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

Simple Sells

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How Simple Can You Make Your Business?

Simple Sells - How Simple Can You Make Your Business?

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

I love good barbeque. I live in St. Louis, which is famous for some of the best BBQs in the world! Really! We have a number of restaurants that have competed in worldwide competitions and come back with the first-place trophy.

My friend Norman Beck loves BBQ, too. Living in Texas, he’s also exposed to some of the best BBQ in the world, although I’ll argue it’s second to St. Louis. He teased me the other day by sending pictures of dinners featuring brisket, ribs, sausage and delicious side dishes from award-winning Hutchins BBQ in North Texas. He also included a description of its marketing plan.

According to Beck, the marketing plan is simple:

  1. Cook the best BBQ in Texas. My comment: Always do your best. Beck said the owner has one goal, “Be a little better today than you were yesterday.” That’s a great goal. Even if you don’t hit it, trying makes a big difference.
  2. Sell it at a fair price. My comment: A fair price doesn’t mean the lowest price. When you sell a good product, the price is less relevant.
  3. Be nice to everyone. My comment: This is customer service 101. It’s the basics. If you have the best BBQ but treat people with disrespect, you won’t be nearly as successful. And when you combine friendly service with a great product, price becomes even less relevant. People will pay more for the best of both worlds!
  4. Close when you sell out. My comment: I love the law of scarcity. When people know they have to “act now,” or they may miss out, they make more of an effort to do business with you.
  5. Repeat. My comment: If it works, just keep doing it!

The other thing you’ll notice about Hutchins (and most other BBQ restaurants), is they don’t spend a lot of money on ambiance. Many BBQ “joints” have wooden tables and chairs. The restaurants are set for function. In other words, no fancy light fixtures or expensive plates. They keep the place clean, and that’s about it.

The point of all of this is simplicity. You don’t go to a BBQ restaurant unless you want BBQ. The choices are limited, and so are the quantities. The BBQ chefs know how much to prepare every day, and when they run out, they close for the night. Customers know this and don’t expect anything more.

Simple Sells Cartoon by Shep Hyken

Most likely, your business has a few more “moving parts” than a BBQ restaurant. That doesn’t mean you can’t find ways to simplify the customer experience, your internal processes, and more. Go through an exercise in simplification by asking questions like these:

  1. Is any part of the process of our customer experience (or employee experience) redundant?
  2. Is there anything in our process that is unnecessary?
  3. Is every touchpoint our customers experience with us optimized for ease and efficiency?
  4. What could we do to make it easier to do business with us?

Asking questions like these and implementing the answers will help you simplify your business.

Image Credits: Shep Hyken, Unsplash

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Baseball Has Gone Bananas

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Baseball Has Gone Bananas

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Jesse Cole is an anomaly. He has turned the Savannah Bananas, a minor league exhibition baseball team, into a world-class case study in marketing and customer experience. At game time, Grayson Stadium is packed. In fact, every game the Bananas play is sold out. Remember, this is an exhibition team playing in a small stadium that holds just 4,000 fans. They have a waitlist of 550,000 fans hoping to get tickets, and the number of people joining this list grows by 3,000 daily. Add to that a social media presence with millions of followers, and you have a marketing machine fueled by the team’s reputation that lives up to and exceeds the expectations of its fans.

The Savannah Bananas are being studied by other baseball teams as well as almost every major sport at the highest professional level. And, business leaders who hear of Jesse Cole and his Savannah Bananas are taking notice. It all comes down to Cole’s philosophy, which is, “Imagine what the best possible fan experience is and do that. Don’t settle for the way things have been done before.”

That may sound simple, but there is so much to delivering on that philosophy. Cole not only changed the way fans are treated, but he also changed the rules of baseball. The new rules are referred to as Banana Ball, which is the name of Cole’s latest book that includes his business philosophy and the history of the team.

In my recent interview with Cole, he said that the biggest complaint about attending a major league baseball game is how much time it takes. I confirmed this with an informal survey by asking a number of friends the question, “What do you think is the biggest complaint about a major league baseball game?” Everyone responded, “It takes too long.”

