Brian Solis's Blog, page 93
March 20, 2016
X Marks the Spot: Where Experience Meets Design
Please watch the video below…
I’ve met some pretty incredible people over the years. One such individual that I wanted to introduce to is Bryan Elliott, an entrepreneur, writer, event producer and advocate for innovative thinkers and businesses. I originally met Bryan at Blog World Expo back in the day, one of the original big tech shows we all used to hit on the circuit. He’s just one of the nicest (and most connected) human beings you could ever meet at a conference or anywhere really.
Among the many things Bryan does is organize a series of events on for LinkedOC (Orange County), a community he founded of local businesses and notable personalities. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking at his events for each of my books going back to Engage. Bryan pulls in some of the biggest names in the business too. He’s hosted Anthony Robbins, Roland Sands (one of my favorite custom bike builders), Seth Godin, Rainn Wilson, Gary Vaynerchuk, and many many more.
Bryan was kind enough to invite me to a special event to support the launch of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design. I was traveling quite a bit since announcing the date (what’s new?). I remember asking shortly before the event if there was anything I could help him with. His reply was simply, “Nah, we’re all good. Don’t worry about it. Looking forward to seeing you.” And that’s Bryan. So nice. So mellow. So connected.
In the end, 250 people showed up, pretty much all at the same time, each with a copy of X in hand. It was…electric…unforgettable.
I wanted to share with you an interesting video that Bryan’s team assembled. It’s a storified version of my presentation complete with an inspiring soundtrack.
Hope it helps you!
Thank you Bryan.
Connect with Brian on Social Media
Twitter: @briansolis
Facebook: TheBrianSolis
LinkedIn: BrianSolis
Youtube: BrianSolisTV
Experience is everything…read my new book, X!
The post X Marks the Spot: Where Experience Meets Design appeared first on Brian Solis.
CustomerThink: Should #CX Professionals Care About the Four Moments of Truth?
By Annette Franz Gleneicki, CustomerThink (Excerpt)
Last year, I wrote about moments of truth, defining them as: that make or break moment in the customer journey, that moment when, if all goes well, the customer will continue the journey and complete the task or interaction; he will do (or continue to do) business with you. If things go awry, he will not complete the interaction and will go elsewhere.
I recently read Brian Solis’ latest book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design. In it, he devotes a chapter to moments of truth. He writes about the Four Moments of Truth:
Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT): This moment of truth was introduced by Google and refers to that moment when people go online and search for what they need/want.
First Moment of Truth (FMOT): This moment of truth was coined by P&G and refers to when people first see the product – or its alternatives – they are looking for.
Second Moment of Truth (SMOT): Also introduced by P&G, Brian says this isn’t just a moment but a collection of moments. This is when the customer uses and experiences the product and the company supports the relationship.
Third Moment of Truth (TMOT): Ex-P&Ger Pete Blackshaw introduced this MOT back in 2006, and he basically refers that powerful inflection point where the product experience catalyzes an emotion, curiosity, passion, or even anger to talk about the brand. By opening up that pipeline, we not only absorb insight and deeper consumer understanding but also nurture empowerment and advocacy.
Ultimate Moment of Truth (UMOT): Brian coined this term to refer to that moment when customers go online to review or to talk about products and the experience, basically the same thing as that TMOT, and cited that one person’s UMOT is another’s ZMOT. Interesting.
(I know. Technically, that’s five. Brian only wrote about four in his book; he wrote about UMOT, not TMOT, which others have cited as the fourth moment of truth.)
Here’s what’s interesting: these xMOTs help marketers and advertisers, but they aren’t helpful to customer experience designers. I’d say these are more stages of truth than moments of truth. Moments are, well, moments; they are a (brief) point in time. These xMOTs relate more to stages in time, stages in the customer lifecycle, than they do to brief points in time.
The post CustomerThink: Should #CX Professionals Care About the Four Moments of Truth? appeared first on Brian Solis.
