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

Revolutionizing Customer Service

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Brian Higgins On Driving Verizon’s Customer Experience Vision

Revolutionizing Customer Service - Brian Higgins On Driving Verizon's CX Vision

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

If you have the best product in the world, that’s nice, but it’s not enough. You need a strong customer experience to go with it.

If you have the best service in the world, that’s nice, but it’s not enough. You need a strong product to go with it.

And one other thing. You also need customers! Without them, it doesn’t matter if you have the best product and the best service; you will eventually go out of business.

That’s why I’m excited about this week’s article. I had the opportunity to have an Amazing Business Radio interview with Brian Higgins, the chief customer experience officer at Verizon Consumer. After a career of 20-plus years working for one of the most recognized brands in the world, he has a lot to share about what it takes to get customers to say, “I’ll be back.”

Verizon is one of the most recognizable brands on the planet. A Fortune 50 company, it has more than 100,000 employees, a global presence serving more than 150 countries, more than $130 billion in annual revenue and a market cap of more than $168 billion.

Higgins made it clear that in addition to a premium network and product offerings, there needs to be a focus on customer experience with three primary objectives: addressing pain points, enhancing digital experiences and highlighting signature experiences exclusive to Verizon customers/members. They want to be easy to do business with and to use Customer Experience (CX) to capture market share and retain customers. What follows is a summary of Higgins’ most important points in our interview, followed by my commentary:

  1. Who Reports to Whom?: With Verizon’s emphasis on CX, one of the first questions I asked Higgins was about the company’s structure. Does CX report to marketing? Is CX over sales and marketing? Different companies put an emphasis on marketing, sales or experience. Often, one reports to the other. At Verizon, sales, revenue and experience work together. Higgins says, “We work in partnership with each other. You can’t build an experience if you don’t have the sales, revenue and customer care teams all on board.” The chief sales officer, chief revenue officer and chief experience officer “sit next to each other.”
  2. Membership: In our conversation, Higgins referred to Verizon’s customers as customers, members and subscribers. I asked which he preferred, and he quickly responded, “I would refer to them as members.” The membership is diverse, but the goal is to create a consistent and positive experience regardless of how individuals interact with the company. He sees the relationship with members as a partnership that is an intricate part of their lives. Most people check their phone the moment they wake up, throughout the day, and often, it’s one of the last things they check before going to bed. Verizon is a part of its members’ lives, and that’s an opportunity that cannot be mismanaged or abused.
  3. Employees Must Be Happy Too: More companies are recognizing that their CX must also include EX (employee experience). Employees must have the tools they need. This is an emphasis in his organization. Simplifying the employee experience with better tools and policies is the key to elevating the customer’s experience. Higgins shared the perfect description of why employee experience is paramount to the success of a business: “If employees aren’t happy and don’t feel they have the policies and tools they need that are right to engage with customers, you’re not going to get the experience right.”
  4. Focus on Little Pain Points: One of the priorities Higgins focuses on is what he refers to as “small cracks in the experience.” Seventy-five percent of the calls coming in to customer care are for small problems or questions, such as a promo code that didn’t work or an issue with a bill. His team continuously analyzes all customer journeys and works to fix them when needed. This helps to minimize recurring issues, thereby reducing customer support calls and the time employees spend fixing the same issue.
  5. The Digital Experience: Customers are starting to get comfortable with—and sometimes prefer—digital experiences. Making these experiences seamless and user-friendly increases overall customer satisfaction. More and more, they are using digital platforms to help with the “small cracks in the experience.” Employees also get an AI-infused digital experience. Higgins said Verizon uses AI to analyze customer conversations and provide real-time answers and solutions to employees, demonstrating how AI can support both employees and customers.
  6. Amplifying the Power of One Interaction: The final piece of wisdom Higgins shared was about recognizing how important a single interaction can be. Most customers don’t call very often. They may call once every three years, so each interaction needs to be treated like it’s a special moment—a unique opportunity to leave a lasting positive impression, one that leaves no doubt the customer made the right decision to do business with Verizon. Higgins believes in treating the customer like a relative visiting your home for a holiday. He closed by saying, “You’d be amazed how getting that one interaction with a customer right versus anything less than right can have a huge impact on the brand.”

