Shep Hyken's Blog, page 85

Amazing Business Radio: Ron Karr

Applying the Velocity Mindset in Customer ServiceHow Empathy Accelerates Great Customer Experience

Shep Hyken interviews  Ron Karr, CEO of Karr Associates, Inc. and author of The Velocity Mindset. They discuss the impact of empathy in delivering customer-focused service.  

Top Takeaways: 

Often in customer service, we tend to put self-imposed limitations that get in the way of delivering great experiences to our customers and slows down the process. When we don’t satisfy our customers sooner (or soon enough), they walk. 

Everyone in customer service needs to ask the question: How can I help the customer in the shortest amount of time, so they can get the results that they want? 

A customer service mindset plus a velocity mindset equals a great customer experience. 

To succeed in customer service, you need to have a high score in empathy. Empathy helps you ask the right questions that get you the information you need to help your customers. 

Cortisol is the fight or flight hormone. Every minute that customers wait for resolution, the higher their cortisol levels get. We must lower their cortisol levels by getting to the issue faster and turning their experience into a positive one right away.  

Companies often concentrate too much on the message. They should be concentrating more on how it is communicated, so that the customer has the right experience. 

Customer service is not just about responding to a complaint. It is about taking care of people throughout their entire journey.  

Quotes: 

“Everybody is in customer service. Anytime someone touches a customer, it is a moment of service.” 

 “Customer service is all about eliminating resistance so customers can make better decisions, buy-in to your solutions, and move forward.” 

“Empathy allows customer service agents to become customer-focused instead of self-focused.”  

“The biggest mistake is concentrating on what the message is instead of how it is delivered to the customer in a value-added manner.” 

“All the customer wants to know is that if they have a problem, someone will be there to help them.” 

About: 

Ron Karr is the CEO of Karr Associates, Inc. and the author of five books including the bestselling Complete Idiots Guide to Great Customer Service and his latest, The Velocity Mindset.

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

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

What is the velocity mindset? What is the difference between customer-focused and self-focused customer service? Should customer service agents use scripts? How does the Empathy Quotient impact customer service? What is the role of neuroscience in customer service?

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5 Top Customer Service Articles of the Week 5-10-2021

Each week I read a number of 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.

8 Ways to Win Customer Loyalty With Streamlined Customer Support by Samuel O’Brien

(CustomerThink) How do you, as a business owner, introduce processes and initiatives to streamline your customer support in order to win over your customers? Here are eight different ways to streamline your customer support.

My Comment: We start this week with a great list of ideas on how to create customer loyalty. I like them all. Many are common sense and reminders, yet pay attention to numbers four and five. Number four is to “Act Fast.” Anything less than “fast” is friction. And number five is to “Create Self Help Portals.” Customers are enjoying self-service options, so give them what they want.

15 Unique Ideas For Inspiring Brand Loyalty In 2021 by Expert Panel

(Forbes) In this article, 15 members of the Forbes Agency Council share unique ideas for connecting with customers in a way that builds genuine trust and, in turn, brand loyalty in 2021.

My Comment: The Forbes Agency Council has fifteen experts weighing in on ideas to inspire brand loyalty. There is something here for everyone in any type of business. A quick read that will make for bigger conversations with your team.

Why Empathy is Core to Closing the Customer Experience Gap by Mark Zablan

(Fast Company) As the adoption of digital channels skyrockets, the businesses able to thrive are the ones that understand their customers’ needs and struggles.

My Comment: I love the way this article starts: “The last 12 months have been a crash course in customer experience for business leaders.” Customer expectations have changed (as in increased). The connection they want with the people they do business with is also higher than ever before. That’s where empathy comes in. It was the business word of the year for 2020, and I believe it will be the word of the year in 2021.

Using AI to Track How Customers Feel — In Real Time by Mohamed Zaki, Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, and Andy Neely

(Harvard Business Review) The most common methods of tracking customer sentiments have a big blind spot: They can’t pick up on important emotional responses. As a result, qualitative surveys, like Net Promoter Score, end up missing critically important feedback. Even if they provide a positive score, customers often reveal their true thoughts and feelings in the open-ended comment boxes typically provided at the end of surveys, and AI can help companies make use of this valuable data to better predict customer behavior.