Cole’s Banana Ball rules eliminate the complaint. For example, some of the rules that speed up the game include:

  • A two-hour time limit on games.
  • Batters are not allowed to step out of the batter’s box, or it is an automatic strike.
  • No mound visits by the catcher or any other players are allowed.
  • If a foul ball is caught by a fan in the stands, the player is automatically out.
  • At the end of nine innings, if there is a tie, rather than extra innings, there is a flurry of exciting activity in the form of a “one-on-one showdown,” which is similar to a shoot-out in soccer or hockey and lasts at least three rounds.

In addition to speeding up the game with a new set of rules, the entire experience is a show. Players perform line dances to popular songs from Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and other musical stars. They have a senior citizen women’s dance group, the Banana Nanas, which is akin to a cheerleading squad. They have the world’s only dancing umpire who will dance and twerk when he calls a player out. One of the coaches, Maceo Harrison, does a breakdance or “moonwalk” before giving a sign to the hitter. The list of antics goes on and on.

But none of this works without Cole’s vision, which puts the fan experience above anything else. It’s more than making the game move faster. He takes inspiration from what other sports teams and companies are doing wrong, and then does the opposite. He recognizes that a fan’s last impression of their experience leaves a lasting impression. Cole wants his customers’ experience to be a celebration they will never forget.

Cole hires the best people, and just as there are fans on a waiting list to get tickets to a Bananas game, he has a waiting list of potential employees. Cole says, “Everyone talks about recruiting great talent. Don’t recruit, attract great talent. Build a culture that people want to be a part of. It’s the culture that keeps people.”

Cole knows that if everyone in your business makes the customers the stars and you give them the red-carpet treatment, you’ll make those customers feel like a million bucks. It changes everything for the customer, and your employees will be more fulfilled and take pride in their work.

If you want to dig into the marketing lessons that Cole used to turn a minor league exhibition team into a sensation, you can start by reading Cole’s latest book. Better yet, score some tickets to a Savannah Bananas game. You’ll be glad you did!

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credits: Savannah Bananas

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Learning From the Customer Service Debacles of Others

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Learning From the Customer Service Debacles of Others

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

In 1996 the U.S. hosted the Summer Olympics. I’ll never forget reading about this story. Wade Miller, a Santa Fe, New Mexico, resident, tried to buy tickets to the volleyball match from the Summer Olympics ticket office in Atlanta. When the agent found out he lived in New Mexico, she refused to sell him a ticket, claiming she couldn’t sell tickets to anyone outside the United States. He appealed to the agent’s supervisor, who also believed that New Mexico was not part of the United States, even though New Mexico became the 47th state in 1912.

There is a happy ending to the story. Miller eventually bought tickets, and Scott Anderson, managing director of the games, promised it wouldn’t happen again. He said, “Obviously, we made a mistake, and we want to apologize to everybody out in New Mexico. The good news is that of all the mistakes we could make, this one is at least easily fixable.”

And there is a similar story that happened just a few weeks ago. A Puerto Rican family traveling from the United States to Puerto Rico was denied boarding a plane because their infant child did not have a U.S. passport. Despite the family pleading their case, the most the agent offered to do was refund the ticket or reschedule them to a later flight after they could acquire a passport for their child. The family eventually walked over to the JetBlue ticket counter, where they were told what they already knew: passports are not required to travel between the U.S. mainland and U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico.

Shep Hyken Communication Failure Cartoon

From these stories – and there are plenty more just like them – here are three (3) lessons we can take away:

1. Customer Service Training: Many problems can be avoided with good customer service training. There is the soft-skill side of customer service, being friendly and empathetic. Then there is the technical side that covers anything specific to what the company does, which can include basic geography. That makes me wonder, how can someone in the airline industry not understand the requirements for different countries – or at least know where to go to get the correct information?

