Category Archives: Customer Experience

The State of Customer Experience and the Contact Center

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The State of Customer Experience and the Contact Center

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Oh, what a difference a year makes. A few months ago I traveled to Las Vegas to attend the Customer Contact Week (CCW), the largest conference and trade show in the contact center industry. For the past several years, the big discussion has centered on artificial intelligence (AI), and that continues, but Customer Experience (CX) is also moving into the spotlight. AI and natural language models can give customers an almost human-like experience when they have a question or complaint. However, no surprise, some companies do it better than others.

First, all the hype around AI is not new. AI has been in our lives for decades, just at a much simpler level. How do you think Outlook and other email companies recognize that an email is spam and belongs in the junk/spam folder? Of course, it’s not 100% perfect, and neither are today’s best AI programs.

Many of us use Siri and Alexa. That’s AI. And as simple as that is, it’s obviously more sophisticated when you apply it to customer support and CX.

Let’s go back 10 years ago when I attended the IBM Watson conference in Las Vegas. The big hype then was around AI. There were some incredible cases of AI changing customer service, sales and marketing, not to mention automated processes. One of the demonstrations during the general session showcased AI’s stunning capability. Here’s what I saw:

A customer called the contact center. While the customer service agent listened to the customer, the computer (fueled by AI) listened to the conversation and fed the agent answers without the agent typing the questions. In addition, the computer informed the agent how long the customer had been doing business with the company, how often they made purchases, what products they had bought and more. The computer also compared this customer to others who had the same questions and suggested the agent answer those questions. Even though the customer didn’t yet know to ask them, at some point in the future, they would surely be calling back to do so.

That demonstration was a preview of what we have today. One big difference is that implementing that type of solution back then could have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more than a million. Today, that technology is affordable to almost any company, costing a fraction of what it cost back then (as in just a few thousand dollars).

Voice Technology Gets Better

Less than two years ago, ChatGPT was introduced to the world. Similar technologies have been developed. The capability continues to improve at an incredibly rapid pace. The response from an AI-fueled chatbot is lightning fast. Now, the technology is moving to voice. Rather than type a question for the chatbot, you talk, and it responds in a human-like voice. While voice technology has existed for years, it’s never been this good. Google introduced voice technology that seemed almost human-like. The operative word here is almost. As good as it was, people could still sense they weren’t talking to a human. Today, the best systems are human-like, not almost human-like. Think Alexa and Siri on steroids.

Foreign Accents Are Disappearing

We’ve all experienced calling customer support, and an offshore customer service agent with a heavy accent answers the call. Sometimes, it’s nearly impossible to understand the agent. New technologies are neutralizing accents. A year ago, the software sounded a little “digital.” Today, it sounds almost perfect.

Why Customers Struggle with AI and Other Self-Service Solutions

As far as these technologies have come, customers still struggle to accept them. Our customer service research (sponsored by RingCentral) found that 63% of customers are frustrated by self-service options, such as ChatGPT and similar technologies. Furthermore, 56% of customers admit to being scared of these technologies. Even though 32% of the customers surveyed said they had successfully resolved a customer service issue using AI or ChatGPT-type technologies, it’s not their top preference as 70% still choose the phone as their first level of support. Inconsistency is part of the problem. Some companies still use old technology. The result is that the customer experience varies from company to company. In other words, customers don’t know whether the next time they experience an AI solution if it will be good or not. Inconsistency destroys trust and confidence.

Companies Are Investing in Creating a Better CX

I’ve never been more excited about customer service, CX and the contact center. The main reason is that almost everything about this conference was focused on creating a better experience for the customer. The above examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Companies and brands know what customers want and expect. They know the only way to keep customers is to give them a product that works with an experience they can count on. Price is no longer a barrier as the cost of some of these technologies has dropped to a level that even small companies can afford.

Customer Service Goes Beyond Technology: We Still Need People!

