The Opportunities and Fears Surrounding Intelligent Virtual Assistant Shep Hyken interviews Genefa Murphy, the Chief Marketing Officer for Five9. They discuss how to use AI and automation to increase efficiency, capacity, and effectiveness within your contact center and ultimately deliver a better customer experience. Summary and Top Takeaways:   Do people still use the phone to reach a company when they have a question or a problem? A lot of companies buy into the "Digital Fallacy" or the belief that digital channels are the only things that matter, and that voice is no longer important. However, The Five9 Customer Service Index 2021 found that: ·      Customers from the US, UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain all ranked phones as the preferred choice when dealing with customer service issues.  ·      51% preferred phone when it comes to general issues. ·      65.2% prefer phone when it comes to urgent or sensitive concerns. People still use voice channels. What people don't like about voice channels is the experience. They don't like waiting on hold, complex IVRs, or conversational AI that doesn't work. So, how do we separate the digital channel and the digital experience? How can customers move through different modes of communications, including voice and digital channels, seamlessly without having to repeat their story? In this episode, Genefa Murphy talks about the Five9's Intelligent Virtual Agent and how AI can be used to improve communication across all channels. Tune in to find out just how intelligent the Intelligent Virtual Agent is, how it enhances customer interactions, and if it will take away jobs from human customer support agents down the line. Quote:   "AI may replace what a human once did but it doesn't mean that humans need to be replaced in customer support."   About:   Genefa Murphy is the Chief Marketing Officer for Five9. With over 15 years of global experience in the field of technology from consulting to product management, strategy, and marketing, she is an accomplished leader and has led worldwide teams in creating and executing compelling and effective go-to-market strategies. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Leaders, Managers, and Staff Can Stay Effective During Unpleasant Conversations Shep Hyken interviews Rebecca Morgan, an international speaker, management consultant, and bestselling author. She wrote the bestseller, Calming Upset Customers that sold more than 250,000 copies. They discuss what leaders and managers can do to help customer service staff manage upset customers and avoid issues in the future. Top Takeaways:   Are customers more easily upset today than 30 years ago? People who would have been rational are now less likely to be patient. And people who are not rational or patient, to begin with, now have an even shorter fuse. This can be attributed to many factors including: ·      The last two years has caused more stress than usual. ·      There is a decline in civility, especially on social media. ·      Customers are projecting anger about things that they have no control over to customer service agents. What can leaders do to help customer service providers manage upset customers? 1. Be a role model. There are behaviors that leaders need to practice in front of their customers and their employees, such as listening without getting defensive, watching their tone of voice, and being careful with their word choice. 2. Be willing to fire customers who are repeat offenders. Employees will respect their managers and leaders more when they see that they are willing to let go of abusive customers. 3. Train staff properly. Invest in training whether online or in-person to equip your staff with the tools to connect with customers, even the ones that are upset. 4. Don't throw your staff under the bus. Standing up for your staff is great for morale and loyalty. In this episode, Rebecca Morgan also talks about what customer service providers do wrong when trying to calm upset customers and what managers should do when their staff gets into an altercation with a customer. Quote:   "Customer service representatives should be future-focused. Think of how you can help customers avoid issues in the future." About:   Rebecca Morgan, CSP, CMC, CVP is an international speaker, management consultant and bestselling author. Two of her 28 books have sold more than 250,000 copies each. She's appeared on 60 Minutes, Oprah, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, CNBC, National Public Radio and USA Today. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How CX Avoidance Impacts Customers, Employees, and Brands Shep Hyken interviews Dan Hill, founder of Sensory Logic, Inc. and a pioneer of using facial coding in business to capture and quantify consumer responses. He is the author of nine books including his latest, Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. They discuss how to use technology and staff the customer service department to be effective throughout the entire customer journey. Top Takeaways:   Learn about “customer avoidance” and why it happens. In the age of digital transformation, companies must find ways to eliminate customer service and experience avoidance and create a seamless customer experience with technology and customer relationships. When customers call companies, one of the first things that they hear is "Your call is very important to us", followed by a hold tone. Customers want to feel like they are moving towards progress when they are calling about a problem. When they don't feel that they are progressing to a solution, customers will feel anger towards customer service representatives and ultimately, the brand. Companies avoid engaging with their customers for the following reasons: ·      To limit their cost. ·      To limit the time taken by their staff in interacting with customers. ·      To avoid revealing that their staff is not well-trained or prepared to field questions. Companies sometimes become enamoured with the technology. They use it as a shield to avoid interaction with their customers. When this happens, it negatively affects the brand and the whole value proposition. Dan provides some insights on how to restore the customers’ confidence in the organization: ·      Companies must use technology to facilitate collaboration, not to replace human-to-human contact. ·      The transition from chatbots or any type of automation must be seamless. When the customer is connected to the frontline, they should not have to repeat their story. ·      Frontline employees need to be knowledgeable enough to answer questions and give customers the confidence that they are progressing to a solution. ·      For more insights from Dan Hill, listen to the full episode! Quote:   "About 25% of managers are believed to be bullies. If people are feeling bullied or oppressed, that's going to translate in how they relate to their colleagues and their customers."   