X Marks the Spot: Where Experience Meets Design
Please watch the video below…
I’ve met some pretty incredible people over the years. One such individual that I wanted to introduce to is Bryan Elliott, an entrepreneur, writer, event producer and advocate for innovative thinkers and businesses. I originally met Bryan at Blog World Expo back in the day, one of the original big tech shows we all used to hit on the circuit. He’s just one of the nicest (and most connected) human beings you could ever meet at a conference or anywhere really.
Among the many things Bryan does is organize a series of events on for LinkedOC (Orange County), a community he founded of local businesses and notable personalities. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking at his events for each of my books going back to Engage. Bryan pulls in some of the biggest names in the business too. He’s hosted Anthony Robbins, Roland Sands (one of my favorite custom bike builders), Seth Godin, Rainn Wilson, Gary Vaynerchuk, and many many more.
Bryan was kind enough to invite me to a special event to support the launch of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design. I was traveling quite a bit since announcing the date (what’s new?). I remember asking shortly before the event if there was anything I could help him with. His reply was simply, “Nah, we’re all good. Don’t worry about it. Looking forward to seeing you.” And that’s Bryan. So nice. So mellow. So connected.
In the end, 250 people showed up, pretty much all at the same time, each with a copy of X in hand. It was…electric…unforgettable.
I wanted to share with you an interesting video that Bryan’s team assembled. It’s a storified version of my presentation complete with an inspiring soundtrack.
Hope it helps you!
Thank you Bryan.
Connect with Brian on Social Media
Twitter: @briansolis
Facebook: TheBrianSolis
LinkedIn: BrianSolis
Youtube: BrianSolisTV
Experience is everything…read my new book, X!
March 19, 2016
Pitch: SXSW Day 5, Finding happiness, making experiences and capturing a moment on the last day
By Carolyn Cohen, Pitch (Excerpt)
As SXSW wrapped up, I attended a few final sessions, learned about content and innovation and talked to other folks from those disciplines. Here’s my roundup.
4. The Future is Experience
My favorite panel of the day was led by Brian Solis of Altimeter Group. He shared insights from his new book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, and discussed why companies such as Apple, Disney and Nike succeed: Each of those companies create an experience. Solis shared a few fun examples, such as how long it took Heinz to solve its problem: creating a squeeze bottle vs. using a traditional glass bottle. We can all create new ways to think about ongoing problems.
The post Pitch: SXSW Day 5, Finding happiness, making experiences and capturing a moment on the last day appeared first on Brian Solis.
AOL Entertainment: The 5 Vines that make us wish we were at #SXSW2016
via AOL Entertainment, Getty Images
AUSTIN, TX – MARCH 13: Author/Digital Analyst Brian Solis, (L) and Co-Founder of Brand Innovators Marc Sternberg pose for portrait at Brand Innovators at SXSW on March 13, 2016 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Michael Bezjian/Getty Images for Brand Innovators LLC) (Photo by Michael Bezjian/Getty Images for Brand Innovators LLC)
The post AOL Entertainment: The 5 Vines that make us wish we were at #SXSW2016 appeared first on Brian Solis.
VentureBeat: 3 types of design every company needs to know
By Ken Yeung, VentureBeat (excerpt)
In John Maeda’s second annual “Design in Tech” report, he moved from raising awareness about design in tech to focusing on larger, established firms that have either become complacent with their creative efforts or are looking for insights into what disruptors (read: startups) are doing better. He cites research from Gartner, the Temkin Group, Accenture, and others as evidence that executives and companies are looking for better ways to differentiate their products from competitors. “Experiences are more important than products now. In fact, experiences are products,” analyst Brian Solis once said.
The post VentureBeat: 3 types of design every company needs to know appeared first on Brian Solis.
March 17, 2016
Why Mobile First is No Longer Enough; It’s Time To Think About Mobile Only Design
For the last few years, “mobile first!” has become the mantra among savvy digital marketers. But a mobile first approach seems to be more of an ideology than it is a standard in digital design. Recent research shows that marketers still invest in mobile as an afterthought or as a bolt on to more mainstream digital programs. For some reason, executives still need more convincing to properly fund and support mobile initiatives that span the entire customer journey not just pieces of it.
While mobile is often referred to as the second screen, the reality is that smartphones are really the first screen among connected consumers. It’s always within reach. And, it is the first place consumers go to communicate, research, and share. As of last year, mobile platforms accounted for 60% of total digital media time spent according to ComScore. And, mobile devices accounted for one in four of all online purchases as reported in IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark.
The truth is that “mobile first” should be the standard for all things digital. But here’s the canary in the coalmine, if that metaphor even makes sense today. According to a recent study conducted by Nielsen, roughly half of consumers believe mobile is the “most important resource” in their purchase decision-making. And, more than a third said they only used mobile exclusively. At this point, mobile first may not be enough. To be successful however, brands and agencies must think beyond mobile campaigns and start to think about mobile only as a complete foundation for the next generation customer journey.
Right now, mobile tends to exist without an owner to take accountability in the customer experience. As a result, mobile strategies for the most part are focused on an isolated aspect of customer engagement, whether it’s marketing, commerce, loyalty, etc. and very specific instances within each. This is because the whole lot of solitary programs is owned by different stakeholder groups that are strewn across the organization and not necessarily in tune or in alignment with one another. It’s not uncommon for these departments to not collaborate with one another and thus, the mobile experience is discombobulated by design and impossible to deliver anything but an integrated customer journey.
This is a problem and it needs someone to solve it now.
It is practically impossible for mobile-first consumers to undergo a digital experience on one screen and are forced, again by design, to multiscreen and/or channel hop to accomplish a desired task or goal. Some 90% of consumers move between devices to accomplish a goal, using an average of three different screen combinations each day. They put up with it however because most CX strategies don’t consider the user experience elements of device and native behavior to that device as a journey unto itself. Said another way, consumers deal with it because most brands don’t cater to their mobile needs through every stage of the customer lifecycle so they have no choice. But at some point they will. And when they do, they’ll defect. That’s why it’s time for strategists to think beyond mobile first and start thinking about mobile only campaigns tied to mobile only full funnel ecosystems.
Over the last year, my Altimeter Group colleague and I studied how brands were approaching mobile CX to better understand challenges and opportunities facing digital strategists. Starbucks, Zappos, Sephora, Intuit among others are
beginning to explore a mobile-only approach in addition to integrating cross-channel strategies with omni-channel experiences. They’re looking at mobile as a marketing channel to not only deliver native experiences to the mobile screen but also cater to them along the entire journey and relationship…specific to mobile.
You can download a complementary copy of the research here.
Mobile is not only reshaping the customer journey, it is rebooting the entire experience in the process. How and when customers transact with brands throughout the lifecycle is also moving to the small screen — from research to purchase, to service and support, through loyalty and advocacy. Mobile is now both part of the customer experience and also emerging as a self-contained experiential platform.
Someone has to take the lead in bringing mobile to the forefront of digital design. Investing in a mobile program just to check the box is no longer good enough. The reality is that mobile is now the first screen. Brands and agencies must adapt start taking the initiative to rethink the mobile customer journey. Doing so ensures maintain relevance among discerning customers who are already becoming mobile first and mobile only.
It’s a mobile world, design accordingly.
Connect with Brian on Social Media
Twitter: @briansolis
Facebook: TheBrianSolis
LinkedIn: BrianSolis
Youtube: BrianSolisTV
Experience is everything…read my new book, X!
Credit: Photo by Imaginechina/REX (4104312b) – Chongqing, China. Pedestrians are seen walking on a pavement that has been split in half – one side for phone users and the other side for non phone users. The left side is for people talking or looking down at their mobile phones, while the other side is for pedestrians not using their phones.
The post Why Mobile First is No Longer Enough; It’s Time To Think About Mobile Only Design appeared first on Brian Solis.
Why Mobile First is No Longer Enough; It’s Time To Think About Mobile Only Design
For the last few years, “mobile first!” has become the mantra among savvy digital marketers. But a mobile first approach seems to be more of an ideology than it is a standard in digital design. Recent research shows that marketers still invest in mobile as an afterthought or as a bolt on to more mainstream digital programs. For some reason, executives still need more convincing to properly fund and support mobile initiatives that span the entire customer journey not just pieces of it.
While mobile is often referred to as the second screen, the reality is that smartphones are really the first screen among connected consumers. It’s always within reach. And, it is the first place consumers go to communicate, research, and share. As of last year, mobile platforms accounted for 60% of total digital media time spent according to ComScore. And, mobile devices accounted for one in four of all online purchases as reported in IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark.
The truth is that “mobile first” should be the standard for all things digital. But here’s the canary in the coalmine, if that metaphor even makes sense in 2015. According to a recent study conducted by Nielsen, roughly half of consumers believe mobile is the “most important resource” in their purchase decision-making. And, more than a third said they only used mobile exclusively. At this point, mobile first may not be enough. To be successful however, brands and agencies must think beyond mobile campaigns and start to think about mobile only as a complete foundation for the next generation customer journey.
Right now, mobile tends to exist without an owner to take accountability in the customer experience. As a result, mobile strategies for the most part are focused on an isolated aspect of customer engagement, whether it’s marketing, commerce, loyalty, etc. and very specific instances within each. This is because the whole lot of solitary programs is owned by different stakeholder groups that are strewn across the organization and not necessarily in tune or in alignment with one another. It’s not uncommon for these departments to not collaborate with one another and thus, the mobile experience is discombobulated by design and impossible to deliver anything but an integrated customer journey.
This is a problem and it needs someone to solve it now.
It is practically impossible for mobile-first consumers to undergo a digital experience on one screen and are forced, again by design, to multiscreen and/or channel hop to accomplish a desired task or goal. Some 90% of consumers move between devices to accomplish a goal, using an average of three different screen combinations each day. They put up with it however because most CX strategies don’t consider the user experience elements of device and native behavior to that device as a journey unto itself. Said another way, consumers deal with it because most brands don’t cater to their mobile needs through every stage of the customer lifecycle so they have no choice. But at some point they will. And when they do, they’ll defect. That’s why it’s time for strategists to think beyond mobile first and start thinking about mobile only campaigns tied to mobile only full funnel ecosystems.
Over the last year, my Altimeter Group colleague and I studied how brands were approaching mobile CX to better understand challenges and opportunities facing digital strategists. Starbucks, Zappos, Sephora, Intuit among others are
beginning to explore a mobile-only approach in addition to integrating cross-channel strategies with omni-channel experiences. They’re looking at mobile as a marketing channel to not only deliver native experiences to the mobile screen but also cater to them along the entire journey and relationship…specific to mobile.
You can download a complementary copy of the research here.
Mobile is not only reshaping the customer journey, it is rebooting the entire experience in the process. How and when customers transact with brands throughout the lifecycle is also moving to the small screen — from research to purchase, to service and support, through loyalty and advocacy. Mobile is now both part of the customer experience and also emerging as a self-contained experiential platform.
Someone has to take the lead in bringing mobile to the forefront of digital design. Investing in a mobile program just to check the box is no longer good enough. The reality is that mobile is now the first screen. Brands and agencies must adapt start taking the initiative to rethink the mobile customer journey. Doing so ensures maintain relevance among discerning customers who are already becoming mobile first and mobile only.
It’s a mobile world, design accordingly.
Connect with Brian on Social Media
Twitter: @briansolis
Facebook: TheBrianSolis
LinkedIn: BrianSolis
Youtube: BrianSolisTV
Experience is everything…read my new book, X!
Credit: Photo by Imaginechina/REX (4104312b) – Chongqing, China. Pedestrians are seen walking on a pavement that has been split in half – one side for phone users and the other side for non phone users. The left side is for people talking or looking down at their mobile phones, while the other side is for pedestrians not using their phones.
March 9, 2016
SXSW 2016: Where to Find Me (and Get Free Copies of X!)
It’s that time of year again and I’m excited to have the opportunity to meet with so many incredible companies, entrepreneurs and people changing the world.
There are a number events, book signings and presentations that I wanted to share with you. If you have time to make one or more, please join me. Many of the events are open to all with several generous companies offering free companies of X to attendees.
Take a look below and let’s meet y’all!
SXSW 2016 Appearances
March 11 – 15, 2016 – SXSW, Comcast Lounge Hosted by Techset, Convention Center, 9-6 every day
March 10, 2016 – SXSW, Sysomos X Book Signing, 411 Brazos #99, 5-5:45pm
March 10, 2016 – SXSW, 8th Annual Calm Before the Story Party, Fogo De Chao Rooftop, 6:30-10:30pm
March 11, 2016 – Brand Innovators Summit, Opening Keynote, Lamberts, 9:30
March 11, 2016 – Vistage, X Book Signing, 5-5:30p,, Austin
March 12, 2016 – Movers and Shapers Forum by W20, Fireside Chat, 1:15pm, Stubbs
March 12, 2016 – Independent Ad Agency Meet up, Book Signing, JW Marriott Room 207, 5-5:30pm
March 12, 2016 – Janrain Executive Dinner, Invitation Required 5:30-6:30pm
March 12, 2016 – Altimeter Group/Prophet Executive Dinner, Invitation Required, 6:30-9:00pm
March 13, 2016 – Mattr, X Book Signing, 1000 East 5th St. #102, 1-1:30pm
March 15, 2016 – The Future of Brand, Tech and Business is Experience, Keynote, Convention Center
March 15, 2016 – Official Book Signing, SXSW Bookstore, Convention Center
Connect with me!
Twitter: @briansolis
Facebook: TheBrianSolis
LinkedIn: BrianSolis
Youtube: BrianSolisTV
March 7, 2016
How to Know if You Care About Your Customers Enough
Guest post by Jay Baer (@jaybaer), author of the new book, Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers,
Let‘s face it: choosing whether or not you hug your haters isn‘t about you knowing how to do so, it‘s about whether doing so aligns with the values of your business.
The great paradox
Every company says that customer satisfaction is their most important objective, yet their actions demonstrate otherwise. It‘s a paradox, but I find companies that feel the need to make public statements about customer experience being important are usually the companies where that clearly is not the case.
It‘s like what my former colleague, the advertising executive Roger Hurni, told me about Applebee‘s restaurants: “If you have to use your tagline to tell people you‘re the neighborhood bar and grill, you‘re definitely not the neighborhood bar and grill.”
Joe Gagnon is Senior Vice President at Aspect, a company that helps large corporations improve customer service with software and optimization services. He says some companies simply do not prioritize satisfied customers, and have no qualms about it. “In the few cases when the cost of customer acquisition is lower than the cost of retention, there is almost a disincentive to customer satisfaction.”
Gagnon relayed a quote from a fast food franchise operator who told him, “I don‘t really care about customer satisfaction. I just want them to serve them food and have them pay me.”
As a consumer, when you encounter the opposite, a business that really and truly puts customer first, they don‘t even have to tell you it‘s so, because you can feel it. These are the company cultures where delivering a great customer experience is baked in at the molecular level.
In an instant, you can probably name five or 10 local or national companies that always make you feel like a valued customer. It‘s not a coincidence that those companies are also often great at customer service, and committed to hugging their haters.
We can easily name customer experience cultures because they are rare. Their scarcity contributes mightily to their memorability. These companies are exceptional, in the truest definition of the word.
The financial impact of customer focus is massive
And the financial impact of a focus on customers is massive. A five percent increase in customer retention boosts profits by 25 to 85 percent. That‘s not a new discovery; it was published in a Harvard Business Review case study in 1990. So, we‘ve known that a focus on customer experience makes sound business sense for 25 years or more, but the companies that execute on it are still outliers. Why?
Your customer journey is driven from the top down
“You know how they say, “The fish rots from the head?” Your customer journey is driven from the top down. This is absolutely a cultural thing. There is not a problem in the world that can‘t be solved technologically, but the best technology is going to do nothing for you unless you have a culture of customer excellence,” says Michael Maoz of Gartner. Jet Blue airlines has such a culture, as evidenced by a story told by social media customer service manager
Laurie Meacham about a passenger who had been tweeting before her flight. According to Meacham, the passenger was not tweeting at Jet Blue directly but just tweeting in general. It was obvious from her previous tweets that she had been having a rough time in life. Her last tweet before boarding was “I‘m so looking forward to getting the Pop Chips.” Jet Blue usually serves free snacks on flights, and Pop Chips are a customer favorite. Unfortunately, the plane was out of Pop Chips and the passenger tweeted her disappointment, using the in-air Wi-Fi connection.
This is a classic example of indirect haters, those hidden complainers that most companies never find, much less act upon. “She wasn‘t really talking to us or complaining to us,” say Meacham. “This was just her narrative. So we packaged up a box of Pop Chips with a little note and we mailed it to her home. She sent a tweet a few days later with a photo saying ‘Look at what Jet Blue sent me!’ It was our way of sort of making up for it. And, you know, sometimes it‘s better to take things offline.”
Go “off-script”
Meacham emphasizes that none of these beyond-the-norm interactions require permission from multiple people at Jet Blue, where working “off-script” is valued far more than adhering to the script. “It‘s exactly these sort of spontaneous things that we want to empower our team members to recognize. They just find them, and act on them,” she says.
Martin Shervington from Plus Your Business calls this the culture of “sincere hospitality” and notes there are obvious attributes of companies that have this culture. Everyone in the organization feels like they are in customer service, even if they aren‘t specifically assigned those duties. All team members are empowered to solve a customer‘s problem, at any time, the way they are at the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain and other customer-focused brands. Even executives or owners interact with customers themselves.
You might think it‘s easier for small business owners to connect with customers than it is for large company executives, and you‘re right. But it‘s by no means impossible for executives to talk to customers in a big organization; you just have to want to do it badly enough. Pella Windows and Doors wants to do it, and does.
“Our founder, Pete Kuyper, who got this company going 90 years ago, always thought that the best thing you can do is to take care of the customers and there are numerous stories about him bending over backwards to take care of things. That‘s always been part of our DNA,” says Pella Vice President of Marketing, Elaine Sagers.
“Monthly, our executives call a random selection of unhappy customers to talk about their experience with us. Sometimes it can be really painful because it‘s often simple stuff that goes wrong,” she said. “We now start every one of our monthly business meetings (a meeting with the most senior leaders in the company) with a good customer letter and a bad customer letter. We‘ve also played recordings from the call center so you can hear the emotion in our customers‘ voices around what‘s been happening with their jobs and their homes.”
The large tax preparation company Jackson Hewitt has also embraced customer experience and involved their senior executives as well. “Dave Prokupek came on board as CEO in 2014 and he has a fierce passion for the customer, and for the customer being happy and being heard,” says Vada Hill, Jackson Hewitt‘s Chief Marketing Officer.
Actually talk to your customers
“I‘m a big believer in that‘s an important part of my job that I reach out to customers. I call customers on the phone. In executive discussions I‘ve printed out the Facebook accounts of certain customers who were not being served well, with an eye towards putting a face to an unhappy customer. I think that it‘s really important that as an executive team we are sensitized to the people behind the complaints. These are real people, these are people on whom our livelihood as a business depends, and it‘s very important that we meet their needs and that they feel that they‘ve been heard,” Hill explains.
Put a face to your unhappy customers
If you‘re going to embrace customer experience and hug your haters, it certainly helps to have an executive team that believes in sincere hospitality, as do Hill, Sagers, and their respective CEOs. It also helps if the company puts their money where their mouth is, and most simply do not.
In nearly all companies (but perhaps not in businesses focused first on customer experience), resources are disproportionately expended on getting customers, not keeping them.