Higgins’ vision for Verizon is not just about maintaining a superior network. It’s about creating an unparalleled customer experience that resonates with every interaction. As Verizon continues integrating advanced AI technologies and streamlining its processes, the focus continues to be on personalizing and enhancing every customer touchpoint, creating an experience that fosters high customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Image Credits: Pexels

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

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The Cost of Surprising Customers

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The Cost of Surprising Customers

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Surprising customers with something they weren’t expecting doesn’t have to be expensive. In many cases, it can be very inexpensive or even free.

For example, surprising a couple with a cake and candle when they are celebrating at a restaurant costs a tiny fraction of the meal but greatly impacts the evening.

For years, I’ve shared the story of a cab driver who surprised his customers with a newspaper, a bottle of water and a side trip to see a famous local landmark. That side trip cost the driver nothing but a few minutes of time. And the newspaper and water cost him far less than the extra tip he received for adding these surprises to the experience.

Even though I have covered this concept before, it’s worth resurrecting. What inspired me to do so was an article by Chip Bell, my friend and fellow customer service expert, who recently wrote a Forbes article titled The Magic of Serving with Radical Generosity. His main example of this happened at the Marriott Long Wharf Hotel in Boston. He checked in late for a one-night stay. The front desk clerk upgraded him to one of the grandest rooms in the hotel.

The front desk clerk recognized Chip as a loyal Marriott Bonvoy member and knew the surprise of upgrading him to the nicer room wouldn’t cost the hotel any more than the regular room he was booked in. The result was a deepened sense of loyalty and sharing the story with others—in this case, thousands of readers of Chip’s Forbes article. The goodwill and word-of-mouth marketing the hotel received was far more than the upgrade cost, which was virtually nothing.

Surprising Customers Cartoon by Shep Hyken

But the surprise is nothing if there isn’t a supporting cast, as in the employees who make what Chip calls Radical Generosity come to life. The cast member’s role is to do more than just surprise the customer—it is to create a positive experience that transcends the surprise.

In my restaurant example, if all the server did was set a slice of cake in front of the guests and begrudgingly say, “Happy anniversary,” the experience would be tainted by the lack of enthusiasm for the moment. The guest might say, “That was nice, but …” It takes more than one positive moment to make the experience.

If you like the idea of surprising a customer, share these examples at your next team meeting. Then, kick off a discussion that starts with this question: What’s our version of a hotel’s room upgrade or a surprise slice of cake?

Image Credits: Pexels

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Don’t Bring a Can of Gasoline to a Fire

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Crisis Management

Don’t Bring A Can Of Gasoline To A Fire

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

This is a departure from my usual customer service and customer experience (CX) articles. While it does tie in to service and CX, it is really about leadership. In customer service and CX, resolving a complaint or crisis means resolving the issue to the customer’s satisfaction, ideally in a way that makes the customer say, “I’ll be back.” Sometimes, customers’ requests and expectations can cause frustration, but let’s put it into perspective.

Let’s say that your customer isn’t an individual or a company that calls you with a request, question or problem. Instead, that customer is a branch of the military, such as the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines or Coast Guard. Or perhaps, that customer is an entire country.

I recently had the privilege of visiting Scott Air Force Base and attending a lecture by Chief Master Sergeant Brian P. Kruzelnick, the command senior leader for the U.S. Transportation Command and principal advisor to the combatant commander and senior staff on matters concerning joint force integration, readiness, growth and utilization of the military workforce.

Chief Kruzelnick, or BK as he likes to be called, shared leadership lessons with an audience of 20 successful business owners. At the beginning of his presentation, he referred to all the people he served as customers. That caught my attention. In a way, the military is like a monopoly. If you want to “call in the troops,” you don’t shop around to determine which “brand” you want to work with, and you don’t get competitive pricing. You just get what you get.

But BK and his team take incredible pride in the work they do. They function like a group of senior leaders at a large, successful company. So, I asked, “BK, can I interview you for Amazing Business Radio and a Forbes article?” Fortunately for us all, he said, “Yes,” and the result is a number of lessons that all leaders can adopt for customer service, especially when it comes to crisis management.

BK started as if he were narrating a story: “It was 17 days in August. …” He was referring to the evacuation in Afghanistan in 2021. “We evacuated 123,334 men, women and children using 800 military aircraft. They went across nine countries and eight time zones. Unfortunately, 13 lives were lost, each one an American hero. We also had 20 babies born on those aircraft as we were evacuating them out.”