2. It’s Okay to Get Help: If a customer and agent are at an impasse that doesn’t look like it can be resolved, the agent needs to know when to say, “I’ll be right back,” and find someone who can help. It’s okay to get help!

3. Recovery is Key: While not part of these two stories, it’s still important to recognize that how someone apologizes, and the actions they take do two things. First, it shows empathy and care for the customer and the situation. Second, when the problem is resolved to the customer’s complete satisfaction, it may renew the customer’s confidence in the company to come back next time.

There are more lessons and examples like these. I wanted to share these two for two reasons: one, they are entertaining examples that not only make you smile but also make you think. And two, it proves a point that I often make: common sense isn’t always so common!

Image Credits: Shep Hyken, Unsplash

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Growing Your Business with Customer Obsession

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Growing Your Business with Customer Obsession

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

A 21-year-old college senior and his roommate started a business that stored students’ belongings over the summer. They rented a warehouse and hired a local trucking company to pick up items at the dorms and take them to the warehouse to store for the summer. The company was becoming a college business success story. Then, in the middle of final exam week, the trucking company quit the project with 84 more pickups and customers left to service.

What does an entrepreneurial senior in the middle of final exams do? If he’s customer-focused (and he is), he stays up all night studying and doing pickups himself, honoring his commitment to these 84 students and still passing his exams!

That’s the beginning of Mark Ang’s story. Today, just six years later, Ang is the CEO and co-founder of GoBolt, which has evolved into a successful logistics company from what he and his roommate, Heindrik Bernabe, started in college. That company has gone beyond serving college students and now provides logistics and “last mile” delivery services for many businesses and well-known brands. Currently, they have over 1,500 employees, 14 warehouses and hundreds of trucks across the U.S. and Canada. The company is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, a multi-year winner of Deloitte’s Fast 50 and a recipient of the SupplyTech Breakthrough Award for Last Mile Solution Providers.

I interviewed Ang for Amazing Business Radio, and we talked about the secret of his success. Today, his company continues to grow at an exponential rate. The secret, according to Ang, is to live by these three main principles:

1. Customer Obsession

Just as he honored his commitments to his customers during his final exam week in college, he continues to obsess over making sure his customers are taken care of in a manner that will grow their trust and confidence in the organization.

2. Failure Is Not an Option

Ang would not accept defeat when the trucking company he hired in college broke their agreement. He figured out how to juggle school and business and came out on top of both, and he continues to focus on this principle today.

3. An Insatiable Desire to Win

This is where “Failure Is Not an Option” comes to life. Combining this principle with a love and obsession for your customers gives you a formula for success.

Even with these three principles in play, you must still be smart about running a business. These principles serve as a backdrop to many of Ang’s processes, strategies and tactics for running the company. Here are some of his customer-obsessed strategies that have helped him grow the business to where it is today:

Availability: A brand needs to be available to its customers 24/7. While not all businesses need around-the-clock support, his company does. Technology can answer the most basic questions at any time of day. Ang and his partner, co-founder and CTO of the company, leverage technology to deliver the best customer service.

Communication: Brands must provide communication channels that are convenient for customers. The customers will reach out by phone, email, chat, social media and other channels, and the company must be there to listen and respond.

Get It Right the First Time: This is another way of saying first-contact resolution. If agents have the correct customer information in front of them, they should be able to handle questions, problems or complaints on the first call. No customer should have to call back again and again to get an issue resolved.

Proactive Customer Support: If there is a problem the company knows about, reach out to customers before they call in. The credibility and trust that builds is huge. For example, a shipment might get delayed because of the weather. Ang believes (and he’s correct) that the right thing to do is to immediately inform the customer. It may not be good news, but it is information that the customer needs.

Ang’s final comments in our interview were to invest the time needed to create the optimal experience. Customer support, by nature, is reactive. It’s easy to get inundated with activity as you work in your business and not on your business. Take time to learn about what your customers want, research the right technology for your business and spend time with your team to understand what they need to be a customer-obsessed organization.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credit: Shep Hyken

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Making Your Customer the Hero

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Making Your Customer the Hero

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

“What we say doesn’t matter. What our customers say is what matters!”

