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By Shep Hyken
It’s natural that you would gravitate toward a person you perceived as an expert. When someone demonstrates a level of expertise and shares information you didn’t know, you tend to trust them. That expertise creates confidence. For example, when you go to Best Buy and are looking for a new TV, you’ll find there are so many to choose from. Even when they have them all hanging on a wall, turned on so you can compare the quality of the pictures, it’s still confusing as to why one would be so much more expensive than another. They are the same size, and many have similar great pictures. So which TV should you buy? It’s the salesperson’s job to help you make that decision. And there are two types of salespeople. One will read the specs on the card below the TV. The other will share the same information, but at the same time will educate you why one is better – or not – than another. They will explain the “why” behind the specs on the card. And in a very short time, you trust them and take their recommendation. And it’s not just because they are really smart. It’s because they educated you and made you smart! When you make a customer smarter, at least two things are happening: One, you’re showing off your knowledge in such a way that is all about the customer, and not just about how much you know. And second, you’re eliminating confusion, which creates clarity and confidence. Confidence is very important to get a customer to not just buy but to come back and buy some more. Customers must have confidence in the quality of what you sell and confidence that the experience will be the same every time. And when you can add that you make the customer smarter – and therefore more confident about their buying decisions – you are hitting the trifecta that can increase the odds of repeat business and possible customer loyalty. Most customers, whether they are conscious of it or not, want to make informed decisions. They want to feel good and confident about what they are buying. Educating customers and creating clarity is a great way to separate yourself from others who might not be willing to take an extra minute or two to help the customer become smarter so they can make smarter buying decisions. Don’t think this is a sales technique. Creating an educational experience is a powerful customer experience strategy. It’s simple. Just make your customers smarter. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
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By Shep Hyken
When you flip a light switch, you know exactly what to expect. The light comes on – right away. No hesitation. It happens immediately. The human brain loves instant results. Let’s use the TV as an example. It was a number of years ago, but I remember the frustrating feeling like it was yesterday. I switched to a new satellite system for the internet and TV. Before the switch, when I changed TV channels it was instant. Go up, go down or push the number pad to get a specific channel, and it worked instantaneously. But with the new system, it took three or four seconds, sometimes longer depending on the signal, to move from one channel to the next. It might as well have been three minutes! Call me impatient – because I am. I ended up switching back to my old cable and internet company. The point is that people don’t like to wait. They tolerate having to wait, but given the choice, they would rather not do so. Just do a Google search of “How long do we spend waiting in lines?” and you’ll get different answers, ranging from six months to 10 years of our lives. Let’s be conservative and go with six months. That’s still a lot of unproductive time, and you don’t get it back. Customers dislike standing in line so much that some will pay to have someone else stand in line for them. That’s one of the services offered by TaskRabbit – actually hiring someone, referred to as a “Tasker,” to stand in line for you. The point is that people would rather not wait. They want to get information quickly and easily. Consider that when you order an item from Amazon, you are immediately sent confirmation that your order has been placed. Great customer-focused companies make it easy to get information quickly. It might be a Frequently Asked Questions page on the company’s website or a video tutorial that teaches exactly what the customer needs without having to call customer support. The point is that it’s quick, painless, and takes very little effort. Companies that realize the importance of speed are gaining a competitive advantage. One salesperson calls a customer back within an hour, while another salesperson calls back in two days. Who do you think creates more trust and confidence and has a better chance of making the sale? (Obviously, that’s a rhetorical question.) In most cases, we can’t be as instant as a light being switched on and off. But recognizing that people have shorter attention spans, as in a Light Switch Mentality, will remind us to react faster to our customer’s needs, ideally meeting and even exceeding their expectations. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
Never being late … that’s not realistic. It’s going to happen. It’s not a question of if. It’s when. But you might say, “It’s not my fault!” And maybe it’s not. For example, you may be driving to a lunch meeting, and a car accident shuts down the highway making you. And it’s not just about arriving late to a commitment. It could be a delay in shipping a product. Maybe a customer orders something three days before Christmas. You ship it out that day, but the backup at the post office causes a delay. Or perhaps there is a supply issue, and you can’t get the parts to manufacture your products. None of these scenarios are your fault, but the customer doesn’t always see it that way. All the customer knows is that you were late. I would agree that there is nothing you can do about being late in some cases, but there are steps you can take to keep your customer happy – at least somewhat happy. It’s pretty simple. Be proactive and reach out to the customer before they notice the problem. And when you do inform, consider this as you compose your message:
So, call the customer when you hit the traffic versus two minutes before you are supposed to be at lunch. Track the shipments on behalf of your customers and let them know when their package is supposed to arrive. And if there are supply issues, you typically learn in advance, so let your customers know, too. Never being late is not realistic. “Stuff” happens. It’s how you handle it that’s important. It’s simple. Just tell them. Never being late is the goal, and always keeping the customer informed is required. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
"Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” This line has been credited to Confucius, Mark Twain, Mark Anthony and others. Anyone who finds what they love to do at work, either through a passion, hobby, interest, a random job they end up loving, or some defining moment is lucky. That makes me one of the lucky ones. Just out of college I started my career as a customer service expert. It wasn’t a random job I applied for. It was a chosen profession that had its roots in something that happened to me when I was younger, an event that caused me to become obsessed with customer service. I’ve written about being a 12-year-old birthday party magician when my parents taught me some basic customer service lessons. Show up on time, say thank you, follow up to get feedback, and a few other important lessons that any and every business should practice. These lessons laid the foundation that ignited my passion for customer service. Then something happened eight years later while I was in college and working at a gas station, which is when I discovered that I was passionate about customer service. The right thing to doI was working at a self-service gas station. We didn’t accept credit cards, so when customers finished filling up their tanks, we would go to their car, take their money and make the appropriate change. On one very, very cold day, I offered to help an elderly lady pump the gas for her car. I told her to stay in the warm car. She appreciated my assistance, but my manager didn’t. When I came inside, he yelled at me for helping her and emphasized the meaning of a self-service gas station. I defended my position. The lady was old and frail. It was the right thing to do! He said, “Now she’s going to expect that the next time she comes back,” to which I replied, “I hope she does come back, instead of going to the station across the street or on the opposite corner.” He gave me an angry look and slammed the door as he walked out of the building. That was a defining moment. It was the right thing to do, and more importantly, I liked how it felt. I recognized this intense desire to take care of customers, eventually causing me, less than a year out of college, to teach others to do the same. Decades later, I think back to this experience and can spot two lessons that are very important to every business:
In a perfect world, you’ll find people who have a passion for doing so. And if you ask them how they feel about the saying, “Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life,” they will say, “That’s me!” Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
“Is customer service more important than price?” That’s exactly what we asked more than 1,000 consumers in our customer service research. The response was that 58% said, “Yes.” And just to make sure, we asked a similar question later in the survey, “Would you pay more if you knew you would receive great customer service?” Once again, 58% said, “Yes.” “Please take care of me, and I’ll even pay a little more.” When more than half of your customers are saying, “Please take care of me, and I’ll even pay a little more,” you have to listen. The point is that price becomes less relevant when you know you’re going to get better service or have a better experience. Amazon is an excellent example. People trust Amazon, not just for its reliability, which is an important part of the customer experience, but also for its customer service. They like the instant email confirmations, the ability to track a package, a notification when the package is delivered, and the comfort of knowing that if the item is damaged or lost – or they simply don’t like the product – Amazon will take care of them. The result of that trust for the service and experience Amazon provides means price becomes less relevant to its customers. Some of you may be thinking, “Isn’t Amazon always the lowest price?” The answer is, “No.” At one time, Amazon was typically the lowest priced online retailer, but not anymore. Today Amazon is competitively priced, which means customers may find the same merchandise on another website for a little less. Even so, customers often come back to Amazon because they know what to expect. The experience is consistent and predictable, and they know if they need customer service for a problem, they will get it, and it will be good. Furthermore, Amazon is so confident about its service that its website displays where certain products can be purchased for lower prices through third-party sellers that use Amazon as a marketplace but sell directly to the customer. Yet once again, many Amazon customers still choose to buy through the Amazon Prime program. And some customers are willing to pay more than others. Specifically, younger customers are less price-sensitive than older customers: Sixty-two percent of Millennials and 60% of Gen Z are willing to pay more for great customer service versus just 46% of Boomers. Offering the lowest prices makes sense for some businesses, but you can’t ignore the findings. A great service experience creates price tolerance. How much tolerance depends on the market or industry. That’s up to you to determine. You’ll have to experiment to determine the tolerance levels. Just consider the findings. You can’t ignore that more than half of the customers we surveyed said, “Great customer service is more important than price.” Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