This article focused on the digital experience rather than the traditional human experience. But to nail it for customers, a company can’t invest in just tech. It must also invest in its employees. Even the best technology doesn’t always get the customer what they need, which means the customer will be transferred to a live agent. That agent must be properly trained to deliver the experience that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back.”

Image Credits: Pexels, Shep Hyken

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of November 2024

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of November 2024Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are November’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. A Shared Language for Radical Change — by Greg Satell
  2. Leadership Best Quacktices from Oregon’s Dan Lanning — by Braden Kelley
  3. Navigating Uncertainty Requires a Map — by John Bessant
  4. The Most Successful Innovation Approach is … — by Howard Tiersky
  5. Don’t Listen to These Three Change Consultant Recommendations — by Greg Satell
  6. What We Can Learn from MrBeast’s Onboarding — by Robyn Bolton
  7. Does Diversity Increase Team Performance? — by David Burkus
  8. Customer Experience Audit 101 — by Braden Kelley and Art Inteligencia
  9. Daily Practices of Great Managers — by David Burkus
  10. An Innovation Leadership Fable – Wisdom from the Waters — by Robyn Bolton

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in October that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

SPECIAL BONUS: While supplies last, you can get the hardcover version of my first bestselling book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire for 51% OFF until Amazon runs out of stock or changes the price. This deal won’t last long, so grab your copy while it lasts!

Build a Common Language of Innovation on your team

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Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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Training Customers for Self Service

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Training Customers for Self Service

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

More and more, customers are open to using self-service solutions. Our customer experience research shows that while customers might prefer the human touch, some expect digital, self-service solutions. In certain cases, they even demand it. And it’s not just in customer service.

Consider Amazon, the perfect example of a self-service retailer. From researching to purchasing a product, and even in most customer service situations, everything is a self-service experience. Each step of the process is logical and intuitive. For customer service issues, the customer is prompted through a process. Along the way, if the customer still wants a live agent to help, they are able to share their phone number and an agent calls back within a minute. The point is, it’s as easy as can be. The learning curve is minimal and comes from just doing it.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re not Amazon, so getting a customer to use your self-service solutions requires a different technique. Keep in mind that there’s a right way and a wrong way. My friend Lance Gruener, EVP of Customer Experience at MasterCard, knows a thing or two about what great service looks like. In addition to his leadership at one of the largest companies on the planet, he’s president of the advisory board of the contact center industry’s largest association. In a recent board meeting, he shared an excellent example of the right way – and wrong way – to get customers to use self-service.

Not long ago, Lance walked into a store. Other than the employees, he was the only person in the store. He approached an employee to ask for help, but rather than helping, the employee pointed to a kiosk and said, “If you go over there, you can do it yourself.”

Lance, who, like me, is acutely aware of good – and unfortunately bad – customer experiences, resented the unwillingness of the employee to help. So, how should the employee have handled this situation?

Ultimately, the company wants customers to use its self-service solutions. But encouraging customers to do so takes a little tact. For Lance, the employee could have done it for him, then taken him to the kiosk and showed him how to do it the next time.

I love this approach. First, take care of the customer and then train them for next time. Or, train the customer while you help them. In effect, you’re saying, “Let’s do this together.” Either way, it combines high touch with technology.

In today’s digital world, a balance between technology, including self-service solutions, and the high-touch experience with a live agent is essential. Empowering customers to confidently use your self-service options can increase customer satisfaction ratings while streamlining operations. To do that, it will take time to train customers to use your technology. Success hinges on good technology integrated with personal support to ensure customers feel valued and capable.

Image Credits: Pixabay, Shep Hyken

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Top Ten Uses for a Customer Journey Map

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Top Ten Uses for a Customer Journey Map

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In the evolving landscape of customer-centric business, the customer journey map has emerged as a pivotal tool. It serves not only as a means to visualize the customer experience but also as a strategic asset to drive innovation and transformation. By mapping out the customer journey, organizations can gain deep insights into customer needs, pain points, and moments of truth, ultimately leading to enhanced experiences and increased loyalty. Here are the top ten uses for a customer journey map.