Consider the math. How many people could each plane transport? The larger C-17 planes are mainly used for cargo. They have the ability to move people, and with seats installed, usually about 120 passengers. But at one point, they put 823 people on a single aircraft. The engineers and experts knew they could do it. They actually had the passengers sat in the cargo hold and had a strap across their lap for safety. In a time of crisis, they successfully executed the largest evacuation the U.S. ever attempted.

But there was more. At the same time, there was a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti. There were wildfires in California that burned 1 million acres. A Category 4 hurricane blew through Louisiana. And if that wasn’t enough, there were safety inspections of the military’s larger aircraft that had to be completed across the entire fleet for a possible safety issue. BK proudly said, “And we got it all accomplished in 17 days in August. Wow!”

I joked about how many flight attendants it takes for 823 passengers. BK replied, “We don’t have flight attendants on C-17’s, but we have military personnel who are there to take care of business.” He shared a story about a young boy who was in the cargo hold and was laying on the floor next to his mother. He was cold and scared. One of the crew members took off his military jacket and wrapped it around the young boy, and then walked away to continue his job. Another crew member saw this and caught the moment with a photo.

BK said, “I think that defined the whole movement of what we did. Aside from everything else you hear about, that thing boiled down to humanity. Our ability to care for someone who needed to be cared for. That one picture epitomized that 17-day operation.”

In this incredible military operation, boundaries were pushed. Protocols were modified to suit the situation. The question was, how do you push or break a system that has never been stretched so far, and possibly change precedents for the future?

There is much to learn about managing a crisis from this incredible story. Let’s wrap up with BK’s six crisis management and leadership lessons:

1. Clarity in Times of Crisis: In times of crisis, there must be a clear objective that people can rally around. The goal is clarity. Everyone must understand what the commanding officer—or in the world of businesses, a leader or manager—wants and expects.

2. Extensive Training: People have to be trained to a level that makes them successful. On-the-job training is not possible in crisis situations. BK refers to this as Adventure Training. Nobody should be put into a position of questioning if something is going to work. On the contrary, there must be a level of comfort when you’re feeling the pressure of a crisis, and that comes from a foundation of strong training.

3. Prepare for the Worst: BK says, “I don’t think big companies think about their worst day. Most are building themselves to be at the best, optimal, all the time. But how many times do we think about our worst moments and how we can act and react to ensure we can still execute, perform and succeed? In the military, we run exercises all the time to make sure we can respond regardless of the situation. … There’s enough foundational training that we can operate and execute when called upon.”

4. Empowerment on Steroids: You must feel trusted enough to make decisions without fear of repercussions. BK said, “People must have the faith and trust of the organization resting on their shoulders that if they pushed the limits, which they knew they could do and still be safe, that no one would come down and try to hammer them negatively for what they did because there was trust in their expertise.”

5. Faith, Hope and Love: Let’s break these down one at a time:

  • Faith — As a leader, you must have faith in your organization, the processes, the people executing and yourself.
  • Hope — You must have hope. BK says, “Hope is critically important, because if you have hope, everybody that follows you will have hope because they’re looking to you as the leader.” I challenged that with the old saying, “Hope is not a strategy.” His quick response was, “Hopelessness is not a strategy either, so I would take hope.”
  • Love — Have passion for what you do and compassion for the people you do it with.

6. Bring Harmony to Chaos: As we came to the end of the interview, I asked for one final piece of crisis leadership advice. BK quickly responded, “Bring harmony to chaos. Don’t bring a can of gasoline to the fire!”

Image Credits: Pixabay

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.

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Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience with AI

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Delivering Real Value the Key

Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience with AI

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Whenever I get the chance to interview the CEO of a major CX company, I jump at the chance. I recently conducted a second interview with Alan Masarek, the CEO of Avaya, a company focused on creating customer experience solutions for large enterprises.

My first interview covered an amazing turnaround that Masarek orchestrated in his first year at Avaya, taking the company through Chapter 11 and coming out strong. Masarek admits that even with his extensive financial background, he’s always been a product person, and it’s the combination of the two mindsets that makes him the perfect leader for Avaya.

In our discussion, he shared his view on AI and how it must deliver value in the contact center. What follows is a summary of the main points of our interview, followed by my commentary.