My Comment: So much of AI in the customer experience world is about how to use AI to deliver a better customer support solution. No doubt this article has ideas about creating a better CX, but the real focus here is understanding and interpreting data – and the data you need to understand is about how the customer “feels.”

10 Ways Knowledge Base Can Improve Customer Experience by Sony T

(Techiexpert) Customer satisfaction has a huge impact on one’s business as it has a direct impact on the retention of the exciting client as well as the client that are new. Here are 10 ways Knowledge base software can improve customer experience.

My Comment: Reading an article about knowledge bases may not seem very exciting, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. It is, and here is a list of the different ways that they can be used to enhance customer service and support. So, if you don’t already use a knowledge base to help support your customers, this is the perfect article to help get you started.

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: Personalizing Digital Customer Experience with a Live Chat Software

This week we feature an article by Saurav, a marketer and storyteller at Freshworks. He shares how brands can make their customers’ digital experiences more personalized.

Have you recently taken your business online? Are you looking to make your digital customer experience more personalized? Know how live chat software could help you!  

Live chat software is a messaging platform that allows customers to communicate with service reps in real-time. It’s an excellent way for businesses to interact with their website visitors, without having them call or email you. Here’s how the solution looks when integrated on a website.  

Why personalized CX matters in the 21st century

Personalization is central to engaging and converting customers in the current marketing landscape. Your messages need to resonate with your user base and to be tailored to their interests, behavior, and preferences. If you sustain your CX quality, customers will reward you with repeat purchases and brand loyalty.  

Now that we’ve established the case for using live chat for implementing personalized CX, here are some proven ways of using live chat to improve customer engagement and satisfaction.   

Guide to personalizing digital CX with live chat software

1. Capitalize on the convenience factor 

Modern-day customers know and love messaging. Your live chat tool should build on this convenience and familiarity to offer a consistent experience. You should adopt a system that lets your customers map their queries to the right team and has a great product interface on the business side. It’s equally vital for your support staff to view all conversations in a single dashboard to prioritize their duties and respond efficiently.  

Takeaway: Focus on ease-of-use and explore how to break down the wall between your business and your target audience. 

2. Be available to your customers 

Shopping cart abandonment is a common practice in the e-commerce sphere and you can reduce such instances by using a chatbot on your site. The bot will remind customers about the items in their cart, directing them to the checkout page.  

This way chatbots can address simple queries and your support agents can come to the rescue for complex questions making you available 24×7 to solve any issue that makes buyers leave you midway.  

Takeaway: Integrate chatbots with live chat features to drive faster checkouts and increased sales. 

3. Amplify customer support functions 

Research indicates that tech-savvy consumers expect a response within 10 minutes. Live chat software is a unique way of enabling quick answers, delivering fulfilling CX, and making your customers return for more. 

Having in-app messaging can help you handle onboarding queries, quickly resolve queries, educate users about core features and give them access to self-help guides, video tutorials, FAQs, etc., to find answers at their own pace.  

 Takeaway: Augment user experience and engagement via instant responses and self-help resources. 

4. Highlight suitable product offerings 

The magic of marketing lies in getting the right products in front of the right customers and history tracking helps you achieve that. With live chat you can preserve past chat interactions and add notes in threads, providing context to your salespersons and support staff. This way agents can see the backdrop of the brand-consumer relationship and continue from there. Customers don’t need to repeat themselves, and your agents can focus on closing sales and delivering positive experiences.  

Takeaway: Track conversations and purchase history to make the customer journey more purpose-compatible.  

5. Maximize team productivity  

Live chat adoption can prove useful to your customer service model as well. Your agents can manage chat requests better during volume spikes and review conversational metrics to make data-driven decisions.  

We recommend using the visual dashboards of your live chat software for business to track response times, customer satisfaction ratings, conversion rates, and agent performance. These insights will help you align your teams and maintain your CX quality. Since the analytics and reports are visible across the organization, decisions are not isolated to siloed company divisions.  

Takeaway:  Monitor performance and use conversational metrics to boost customer success.  

6. Enable co-browsing and humanize chat experience  

Let’s face it – 21st-century consumers detest waiting. So, you need to speed up response time and reduce the number of support touchpoints. You can unify your business communications by connecting your live chat system with widely-used messaging apps, viz. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Line, and Apple Business Chat.  

Live chat takes the messaging beyond the robotic experience by bringing a human touch to customer interactions. You can easily integrate your software with other platforms, have face-to-face video calls, and provide resolutions on the first contact. Thus, it’s no surprise that live chat enjoys higher customer satisfaction ratings than email, social media, and phone.  

Takeaway: Clear the clutter and integrate your live chat system with other platforms for uninterrupted CX. 

We conclude by noting that live chat software proves immensely valuable in generating quality leads, navigating shoppers to purchase, increasing engagement, and getting better insights. The above steps on using the technology will make you a personalization pro! 

 

F or more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes article: A New Way To Take Care Of Your Customers: Autonomous Customer Service

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The Unexpected Stands Out – Especially If It’s Bad

In the customer service world, people have expectations. They want to be treated with dignity and respect. They expect that if they buy something, it will work and do what it is supposed to. If it doesn’t, they expect the company to stand behind its products and services.

The effort a customer makes to get the problem resolved – hopefully, it’s minimal effort – is ideally rewarded with an acceptable and expected resolution. In other words, if there is a problem, customers expect it to be handled appropriately, and when it is, they are usually happy to continue doing business with you.

I share this because someone recently asked why bad experiences seem to always be remembered over good experiences. Great question, and here are my thoughts.

First, consider that the unexpected stands out, while the expected seldom gets noticed. And a good experience is always expected. So, when a customer receives a bad experience, it stands out, because it’s unexpected. By the way, if there’s an over-the-top amazing experience, that stands out, too. However, it is human nature to notice what hurts more than what feels good. The old saying comes to mind, “The squeaky wheel gets the oil.”

There are plenty of stats and facts out there to support this. Way back in the 1980s, the Technical Assistance Research Program, also known as TARP, found that it takes six good customer service experiences to make up for one bad one. The number is even higher for businesses that have higher expectations, such as Disney, Ritz-Carlton, and other brands that have an excellent reputation for customer service.

Consider that number. If something great happens, the customer appreciates the company. If something bad happens, it becomes “judgment day” for that company. A customer could be happy with the company they do business with for years, then one day something bad happens. What happens after that is what makes or breaks the relationship. And, if that experience is managed the way it should be, it not only fixes the problem but also restores the customer’s confidence in the company. That, by the way, is very important.

Customers will remember an unexpected positive customer experience, especially if it is a surprise. However, the negative experiences hurt. They cause a customer to question why they are doing business with a company. The customer may dread having to search for the company’s phone number, wait on hold for a customer service rep, fear they will be transferred again and again … you get the idea. There’s a lot more anxiety and pain associated with the negative experience than the positive feelings felt by a pleasant surprise. So make sure you get back on track quickly – manage the problem and get back to positive experiences. Eventually, the bad experience will fade in the customer’s memory.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote 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 www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

(Copyright © MMXXI, Shep Hyken)

 

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Amazing Business Radio: Colson Hillier

Customer Service in the Feedback EconomyHow to Leverage Customer Feedback to Provide the Best Service

Shep Hyken interviews Colson Hillier, Chief Marketing Officer of Alorica. They discuss how to leverage customer feedback to improve customer service.