Those are the words of Ragy Thomas, founder and CEO of Sprinklr, a customer experience software platform used by an incredible list of clients that includes nine of the 10 most valuable brands in the world and whose mission is to enable every organization on the planet to make their customers happier.

I had the chance to interview Thomas at a recent conference in Dubai. We began by discussing the company’s vision, which he conceived in 2009 and is just as appropriate today as it was back then: To be the world’s most loved enterprise software company.

Now, that’s a pretty lofty vision, and I love it. Some might even refer to it as a goal. I can envision Sprinklr’s leadership team meeting to discuss new ideas and products and how this vision might come up in the discussion. I can picture Thomas asking the question behind his vision, “Is what you’re proposing going to help us continue to be the most loved enterprise software company in the world?”

Phrasing the vision in the form of a question can help reveal the opportunities and pitfalls of a new idea. It’s obvious that if the answer is “No,” the discussion changes the approach to the new idea. It could even stop the discussion altogether. But if an idea is in sync with the vision, the question fuels the conversation.

So, how do you define what customers love? The answer comes in the form of feedback. And here is where Thomas shared another concept: The customer is always the hero.

Specifically, Thomas referred to how Sprinklr gets feedback and sums it up by saying, “What we say doesn’t matter. What our customers say is what matters.”

So, I asked, what kind of feedback works? I was surprised to hear Thomas stays away from the Net Promoter Score (NPS) question, which is: On a scale from zero to 10, what’s the likelihood that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague? Thomas said, “The NPS question makes the company the hero. It is a little presumptuous to be asking customers if they would recommend us, which means we get to be the hero again.”

Of course, Thomas would love for customers to recommend them, but he wants the focus to be 100% on the customer. He wants to make them the heroes, and what he cares about is knowing the customer is happy. It’s that simple, which is why he believes the right question for Sprinklr is: On a scale of one to 10, how happy are you with us?

So, if a customer rates the Sprinklr product and experience as any number less than 10, there is a follow-up question: What three things could we do to get you to give us a 10?

And if you didn’t already notice, the customer’s happiness is tied to their vision. They want their customers to love the company, so much so that Thomas believes that a score of 10 is the only acceptable score. If the customer were to rate them less than a nine or 10, Thomas and his team want to know why and what they can do to improve the product or experience.

Some may argue that any simple feedback question similar to NPS, CSAT or any other rating gives you a base to know the overall customer sentiment. I don’t disagree, but I do like that Thomas and his team are purposeful about always putting the customer first and their desire to get them to love Sprinklr at the center of the conversation. In the end, it may not matter what words Sprinklr uses to create feedback questions. What matters is knowing that they are achieving their vision, which is worth repeating: To be the world’s most loved enterprise software company.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Customer Service is Like Being Married

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Customer Service is Like Being Married

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

The buying cycle for a customer typically includes a little research, talking to a salesperson, making the purchase, and whatever happens after the sale. That could include a follow-up from the salesperson, dealing with customer service for a problem, or any other interaction you have with the company or brand after the sale is made.

Many companies spend a lot of money and expend tremendous effort to get you in the door or to their website. They entice you with marketing messages, advertising, and anything else that could tip the scale to move a customer from thinking about buying to actually making the purchase.

Marketing messages and advertising campaigns create credibility. A salesperson’s promises make you feel good about doing business with them and their company. And if all goes well, eventually, a sale is made.

Some refer to this moment as “closing the deal.” I always joke about that phrase. “Closing the deal” signifies an ending, but in reality, it’s the beginning of the financial relationship. To put it in dating terms, everything else was courting the customer. Once the customer decides to buy, it’s like you proposed to them, and they said, “Yes.” And when the sale is finally made, it’s like getting married. And that is far from the end. It’s actually the beginning.

Once you can officially call someone a customer (versus a prospect), it’s time to keep them. In other words, you want to make the relationship last.

