Customer Service Tips & Perspectives

13 Customer Experience Trends to Watch in 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:17:00 +0000

Customer experience guru Bruce Temkin posted this prediction on Experience Matters. It is reflective of his knowledge, insights and research.

2012 was a very active year for customer experience management. I expect 2013 to be an even more robust year as we move deeper into the Era of CX Professionalism.

Here are 13 CX trends to keep an eye on this year as these efforts gain maturity:

Decline of surveys. As more companies thirst for customer feedback, the number of surveys has escalated. But there is a limit to customers’ willingness to complete surveys. As completion rates get more difficult to maintain, companies will become more efficient with the questions they ask, target questions at specific customers in specific situations, and stop relying as much on multiple-choice questions. Tidbit: When we asked large companies with VoC programs about the changing importance of eight listening posts, multiple choice survey questions were at the bottom of the list.
Rise of text analytics.Companies are learning that some of the richest insights from customers come from unstructured content like comments on surveys, calls into the contact center, social media conversations, and chat sessions with agents. Companies will shift more of their focus towards collecting and analyzing these types of feedback. Tidbit: Nearly three-quarters of large companies with VoC programs are using or considering text analytics.
“Big data” predictive insights. It’s hard to talk about trends without discussing big data (in order to be fully buzz-word compliant). But what will this term mean for customer experience in 2013? Companies will blend together customer feedback data with troves of other data they have in CRM and other systems about customer transactions and value. Using this large dataset, they will predict customer satisfaction levels and Net Promoter Scores across their customer base. Since analytics requires more than just technology, we’ll see a surge of demand for data scientists. Tidbit: More than half of large companies with a VoC program are using or considering predictive analytics, but only one-third of large companies feel that they are effective at integrating CRM data in their VoC efforts.
Anticipatory service. As companies gain a deeper understanding of customers through research and analytics, they will use that information to develop more individualized customer experiences. Look for companies to route callers to phone agents most likely to help them based on anticipating why they are calling, train front line employees with different scripts based on anticipating a customers’ needs/interests/emotional styles, and proactively recover from service issues before customers even complain about them based on detecting potential changes to a customers’ loyalty. Tidbit: When companies responded very poorly after a bad experience, 47% of consumers stopped spending completely with the company. When they had a very good response, only 6% stopped spending and 37% increased their spending.
Experience-infused product development. We’ll see more companies create products with customer experience embedded throughout the entire development process. What will this look like? Product teams will define usability requirements, set minimum experience thresholds for product launch, and design the entire service lifecycle. Fidelity Investments evaluates all new product and experience efforts via a CX scorecard to determine the level of customer experience risk involved in a proposed project. Its “Customer Lens” process incorporates standards and checkpoints into business case and new product development methodologies to deliver more customer-centric experiences.
Design-based process improvement. As customer experience efforts highlight the need to redesign more operational processes, companies will combine customer experience efforts with other process improvement efforts such as lean sigma and design thinking. These combinations, such as GM’s bringing together of customer experience and product quality, will merge process-centric tools with the power of deep customer empathy. We’ll also see more companies follow firms such as Intuit that are embedding design thinking across their organizations (check out the Stanford d.school). Tidbit: 74% of CX professionals think that customer experience design is important for their company, but only 34% think that their firm is good at it.
Loyalty-focused contact centers. As companies more fully understand the link between customer experience and loyalty, especially with customer service, they will increasingly view contact centers as value-creators and not just cost centers. Some of the effects in 2013: less focus on average-handle-time and other productivity metrics, more focus on customer feedback and quality metrics, more on-shoring of previously off-shored interactions, and more investment in agent training and coaching. Tidbit: Consumers that are satisfied with customer service interactions are more than 4 times as likely to repurchase than those who are dissatisfied.
Appreciation of employee assets. Companies are beginning to see the deep connection between employee engagement and customer experience. So many firms will focus on their employees in 2013. We’ll see more CX programs develop internal ambassador programs and an initial wave of HR organizations leading employee engagement efforts across what we call Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent. Tidbit: Highly engaged employees are 5.8 times more committed to helping their companies succeed and 3.5 times more likely to do something good for their employers that is not expected of them.
Mobile, mobile, mobile. Consumers will have more smart phones, more mobile apps, more tablets for them to do even more things wherever they go. Companies will increasingly integrate mobile into their product offerings and service experiences while integrating mobile with other channels, especially when it comes to combining desktop applications with mobile apps being used in physical stores. Tidbit: 31% of U.S. consumers use apps on their mobile phones on a daily basis.
Software as an Experience. The initial rise of cloud-based software (a.k.a. SaaS, or software-as-a-service) focused on renting access to software instead of the historical approach of selling licenses. As cloud-based software expands, we’ll see these offerings cater more explicitly to the needs of customers. How? More simple, highly-focused, specialized applications (like smartphone apps), more focus on quick initial usability, more sharing of best practices (usage, not technical), and customization based on behavioral analysis of users. Tidbit: Net Promoter Scores for tech vendors are more correlated to customer experience than product performance.
Resurgence of values. As more companies push forward on their CX journeys, they’ll find that there’s nothing holding their efforts together. The desire to improve customer experience will fall victim to other priorities if the effort is not tied to the core values of the company. But many organizations are so heavily focused on their operations that they’ve lost sight of their raisons d’être. I expect more companies to articulate and recommit to a core set of values like those of Zappos and Whole Foods, customer promises like that of TNT Express, and mission statements like that of the Dallas Cowboys.
Rethinking risk-experience trade-offs. Customer experience is often constrained by rigid requirements imposed by legal, compliance and risk management teams. As a result, companies are forced to collect additional information from customers, add additional steps in processes, and eliminate valuable self-service options. In 2013, given the increased emphasis on customer experience, we’ll see companies push back on and successfully eliminate many of the most egregious experience roadblocks.
Continuing CX education. Some customer experience practices are becoming standardized enough to create educational curriculum. In 2013, we’ll see more corporate training departments rolling out CX training, MBA programs incorporating more CX content into service and marketing courses, and the creation of standalone CX academic courses. Tidbit: The percentage of CX professionals that see training as an important professionals development goal increased from 52% in 2011 to 57% in 2012.

The bottom line: 2013 will be a busy year for CX professionals!

Customer-Focus: Why leaders of companies talk the talk but don't walk (or run) the walk?

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Over the years I have written about many aspects of (not) Walking the Talk. I found that Chris Brown, CEO of MarketCulture Strategies, hit the nail on the head and effectively summarized (below) some key reasons why customers and employees don't believe what companies say.

Customer-focus is a term both overused and underdone. It sounds good in a mission or vision statement but many leaders don’t really know how to achieve a customer focused culture nor are they doing anything specific about improving it in a sustainable way. Many other leaders may know how to do it, but feel it may not be worth the effort and time required to achieve it.

There are many reasons the leadership of companies talk about it. They believe their customers and employees want to hear the “customer first” story. It sends the right message. Most leaders believe, at some level, focus on the customer is an important part of running a successful business. They understand that without customers there is no business.

So why do leaders of companies talk the talk but do not walk (or run) the walk?
The reality of being truly customer-focused – that is, having a customer culture – is somewhat different. It is challenging, particularly when companies have developed habits and structures that work against it.

Internal focus on operations, processes and working in silos create habits that can be hard to change. As companies grow they become more complex, communication becomes difficult and frequently confusing, processes are set-up to maintain quality and improve efficiency and eventually get in the way of doing the right thing for customers. Silos develop and internal politics result in people acting in their own best interests above the customer and the business. These conditions lead to at least 5 reasons why customers don’t believe you.

1. Misdirected compensation
Sometimes people are compensated in ways that work against the best interests of customers. There is no better example of this than the mortgage crisis in the US where mortgage salespeople were incented to sell mortgages to people that could not afford them. This leads to customers not having their real needs met.

2. Short-term focused behavior
Another reason for the lack of customer culture is the short-term behavior driven by an investor focus and reporting of quarterly results. This leads to a focus on profit and revenue to the detriment of customers. An underlying customer culture providing a sustainable business focus will lead to more integrated thinking and reporting based on medium term performance trends.

3. Focus on technical skills
Many of today’s professionals are specialists with highly developed technical skills in their areas of expertise. This leads to a narrow focus without a broader understanding of the business environment and how they affect the value received by customers. Some professions even view customers as inhibitors to getting their jobs done – an annoyance to minimize. For example the university academic that laments the fact that they have to teach students rather than focus 100% on research or the surgeon that dislikes having to communicate in person with patients. Others focus on profit to the exclusion of customer interests. When this attitude takes hold in organizations it becomes a significant roadblock to a customer culture regardless of what the mission states.

4. Operating in silos
Functional silos where there is lack of cross-function collaboration and unclear customer “ownership” creates problems for customers. We have all experienced being sent from one department to another by customer service representatives who are not empowered to take ownership of our problem. This leads to customer frustration and then your customer promise lacks credibility.

5. Lack of strategic alignment
When staff do not understand or care about the company’s strategy and how what they do contributes to delivering value to customers. This leads to the customer receiving mixed service and conflicting messages.

So, why should your customers believe them?

Moving Up from Customer Service to Customer-Focus

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:21:00 +0000

I have just published on SlideShare a deck.

Moving Up from Customer Service to Customer-Focus
10 Lessons Learned by a Seasoned Customer Service Consultant

10 Questions frequently asked about Customer Experience Management

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:59:00 +0000

1) How long will it take to develop a Customer Experience Strategy?
That will be dependent on:
The quality and consistency of your current customer experience performance
How much time you can commit to working through the process
How well you have explained the what ,why and how and the importance of the commitment from all those involved in the business

2) Why don’t we just provide customer service training for our front-line people?
Answer - We launched Customer Experiences after our research found that when customer service training is carried out without a proper Customer Experience foundation, the training itself has very little impact on changing employee behaviour and ultimately little impact on improving the customer experience.
Customer service is a vital part of any quality customer experience. A customer experience strategy however covers far more than just customer service in fact it covers every aspect of a business because every aspect will have some impact on the quality and consistency of the experience a business delivers.