Top Takeaways:

Companies spend billions of dollars building their brands, retail stores, and products. But, when it comes down to the moment that’s most impactful for a customer, it usually comes down to their interaction with a customer service agent.The feedback economy shifts the service model on its head. There is less focus on broadcasting why your company is great. The focus is on listening to the customer, understanding their pain points, and creating more systemic changes to address them.There are thousands of avenues for empowered consumers to make their voices heard. You need the right tools to harness all this feedback and take action.Social channels don’t discriminate. Companies have to learn to change their processes, technologies, and products to be responsive. The customers need to be the center of a company’s strategy.Technology is only a piece of what it takes to get the customer service equation right. You need the right judgment and empathy to take action and help your customers.Customer service happens throughout the entire customer journey. The overall user experience is a function of an ecosystem of partners for delivery. Employees, and in some instances, companies need to collaborate to create a great customer experiencePolicies should be rules or guidelines that empower employees to help the customer instead of hindering service.

Quotes:

“The customer is the center of everything that you do.”

“Always put the customer and their voice as your north star in how you think about providing service. “

“At the end of the day, it comes down to listening. Leverage your socials and content reviews as business assets. “

“Customer feedback is your biggest resource. The customer can guide you to your success.”

About:

Colson Hillier is the Chief Marketing Officer for Alorica. He oversees the planning, development, and execution of Alorica’s marketing and communications strategy, as well as initiatives tied to the company’s brand principles, value proposition, and revenue growth.

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

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

How can companies successfully outsource customer service? What is the feedback economy? How do you find out what people are saying about your company? How do you empower customer service agents? How do you use customer feedback to improve customer service?

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5 Top Customer Service Articles of the Week 5-3-2021

Each week I read a number of 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.

An online music gear retailer tackles customer experience with a ‘Sweetwater’ difference by Judy Mottl

(Retail Customer Experience) Sweetwater Sound Inc., an online retailer of music instruments and audio gear, is dedicated to investing in an “old school” approach when it comes to customer experience and the strategy is all about personalization and relationships.

My Comment: About a month ago I included an article about Sweetwater as part of the Top Five Roundup. This company is on my radar. They are an amazing example of customer service and CX, and there is much to learn about this brand. Their CEO and Founder Chuck Surack places the experience over the sale. He defines CX as building long-term relationships with customers. Learn more from Mr. Surack in this short interview.

The Next Phase of E-Commerce: A ‘Human’ Customer Experience by Jim Spare

(Total Retail) Successful e-commerce customer experience will be personally connected, inspiring and entertaining, video-based, and feel much more “human.”

My Comment: You can’t automate a customer relationship. That’s a full chapter in my latest book, I’ll Be Back. This article validates that point and more. A personalized experience wins over an automated experience. An entertaining experience drives higher engagement. A video can create an emotional connection. Great insights into creating a better CX.

Managing Your Marketing: 5 Tips to Reduce Risk of Failure by Angela Hausman, PhD

(Business2Community) Managing your marketing to produce a favorable ROI means developing a marketing plan based on a thorough analysis of your market, your internal strengths and weaknesses, economic conditions, your goals and objectives, and other issues that potentially impact your ability to succeed.

My Comment: Here’s an expression that is several years old, but still has relevance: Customer experience is the new marketing. This is as much a customer service and CX article as it is a marketing article. Tip number three is all about customer service. In the end, it’s all about a better CX, starting with the moment the customer even thinks they want to buy whatever it is that you sell.

Customer loyalty Vs ROI: Why the metrics of Digital Marketing are changing by Michael Bush

(LondonlovesBusiness) the digital marketing world is shifting, which means the mindset of business owners should too – where instead of focusing on ROI as a measure of success, there is growing weight on the value of customer experience and acquisition.

My Comment: How many customers do you lose in a year? There is a big cost to replace the customers you lose with new ones. So, here’s a concept, straight out of this article: Customer experience equals customer acquisition. Mange their journey and the customers will do business with you – and continue to do so. I like that idea, but I look at acquisition as just a piece of the process. After acquisition comes retention.

The customer experience: How the pandemic changed e-commerce by Rafael Lourenco

(ATMmarketplace.com) The pandemic changed how customers viewed shopping and spending. But as the world moves into post-pandemic, retailers are concerned with creating a positive customer experience. Rafael Lourenco, executive vice president at ClearSale shares his thoughts on ways to improve the customer experience.

