how can you help them be more successful in their business or life? Provide education that’s tied to what you’re known for. And don’t do it with a sales pitch. This is purely a value-add – one that adds to the customer experience.   Offer sneak peeks of your newest products or what’s next. Insider access is always a powerful way of making a customer feel special. If you’re not a customer, you don’t get the “inside information.” And this information should be compelling enough to make them want to remain your customer.  Make it personal. At least make it appear to be personal. It’s easy to send text messages and emails that include a customer’s name and other information that make them feel as if the message is personalized, just for them. But that’s just the packaging. The true personal approach is to make sure the message is 100% on target for the customer. In other words, if you sell shoes and you know your customer buys running shoes, don’t send them messages about golf shoes. The wrong content destroys the personalization effort.  And finally, always thank the customer. There are plenty of opportunities to thank the customer. It could be when they place an order, on the invoice, in a follow-up email or thank you note, and more. You can never say thank you enough. Your customers trusted you enough to part with their money. Don’t ever let them walk away unappreciated.  

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times, bestselling business author. For information on The Customer Focus customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Amazing Business Radio: Tim Hughes

Serve and Sell Your Customers with An Amazing Digital CX

Creating the Digital Experience That Builds Trust with Your Customers

Shep Hyken interviews Tim Hughes, co-Founder and CEO of DLA Ignite, and co-author of Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers. He shares how organizations can establish a strong digital brand identity, share knowledge, and create lasting relationships with their customers through social media platforms.

 

 

Top Takeaways:The modern customer is empowered. They now have access to an infinite amount of content at their fingertips. They can look up products and services online before making a purchase. They can look people up on social media before doing business with them.Like the modern customer, job hunters have changed within the last few years. They are now empowered to evaluate the companies that they want to work for based on what is valuable to them. Through social media, they can see if an organization has the same values as them, whether it is on diversity, inclusion, sustainability, etc.Social media has become a form of digital theatre for people to see how companies respond to their customers’ positive or negative comments.The three things that brands need to do to excel at social selling and digital CX:Create a buyer-centric profile that looks good to your customers and positions your organization as the expert that can help them.Have a wide and varied network that allows you to influence as many people as you can.Create content that provides your customers with help and advice. Customers respect brands that share knowledge and are helpful to people. Providing informative and easy-to-digest content will get your customers to know, like, and trust you.Plus, Tim Hughes shares how companies can completely own their brand’s narrative through digital dominance. Tune in!Quotes:

“Your customers are searching for information and assistance online. Your employees need to be empowered on social because that is where your buyers are”

“Customers are looking for authentic content. Empower employees to share their experiences and emulate your brand’s values on social media.”

“How brilliant you say you are on your website does not matter anymore because your customers can check those things out for themselves from online reviews, digital customer interaction, and content.”

“When you respond to your customers, whether via direct message or on their social media posts, it makes them feel that there is a person behind your profile with whom they have built a relationship. This relationship with your customers builds their trust and their confidence.”

About:

Tim Hughes is the Co-Founder and CEO of DLA Ignite and co-author of the bestselling books, Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers and Smarketing: How to Achieve Competitive Advantage through Blended Sales and Marketing. He is currently ranked Number 1 by Onalytica as the “Most Influential Social Selling Person in the World.”

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.

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

What is social selling?How can you build trust with customers?What makes a good digital customer experience?How do you provide customer service via social media?How can you empower your staff to support customers through social media?

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5 Top Customer Service Articles of the Week 10-31-2022

Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various 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.

Beware! 3 Tactics to Avoid Spooking Your Customer by Mark Smith

(CMSWire) If a customer becomes disengaged or disgruntled at your offerings, they are likely to “ghost” your brand. You don’t want scary CX, do you?
Imagine being the house that trick-or-treaters avoid because they don’t have the “good candy.” With an abundance of options, trick-or-treaters want the houses that will give them the king-sized chocolate bar, not the free toothbrush.

My Comment: Since today is Halloween, I thought we’d start with a themed article. You don’t want to scare your customers away. You don’t want to be seen as creepy. But that is exactly what some companies and brands do. Perhaps you’ve looked at a website for a scant five or ten seconds. All of a sudden, you start seeing ads on your social media pages, again and again. You think, “That’s strange. I hardly spent any time on that website.” To put it in Halloween terms, they are creepy. As the title of the article implies, don’t spook your customers.

3 Steps to Get Ready for Siri, Alexa and Other Machine Customers by Christopher Sladdin

(MarTech) Many customer service organizations believe “machine customers” are but a distant trend, yet they’re already here and impacting our daily lives. Maybe you’ve recently asked Siri, Alexa or some other smart product to call customer service or wait on hold for you. The number of tasks assistants can perform is increasing all the time, as more industries see the potential to deliver low-effort CX in this way.

My Comment: Here is a term you’ll start to hear more and more: machine customers. Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google’s Nest are examples of machine customers. With advances in conversational AI and the Internet of things (IoT), these machines will become extensions of their human owners. They will know what and when to buy certain items. This will make for some very interesting opportunities for companies and brands that understand the power (and limits) of the machine customer.

