Shep Hyken's Blog, page 7
July 1, 2025
The Customer Service Recovery Paradox
Here’s something that might surprise you. Some of your most loyal customers may be the ones who have had problems and complaints in the past. For years, I’ve been preaching that when a customer comes to you with a problem or complaint, the goal is not only to resolve the issue, but also to restore their confidence. I was recently reminded of the concept known as the Service Recovery Paradox. Back in 1992, Michael McCollough and Sundar Bharadwaj coined the phrase to describe, according to Wikipedia, “a situation when the customer thinks more highly of a company after the company has corrected a problem with their service, compared to how they would regard the company if non-faulty service had been provided. The main reason behind this thinking is that the successful recovery of a faulty service increases the assurance and confidence from the customer.”
BOOM! That’s the point. Fix whatever needs to be fixed in such a way that makes things right and restores the customer’s confidence in you so well that they want to continue doing business with you. Furthermore, if done the right way, you not only get the customer to come back, but that confidence can also create loyalty. When the customer says, “I know I can depend on them even when there is a problem,” why would they consider doing business with anyone else?
The Customer Service Recovery Paradox
When a customer brings a problem or complaint to your attention, they are hoping for you to take care of it. It’s how you go about doing so that will create the Customer Service Recovery Paradox. Three things must happen:
The resolution makes the customer happy. It may be as simple as answering a question. Or it may require a repair, or a replacement of something that can’t be fixed. Regardless, the customer must agree that the resolution is satisfactory. However, that only brings you back to what the customer expected in the first place. Dissatisfaction can linger from the effort and friction they experienced in getting the issue resolved.
It must happen fast. Speed is your friend. The faster to resolution, the better.
Go beyond the fix. The problem is resolved, and you did it quickly and efficiently. That helps restore the customer’s confidence in you, but let’s take it just a bit further with what happens next. While some instances may require a refund or discount, that’s not always necessary. A simple note or email that thanks the customer for letting you help them and reminds them you will always have their back may be all it takes.
When customers know they can depend on you, especially when things go wrong, why would they risk doing business with anyone else? That’s not just customer retention. That’s a foundation for customer loyalty.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com . Connect with Shep on LinkedIn .
June 30, 2025
Why Mere Satisfaction Isn’t Enough for Customer Loyalty with Jamey Lutz
How can businesses convert mediocre customer experiences into exceptional ones?
How can businesses turn unhappy customers into loyal fans?
Why is mere customer satisfaction not enough to ensure long-term loyalty?
How can businesses benchmark their customer experience performance?
How can businesses use customer feedback to prioritize improvements that actually matter?
Top Takeaways
Having a customer-focused experience starts with the organization’s culture. When everyone in the company, from leadership to frontline teams, cares about service, the customer feels it.
Satisfied customers are not necessarily loyal. Satisfaction means their expectations were met but not exceeded. They don’t complain because there isn’t enough for them to complain about, but that doesn’t mean they are happy. So, when another option with a better offering from a competitor, such as a smaller price tag, a more convenient location, or shorter wait times, comes along, they are still likely to leave.
Companies need to learn from good and bad customer feedback, but they should not neglect the customers in the middle. Customers who aren’t upset but aren’t delighted either are the most likely to leave without saying a word. These customers are dangerous because there is no obvious warning sign before they simply fail to return. Businesses should focus on transforming mediocre experiences into better ones by understanding what is missing and implementing improvements.
When a mistake happens, how it is handled matters even more than the mistake itself. When a business makes mistakes but shows empathy and resolves the issue promptly, customers feel valued and may become more loyal than they were before.
While learning what your competitors are doing right, remember that your customers don’t just compare you to companies within your industry. Customers compare you to the best experience that they have had in any industry. Study world-class organizations and what they are doing to stand out. Then consider what you might be able to apply to your brand.
What you think is important may not always align with what the customer thinks is important. To make impactful changes, ask for customer feedback and listen to what matters most to them. Focus your energy and resources on improvements that truly matter to your audience.
Additionally, Jamey shares lessons on providing an exceptional customer experience from his time as Director of Quality for The Ritz-Carlton. Tune in!
Quotes:
“If you only focus on fixing really bad experiences and celebrating great ones, you miss the danger in the middle. Customers who say, “It was okay,” will likely leave you the moment something better comes along.”
“If a customer has a negative experience and you do an awesome job of recovering them, they will become more loyal than they would have if the problem had never occurred.”
