Crack The Customer Code

To create a great customer experience, we need to peel back the layers of the organization and look at what happens far behind customer-facing parts of the journey. How does offstage customer experience affect your customers? Offstage customer experience is vital to your overall strategy Well-trained customer service reps are a lot like onstage actors- as great as they are, the audience will not rave about the show if the seats are uncomfortable or the microphones don’t work! Many companies neglect to connect offstage employees to the actual customer experience. When companies become customer-centric, they often focus on the parts of the journey customers make direct contact with but overlook backstage processes that make a huge difference. Just like in a theater production, your onstage employees can’t deliver a stellar performance if offstage employees don’t understand how their own roles affect the customer experience. Are your front-line employees truly able to deliver the experience you want to provi

Pat Helmers, host of the Sales Babble podcast, discusses the intersection of sales and customer experience. Driving sales with great experiences Sales is tough! And driven by the need to close the sale and move onto the next customer, sales teams often don’t understand how the sales process relates to the overall customer experience. The best salespeople see the value in building lasting relationships with customers rather than focusing on transactional outcomes. How can you get salespeople to build customer relationships for the long term when short-term sales goals seem more important? A happy customer is a return customer who will rave about their experience with friends and colleagues. Wouldn’t you like them to help remove some of the heavy lifting from your sales initiatives? Pat explains how optimizing the sales process with customer experience and customer service principles can lead to increased loyalty and referrals. Pat has some great tips for hiring and training a sales team that builds a great

Virtual reality is hitting the markets hard, but it’s mostly just for gamers. Will that change? Today we discuss some surprising possibilities for customer service applications. Is virtual reality more than just fun and games? Virtual reality (VR) has been a hot topic among geeks and gamers for many years now, but it was all the rage at South by Southwest Interactive this year. Are we on the cusp of a new era when VR tech will have more practical applications? Adam and Jeannie discuss the different ways companies and customers alike struggle to decode communications and content, and how VR can help bridge the gap. So what are some ways VR can make its way into customer service? While entertainment and gaming applications were quite prominent at SXSW, a closer look revealed some innovative uses that could prove useful in the business world. What can we learn from VR applications on the table with cutting-edge organizations like NASA? Virtual reality is advancing quickly. And before you say “we will never

Today’s guest helps us understand emotional intelligence to bridge the gap between employee engagement and improved customer experiences. Emotional intelligence creates great customer experiences What is the connection between employee engagement and improved customer experience? Jim Rembach shares some of the most important ways true employee engagement helps the overall experience. It comes down to emotion, and the need to train for it is more important than ever. Improving emotional intelligence, as Jim explains, is the key to proper employee engagement. And it’s not just for workplace environments that revolve around a product or service that’s particularly emotional. All workplaces are emotional!  What can business leaders do TODAY to make their organizations more customer-centric from the inside out? Jim draws from real-life experience and shares some great stories of employee engagement successes and failures. It all points back to improving emotional intelligence, folks. And Jim has some great ti

Adam and Jeannie discuss why most innovations fail to effectively address the changing needs of customers and how the innovation process itself can shut out the best ideas. The problem with “best practices” and customer experience innovation Innovation is more important than ever in our connected, omnichannel world. And yet, it’s rarely done well. So many innovations have come and gone while the ones that really make a difference are so few. Why is that? Too often, innovation is created from the wrong perspective – either because it’s borne of outdated “best practices” for the creative process or because the ideal experience is viewed from the wrong perspective altogether. How can you keep up with the ideal experience your customers will want tomorrow? In many cases, the best resources for innovative ideas go untapped. Have you considered how many great ideas and valuable insights are hiding behind cubicles or mentioned in passing in the break room? Adam and Jeannie talk about how you can expand your ho

In this special 100th episode (yippee!) Adam and Jeannie recall some of the great (and not so great) moments in customer service history. Like it or not, you are making customer service history! Have you ever thought about what people will be saying about your customer service in 100 years? Probably not, and we’re guessing some of the brands mentioned in this episode didn’t make their ideas sustainable like Maxwell House did in the ad below. A look back in time reveals that we’ve come a long way with transparency in our marketing and customer service strategies. Just look at these ads! A lot has changed! Customers now see past this type of marketing. Have your strategies joined this new era of enlightenment? Sadly, there are some archaic practices still used today – and some of them are nothing short of cringeworthy! Let’s get up to speed with the trends that matter to real-life customers and lock those flash-in-the-pan advertising tactics up in the time capsule for good. Join us as we make our own hi

What’s the difference between B2C and B2B customer experience? IS there a difference? Adam and Jeannie discuss in today’s episode. B2C vs. B2B Customer Experience: What’s the difference? This may sound like a trick question, but it comes up a lot! Many B2B companies don’t believe it’s important to invest in customer experience, and some even believe it doesn’t apply to them at all. So is customer experience more important in a B2C environment? On one hand, you might say companies that sell directly to customers need to make a stronger emotional connection and therefore, have to worry more about the experience. On the other hand, a poor B2B service experience could put a whole lot more at stake at a given time. It can be challenging for a B2B company to create connections while the relationship is largely process-based. But when played right, B2B companies can see huge returns from investing in customer experience. So what’s the best way to approach customer experience in a B2B company? Luckily, both of