How Does the Physical Customer Experience Impact the Digital CX? by Scott Clark

(CMSWire) The customer experience includes all of the interactions that a customer has with a brand across all of its channels. This includes a brand’s social media presence, mobile apps, websites, customer service chat, voice calls and brick-and-mortar storefronts. Customers today expect there to be a seamless, exceptional experience across all of these mediums. The pandemic is starting to wane and customers are now going back to retail outlets in person. Let’s take a look at the ways the physical experience impacts the digital customer experience and vice versa.

My Comment: While everyone seems to be focused on the ever-emerging digital customer experience, the author of this article is noticing a trend that more customers are returning to physical retail stores. It’s now time for those brick-and-mortar stores to enhance the in-store experience with digital. The main takeaway of this article is that regardless of the physical or digital experience, there must be consistency.

7 Tips to Manage Customer Service During the Holiday Season by Milton Simpsons

(Utah Pulse) It’s that time of the year again; when everyone is packing up to go visit their families and spend some time together. But that’s not what the holiday season is like for businesses. It can get quite stressful for them as well as for the customers. Customers get worried that their items aren’t being delivered to their homes, the internet connection has suddenly stopped working, cannot find certain products, and whatnot; the complaints are endless.

My Comment: The holiday season is just around the corner, although some smart (and aggressive) retailers have already started their holiday advertising campaigns. For those who will experience the bump in business, be ready – not just for handling customers but also for managing your employees, specifically customer service employees.

Research Reveals How to Shift Customer Service From a Cost Center to a Growth Driver Engine; Service Set to Unite Customer Experiences by Brian Solis

(CIO Online) There’s an old saying when something you value changes and no longer brings you the joy the way it used to, “it’s not like it used to be.” For those who remember the good old days, great service was an essential part of the customer experience. Nowadays, customer service is not what it used to be. For decades now, customer service has become a necessary cost center. The emphasis on scale, automation, speed, and margins have also come at the cost of customer experience. However, new research now shows that the role of service is shifting back to “service,” to unify the customer’s experience.

My Comment: The customer service department is not a cost center. It’s not just for handling complaints and problems. While that is what the customer support team seems to be doing, in reality, they are the people responsible for fixing complaints, problems, and issues in such a way that the customer says, “I’ll be back.” Perhaps a better name for the customer service department might be the revenue generation department or the customer retention department. When they do their job well, they save a customer, restore their confidence, and can be the catalysts for word-of-mouth advertising when customers talk about how well the brand handled a problem.

BONUSTop 11 Customer Experience Books You Must Read in 2022 by Blair Williamson

(Nextiva) A survey of 362 firms carried out by Bain shows that 80% of organizations felt they provided a “superior experience” to their customers; however, only 8% of customers agreed with this statement. Wake up call, right? Obviously there’s a disconnect between what we think we’re doing well and how our customers feel about what we’re doing.

My Comment: Thank you to Nextiva for including The Cult of the Customer as one of the “Top 11 Customer Experience Books You Must Read in 2022.” It’s always an honor to be on a list like this. And take a look at the other books recommended. If you have a desire to up your CX, this list of books is a great place to start.

[image error]Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. Go to The Customer Focus to learn more about our customer service training programs. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Guest Post: How Learning a Second Language Boosts Your Customer Service Abilities

This week, we feature an article by Rupert Jones, a financial independence geek who believes in the power of networking. He shares how learning a second language can help support teams communicate and serve their customers.

Learning a second language can provide a lot of benefits for you in all aspects of life. You will be able to see new people, adapt to new situations, and take advantage of bilingual opportunities. However, you might wonder if you need to learn a second language to help your customer service abilities.  

The answer is, yes! Learning a second language can benefit your ability to provide service for and to help your customers, and here are some of the benefits it can provide you. 

They Can Help You Understand Foreign Culture 

It can be very easy to assume that all of the customers who walk into your business are part of your culture. However, sometimes people who are part of a different culture will come to your business, and you need to be able to take care of them just as well.  

Learning a foreign language can ensure that you can get deeper into the cultures of the customers you are working with, and they can help you understand more about your customers and how to market to them. 

While you won’t need to write an entirely new marketing plan for every single culture in your business, you can take advantage of learning about what each culture holds dear and what they value, and then you can better market to them. 

Learn A Second Language, and Don’t Be Afraid To Start With The Basics 

Don’t be afraid to start with the basics. Even as beneficial as being bilingual is, you need to make sure that you are taking on the challenge slowly.  

So pick your favorite language and then start learning it step by step. Whether you choose to learn Spanish or you decide to take an intensive French course, you need to go step by step and word by word until you become fluent. 

It will take some time, but once you become fluent then, you will have a skill that will help you in various areas of your life. Especially whenever you decide to start working with customer service! 

Learning A Second Language Boosts Your Hireability 

If you want to find a customer service job and haven’t had much luck being hired, then you might want to learn a second language and mention that you are bilingual on your resume.  

Many companies need bilingual workers to help them communicate with an increasingly diverse customer base, so it can very easily increase your ability to be hired because not a lot of people speak several languages fluently.  

Especially if learning a second language is very easy for you to do, you’ve got no reason not to put the time and effort into speaking your chosen language fluently and then telling your prospective employers about it. 