According to the American Psychological Association, in 2022, approximately 40-50% of first marriages end in divorce. And the No. 1 reason for divorce is simple: a lack of commitment. So, my question to a business is, “What percentage of your customers churn out after the first sale?” In other words, what’s the divorce rate of your customers?

Once the sale is made, there is the honeymoon phase, in which the customer is excited about the purchase, and you let the customer know how excited you are about doing business with them. How long does that last? Ideally, the honeymoon phase should never end. While the excitement compared to the first time doing business may ebb and flow, the customer should always feel appreciated and, in marital terms, loved.

So what do you do to court your customers and, more importantly, keep your customers in the honeymoon phase? You don’t need to answer me. Spend time with your team and discuss what you do after the sale is made to keep your clients from divorcing you and starting a new relationship with a competitor.

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Five Key Findings – 2023 State of CX Report

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Unlock The Secrets To Exceptional Customer Service

Five Key Findings - 2023 State of CX Report

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Are you looking for a competitive advantage to keep your customers coming back? I have the answer. The 2023 Achieving Customer Amazement (ACA) study, sponsored by Five9, uncovers the current state of customer service and customer experience (CX). This customer service and CX research is vital to anyone in any industry (B2B or B2C) who has customers—and that’s everyone!

Each year we survey more than 1,000 consumers about what they like, dislike, want and more to find out what it takes to get customers to come back. Regardless of the type of business or industry you are in, your customers will compare the experiences they have with you to the best customer experience they have had with any type of business—not just your direct competitors. In other words, customers are smarter and expect more because of the “rock star” companies that are setting a higher benchmark.

To kick off the new report, I have compiled a list of five of the most important findings:

1. Bulletproof Yourself From Your Competition

Okay, maybe you can’t completely bulletproof yourself from competitors, but creating a good service experience can give you an amazing competitive advantage. Seventy-six percent of the more than 1,000 American consumers we surveyed are willing to go out of their way to do business with a company that provides better customer service. Furthermore, a great service experience makes prices less relevant. We asked, “Is customer service more important than price?” Almost half (48%) said, “Yes!”

2. The Top Three Most Important Things When It Comes to Customer Service

This may seem like common sense, but unfortunately, it’s not as common as it should be. What customers want is simple. The top three “customer wants” are: (1) Employees who are helpful; (2) Being able to reach the right person in customer support; and (3) Knowledgeable employees.

3. The Top Three Reasons a Customer Will Leave You

Once again, you will probably say, “That’s common sense.” If so, why do so many companies fail on these three? They are: 1. Rudeness; 2. Inconsistent information; and 3. The inability to connect with someone from customer support. What’s interesting about “rudeness” being the top reason a customer leaves is that back in the 1980s—40 years ago—the White House commissioned a study with the Technical Assistance Research Program (TARP) which found that the top reason a customer would leave to do business elsewhere was rudeness or apathy. Basically, an employee being impolite or indifferent toward the customer. And here we are, decades later, and nothing has changed.

4. If You Want Your Customers to Trust You More, Deliver a Great Customer Service Experience

There is an old saying that people like to do business with people (and brands and companies) they know, like and trust. It’s easy to get people to know and like you, but it’s much more difficult to earn their trust. When you do, customers come back. You can’t have loyalty without trust. Here’s the finding: 82% of customers say great service increases their trust in a company.

5. Customers Love a Convenient, Low/No Friction Experience

You can’t ignore the impact of a convenient experience. Eighty-eight percent said convenience was important when deciding where they wanted to do business. Fifty-three percent would pay more if they knew they would receive a more convenient experience, and 69% say a convenient experience alone will make them want to come back. All things being equal, it’s the company that is easier to do business with that will win over its customers.