1. Understand Customer Experience

The primary function of a customer journey map is to visualize the entire customer experience. By laying out the journey, businesses can empathize with customers, gaining a comprehensive understanding of their experiences and emotions at each touchpoint.

2. Identify Pain Points

Journey maps are instrumental in identifying pain points and frictions along the customer journey. By highlighting these areas, businesses can prioritize improvements and tackle the most impactful issues to enhance customer satisfaction.

3. Enhance Product Development

Innovative product development can be fostered through insights gained from customer journey maps. By understanding customer needs and pain points, development teams can create solutions that are aligned with user expectations and desires.

4. Improve Customer Support

Journey maps can highlight common issues faced by customers, allowing companies to streamline and improve their customer support processes. By addressing these areas, organizations can enhance their support services, leading to better customer experiences.

5. Drive Alignment Across Teams

Customer journey maps create a shared vision and understanding of customer segments across all teams within an organization. This alignment fosters collaboration and ensures that all departments are working towards a common goal: improving the customer experience.

6. Inform Marketing Strategies

By understanding the customer journey, marketers can design targeted strategies that align with each stage of the customer lifecycle. This ensures more effective communication and engagement, ultimately improving conversion rates and customer retention.

7. Personalize Customer Interactions

Journey maps help businesses provide personalized experiences by identifying key moments where tailored interactions can significantly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty. Personalization fosters a deeper connection with customers, enhancing their overall experience.

8. Support Change Management Initiatives

During times of change, a customer journey map serves as a guiding framework to maintain focus on the customer as strategies and processes evolve. It ensures that change initiatives are designed with the customer in mind, thus reducing the risk of negative impacts.

9. Foster Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement is driven by ongoing insights and feedback from customer journey maps. As businesses iterate on the customer experience, journey maps act as a feedback loop, helping organizations remain agile and responsive to changing customer needs.

10. Drive Innovation

Last but certainly not least, journey maps drive innovation by uncovering opportunities for creating breakthrough experiences and services. They challenge organizations to think creatively about how they can deliver unique value and set themselves apart in the market.

Conclusion

A customer journey map serves as an invaluable tool for organizations seeking to enhance customer experience and drive strategic growth. By visualizing the customer’s interactions with a brand, businesses can identify pain points and opportunities at every stage of the consumer lifecycle. From improving customer service and refining marketing strategies to informing product development and personalizing the purchasing process, the applications of a customer journey map are vast and impactful. Leveraging these insights allows companies to foster deeper engagement, build loyalty, and ultimately achieve a competitive edge in today’s dynamic market. As customer expectations continue to evolve, integrating journey mapping into your business strategy is not just beneficial but essential for sustained success.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Not All Customers Are Worth Doing Business With

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Not All Customers Are Worth Doing Business With

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

In some of my customer service speeches, I joke that some customers aren’t worth doing business with. The way I position it in the speech is funny, but in reality, it’s pretty serious. Sometimes, a customer isn’t worth doing business with because they are truly a bad customer. The result could be choosing to say, “Goodbye,” and sending them to the competition.

While there are many reasons you might end your relationship with a customer, I came up with six obvious ones to get you thinking:

  1. Customers who repeatedly return products. This is often the result of a liberal return policy that some customers abuse. Repeated returns cost money – sometimes more than the profit from the sale.
  2. Customers who make unwarranted complaints about service. You’ve heard the recording: “These calls are recorded for quality assurance.” Not only are recorded calls great for training, but they can also become evidence of a customer who has an unwarranted complaint about the company’s customer service – or any other situation.
  3. Customers who demand unreasonable solutions to problems. If the customer’s demands are unreasonable and they won’t accept the solutions or compensation an employee is offering, it may be time to let them go.
  4. Customers who take up too much time. For example, customers who repeatedly send back products, which takes up too much time and costs the company money.
  5. Customers who are argumentative. Some customers will argue, and nothing will make them happy. When they realize you are about to “fire” them as a customer, they sometimes recognize that they are being unreasonable. But, when they don’t, it’s time to consider saying, “Goodbye.”
  6. Customers who are abusive toward employees. This is more than an argumentative customer – it is taking rude and argumentative to another level. The customer curses, insults or threatens the employee. While we always want to be polite to our customers, sometimes it’s okay to politely transfer them to a manager or, if empowered to do so, politely say goodbye and hang up.

Bad Customer Cartoon from Shep Hyken

Keep in mind that it’s our job to take a negative event or abusive customer and turn the situation around. Another way of saying it is to turn rants into raves. Yet, in some cases – hopefully very few – the customer may truly not be worth doing business with … today. That could change in the future. Keep that in mind. Remember one of my favorite sayings:

The customer is not always right, but they are always the customer.

Consider that saying before slamming the door on an abusive customer. If you feel it can’t be worked out – today – close the door quietly, but consider leaving it open, ever-so-slightly, just in case they realize the error of their ways. Maybe they will come back, apologize, and become a great customer – one that is well worth doing business with!

Image Credits: Pexels, Shep Hyken

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Customer Experience Audit 101

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Your Guide to Elevating the Customer Journey and Future Proofing Your Business

Customer Experience Audit 101

by Braden Kelley and Art Inteligencia

As a customer experience professional it is always surprising when I encounter a flawed experience that would have easily been caught if the experience had been walked by someone that’s distant from the experience design process – an auditor. To oversimplify things, think of it as secret shopping on steroids informed by the expertise and methods of customer experience professionals that map, compare and improve different experiences for a living.

Companies are in the habit of hiring an auditor for providing an external perspective on their financial reporting, but most (if not all) fail to engage in a similar annual audit for their customer, partner or employee experiences. Given that companies exist only as long as their customers permit them to, this seems short-sighted and incredibly risky.

To explore this situation in more detail, it only makes sense that we should first look at some of the basics of the customer experience and then the equally important customer experience audit.

Understanding the Basics of Customer Experience

At its core, Customer Experience (CX) is the culmination of all interactions a customer has with your brand. Whether it’s a visit to your website, a call to your support team, or the experience of using your product or service, each touchpoint contributes to how your brand is perceived. A robust CX strategy is not only a competitive advantage but a requirement in today’s market. This is where the Customer Experience Audit comes into play.

The Importance of a Customer Experience Audit

Conducting a Customer Experience Audit helps you identify gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities in your current customer journey. This systematic approach allows you to enhance interactions, fostering loyalty and driving growth. A well-executed audit provides insights that guide innovations and improvements, ensuring that your brand is always delivering value and delight to your customers.

Six Key Components of a Customer Experience Audit

  • Customer Touchpoint and Journey Mapping: Identify all the points of interaction between customers and your organization across the different phases of the customer journey.
  • Feedback Analysis: Gather and analyze customer feedback through surveys, reviews, and direct communications.
  • Performance Metrics: Review key performance indicators (KPIs) such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).
  • Competitive Benchmarking: Evaluate your CX against industry peers to identify best practices and areas for improvement.
  • Customer Journey Step and Touchpoint Walking: A lot can be learned by having an outsider walk the key touchpoints and steps in your customer journey, especially those connected to your moments of truth. These are the critical touchpoints in a customer’s journey that significantly impact their perception and relationship with your brand. These moments are pivotal in determining customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy, and addressing them effectively can create lasting positive impressions and drive meaningful engagement – and revenue!
  • Journey Analytics: Use analytics tools to track customer behavior and identify bottlenecks.

Pro tip: Involve cross-functional teams and outsiders in the audit process to gain diverse perspectives and insights.

Six Steps to Conducting a Successful Customer Experience Audit

  1. Define Objectives: Clearly outline what you aim to achieve with the audit.
  2. Gather Data: Collect quantitative and qualitative data from various sources.
  3. Analyze Findings: Identify patterns, pain points, and opportunities from the collected data.
  4. Implement Changes: Develop a roadmap to address identified issues and enhance the CX.
  5. Monitor and Iterate: Continuously monitor the impact of changes and refine strategies as needed.
  6. Rinse and Repeat: Conduct a customer experience audit at least once a year to track your progress and the success of your improvement project pursuits, while also creating an opportunity to identify new deficiencies that have been introduced as your customer experience continues to evolve.

Conclusion

By undertaking a Customer Experience Audit, you’re not only future-proofing your business but also prioritizing the needs and expectations of your customers. Remember, a remarkable customer experience is not a one-time effort but an ongoing commitment. As you embark on this journey, keep in mind that customer-centric innovation is the cornerstone of sustainable success.

Commit to a culture of continuous improvement, and you will see your brand not just meet, but exceed customer expectations. Let’s create experiences that are not only memorable but transformative.

If you are interested in conducting a customer experience audit of your business, please contact me.

Customer Experience Audit 101 Guidebook
Download the Customer Experience Audit 101 Guidebook as a PDF by clicking the link or the image above.

Image credits: Unsplash

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Content Authenticity Statement: The core premise and structure for this article was created by Braden Kelley. The OpenAI Playground, taking on the role of human-centered change and innovation thought leader Braden Kelley has helped to flesh out the content of the article with supplementary content added by Braden Kelley – including the creation of the downloadable PDF flipbook.

Creating Long-Term Customer Loyalty

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Creating Long-Term Customer Loyalty

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Many years ago, I sold a home. My real estate agent made a value proposition for me. If I hired her to sell my home, I could walk out of the house and never come back. She would manage everything related to maintaining the home and keeping it “showroom ready.” That included lawn care, cleaning and much more. If anything broke, she would take care of. If a painter needed to touch up a wall, she would hire “her painter.” Other than showing up at the closing to sign papers, my only responsibility would be to reimburse her for any expenses she incurred.

She explained that she had a network of preferred vendors who gave her preferential pricing, and she would pass only the actual costs onto me. In addition to her stellar reputation, what she promised to do—make selling my house easy and hassle-free—was the reason I hired her.

At the time, I wondered, “Why don’t other real estate agents do this?” Another question was, “Why don’t more businesses, regardless of the industry they are in, do this?”

It turns out there are people, companies and brands that do. However, many struggle to put together a program like this and find out it’s harder than they thought. Furthermore, what if a company could profit from these recommendations and referrals? What if the referrer received a commission or finder’s fee for recommending the right vendor?

Meet Mikhail Naumov, the founder and CEO of Paylode, a company that helps his clients do exactly what my real estate agent did for me. Naumov says, “If you’re a car company, you’re selling cars. If you’re a pet adoption agency, you’re helping people adopt a new puppy. For the most part, that’s where your job begins and ends. However, the moment the customer buys a car or adopts a puppy, they suddenly have a dozen other problems or pain points they now must solve due to the purchase.”

Naumov’s version of my real estate agent story is that he moved from California to Miami, rented an apartment, and the moment he signed the lease, he thought, “I now need to find renter’s insurance, moving trucks, a storage unit, furniture, appliances, food and more.” His entrepreneurial mind kicked in and he realized there was an opportunity to help apartment rental companies (and now companies across many other industries, including travel, hospitality, and insurance) create a system to take care of their customers’ secondary and tertiary needs. His company, Paylode, was born.

Paylode helps its clients find companies and vendors that their customers need. Sometimes the clients get a referral fee. They typically negotiate discounts that get their customers better rates, and even with the referral fees, the customer still saves money.