3) How do we gain total commitment from our people to ensure the success of a Customer Experience Strategy?
Answer - Commitment comes from engagement. The Customer Experience approach involves everyone. The fact is that everyone plays a role in your Customer Experience, not just those people directly interacting with your customers. Our customer experience development program is based on the fact that your people support what they create. A successful customer experience strategy is the result of total involvement from everyone associated with the business.

4) Why is a Customer Experience strategy difficult for your competitors to copy?
Answer - Leadership, culture and your people are vital parts of your Customer Experience strategy and the great news is, they are all difficult to copy. Everything else you do is relevantly easy to copy.
A customer experience strategy can be a businesses sustainable competitive advantage in a world where sustainable competitive advantages are rare. You can be sure that once you start gaining market share as a result of your customer experience your competitors’ will be looking closely at what you are doing.

5) Why is creativity such an important part of a Customer Experience strategy.
Answer - Creativity is today’s great competitive advantages. The reason there is not more creative thinking in business is its not encouraged in most organisations. The key to on-going customer loyalty is the ability to continually "add value" to what you provide your customers. This requires a steady flow of ideas from your people, the more creative the ideas the greater the impact on your Customer Experience.

6) How does a Customer Experience strategy help us to attract the right people?
Answer - Great people want to work with organisations that are totally focused on their people and customers. They know that these businesses take time to build real relationships with their customers and it’s these relationships that lead to loyalty and advocacy. The fact is that your working life is so much more enjoyable when your customers are smiling and coming back because your people have taken the time to build relationships.

7) Why is a vision so important to a Customer Experience Strategy?
Answer - A good vision keeps everyone focused, on track, inspired and motivated and that’s vital to a long-term strategic business approach. You must be able to clearly show how your customer experience strategy will move your business towards its vision.

8) Why is word of mouth so much more powerful today?
Answer - Word of mouth has always been powerful in fact it’s today’s most powerful form of advertising. When you recommend a business to someone you are putting your reputation on the line and we don’t do that lightly. Today individuals have the ability via social media to reach many more people and share both great and not so great experiences. Business is only started to understand the power shift that has taken place.

9) How does a Customer Experience strategy take away the focus on price?
Answer - We do business today in a world we call "the world of sameness" the only way most businesses can come up with to get customers in the door is to reduce prices. The result is reduced margins and a struggling business. Customer focused businesses look for ways to add value, this is why it’s so important to understand your business from the customer’s perspective and foster creative thinking that will result in added value other than a price reduction. Research clearly shows as customers we will pay more for a consistent, quality customer experience.

10) Why does business have difficulty relating to customers emotions
Answer - emotions drive our lives however when we are on the other side of the counter we only see business as a logical process. A large part of how customers measure a businesses customer experience performance is by the way they feel and feelings are emotions. Thankfully understanding customer’s emotions is a major part of a Customer Experience strategy.

Source: Chris Bell, Customer Experience on Voxy.co.nz

Quick-Results method for improving your customer service

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:32:00 +0000

If you are looking for a pragmatic and quick-results method for improving customer service, you have come to the right place.

More specifically, your needs may include:

Taking stock of your current customer service delivery;
Looking for near- and longer-term opportunities for customer service improvement;
Managing and measuring customer satisfaction;
Mobilizing and hearing the voice of your front-line staff;
Finding a seasoned, pragmatic and results focused customer service consultant.

I have launched a new website - the home of my widely proven and high-value Customer Experience Workshop. It provides context by means of the S-Curve and details of the methodology. Moments of Truth / customer touch point management moves you up the S-Curve, makes customers happier and thus bolsters profits. Making such customer service improvements is a profit strategy. strategy. A sharper customer focus leads to a sharper competitive edge.

Expert Witness for Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:27:00 +0000

Defense attorneys in the U.S. and Canada can now avail themselves of my Expert Witness services in areas concerning customer service.

In today’s climate of robust consumer protection and burgeoning internet business, government bodies such as the Federal Trade Commission, Competition Bureau, and Auditors General are increasingly vigilant.

If you are an attorney in the U.S. or Canada who is defending a case that involves the rights and treatment of consumers, you will find that often issues related to customer service come into play.

If your defense will benefit from the assistance of a pragmatic and seasoned expert witness for customer service, you should contact me. I am available for a no-obligation telephone consult, often on short notice.

What I can do for you as expert witness in the customer service arena

Considering my wide and deep customer service consulting expertise and experience you can expect me to assist you in matters related to topics such as:

Customer service strategies and policies;

Customer service processes and procedures;

Customer satisfaction research evaluation;

Customer service implementation issues, related to complaints, refunds and customer contact (center) practices;

Customer service best practices and assessing your client’s practices against them.I will access the necessary research data and specific experts as required.

My qualifications as expert witness for customer service

Specialized customer service consultant with wide and deep experience of 25 years, in a large variety of industries: Helping clients capture and act on the voice of the customer and make required alignments to close customer service/loyalty gaps.

Clients in some twenty industries and six countries (predominantly U.S. and Canada);

Eight years of working with a “Big Six” consulting firm (Coopers & Lybrand Consulting – Center for Excellence in Customer Satisfaction);

Access to an extensive network of specific subject matter specialists;

27 Recommendations on my consulting LinkedIn profile.

For more information about my background and experience qualifying me as expert witness for customer service visit my consulting website.

“Eric brought a wealth of essential knowledge and practical experience to the table.

He was also easy to work with and prompt in his own customer service.”

“You Are Richer Than You Think.”

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 14:09:00 +0000

In my previous blog entries I have argued about the validity of the People > Service > Profit idea, the importance of Hiring Right and the fact that often good people are stopped by bad processes or bad management. I am obviously of the view that the road to success for great customer service and experience excellence goes through People Management that is aligned with strategies that make customer service and customer experience into a sustainable strategic differentiator.

Today’s business environment is constantly changing as companies work to stay competitive. But change only happens when people change their thinking, beliefs, and behaviours. This is hard and requires constant effort from employees and executives. Forrester analyst Claire Schooley reports that “Seven in ten - seventy percent - of change management initiatives fail. That is a dramatically high rate of failure.” It could happen to you unless you take into account that any change in business process or strategic direction is strongly related to personal change — that means your people — and this is often the component that gets shortchanged.

This blog entry pursues the line of thought that organizations often fail to realize the impact of change on the employees it will affect. This can be change due to process re-design or strategies and initiatives for sharpening Customer Focus. They often do not plan and execute carefully enough to address the people issues through all phases of change management.

That means that frequently people are insufficiently informed and engaged and therefore not enabled or allowed to contribute what they could otherwise bring to the table, based on their experience, knowledge and creativity (that everybody has). Over the more than 25 years I have been involved in many types of organizations I have developed the cynical view that more often than not “the enemy is within” and that many organizations unwittingly go to great lengths to give the competition a leg up. I will be so bold as to estimate that thus many organizations are not getting one-third to one quarter of the payroll dollars (and benefits plus overheads) they spend.

My message to a great deal of organization is therefore what it says in the headline (a tagline of a ubiquitous Canadian bank campaign): You Are Richer Than You Think... but you are likely not getting what you pay for. Often organizations don’t know what they don’t know and what they could get from the people they are paying anyway.

Affecting change successfully is admittedly not an easy thing. There are many models, approaches and philosophies. In addition to a clear vision and capable leadership, among others, there is one critical element which I want to highlight here: Communication. Yes, how hard we try, there never appears to be enough of it. It shows up as an improvement opportunity in virtually every employee survey, doesn’t it.

One of my standard recommendations to my clients is to undertake making Communications a forethought rather than the afterthought it so often ends up being. That means they could benefit from appointing a member of a change steering group as Communications Advocate. At each and every turn, decision, new project etc. this person raises the question of What and How for Communication. Of course having a strategy to guide the process always helps...

To conclude, I would like to share with you how impressed I was by the use of an off-the-shelf technology that is cloud based (and does not interfere with or depend on IT infrastructure), to act as enabler and catalyst of customer-driven change. Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts is known for its exemplary service. Just like award other companies competing successfully on a sharp customer focus such as South West Airlines, Ritz-Carlton, Zappos, USAA and Costco, it understands the value of hiring the right people and enabling and empowering them to do right by the customer. Four Seasons decided to employ a Social Intranet (with very similar features to Facebook and LinkedIn) to carry and facilitate its customer service / experience strategy. This platform was simple and quick to deploy technically, but of course needed to be populated with thought and efforts. However, once Redwood eLearning’s BOOST was up and running it took very little effort to manage it. Who did manage it then? Their people of course... A sure way to ensure that they get from their people what they paid for, and more...

What stops you from harvesting your richness?

Six New Voice of the Customer Trends

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:50:00 +0000

Source: The Vovici blog "The Listening Post".

Andrew McInnes, Analyst with Forrester Research Inc., presented six new trends and framed them by discussing the value of customer experience and Voice of the Customer programs.

He is reminding us to evaluate these practices in light of their firm’s customer experience ecosystem. Not all companies will benefit by implementing every item on this list. Rather, when evaluating a new activity, make sure it links to an important customer interaction or moment of truth. Also consider how employees can be empowered and influenced with data and communication.

Why does customer experience matter?

Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart, said “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” Clearly, a company cannot succeed without customers.

Why is the Voice of the Customer important?

If the customer is your boss, the voice of the customer is your performance review. Neglect what he or she says and you are likely to be replaced – by your competition.

Why are VoC Programs important?