Why Customer Service and CX Are Important: Thanks to the internet, it’s harder for brands to differentiate themselves. Within minutes, a customer can compare prices, check availability, find a company that can deliver the product within a day or two, or find comparable products from other retailers, vendors and manufacturers. Furthermore, while the purchasing experience needs to be positive, it’s what happens beyond the purchase that becomes most important. Masarek says, “Brands are now trying to differentiate based upon the experience they provide. So any tool that can help the brand achieve this is the winner.”

Customer Service Is Rooted in Communications: Twenty years ago, the primary way to communicate with a company was on the phone. While we still do that, the world has evolved to what is referred to as omni-channel, which includes voice, chat, email, brand apps, social media and more. As we move from the phone to alternative channels of communication, companies and brands must find ways to bring them all together to create a seamless journey for the customer.

Organizations Want to Minimize Voice: According to Masarek, companies want to move away from traditional voice communication, which is a human on the phone. That “one-to-one” is very expensive. With digital solutions, you have one-to-many. Masarek says, “It’s asynchronous. And the beauty is you can introduce AI utilities into the customer experience, which creates greater efficiency. You’re solving so many things either digitally or deflecting it altogether via the chatbot, the voice bot or what have you.”

AI Will Not Eliminate Jobs: Masarek says, “There’s a bull and a bear case for an employment point of view relative to AI. Will it be a destroyer of jobs, a bear case, or will it grow jobs, the bull case?” He shared an example that perfectly describes the situation we’re in today. In the 1960s, Barclay’s Bank introduced the ATM. Everyone thought it would be the end of tellers working at banks. That never happened. What did happen is that tellers took on a more important role, going beyond just cashing checks or depositing money. It’s the same in the customer service world. AI technologies will take care of simple tasks, freeing customer service agents to help with more complicated issues. (For more on how AI will not eliminate jobs, read this Forbes article from September 2023.)

The Employee Experience Drives the Customer Experience: AI is not just about supporting the customer. It can also support the agent. When the agent is talking to a customer, generative AI technology can listen in the background, search through a company’s knowledge base and feed the agent information in real time. Masarek said, “Think about what a pleasant experience that is for both the agent and the customer!”

Innovation Without Disruption: A company may invest in a better customer experience, but sometimes, that causes stress to the organization. Masarek is proud of Avaya’s value proposition, which is to add innovation without disruption. This means there’s a seamless integration versus total replacement of existing systems and processes. Regarding the upgrade, Masarek says, “The last thing you want is to rip it all out.”

The Customer-In Approach: As we wrapped up our interview, I asked Masarek for one final nugget of wisdom. He shared his Customer-In approach. Not that long ago, you could compete on product, price and availability. Today, that’s table stakes. What separates one brand from another is the experience. Masarek summarized this point by saying, “You have to set your North Star on as few things as possible. Focus wins. And so, if you’re always thinking Customer First and all your decisions are rooted in that concept, your business will be successful. At the end of the day, brands win on how they make the customer feel. It’s no longer just about product, price and availability.”

Image Credits: Pixabay

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.

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The Role of Respect in Customer Service

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The Role of Respect in Customer Service

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Some of you will not recognize the name Rodney Dangerfield, who was one of the funniest comedians of his time, if not all time. He passed away in 2004. (For those who aren’t familiar with Dangerfield, go to YouTube and search for his name, but only if you want to smile and laugh. And just a warning, some of his comedy club material is R-rated.)

Dangerfield had a signature line: I don’t get no respect. For example, “I don’t get no respect …

… When I was a kid, I played hide-and-seek. They wouldn’t even look for me.

… When I was a kid, my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.

… When I was a kid, I was so ugly my parents had to hang a pork chop around my neck to get the dog to play with me.”

That was fun, but it’s time to get serious. I was recently asked about the Pillars of Customer Service. Specifically, I was asked what I thought was the most important pillar.

Respect Cartoon from Shep Hyken

First, there are many “Pillars” of customer service, and if you do a little research, you’ll find articles by experts and examples from companies’ vision statements. As I thought of many of these, one immediately came to mind as an overarching important pillar:

“Respect the Customer.”

It may seem obvious that we should respect our customers. After all, without them, we don’t have a business. So, with that in mind, here are three of my favorite stats and findings about customer respect from my annual customer service research:

  • 61% of customers don’t think companies or brands respect their time! Ouch! This is because customers don’t like to wait on hold for long periods of time, or anything else that seems like a waste of their precious time. And speaking of making customers wait on hold …
  • 51% of customers are likely or very likely to switch companies or leave a brand because they had to wait too long on hold. It’s impossible to never make a customer hold. And, the concept of “too long” is different from one customer to the next. However, to mitigate the appearance of disrespect, at least let your customers know how long they will have to wait, and even better, give them the option of being called back.
  • 60% of customers are likely or very likely to switch companies or leave a brand because the company didn’t respond fast enough. This goes back to respecting your customers’ time. How long do they have to wait for a response?

