Author Archives: Shep Hyken

About Shep Hyken

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

Humans and AI BOTH Hallucinate

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Humans and AI BOTH Hallucinate

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

One of the reasons customers are concerned about or even scared of artificial intelligence (AI) is that it has been known to provide incorrect answers. The result is frustration and concern over whether to believe any AI-fueled technology. In my annual customer service and customer experience research, I asked more than 1,000 U.S. consumers if they ever received wrong or incorrect information from an AI self-service technology. Fifty-one percent said yes.

No, AI is not perfect. Even though the technology continues to improve, it still makes mistakes. And my response to those who claim they won’t trust AI because of those mistakes is to ask, “Has a live customer support agent ever given you bad information?”

That question gets a surprised look, and then a smile, and then an acknowledgement, something like, “You’re right. I never thought about that.”

When AI gives bad information, I refer to that as Artificial Incompetence. It’s just as frustrating when we experience bad information from a live agent, which I call HI, or Human Incompetence. I doubt – I actually know – that the AI and the human aren’t trying to give you bad information.

I once called a customer support number to get help with what seemed like a straightforward question. I didn’t like the answer I received. It just didn’t make sense. Rather than argue, I thanked the agent, hung up, and dialed the same customer support number. A different agent answered, and I asked the same question. This time, I liked the answer. Two humans from the same company answering the same question, but with two completely different answers. And we worry about AI being inconsistent!

AI Hallucination Cartoon Shep Hyken

AI and Humans Make Mistakes

The reality is that both AI and humans make mistakes, and both will continue to do so. The difference is our expectations. We don’t expect humans to be perfect, so when they are not, we may be disappointed, maybe even angry. We may or may not forgive them, but usually, we just chalk it up to being … human. But it’s different when interacting with AI. We expect it to be reliable, and when it makes a mistake, we often assume the entire system is flawed.

Perhaps we should treat both with the same reasonable expectations and the same healthy skepticism we apply to weather forecasters, who use sophisticated technology and have years of training yet still can’t seem to get tomorrow’s forecast right half the time. Well, it seems like half the time! That doesn’t mean we won’t be checking the forecast before we plan our outdoor activities. AI, too, is sophisticated technology that can make life easier.

Image credits: Gemini, Shep Hyken

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Treat Customers Right Without Expecting the Same in Return

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The Reality Rule

Treat Customers Right Without Expecting the Same in Return

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

I recently wrote about the Reality Rule in my Forbes column. Apparently, I hit on a topic that resonated with the Forbes readers, which prompted me to write a version for our subscribers to The Shepard Letter.

The Golden Rule, which most of us learned at a very young age, is to “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” This is a great business principle when it comes to your customers. Slightly modified, it is “Treat your customers the way you want to be treated.”

My friend Dr. Tony Alessandra adapted the Golden Rule and came up with the Platinum Rule, which is to “Do unto others as they’d like done unto them.” Alessandra’s point is that not everyone wants to be treated the way you do. In business, you must adapt to treating customers according to their needs and expectations, not yours. I’m a believer and proponent of this concept. That said, this article is going to focus on the Golden Rule, but for a different reason.

I was reading a book, Give Hospitality by Taylor Scott, a business allegory about a woman who leaves a job with a toxic culture and finds work with a company that is the exact opposite of what she’d been experiencing. In her second week of training, she sees a sign on the wall:

“Nothing in the Golden Rule says that others will treat us as we have treated them. It only says we must treat others the way we would want to be treated.” -– Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist

This is a powerful quote, especially when you understand the background. The expectation you have of others shouldn’t always be based on how you treat them, and this is especially applicable in the customer experience.

The point is that you will encounter difficult, unreasonable, and downright rude customers. But their behavior should not dictate yours. You have a choice in how you respond.

I’ve seen people on the front line get frustrated when they “bend over backward” for a customer, only to have them continue to be demanding and ungrateful. Expecting them to treat you the same way, with kindness, concern, and empathy, is the wrong expectation. You’re not treating customers well because you expect something in return. You’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do. This is a mindset you must adopt. Otherwise, you risk becoming angry and bitter toward your customers and even your job.

That’s why I’ve come up with a new rule: The Reality Rule, which is to treat customers well, even if they don’t treat you well.

Remember, some customers are having a bad day. Others are just difficult people. Regardless, take a lesson from Give Hospitality and Rosa Parks. Don’t keep score. Focus on what you can control: your attitude, your effort, and your commitment to creating an amazing customer experience that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back!”