My Comment: It will be a long time before we stop seeing the word “pandemic” in the title of an article. Still, don’t go past these articles, until you take a closer look. Even though this article focuses on the banking industry, there’s plenty of food for thought here. Consider that the pandemic caused online commerce to explode. It changed the way people did business – in every industry. This article has plenty of industry-agnostic data to give you something to think about.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional 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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Guest Post: Five Actionable Ideas to Transform Your Customer Service in 2021

Dhruv Mehta is a Digital Marketing Professional at Acquire, a customer engagement platform that focuses on conversational CX. He writes about using technology to meet the evolving needs of customers and preparing for future disruptions. 

The changing conditions in 2020 redefined how we lived and worked. As businesses struggled with frequent disruptions, customer service teams grappled with increasing call volumes from distressed customers, establishing the importance of empathic customer service for business continuity as well as growth. 

Today, as organizations reel out of the effects of the pandemic, they are increasingly returning the focus on customer service to meet the evolving needs of their customers and also prepare for future disruptions.  

Customer Service Trends For 2021 

Modern customers want real-time interactions that are personalized and consistent. To meet their demands, we expect to see more technology in customer support in 2021, as well as a growth in omnichannel support strategies. Here are five customer service trends to watch out for in 2021:  

Automating Service-Desk With NLP-Based Chatbots

Forbes had predicted that AI would take over 85% of customer service by 2020. Unfortunately, many organizations had to reduce or postpone their AI investments due to the pandemic in 2020. However, the focus will return to AI in customer service in 2021 to introduce automation and reduce the cost of operations for businesses.  

Until now, AI has proven quite useful in support, especially in the form of chatbots that can answer a large number of straightforward queries without human intervention. Additionally, the new era of chatbots based on sophisticated natural language programming will make it possible to automate time-consuming tasks like tagging and assigning customer support tickets to relevant teams. This will save copious amounts of time for support agents, leaving them free to focus on high-value tasks. 

NLP advancements will also lead to self-improving chatbots that can handle more complex conversations without sounding mechanical. One such example is Dr. A.I.?, a healthcare bot developed by HealthTap, that uses a database of answers written by verified doctors to help patients with the next steps, like seeking urgent care or scheduling a virtual appointment. 

Increased Usage of Live ChatForReal-Time Support 

Live chat will remain an important customer support tool and expand its reach to social media, enabling real-time connections with customers on their preferred hangouts. Besides offering timely support, brands will use live chat for marketing and improving customer experience through value-added services like appointment booking, reminders, delivery notifications, etc. 

For instance, Betterment, an online investment advisor, uses proactive chat invitations to provide personalized financial services to new clients, helping them invest with confidence. 

Another interesting example is the live chat format used by Lightroom – an Adobe product used for managing photographs. The live chat system makes onboarding seamless by creating separate tabs for various user queries. This helps in automatically tagging queries while also making it easier for customers to voice their concerns. 

Create an Omnichannel Customer Service Experience

Customers feel most frustrated when they have to repeat their queries to agents multiple times. That’s why it’s essential to create a unified personalized customer service plan that delivers a consistent experience across all your customer touchpoints. One idea is to integrate your live chat software with your CRM so that you can save chat transcripts that can be referred to during future conversations. Advanced live chat software also offers multiple functionalities like audio and video calling, co-browsing, screen sharing, etc. Thus, implementing a single software can give you a 360-degree view of all your customer service operations. 

Using Predictive Analysis for Customer Management

In 2021, you can gain an edge over the competition by introducing predictive analytics to analyze the user experience and close the customer feedback loop. 

According to McKinsey, a travel company built a capability to score every customer’s experience by using location and transactional data and subsequently used machine learning to predict customer satisfaction based on individual experience. Based on the results, the company could dramatically improve customer follow-ups after poor service experience, leading to an 800% increase in customer satisfaction and a 59% reduction in churn intent. 

You can even employ analytics to predict customer expectations and plan your conversations accordingly. For example, you can use predictive analytics to define the best times for engaging customers and, accordingly, send them prompts with offers or targeted content.  