A well-known thought leader and futurist, today’s guest barely needs an introduction! Brian Solis discusses his new book and what it means to be entering an experience-driven business world. The future is all about experience 3.5 years in the making, Brian describes the arduous process of writing his groundbreaking new book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design. Brand interactions exist within mobile apps, cloud-based services, social media, content marketing, and traditional communication in today's world. Experience is so much more than the buzzword it's become, and how to incorporate the right experiences into your customer's journey is what Brian has studied. The word “experience, as Brian explains it, has attached itself to many problem-solving ideas, but the solutions are often isolated fixes that fail to tie the overall journey together. Brian shares some of the reasons why companies fail to accomplish this. Do you share Brian’s sense of urgency to unify all of those isolated touchpoints?

There’s a lot of debate over which customer loyalty metrics tell the real truth. So what’s the answer? Adam and Jeannie discuss the different types of metrics and why they don’t necessarily work for everyone. Are your customer loyalty metrics providing real insight? Customer loyalty is elusive and difficult to determine. And many business leaders are obsessed with settling the debate over which metrics really tell the real truth about customer loyalty. Looking for indicators of what we really want to know, which in many cases is largely unknowable, has led many professionals and business owners into a whirlwind of data that doesn’t seem to do them any good. How did all of this start? People have been boasting about their satisfaction rates for decades, then came the groundbreaking Net Promoter Score (NPS) which many companies swear by. But is this really an accurate way to measure customer loyalty? We’d love to give you a solid answer! But when you’re dealing with customer emotions, there is no black and

How can you leverage customer complaints? Today’s guest shares highlights from his new book, Hug Your Haters, and additional insights from the extensive research it’s based on. Understanding the science of complaint What if you could survey thousands of individuals to find the “who, what, where, why and how” of customer complaints? Jay Baer has partnered with Edison Research to do just that, and he has written his new book “Hug Your Haters” based on intensive study of thousands of consumers. Jay Baer discusses the concept he calls “the Hatrix,” which breaks complainers down into categories. Jay also shares some shocking facts about what complaining customers expect by channel, and how the outcome can change depending on which channel is used to answer a complaint. How does the technology your customers use affect the outcome of their complaints? The differences can be more profound than you think. The findings from Jay’s research far exceed what he was able to fit in his new book. But you’re in luck! Jay

We all know the customer onboarding process should be as simple and satisfying as possible, but what about offboarding? The experience customers have when they leave you can have a huge impact for the long term. The customer journey does not stop when they’re leaving you. In an ideal world, we would never have to say goodbye to customers. So we don’t like to think ahead to customer offboarding. It’s really easy not to think about! But churn rate is all too real. Do you understand the offboarding process as part of the customer journey? Many companies have a very narrow-minded view of this critical part of the journey – from making it difficult to cancel to treating customers poorly. Are you turning the relationship sour when customers leave you? Like it or not, customers are going to remember you by what happens last. What would you like them to declare to their thousands of Twitter followers? Even if you’re sure they will never return, customer offboarding is NOT the end of the journey. How can you make

Becoming a customer-obsessed organization can seem impossible for many well-established companies. Fortunately, today’s guest has had a front-row view of some astounding transformations. Is it time for a customer experience overhaul? Today’s guest has made a name for himself exploring some of the world’s greatest customer experience brands and giving an insider’s view of how they have successfully turned their customer experiences around. Joseph Michelli tells some amazing stories of companies that have adopted and mastered the art of “customer-obsession.” These brands have given Joseph exclusive access to various stages of their experience strategies and allowed him to document their transformations. In his exploration of Mercedes-Benz USA, Joseph identifies the challenges of instilling a customer-centric mindset within an organization that has been largely successful as a product-focused entity. How can you get buy-in from executives who don’t want to risk an already-satisfactory and seemingly stable b

Jeannie and Adam put the hype and buzzwords aside to discuss what employee engagement really is so you can create a highly-motivated team around a great customer experience. Employee engagement: Have we got it all wrong? Employee engagement has been a buzzphrase for the past few years, and with good reason! It’s no secret that positively engaged employees are vital to a strong workplace culture, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. But Adam and Jeannie have some sad news: Despite all the buzz, a national study from Gallup reveals employee engagement was actually no better in 2015 than it was in 2014. What are we missing? Our hosts discuss some of the common ways companies miss the mark when trying to improve employee engagement. Many just don’t know where to start, or more importantly, how to create engagement that actually has a positive impact on internal culture and overall customer experience. It’s not easy, and it’s different for every company. But if you’re willing to invest your