Image credits: Gemini

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People Love to Repeat Immediate Gratification

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People Love to Repeat Immediate Gratification

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

“Anything that is immediately gratifying will be repeated.” Almost 15 years ago, that was Steve Wynn’s opening line of a keynote speech. Wynn, the founder and chairman of Wynn Resorts, went on to say, “The strongest force on earth is something that affects your self-esteem.”

Wynn was talking about how leaders should treat employees. That is the inspiration for this article. My take on this is simple. When leaders can create a gratifying experience that builds self-esteem for employees, they create fulfillment. In other words, make someone feel good about what they are doing, and they will repeat it and want to keep growing to make it better.

So, how can we create an experience that will be repeated?

Here are four ways:

1. Praise Employees for a Job Well Done: If someone is doing a good job, let them know it. Celebrate their successes and wins. To do this, you must pay attention to what employees are doing.

2. Thank Them for Their Hard Work: It’s one thing to say, “Great job.” It’s another to express genuine appreciation. Thank employees when they step up, work hard, and deliver on your expectations.

3. Educate Employees and Make Them Smarter: Learning is akin to personal growth. Giving people an opportunity to grow will increase their confidence and self-esteem. That growth turns into better employee and customer experiences.

4. Give Them Opportunities to Share Their Stories: This is the big one. In Wynn’s video, he shared the story of an employee who went “above and beyond” to help a hotel guest get their medicine delivered. That became their “North Star” of how employees should treat customers. I recently wrote about these types of stories and how important it is for an organization to not only find them but also share them with their teams. We have a tool I call the Moments of Magic® Card, and it’s the No. 1 culture-changing tool we share with our clients. This ongoing exercise has employees write a short example in just a few sentences about a positive customer or employee experience they created. These are shared at team meetings, and the best get shared throughout the entire company. Some clients compile the examples and assemble a book of their own legendary customer service stories.

Instant Gratification Shep Hyken Cartoon

Share Their Stories

All four of these are important, but let’s emphasize the Share Their Stories idea. Toward the end of his speech, Wynn talked about how he shared the medicine story with all employees. It motivated others to create their stories. He also mentioned that beautiful chandeliers, handwoven fabrics, onyx, and marble are wasted investments if the customers aren’t treated well. Regardless of how beautiful his resorts are, employees make the difference.

Stories from fellow employees create motivation, and it’s gratifying to them to be recognized and praised for their efforts. This is what gets the best behaviors and practices repeated, and what gets customers to say, “I’ll be back.”

Image credits: Pixabay

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The Reality Rule for Business

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The Reality Rule for Business

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Most of us learned the Golden Rule at a young age: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This is a perfect rule for business, and specifically customer service and customer experience (CX). It translates into treating customers the way you want to be treated. It makes sense … or does it?

My colleague Dr. Tony Alessandra came up with a version of the Golden Rule he calls the Platinum Rule: “Do unto others as they would like done unto them.” Changing two words, you to them, in this rule means not everyone wants to be treated the in same way you might like to be treated. And in a broader sense, not everyone wants to be treated the same way.

However, when it comes to certain customers, no matter how you treat them, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t recognize this, it can break both employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. That means it can also break a business.

The Expectation Trap

Recently, I read Give Hospitality by Taylor Scott, which tells the story of an employee who left her job because of a toxic workplace culture and found the perfect job where people, both employees and customers, were treated with respect and dignity. In her second week of training, she read a quote displayed on the company’s training room wall:

“Nothing in the Golden Rule says others will treat us as we have treated them. It only says we must treat others the way we would want to be treated.” – Rosa Parks

This quote from the legendary civil rights activist highlights a basic truth about customer service: exceptional treatment of customers doesn’t guarantee the customer will respond the same way. Yet many front-line employees and managers fall into the expectation trap and become frustrated when customers remain difficult despite receiving outstanding service.

The Danger of Misplaced Expectations

When employees expect customers to change their behavior to mirror that of employees, there is a possible danger of:

  • Employee Burnout: Front-line staff become disillusioned when their exceptional effort to take care of their customers isn’t appreciated or met with a more positive response. This is one of the top reasons it’s hard to keep good customer service reps. They say, “I can’t take it anymore,” and quit.
  • Inconsistent Customer Service: Frustrated employees may begin to take on the attitudes of their difficult customers, creating an inconsistent and bad experience for other customers.
  • Customers Leave: Difficult customers can become your most loyal customers when their problems are resolved with patience, kindness and professionalism, even if they don’t show it in their reactions. To avoid this, employees must be persistent and follow a new rule. (Read on!)