While these findings focus on respecting the customer’s time, there are many other areas and opportunities to show respect to your customers. So, sit down with your team and discuss the answer to this simple question: Do you show your customers respect?

Image Credits: Pexels, Shep Hyken

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Five Keys to Maintaining Your Customer Experience

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Five Keys to Maintaining Your Customer Experience

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

I was talking to a friend the other day. He purchased an expensive new car just eight months ago. Unfortunately, the car turned out to be a “lemon,” and he has taken it back to the dealer multiple times for various problems. The car has spent more time at the repair center than in his garage. If it were me, I’d ask the dealer to replace the car. Apparently, he has more patience than I do and was giving the dealer another chance to fix the car. Regardless, it made me think that what looks good on the outside may not be so good on the inside.

Unfortunately, there are businesses that fall into the same category as my friend’s automobile. They look good on the outside, with amazing marketing and advertising, a beautiful website, a beautiful building, etc., but when it comes to taking care of the customer, they fail.

This made me think further about how cars are maintained, and it’s not much different from how you would want to run your business. Consider these five customer experience (CX) maintenance ideas:

1. Reliability: First, you want to build a car that works. Assuming you have a good product, you want to create processes that are customer- and employee-friendly. The experience must, at a minimum, meet your customers’ expectations. That creates confidence and increases overall customer satisfaction.

2. Routine Maintenance: You want to keep your car properly maintained with routine maintenance. In the customer service world, we could consider this to be ongoing training that keeps your employees sharp with the latest tools and technology to help provide the best possible support and experience.

3. Alignment: We want to keep the car in alignment. A few years ago, I wrote about focusing on employees first. My weekly cartoon included the caption, “If an employee’s experience (EX) isn’t at least as good as the customer’s, the customer’s experience can be shaky, and the entire company can suffer.” In other words, there needs to be alignment between the CX and the EX.

Customer Experience Maintenance Cartoon from Shep Hyken

4. Feedback: When we take our car to a dealer or repair center, a mechanic hooks a computer up to the car to perform a “diagnostic check.” The computer can deliver feedback on many issues, from the electronics to how soon the brakes need to be replaced. In the business world, this is akin to the feedback your customers give you. You must have a system that collects feedback and gives you a chance to repair and maintain the experience so it continues to meet, if not exceed, your customer’s expectations.

5. Update: Most cars don’t last forever. At some point, you need to replace them. New cars offer an updated look in addition to updates under the hood, which could include more efficient engines, the latest technology, and more. Your business is the same. Product improvements, new technology, new processes, and more can give your customers a fresh experience.

Just like maintaining a car, fine-tuning your customer service and CX ensures your business runs smoothly, remains competitive, and gets your customers to say, “I’ll be back!”

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons, Shep Hyken

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Creating an Unforgettable Customer Service Experience

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Creating an Unforgettable Customer Service Experience

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

There are two reasons your customer service is unforgettable: either it’s really good or it’s really bad.

Welcome to modern-day customer service, where, according to our annual customer service research (sponsored by RingCentral), 43% of customers would rather clean a toilet than call customer support.

Customers don’t want to call customer support. Perhaps something like this has happened to you. You make the call, wait on hold for an unreasonable amount of time, tell your story to a customer support rep who doesn’t have the expertise needed and transfers you to someone else, and in the process, accidentally disconnects you (UGH!), and when you call back, after another unreasonable hold time, you end up repeating your question to someone worse than the last rep. I can continue, but you get the idea. This is what customers fear will happen on their next call because, unfortunately, it’s happened to them too many times.

Of course, it’s not always like this. But you can’t ignore that customers’ expectations are higher than ever, which raises the bar for customer support. They have experienced what great service looks like from customer-focused organizations. They like it and become frustrated when they don’t get it from other companies.

I’m fortunate to be part of the board of advisors for CCW (Contact Center Week), the largest contact center organization in the world. The members of the board are the who’s who of customer experience (CX) leaders from recognizable brands you’ve done business with. The board’s conversations center around creating the best experience for customers. AI and other technologies are driving a better experience, but only for those companies willing to invest in them. The costs have come down, making it affordable for almost any size organization.