Merging The Boundaries Between Customer Service and Sales 

In the world of omnichannel experiences, sales and customer service teams must work together to create more user-friendly experiences. Typically, sales teams help customers find suitable products and services, while customer service ensures positive brand interactions and, as result, positive product reviews. 

But did you know that both these teams can add immense value to each other by sharing information? For example, if the sales team faced any resistance during the course of a sale, the information can be passed on to the support team to handle the user accordingly. Similarly, support can give salespersons thorough visibility into ongoing customer interactions to help them figure out opportune times for contacting customers and also identify any upsell and cross-sell opportunities. In the same manner, there can be various areas where both teams can collaborate and work together to give users the best shopping experience possible. 

Conclusion 

Customer is king – that’s the truth. Not surprisingly, the way you treat them, whether, during the research phase, sale, onboarding, or later has a huge impact on your brand’s reputation and customer loyalty. As a result, organizations focusing on fast and reliable customer service tend to retain a larger share of the market and enjoy a loyal customer base. 

If you have growth on your mind in 2021, start by upgrading your customer service to reap instant results. Furthermore, remember that change is the only constant when it comes to customer experience. Therefore, it is vital to adopt advanced technologies and build agility into your system to handle future disruptions confidently. 

Dhruv Mehta loves to write about tech, marketing, and providing solutions for customers in the digital era. You can connect with him on Linkedin.

F or more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes article: Stop Comparing Your Company To The Competition

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Stop Reading From The Script!

This is why some companies get a bad rap! Our colleague here at Shepard Presentations, Nate Jones, shared a story about something that recently happened to his father. This is a great customer service training lesson. He bought a new car. About a month later he’s in a parking lot and the car won’t start.

So, he calls the dealership’s customer service number, which was actually a support center for all of that brand’s dealerships in the U.S. – maybe even the world.

The call started off okay but quickly derailed into one of those, “You won’t believe this” kind of stories. After a little troubleshooting over the phone, the customer support agent said, “I’m sorry, you’ll have to take the car into the dealership.”

One BIG problem. He couldn’t get the car started. But you knew that, and let’s all assume the customer service agent knew it, too. But rather than show empathy and make the suggestion that the car would have to be towed to the dealership, this rep simply said to take the car to the dealership, ignoring the fact that the car wouldn’t start. That was until the customer said, “I would if I could get the car started.” Her response was, “Oh. Sorry about that.”

It was obvious that this rep was trained to tell the customer that when the problem couldn’t be solved over the phone to make an appointment to take the car to the dealer. It probably wasn’t an actual script, but it was an answer she was trained to use.

What could she have done for her customer?

Listen! The customer service rep would never have suggested taking the car to the dealership had she truly heard the customer say, “It won’t start.” She was probably just going through the motions with the troubleshooting exercise, not really paying attention to her customer.Show some empathy. This ties back to listening. You can’t show empathy if you don’t listen to the customer. (She actually seemed to show empathy at the beginning of the conversation, but you have to question if it was genuine by the disconnected suggestion she eventually made.)Do more than just apologize for the problem. Maybe go a step further and offer to call a tow truck to have the car picked up. If she really wanted to turn this Moment of Misery into a Moment of Magic , she could have offered to help him find a way home. Maybe call for an Uber or help find some other form of transportation to get her customer home safely. After all, the car wasn’t even a month old.

Unfortunately, that was not what happened. She practically said, “Too bad, so sad, goodbye.” And that’s not the type of customer experience that gets a customer to say, “I’ll Be Back.”

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote 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 www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

(Copyright © MMXXI, Shep Hyken)

 

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Amazing Business Radio: Stacy Sherman

Diversity and Inclusion Within the CX Featuring Stacy Sherman

How diversity and inclusion impact the customer experience and what practices to adopt.

Shep Hyken interviews Stacy Sherman, Founder of DoingCXRight and Director of Customer Experience & Employee Engagement at Schindler Elevator Corporation. They discuss Diversity and Inclusion and how it links to the Customer Experience.