“Start with an end in mind. Define your desired outcomes, such as revenue, profitability, or wallet share, and work backward. Think about the strategies and changes in customer behavior needed to move the needle towards the goal.”
“Sometimes, the game changers in customer experience come from thinking beyond your current journey map, even into areas your customers don’t even know they want yet.”
About:
Jamey Lutz, founder and principal of Jamey Lutz Consulting and the author of Pathway to Purpose: Big Ideas for Fueling Irresistible Corporate Cultures. He served as the Director of Quality for The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach, and later as the Performance Improvement Leader of the Americas, where he led high-impact guest experience projects across 26 hotel properties.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio .
Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of June 30, 2025
New Strategies: Switch the Focus within Your Business to the Customer by Steven Van Belleghem
(Jeweller Magazine) It’s time to lead by example within your store! Steven Van Belleghem reveals powerful strategies to improve customer experience within your business.
My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five with an article written by my friend and fellow CX expert, Steven Van Belleghem. This article is not about jewelry stores. It’s about some of the highest priorities you can give to creating a great experience for your customers. The article includes tips on hiring, training, creating a story worthy of repeating, leadership, and more.
The Power of a Customer-First Strategy by Melissa Puls
(Fast Company) When you remain centered on prioritizing customer needs and experiences, you create a foundation of trust and understanding that fosters long-term loyalty.
My Comment: This is an article on some foundational principles and basics tied to creating customer loyalty. For companies that are diving into digital self-service customer care with or without AI, the author emphasizes the balance between the digital and human-to-human.
How To Create Raving Fans, Not Just Customers: 5 Strategies Enterprises Must Embrace To Win Customer Loyalty by Sal Rehmetullah
(Forbes) Do you remember the last time you were so thrilled with a product or service that you told a friend, left a five-star review or became a walking billboard for the brand? Chances are, it wasn’t because the company had the flashiest website or the cheapest price. It was because they did something remarkable, something that made you feel seen, heard, and valued.
My Comment: As long as we’re on the subject of loyalty, here’s an article with five ideas on creating an experience that gets customers to come back. I especially like numbers two and five, which are to make the first five minutes (of using your product) magical and to create an experience that customers want to share. The author makes the point that you must design the experience with the idea that customers will want to share it.
Research Finds ‘Attractiveness Advantage’ in Customer Experience by Jordan Karnbach
(Ole Miss) Have you ever found yourself thinking a server, salesperson or customer service employee was especially attractive, and wondered if that changed the way you felt about the interaction or even the outcome?
My Comment: If you’ve ever called customer support and talked to someone who seemed intelligent, helpful, and enthusiastic about solving your issue, you probably have higher confidence in your result versus a person who is less than enthusiastic and seems to be reading from a script. Well, at least according to this article, you may have a similar experience in person if the employee is good-looking (attractive). According to this study, looks count. However, want to state for the record (my personal opinion) that it may not be physical looks as much as how “put together” the employee is, along with their attitude, rather than how good-looking they are. Still, I found this article interesting and intriguing.
The Three Pillars of Customer Loyalty: Why, Who, and How by Siba Padhy
(Solutions Review) Companies recognize that they need to take loyalty more seriously—the problem is that they don’t know where to start. This article explores how customer data platforms (CDPs), AI agents, and machine learning (ML) tools can solve this challenge.
My Comment: It seems we’re heavy on articles about customer loyalty, but is there a more important concept to why we work so hard to create a great customer experience? After all, we want our customers to come back. We close out this week’s Top Five with a very thoughtful piece on loyalty, discussing why we want loyalty, understanding who our customers are, and some ideas on how to go about getting the customer to say, “I’ll be back!”
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.
June 24, 2025
A CX Failure Is an Opportunity to Show How Good You Really Are
When things go wrong for your customer, that’s when you have the best opportunity to prove how good you really are. Anyone can look good when everything is running smoothly, but your true customer service “chops” show up during a service failure. I recently went to a doctor’s office for an appointment. I arrived early to check in. The nurse at the desk was – no exaggeration – horrified that she had to tell me there was a glitch in the scheduling software, and my appointment had to be rescheduled. While some people might have taken a, “That’s too bad … it happens attitude,” she couldn’t have been more apologetic, showing tremendous empathy, and immediately went to work to find another time for me to return to see the doc.
I was at a restaurant and ordered a sandwich without mayonnaise. (I hate mayonnaise!) Of course, the sandwich came out slathered with mayo. The server spotted the mistake while setting the plate down in front of me. Before it even hit the table, she put it back on her tray. She served the rest of the food to everyone else at the table, and like the nurse who had to reschedule my appointment, she apologized and showed empathy. She immediately went to the kitchen to fix the problem. Several minutes later, I had a perfect sandwich.
