Recently, one of our long-time professional friends asked us for guidance and suggestions about a customer service initiative which had been rolled out the previous year throughout his organization. His company, an equipment manufacturer, is a global industry leader in a variety of product lines. They enjoy a #1 or #2 ranking in most of [...]
One of the many incidents that inspired me to start my own company took place when I directed training inside a large telecom company. One day, the regional call center director of our company, I’ll refer to him as “Dave”, called me into his office. “Jack,” he said, “there’s a problem with the new hire training.” [...]
I happened upon this marvelous animation and wanted to share its fantastic portrayal of the frustrating customer service experience. We’ve all had little red bear’s customer service experience. Is it my bad luck when I choose the wrong line, or is it poor customer experience design? I challenge you to examine all your customer experience [...]
I sent my husband off to work today with our two St. Bernards, Otis and Rosie. Both stood on the back seat of his little car, one gigantic head sticking out of each back window, on their way to a very personal experience at the groomer – bath, brush and beautification. They are always an [...]
One of the more well-known customer service goals is delighting your customers, a self-explanatory outcome for sure, but exactly how do you go about achieving this goal? More specifically, how do you get your customer-facing employees to delight your customers? Customer delight is created first by how we listen and then respond to the customer, not just how we [...]
I recently attended the CXPA Members Insight Exchange in San Diego. It was an excellent conference with well over 100 customer experience professionals in attendance. The presentations about creating the right customer experience culture and programs were refreshing and insightful. The journey toward becoming a customer-centric organization is not an easy one. To the contrary, [...]
John Burton, a Director of Product Management on the CRM Team at SAP, posted an article yesterday entitled “Uh, Oh! Call Center Reps Gone Wild!” In it, John writes rather colorfully about the apparent lack of balance in many organizations between efforts to create great customer experiences, on the one hand, and enforcement of corporate [...]
OK, I’m all about true confessions. I’ve already admitted in prior blog posts my addiction to The Voice and that I play tennis with some gentlemen twice my age; now I have yet another tidbit to share about the mundane life I live. I certainly don’t lead a crazy college lifestyle anymore; I never did [...]
As customer experience and customer service increasingly become a strategic priority for companies looking to differentiate themselves, call center leadersare under more pressure than ever to ramp up their call center performance. Recap: In Part I of this blog post, I covered the following three areas to focus on in order to advance your call center performance: 1. Create the Right [...]
I know this may sound strange coming from a principal of a company that provides call center training around the globe. However, my colleagues and I truly believe 100% in the following statement: Call center training, by itself, doesn’t work. I have spent more than a few years of my career on both sides of [...]
Effective customer service leadership requires setting high standards and expectations for your customer service team and then doing what it takes to help them get there. In this video blog, Jack explores how setting the right performance standards for your customer service team can mean the difference between mediocrity and excellence.
Optimizing call center performance can be a tricky proposition for call center leaders and managers. There is so much to think about – systems, processes, technology, customer service agents, supervisors, KPIs, loyalty metrics, service channels – the list goes on and on. The pressure to succeed can be intense, sometimes overwhelming, and the challenges just [...]
Customer loyalty programs, such as loyalty cards and point systems, can be useful tools for marketing and for rewarding customers. However, real customer loyalty is created during one-on-one customer interactions between a customer and the people acting on the company’s behalf, either a sales representative or customer service agent, retail associate or other customer-facing employee. [...]
Any customer experience may be so typical that sometimes you don’t even notice it anymore. You walk into a retail outlet, a fast food restaurant or a convenience store and the person serving you looks at you through bleary eyes, almost completely disinterested in your needs or wants, says a scripted “Can I help you?” [...]
In my blog post last week, “Is Your Call Quality Sheet Capping Your Net Promoter Score?”, I wrote about how the typical call center call quality sheet encourages mediocre call quality and a lackluster customer experience. This is because the typical call center call quality process is anchored in the customer service agent’s compliance with [...]
One of the most underrated but effective tools in sales and customer service communications is silence. Customers and prospects often buy and act on emotion and justify with logic, but they also make decisions in silence. In this video blog, Jack explores the power of silence, a critical customer service skill, and how to utilize silence [...]
I stumbled on a statistic this morning that absolutely blew my mind. Maybe I hadn’t had enough coffee yet, but I literally went bug-eyed. “People on Facebook share approximately 1 million links every 20 minutes.” Enthusiastically, I repeated this out loud to my 16-year old daughter who looked at me like I had two heads [...]
When is the last time you seriously considered how the call quality sheet used in your call center impacts the customer experience and your Net Promoter Score? Or have you ever considered this at all? If your organization outsources its call center operations or customer care to a third party provider, have you focused on whether [...]
What role does sincerity play in customer service and in creating the optimal excellent customer experience? Aside from being sincere, it is critical that customer service providers demonstrate their sincerity as part of the effort to create an excellent customer experience and meaningful customer loyalty.
Ok, so you are extremely busy, moving from one meeting to another, from one project to another, checking on the status of this system and that process. You have barely had a chance to breathe throughout your hectic day. Ahhhh, just another business day in the life of a call center manager. But amidst the [...]
