Category Archives: customer experience

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Sarah Derrenbacher is a colleague of mine.  She forwarded these stats to our team a few weeks ago.  They speak for themselves.  They should speak to YOU too.

Did you know?

49% of executives believe customers will switch brands due to poor Customer Service 89% of customers say they have switched brands because of poor Customer Service 80% of companies rate Customer Service as a top strategic objective
93% of business leaders say that improving Customer Service is one of their top three priorities for the next two years
97% state that Customer Service is critical to their business success
20% loss of annual revenue is the estimated cost of failure
91% of businesses want to be a Customer Service leader
37% are getting started with a formal Customer Service initiative

Nothing I can say in this blog could possibly have more impact on you than those stats.  Will you ignore them?  Go into denial?  Point fingers?  Or will you do something about it at your company?

 

Source: O’Keeffe , Bloomberg Businessweek

March Madness – A National Experience

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March Madness Experience logo

March Madness Experience logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Unless you’re living under a rock, you’re probably well aware of the madness that’s going on right now, a little something called March Madness. The office lunch room tables are probably filled with NCAA brackets and I would be willing to bet that a few office mates are trying to stream the games on their laptops.

March Madness has evolved into a huge national social event that lures in millions of fans every year for a weekend of non-stop sports action. Have you ever stopped and wondered how this happened?  How did this weekend manage to grab the attention and calendars of millions of basketball fans around the world? I think the NCAA could teach businesses a thing or two.

Let me start to paint a picture for you .Think about a basketball team, let’s say Syracuse Orangemen.  They are a team, a company if you will, that is made up of players (employees) and a leader (Coach Boeheim) and we as fans are the customers.  Coach Boeheim has cultivated a culture where each player has a set of behaviors and a common mindset that these players do every day they come to work.  From Point Guards, Shooting Guards, to Forward Centers each position has a set of behaviors that should be performed each time they hit the court.  These players have a common mindset that guides behaviors which in turns creates the branded experience. That’s the experience we, as fans, have each time we watch.

Coach Boeheim’s role is to engage his players, hold them accountable for their actions, and set clear expectations for the team. When a team of engaged players work together to perform these behaviors and expectations, they provide fans the ultimate experience and this is when we fall in love. For this reason we intently watch every March to see our favorite team work together to win the championship and provide us with a weekend filled with brackets, bantering, and beers. It is the experience the teams provide their fans that keep us engaged….. so engaged that vacation days are used , friendly wagers are placed, and people turn to social media as a means to express their emotions through out each game.

If I haven’t totally twisted your view on March Madness and you’re not completely disinterested in this weekend now; think about how they quantify that experience. How does the team measure and manage the experience they provide their fans? Ticket sales, TV ratings, and even recruiting are ways they can measure and manage. Successful teams fill seats, get people to tune in, and recruit players who understand the mindset and behaviors of the team and fit the culture.

The reason I feel like businesses could learn from these teams is because the experience I talk about above is actually the experience we help design for our clients and their customers. Its a system and it works.

In our upcoming book ENGAGED! Outbehave the Competition and Create Customers for Life, Gregg Lederman outlines a specific system that can prove successful in any company, a Living the Brand System.  The Living the Brand system is an approach for defining, reminding others about, and quantifying the experience employees and customer have.  No one person owns this system – it’s a system that works across all departments and every job function can own it. In order to implement a Living the Brand system, a company must do 3 things:

  1. Define the branded experience
  2. Remind employees about the delivery of the experience setting clear expectations and holding everyone accountable
  3. Quantify the experience and link it to financial results.

So think about the companies or teams you love, the ones that fully engage you, that make you want to come back again and again, why is that ? These companies and teams (whether they know it or not) have a Living the Brand system in place and they know how to outbehave their competition and create customers/fans for life.

Happy March Madness! Go Orangemen!

 

 

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Trader Joe’s is Buzzing Up the Right Tree

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A few weeks ago, Ashley shared a great blog post about her love for Trader Joe’s and how the customer experience that they deliver creates actual shopping addictions.  I too have a slight obsession with TJ’s and want to share a recent experience I had there that reinforces Ashley’s point.

Let me set the stage:  It’s Saturday morning in Rochester, NY.  I wake up to sunshine and birds chirping for the first time in what feels like an eternity.  I get out of bed, put on the coffee, and go check in on my little Caleb, who is still asleep in his bed.  As I sit down to enjoy my cup of Joe, I start thinking about what I need (want) to accomplish on this glorious day.  1. Get a work out in  2. Clean the house 3. Go shopping at Trader Joe’s.  Yes, one of the first thoughts of my day was not that I needed to go grocery shopping (that dreaded chore), but that I WANTED to go grocery shopping…at Trader Joe’s.

