Crack The Customer Code

On this episode we talk with Bill Guertin, a man known in the sports industry as the '800-pound gorilla of sales performance'. He has experience with more than 100 pro teams across North America and Mexico and has written two successful books about sales, service, and marketing. Bill is here to talk to us about the importance of fan experience and how it's more similar to overall customer experience than you might think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, listen as Jeannie explains why you need to change your attitude and focus on what the customer wants, not what you think they want. Your customers are often satisfied with your service. Sometimes they are even genuinely loving it. However, that only happens because you've fulfilled their need. You've given them the service they expected to get from you. They love that, but never forget that they are not as focused on your brand as you are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the difference between a superfan and a promoter? Promoters promote you, but what does a superfan do? Superfans will make sure you continue to be in the market and will help you stay in the market. Superfans have to be nurtured. Companies must develop a close relationship with its superfans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do organizations overuse acronyms when talking to customers? Using acronyms internally is okay, but what happens when they escape and suddenly, customers use them? We discuss how organizations confuse customers and how organizations can improve customer conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Culture is the main topic of this episode, and we are here with our longtime friend and fellow podcaster – Julie Ann Sullivan.  She focuses on innovative culture, and she has a unique perspective on business culture due to her diverse background. Julie shares about her new book, which has a fascinating and unique case study approach. She will tell us what led her to it and the single most surprising thing she discovered while making it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes we all need to have some fun! Welcome to our third Bourbon Summit! For those not aware, it’s when we simply sit down, take a glass of our favorite bourbon, and relax. We don't know where the conversation will go, but that's precisely where the fun lies!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Timing is everything.” That’s an integral part of the change, the shift in business we talk about in this episode. You need to know when to shift your business if a market change is coming. You need to go along with the flow of the change, or you’ll be left behind.  Allen Adamson is an expert in all disciplines of branding, and he’s had a vast plethora of projects and experiences behind him to back up his teachings. He’s here to talk to us what you need to do to stay ahead of significant changes and shift accordingly.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Crack the Customer Code, Jeannie delivers some great insight and advice about improving customer experience. Every company has an established process when it comes to dealing with customers. When it comes to changing that process, the answer is too often “It’s always been done this way”. This phrase is the killer of innovation. How can we avoid it? Who cares if it’s always been done this way? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What we’ve noticed is that people rarely give credit to culture and place it in the category of work experience. Why is that the case? To answer the question, we brought a highly qualified guest – Karen Jaw-Madson –  an organizational expert from Silicon Valley. She has implemented numerous organizational initiatives around the globe through her organization Co-Design of Work Experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this solo episode of Crack the Customer Code, Adam will talk to you about Closing the Loop with Customers, an essential part of offering the best customer experience – something you most certainly want to have with your customers. It goes for any industry or organization, so make sure you follow the steps. Talking about the steps, closing the loop involves five, and each deserves deep consideration if you want to do it right. It doesn’t matter how the interaction went with the customer, good or bad, active or passive – closing the loop is always desirable, and you’ll see why. You’ll learn that even with great customer interactions, you’ll still want to close the loop and reinforce those feelings – all to get more engagements, and more referrals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leena talks us through a fantastic approach; "always treat your employees the way you would want them to treat your very best customer." If we think about our best customers and the way we would want our employees to engage with those best customers, then just evaluate if this is how we are treating our own employees? Consider if we need to make any shifts to treat our employees the way we would want them to treat our best customers. Then we start to create a culture where people are really focused on the behaviors that build loyalty, and they in turn feel loyalty themselves.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interesting episode, Adam and Jeannie share their differing opinions on whether phone conversations or chat platforms such as Twitter provide the best customer service. On one side it is considered that Twitter conversations are well thought out and more personalized than reading a script on a direct call. Whereas on the 'for phone calls' side, it's argued that we can create better connection with tone of voice and other factors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is a difference between customer experience, which is what’s happening today, and loyalty experience, which asks what’s going to happen tomorrow. The real challenge is to bring loyalty programs into the modern marketing age. Are customers looking for more points or more experience? Make sure you’re giving them what they want to keep them with your brand because more points doesn’t always mean more loyalty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do diaper brands and Reebok have in common? Better loyalty rewards. Explore a more experience-based rewards system and experience better relationships with your customers, when you get to know them a little more. Here’s another insightful episode of Crack the Customer Code with the wonder twins of Customer Service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Louis Carter, CEO and president of Best Practice Institute, a benchmark research consortium association and management consulting firm that helps organizations and C-Suite Senior executives achieve their market strategy through talent and change management joins our dynamic duo to talk about the importance of being emotionally connected. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam and Jeannie share experiences of their service from Delta Airlines, in which they received cards that give customers the opportunity to recognize an employee for a great job. This is a great way for customers to really think about the service being provided and be acknowledged for it. Aside from the pat on the back that this gives the employee, they are also given rewards points, which are not only great incentives but also a motivation for other employees to follow suit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff explains the differences between Human Centered Design and Design Thinking and how these are applied to solving business problems, to find out whether we are truly building something of value for them. We learn how companies can convert insights gained from experiments into actionable data. Jeff believes that the most challenging part this process is taking the risk in making the change needed in implementing these learnings into new customer experiences. Applying these changes initially on a sample population, which reduces the risk, is the key to mitigating these changes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Adam and Jeannie share their experiences to give a public service announcement that’s critical to both companies and customers. Adam shares his concern that all the good work we’re trying to do could be used as a front by scam artists. These scammers are using customer service to collect information to use for fraudulent activity. Customers of brands who have a good track record of customer service could be vulnerable because they could be thinking that it’s just part of their regular support.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lee Smith stresses the importance putting sales first on your customer journey, saying that the successful and proper use of your product or service is the solution. This is where the salesperson comes in with the human element in giving customers that push. It doesn’t stop there though, getting the best representative means getting the right fit for your company, one who cares about the company, the product and the customers. As Lee puts it, “no one’s gonna listen unless they know that you care”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Jeannie and Adam discuss how when we need a connection, we create that connection, even with a car that listens to you! These kinds of connections that people create are becoming more and more prevalent with the rise of technology. Jeannie cites examples of technology that allow us to interact with service providers through avatars, or other types of artificial intelligence. They become powerful tools for humanity to keep an eye on each other more and Jeannie adds that there could be ways we connect with screens in the future that we’re not anticipating today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices