5 Top Customer Service Articles For The Week Of May 9, 2016
Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
For free or a fee? Why more retailers are launching premium customer loyalty programs by Jason Ankeny
(Retail Dive) The success of Amazon Prime and other programs has many retailers rethinking their approach to customer loyalty.
My Comment: Amazon.com has a loyalty program. It’s called Prime. And, members pay to be part of it. Why? The perks are more valuable than the fee to join. When someone pays to be a part of a program, they are more likely to use it. Is it a loyalty program or a marketing program. Either way, it’s brilliant.
Customer Retention; what can you do to ensure customers return to your business? by Heerd
(Heerd) According to Harvard Business Review it costs as much as seven times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one.
My Comment: Looking for a great recipe for customer retention? Here’s a simple one — but remember, simple doesn’t mean easy. The four ingredients are incentivize, empower, strategy and relationships.
Make Social Media Trolls Go Away With These 5 Tips by Blake Morgan
(Forbes) Successful people are often targets for trolls—that said, successful brands are huge targets for trolls. The bigger the brand, the bigger the target. In customer service we like to think that the customer is always right, but on social media that’s not true.
My Comment: Over the past year or so (probably longer as I lose track of time) I’ve received many questions about how to deal with the complaint that’s posted on social media. This article shares five tips to help deal with the “troll” who decides to go public with a rant or negative comment.
3 HIDDEN COSTS of Poor Customer Experience that could Kill an Organisation by Vivek Jaiswal
(Customer Guru) With the power of product and price falling with time, companies need to critically assess their current customer experience situation, because overlooking poor customer experience today could cause irreparable damages in future.
My Comment: Another great article about the cost of a bad customer experience. Filled with stats and facts, it makes the case for why companies must shift their thinking, if they haven’t already done so, to emphasize more than just the quality of their product or their competitive price. They must emphasize the customer experience.
Making an Impression: How to Create Memorable Customer Experiences by CGS
(CGS)So, what exactly makes an experience memorable? Here are some ways that you can create good customer experiences, avoid bad memories and put a rest to just plain forgettable interactions.
My Comment: Good customer service is good, but memorable customer service is even better. How can you go from good to memorable? Start with this article. And, I appreciate that they used one of my favorite sayings, which is about more than “taking care” of a customer, but taking it to the next level and “helping” the customer.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact or www.hyken.com . For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to www.thecustomerfocus.com . Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
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