Focused VoC programs improve the customer experience by acting on feedback and making systemic improvements across the company. These programs help change company culture via the sharing of customer stories, providing recognition, and offering rewards around customer-centric behavior. Finally, successful VoC programs deliver business results by increasing loyalty and retention, lowering service costs, and increasing sales.

Andrew observed that many trends first seen in 2010 continued throughout 2011. In addition, following are six (6) new trends demonstrated by the finalists and winners of Forrester’s 2011 VoC Awards:

Tailoring VoC activities for specific customer segments. In 2011, many programs included the powerful element of tailored customer communication and activities. Activities were customized for frequency, content, and level of personalization. For example, a B2B company may identify their customer segments as Executives, Managers, and End-users. Executives may require more one-to-one communication (phone calls, site visits) at a lower frequency. In contrast, the end-user may receive more frequent communication requiring less personalization (surveys, newsletters).

Adobe Systems invites customers to share product ideas via an online portal; product suggestions are then demoted and promoted by the votes of other customers. Feedback from the Adobe product teams is provided through the portal so customers know the status of their idea submissions.
Measuring the value of an improved customer experience in general. Good VoC programs regularly measure the overall value of customer experience efforts, most often linking customer feedback scores to loyalty and revenue. This measurement proves that customer experience and VoC are important – and relevant.

Adobe Systems brought together customer feedback with customer lifetime value data to statistically demonstrate that the most loyal customers were also at the higher end of customer lifetime value.
Proving the value of the VoC program specifically. By linking interventions with cost, retention, and/or revenue, a VoC program proves that it directly drives value. Value can also be driven indirectly by linking the outcomes of VoC-initiated projects to business results.
Bringing the VoC to life for back office employees. It takes an entire company to serve customers well. In addition to front-line employees, back office teams – such as billing, legal, finance, IT, and marketing – make decisions that directly impact customer experience. VoC leaders can align employee behavior around VoC through a number of ways, including variable compensation and performance evaluations.

Programs must bring VoC to life for all employees by creating a motivational, emotional connection to the VoC program. Intel gives every employee in the company two days off if they reach their “customer delight” goals. Adobe Systems built a customer listening post room; employees can visit and immerse themselves in customer feedback. Twitter comments, survey feedback, and call center data displays – in real-time – on television screens in what is, essentially, a customer NOC. Talk about being dedicated to the customer cause!
Building networks of VoC champions. VoC programs need four levels of ownership: Executive Sponsors, VoC teams, VoC Champions, and everyone else! As an example, Forrester’s award winners were very active in building VoC Champion teams in 2011. While the role and definition of “VoC Champions” varies from one company to the next, they are typically delegates from each business area who understand the operations of their team—and know what the VoC team is doing. They are able to articulate the importance of customer-centric behavior to other team members while bringing the voice of the customer into all business process improvement activities.
Aligning key functions around VoC insight and action. In 2011, VoC leaders engaged other business functions in VoC activities. They aligned closely with Business process (for organizational and procedure improvements), Market Insights (for survey design and analysis), and Customer Intelligence (for mining customer databases combining operational and behavioral data with feedback). This alignment demonstrates increased sophistication of VoC programs as they drive strategic initiatives and increase value for the organization.

Moments of Truth for Customer Experience Management

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:54:00 +0000

Despite spending significant sums on studying and improving customer experience, many companies are simply not seeing the customer loyalty they want.

By Eleanor Bloxham, CEO of The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance. Published on the Fortune blog.

FORTUNE -- What company doesn't want customers to have a positive reaction when they think about doing business with it?

But despite spending significant sums on studying and improving customer experience, many companies are simply not seeing results, according to a recent survey of 8,000 customer experience professionals in 2,160 companies globally by consultancy Beyond Philosophy. The findings provide a road map any company can use to court new and repeat customers.

According to Steven Walden, research director at Beyond Philosophy, companies in retail, banking, technology, and telecommunications tend to spend the most on so-called customer experience initiatives. Yet of the top 10 spenders, only one made a top 10 list of successes, according to the survey.

What are companies doing right and, just as importantly, what are they doing wrong?

'Lipstick on a pig'

HP and Dell are two of the top 10 spenders on customer experience – and they do a fair job, but not what you would expect based on the cost and effort, Walden argues. What haven't they figured out?

Both companies provide a standard product that "does what it says on the tin," Walden says. They both have big organizations and spend dollars on thinking about the customer, but this is mainly from the perspective of usability, functionality, and fixing what's broken. From a customer perspective, "there's no wow there," Walden says, it's more about "putting lipstick on a pig."

A case of 'measurementitis'?

Other companies get it wrong by resorting to "measurementitis," says Walden. This often happens when a software vendor comes knocking and convinces a company that the way to improve customer experience is to measure every interaction with its customers. HSBC, another top 10 spender, is guilty of this, Walden says.

The problem with this approach is that companies will measure loyalty but then won't act on their findings. Why would they do this? Measurement instead of real action can be a draw for managers who want to create fiefdoms, Walden says. You can build a sizable team under you just by measuring things, but "you can't make a pig thin by weighing it," he says.

Customer surveys – or employee surveys, for that matter -- that result in no action are much worse than having no survey at all. It just fuels anger to ask people to state their complaints and take no action based on the results.

Turning a new leaf

By contrast, American Express (AXP), another top spender, is on its way up largely because they are concentrating their efforts on providing a "good feel" when customers call. The company has begun to stem its loss of customers, says Walden.

The Gap, another top spender, has even put the term "customer experience" into the titles of its in-store workers, but that has yet to improve the company's image.

Vodafone is the only top spender that also made the most admired ranking in Beyond Philosophy's survey. How did they do it? According to Walden, they maintain a great brand image through their sponsorship of the Formula 1 auto racing events.

"Customer experience is at the heart of everything they do; it's in the culture and DNA of the organization. It comes from the top down. Like HP, Vodafone may not be massively innovative, but they operate from this clear statement of intent -- in contrast to HP, where customer experience is a program," Walden says.

Using emotion well

Who does it really well without spending a ton? Tesco makes it because of "the strength of the relationship they create with the customer, as if you are part of their family," Walden says.

This contrasts with Wal-Mart , which is currently having trouble defining itself to customers and the marketplace. Even Family Dollar Stores, Walden says, recognizes that price alone won't draw all the customers a retailer needs. How customers feel about the company matters.

Which brings us to the top three most admired companies: Apple, Amazon, and Zappos. What do all three have in common? Charismatic leaders with a young feel to the product and delivery, Walden says. They have maverick, cutting edge approaches -- and don't just listen to customers, they lead them. They are creative and don't get bogged down in analytics, he says. Customers love these companies because of the personal feel and emotional connection they provide, Walden says, and emotions not only connect you to the company, it makes you want to buy from them as well.

For Apple, the most admired in the survey, the question will be whether they can replicate the explicit attention to detail the late CEO Steve Jobs instilled.

Clearly, it's easier to create personal feel and emotional connection in a small company rather than a large one but, Walden says, Apple in the 1990s would not have made the most admired list. Jobs set out to change that – and CEOs can. They just need to know how – and maintain that focus, gaining support for their vision and holding everyone associated with the company accountable.

Customer Service Through Social Media: The game has changed

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:58:00 +0000

States Harry Rollason of Useful Social Media: The rise of social media has changed customer service beyond recognition.

In today’s competitive landscape, customer service is more important than ever. A company’s reputation for satisfying their customers has never been so valuable.

It’s worth pointing out that it takes three times as much internal resources to acquire a new customer as it does to retain one. In these lean times it puts an awful lot of pressure on companies to ensure retention rates are as high as possible. And good customer service is a great tool to do this.

But are companies getting it? Does it look like big corporates are responding to this change in the landscape?

The short answer is no:

Over 58% of tweeters who have tweeted about a bad experience have never received a response from the offending company
55% of consumers expect a response the same day to an online complaint – yet only 29% receive one
43% of consumers say that companies should use social media to solve customers’ problems

These statistics lay out clearly how the game has changed. Customers will no longer be happy with ‘old style’ customer service. To satisfy your customers, it’s essential to have a responsive social media presence.

To be fair, things are changing. By the end of the year, 75% of US-based companies expect to use social media for customer service. It’s a reaction to the changing game. Gone are the days when social media was all about marketing through Twitter and Facebook. It’s now an integral tool to ensure you are responsive not reactive, contactable not aloof and authentic not robotic. And increasingly, it’s about solving customer’s issues in real time through social channels, showing your dedication and transparency to your customers.

B2B Customer Experience Scores Are Low And Excuses Ring Hollow

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Forrester's Paul Hagen posted this blog entry

The customer experience for companies doing business with other companies stinks. Three independent studies that Forrester Research has conducted over the past year indicate that the business-to-business (B2B) experience is perceived as worse than that in the bottom-of-the-barrel consumer industries such as TV service providers and health insurance plans in Forrester’s 2011 Customer Experience Index. This is not surprising for several reasons. Many B2B firms believe that customer experience is something that only consumer-focused firms like Disney, Zappos, and Ritz Carlton need to consider. Moreover, many B2B companies argue that purchasing decisions are made for a complex set of reasons other than customer experience. Finally, they often say that because of the relatively low number of accounts, they already provide a personalized experience through account management teams.

Firms making these rationalizations miss several important points. First, if word of mouth is important to sales, then so is customer experience. Forrester’s consumer research shows that only 23% of individuals trust radio and TV ads — and only 19% trust direct mail — while 73% trust recommendations of friends and family. There is little reason to believe that the numbers are much different for B2B. And while Facebook may not amplify opinions, social media tools used for professional networking in online communities certainly do. Second, firms that have poor experiences with other firms buy less. The experience design company, Walker Information, finds that firms whose customers are trapped spend significantly less, grow more slowly, and have lower gross margins than those that are truly loyal. Forrester’s research suggests similar outcomes, with strong correlations between customer experience ratings and likelihood to purchase again, recommend, and switch. Third, customer experience is not limited to the customer-facing employees, such as account managers and call center representatives, or the contract holders at the client’s company. Rather, the end-to-end experience often includes interactions driven by back-office employees that make life difficult and frustrating for important stakeholders who could drive future business at the client firm.