Globally, 500 billion dollars each year are invested in marketing, compared with just 9 billion dollars in customer service. That means customer service has less than 1/50th the budget of marketing. Katy Keim from Lithium describes the gap this way, “Marketing has the funding, but not the capabilities. Customer service has the capabilities but not the funding.”
One of the ways to close that gap is to constantly prove the value of service and complaint resolution, a measurement imperative that has bedeviled the customer experience industry for years.
Carine Clark, the President and CEO of MaritzCX, says the metrics problem is finally being fixed: “Customer experience (CX) programs in the past were missing a critical element—a measurable impact on business outcomes. It was almost as if these programs were a ship without a rudder, aimlessly delivering scores, data and statistics to bewildered employees and busy executives,” she says. But today‘s programs are different. Their direction is set by strong, visionary strategies that focus on outcomes. Today‘s programs directly impact the most relevant boardroom measurements: customer retention, revenue growth, profitability and employee loyalty. Business leaders and employees inherently understand that improving the customer experience makes sense. On a logical level, it really is the baseline for every business: making customers happy. Often business leaders get distracted, thinking that their business is something else, like design, pricing, presentation or quality. These are all previews to the real show, customer retention based on the overall customer experience.”
Commit
Clark is right. A commitment to customer experience keeps customers and grows revenue. But measuring that relationship can be time-consuming and expensive, which is why so many customer service and customer experience programs use other data points as surrogates for financial gain. These include metrics like Net
Promoter Score, which charts the likelihood of customers to recommend the business to a friend or colleague. Net Promoter Score methodology was also the basis for how we measured the customer advocacy impact of answering complaints among offstage and onstage haters when we conducted the research for this book. Other businesses chart total number of customer interactions, per channel, which is how KLM and Microsoft Xbox know precisely how many tweets they answer each week.
For many years, customer service organizations that were primarily focused on telephone interactions charted their “handle time,” the time needed to answer the phone and bring the issue to a close. This feels like an anachronism in today‘s world, where customers expect a quick response across many channels. Discover Card, Jackson Hewitt, and KLM pay close attention to this “response time” and use it as a key success measure, rather than handle time.
Customer experience architect Esteban Kolsky doesn‘t believe either measure is sufficient, and that we should be tracking “resolution time” because it represents what the consumer really wants and needs.
Deliver more value
“It‘s about answers. People want answers and an answer equals value. The faster, better and more complete, more accurate answer that you deliver, the more value you deliver. That‘s what it comes down to. So figure out what‘s the best to deliver the best answer, via the best way possible at the right time. That‘s value to the customer,” he says.
Joe Gagnon believes the best measure is “customer effort.” “What customer service is really about, and what we try to do at Aspect, is connect questions to answers,” he says. “And we should be measuring how easy (or difficult) it is for the customer to get that answer,” he says. If it‘s easy enough, you‘ll start to see it emerge in customer comments like, ‘I can‘t believe how easy that was.’”
Surveys are one of the other systems used by both small and large businesses to gauge the effectiveness of their customer service. You no doubt have received requests to provide feedback through a survey, often “invited” (like it‘s a party with an open bar) to participate via an email blasted to you after your most recent transaction with a business.
I make it a habit to answer these requests to complete surveys. Whether I‘m asked to rate my recent chicken wing experience, or grade my local car dealership, I‘m happy to oblige because I find these surveys fascinating. I also find them to be almost universally terrible.
Surveys: a customer satisfaction crime scene
Not long ago, I had a poor experience at a Las Vegas casino hotel. I don‘t want to tell you which one, but it has an enormous lion at the front entrance. I received a standard email blast with a link to the post-stay survey. Eager to share my thoughts, I clicked to open the survey and discovered a customer satisfaction crime scene.