We just released our annual customer service research where we surveyed more than 1,000 consumers and asked what customer service experiences are most likely to cause you to come back. The top answers belong together: helpful and friendly. That seems pretty simple. All a typical customer wants is for someone to be nice to them, with a willingness to take care of them. How hard can that be? It seems like it’s just common sense, right? Yet we all have the customer service horror stories that are the exact opposite of people being helpful and friendly. Please keep reading, even though this is basic information. I emphasize the word basic because it is foundational to the success of your customer service program. That means it’s really, really important. You have to work on the basics before you can move to something more advanced. Customers want the basics before anything else. Let’s approach this from another angle. While, in general, helpful and friendly interactions get customers to come back, here’s another statistic from something more specific, which focuses on complaints. We asked, “When you have a problem or issue with a company or brand, which solutions do you prefer to help you solve your problem?” 89% of customers want employees who are kind and helpful. So, whether it’s a general interaction with employees or a problem or complaint you want resolved, those two words, friendly and helpful, are right at the top of why customers come back. So, what makes customers want to stop doing business and switch to another company? The opposite of helpful and friendly, which it turns out is rudeness and apathy. 75% of customers would switch companies or leave a brand after experiencing rudeness and apathy. When working with our clients on their customer service and customer experience initiatives, I always preach the basics have to be in place. Sure, we get into very advanced discussions about how to create the best processes, self-service solutions, the proper way to use data, implement artificial intelligence programs, and more. But none of that will mean anything if the customer ends up interacting with one of your employees and experiences anything less than friendly and helpful. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
Let’s go back to physics class for just a moment. Isaac Newton’s third law of motion states, “For every action in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” I admit to struggling in physics, but this was one principle I understood. The other day, a friend quoted Newton’s third law, and it hit me. Not only does this happen in physics, but it also happens in business, specifically when there is bad customer service or a bad customer experience (CX). So, with that, I bring you Shep’s Law of Customer Service, which is: For almost every bad customer experience created, there is an opposite reaction by the customer. They don’t come back. Notice that I put the word almost in the definition. Let me explain. A company wants a customer to buy its product or service. Then the customer has a bad experience. Perhaps an employee was rude or there was a problem with a shipment and the company didn’t handle it properly. Let’s call that the company’s “action.” The “equal and opposite reaction” comes from the customer choosing not to come back, which is the opposite of what the company wants the customer to do. Where customer service and CX differ from Newton’s third law is that it’s not always an exact equal or opposite reaction. It doesn’t happen every time, but almost every time. What if almost all your customers, as in almost nine out of 10 of them, were to leave after experiencing bad customer service? That’s exactly what we found in our latest customer service research, that 86% of customers are willing to switch brands or companies because of a bad customer service experience. And the company doesn’t even have to deliver truly bad service – just not “good enough service.” Eighty-three percent of customers are willing to switch because another company will give them better service. Now let’s remember that perfection is not reality, so it’s not quite as grim as it may seem. I have emphasized the word almost, and for very good reason. Our research also found that most customers give one or two chances before leaving deciding to leave. While not quite an equal and opposite reaction, it’s close enough to make the point. And mistakes don’t count if they are managed well. A mistake or complaint handled well actually reinforces that the customer made the right choice to do business with that company – sometimes even more than if the mistake had never happened at all. Let’s summarize it this way. When a customer chooses to do business with you, there are two future outcomes. They come back, or the opposite happens, and they don’t. So, manage for the reaction – not the opposite reaction – that you want to happen, which is to get the customer to say, “I’ll be back.” Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
There are many ways to deal with complaints or angry customers. I’ve written a number of articles on the different ways to do so, and today I want to add an excellent technique. The idea is to say something that lets the customer know you understand the problem, you’re in sync with their concerns, and you empathize with their frustration, anger or whatever emotion they’re exhibiting. I refer to this as The Perfect Thing to Say. This is more than apologizing and acknowledging the customer, which are steps one and two of my five-step process for dealing with angry customers. When a customer brings you a problem or has a complaint, you want to find a way to align with their goals and articulate it in such a way that immediately lets them know you are on their side. Let them know you’re in sync with them and what they want to achieve. Here is a perfect example. I had switched to a new mobile phone. I was having great difficulty getting familiar with the new features. I wanted to return the phone and go back to the older technology. Actually, returning the phone wasn’t on my mind. I wanted to smash the phone and mail the pieces back to the manufacturer. It was that different. Eventually, my frustration forced me to call customer support. In just a short time, I was talking to a rep. I know he sensed my