The Danger of Misplaced Expectations

The Reality Rule

Up until now, we have had the Golden Rule and the Platinum Rule. Now we have the Reality Rule:

Treat customers well, even if they don’t treat you well.

This isn’t about unacceptable abuse from a customer. Customers who cross the line with verbal abuse and threats fall under the category of Customers Who Aren’t Worth Doing Business With. Customers are allowed to be angry and agitated. They may be upset about the company or a product, and sometimes their behavior is driven by factors beyond your control.

The Reality Rule has three components:

  1. Control Your Response: While you can’t control the customer’s behavior, you have complete control over your attitude, effort and professionalism. Don’t let your angry customer’s behavior cause you to derail.
  2. Be Consistent: You know what it takes to deliver a great experience. Stay true to the core value of taking care of customers and, as just mentioned and worth mentioning again, don’t let your angry customer’s behavior cause you to go off track.
  3. Turn Foes into Friends: This is more of a goal than a rule, but it’s a goal you must start with in every tenuous interaction. My annual customer service and CX research finds that 81% of customers said they would consider returning to a company if it actively sought to make amends for a bad customer experience. When you handle a complaint properly, the customer will have higher confidence in you and your company than if the problem had never happened at all.

Final Words

When your team embraces the Reality Rule, magic happens. Difficult customers often transform into loyal advocates. Employee satisfaction increases when they understand their role and what they have control over. And your organization builds a reputation for taking care of customers, even when there are problems or complaints.

Remember, you’re not treating customers well because you expect them to change their behavior, although it’s nice when it happens — and sometimes it does. You’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do, knowing in the long run it pays dividends to properly manage problems and complaints. The Reality Rule creates the kind of experience that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back!”

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.

Image credits: Google Gemini

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The Many Meanings of AI Beyond Artificial Intelligence

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The Many Meanings of AI Beyond Artificial Intelligence

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

AI, as in artificial intelligence, is the hot topic of the past two years. The experts say we’ve barely opened the door on AI’s possibilities. We all know AI stands for artificial intelligence, and a simple definition of AI, as it applies to customer service and experience (CX), is technology that can think and learn like humans to help solve problems and answer questions, making companies and their employees more productive and efficient.

Beyond AI Shep Hyken Cartoon

I’ve shared alternative meanings of AI before, such as Artificial Incompetence, in my past articles and videos. I thought it would be fun to expand on those. So, here are some more alternative definitions of AI:

AI = Avoiding Inconvenience: This is one of my favorite definitions of AI. If you had the choice of getting an answer to your question immediately or waiting on hold for 10 minutes, which would you choose? (That’s a rhetorical question.) AI is your friend. And, AI can eliminate waiting on hold, having to prove you’re a customer and other time-consuming activities. AI, as in Avoiding Inconvenience, is super-efficient and eliminates friction from the customer experience. You might even call this version of AI Absolutely Immediate.

AI = Always Interested: AI will always try to help the customer. Even though it may fail at times, the goal of using AI to support CX and customer support is to take care of the customer. That’s what AI is programmed to do, which is why it appears to be Always Interested in helping the customer.

AI = Artificial Incompetence or Almost Intelligent: This is a definition of AI we want to avoid. AI can make mistakes. Sometimes it misunderstands customers or concocts and shares fictitious information that seems correct but is Absolutely Incorrect. Experiences like this give AI and chatbots a bad reputation. So, here’s a good AI strategy: Avoid Incompetence.

AI = Always Improving: As fast as we program and teach AI to support our customers, it is learning even faster. Things that AI couldn’t do a few months ago are routine today. Furthermore, customers are now experiencing human-like responses versus the robotic responses they were used to just a year or two ago. The point is that the technology is Always Improving.

AI = Amazing Impact:  If nothing else, we can all agree that AI can transform the customer experience by personalizing interactions at scale and freeing human customer support agents to handle complex issues rather than answering basic questions all day. This makes businesses more productive while improving the customer experience.

With all of these alternative definitions of AI, most of them positive, it’s important to remember that AI is just a tool. It’s only as good as how you use it. The companies getting AI right know they can’t go “all in” on AI and replace the human experience. I’ve interviewed dozens of executives from some of the largest brands on the planet, and not one of them thinks AI will replace people. The key is to find the right balance between AI and the human experience to create an Amazing Impact.