After both of these experiences, I received email messages asking me to complete a short survey. I gave each of these people and businesses a perfect, five-star rating. It wasn’t that they were flawless. In both cases, mistakes were made. But they each made a flawless recovery. In both situations, they didn’t offer a refund or anything for free. They just fixed the problem – but they did it with style. And when someone cares as much as these ladies did, how could I stay mad at them?
One important point: For this approach to work, problems have to be rare, not frequent, occurrences. No matter how nice employees are or how well they handle issues and complaints, if problems happen regularly, customers won’t trust the company. Excellence in recovery can only overcome occasional failures, not “systematic” ones.
I don’t need to rehash my Five Steps to Handling a Moment of Misery (Complaint) , but it’s important to point out that both people handled the problems well. Rescheduling an appointment seems like a bigger issue than remaking a sandwich, but that’s not the point. The point is they both fixed the problem, and the attitude they took while doing so became even more important than the fix.
Both of these stories illustrate how, when you really care, you can win back your customer. A mistake isn’t the end of your relationship with a customer. Handled the right way, it’s an opportunity to build trust and loyalty by showing how good you really are when things don’t go according to plan.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com . Connect with Shep on LinkedIn .
June 23, 2025
Adapt to the Local Culture and Create a Better CX with Katherine Melchior Ray
How can cultural differences impact customer service interactions?
What role does personalization play in enhancing the customer experience across different cultures?
Why is it essential to understand local cultural perceptions when building brand value?
How can businesses strike a balance between global brand consistency and local cultural adaptation?
What impact does the country of origin have on storytelling for brands?
Top Takeaways
Understanding cultural diversity builds brand value. Different countries and cities may host a variety of cultures and nationalities where diverse preferences and customer expectations coexist. By embracing these differences, businesses can tailor customer experiences to fit cultural nuances and serve diverse markets better.
Customer experience is a global differentiator. Brands can no longer rely solely on product quality or price alone. The way brands engage with and serve their customers has a significant impact on their success.
Personalization isn’t just for luxury brands. Even small daily purchases, such as a cup of coffee, can be personalized to enhance customer satisfaction. Understanding customer preferences helps brands build confidence and provide a greater value than just the product itself.
Storytelling is an essential part of creating brand value because it shapes how customers perceive a brand’s origins, identity, and purpose.
Understanding cultural context is important because what resonates in one region may not be as meaningful or attractive elsewhere. Brands need to strike a balance between having a consistent global message and being flexible in the experience they create to adapt to different markets’ perceptions.
Trust and brand loyalty are strengthened when businesses prioritize understanding their customers’ cultural backgrounds and nuances. This communicates to the customer that they are valued as individuals, not just as transactions.
Cultural dynamics evolve, so it is essential for brands to continually learn from diverse international markets and keep up with customer preferences.
Plus, Katherine shares some interesting nuances in customer interactions from countries such as Japan, Singapore, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and more. Tune in!
Quotes:
“The skills we learn to work across explicitly different cultures are the skills that we can use to embrace diversity in our own country.”
“Understand the culture from which your customer is coming from to personalize, localize, and customize the experience that is right for them, right for their culture, and right for their brand.”
“Remember to have cultural humility and focus on building a relationship with your customer because it’s always cheaper to keep a customer than to acquire a new one.”
About:
Katherine Melchior Ray, an educator at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, brand expert, and co-author of Brand Global, Adapt Local: How to Build Brand Value Across Cultures. She has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, including Nike, Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hyatt, Shiseido, and Babbel.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio .
June 22, 2025
Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of June 23, 2025
How to Improve Retail Customer Experiences: 12 Practical Tips (2025) by Shopify Staff
(Shopify) Learn what a great retail customer experience looks like, with 12 practical tips to improve the retail experience and generate more sales.
My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five Roundup with a reminder to check out the NiCE research about customer service happiness. This is what I found interesting. Global happiness (not related to customer service or CX) has dropped by 10 points to 58% from last year. However, happiness related to customer service increased by 5%.
Is customer experience the ultimate weapon in competitive markets? by Georgina Taylor
(Elite Business) Customer Experience (CX) was the battlefield, and the panellists marched in with real-world war stories, bold opinions, and surprisingly candid reflections, here’s what we learned.