Top Takeaways: Even though it was just women’s history month it shouldn’t be the only time you think about diversity and inclusion. Good practices around diversity and inclusion should happen every day.Anyone can be a leader no matter their gender, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or gender identity.It’s important and necessary for leaders to have uncomfortable conversations around diversity and inclusion.Businesses need to get feedback from a variety of customers.Allow a diverse group of employee’s voices to be heard.Keep diversity and inclusion in mind when dealing with employees as well as customers.As a leader when a difficult decision comes up, what’s most important is how you adapt and handle the situation.Be a strong leader and address issues of diversity within your team head-on.Quotes:

“Even if you’re in the back office supporting fellow employees or you’re supporting the server who brings the dish out the guest, you matter, and you have a CX job.” -Stacy

“Whether you’re male or female don’t care teamwork makes it happen.” -Stacy

“Increase your empathy. Walk around every day more empathetic because you’ll see things that you wouldn’t have seen before.” -Stacy

About:

Stacy Sherman: Customer Experience (CX) pioneer, known for humanizing business, leading with a heart, and DoingCXRight® not just talking about it.

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

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

Why do diversity and inclusion matter?How do diversity and inclusion relate to the CX?What do you do when you see (bullying, rudeness, or insensitivity) in the workplace?When do you step in when a difficult situation arises?How do you protect employees from racist or other difficult encounters? At what point do you say my employees are more important than a sale?

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5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of April 26, 2021

Each week I read a number of 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.

9 New Findings from the 2021 State of the Contact Center Report by Tricia Morris

(CustomerThink) Here are nine new findings from the 2021 State of the Contact Center Report which included 400 US and UK contact center and customer experience leaders.

My comment: You know I love stats and facts about anything related to customer service and CX. Tricia Morris has compiled a list of nine findings that anyone that has anything to do with a contact center and customer support should be aware of.

Shifting the Customer Experience from a Cost Center to a Profit Center by Brian Solis

(ZDNeT) Customer service is experiencing a renaissance, and with the right imagination, intention, and technology, it can also become a business growth engine by driving satisfaction, sales, and loyalty.

My comment: One of the compelling propositions for our clients interested in our customer service training programs is that that customer service doesn’t cost. It pays. Brian Solis has a compelling article about this very topic. One of the main points is that customer service is becoming the face of a brand. Think about that! Once you adopt that mindset, you’ll see how some of the best marketing, customer retention, and more come from your customer service and support.

How 5 Brands Adapted Their Loyalty Programs for a Post-Covid World by Stephanie Miles

(Street Fight) Here’s how five brands have navigated the changes and adapted their loyalty programs to meet new consumer demands.

My comment: Whenever there is a chance to learn what major brands are doing to be successful and create a better customer experience, I pay close attention. This article features how five recognizable brands have adapted their customer loyalty programs to meet today’s post-Covid world.

How to Provide Great Customer Service on Social Media by Atlanta Small Business Network

(ASBN) This article shares some ways to build and maintain your reputation while providing customers with the best possible service.

My comment: It has been quite some time since I’ve included an article about social media customer service. Here is a good one that includes some basics, as well as some best practices that should be a part of every organization’s social media strategy.

Six Tips To Optimize Your Customer Service For First Touch Resolution by Logan Rush

(Forbes) By prioritizing first touch resolution, organizations of all types and at all levels of customer service can push back against those preconceived notions.

My comment: You can call it first touch resolution, first call resolution, or anything else with the idea that the customer should only have to call customer support just one time to get their issue resolved. Even better is that on that “one call,” they should only have to talk to one person, or at worst be transferred just one time.

BONUS

Top Customer Experience Resources to Follow in 2021 by MK Marketing

(MattsenKumar) Customer experience’s true success is best represented by the fact that organizations are now diverting their marketing funds towards customer experience innovations. Here are the top customer service influencers and resources to follow.

My comment: It is truly an honor to be included in this list of top customer experience resources. I ended up in two categories: influencers and podcasts. (Thank you MattsenKumar!)

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional 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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