Image credits: ChatGPT, Shep Hyken

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Five Ways to React to Online Customer Feedback

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Five Ways to React to Online Customer Feedback

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

It’s one thing to listen to what your customers are saying when they reach out to you directly through calls, emails, texts, or direct messages. But many customers prefer to “go social” and comment on social media, review sites, and online forums.

So the question is, “Are you listening?”

By “listening,” I mean social listening, paying attention to what customers are saying about you everywhere except directly to you.

In the past month, I’ve been asked twice about social listening, responding to surveys, and monitoring online comments and reviews. However, let me emphasize that comments and reviews are not limited to the typical review sites, such as Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and others. Your customers will also share comments on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites.

So, even though we call it social listening, a better name might be social reacting. If you take the time to “listen,” which means reading or watching what customers are saying about you, it is in your best interest to react with an appropriate response.

Negative Reviews Shep Hyken Cartoon

While I believe you should respond to all comments and reviews, it’s especially important to respond to the negative. By the way, negative reviews aren’t so bad. In one of my articles about embracing negative reviews, I mentioned that a perfect five-star rating causes some customers to think, “This is too good to be true.” Perfection is not reality, and customers know this.

With that in mind, here are five social reaction strategies and tactics:

  1. React to Positive Comments: A short thank you is appropriate. If you can personalize it, even better.
  2. React to Negative Comments: As mentioned, it’s especially important to respond to negative reviews and comments, and I’ll add, in a timely fashion. The sooner the better. This adds a sense of urgency and creates credibility. If possible, take the complaint “offline” and deal directly with the customer. Then return to the site where the comment or review was first shared and let the world know you resolved the issue.
  3. React to Unreasonable Comments: Not every comment will be reasonable. Some people will be unreasonable. A simple and professional response is appropriate. Offer a way for the customer to contact you directly. Don’t be defensive, or you’ll add fuel to the fire.
  4. It’s Okay to Use AI and Templates When Reacting: Depending on how many comments you get, AI and templates can save you time. But, make sure to customize them to the situation. Don’t just copy and paste comments. Customers will notice.
  5. Treat Customer Comments as Learning Opportunities: This idea goes beyond social channels and review sites. Any comment that comes your way, positive or negative, is a learning opportunity. If you get negative feedback, find ways to prevent it from happening again. If the feedback is positive, find ways to make sure it always happens.

Companies spend a lot of money to get customers to notice them through marketing and advertising. Don’t waste that investment by not considering social reacting as part of your marketing and customer experience (CX) plan.

Image credits: Pixabay

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Why We Love to Hate Chatbots

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Why We Love to Hate Chatbots

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

More and more, brands are starting to get the chatbot “thing” right. AI is improving, and customers are realizing that a chatbot can be a great first stop for getting quick answers or resolving questions. After all, if you have a question, don’t you want it answered now?

In a recent interview, I was asked, “What do you love about chatbots?” That was easy. Then came the follow-up question, “What do you hate about chatbots?” Also easy. The truth is, chatbots can deliver amazing experiences. They can also cause just as much frustration as a very long phone hold. With that in mind, here are five reasons to love (and hate) chatbots:

Why We Love Chatbots

  1. 24/7 Availability: Chatbots are always on. They don’t sleep. Customers can get help at any time, even during holidays.
  2. Fast Response: Instant answers to simple questions, such as hours of operation, order status and basic troubleshooting, can be provided with efficiency and minimal friction.
  3. Customer Service at Scale: Once you set up a chatbot, it can handle many customers at once. Customers won’t have to wait, and human agents can focus on more complicated issues and problems.
  4. Multiple Language Capabilities: The latest chatbots are capable of speaking and typing in many different languages. Whether you need global support or just want to cater to different cultures in a local area, a chatbot has you covered.
  5. Consistent Answers: When programmed properly, a chatbot delivers the same answers every time.

Chatbots Shep Hyken Cartoon

Why We Hate Chatbots

  1. AI Can’t Do Everything, but Some Companies Think It Can: This is what frustrates customers the most. Some companies believe AI and chatbots can do it all. They can’t, and the result is frustrated customers who will eventually move on to the competition.
  2. A Lack of Empathy: AI can do a lot, but it can’t express true emotions. For some customers, care, empathy and understanding are more important than efficiency.
  3. Scripted Retorts Feel Robotic: Chatbots often follow strict guidelines. That’s actually a good thing, unless the answers provided feel overly scripted and generic.
  4. Hard to Get to a Human: One of the biggest complaints about chatbots is, “I just want to talk to a person.” Smart companies make it easy for customers to leave AI and connect to a human.
  5. There’s No Emotional Connection to a Chatbot: You’ll most likely never hear a customer say, “I love my chatbot.” A chatbot won’t win your heart. In customer service, sometimes how you make someone feel is more important than what you say.