While this offers Paylode’s clients an alternative revenue stream by monetizing the products and services they recommend, Naumov quickly realized that it was not the most important reason. The No. 1 reason is making the client’s life easier by helping them with what they need, related to but outside of what their actual business does. This ultimately creates a better customer experience, which in turn drives core business metrics (i.e., retention, engagement, LTV, repeat purchase, and more).

In a sense, the Paylode program is like offering a perk to the customer. Naumov says, “We live in an incentive economy.” Customers love to be rewarded with a perk for doing business with a company. That perk could be, as mentioned, a negotiated discount with a secondary business. But what if you took that further and offered other perks? For example, an apartment rental company could offer six months of free internet with popular streaming channels like MAX and AppleTV. A perk like that becomes an incentive behind a customer’s buying decision, which is why Naumov has named this feature of his platform “Paylode Boost,” focusing on a perk that incentivizes a customer to take a desired action, or choose one company over another.

Companies and brands spend most of their time focused on their own business. Naumov says they have tunnel vision and makes the case for companies from all industries—both B2C and B2B—to step outside of that tunnel and think about their customers’ needs beyond the core product or service they offer. It starts by asking the question, “What new problems show up in my customers’ lives as a consequence of buying from me?”

Sit down with your team and work out the answer, and consider Naumov’s suggestion to “Help customers solve those secondary and tertiary problems in a way that creates loyalty, engagement and gratitude from your customers for life.”

Image Credits: Unsplash

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of October 2024

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of October 2024Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are October’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. The Runaway Innovation Train — by Pete Foley
  2. How Leaders Make Employees Feel Respected — by David Burkus
  3. Innovation is Combination — by Greg Satell
  4. Why Modifying This One Question Changes Everything — by Robyn Bolton
  5. Acting on Strategy and Tactics — by Mike Shipulski
  6. Push versus Pull in the Productivity Zone — by Geoffrey A. Moore
  7. Next Generation Leadership Traits and Characteristics — by Stefan Lindegaard
  8. Humanizing Agility — by Janet Sernack
  9. Creating More Digital Value for Customers — by Howard Tiersky
  10. False Choice – Founder versus Manager — by Robyn Bolton

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in September that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

SPECIAL BONUS – THREE DAYS ONLY: From now until 11:59PM ET on November 11, 2024 you can get the hardcover version of the SECOND EDITION of my latest bestselling book Charting Change for 40% OFF using code HARDC50. This deal won’t last long, so grab your copy while supplies last!

Accelerate your change and transformation success

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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Change Requires Work and Choice

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Change Requires Work and Choice

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

At the end of the CEO’s speech to his employees, he said, “And one other thing, we want to deliver better customer service.” Then he walked off stage.

Delivering better customer service is a good idea, but just saying you want to do so will not make it happen. Most likely, it will remain just a good idea, because, without the right implementation, the idea will never come to anything. Nothing will change.

A big part of my business is serving as a keynote speaker on customer service and CX for all kinds of companies and organizations. I always ask, “Why is this topic important to you and this audience?” Most of the time, clients have a good answer, but occasionally, I hear something like, “We have terrible customer service, and we need someone like you to come in and share what we can do to be better.”

Trying not to sound flippant, I ask, “So you think that having me or someone like me do a one-hour speech is going to fix that?”

This leads to a bigger discussion about the company’s desire to change and the resources – time, talent, and dollars – it requires to make that happen. I then continue with a few more questions:

  1. What makes you think you need help with your customer service or CX?
  2. What would happen if you continued to do what you do and didn’t make a change?
  3. What does success look like, and how quickly do you want to see results?

The answers to these questions are the fuel needed to make the choice to change an easy one.

Then, there is another series of questions to determine the investment they are willing to make to carry out this choice to change. It’s going to take time. It’s going to take training, which is about talent. And then there are the dollars. And one final choice must be made, and it may be the most important of all. Will the leadership get behind the choice to change?