My Comment: This article is “singing my song.” Customer experience (CX) is your most competitive weapon in a competitive market. This article is a compilation of answers from four panelists at the recent Elite Business Live conference. The questions answered and debated by the panel members started with, “Why does CX matter when everyone’s under pressure to cut costs?” In addition to the article, a link to YouTube is provided for viewing the entire panel discussion.
Fueling Brand Devotion Pays Off in Uncertain Times by Jasmin King
(Total Retail) Loyal customers are the most likely to stick with your brand during a downturn, and a loyalty program is the primary vehicle for keeping those relationships strong. By truly understanding what your customers value, you can create experiences that keep them coming back — driving increased lifetime value, improved retention, and reduced acquisition costs.
My Comment: We are experiencing some shaky economic conditions and consumers (and all customers in general) are more aware and concerned than ever about how they spend their money. That’s why this article makes great sense. Now is the time to focus on creating customer loyalty. If you can do it in “uncertain times,” you’ll keep your customers coming back when times get better.
Exceptional customer service is essential to loyalty, survey finds by Michael Brady
(CX Dive) Nearly 9 in 10 customers would purchase from a brand again following an amazing experience, according to a Verint survey.
My Comment: Following up on the last article in our roundup, this is the strategy to build loyalty. It’s simple (in theory): Create “exceptional customer service.” My customer service research is in alignment with the findings the author quotes from a survey that 9 in 10 customers would purchase from a brand again following an amazing experience. And if you want them to come back beyond the second time, be consistent in creating those experiences.
How Synthetic Customers Bring Companies Closer to the Real Ones by Andy Pierce, Louise Keely, Todd Papaioannou, Richard Lichtenstein, Basma Abdel Motaal, and Colleen Lin
(Bain & Company) From product design to campaign testing, companies are using synthetic customers to get sharper answers faster.
My Comment: If this article was written five years ago, you would think you might be reading a script for a sci-fi movie, but everything in this article is happening today. Synthetic customers are AI-generated “proxies” that can mimic human behavior and make informed buying decisions. They are created from a company’s data on all things related to the customer and are then used to simulate customer support calls. This is what training will look like in the future. Simulations based on real-life occurrences will put the best customer support agents to the test – and make them better.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.
June 17, 2025
Every Customer Deserves Your “First-Time Energy”
While this isn’t formal research, I’ve asked many people the question, “What do you think is the most common question that customers ask employees?” I made the point that this isn’t about calling customer support; it’s a people-to-people interaction.
Almost everyone answers correctly: “Where’s the bathroom?”
If you were asked that every day – sometimes multiple times throughout the day – at what point would you start to act frustrated with any customer who asked you that question?
Here’s the point: The 50th person asking you where the bathroom is doesn’t know they are the 50th person. For them, it’s their first time asking you, and your response should make them feel that way.
This reminds me of my days performing magic shows at trade shows. One of my clients hired me for 10 straight days, during which time I performed twelve 20-minute shows daily – that’s 120 shows!
After the final show, my client asked, “How is it that after doing all of those shows throughout the week, you seem to be just as fresh as the first show?”
Every customer deserves your first-time energy.
I hadn’t thought about it, but with not much thought, I answered, “I think about each audience. Everyone in the audience deserves my best effort and energy, as if they were my first. If I came off as bored or tired, I’d be letting them down, not to mention letting my client down. So, even though I may have performed the same tricks and delivered the same lines for every show, each audience – even the 120th audience after 119 shows – deserved my very best effort – my first-time energy.”
When a server at a restaurant recites the daily specials for the 12th time that night, do you want to hear them delivered with enthusiasm or with the boredom of repetition? Or maybe it’s a chef who has been asked 20 times a night for many years to prepare a dish that earned him a reputation and keeps customers coming back again and again.
Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio understood this principle perfectly. The story is a perfect example of this concept. A reporter interviewed DiMaggio and asked why he played every game so hard. He replied, “Because there might have been somebody in the stands today who’d never seen me play before and might never see me again.”
The best employees, chefs, athletes, and entertainers understand that repetition is their challenge, not the customer’s problem. They find ways to keep their responses and reactions fresh, be it the first or 500th time. This mindset transforms an ordinary customer experience into something extraordinary. Every customer deserves your first-time energy.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com . Connect with Shep on LinkedIn .
June 16, 2025
Samsung’s Speed, Simplicity, and Service with Mark Williams
This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:
How can a brand turn customer service interactions into opportunities for brand loyalty?
What are the benefits of proactive customer service?
How does smart technology enhance the overall customer experience?
What role does customer feedback play in improving the overall service experience?