Improving the B2B customer experience from its dismal state is more than a marketing effort. After all, marketing only owns a small portion of all of the interactions with customers. Companies such as John Deere, Maersk Lines, Fidelity, Philips Electronics, and Intuit understand this and as a result have significant B2B customer experience efforts under way. While in some respects the B2B experience is more complex than the business-to-consumer (B2C) environment (e.g., diverse stakeholders within a client), other issues with partners, resellers, agents, and other intermediaries that impact or even deliver the experience are very similar. In fact, the best practices that the best B2C firms use apply to B2B firms. Best practices include:

Defining the intended experience for the target customer. As experience design firm Beyond Philosophy puts it: “To improve customer experience implies you are somewhere today and you are heading somewhere else. The strategic question is ‘where?'” To get started, firms need to define who exactly they mean by the customer . . . something all the more important for B2B companies, which have many stakeholders inside of a client. One manufacturer found that it had 26 personas across departments just to describe those maintaining purchased equipment within client firms. Some were upward of 10 years old, and all were at varying stages of development. By rationalizing these down to just a handful of well-developed personas based on behavior rather than departmental role, those redesigning the experience — a cross-functional team that included employees as diverse as engineers, contact center staff, and account managers — created a common vocabulary and target to work on. Another B2B firm, in trying to decide for which stakeholder within its client base it should prioritize, realized that concentrating on improving the experience for lower-level logistics clerks would swing much more business its way than improving the customer experience for higher-level contract managers.

Understanding the customer perspective. The most challenging aspect to improving the customer experience is for firms to shift to outside-in thinking in which employees put themselves in customers’ shoes, rather than today’s inside-out mindset that focuses primarily on narrowly defined internal metrics. Common experience design practices, such as behavioral personas, customer journey maps, and voice of the customer (VoC) programs, can help turn this around. Export Development Canada’s customer journey map for its insurance group found more than 35 internal handoffs between departments across 14 customer touchpoints with little consistency in total time to completion. The group used journey (value stream) maps to focus project teams and Lean methodologies for aligning internal business, processes, people, and systems. The result was a 60% reduction in processing time with improved predictability, a 24% increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS), and reduced waste.

Aiming to change the culture. Firms serious about improving the experience realize that a cultural transformation needs to take place. Key practices such as recruitment and hiring, onboarding and training, internal communications and storytelling, performance metrics, and rewards and recognition systems aimed at changing the beliefs and behavioral norms of internal employees can similarly be applied to partners, resellers, agents, and other third parties that affect the B2B customer experience.

The widely divergent range of customer experience scores that B2B firms achieve in Forrester’s studies today suggest there is a lot of room to differentiate based on customer experience. And that could translate into big dollars. In the B2C space, Forrester estimates that a 10-point increase in its Customer Experience Index score can amount to up to $1.5 billion. But changing culture isn’t easy. Those that get the jump will create something that takes time and is hard to replicate.

Grow your Share of Wallet in multiple-supplier B2B accounts and boost profits

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:51:00 +0000

B2B Sales & Marketing Executives:

GROW YOUR SHARE OF WALLET IN MULTIPLE-SUPPLIER ACCOUNTS AND BOOST PROFITS

The case for growing Share of Wallet

In many of today’s stagnant or shrinking B2B markets growing through new customer acquisition may not be an option. It may at best be a
long-term option, with a high sales and marketing investment attached.

You need a profit growth option that is realistic, can be achieved at much lower cost than new customer acquisition, and in much shorter
time: Increasing Share of Wallet in existing multiple supplier accounts.

I have extensive experience in helping B2B companies systematically review key customer relationships in a multiple-supplier setting. Over the years I have been surprised by the frequently lacking knowledge of the Share of Wallet within an account, and if this share has
remained stable, increased or decreased.

While sales volumes might seem satisfactory, there is thus a real risk that a competitor is “eating the cheese off your sandwich”, without you knowing it.

Customer Satisfaction is a key driver of B2B Share of Wallet

The predictable myth that needs debunking is that Share of Wallet success in B2B is driven by price.

However, empirical research identifies four key drivers of Share of Wallet, with Customer Satisfaction at the top:

Customer Satisfaction
Trading Terms
Length of Relationship
Supplier Capability

The impact of Customer Satisfaction on Share of Wallet in B2B is three times as strong as the other drivers which have virtual equal impact.

Trading Terms is a strong driver of Customer Satisfaction and is undoubtedly also of high relevance.

How I can help you increase Share of Wallet in B2B accounts

As a seasoned customer service consultant with more than 25 years experience in some twenty industries I know my way around the critical issue to increasing Share of Wallet: Customer Satisfaction.

I developed and widely applied a process and methodology for reviewing key customer relationships with the purpose of turning them into High Value Relationships. In the process I conducted more than 400 executive interviews, mostly in person and also via telephone.

This is a “Fresh Eyes relationship X-ray process” that helps you see hidden flaws:

Determine strengths and weaknesses and develop competitive benchmarks, with a focus on customer satisfaction.
Bolster your relationship with key customers and increase Share of Wallet.
Prevent unnecessarily losing a key customers (what would the cost be?).
Demonstrate how you value this customer.
Design a strategic account management plan.

Is this an expense or an investment?

If you consider this as an investment and you pilot this process, you are advised to ask yourself:

“What is the dollar value of this account? If I invest X amount of dollars (typically less than $10,000) in an in-depth review process, what are my chances that I will not be able to increase enough Share of Wallet to break even?”

My experience has been that without exception this process always provides a positive experience and my clients had no problems acting on the information and recouping their investment.

Most important is to know or discover how easy it is to pilot this process and if it works for you!

The upwards potential is significant, while the investment is low.

Visit my website for more information about me or contact me for a no-obligation phone conversation or request a service brochure with details.

Can you improve customer service and profitability by Exorcising Demon Customers?

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:17:00 +0000

During the many customer service improvement workshops I have conducted I have often heard participating front employees observe the difficulties and dilemmas of dealing with those difficult customers that always require extra attention and firefighting and who never seem to have their own act together. The squeeky wheels get the grease, but these customers take up time and resources that could much better be spent on building the relationships with "good" customers. The question is often asked: Can't we fire customers?
I think so!

You have to keep a special eye on those customers you want to wean from your business. Deal with the bottom-feeders first to immediately free up additional resources to help support your more profitable customers.

And then there are the customers that on the surface seem important customers. But are they???

I like this [abbreviated] blog posting by Bruce Hunter of Lighthouse 360 who puts a great perspective on this issue. He also introduces the notion that using Activity Based Costing to establish the Cost To Serve is an enlightening practice to help make those difficult decisions about exorcising customers.

An Evil Myth

The unfortunate reality is that most demon customers, on the surface, seem like everyone else. In fact, they may themselves be unaware of their true nature. But take it from me: demon customers exist, you've probably got 'em, and even as we speak they may be sucking the lifeblood out of your company. The sooner you are able identify and exorcise them, the sooner your business will benefit.

Easier said than done, right? A while back, I stared across a conference table at a group of radio executives and wondered how to tell them that the last national account they had scored was a loser. These were hard-knock sales folks who knew their industry and knew how to chase down leads and convert them into time blocks sold. For years, their philosophy had been "any customer is a good customer." It was my unenviable task to educate them that this old truism was not, in fact, true.

Their situation wasn't unique. Years before, I had assumed the leadership of another business organization that had developed along similar lines. Culturally, the group had bought into the notion that the bigger the customer, the better. Not only did they bring in money, they also provided a certain cache simply by being a customer - that would, reasoned the groupthink, surely bring in even more big customers.

That organization had succumbed to an evil myth. Not only is bigger not necessarily better, in most cases we discovered that these mega-customers were actually bad for business. (I know. It didn't make sense to them, either - at first.) To prove it, I conducted a customer profitability study that forced us to take an inventory of all of our customer-related costs and where they were being applied.

I have often had the occasion to cast my eyes upward and give thanks for the folks from the finance department. This was one of those times. They performed a bottom-up exercise called "activity-based costing" that aligned the right costs to the right customers. Before that, costs had been averaged out across the customer base in the belief that it provided a decent view of the costs associated with each customer. As it turns out, that was a fundamentally flawed belief.

What emerged from this financial exercise was a very different view of the customer base. To widespread surprise, we saw that some of our largest customers were actually our "worst" profit performers. They sucked vital resources in terms of the people dedicated to the business, they were the most demanding in terms of price concessions, and they were quite low on business sustainability. They regularly required us to bid on projects, which resulted in more time and resources spent preparing the bid as well as the inevitable price concessions. (Think about it: when was the last time you were able to increase price and build margin through an RFP process?)

The People > Service> Profit Chain

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:35:00 +0000

I was asked to write a blog entry for DrakePulse which connects the HR community with Drake International. Here is what was published.

The companies with the sharpest customer focus and who have made this into a market differentiator typically enjoy an above average profitability. This is not anecdotal but supported by ample hard data. In other words: Sharper customer focus leads to a sharper competitive edge.

Their brand of customer service is however ingrained in everything these companies do and don’t do, in terms of: Processes, IT deployment, customer management and measurement, organizational leadership and people management. In other words, it is part of their “organizational DNA”.

In this context we often speak of the People>Service>Profit Chain. Tom Peters used to say that it takes turned on people to give turned on service. In the excellent organization everybody has a customer and is focused on partnering with customers, be it internally or externally.

All of this to say that it is requisite to success that everybody – and I mean everybody – in the organization has a high customer service aptitude. Skills can be trained but a person has the right “customer stuff” between the ears or not.