Lisa, our Vice President of Marketing, is having some issues. She is not getting along very well with some other members of the executive team, and she seems to be executing on her own agenda. She could probably benefit from some executive coaching. Our IT Manager, Thad, can’t seem to relate to his employees. For [...]
Of course, your first call resolution numbers are very important to you and your call centre. After all, you have worked very hard to achieve your first call resolution targets. Not only will good first call resolution results save your company money, they also suggest a better outcome for your customer. So it just follows [...]
Business is great! Things are running smoothly. Production and service levels are high, expenses are under control, working capital is healthy and cash is flowing. You’re meeting customer expectations, and they love doing business with you. Taking a look back on your successes and challenges to achieving real customer delight and creating a truly customer-centric [...]
When it comes to great customer service or sales and the performance of your team, it’s often the little things that can make a big difference in the outcome with a customer or prospect. Sometimes all it takes to set the stage for a great customer experience is a targeted question or two that uncovers a [...]
Another season of March Madness is upon us! For the next three weeks, sports fans throughout the United States will be tuned into the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament and basketball fever will be in full swing. Games and tournament brackets (and wagers) will be closely monitored. Favorite teams will be cheered on. The road to [...]
“People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will ALWAYS remember how you made them feel.” I don’t recall who first said this, but it really resonates with me. And I believe it hits on what it takes to create an excellent customer experience. More on that in a [...]
Recently, I came across an interview of Rob Markey, co-author of the Ultimate Question 2.0, about the current state of the Net Promoter Score movement. The interviewer, Peter Fader, is the co-director of The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative and a Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School. In the course of their discussion, they spoke [...]
During customer service interactions, it is easy, natural and often tempting for even the most well-intentioned customer service providers to quickly develop perceptions and make assumptions about a customer’s needs and wants. However, problems can arise when those perceptions and assumptions are wrong. When customer service providers become skilled at listening for understanding and asking [...]
I made what I think is an observation about an unusual difference between men and women today while I was on the tennis court. That’s right, the tennis court. About four years ago, I began my tennis quest. And my singular mission was and remains rather simple – to not be embarrassing. You see, I [...]
Having to say “no” to a customer can be a difficult pill to swallow at times, especially when you empathize with the customer’s problem or issue, and you would like to say “yes”, but company policy does not permit it. For example, if a consumer calls about a product failure in Year 3 for a [...]
Maybe I am just getting older (I am forever 29), but I miss the personal service that used to be inherent in the customer experience. I can’t say from a former era because it’s really not that long ago! I’m not referring to the 1920s or 30s here – just the 70s! What happened? Did [...]
Mature communicators will listen with active interest! In order to listen with active interest, there are four key essential elements you must use to listen for complete understanding of your customer. All these elements help ensure you hear your customer and let’s your customer know you are hearing what he or she is saying. Pay [...]
The goal of any professional sports team is always to win the ultimate prize. As many of us saw this past weekend, in American football, the ultimate prize is the Super Bowl. In European football, it’s the World Cup. In baseball, it’s the World Series. To the casual observer, it may seem as if the [...]
If your current Customer Service Experience is not creating Loyal Customers, then the interaction itself must fundamentally change. Improving your Customer Experience and driving Customer Loyalty requires an entirely New Conversation with your customers.
I am sure you remember the children’s story The Little Engine That Could. The tough little blue engine just doesn’t quit. He sees the hill in front of him, musters the courage to tackle it and begins churning up and up, slowly but surely. A little bit at a time he makes progress despite the [...]
I have read several blogs and articles lately that seem to be into dissing customer satisfaction as a legitimate call service center metric. Some of the authors of these articles go to great lengths to point out the reality that satisfied customers are consistently bolting from one product to the next. We must move beyond [...]
My youngest son, Jeffrey, was never very good at math. He struggled from the earliest 3 and 4 times tables and could never find his comfort level after that. It wasn’t for lack of trying (well, maybe sometimes it was). He simply was not geared toward numbers. I remember the first few times he tried [...]
Our front-line customer service agents are the heart and soul of our customer service operations. After all, the customer service agents are the ones who actually interact with our customers, day in and day out. Our customer service agents are the ambassadors and stewards of our brand. They are the ones who create that all-important [...]
I recently had to call my Internet provider because my monthly bill had gone up unexpectedly by around 20%. I remember being particularly busy that day with work and other responsibilities, but I figured I had better make time to call them while I was thinking about it or I would forget and find myself [...]
Satisfied customers aren’t enough. To drive profitability you must generate customer loyalty and orient your entire organization around that mission. Real customer loyalty is not a short-term proposition; rather, it is a long-term commitment to your products or services, company or brand. In order to create and build Loyal Promoters and improve customer retention, your [...]
Customer experience research from the Customer Contact Council tells us that reducing customer effort is a critical component in building customer loyalty. The more actual, or even perceived, effort customers must invest in the customer experience, the lower the chances they will start or continue down the road toward product, brand or company loyalty – [...]