frustration, so I emphasized that I wasn’t angry at him but at the phone. After all, if he was there to help me, I didn’t want to make him angry. Then the magic happened. Once he listened to my problems, making several comments that proved his empathy toward my situation, he said something that made me want to keep the new phone. He said, “I want you to love your phone so much that you’re willing to jump in front of a bus to save it.” Trying to stay with his lighthearted comment, I replied, “I’d be happy to jump in front of the bus, as long as it was going backward.” But what I was really thinking was that this was a bigger challenge than he thought, and was he up for the task? Go ahead and give it your best shot. Regardless of my frustration, I realized he was there to help me. His positive attitude and energy, along with his perfect thing to say, turned me from an upset customer into one who wanted to love his brand. Think about the problems or complaints you hear most often. Is there a sentence or phrase you can work into the conversation that would turn that misery into magic? This isn’t something you make up on the spot. This is a line you will use again and again. It’s the line that will turn your angry customers into loyal customers who say, “I’ll be back!” Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
It is one of the most common questions I’m asked in interviews: What’s the difference between customer service and customer experience (also known as CX)? While I’ve written about this before, my original article about customer experience was more about how to create a more interactive experience. The example I used was how Home Shopping Network (HSN) incorporated gamification into the customer experience. It offered games and puzzles on its website. The prize for winning the game or solving the puzzle was in the form of discounts. That’s a great – and even fun – experience, but there is much more to it than that. First, a little history. I remember the term customer experience being used as a fancy phrase to describe customer service. Many years ago, that’s all it was. Some smart person was trying to give a facelift to the term customer service. Not long after that, however, other smart people started using the term customer experience to describe every interaction with a company. That included customer service and much more. This is where it confuses some people. Customer service is part of customer experience, but customer experience goes to a much broader level. Some of the obvious experiences include navigating a website, reading promotional emails and text messages, watching the brand’s videos and much more. Even opening a package is part of the customer experience. Think about how cool it is to unbox an iPhone or iPad. Back in the day, Steve Jobs was very specific about how he wanted the unboxing of the company’s products to be an amazing CX. Some say that customer service is what happens when the customer experience goes wrong. That’s part of it, but it’s not the whole picture. If you’ve followed my work, you know that customer service is not a department that deals with problems and complaints. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by every employee, from the CEO or owner to the most recently hired. It’s how you interact with people, both your internal and external customers. The customer support department deals with questions, problems and complaints. Of course, their customer service skills must be at the highest level when dealing with unhappy customers and solving problems. So, a short definition of customer service is all of the interactions that customers have with the people in the company. We can even broaden that to digital interactions, which now include chatbots, interactive experiences on a website and more. Just to emphasize, these interactions include, but go beyond, the interactions for customer support. Customer experience includes customer service – and everything else a customer might experience when doing business with you. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
One of the big concepts we teach in our customer service training programs is the concept of Always. This is the backbone of creating customer amazement. When the customer uses the word always followed by something positive, you are creating a predictable experience, and even more important, you are operating in the zone of amazement. For example, your customers might say:
Notice that these statements are about the interactions customers have with your employees. Often, they are really just one person the customer is interacting with. So, consider the following questions:
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But simple doesn’t mean easy. Let’s talk about what drives the Always experience. It’s really two words: people and process. It starts with the right people, whether they are newly hired or have been with your organization for years. Your people must understand what is expected and what drives the experience you’re trying to provide. Beyond understanding, it takes training – and not just one time. It’s ongoing reinforcement of the goal for the customer experience you want to provide. Training can be just a few minutes each week at a weekly team meeting. Some organizations have daily meetings where customer service and experience are brought up, even if just for two or three minutes. The point is that it is never a distant memory. Then there is the process you provide. While the always statements above mostly apply to the people, you also want to have a good customer-focused process to support it. The journey the customer takes must be easy. Ideally, you want your customer to say, “They are always easy to do business with.” Being easy is baked into the process. So, have a team meeting. Discuss the concept of Always. Discuss your answers to the questions above. The Always concept drives trust, and trust is a big reason why customers come back to do more business with you. Do it right by creating an experience that ensures customers always come back! Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! |
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