Hence my recommendation to any organization that is intent on (further) sharpening their customer focus, to the extent that it becomes a sustainable competitive advantage, needs to conduct pre-interview customer service aptitude testing and use passing this a first hurdle in the hiring process. Thus, eventually, the entire organization will be infused with people who all have an above average and pre-determined service aptitude and ethos.

There are tools for this measuring this. I have experience with a particular one that is soundly pedigreed and proven. In the U.S. this is at times deemed legally risky, but I have repeatedly been assured that this practice is do-able and it is being done. This has consistently been a success factor for South West Airlines.

If you want to make this profit chain work, my advice is: Do the right thing and do first things first in hiring.

Advice From Effective Voice of the Customer Leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 22:44:00 +0000

Every year the Voice of the Customer (VoC) Awards process gives Forrester's Andrew McInnes and his fellow judges the opportunity to explore the inner workings of the day's best VoC programs.

Here are the pieces of advice that this year's nominees provided for other organizations to learn from, grouped into common themes. Straight from the horses' mouths...

1. Do pursue executive sponsorship:

When the leader of the organization is paying attention to the customer and taking time to be educated by the customer, the rest of the company notices and emulates that behavior. --Midsize B2C software maker

We believe involvement at the top executive level has been a main driver of our success so far. --Large retailer

Don't wait for executive sponsorship to get started:

Don't wait for executive sponsorship to begin your VoC measurement and insight program. Much of your program's success will be driven by bringing tangible proof points to the table that serve to accelerate executives' appetite for more. --Midsize business services firm
Start small, and create advocates to help excite others throughout the organization. --Large retailer

2. Do engage employees at all levels of the organization:

Involvement across the board, from executives, to sales management, to account managers, will drive your success and maintain interest and excitement for the program. --Large B2B/B2C software maker

It is critical that the "voice of the employee" is also considered when defining the VoC program. --Midsize B2B software maker

Don't waste time chasing after resistors:

Don't waste your time on employees who resist you and challenge the data gathering methods - go towards the "yes" people. --Midsize B2B technology and services firm

Start small, and create advocates to help excite others throughout the organization. --Large retailer

3. Do communicate broadly about the program:

Giving the program a name/brand/identity brings the initiative to life. --Large B2B technology and services firm

One third of your program team's job is communication about the program and results. --Large B2B/B2C software maker

Don't forget to tell employees what's in it for them:

Any VoC program has to be in employees' language and enable them to see the results and ROI in order to get engaged. --Large B2B/B2C software maker

Understand how leaders across product and services make decisions, and ensure the metrics and reporting help leaders make those decisions wisely and efficiently. --Large airline

4. Do hold employees accountable:

By linking compensation to customer experience performance, you will make it clear that this initiative should be treated as a priority at all levels. --Large retailer

Build regular stakeholder review sessions into the process. --Large health plan

Don't just focus on problems:

Do not use guest feedback as a means to embarrass or penalize local management. Create the notion among employees that we want guest feedback. Don't fear it, embrace it. --Casual dining chain

Without proper attention, feedback can quickly become a succession of small, daily fires. Give at least an equal amount of time scaling successes as you do solving problems. --Quick-serve restaurant chain

5. Do use all of the insights at your disposal:

Embrace analytics and data patterns from information collected outside traditional VoC survey questions. --Large airline

A multifaceted voice of the customer effort must consist of a variety of formal and informal efforts, leveraging the latest communication tools to meet customers where they live and play. --Large B2B technology and services firm

Don't lose sight of the path to action:

Before moving forward with a specific VOC survey question, ask yourself, "Who owns this question? Who is accountable for the data?" --Quick-serve restaurant

Maintaining line of sight to the insights that your organization values and understanding the data that provides this insight can limit data scope creep and deliver business impact faster. --Large B2C financial services firm

6. Do quantify customer feedback:

It's extremely important to put in place some kind of measurement capability in order to separate hearsay from important opinion. --Large B2B technology and services firm

Do the analytical work to show how customer satisfaction has economic impact. --Large B2B/B2C technology and services firm

Don't remove the human element:

Listen to the customer's actual experience. If you see that a customer has noted they waited on hold for 15 minutes while an employee was assisting them - find the call and listen to it. --Midsize business services firm

Utilize customer journey mapping to make your customers' experiences real to the people in your organization not directly familiar with what customers actually experience. --Large B2B/B2C software maker

7. Do create consistency across business areas:

It is essential for an organization to have a single metric/approach, such as loyalty, that summarizes the health of the company's relationships and is proven to link with business success. --Large B2B technology and services firm

Unify the capability by bringing together all of the individuals capturing voice of customer data. --Large retailer

Don't sacrifice relevance with a one-size-fits-all approach:

Make certain to create a balance between consistent feedback touchpoints and regional customization to meet the needs of a diverse organization. --Large B2B manufacturer

Rather than make customer experience initiatives and activities a separate program or another item on the to-do list, try to seamlessly integrate it into the tools, systems, process and activities people follow every day. --Large B2B manufacturer

8. Do embrace technology to scale up:

Find a partner that has the same goals as you and can empower you with the information and tools necessary to be successful. --Large B2C services firm

Implement a VoC reporting application that is easy to use and helps with decision making. --Large airline

Don't let available tools stifle innovation:

Don't fall into traps where you don't experiment because "it won't scale." It's how to get ahead of the curve--technology will catch up! --Midsize B2C software maker

Customer Service Moments of Truth - A reminder of the basics

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:30:00 +0000

A lot has been written about customer service over the years and most of it is true. We have all read and, most importantly, learned the significance of customer service excellence from our own experiences. It really does make a difference in the performance of businesses. The Distributor Board reminded us in a recent posting of these tried and true basics, worth sharing.

Important Truths

We have used this over and over again: "You never get a 2nd chance to make a good 1st impression." In any business, that first impression starts with the first phone call, the first visit to your web site, the booth at the trade show, your Linked-In company profile, your magazine ads, drive into your parking lot, or any other place where you, as a company, are visible and active. For everything you need to ask the question, how is this informing or helping my customer or potential customer? How am I providing a service in whatever I am presenting or doing? What value is my organization providing during that first impression?

It was once said that, "Every time a service organization performs for a particular customer, the customer makes an assessment of the quality of the service, even if unconsciously. The sum total of the repeated assessments by the customer and the collective assessments by all customers establish in their minds the organization's image in terms of the service quality."

The worst thing that can happen to a distributor is not a failure, but rather how the distributor reacts to a failure. It is clear that a customer service problem that is resolved quickly and to the complete satisfaction of the customer will solidify the relationship with the customer. But this is not an area where repetition is good. Reducing the number of customer service problems should be the goal. According to Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke in Service America, written many years ago, but still valid today:

"Of the customers who register a complaint, between 54% and 70% will do business again with the organization if their complaint is resolved. That figure goes up to a staggering 95% if the customer feels that the complaint was resolved quickly"

If the customer is not satisfied, research finds that, "The average customer who has had a problem with an organization tells 9 to 10 people about it. 13% of people who have a problem with an organization recount the incident to more than 20 people." These numbers can be exponentially higher with today's multiplicity of interactive communication options.

Changed Environment

According to a Business Week article, "It's never been easier for customers to find the opinions of others to validate their product and service choices." Today's buyers have the entire Internet, filled with evaluations, assessments, and commentary that provides others with the ability to find out about you and your products. Distributors today cannot hide. If your service to customers is not 100% all the time, someone, someplace will be talking and/or writing about it for the entire world to know. That's scary!

In a recent Citrix white paper entitled, Improving Customer Retention and Satisfaction by Delivering Exceptional Customer Support, they stated:

"In today's connected world, a bad opinion about service can be amplified quickly. In fact, customers are likely to share a bad experience with many others via word of mouth and virally, through social networks and service evaluation sites. Research conducted by Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management on the influence of social media found there is a measurable connection between what is being said about a product in online posts and real time customer behavior and sales."

Many may discount this as "consumer environment," however, don't. The emerging, continually connected consumer today is the same person that works for your customer. The knowledge tools, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, etc., they use personally are often the same they will use to evaluate your products and service.

How to Fail

In the book, The Service Advantage, Albrecht and Bradford talk about:

"A moment of truth ... that precise instant when the customer comes into contact with any aspect of your business and, on the basis of that contact, forms an opinion about the quality of your service and potentially, the quality of your product."

You make promises every day with your customers and potential customers. Fulfilling those promises are the "moments of truth" for your customers. It's OK to be out of stock, but don't sell something and then call later and tell the customer you are out-of-stock or, worse yet, don't decide to not call at all and fail to deliver. This is where failure happens. Your key to success is making certain this never happens by focusing your entire organization on making sure every promise is kept all the time.

Empowering People

We heard the other day these ten, two-letter words that I believe says it all, "If it is to be, it is up to me." If your organization has this service attitude, magic can happen. To have this attitude they must be empowered to act and be trained to act to the benefit of the customer and in turn your organization. Training is critical. It is a process, not an event and therefore needs to be on-going.

Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke, Service America said,

"If a company that is supposed to be operating in a service industry has a department called 'The Customer Service Department,' what are all the other departments supposed to be doing? Might it be that having a customer service department signals to the other people in the company that the customer is being properly looked after, and that they need not concern themselves with the matter? Shouldn't the entire organization be one large customer service department, at least figuratively speaking?"

How to make it Happen

In this ever changing environment, the Owner, President, or CEO is the key to customer service success. Troops take direction from the leader. If customer service is a top down imperative, if keeping the promises you make at all levels of the organization is mandatory, outstanding customer service will occur. The CEO must focus on infusing this culture across the organization.

Beyond the strategy, there are 3 key tactics for success: people, processes and technology. Perhaps Glenn Dobson of Citrix said it best,

"Companies with the most effective, loyalty-inducing customer service equip their representatives with the tools and skills to resolve problems."

