Walt Disney created Disneyland for one purpose–to be a place where kids and adults can come together and have fun. Simple right?! So what makes the Walt Disney experience unlike any other? Welcome home! These two words can be heard and read all across the Walt Disney World Resort, where I worked for 5 months on the Disney College Program. Welcome Home can be heard and read all around the property. Welcome home will keep families coming back to Disney in the years to come.Why do Cast Members say welcome home? Walt wanted his guests, not customers, to be welcomed...
As I work with businesses on their customer service strategy, it is clear to me that a mobile communication channel is critical to the future success of most businesses. I’m not referring to social media or one-way text platforms. A mobile communication channel is one that offers two-way, real-time interaction by connecting a robust customer care platform to customers who use mobile/text channel. Today, many businesses just don’t make it easy for customers to contact them. Customers are frustrated with the effort required to access cumbersome communication channels businesses offer. 90% of customers are frustrated with being put on hold....
What do you want to be when you grow up? I wanted to be a princess and live at Disney World with Mickey Mouse.
My business is all about improving the customer experience. As a result, my friends tell me about their customer service experiences-both good and bad. A few stories I’ve recently heard were about patient experience in healthcare and they brought to light the fact that little things matter most and can have the greatest impact on satisfaction! One story was about a friend’s mother who fell and broke her leg. She required emergency surgery and a couple days in the hospital. After day after surgery, she asked the nurse if she could wash her face and brush her teeth. The nurse said sure....
George Klein, CEO/Founder of Peoplocity, will participate in a panel discussion at the ACTE Education Forum in San Francisco on November 2. The interactive discussion will focus on the evolving role of the travel manager with specific emphasis on the economic challenges, new technologies, hotel forecasts and controlling spend on ground transportation. George will share his expertise on using technology to improve the traveler experience. Other panel members include Matt Doherty, RVP West, Lyft, Jeff Hillenmayer, Head-Corp Sourcing Americas at HRS and Dorian Stonie, Sr Manager, Global Travel at Salesforce. The panel will be moderated by Ralph Colunga, Sr. Director, Global Travel and Marketing Support...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
