The Most Magical Customer Experience
What do you want to be when you grow up? I wanted to be a princess and live at Disney World with Mickey Mouse.
Blog: 'Customer Service' Posts
Which Comes First–Great Employees or Great Service?
Employee engagement receives a great deal of attention. What is meant by that? Employee engagement is broadly considered to be the relationship between an organization and its employees. Employees who are engaged are enthusiastic about their work and actively support the organization. It makes sense then that employee engagement is linked to customer experience. Companies with engaged employees have been found to benefit by increased profits, decreased employee turnover and improved customer experience. According to a recent KPMG study, 70% of engaged employees report having a good understanding of customer experience versus just 17% of disengaged employees. In the same...
You Can’t Improve What You Don’t Know
A few weeks ago, I was traveling for business and stayed at one of my favorite hotels. They provided the excellent service I’ve come to expect–staff was friendly and helpful, my room was clean, and my towels were soft. Unfortunately, I would give the hotel a low rating on this visit because one important amenity was not provided. I had a critical report to finish and continuously lost the internet connection. The front desk was unable to solve the problem. I was very frustrated and didn’t get the report done. As a business traveler, an internet connection is as much...
Can a Service Issue Win a Customer for Life?
One of my least favorite things to do is having to report and deal with an issue with a service provider. I simply dread it. Past experience has made me feel like I will have to justify the problem. I spend time planning what I’m going to say to convince the business that I actually have a service issue and that they are responsible. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to deal with problems with two businesses—a lawn care company and a garage door company. With both businesses, I felt that their service technician had messed...
What is Your Customer Effort Score?
Customer loyalty research has shown that companies can lose up to 30% of their customers every year. Winning new customers can be up to 20 times more expensive than retaining existing customers. Research has found that reducing customer effort can improve loyalty. There are different methods for scoring customer loyalty. The most well-known are the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). In the past few years, Customer Effort Score (CES) has emerged as another Indicator of customer loyalty. An example of a CES question can be as simple as, “The company made it easy for me to...
The Hidden Costs of Bad Customer Service
Businesses can expect to encounter occasional service problems with their customers. It is estimated that U.S. companies lose $83 billion each year due to bad service. Some of the losses are obvious like giving refunds and losing the sale. Other costs may be less obvious but have longer lasting and often more significant impacts. Consider the example of a company that marketed and sold its products and service as the best in the industry. The company had production problems for two consecutive quarters and couldn’t deliver on those promises. Customers received extremely bad service. The hidden costs of the bad service...
Cell Phones in Movie Theaters
Allowing cell phones in movie theaters was unheard of just a year ago but is now being considered by a major theater chain. Why? Customers and customer expectations are changing. So, what do my customers want? Business owners should be continuously asking themselves that question. Research has found that 80% of businesses believe they are providing superior customer service, while only 8% of their customers agree. That is a significant disconnect! I think this disconnect can be a result of the lack of understanding of the customer journey, the total sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with...
Do Businesses Really Care?
Several recent interactions with businesses have left me wondering if they care about about their customers. In one interaction, I called to arrange to have my deck refinished. I got a recorded message that they were busy with other customers, leave a message, and they would get back to me. It’s been a week and they have not called me back. In a second interaction, I called to check into my current pest control service and was 12th in the queue. I hung up, found their web form and sent my questions. It has been 2 weeks and no one...
ACTE Global Conference In Dallas
We just returned from the ACTE Global Corporate Travel Conference in Dallas! As we continue to think about the conference, we can’t help but think…WOW! It was truly a great experience from start to finish! The conference focused on key trends in the business travel industry including our favorite, Traveler Centricity. There were over 700 attendees from around the world onsite as well as online attendees who were treated to impressive speakers from throughout the travel industry. Two that were especially interesting to us included Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines and Doug Parker, CEO of American Airlines. Their candid...
Make Customer Service Easy
Customers expect the businesses to offer easy customer service channels. They want questions answered and issues resolved easily at any point in their journey with a business. Too many customers become frustrated with cumbersome channels such as web forms, emails, and automated phone attendants; they’re difficult to find, hard to use on their mobile phone, and these methods take too much valuable time to utilize. 91% of customers are frustrated when they must contact a company multiple times for one issue. 89% of customers are frustrated by repeating their issue to multiple representatives. 90% of customers are frustrated when put...