To summarize, the choice to change, especially in customer service and/or CX, is more than a verbal commitment. It requires substantial and sustained effort backed by resources and leadership support. Simply expressing the desire for improvement is not enough. Real change demands actionable plans and the alignment of time, talent, and investment. Companies must determine their current service levels, define success, and commit to the necessary steps and time to achieve it.

One more question: Are you ready to invest in a future where exceptional service is not just an aspiration but a reality? Act now! Your customers and your business can’t afford to wait.

Image Credits: Pexels, Shep Hyken

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Airlines Are Soaring to New Heights in Passenger Satisfaction

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Airlines Are Soaring to New Heights in Passenger Satisfaction

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

There’s good news for those who fly the friendly skies. The experience is getting better.

If you think about it, airlines have a simple product experience. It’s a plane that moves people. Safety is the number one priority. Beyond that, get the passengers to the destination on time. Passengers have choices in airlines. Some are more cost-efficient, such as Frontier and Spirit; or for more money, others, like American and Delta, offer higher service levels, such as first-class cabins. The passenger gets to choose.

Beyond the amenities of the major airlines, one of the most important criteria for customer satisfaction is on-time performance. Not long ago, the public’s confidence in the airlines’ ability to get people to their destinations on time was so low that I joked, “You can treat passengers terribly, but just get them to their destinations safely and on time, and they will fly you again and again.”

Yes, it’s a joke until you are the one experiencing an airline’s electronic breakdown or you’re on the wrong side of a bad storm. Consider that on-time performance can be impacted by three main factors: weather, mechanical issues and operational execution.

Safety is first, and bad weather is a legitimate reason for delays and cancellations. Mechanical issues also fall into that category. Passengers should be happy when an airline finds out about a mechanical issue while the plane is on the ground rather than in the air. However, operational execution is not a good excuse for delays and cancellations. This is what passengers are paying for. For example, a plane that lands on time but ends up delayed because there wasn’t an open gate or a ground crew available to bring the plane in and open the doors is frustrating and stressful to passengers trying to make a connection.

Good News

Aviation analytics company Cirium’s annual On-Time Performance Review has tracked on-time performance for over 15 years. In 2023, the average on-time performance for North American airlines was 74.45%. That means one out of every four flights was either delayed or canceled.

Certain airlines have a better track record than others. In North America, Delta (84.72%), Alaska Airlines (82.25%), American (80.61%) and United (80.04%) are the top on-time performers. Delta and American Airlines also ranked in the top 10 of all global airlines.

More Good News

During the pandemic, airline travel dropped to incredible lows. The return of people flying for vacation and business travel indicated that the pandemic was in the rearview mirror. However, the industry struggled as it worked out how to safely bring back employees and put planes back in the air. But that, too, is in the rearview mirror.

According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the airlines’ customer satisfaction levels are at an all-time high. Passengers are rating airlines high for experiences such as check-in, boarding, cabin cleanliness and general courteous customer service. Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and research emeritus at the ACSI, says, “Airline customer satisfaction has climbed to new heights, reaching scores not seen even before the pandemic disrupted travel.”

A Brighter Horizon for Air Travel

While airlines offer a straightforward service—a safe and on-time flight—there is plenty that happens behind the scenes to make an airline run smoothly. What looks simple on the surface is actually very complicated. Safety, maintenance, scheduling, weather patterns, proper staffing and much more go into running a successful airline. Outside of weather and mechanical issues, operational execution is expected and is essential to maintaining the customer’s confidence in the airline.

Data from Cirium’s annual On-Time Performance Review and the recent results from the ACSI indicate that the airlines are on track. Ongoing improvements in airline customer service and operational efficiency show that the airlines are doing their best to provide a better experience, and exercising caution for weather and maintenance issues continues to make airlines one of the safest ways to travel.

Image Credits: misterinnovation.com, Delta Airlines

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

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