About:   Dan Hill, Ph.D., is the author of nine books, including Emotionomics and Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. He is the founder of Sensory Logic, Inc. whose clients represent over 50% of the world's top 100 advertisers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What Customers Expect from CX Practitioners Shep Hyken interviews Baker Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at UJET. They discuss how CX practitioners can put what they know about communication from their personal relationships into their customer relationships. Top Takeaways:   Here is something brands and even CX practitioners often forget - customers just want to get things done. They are not thinking in terms of channels. They are not worried about what department, whether it be sales, marketing, or customer support, resolves their issues. They really only care about problems solved. What do customers expect from CX practitioners? It's not about how many channels of communication are available. Compared to sales and marketing, the advice given to CX practitioners is always lagging. They are told to constantly add channels to meet customers where they are. But, customers don't think in terms of channels. They just want to connect with the brand – how they want and when they want. It's not about departments within the organization either. Sales, marketing, and customer support departments are often fighting on who is the most influential to customer experience to gain more internal power. We have to move away from this and put customers first. At the end of the day, we are all customers. The way that we interact in our lives is how consumers expect to interact with brands. It is also what your employees expect from you. We have to bring what we know about relationships and communication from our personal lives to our work lives and apply it to how we interact with our customers.  Quote:   "Take off your work hat, put on your real-life hat and you'll have all the answers to what needs to be improved in customer experience."   About:   Baker Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at UJET where he is focused on driving corporate growth by evangelizing how UJET’s ultra-modern, customer-and-user-centric approach to CX is radically disrupting the Contact Center ecosystem. He brings more than 15 years of leadership experience to the role driving branding and data-driven strategy transformations to fuel SaaS growth. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Avoid Complacency in Customer Interactions  Shep Hyken interviews Len Herstein, CEO and President of ManageCamp Inc. and author of Be Vigilant!: Strategies to Stop Complacency, Improve Performance. They discuss how businesses can be vigilant against complacency by safeguarding success and customer relationships. Top Takeaways:   What breeds complacency in business? Most businesses don't realize that one of the main drivers of complacency is success. The more success we have in our customer interactions, the more we get overconfident. We become vulnerable to taking customer relationships for granted. This week on Amazing Business Radio, Len Herstein discusses why complacency is dangerous and how to avoid it. He offers the following insights and more: ·      Avoid tunnel vision. Companies can become too focused on matching their top competitors that they lose sight of new competitors or new categories that have entered the market. ·      Be a disruptor. Successful companies like Amazon and Netflix are always coming up with new ways to engage their customers. Instead of reacting to what their top competitors are doing, they are the disruptors in their industry and beyond. ·      Learn from success. Most companies debrief when a mistake happens with the idea they will avoid the same mistakes in the future. However, they often forget to look back on their successes, not realizing there are opportunities to replicate the same moving forward. (DOES THAT SOUND OKAY?) ·      Always be vigilant. The best way to fight complacency is to be aware of it. You can't protect against threats that you didn't see coming.  Quote:   "The best way to fight complacency is to be aware. The more aware you are, the more in the moment you are, the more you have that forces you to think, and the less complacent you're going to be."   About:   Len Herstein, CEO and President of ManageCamp Inc. and author of Be Vigilant!: Strategies to Stop Complacency, Improve Performance, and Safeguard Success. Your Business and Relationships Depend on It. He has worked with brands like Coca-Cola, The Campbell Soup Company, and Nabisco. He is also a volunteer State-certified peace officer with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How NPS Enriches the Lives of Customers, Employees, and Leaders Shep Hyken interviews Fred Reichheld, creator of the Net Promoter® system of management, the founder of Bain & Company's Loyalty practice, and the author of five books including his latest, Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers. They discuss how companies can use Net Promoter Score to enrich lives and drive sustainable growth.  