New Languages Can Help You Win New Clients 

If people are calling your customer service line, the chance is that they are not very happy. They need help, need to report something, or need to have questions answered. Often, they are already in a bad mood and finding out that you can understand them can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and causes them to leave your business. 

However, if you can effectively communicate with your customers in their native language, then you will be able to solve their problems and treat them with respect. 

It Can Boost Mental Abilities 

There’s a common fact going around that it is much much easier for young children to learn and retain new languages, and it is best to teach your children new languages young. That doesn’t mean that it is impossible for adults to learn second languages, but it is much harder for them to do so and can take longer. 

However, learning one or more languages can help to keep your brain healthy, and it can also help you solve complex problems as well. Other skills that can be improved by learning multiple languages include your ability to listen, your analytical thinking, and even your memory and recall.   

These skills are very beneficial for the rest of your life and your customer service abilities. 

Rupert Jones is a financial independence geek who strongly believes in the power of networking. He spends his time helping people leverage secrets of financial wealth and processes to achieve financial freedom.

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

Read Shep’s latest Forbes article: Customer Loyalty Comes From An Emotional Connection

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CEO of the Moment

The Awesome Responsibility is a concept I came up with a number of years ago. It describes the role an employee has when interacting with a customer. In that moment, one person in the company represents everything about the company. When people walk away from doing business with a company, they will often say things like, “I enjoy doing business with them,” or, “They are so helpful.” 

Typically, the word they is used to describe the individual who helped the customer. That person was responsible for delivering the experience that represents the company. That’s a pretty important job, which is why I refer to it as The Awesome Responsibility.  

Some may call that employee a brand ambassador or advocate for the company, but I have a new title for that individual: CEO of the Moment. 

Each employee has a huge amount of power.

They can confirm your reputation – or not. They can deliver on your brand promise – or not. Or, they can reflect the values of your company – or not. You get the idea.  

Anyone who, at any time, is interacting with a customer is confirming or eroding your brand promise. That is why hiring the right people and properly training them is so important. 

Let’s talk about training for a moment. I’ve had debates with clients about training seasonal employees, part-timers, and employees they know will leave within a year. My position is that everyone must be trained. Some can go through different levels of training, but they all must be trained to deliver a certain standard of customer service.  

One employee is your brand’s reputation.  

Consider this. You have 100 employees, and 99 of them are amazing. However, one hasn’t been properly trained and doesn’t quite get the culture. If customers happen to be talking to any of the 99 amazing employees, they will love your company. But for the customers who are unlucky and get the one who hasn’t been trained and doesn’t have the right attitude, to them, that is what every employee is like. That one employee is your brand’s reputation.  

For employees to embrace the CEO of the Moment concept, they must first be a good fit for your company. They must be properly trained. And they must be empowered to make good customer-focused decisions. They must understand their awesome responsibility.  

So, it comes down to hiring, training, and empowerment. You can’t have two out of three. It’s like a three-legged stool. Take away one of the legs, and the stool falls over.  

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times, bestselling business author. For information on The Customer Focus customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Amazing Business Radio: Gadi Shamia

Achieving Balance Between AI and Human Experience

How to Leverage AI to Reduce Customer Experience Gaps

Shep Hyken interviews Gadi Shamia, CEO and co-founder of Replicant, a leader in Contact Center Automation. He shares how contact centers can automate the most common customer service calls and empower human agents to focus on empathy and more complex customer issues.

 

 

 

Top Takeaways:

When you design your product, you plan for it to work perfectly. Customer service comes when there is a gap between how your product works and the way it was designed. Effective customer service closes the gap quickly and efficiently.Not every call can be automated. You don’t want to automate calls that are highly emotional and complex. An example of this type of call is when a customer is planning their travels with an agent. The agent is involved in an advisory type of discussion, and the flexibility of the human brain is needed when the customer needs to move around different topics.The calls that can be easily automated are transactional calls where the goal is clear, like rescheduling appointments or requesting roadside assistance. In these types of calls, we can leverage technology to get to a resolution faster.Wasting time creates friction for the customer. If we can cut down the time it takes from when a customer calls to having their issues resolved successfully, it would significantly improve their experience.A company must understand the balance between digital experience and human experience. It’s fair to push customers to a digital option first as long as a human agent is ready to take on the call as a backup when needed.Plus, Gadi shares some highlights from Replicant’s first Contact Center Automation Benchmark Report and answers the question, Will AI eventually eliminate contact center calls?

Quotes:

“Customer service is the gap between how you design your system or product and how it actually functions.”

“Often leaders in customer service or CMOs think that when a customer calls, they really want the human touch. But most often what people want is for their issue to go away.”

“I don’t want to lower humans to the level of a machine. I want to elevate the machine to the level of the human.”

About:

Gadi Shamia is the CEO & Co-Founder at Replicant, a leader in AI-powered contact center automation. They offer a platform that automates issue resolution through phone, text, and chat.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.

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

How does AI help to improve customer service?How does voice automation work?What customer calls should you automate?How can you leverage technology to serve your customers better?Is AI the future of customer service?

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