Conclusion

Of course, there are many more stats, facts and findings in this report, but these should give you an idea of just how important customer service can be to your organization. The findings will help you make better customer-focused decisions and make a case for investment in new technologies and customer service training to unlock the competitive advantage you’ve been looking for.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Breaking Rules to Delight Customers

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Breaking Rules to Delight Customers

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

There is a massive benefit to empowering employees to “break the rules” for their customers. And what I mean by “breaking the rules” is to consider what you can do for a customer outside of the norm that doesn’t cost the company money, isn’t illegal or immoral, and won’t hurt “business as usual.” In reality, employees aren’t breaking any rules. They are finding ways to take care of the customer while not breaking the “rules” mentioned above.

One of the concepts I cover in my customer service keynote speech is the idea of the “line in the sand.” Many companies train their employees in what they can’t do for customers. They have “rules” that have little or no flexibility. While it’s essential for employees to be trained on what they shouldn’t do, it may be more important to train them on what they can do. By that, I mean how far employees are allowed to go before they have to say, “No.”

I call this The Line in the Sand concept. It is important to draw that line, which is the boundary that employees aren’t allowed to cross, but at the same time, teach them what they can do to get right up to the line.

For example, I have a client in the luxury automobile market. This client has a team that travels to auto dealerships to help dealers with demanding customers they can’t seem to please. Members of this team believe in the power of saying “Yes” instead of “No.” They have the authority to refund the entire price of the car, even if it’s 10 years old. That’s their line in the sand – their last resort. They can get right up to it but can’t go past it. And by the way, they have never made it to that last resort. They have always found other ways to make discontented customers happy without getting to that line.

The key is training, but it isn’t just imparted in one session to tell employees what to do – or not do. It’s about continuously sharing stories of what other employees are doing to meet customers’ needs and demands, all without crossing the line in the sand. When an employee does something right, congratulate them and share the example with others. And if they do something wrong, or in other words, if they cross the line, turn it into a learning opportunity that is also shared with others. Routinely sharing examples helps employees recognize their opportunities to delight their customers.

Some examples of “breaking the rules” might be honoring a warranty that expired a month ago – or stretching a 14-day return policy to the 15th or 16th day. Some retail organizations, like Nordstrom, have an easy, no-questions-asked return policy. Even though the employees at Nordstrom aren’t breaking the rules, the customer feels as if they are going above and beyond. That’s all this really is. Making customers feel like you are on their side, willing to be flexible and giving them reasons to say, “I’ll be back!”

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Customers Have Bad Days Too

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Customers Have Bad Days Too

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

You’ve probably experienced this. No matter how hard you try to please some customers, they aren’t happy. It’s frustrating, but at the same time, it’s reality.

And speaking of reality, no matter how good you are at creating an amazing customer experience, it is the customer’s perception that counts. Their perception is their reality.

I once went to an amazing restaurant – at least, I was told it was amazing. That evening, I had a bad cold. The people I was with raved about the food, however, I didn’t have the same experience. It had nothing to do with the food. It had to do with how I was feeling.

When customers aren’t responding to the excellent service you’re providing the way you want them to, you might refer to them as “difficult” customers. The question to ask is, “What’s making them difficult?” Maybe they have a legitimate gripe. Maybe they have unreasonable expectations. Or maybe, as in my example of the restaurant, they aren’t feeling well.

I was reading a LinkedIn post from Valerie Choniuk, the national director of patient experience at Agilon Health, who described exactly what I’m referring to. A hospital may be known for its compassionate treatment and commitment to taking care of its patients, but if patients are in great pain, they may not be able to “enjoy” the experience you provide. That patient may be the nicest person in the world, but because of the pain, may become a difficult customer. To Choniuk’s point, “Patients are not purposely GIVING us a hard time. They are HAVING a hard time.”

Sure, some people are chronic curmudgeons. You may never be able to make them happy. Accept it. Other customers are very nice people just having a bad day. You must accept that, too. Continue to do your best, regardless. If you can turn the mood of a person having a bad day into something better, you can declare victory. But don’t stress over it if you can’t.

Not every experience you create for your customers will be exceptional, no matter how hard you try. But the point is that you try. Nobody is perfect, and things can go wrong. That’s okay. It’s how you fix it that makes the difference. And then there are days when it seems things did go well, but you still can’t make that customer happy, no matter how hard you try. It’s like a professional sports team that played a great game but lost. It’s going to happen. It’s not your fault. If you can sleep at night knowing you did your best, you should sleep well.

So do your best, and remember, sometimes customers are just having a bad day!

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Eliminating 100% of Live Customer Service is a Mistake!

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Eliminating 100% of Live Customer Service is a Mistake!

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

You need help. You call customer support. Nobody’s home!

Actually, somebody is there. They just aren’t taking support calls. Someone at home—as in a corporate office—has decided to eliminate live, human-to-human customer support, pushing the customer to a digital option such as a chatbot, frequently asked questions page, etc.

My opinion is that this could happen in the distant future, but I can’t imagine that in the next few years there will be 100% digital and AI automated customer support. And here’s why. If all you are is an automated company, you have no way to emotionally connect with your customers. That means your customers have only one way to compare you to direct competition that sells exactly what you do, and that is price.

At that point, the only way to keep your customer is to always have the lowest price, and that is typically not a viable long-term strategy.

Recently I wrote about Frontier Airlines’ decision to drop traditional live phone support, and the reviews have not been good. That said, I give them credit for a bold move that may be just a little ahead of its time—and time will tell. Maybe the reactions are from initial shock. Perhaps there have been glitches that can be fixed for a smoother experience in the near future. We’ll know in six months. If the current reactions continue, at best, some changes will be made, provided the airline wants to stay in business.

I had a chance to interview Paulo Almeida, the CEO of Clientscape, on Amazing Business Radio. We talked about the possibility of AI and automation taking over the contact center. We briefly discussed Frontier Airlines, but more importantly, Almeida articulated the perfect answer to my question:

How do you feel about complete elimination of a human-to-human customer support department?

Almeida responded, “If you’re working in an industry that chooses to automate everything, you can potentially become a commodity. If that is what a company wants to do, the only difference from one company to the next will be what they charge. If that’s the only way a customer makes a decision, the company will go bankrupt!”

“It is not a sustainable financial model. It’s the human factor that makes the difference. It’s about giving the customer the care they deserve. That’s a way to differentiate. For example, Apple may make some of the best products, but they also have some of the best support. If their reputation for support goes away, they will no longer be perceived as having the best product. They will also lose pricing power. When that disappears, they could be on the path to failure. They will lose customers, and the cost to get them back will be extravagant.”

Almeida used a powerful word to summarize a decision to eliminate a human connection, and that word is bankrupt. I can buy into this for some companies, but there will always be exceptions.

People have said, “What about Amazon?!” Yes, Amazon is a digital company, and it has great digital customer support. However, if you need to talk to someone, you can. It’s a last resort, but when you do so, it’s typically a very pleasant experience. Amazon knows how far it can go with automation before it has to say, “It’s time to talk to one of our reps.”

Many products and services are becoming automated. To Almeida’s point, 100% automation is a mistake. Without a human-to-human relationship, how can you create an emotional connection? How can you differentiate yourself from other automated companies? You can’t. You’re a commodity.

More automation and AI technology are in our future. It shouldn’t surprise you that at some point in time planes will be flown by computers, not pilots. We’re already seeing self-driving trucks moving across the country. Companies like Tesla, Google and others are investing tens of billions into autonomous self-driving vehicles (even if they are still a long way from success). Amazon and Walmart are betting on alternative delivery methods that include drones and robots. And yes, some customer service functions are being handled by automation and artificial intelligence (AI).

We can’t fight progress. I love seeing products and services get better through automation. But I’m concerned about the companies and brands that are distancing themselves from their customers by not letting them connect with customer support people, who are also brand ambassadors for the company.

If the leadership of a company thinks the customer support agents’ only role is to fix a problem, then shame on them. Your agents can do much more. If they handle a call well, they can confirm that the customer made the right decision to do business with you and give them the confidence to do even more business. So, at least for now, don’t miss that opportunity. Don’t make the mistake of 100% elimination of live customer support.

Image Credit: Pixabay

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

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