Many industries are improving, yet even with the best companies, there is always room for improvement. A key is to understand how customers think. For our research, we surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. consumers to understand what they think of today’s customer service and CX, including specific questions about their experiences with contact centers.

First, some general findings that should cause concern:

  • In 2024, 91% of U.S. consumers think companies should put more emphasis on customer service than they have in the past.
  • In the past year, 43% of customers say they have had more bad customer service experiences than in previous years.
  • When calling customer support, 61% of customers feel that the company does not value their time.

Let’s drill down where customer service seems to matter most: the contact center. To begin, there is a shift to self-service support, often fueled by AI. With all the hype around AI and customer service, you think it would be better than it is, but it’s not, and for the simple reason that not all companies and brands have invested in newer technology. For those that have, they are reaping the benefits of great ratings. And some customers love self-service so much they won’t do business with a company that doesn’t offer it. We asked about self-service versus making a phone call to a company for support and found that:

  • A phone call is still the No. 1 communication channel. Seventy percent of customers prefer to call a company to solve a problem versus through a digital self-service experience.
  • Some companies have chosen to eliminate the phone, only offering self-service solutions. There’s a risk to this, as 67% of customers would not feel comfortable doing business with a company that doesn’t offer live support.
  • However, there is a small group of customers, 26%, who have stopped doing business with a company because self-service options weren’t offered. Many of these customers are younger Gen-Z and Millennials.
  • Even if you have older customers, don’t let these numbers cause you to abandon self-service support. Over half (60%) of customers always try a company’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on its website or other digital self-service options before calling for help. Typically, a customer goes to the company’s website to get the phone number. If there is an obvious way for them to try to get their question answered or problem resolved, a majority of customers will give it a try.

And once the customer does connect with a customer support agent, if the experience starts to “go south,” the result is an angry customer who won’t come back. The reasons are as follows:

  • 81% of customers said rudeness or apathy would likely cause them to switch companies or leave a brand.
  • 72% said being transferred to different people would cause them to not come back.
  • 68% said having to repeat the same story again and again would cause them to leave.
  • 51% said waiting on hold for too long would give them a reason to move on.

This sounds like the scenario toward the top of the article. Sometimes, the agent doesn’t even need to connect with a customer to make them become upset. Eight out of 10 U.S. consumers (79%) have called customer support, gotten an automated menu system, repeatedly yelled “Agent” or “Representative” into the phone and eventually hung up out of frustration.

But it’s not all gloom and doom for the customer service and the contact center world. Even though customers are not always happy to contact customer support, when it’s good they come back, tell their friends and write positive reviews. So, let’s close with some of the more positive findings:

  • 85% of customers are willing to go out of their way to do business with a company that delivers a better service experience.
  • 51% will pay more, indicating that a great service experience makes the price less relevant.
  • Finally, the top three reasons customers come back are helpful, knowledgeable and friendly employees. (That’s all it takes? How hard is that?)

Well, although it sounds simple it’s not necessarily easy or easy to find. But now that you know the secret, it’s time to set some goals. I’ll add another word to those three for a truly winning combination: consistency. If your customer service reps are consistently helpful, knowledgeable and friendly, you will be unbeatable!

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons, Shep Hyken

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

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Aligning Leadership Goals with Customer Service Excellence

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Aligning Leadership Goals with Customer Service Excellence

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

My friend Sterling Hawkins just wrote a great article about the tension between the leadership of a company and the salesforce. Hawkins reports the president of a Fortune 500 company told him, “Tension between the salesforce and leadership is normal. One is always bargaining with the other for more. The sales team wants more time and budget, and the leadership wants more sales.”

That made me think of the tension that is sometimes created between leadership and the customer service team. In the end, it’s mostly because of unrealistic expectations.

Customer Service Goals Cartoon

It reminds me of an episode of Amazing Business Radio when I interviewed Bill Price, Amazon’s first VP of global customer service, who shared founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’s philosophy about customer service, which was that the experience should be so frictionless that customers wouldn’t need support.

Obviously, a retailer the size of Amazon not needing customer support is unrealistic, but the goal is lofty. Bezos recognized the need for a customer support department and needed someone to run it. In the job interview, Bezos asked Price, “What’s your definition of customer service?” Price answered, “The best service is no service,” and it was apparently the right answer. Price got the job.

