Tag Archives: customer service

Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of September 2023

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of September 2023Drum 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 September’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. The Malcolm Gladwell Trap — by Greg Satell
  2. Where People Go Wrong with Minimum Viable Products — by Greg Satell
  3. Our People Metrics Are Broken — by Mike Shipulski
  4. Why You Don’t Need An Innovation Portfolio — by Robyn Bolton
  5. Do you have a fixed or growth mindset? — by Stefan Lindegaard
  6. Building a Psychologically Safe Team — by David Burkus
  7. Customer Wants and Needs Not the Same — by Shep Hyken
  8. The Hard Problem of Consciousness is Not That Hard — by Geoffrey A. Moore
  9. Great Coaches Do These Things — by Mike Shipulski
  10. How Not to Get in Your Own Way — by Mike Shipulski

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in August 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!

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 three years:

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

Allow Your Customers to Die with Dignity

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Allow Your Customers to Die with Dignity

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

I’m sorry for the somewhat morbid title, but I wanted to catch your attention. Here is a short version of the story that sets up this week’s Shepard Letter.

A friend shared that one of his in-laws passed away a few months ago. Afterward, the family tried several times to cancel a newspaper subscription, but the publisher’s customer service agent kept saying, “No.” The newspaper continued to be delivered every day. Even after the subscription expired at the end of the month, the paper continues to be delivered.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard stories like this. Companies that charge their customers monthly or annually using a subscription model – this could include newspapers, magazines, software, utilities, and almost any type of product – should have processes in place to deal with a customer passing away or any other tragic or unusual scenario. They should make it easy for the family or whoever is managing the affairs. And, help them easily and empathetically close an account. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. All you have to do is a Google search, and you’ll find plenty of horror stories similar to my friend’s – and even far worse.

Shep Hyken Death Cartoon

Chewy.com is an online pet supply that operates a subscription model in which pet food, treats and many other items are shipped regularly. Known for amazing customer service, Chewy is a role model for handling the delicate situation of a customer who passes away. In this case, the customer is a pet. Yes, the pet owner is the paying customer, but their furry friend is the real recipient of Chewy’s products.

When a pet owner informs Chewy that their pet has passed away, the company not only makes it easy to cancel the subscription, but they also do it with style, class and empathy. They send bereaved pet owners flowers, cards and refunds for recent purchases. They also request that the pet owner donate any unopened pet food and treats to local pet shelters.

It’s obvious that Chewy has a process, and there is a protocol for handling delicate situations like these. Its people are properly trained in not just what to do but also what to say and how to say it.

It may be the death of a customer, or perhaps just someone going through a difficult or emotional time; we must have a process mapped for these situations. Our people must know how to properly manage these delicate experiences with:

  1. Empathy
  2. Sympathy
  3. Care

Image Credits: Pexels, Shep Hyken

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Who is to Blame for Poor Customer Service?

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Who is to Blame for Poor Customer Service?

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

The short version of the story is this. At about 9:15 p.m., I pulled into one of my favorite fast-food restaurants. There was one customer ahead of me in the drive-through lane. I assumed he was placing an order. After several minutes, I realized something else was going on. I wasn’t sure what, but the amount of time he spent talking to the person on the other end of the intercom took much longer than it should have. Eventually, he pulled around to get his food. It was now my turn.

I waited for the person to welcome me and ask what I wanted. It never happened. I then pulled around to the drive-through window. The employee inside ignored me. I tapped on the window and she came over and said the restaurant was closed. I asked what time they closed, and she said 11. I mentioned that it was not even 9:30. She shrugged and said, “I’m the only one here, and I’ve decided to close the restaurant.”

A few days later, I was with a high-level executive from a major restaurant chain and told her the story. She said, “It wasn’t the employee’s fault. It was her manager’s fault.”

Poor Customer Experience Cartoon Shep Hyken

The explanation was simple. The manager should never have allowed one employee to run a restaurant that takes a team of people. One, it’s impossible to do everything: taking orders, cooking the food, keeping the restaurant clean and much more. Second, it’s just not safe to have one employee in the store, let alone late in the evening.

At some point, you must trust your employees to do a good job. Yet if they don’t, who is to blame? The employee at the fast-food restaurant was put into a situation and given responsibility beyond her capabilities. Whoever is in charge of hiring must hire the right people who are capable – or have the potential – of handling the job. Whoever is in charge of training must give the employee the skills needed to do the job. Whoever oversees scheduling must make sure the restaurant is appropriately staffed.

Of course, there is more than just hiring, training and staffing, but the point is to not be so quick to blame the employee for a bad customer experience. Assuming the employee is capable, failure is often due to something or someone else.

The story I shared illustrates how failure in customer service is often not the fault of the individual but the system in place. All things considered, the responsibility for customer service success or failure usually lies in the hands of leadership, not the front-line workers.

Image Credits: Shep Hyken, Pexels

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Customer Service is Never Out of Your Control

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Customer Service is Never Out of Your Control

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Last month I was in Las Vegas for a major convention. I stayed at a very nice hotel, and each night I tried to fall and stay asleep. I emphasize the word tried because, unfortunately, there was non-stop, 24-hour-a-day road construction outside the hotel, as the city of Las Vegas is preparing for the Formula One race later this year. All night, there was jackhammering and bulldozing on the streets where the cars will be racing.