Well, the ribbons are barely off the holiday packages and we are still digesting the last of the figgy pudding, so that means it must be time for us to fill the air with lots of resolutions for 2012. In these waning days of 2011, we hear much pontificating on those things that will make [...]
In today’s wired world the demand for excellent customer service is ever increasing. Customers have a louder voice today than they ever have. One poor interaction with a customer can create a ripple effect that costs you profits and customers. Think about the last time you thought about doing business with a company. If you’re [...]
Help!!! I have an identity crisis. You keep calling me a Call Center, and that’s not really what I am. I believe I am your Brand Solution Profit Center. I think it’s time we talk. Please step into my office and stay awhile. Now, our Call Center is a place that is set away from [...]
In Kishore Sengupta and Ludo Van der Heyden’s HBR blog article “Leadership Lessons of the Race to the South Pole,” they recap the conquest of the South Pole exactly 100 years ago and explore the leadership lessons learned from the famous race between two great explorers, Norway’s Roald Amundsen and Britain’s Robert Scott. Sengupta and [...]
A few days ago, I was drinking my morning coffee, skimming through my internet news updates when two headlines struck me – “Temper Tantrum Study: Children’s Episodes Involve Intertwined Feelings Of Anger, Sadness” and “What’s Behind A Temper Tantrum? Scientists Deconstruct The Screams.” “Deconstruct the Screams”? Now that caught my attention – definitely worth a look. My kids [...]
Re-Tension: A second phase of tension that a company quickly creates for a customer who has finally decided to eliminate the first phase of tension that builds up slowly in that customer due to the company’s failure to provide good value or customer service. If you didn’t quite follow the definition above, then perhaps the [...]
We are not Formula One racing experts, nor are we really even fans of the sport, but we are aware of the long-standing debate in the racing community among experts and fans about whether it’s the car or the driver that makes the difference between finishing first and anywhere else in the field. Some believe [...]
We enjoy working with companies that use a robust NPS measuring system. When measured effectively, NPS can give a company quick feedback on initiatives designed to improve customer loyalty. Today’s customers have power. It is not uncommon for customers to post feedback in real time. In the middle of a meal, a restaurant customer can [...]
In the most recent online issue of Marketing Week, a leading UK magazine for marketing news, opinion and information, Lucy Handley, in her article “Is Effort the New Loyalty?”, highlights the work underway at BT Global Services in measuring customer effort. BT’s Dr. Nicola Millard is looking at the extent to which consumers have to [...]
Customer loyalty is built and sustained on the front line, in those daily interactions that take place between front line employees and the customer, who is often calling only because they have an issue or a problem with the company’s product or service. The problem is the vast majority of these interactions, and the systems [...]
After reading Linda Hill and Kent Lineback’s HBR Blog Article “Stop Avoiding Office Politics,” I started thinking how I REALLY interacted with those around me. What are the politics in MY world? I am not talking about my wife, sons and new daughter-in-law (although new in-laws always add an additional layer to marriage politics). I [...]
In “Return on Influence, the New ROI,” Amy Jo Martin explains a new concept – ROI – Return on Influence. It was derived from the need to prove the value a professional athlete can achieve for a company. The professional athlete’s influence could create both a value to a product and value to a company. [...]
The word loyalty is thrown around quite a bit inside the customer service world today. Numerous books and scores of articles have been written and blogs posted about the importance and relevance of customer loyalty, as compared to customer satisfaction, and that there is actually little relationship between the two. A loyal customer is one [...]
Companies face tough customer service issues – how to sync their systems and processes to the whole idea of customer and brand loyalty, what to do to light a fire in their own employees to care about the loyalty issue as they interact with customers, and how to proactively demonstrate to their customers that a [...]
In the present confusing and conflicted global market environment, pressures and challenges intensify on today’s CEOs to deliver short-term results without losing sight of long-term goals and plans or veering away from long-term strategies. For the most part, short-term results are defined by financial metrics, as well they should be, because at the end of [...]
Phone and e-mail certainly are the basics, but companies can no longer afford to get away with just the basics. Answering the phone on time and in a pleasant manner is a basic customer expectation. We all expect to receive clean dishes at a restaurant, but that by itself will not earn the restaurant a [...]
According to the latest research from the Corporate Executive Board, customer loyalty is the best indicator of future customer economic behavior and business profitability. It is completely logical that an investment analyst would take Net Promoter Score into consideration when conducting due diligence and generating projections relating to a company’s profitability. The comment about the [...]
Kudos to you, Alyson, for writing such an exquisite article! I believe you captured the essence of customer loyalty. The companies that excel at creating customer loyalty are the ones that make us feel good doing business with them. Customer loyalty, in the customer service sense of the word, can be many things. It’s a [...]
A very nice article here, Mr. Lieu – like versus love is an excellent analogy. The difference between like and love is found in their emotional foundations. We have found that in order to create loyalty in a customer, three things must happen. First, you must satisfy the customer’s practical product-related need. Second, you must [...]