In customer service and CX, it’s impossible to be perfect, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Still, you must have reasonable expectations. You can’t expect there to never be a problem. You can’t expect a perfect NPS or customer satisfaction rating. But what you can do is create goals, expectations and KPIs that positively impact forward progress.

Here’s another – more generic – example. There are 32 teams in the National Hockey League, and only one will win the Stanley Cup. At the beginning of the season, it’s reasonable for a team’s leadership to say to the players, “Let’s try to win the Stanley Cup!” That’s probably what most teams strive for. What the teams’ leadership doesn’t say is, “You must win every game.”

Creating unrealistic goals and objectives is demotivating. In CX (and just about every other part of a company), leaders should meet with their teams to define success, create realistic goals, include some “stretch goals,” and push their people to continuously improve and be more successful. The right conversations lead to a unified organization headed toward the same goal.

So, what’s a reasonable goal for your customer service teams? Is it higher customer satisfaction scores, higher percentages of first-call resolution, shorter hold times, or something else? Whatever it is, everyone must get in sync and agree on a plan. Then, as a unified team, execute it with a commitment to always doing their best and improving.

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons, Shep Hyken

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The Key Customer Service Pillar

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The Key Customer Service Pillar

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Megan Jones of Call Centre Helper recently interviewed me about the “Pillars of Customer Service.” In preparation, I did a Google search and asked, “What are the pillars of customer service?”

There are many correct answers. In other words, there are no definitive answers. Some of the information and articles included words and phrases such as:

  1. Personalization
  2. Responsiveness
  3. Integrity
  4. Knowledge
  5. Empathy
  6. Patience
  7. Problem-solving skills
  8. Communication
  9. People first

There were many others as well, but one I didn’t see in any of the Google responses was respect. I’m sure some companies have incorporated the word respect into their Pillars of Customer Service; however, the almighty and powerful Google didn’t mention them. I even asked my close friend, ChatGPT, and it didn’t come up with the word respect either. I responded, “I’m surprised none of my Google searches or my query with you didn’t mention the word respect. Maybe I’m on to something.”

ChatGPT came back with a great answer. “Your observation highlights a valuable insight into possibly under-served areas of discussion in customer service. … This could be a compelling topic for your next customer service keynote speech, article or book, offering a unique viewpoint that can resonate deeply with businesses striving to elevate their customer service quality.”

Thank you, ChatGPT!

So, let’s talk about the never-mentioned pillar: respect. First, some definitions.

  • Cambridge Dictionary includes “politeness, honor and care shown toward someone or something that is considered important.”
  • Merriam-Webster Dictionary includes “high or special regard.”
  • Dictionary.com includes “to show regard or consideration for.”

All customer service pillars involve some degree of respect. They all aim at one single idea: to give the customer the best experience possible. In other words, respect their decision to do business with you in all possible ways, and they will respect you as a company or brand, hopefully in the form of repeat business—maybe even loyalty.

Respect is a lofty goal. Unfortunately, the majority of companies and brands don’t deliver on the concept, at least according to the more than 1,000 customers we surveyed for our annual customer service and CX study. Specifically, we asked if customers felt brands and companies respected their time. Why time? Because it’s something that, once it’s gone, can never be recaptured. It’s precious to many and one of the easiest ways to show a level of respect—or in some cases—a lack of respect. The results of the survey were telling:

61% of customers don’t think companies or brands respect their time.

This is not the answer most of us would hope for. There are many ways customers feel they are disrespected. We asked them what would likely cause them to switch to a different company or brand.

    • More than half (51%) are likely to switch companies or leave a brand because they had to wait too long on hold. How long someone is willing to wait is an individual preference, so maybe this should be the next question on your customer satisfaction survey: How long are you willing to wait before you become frustrated when holding to talk to a customer service or sales agent? If a bad customer service experience includes the customer feeling disrespected for any reason, don’t be surprised if they don’t come back.
    • Even more—60% of customers—are likely to switch companies or leave a brand because the company didn’t respond fast enough. How fast is fast enough? If a customer wanted to wait six hours for an answer to their question, they would have waited six hours to ask it. Once again, time is an opportunity to show respect (or disrespect).
    • And 75% of customers are likely to switch companies or leave a brand because the company didn’t respond at all. This sends a message that the company doesn’t respect the customer at all.