Upon checkout, I was asked, “How was your stay?”

I responded, “I love this hotel. It’s too bad about all that noise from the road construction.”

The front desk employee practically cut me off and curtly stated, “It’s out of our control.”

Of course, I knew it wasn’t the hotel’s fault. I didn’t blame them, but she was quick to point that out anyway. I can only imagine how many similar complaints she has heard from numerous guests over the past few weeks and will hear from many more until the project is over. She obviously has become annoyed by hearing the same complaint again and again, and somehow lost empathy or sympathy for her guests.

So how do you communicate something like this, that’s “out of your control?” Here are a few ideas using the hotel as an example:

  1. Respond With Empathy – First, respond to any and every comment about it with sympathy and empathy. Act like you care. You could say something like, “I understand how you feel about the noise. I wish we could do something about it, but the city of Las Vegas is preparing for the big race later this year. I’m sorry this happened.”
  2. Apologize – It may not have been your fault, but that doesn’t mean you can’t say, “I’m sorry this happened,” which is how I ended the empathy statement above.
  3. Be Proactive – If enough guests are complaining about something that is completely out of your control and you know the problem is going to continue, proactively inform them when they check in. You can even put a note in the room to warn them about the problem that really is out of your control.
  4. Come Up With a Solution – This may or may not be possible. In this example, the hotel could offer free earplugs. While it’s not their fault and really is out of their control, they could show a sign of effort to manage the problem, even if it isn’t the perfect solution.

A problem may be out of your control. That’s okay. What’s not okay is to use “It’s out of my control” as an excuse. Instead, see it as an opportunity to show empathy and care for your customers. It’s the words you use and the way you say them that counts.

Image Credits: Shep Hyken, Pexels

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Meeting Expectations Versus Managing Hope

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Meeting Expectations Versus Managing Hope

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

At a recent customer service presentation, the speaker who preceded me said that we must do better than simply meeting our customers’ expectations, and he shared some stories of truly amazing service experiences. Then it was my turn to speak. I didn’t want to contradict him, but I needed the audience to understand that it is impossible to go above and beyond with customers at every interaction. Sometimes meeting expectations is a perfect experience.

In my customer service keynote speeches, I talk about ‘Managing the Moment’. The idea comes from Jan Carlson, and if you’ve been following me, you will recognize this concept. Every interaction customers have with you or your company gives them the opportunity to form an impression. Understanding this simple idea is a good start to developing and/or maintaining your customer service and CX strategy.

I believe you must manage expectations, and if you are even the tiniest bit above average in doing what customers expect, your customers will love you, give you high ratings, and refer you to their colleagues and friends. The key to being successful with this idea is to be consistent. You want customers to say things like, “They always are knowledgeable,” or “They are always so helpful.” The word always followed by something positive, typically an expectation is what you’re going for.

Shep Hyken Expectations Cartoon

So back to the idea of just meeting expectations. Some people confuse expectations with hope. Here’s what I mean by this. If I call someone for help and leave a message, I expect them to call me back, and I hope they will return the call sooner rather than later.

Let’s say I’m called back within an hour. I’m pleasantly surprised because the person met my expectation of the callback and did it in the timeframe I hoped they would – maybe even a little sooner.

Most customers won’t analyze the experience quite this way, but it is exactly what they want – or hope for. They will, however, notice that the call was returned quickly and may say, “Thanks for calling me back so quickly.” The returned call was expected. The comment about “quickly” indicates their expectations were met or slightly exceeded. And if you do that every time, the customer will use the always when they talk about you and describe the experience by saying, “They always call me back quickly.”

Let’s flip this around. I believe most customers hope for a great experience, but not necessarily an over-the-top or above-and-beyond experience. And based on their typical experience with service laggards, they, unfortunately, don’t have high expectations. So, whenever you meet or just ever so slightly exceed what your customers hope for, you’ve created a positive experience that gets them to say, “I’ll be back!”

Image Credits: Shep Hyken

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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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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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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of May 2023

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of May 2023Drum 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 May’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. A 90% Project Failure Rate Means You’re Doing it Wrong — by Mike Shipulski
  2. ‘Innovation’ is Killing Innovation. How Do We Save It? — by Robyn Bolton
  3. Sustaining Imagination is Hard — by Braden Kelley
  4. Unintended Consequences. The Hidden Risk of Fast-Paced Innovation — by Pete Foley
  5. 8 Strategies to Future-Proofing Your Business & Gaining Competitive Advantage — by Teresa Spangler
  6. How to Determine if Your Problem is Worth Solving — by Mike Shipulski
  7. Sprint Toward the Innovation Action — by Mike Shipulski
  8. Moneyball and the Beginning, Middle, and End of Innovation — by Robyn Bolton
  9. A Shortcut to Making Strategic Trade-Offs — by Geoffrey A. Moore
  10. 3 Innovation Types Not What You Think They Are — by Robyn Bolton

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in April 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!

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 three years:

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

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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