The skills come from training and experience. The tools are the vast array of technology that can be deployed. The goal is to have a "consistent" experience across the many points of entry to your company. Some of the customer service tools that need to be consistent and that all distributors should either be using or considering include:

Live Chat
Push to Talk
Video Product Demonstrations
Live On-line Demonstrations
Phone Conferencing
Video Phone Calls and Conferencing
Email Communications
Customer Relationship Management Solutions (CRM)
Knowledge Sharing Systems
Web Site and eCommerce

The keys to customer satisfaction success are: to utilize technology that will help you know your customer; technology that lets the customer know you; interactive communication systems; and adaptability to change rapidly as new systems and processes evolve, because they will!

In a recent Customer Relationship Management magazine article titled, The Next 15 Years of CRM, they stated that,

"Advances in people, process and technology over the past 15 years have helped make customer relationships deeper and more meaningful. But the next 15 years will deliver innovation at a much faster pace and organizations will only survive by embracing meaningful two-way dialogue with increasingly mobile customers."

Conclusion

In one of the Customer Service classics, by Carl Sewell & Paul B. Brown, Customers for Life, they say,

"If you're good to your customers, they'll keep coming back because they like you. If they like you, they'll spend more money. If they spend more money, you want to treat them better. And, if you treat them better, they keep coming back and the circle starts again."

Yesterday, today and tomorrow's successful distributor exists because of their focus on the service they perform for their customers. The difference then, now and tomorrow are the tools and the application of those tools to the company's processes. You should be assessing your technology to determine how well it helps your people in developing deeper and more meaningful relationships with your customers. Rest assured, your best competitors are looking at ways to improve their relationships with customers. Some of those customers might be yours!

One final quote comes from an ad that Bill Marriott ran many years ago and is ever more meaningful today. This lends itself to most any business and certainly to any distributor.

More than flashy architecture

More than razzle-dazzle décor

More than culinary fireworks

More than triple sheeted beds

A business traveler needs one simple thing

Service, the ultimate luxury

It begins the moment you call

Six common reasons why ‘customer centricity’ initiatives fail

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:34:00 +0000

Richard Whitely is the author of The Customer-Driven Company, Customer-Centered Growth, Love the Work You’re With and, most recently, The Corporate Shaman. He is a co-founder of The Forum Corporation. Richard is a long-time consultant and advisor of UP! Your Service, on whose blog he published this insightful entry.

Over the many years of working with organizations to help them become ‘customer centered’, I have witnessed a number of successes as well as failures. By understanding why these well-intentioned initiatives fail and looking for common causes we are able to address them early in the planning process for future initiatives and thus increase the odds of success.

The six most common reasons for failure I have seen throughout my career are these:

1. Past Success

“Nothing fails like success.” In a moderately successful organization, when things are running “well enough”, senior managers do not want to risk their careers by championing a new way of being. They realize that changing the culture of an organization is like changing its DNA and they simply don’t want to take that on.

Lou Gerstner, reflecting on his turnaround at IBM said, “Organizations don’t change because people don’t want to change,” and all too often those “people” are the ones at the top.

In the absence of enlightened leadership that sees new opportunities, a burning platform is needed to create the motivation to set out in a new direction. There has to be a compelling and widely understood reason for change without which people will give significant lip service backed up by woefully little real action as they just go through the motions phantom change.

2. Uncommitted Leaders

I have never met a senior executive who says “Customers? Who needs them!?” Every leader knows how important it is to clearly identify customer segments, understands their needs and deliver solutions consistently and reliably.

Most leaders, however, do not demonstrate the level of commitment required. They are not the role models we need to see. Successful leaders, on the other hand, dive into the details and take full responsibility for creating an engaging environment where every individual is willing and able to fulfill the vision and mission of the organization.

3. No Voice of the Customer

In this case the organization is not “hardwired” to its customers and prospects. Important service and product decisions are based on assumptions and 2nd or 3rd hand information. The few powerful metrics that have the greatest impact on the successful execution of the organization’s strategy are all too often either not measured or, if measured, not shared with all employees.

4. Organizational Silos

In the increasingly complex environments in which we work today, no single job, department or function can succeed without significant levels of collaboration.

“Lateral listening,” and working closely with internal service partners are vital to making and keeping marketplace promises. This is the foundation of building a successful ‘customer-centered’ service culture and yet all too often inappropriate incentives drive us to withhold information and compete internally.

5. Inadequate Education

Senior executives often get all pumped up and excited by the allure of being customer centered. They then announce to all employees that the game is now about making customers happy and that everyone should do a better job in this area.

The big mistake these executives make is to believe that improving customer service is simply a matter of announcing that there is a new game and after that it is merely an employee attitude and motivation issue.

What they fail to realize is that while mindset matters, great service needs great skillsets, too. The new service behaviors required for success definitely require thoughtful, targeted education. In most cases they are not innate or natural. Management can provide generous incentives or onerous threats to shape employee behavior but without proper training such actions will not move the customer delight needle one bit. In effect they are incentivizing people to do things they are not yet able to do. Proper training is required.

6. “It’s not my job”

Executives and employees alike often believe that just because the organization has a customer satisfaction department or a marketing team that gathers customer data, “customer service” is taken care of and they don’t have to worry about it.

Successful organizations realize that delighting customers is every employee’s job. And when one embraces the concept of the internal customer, it is clear that everyone in the organization has at least one “real” customer who relies on him/her to provide a product or service that is vital to delighting an external customer somewhere down the line.

Which of these common reasons for failure might be lurking inside your organization? The first step to preempt them from derailing your efforts to become a customer centered organization is to recognize and admit that they might exist. The second step is to audit each of the six common reasons and determine the extent to which each of them might be an inhibiting factor for your organization. This might best be done in a group using a 5 point scale (0=not a problem, 5=major issue) to determine the degree each of the six will need corrective action. And, of course, the last step is to identify and take the corrective action.

Customer Focus: How to Make It Happen

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:02:00 +0000

Graham Clark sees it my way. He is a senior lecturer at the Cranfield School of Management in the UK [Note that this post is in British English]

It seems such a simple equation; good customer service equals good business. And yet this patently isn’t played out in practice, as all of us have experienced. So what does it take to be a customer focused organisation?

For many years I have examined successful customer focused organisations, as well as those organisations that have tried and failed. Although we may have an ambition to be customer focused, putting the customer at the centre of all we do, we tend to concentrate on our own activity rather than customer requirements. There is a tendency to drive for outputs rather than outcomes. In other words, it is common to focus on what we do as an organisation rather than what it means for our customers. The result is that even though our intentions are sound, somehow our practice does not turn out as intended. Another common challenge for customer focus is an emphasis on efficiency or cost reduction. In the process of striving for efficiency it is all too easy to lose the essence of what the customer really wants, rather than what we do for them.

In a restaurant, everyone may get fed, but have they had the desired service experience? So how do we put matters right and give customers what they really want?

A lot of customer success is down to consistently hard work; we live in a world that is always looking for the quick fix, the simple panacea that will make it alright for the moment. What we need to do is to go back to basics, defining very clearly what customers really are looking for and what are they buying from us.

Sometimes I describe organisations looking through their inside out lens, versus the outside in lens. We are very good at the inside out: "this is what we do, please love us"; rather than the outside in: "this is what you want from us in terms of outcomes, benefits and across-the-total experience". In the process of cost cutting, organisations often lose sight of the essential customer experience component.

However, not every organisation is losing their focus on the customer; so what is it that makes the difference in giving consistently great customer service? Southwest Airlines Is an excellent example. They know that service is all about relationships; successful organisations are removing the barriers to forming strong and enduring relationships throughout their organisation. They work hard all the way through their network of relationships – not just at the end point of contact with customers and those moments of truth. Emphasis needs to be placed all down the chain, making sure that the relationships are working and working well.

My key message is not to rely on one or two service heroes to provide great service-though we need those heroes, people who love the customer to bits and really go the extra mile for them. Great service is service which is delivered consistently through the network of relationships which starts right at the very beginning and all the way to the end.

I recommend that organisations map at every point what is happening with the relationships. We used to refer to internal customers in the past, but I believe we should now emphasise relationships throughout the organisation– what do I give, what do I get back, how can we make it better? In this way you will re-evaluate what is working and what is not working, so that you can continue to improve the experience of the customer.

It’s good to talk, not just to your customers, but throughout your whole organisation. In this way you are much more likely to retain that valuable and essential component, customer focus.

An App That Makes Customer Service Hold for You

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:24:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered, while you wait on hold for a customer service representative, if there was a way to get your problems resolved without spending your time listening to Muzak?

FastCustomer, an app for use on both iPhones and Android phones, aims to provide the answer. While it clearly has some bugs to be ironed out (particularly the Android version, which is in beta and will be upgraded later this month), it seems to be a promising tool.

Aaron Dragushan, FastCustomer’s co-founder and a self-described “computer science dropout turned entrepreneur,” says he got the idea while waiting on hold for customer service at Comcast. “After 20 minutes, I thought, ‘We live in an age of technological innovation, and yet we sit on hold!’”

Why, he wondered, couldn’t a company’s computers “hold hands” with another computer, and put the live people in touch when they were both ready?

Thus was born FastCustomer. Here’s how it’s supposed to work: You download the app onto your phone. When you click on it, a menu of companies appears (there’s more than 2,500 currently listed, including all of the Fortune 500, he says). When you select one, the app tells you to go about your business while it calls the company for you.

When FastCustomer’s automated phone call reaches a customer service representative, Mr. Dragushan said, it tells them, “Please press 1 for your next customer.” Then, assuming the representative presses the button, the app calls you back and links you to the representative.

Sometimes, he admitted, because the service is new, or the representative doesn’t want to wait even briefly, he or she hangs up. But in the vast majority of calls, he said, the representative presses 1, and your call proceeds. (Plus, if one representative hangs up, he says, the app calls back until it gets one who will play ball.)