Respecting a customer’s time is just one way to show respect. Kindness, being proactive and recognizing and appreciating a customer for their business are just a few more ways—of many—to show respect.

Here’s a homework assignment. Sit down with your team and ask two questions:

      1. How do we show our customers we respect them?
      2. Are we doing anything that would show our customers we don’t respect them—even if that’s not our intention?

These two questions could give you answers and ideas that will enhance your relationship with your customers by proving your respect and appreciation for them.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credits: Pexels

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Five Keys to Personalizing the Customer Experience

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Five Keys to Personalizing the Customer Experience

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Earlier this year, we surveyed more than 1,000 consumers in the U.S. for our 2024 State of Customer Service and Customer Experience (CX) Study. We asked about the importance of a personalized experience. We found that 81% of customers prefer companies that offer a personalized experience, and 70% say a personalized experience in which the employee knows who they are and their history with the company (past purchases, buying patterns, support calls and more) is important. They also want the experience to go beyond people and include the platforms where they prefer to do business.

For a recent episode of Amazing Business Radio, I talked with Elizabeth Tobey, head of Marketing, Digital & AI of NICE, which helps companies apply AI to manage customer experience. The focus of the discussion was personalization. Here are some of the highlights from the interview:

1. Channel of Choice: This is where the modern-day concept of personalization begins. Tobey said, “In a world where people carry computers in their pockets (also known as mobile phones), it’s important to meet your customers when and where they want to be met.” Customers used to have two main choices when communicating with a brand. They could either walk into a store or call on the phone. Today, there are multiple channels and platforms. They can still visit in person or call, but they can also go to a website with self-service options, visit a social channel like Facebook, conduct business using an app, communicate with a brand’s chatbot and more. Customers want convenience, and part of that is being able to connect with a brand the way they want to connect. Some companies and brands do that better than others. The ones that get it right have educated customers on what they should expect, in effect raising the bar for all others who haven’t yet recognized the importance of communication.

2. Communicate on the Customer’s Terms: Tobey shared a frustrating personal experience that illustrated how some customers like to communicate but a brand falls short. Tobey was getting home late from an event. She contacted a company through its support channel on its website and was communicating with a customer support agent via chat. It was late, and she said, “I have to go to sleep,” expecting she could continue the chat the next morning with another agent. But, when she went to resume the conversation, she was forced to restart the process. She logged back into the website and repeated the authentication process, which was expected, but what she didn’t expect was having to start over with a new agent, repeating her conversation from the beginning as if she had never called before. Tobey made a case for technology that allows for asynchronous conversations on the customer’s timeline, eliminating the need for “over-authentication” and forcing the customer to start over, wasting time and creating an experience marred with friction.

3. Eliminate Friction: How could an interview with an executive at a technology company like NICE not bring up the topic of AI? In the story Tobey told about having to start over with a new agent, going through the authentication process again and repeating her issue, there is a clear message, which is to eliminate unnecessary steps. I shared an experience about visiting a doctor’s office where I had to fill out numerous forms with repeat information: name, address, date of birth, etc. Why should any patient have to fill in the same information more than once? The answer to the question, according to Tobey, is AI. She says, “Take all data that’s coming in from a customer journey and feed it into our AI so that the engine is continuously learning, growing and getting smarter. That means for every customer interaction, the automation and self-service can evolve.” In other words, once AI has the customer’s information, it should be used appropriately to eliminate needless steps (also known as friction) to give the customer the easiest and most convenient experience.

4. It’s Not Just About the Customer: In addition to AI supporting the customer’s self-service and automated experience, any data that is picked up in the customer’s journey can be fed to customer support agents, supervisors and CX leaders, changing how they work and making them more agile with the ability to make decisions faster. Agents get information about the customer, enabling them to provide the personalized experience customers desire. Tobey says, “Agents get a co-pilot or collaborator who listens to every interaction, offers them the best information they need and gives them suggestions.” For supervisors and CX leaders, they get information that makes them more agile and helps them make decisions faster.

5. Knowledge Management: To wrap up our interview, Tobey said, “AI management is knowledge management. Your AI is only as good as your data and knowledge. If you put garbage in, you might get garbage out.” AI should constantly learn and communicate the best information and data, allowing customers, agents and CX leaders to access the right information quickly and create a better and more efficient experience for all.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credits: Unsplash

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