The survey was more than 60 pages long and took more than 40 minutes to complete. Only at the very end did the hotel ask for my actual feedback, and even then it was in a truncated and perfunctory fashion. What did the other 50-plus survey pages contain? Question, after question, after question about marketing and Las Vegas strip competitors. “What restaurants did you visit on our property?” they asked, followed by an enormous list. “What restaurants did you visit elsewhere in Las Vegas?” they asked next, followed by a list that dwarfed the first one.
This is not customer service measurement. This is not embracing customer feedback. It‘s marketing and market research. There are many times and places where those questions and conversations are appropriate. The first 75 percent of a guest satisfaction survey is not one of those times.
Beyond their wholly soulless nature that lacks a shred of humanity or nuance, the issue with surveys is where the results go and how they are used. It‘s entirely possible one or more surveys are being sent to your customers at this very moment. Who has access to the results? How is that information used? Are trends charted? Are summaries provided on a regular basis to the customer service and operations teams? Are key findings presented to executives for discussion, as is the case at Pella and Jackson Hewitt?
If you‘re going to make use of surveys, make use of the data they capture. Otherwise, you‘re just setting up a false expectation among your customers that you are listening, when in reality you‘re deflecting.
We‘ve seen that a customer experience culture with a commitment to sincere hospitality requires leadership from owners and/or senior executives. It also requires resources, as hugging your haters isn‘t an inexpensive proposition. You need relevant measurement and metrics, as well.
Say “I’m sorry”
The last thing you need is permission to say you‘re sorry. And that‘s not a given, especially in big companies.
Frank Eliason has seen it first hand “One of the first unofficial rules often taught to customer service professionals in large companies is the inability to say ‘I‘m sorry.’ Management instructs that saying ‘I am sorry’ is somehow admitting fault. Always remember that how you communicate to your employees sends a message. Sometimes that message may be about risk, other times it could be about profits; the way that the message is received will impact how you treat your customers, even if it was never intended to be that way.
In some corners of the business universe, anyone interacting with customers is prohibited from saying (or typing) an apology, because it is believed by particularly draconian attorneys that it could weaken the company‘s position in a legal proceeding. I am not a lawyer, but that feels wrong to me. Dave Kerpen (also not a lawyer) feels the same, “Attorneys might not love the words ‘I‘m sorry,’ but the reality is, ‘I‘m sorry’ is not an admission of liability, it‘s a declaration of empathy,” he says.
I like the concept of “declaration of empathy” but is there legal justification to the idea of never saying “I‘m sorry?”
“In the words of George Bernard Shaw, ‘If that‘s the law, then the law is an ass,’” says Michael Lasky, an attorney and litigator with the Davis & Gilbert law firm in New York City.
Lasky specializes in public relations, advertising, and e-commerce law. “Any notion that ‘I‘m sorry’ is an admission of liability is far too simplistic and is definitely an overreaction. Should companies be careful about what they say, especially in a public forum? Sure. But I don‘t think the answer is simply you can ever respond to negative complaints, and you can never say ‘I‘m sorry.’
Some businesses won‘t allow their representatives to say “I‘m sorry,” but they certainly will allow their representatives to tell the customer “no.” If you start to pay attention to how often you say “no,” whether due to “policy” or some other reason, the results can be staggering.
Ameriprise Financial, for example, asks its customer service representatives to capture every instance in which they are forced to tell a customer no. While auditing the “no‘s,” the company found many legacy policies that had been outmoded by regulatory changes or process improvements. During its first year of “capturing the no‘s,” Ameriprise modified or eliminated 26 policies. It has since expanded the program by asking frontline customer service agents to come up with other process efficiencies, generating $1.2 million in savings as a result.
Like with all relationships, showing you care means the little things are the big things. And the big things are the big things. Ask the right questions. Answer feedback. Develop a culture of customer care. As Ameriprise and so many other companies demonstrate, the results can be as staggering as they are inspiring.
Drawn from Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers, about which Guy Kawasaki says: “This is a landmark book in the history of customer service.” Written by Jay Baer, Hug Your Haters is the first customer service and customer experience book written for the modern, mobile era and is based on proprietary research and more than 70 exclusive interviews.