It happens that I’ve been meaning to call two companies: Netflix, and Cox Cable. A bad electrical storm knocked out our Internet service a while back, and I hadn’t gotten around to resetting the wireless link with our Wii terminal, which allows us to watch Netflix shows on our television. I’d been dragging my feet in part because I wasn’t sure which company to call first for advice. Plus, I couldn’t seem to find the time to locate the proper customer service numbers. So, FastCustomer seemed well worth a try.

The app downloaded quickly onto my Android phone, and the service worked smoothly after I selected Cox from the list. Within three minutes, my phone rang; it was a live Cox representative, asking (somewhat suspiciously, I thought) if I had called. (Why, yes, I did!) I described my problem. She suggested a solution that I agreed to try. Pretty painless.

The Netflix call didn’t go as well. It started out the same way. I got a quick call back. But the voice on the phone was automated. The recorded voice asked me if I was satisfied with Netflix’s service, and directed me to press 1 if I was. I thought that it wasn’t Netflix’s fault that lightning zapped our router, so I pressed 1. Big mistake. “Thank you for your feedback,” the voice said. “Goodbye.” Then it hung up.

Mr. Dragushan said he was not sure what the problem is with Netflix, but he took the company off the app’s menu while he investigates the situation. In some cases, he said, as with Comcast, for instance, the company’s computers block calls from FastCustomer. He said he didn’t believe it was because the company didn’t want to take calls from FastCustomer. It is more likely because the computers see hundreds of calls from a single, toll-free phone number, and register them as some sort of nuisance attack. The company plans to switch to a non-800 telephone number, he said, which should help things go more smoothly on the receiving end.

E-mail inquiries to Comcast and Netflix weren’t answered.

So far, the app has been downloaded about 20,000 times. Ultimately, Mr. Dragushan said, he thinks companies will welcome FastCustomer’s service. “We’re providing such a clear benefit— handing them a caller who isn’t furious for waiting on hold.”

FastCustomer aims to earn revenue by eventually selling premium services for a fee, or by selling analytical data to the companies it calls, so they can better evaluate their customer service.

You can try out FastCustomer with a test call (which features a message from Mr. Dragushan’s 4 year old, urging you to “Never wait on hold again!”), or with a real company, as I did. If you do, let us know how it goes.

Source: New York Times blog

9 Customer Service Principles Essential for Any Business

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:21:00 +0000

How do you apply your customer service principles in practice? Did you even list your principles?

Customer service is paramount for every business, whether it´s online or offline. That´s why customer service principles are so important.

Being a member of an online service provider (Karma CRM), Sarika Periwal knows what it means to apply them.

I agree with his Principles, but if had written them I would have called the first one Leadership and embedded commitment in it. This is the most critical one: No organization rises above the level of its Leaders.

—–

The customer is king for a company and to keep him happy and satisfied is the main aim of any solvent business. So how do you organize your company customer care services in such a manner that this all important goal is met?

You follow a set of essential customer service principles which allows you to keep your customer satisfied with the minimal of fuss.

1. Commitment – is required to serve the customer well at all levels. You need top management, middle management and supervisors to be just as committed as the actual individuals who come in touch with the client.

2. Credibility – a man’s word can make or break his personality. If the man delivers on his promises consistently his credibility increases over a period of time and so does his reputation. With a company it is no different. The credibility needs to be built by building trust with the customers.

3. Culture – the customer service ethos needs to be a built-in part of the company culture. The fact is that no company can survive without their customers and it needs to be driven into the heads of all employees of the company. Without any customers the company and their means of employment will not exist.

4. Competency – of the staff play an important role in keeping a good customer service ethos. The staff that is chosen during recruitment should fit in with the company’s vision. They should then be trained in the way the company does business and be assessed doing the job at frequent intervals. That way the staff of the company stays competent.

5. Responsibility – is the key. There must be one consistent authority within the company who is responsible for all customer service issues. There needs to be a clear head to approach within the company who is entitled to take decisions instantly in given customer issues.

6. Resources – are vital. No one can work without the right tools. Imagine sewing a button on a shirt without a needle. It can’t be done. So what the company needs to ensure is that there are always adequate resources available for the policies to be followed effectively.

7. Quality – as long as your product and service provides the customer with consistent quality there is little to fear. However a constant effort must be made to give the customers relevant inputs and review their reactions to hone your company systems.

8. Feedback – while the feedback from customers is important there is one aspect of feedback most companies tend to neglect. That is the collection of feedback from the employees who are dealing with the customers. There is so much your own staff can tell you if you would just care to listen.

9. Continual Improvement – is required to meet and exceed the expectations of the customer. The identification and management of all customer service issues is what helps the company to grow not just its customer base but also its reputation and profits.

Great service does not always lead to customer loyalty

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:01:00 +0000

From the blog of consultant Mitchell Osak.

Conventional wisdom says that consistently providing service excellence will deliver high levels of retention. According to new research from the Harvard Business School, this is not always the case. Companies that offer high levels of customer satisfaction may still experience loyalty problems if competition offers even better service. In fact, the research suggests that the customers you think are your most loyal are likely to be the first to jump ship when a challenger to your service superiority enters the market.

The researchers, Harvard Professors Dennis Campbell, Frances Frei and doctoral student Ryan Buell explored the link between service levels, customer loyalty, and competitive strategy in the U.S.banking sector. The 2002 to 2006 study analyzed data collected from a large U.S.domestic bank that competed in more than 20 states.

The study’s findings confirmed some earlier research on the impact of corporate and service strategy on retention. In a nutshell, companies who generate high customer satisfaction scores remain at risk when competition raises the service stakes. Conversely, the research indicates that firms rated low in service quality are relatively immune to premium competitive service offerings.

The reasons for these counter-intuitive findings have a lot to do with the customer expectations established in part by the incumbent provider. The longer a firm has held a service advantage in a local market, the more sensitive are its customers to it service levels relative to those of competitors. Given their higher expectations, service-driven customers are more willing to try other firms and products that trumpet and deliver service excellence.

Despite these conclusions, managers should be mindful of throwing out the service baby with the bath water when setting strategy. The study found that even though high-end customers can be fickle, a company can still attract and retain customers in a variety of markets with a superior customer experience. There are a number of ways to do this:

Avoid complacency

Firms can avoid resting on its service laurels by staying abreast of customer needs, focusing on continuous improvement initiatives and proactively investing to significantly enhance their customer service experience.

Consider each product category separately

Customers will trade off price and service depending on the product they are seeking and the importance they attach to it. In general, customers – in the long run – purchase the goods that represent their ideal combination of price and service. As such, delivering more service than is needed (or is willing to be paid for) would be sub-optimal.

Understand that service sensitivity varies by market…

According to the researchers, there are considerable differences in the type of customers you attract and retain between markets. This variance suggests that managers should tailor their service and marketing strategies depending on local market conditions, competitive threats and customer needs.

…But be wary of too much customization

Local market service strategies come with considerable costs in terms of operational complexity and brand dilution. Firms need to carefully weigh the pro and cons of service customization for each market.

Make it difficult to leave

If high service levels by itself won’t ensure loyalty maybe raising a customer’s switching cost or providing loyalty-based incentives would do the job. For example, managers could offer discounts for long term contracts, extend warranty periods or launch high-value loyalty programs.

How serious is your CEO about Customer Focus?

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:51:00 +0000

After 25 years in this business as a consultant I can only agree with all colleagues that leadership is at the heart of sustainable success. No organization shall rise above its leadership... I keep repeating this over and over again. I saw it confirmed in my own practice when for the first time in a long period I recently felt I had to resign a client relationship because the CEO just was not getting it, and thus most of his management team (not leadership team).

I read a post from author and consultant Jeanne Bliss (who I greatly admire) and realized how pertinent her detailed view on this issues is. Hence I decided to quote it below.

"I’ve never seen a CEO who wouldn’t sign up for customer loyalty, customer focus and just plain improving things for their customers. It’s getting them to drive the company to do something about it that’s the challenge. A number of telltale signs determine pretty quickly whether a company is serious about the job or not – beginning with the CEO and leadership and cascades all the way through the ranks of the company. Specific leadership actions occur in companies that have taken the commitment past lip service. Understanding customer issues and what drives customer loyalty become the stuff of everyday conversations. The issues are trended and understood and talked about. Building customer experiences and relationships is considered the true work of the organization – not something layered on the “real” work of achieving quarterly sales goals.

CEO’s that drive this work understand that it’s the inspiration, leadership and organizational change that are the sticking points in making progress.

CEO Has Personal Ownership

A CEO leader on a customer mission takes responsibility for driving value for customers and improving the customer experience. This is not something jobbed out to someone else to do. Although they will need a lieutenant to help drive the work (because they have an entire company to run after all), the CEO is an engaged and active participant.

Commitment Questions 1 and 2:

1. Does your CEO clearly articulate what he/she wants the company to become for customers and constantly reinforce and drive the company in that direction?

2. Is there a commitment for organizational transformation, not some one-off tactics and silver bullets?

The CEO Makes the Customer Champion an Officer of the Company

Because these leaders recognize that this is organizational transformation, they grasp completely that it will not happen with a public proclamation and a great kick-off memo (sad, but true, how many of us have received those?). It’s understood that they need an executive level partner to bring the transformation about.

The point about making the customer champion an officer is not an insignificant one. When the customer effort is considered a strategic priority, the work simply needs to reside at that elevated level. An officer level caliber leader is needed to drive the action and the company will take their cue about the work’s importance from the title in the organization box.

Commitment Questions 3 and 4:

3. Has the CEO layered this work onto someone’s already over-full plate, or is there recognition that this is a critical job for the organization that requires an immense time commitment?

4. Has the CEO ensured that the customer champion is an officer of the company with the full support and engagement of the CEO, leaders and the organization?