Now, the first day that we get “warm” weather in Rochester is a BIG deal. Everyone comes out of hibernation wearing shorts, t-shirts, and sunglasses, even though it’s only 40 degrees out.  People are out walking their dogs, running, headed to the markets.  Traffic is crazy.  People are smiling for the first time in 6 months, seriously.  I am fully aware that when I go to Trader Joe’s it’s going to be a mob scene.  Sure enough, we get there and it takes a good 10 minutes to find a parking spot. As we walk through the parking lot, I see there is cart-to-cart traffic inside the store.  I take a deep breath and look at my 5 year old who does NOT want to be there and start to second guess my decision, just for a minute though because as we are walking in, we are distracted by this sign:

TJ's

Less than 30 seconds later, as we start to make our way through the sea of carts, a smiling gentlemen in a ridiculous Hawaiian shirt comes up to my Caleb, kneels down and asks him if he saw the sign about finding the bee.  Caleb excitedly shakes his head Yes as the employee gives him a clue about where he might find the bee.  “Do you know what bees make?” he asks Caleb.  HONEY, Caleb shouts excitedly!  The remaining 40 or so minutes we spent in the store was not the typical “How much longer? Are we done yet?” type of shopping trip. No, it was an exciting adventure!  Each aisle a new opportunity for discovery.

When he finally found the bee (yay!), we went to the Captain’s Desk (service desk) and a second very animated employee awarded him a sugar-free lollipop in a fashion that I imagine the President might award a war hero the Medal of Honor.

The point of my story is that when an organization provides THIS level of customer service, it does create an addiction.  The sacrifice of waiting in long lines doesn’t seem so bad anymore.  You feel a fondness towards the people who go out of their way (even on a busy day) to make your child feel so special. TJ’s is not only creating loyal customers, they are creating future customers, however tiny they may be right now.

calthumbs

 

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“Nine People, Not Go on Plane”

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Everyone has a good airline story, and by “good” I am being sarcastic of course.  These are the events that occurred just a couple weeks ago in Washington DC, United Airlines terminal.
Washington was our layover coming from Charlotte NC.  Our tickets were purchased months in advance.  We had seat assignments.  We had a confirmation from United.  Turns out a “confirmation” actually means “well…maybe” in airline speak.  We approached the gate when we heard our names announced.  When I questioned what was going on I was told we were bumped off the flight.  “Nine People, not go on plane” was exactly what he said.
Oh yes, I asked all the questions one should ask when faced with this strange speed bump in travel plans.  The only answer I could get from him was “Nine people , not go on plane”.  One couple was getting split up; a mother had to leave her adult daughter behind, and all with no explanation.  The flight was not over sold.  All nine of our seats were to go empty.
“So when is the next flight?” I asked.  “Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.  You get $75 voucher” the United employee responded.   Great.
I could rattle on recounting the silly back and forth between United Airlines and the nine of us.  But that is not my point.  It’s a good story but not the reason I am telling it.  I’m telling it because in all of the crazy chaos, this one United employee clearly, without question, did not care.  He didn’t care about our missed flight, that he was splitting families up, that we had a “confirmation”, or that what he was telling us sounded ridiculous…he just didn’t care.
He spent no effort in explaining the situation because he did not care.  He was going to get paid and go home at the end of his shift regardless of what happened to me and eight other customers that afternoon.  He didn’t care.
Imagine if you approached your job with that lack of caring.
When employees do not care the customer knows it.  It comes out in tone and body language, attitude and effort (or lack of).  We have all seen these employees from time to time, and not just at the DMV!  When they are not engaged in their job, they certainly are not engaged with us as customers.  How does any business expect to thrive that allows employees to be that disengaged?
The closest I could find to a mission statement for UA was this: — “To be recognized worldwide as the airline of choice”.
The contrast between that statement and my experience that day is stark.
“Brand Integrity” by definition is the point when employees, customers, partners and the market understand, believe and experience that the organization is who it says it is.  That’s Living the Brand!

United Airlines…not so much.

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What Makes a Great Customer Service Experience?

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My entire life, I could never really sit still.  I loved staying busy, going places, and being around people. I also had a strong passion for analyzing things.  I always wanted to know the why, the details, the how.   As I got older, I started to become very in tune with the customer experiences I was having.  The analytic side of me dug deep to really understand what made a customer experience a good one.   I came up with the following:

  1.  The experience was clearly thought out:  You could tell the organization spent time thinking through the desired experience and the potential obstacles that could get in the way.
  2. Employees knew how to deliver the experience: They were trained on the basic, but not always common practice, behaviors that made up the experience.
  3. The employees didn’t act like robots:  They were genuine when delivering the desired experience.  They put their own spin on the experience to reflect their personality. It didn’t seem scripted or rehearsed.
  4. The experience was consistent throughout the organization: No matter who you dealt with, you still had a great experience.

As I and the rest of society become more intrigued with customer service we are seeing that one bad experience with the help of social media can be shared with hundreds if not thousands of people.  What is the cost of not investing and focusing on creating superior customer service interactions?  When 85% of consumers said they would be willing to pay more over the standard price to ensure superior customer service.

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