Chatbots are powerful tools, but they are not a replacement for human connection. The best companies use AI to enhance support, not replace it. When chatbots handle the routine issues and agents handle the more complex and human moments, that’s when customer experience goes from efficient to … amazing.

Image credits: Unsplash

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How Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos Learn About Customer Experience

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When the CEO Picks Up the Phone

How Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos Learn About Customer Experience

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Jeff Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon, shared a fascinating leadership story on the Lex Fridman Podcast about how he wanted to ensure his customers received the best customer experience (CX). In Amazon’s early days, Bezos noticed a discrepancy between the “wait times” the customer support department was reporting and the feedback customers shared. The support team reported wait times of less than 60 seconds, but customers told a different story. Instead of asking for more data, Bezos took matters into his own hands. He picked up the phone during a meeting with the leadership team and called Amazon’s customer service number himself.

The result was a ten-minute wait!

That one phone call did more than just expose a problem. It demonstrated the kind of leadership that sets the tone for others to follow. When the CEO is willing to experience what customers experience, it sends a clear message: customer service and CX are more than a department or a strategy. They are everyone’s responsibility.

Frontline Experience

When Leaders Get Out of Their Offices

This story illustrates the importance of leaders getting out of their offices and experiencing what’s happening in the field or on the front line. Reading reports and analyzing data are part of the job, but when it comes to customer experience, nothing beats getting firsthand information.

Bezos, in effect, mystery shopped his company, pretending to be a customer. What he was really doing was trying to get to the truth. Sometimes the truth can be experienced directly, or it can be observed.

For example, as I wrote about in my book I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers To Come Back Again and Again, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, visited the company’s product support center and talked to customers. He sat down at a desk in a cubicle, put on a headset, picked up the phone and said, “Hello, this is Microsoft Product Support, William speaking. How can I help you?”

The beauty of these simple strategies, which provide firsthand information about what customers are experiencing, what they’re asking or what they’re complaining about, is that, for the cost of a little time and effort, they’re incredibly revealing. You don’t need surveys. You need to be willing to see your company through your customers’ eyes.

One other thought about what Bezos and Gates did. They didn’t keep their efforts a secret. When your team sees you personally calling your company or taking customer support calls, they understand that customer service and CX are a priority that starts at the top.

So, take a page from the Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates playbooks. Pick up the phone. Visit a store. Experience your website. Spend time on the front line. Experience and learn about your business as your customer would. You might be surprised by what you discover, and your customers are sure to appreciate the changes that follow.

Image credits: Unsplash

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Samsung is Turning Customer Service into a Competitive Advantage

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Samsung is Turning Customer Service into a Competitive Advantage

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

In the 1980s, Jan Carlzon was tasked with turning around Scandinavian Airlines, which had been losing money, and making it profitable. He achieved this by getting everyone to buy into a concept he called “The Moment of Truth.” The definition of this phrase was so straightforward that all Scandinavian Airlines employees could understand it and act accordingly. He defined The Moment of Truth as any time a customer (passenger) came into contact with the company, they had the opportunity to form an impression. All employees were tasked with managing these moments and creating positive impressions. That concept is every bit as valid today as it was over 40 years ago.

This idea is the same, and probably more so, for customer support, the “department” that handles complaints and problems. However, I’d like to paraphrase Carlzon’s timeless wisdom: Any time a customer comes into contact with the company’s customer support department, it is an opportunity to create loyalty.

When you create loyalty through a positive customer experience (CX), especially with customer support, several things happen. First, customers come back. Second, they spend more. Third, they trust the company more. And fourth, they become your best advertising in the form of word of mouth.

Mark Williams, the head of customer care at Samsung Electronics America, has been tasked with turning customer support into a loyalty machine. In a recent interview, he shared several important and powerful points that apply to any business:

Customer Service/Support Shouldn’t Be Just About Fixing Problems

A customer may reach out to the company about a problem, and when they finally finish with the interaction, they have a sense of confidence in the company. Every interaction, even when it starts with a complaint or problem, is an opportunity to turn the customer into a loyal customer and brand ambassador.

Customer Service can be Proactive, Not Just Reactive

This is a powerful concept: proactive customer service. Using technology, a company can anticipate problems. Technology is now being integrated into items to help identify problems, often before customers are even aware of them. For example, Samsung’s “smart appliances” can alert customers that the refrigerator is getting warm and help schedule a repair before all the food in the refrigerator and freezer spoils. Williams says, “Get to customers quicker and solve their problems before they even know they have a problem.”

AI Should Not Replace Humans

The more I talk to CX leaders, the more I hear that companies are not reducing their customer support teams because of AI. If anything, they recognize that AI is a tool that helps people, not replaces them. Williams says, “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.” Furthermore, when AI is used internally to assist employees, it delivers the right information in a timely manner and empowers them to create a better customer experience. For complicated issues, AI supports the agent while they resolve customer issues and work on rebuilding the customer’s trust in the brand.

The Three S’s of an Amazing Customer Experience

Williams shared his three core principles for delivering an experience that creates loyalty:

  1. Speed: Reduce the time it takes to resolve a customer’s issue. The sooner, the better. Williams is proud that Samsung’s repair network for consumer electronics covers 99% of the U.S. Eight out of 10 Americans (81%) are within 30 minutes of getting their products serviced. That’s actually convenience combined with speed, a powerful combination.
  2. Simplicity: Make it easy for customers to do business with you. Remove confusing policies and anything else that is inconvenient for the customer. Listen to your front-line employees who are actively listening to your customers to get ideas on how to create a simpler and more convenient experience.
  3. Service: Design experiences that put your customers first. When you put yourself in your customers’ shoes, you’ll find opportunities to improve customer service and the overall customer experience. Service includes friendly employees who are knowledgeable and deliver an experience that builds confidence and trust, even when things go wrong, because customers know they can count on you.

Final Words

For those in leadership who still view customer support as a cost center, think again. The people on the front line, along with the people designing digital self-service — an AI-fueled experience — are the extension of your sales and marketing departments. Loyalty can be built by turning around a customer with a complaint. In short, customer service can be an income-generating department. Reliable products are a given, but it’s the way a company handles a customer during a contentious or disappointing moment that makes them say, “I’ll be back!”

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.

Image credits: Pexels

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Trust Built Now Will Help You Recover from Future Complaints

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Trust Built Now Will Help You Recover From Future Complaints

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

When you have your customer’s confidence, the opportunity to create an excellent customer experience dramatically improves. That confidence comes from consistency. The customer knows what to expect, even if any problems or issues arise. They know you’ll take care of them.

This is a follow-up to my article that covered the Customer Service Recovery Paradox, in which a customer’s perception of the company is higher after a problem or complaint is resolved than if the problem had never happened at all. One of our subscribers, Sean Crichton-Browne of Market Culture, shared a great comment. The short version is that when you have the customer’s confidence, especially in potentially tenuous situations, customers work with you rather than against you.

Sean’s insight is spot-on and worth diving into further. Think about the last time you had a problem with a company you trusted versus one that you didn’t. By the way, that lack of trust could be because you haven’t yet experienced how they handle a problem, not because of any inconsistencies or problems in the past. With the trusted company, you most likely approached the conversation differently. You were more patient as you explained the situation, and you were more open to their suggestions and solutions.

Trust Recovery Cartoon from Shep Hyken

Contrast that with a company you don’t yet trust. You go into the conversation with your guard up, wondering if you’ll get the response and answers you hope for. You may even be prepared to fight for what you believe is right.

When customers trust you, they:

  • Give you the benefit of the doubt when mistakes happen.
  • Share more information about what went wrong, making it easier to fix.
  • Accept reasonable solutions rather than demanding unrealistic ones.
  • Remain calm and respectful, making it much easier to help them without having to first de-escalate the customer’s anger.

As mentioned, and worth mentioning again, confidence comes from consistency. Even if the customer has only done business with you once or twice, it can be earned through all of the positive touchpoints of those interactions. Every interaction, big or small, builds confidence. Every time you answer the phone, return a call promptly, respond to email quickly, keep your promises, and more, you’re building trust. When something does go wrong, not if something goes wrong, you will have those past interactions working for you.

Yes, we need to react to complaints and problems when they happen, but remember that your ability to resolve those issues successfully may have been determined long before the problem ever occurred. It’s determined by how you treat customers and manage every interaction, the small ones and the big ones. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to build the confidence that will make future problems easier to resolve. When you have their trust, customers work with you rather than against you.

Image credits: Flickr Mary Jane, Shep Hyken

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