There is Clear and Regular Accountability for Customers

This is a huge sticking point for the work. CEO’s who get this demand regular accountability for the sole purpose of identifying and tracking progress with the customer agenda. The metrics and performance requirements are clear. Regular accountability means, for example; trending and tracking customer complaints by category and setting metrics for improvement. Regular accountability means that customer losses are understood and accounted for and explained. Regular accountability takes the key customer interaction points down to operational metrics which the CEO tracks as fervently as the number of products sold – because in those moments experiences are made or broken.

Commitment Questions 5 and 6:

5. Does your CEO actively hold people accountable for customer performance? Is there clarity in what’s expected and does the organization practice discipline around identifying what should be measured and managed?

6. Are forums for accountability regularly scheduled and enforced as a key strategic meeting for the success of the company?

They Provide Political Air Cover

Committed CEO’s provide the necessary political air cover to drive the work ahead. They bring around the non-believers of the customer effort. Because this work traverses across the organization, the CEO steps in when necessary to course-correct and drives the action when it stalls. These CEO’s don’t sweep the naturally competing silo priorities under the rug. They are acknowledged and the gnarly work is done to determine where the agreements must be made, where the compromises must be set, and where the new lines of accountability must be established.

Commitment Questions 7 and 8:

Does your CEO commit time and resources to be a solid partnership with the customer leader?
Does your CEO play an active role in understanding and participating in the rigor of aligning the company when necessary?

There is Corporate Patience for the Work to Take Hold

This work is not for the mild-hearted or the quarterly inclined. Everyone needs to understand that becoming a ‘customer’ company is a multiyear endeavor. They can’t bail in the first year because the results don’t come as simply and cleanly as seeing response rates on a marketing campaign, tracking sales goals or the number of hits on your website. The CEO must personally have the belief and commitment that this is the right course.

Commitment Questions 9 and 10:

Is your CEO committed to the timeline required (in the neighborhood of five years) and are they willing to suspend the usual short-term expectations of immediate results to have patience for the customer work to take hold and yield results?
Will they sustain the patience inside the corporation and with the board to stay the course so that results can be achieved?

They Demystify the Roadmap and Suspend the Disbelief

The corporate ‘Nay-Sayers’ will be quick to voice that this work has been tried before and failed. But committed CEOs have grasped all that and factored it in. And since it’s all been considered, there is a clear plan, an achievable plan that is laid out before the organization. A reality-based roadmap is established, funded, followed and followed up on.

Commitment Questions 11 and 12:

Are the stages, expectations and processes to drive the work identified realistically and planned so people understand the roadmap, where it is leading and why it is set forth?
Have the resources been applied so that the roadmap is grounded in the reality of what the company can achieve and fund?"

The 85/15 Rule: Get at the Root Causes of Poor Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:12:00 +0000

I am a fervent fan and former associate of author, speaker and consultant Jim Clemmer. He is insightful, pragmatic and accasionally coins some new expression such as "snoopervisor". He is about as pragmatic as I am.... here's what he wrote:

Last month I was approached by a misguided manager looking for training and motivation programs to “fix” their frontline service staff. This is a fairly wide spread and common problem showing a lack of understanding about basic customer service cause and effect. And it’s focused on treating symptoms rather than the underlying disease.

How reasonable would it be to hold a shipping dock worker responsible for the quality of the goods in the boxes he or she is shipping? Not only would that be unfair, it would be bad management. A good manager would argue, quite rightly, that the manufacturing process should be traced back to find the ultimate source of the defects.

So, how reasonable is it to hold the frontline server responsible for the quality of the products or services he or she is delivering? Sometimes poor service is their fault. Some servers are rude, sloppy, or uncaring. But most often the person on the front serving line is a symptom carrier, not the source of the problem. While he or she may be contributing to low service delivery, blaming him or her is also not only unfair but looking for answers in all the wrong places.

Even if poor service did originate with the service deliverer, who hires, trains, rewards, coaches, and measures that person? Like so much about culture, performance, and leadership it really is common sense; if you put a good person into a bad system, the system will win most of the time. This obvious observation has been proven so many times that it has become a truism called “The 85/15 Rule.” The 85/15 Rule shows that if you trace service breakdowns back to the root cause, about 85% of the time the fault lays in the system, processes, structure, or practices of the organization. Only about 15% of the service breakdowns can be traced back to someone who didn’t care or wasn’t conscientious enough.

But the last person to touch the process, pass the product, or deliver the service may be burned out by ceaseless service problems, overwhelmed with the volume of work or complaints, turned off by a “snoopervising” manager, out of touch with who his or her team’s customers are and what they value, unrewarded and unrecognized for their efforts, given shoddy materials, tools, or information, not given effective coaching and feedback, measured (and rewarded or punished) by results conflicting with his or her immediate customer’s needs, unsure of how to resolve issues and jointly fix a process with other functions, trying to protect themselves or their team from searches for the guilty, or not knowing where to go for help. All this lies within the system, processes, structure, or practices of the organization. And all this is a leadership, management, and culture issue.

Many of the manifestations of the “our staff are the problem” assumption stem from the all too common, but badly misguided, inclination to go on “seek and destroy missions” by asking “who” rather than “what” went wrong. Symptom carriers of the organization’s system and process problems are hunted down and hung by the neck on lampposts. The result is a culture of fixing the blame rather than the problem. This creates a culture of fear, cover your backside, and finger pointing. That’s clearly not a culture that creates higher customer service.

Treating symptoms can provide quick relief and make us feel like we’re fixing the problem. But until a management team is prepared to treat the underlying leadership and organizational root causes by applying The 85/15 Rule, they will be locked in a repeating loop of mediocre or poor customer service.

Customer Focus comes also from the inside out.

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:09:00 +0000

The immediate assumption when we talk about “improving customer service” is that we refer to the activities of customer-facing team members who directly “serve” our external customers, clients, buyers, suppliers, guests, users, attendees, diners, students, patients, etc.

And in fairness, most service education is indeed intended for those who “face” customers – improving the quality of service for those who pay for our services.

UPservice specialist and guru Ron Kaufman recently published this blog entry which I fully endorse. Also, my strategic partner for customer service training, Ray Miller of www.thetrainingbank.com takes a similar stance in his best selling book That is Customer Focus which I recommend. (See also the ads for this on my website)

"But seeing service improvement as mostly a frontline, customer-facing issue will not foster the development of an uplifting service culture where all employees embrace the goal of constantly adding value for others. It is by creating this value – inside and outside the company – that firms compete and grow. Thus a key component of building service culture is working closely with those on the inside – all the internal service partners who work and interact with each other to provide an organization’s products and services.

When someone serves a customer, there is a necessary chain of people behind them that support what they do and how they do it. Any weak link could cause the service provided to break down. The folks in IT, HR, Finance, or Legal. Those on the plant floor, in Facilities or Operations. Even temporaries hired for projects or to fill-in for absent workers.

If the quality of their service on the inside is lacking, how can their colleagues facing customers and clients be expected to provide highest quality service? If Sales needs a custom order in a hurry, it cannot happen if Production has no motivation to serve. How can a new team member be motivated to exceed if HR does not onboard or orient them with an exceptional service experience? Why should retail clerks go out of their way to help if managers don’t go out of their way to help them?

If you seek to change the quality of perception of your organization’s customer service, focus on the inside, too.

If you manage an internal department, here is an exercise to pose to your team. Imagine the work of your group has been spun off – outsourced – and you have formed your own firm to provide the same services: HR, Finance, Legal, IT, Facilities, etc. All of a sudden, those who you were serving on the inside are now on the outside. Given the service you were providing, would they hire you back? Should they? What would you change about your service you were providing to be sure you got the job?

Does your work look different to you now? How is the quality of your service when perceived objectively – or competitively – from the outside? What level of service are you providing? What level have you been receiving? How can it be improved? Are there processes that are broken, or don’t yet exist, that would ensure you provide better service? Are your leaders encouraging internal service excellence? Are you and your colleagues delivering it?

And what about all the other departments that also provide internal service? Remember, as you improve your service to others, you will earn the trust and respect of your colleagues. You will inspire them, and you can ask for the same quality of service in return."

The Customer Experience-Loyalty Connection

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fraterman - Customer Service Consultant) — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Known key facts from previous Foster research are:

While 56% of managers think they are customer-centric, only 12% of their customers agree.
81% of companies with strong capabilities and competencies for delivering customer experience excellence are outperforming their competition.

Now a new research report published by the Temkin Group, The Customer Experience-Loyalty Connection, finds a strong connection between improved customer experience and increased consumer loyalty-- leading to increased company revenue.

Based on a survey of 6,000 US consumers, Temkin Group found that consumers who have a good customer experience are more loyal to companies across all 12 industries included in the study: airlines, banks, credit card issuers, health plans, hotel chains, Internet service providers, insurance companies, investment firms, personal computer makers, retailers, TV service providers, and wireless carriers.

According to Bruce Temkin, author of the report and Managing Partner of Temkin Group, “Great customer experience isn’t just a nice thing to provide for customers; it’s a critical component for improving the bottom line by increasing customer loyalty.”

Key findings in the report include:

A modest improvement in customer experience can generate a three-year revenue boost between $308 million for retailers and $179 million for health plans for every $1 billion in revenues. The study identifies the revenue levels for all 12 industries.
Customer experience leaders have 10.8 percentage points more customers who are likely to recommend them compared to customer experience laggards.
Customer experience leaders have 12.7 percentage points more customers willing to buy from them compared to customer experience laggards.
Customer experience leaders have 14.1 percentage points fewer customers looking to switch away from them compared to customer experience laggards.

This report can be accessed from the Temkin Group website (www.temkingroup.com) or from a new Website called Temkin Ratings (www.temkinratings.com) where companies can download the detailed data from this research.