We have the advantage of working with 5 generations of business leaders. How can we break the technology barriers and build solid business relationships? It’s all about people, not systems. The 21st-century mindset: People over process An expert on forward-thinking leadership and new ways to work, Ayelet has identified 4 traits for 21st-century leaders, and she shares them with us. Ayelet’s explanations about what they are and why they are important will have you re-thinking the way you communicate, the way you anticipate feedback and changes, the way you look at community, and ultimately, the way you work.  With so much buzz around transparency, it seems to mean something different to everyone. Ayelet shares the importance of having a shared purpose in order to achieve the level of transparency that keeps business relationships healthy and productive. She believes we can eliminate the need to “manage” people in this century if we create and maintain trusting relationships. How will you engage with people

Training customer-facing employees becomes even more challenging as we scale our businesses. What happens when they need re-training? Can this be done without shutting down? Is re-training your staff an option? As companies grow, it becomes harder to be sure employees are connected to the brand values and mission. Chipotle, Starbucks and others have gone public about temporarily closing their doors for the purpose of re-training their customer service staff or reconnecting with their missions. How can they be sure it’s worth the inevitable losses?  Adam and Jeannie discuss some great ways to approach a customer service reboot, and how to make one worthwhile and sustainable. Could you afford to hit the brakes for a day or two and do the same? Many organizations don’t have the budget or resources for a sweeping customer service reset. What if, for any reason, you CAN’T shut things down for a day or two? How can you keep all those dots connected as your organization grows and changes? As busy as things are,

You love your customers, but do they know it? Adam and Jeannie have dedicated this special Valentine’s Day episode to showing customers love. Do you love your customers? Let's make sure they feel it! There are many ways people define love, but we’re focusing on what it means to love your customers. The word “love” is used a lot in the context of customer experience, and we’re finding it means different things to different organizations. So what is customer love? Some may say it’s about delivering those “wow” moments, but Adam and Jeannie think it’s about much more than that. Showing your love for customers can be simply delivering a consistent customer journey, where your love for customers is reinforced every step of the way. In this episode, we explore some real examples of great ways to show your customers the love. Related Content CustomerThink post, The Conflicted Rhetoric of Marketing and Sales Gottman Institute post, The Positive Perspective: Dr. Gottman’s Magic Ratio! 360Connext® post and Slide

Financial institutions may be starting to review how you use your smartphone to help determine credit-worthiness.   Adam and Jeannie discuss what all this could mean for mobile privacy on the customer level. Would you hand over your phone or sign off on your usage records? Are organizations trying to redefine mobile privacy? We use our smartphones for many things nowadays, from banking to shopping to checking our work schedules. Our devices are collecting more data about us than we think! And financial institutions might be accessing that data to judge the credit-worthiness of loan applicants. Certain startups have discovered that there are correlations between certain mobile behaviors and a person’s likelihood to repay a loan – even something as basic as how often you charge your phone can say something about you to a bank. How would you feel about bank employees having the ability to access and record your notes, social media posts and email accounts, then deciding whether or not you could get a mortgag

Customer retention and loyalty are critical to the success of your business and maintaining relationships is a key to both. Today’s guest shares 27 years of wisdom to help us create personal connections with customers, no matter how big our organizations grow. Customer retention: Are your customers an endangered species? Richard gives us a brief history of his experience working with successful companies, and how their success is largely attributed to customer retention. Drawing from 27 years of experience, he explains the importance of recognizing customers as people. Knowing their expectations and how they like to do business is not enough. One of the biggest challenges in scaling any business is finding a way to create lasting relationships with customers. If your company were to become huge, could you still interact with your customers as individuals? Richard explains how businesses of any size can create valuable personal relationships with customers. If you’re willing to invest in those relationshi

Are you pursuing a customer experience leadership role? Maybe you’ve found yourself defaulted to a customer-focused role within your organization… Now what? Adam and Jeannie share expert advice for emerging leaders in the field. What do emerging customer experience leaders need to know? Adam and Jeannie discuss how they came into their customer experience and customer service leadership roles. Did they dream of becoming experts in these fields in their youths? We’re guessing this was not your first choice of career paths but have found yourself fascinated and excited by the idea.  Or maybe you’ve been plopped into these roles by the organization you work for. How can you really OWN it like Adam and Jeannie, or like many of our guests? Customer experience education is often a mere day in the very long journey of business training. Today’s customers need more from you. Typically, customer experience leaders emerge from diverse and surprising academic and professional backgrounds. There are very limited ways

Dr. Ardienne Boissy of The Cleveland Clinic, one of the first organizations to create C-suite responsibilities around the patient experience, shares highlights from her 12 years of leading an enormous shift in how the healthcare system perceives and engages patients. The Power of Words in the Patient Experience It’s one thing to possess the wisdom and skills to help patients heal and recover, but understanding how the patient actually feels – not just in regards to their ailments – but in regards to their many experiences as they move through the healthcare system. Adrienne describes the challenges of explaining how to teach respected professionals who are very good at their jobs that there are better ways to communicate. Some of them are looking for answers, but what about those who aren’t? The traditional health care system is generally not set up to give patients access to the resources and information patients need. Adrienne highlights some of the resulting challenges and shares some ways to overcome