How can artificial intelligence enhance the role of customer service agents?
Top Takeaways
Every customer interaction is an opportunity to turn someone into a loyal fan, even a promoter of your brand.
Customer service shouldn’t just be about fixing problems. It should also be about preventing them. Customer care doesn’t always have to be reactive. By using technology to anticipate problems, brands can identify and resolve issues even before customers becomes aware of them. For example, Samsung’s smart appliances can alert you to issues like a fridge getting too warm and even schedule a repair before your food goes bad.
Loyalty can be built through customer service, even when it comes after a problem or a negative experience. When customers have a great experience getting help, and their problems are solved quickly, they are more likely to buy again and recommend the brand to friends and family.
Mark also shares his three core principles: Speed, Simplicity, and Service.
Speed: Reduce the time it takes to fix a customer’s issue. The sooner you solve the problem, the happier and more loyal your customers become. (In the U.S. Samsung’s repair network now covers 99% of the U.S. for consumer electronics, and 81% of Americans are within just a 30-minute drive of same-day mobile service.)
Simplicity: Remove confusing policies, eliminate unnecessary steps, and actively listen to employees and customers for ideas on how to simplify processes.
Service: When you design experiences that put customers first, understand their needs, and effectively solve their issues, you will attract lifelong customers who will continue to buy from you because they know they can trust you, even when something goes wrong.
Create easy ways for employees to share their thoughts and observations on what could be done better. Frontline workers know firsthand which policies and processes work and which ones frustrate customers.
AI works best as a tool that helps people, not as a replacement for them. It empowers staff to focus on understanding customers and resolving their issues, while AI provides instant and relevant information that accelerates the process and enhances accuracy.
Customer service is an income-generating department. Reliable products are important, but it’s the extra mile in service that makes people choose to do business with a brand again and again.
Plus, Mark shares why more than half of Samsung’s customer care team in the U.S. has been with the company for over 10 years. Tune in!
Quotes:
“Get to customers quicker and solve their problems before they even know they have a problem.”
“We want to make every service interaction a positive experience so we can turn customers into lifetime purchasers and promoters of our brand.”
“Having an incredible product should keep you with a brand, but when you experience truly great service on top of that, why would you ever want to leave?”
“AI is not a replacement. It is an enhancement to make the experience better and let our agents focus on the customers so they can solve problems quicker and more accurately.”
About:
Mark Williams is the Head of Customer Care at Samsung Electronics America. His work centers on proactive solutions that help customer service teams address issues quickly and efficiently.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.
Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of June 16, 2025
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 comments about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
NiCE Research Reveals Customer Service Happiness Is Rising by Contact Centres
(Contact Centres) NiCE’s 2025 Global Happiness Index reveals that consumers are now experiencing the benefits of AI in CX, and 69% trust AI-powered companies as much, or even more, than those without it.
My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five Roundup with a reminder to check out the NiCE research about customer service happiness. This is what I found interesting. Global happiness (not related to customer service or CX) has dropped by 10 points to 58% from last year. However, happiness related to customer service increased by 5%.
Attract New Customers Without Alienating Your Old Ones by Ryan Hamilton and Annie Wilson
(Harvard Business Review) In the pursuit of growth, companies often strive to attract new kinds of customers. But if those new segments have needs, values, and preferences that differ from current buyers’, that approach can backfire spectacularly, driving away a firm’s loyal base and shrinking revenues.
My Comment: The gist of this article is to understand that pursuing new customers, if not done the right way, can potentially cause a loss of existing customers. At first, I thought this article would be about offering discounts to new customers and upsetting existing customers by not offering something of similar value. I was pleasantly surprised when the article went into examples of brands chasing a new customer segment and unintentionally alienating existing customers.
Is My Feedback *Really* Important to You? by Nicholas Zeisler
(CustomerThink) Customer Support, Customer Service, and Customer Care (whichever you call it) tends to be a predominantly transactional existence: Customer has a problem, question, issue, etc.; Customer contacts brand; brand helps Customer (ideally); Customer goes on about life. And on and on.
My Comment:
My Comment: Too many companies claim customer feedback is important, but then treat it like a checkbox exercise. Customers know this. My annual customer experience research found 62% of customers assume the company won’t make any changes based on their feedback. This article captures the difference between companies that genuinely want feedback versus those that go through the motions. The author, a customer service expert, offered to give feedback to two different brands. One brand eagerly embraced a 30-minute feedback call, and the other treated it as a burden.
Do Consumers Really Want, or Value, AI for Customer Service? by Beth Schultz
(nojitter) “Whom you often long to speak to during a customer service call.” This clue from a recent New York Times mini crossword puzzle gave me nary a pause, thanks to the CX analyst in me. I knew “human” had to be the answer … despite the industry’s best efforts to insert AI agents into customer interactions.
My Comment: There’s a disconnect between what businesses think about AI in customer service and what customers actually experience. According to the article, while 75.9% of businesses believe AI has improved their customer service, only 35.6% of consumers agree. Furthermore, the research shared that 41.1% of customers anticipate AI’s impact will be negative, yet businesses continue pushing AI solutions. (My take on this is that even if AI can do something, it doesn’t mean the company should use it for customer support.) This article reminds us that using AI requires understanding consumer preferences, not just operational efficiency.
3 CX Lessons from X4 2025 that Leaders Can’t Ignore by Jeannie Walters
(CX Network) CX leaders have an opportunity—and a responsibility—to guide their organizations through this evolution. With the right mindset, strategy and commitment to action, the impact absolutely will be transformative.
My Comment: We wrap up this week’s Top Five roundup with an excellent article by fellow CX expert, Jeannie Walters. She shares three ideas, and the first two summarize ideas from other articles in this week’s roundup. AI is moving from automation to human-centric augmentation. In other words, AI helps but doesn’t replace humans. The second idea focuses on listening to customers and how they only create value when action is taken. While the third idea doesn’t relate to the other articles this week, it’s still a good one, mentioning Danny Meyer’s idea that “The employee is our first customer.”
BONUS
Time For A Mid-Year Customer Experience Reset by Brittany Hodak
(Brittany Hodak) It’s hard to believe, but 2025 will be halfway gone before you know it. July 2nd marks the exact midpoint of the year—and that makes this your 3-week heads-up to pause and ask: Are you keeping the customer experience commitments you made in January?
My Comment: You’ve seen Brittany Hodak’s articles in my Top Five Roundup before. What you may not know is that we co-host The SUPER AMAZING Show and feature a short customer service/CX tip every week. Brittany’s recent article suggests a “mid-year CX Reset” to ensure you are keeping the commitments you made in January. She also suggests a quick customer survey, checking in with top clients, and getting feedback from your team.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.
June 10, 2025
Details Count: How Small Flaws Can Taint the Entire Customer Experience
Have you ever walked into a restaurant bathroom and found paper towels scattered on the floor or an overflowing trash can? What immediately crossed your mind? What did you think about the restaurant? For most of us, our thoughts jump to, “If they can’t keep their bathroom clean, what is their kitchen like?”
I call this the Bathroom Experience, a powerful metaphor for how seemingly minor details can dramatically impact customers’ perceptions of a business. A clean bathroom goes unnoticed because it’s expected. But a dirty one? That sends customers a message that the restaurant might be neglecting other details.
This concept extends far beyond restaurants. Before moving into my current office, I toured the building and specifically checked the bathrooms on multiple floors. The way the building maintained its bathrooms told me what I needed to know about how the property management company handled details throughout the rest of the building.
The concept also extends beyond restrooms. Recently, I checked into a higher-end hotel, and as I was relaxing on my bed, I looked up and noticed thick dust coating the air vents. I found myself wondering what I would breathe in throughout the night. We could refer to this as the Vent Experience.
These mismanaged details are oversights that create a ripple effect. When a customer picks up a rental car and discovers the glove compartment won’t stay closed, they might wonder, “If they missed this, I wonder if they checked to make sure the brakes were working properly.”
Many years ago, my assistant sent a performance agreement to a client who booked me for a speech. The client called me to discuss canceling the booking. It turns out the agreement had a number of typos and punctuation errors. I was shocked and embarrassed. It turns out my assistant accidentally sent the draft she was working on instead of the final version. I apologized and explained what happened. Fortunately, the client accepted the explanation, but I’ll never forget his comment, which made me realize how important little details are. He said, “I am hiring someone who is supposed to be a good communicator. The document you sent had so many errors, I questioned your ability to do the job.” Ouch! That hurt, but he was 100% correct.
Here’s the point: Details that seem insignificant to you might concern your customers. For some, these examples cause customers to make assumptions about other things that they can’t see.
So, what’s your version of the Bathroom Experience? What small detail is your team overlooking that customers notice and use to judge you and your business? Finding and fixing these details doesn’t just solve small problems; it prevents customers from imagining bigger ones.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com . Connect with Shep on LinkedIn .