Top Takeaways:   Net Promoter Score is the metric that millions of companies have used for decades to know if they are doing a good job for their customers and their employees. It aims to measure if you have gained your customer's loyalty enough to earn their repeat business and new business from their friends and family. But, in the age of cookies, click rates, and measurable eyeball hang times, is a company's NPS still relevant? And, is your company using the NPS metric correctly? This week, we interview Fred Reichheld, the developer of the Net Promoter score to talk about how many companies are misusing the Net Promoter Score and missing out on the potential benefit that it can help your business achieve. We also talk about how NPS is still applicable in modern business and how it can be used correctly. To put his money where his mouth is, Fred invested his own money in all of the public companies that are NPS leaders. The return on his investments is almost three times the S&P. In today's episode of Amazing Business Radio, Fred and I discuss how you can use the Net Promoter Score to invest in customer loyalty, which pays big dividends!  Quote:   "Who you hang around with in your life influences everything - how you think about success and what's important to you. This is true with who you want to be a customer of, who do you want to be an employee of, who do you want to invest in."   About:   Fred Reichheld, creator of the Net Promoter® system of management, the founder of Bain & Company's Loyalty practice, and the author of five books including his latest, Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers. He is currently a Fellow and Senior Advisory Partner at Bain, where he has worked since 1977. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Opportunities and Challenges Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB’s)Will Face This Holiday Season Shep Hyken interviews Kiel Harkness, Head of Global Marketing and Business Intelligence at UPS Capital®. They discuss how SMB's can compete with giant brands when it comes to problem resolution for delays, theft, and problems during the holiday season. Top Takeaways:   The holidays are upon us! What does it mean for SMB's – and businesses of all sizes? That was the main focus of the interview. UPS commissioned research to find out what really matters to both small to medium business owners and their customers. Here's some good news, some challenges, and some opportunities. ·      Almost two-thirds of SMB's are going to make up to 20% of their sales during the holiday season. ·      Two-thirds of customers will spend at least $100 on SMB's during the holiday season. ·      80% of businesses that were surveyed said that they are worried about inflation. Whether it is on the cost of production or their price point. ·      SMB's are 26% more worried about the delays, damage, and theft of the shipments than labor shortage. ·      Over 40% of SMB's say that they see an increase in porch piracy during the holidays. ·      44% of consumers said that the lack of a strong problem resolution on a stolen or damaged goodwill cause them not to shop with an SMB again. ·      35% of consumers said that it's a huge motivator for them to spend more with retailers who will guarantee the replacement of lost or damaged items. Quote:   "44% of consumers said that the lack of a strong problem resolution on a stolen or damaged goods will cause them not to shop with an SMB again."   About:   Kiel Harkness, Head of Global Marketing and Business Intelligence at UPS Capital®. He led the Digital Transformation of UPS Capital US Domestic Go-to-Market. Supported rebranding of core digital offering and proposition. He manages and directs global UPS Capital Digital Marketing and Digital Properties, Channel Marketing, Business Intelligence, Product Development, Communications and Advertising, and International Field Marketing teams. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bringing Great Customer Experience Ideas Forward  Shep Hyken interviews Karin Hurt and David Dye, CEO and President of Let’s Grow Leaders. They are known for practical tools and leadership development programs that stick. Karin and David are the award-winning authors of five books including, Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates. They discuss how leaders can build a culture of sharing ideas, solving problems, and rewarding contributions. Top Takeaways:   Employees have great ideas on how to improve customer experience and leaders want them. So, why do employees hold back their ideas? This week's guests, Karin Hurt and David Dye started an extensive research study with the University of North Colorado Social Research Lab on why employees are holding back these ideas. Here are some quick stats on what they have uncovered from the respondents from the frontlines. ·      49% of Leaders are not asking for ideas. ·      50% of the responders feel that their ideas will not be taken seriously. ·      40% Lack confidence or they don't know how to share ideas. ·      Two-thirds feel that their managers are stuck in the way of doing things ·      56% Do not share their ideas because they feel that they would not get credit for the idea. So, how can companies build a "courageous culture", one that encourages micro-innovators, problem-solvers, and customer advocates within the organization to voice out their ideas? Karin and David developed a 7-step process: 1. Navigating the narrative. Leaders need to get real with their own relationship with psychological safety and speaking up. 2. Creating clarity. Leaders need to communicate that they really do want ideas and what kinds of ideas are needed. 3. Cultivating curiosity. Managers need to proactively go out and ask for ideas. 4. Respond with regard. Every idea that is shared should get feedback at every level. 5. Practice the Principle. Find out what is truly meaningful about an idea and how it can be scaled and applied in different ways within the organization. 6. Galvanize the genius. Communicate what is important in your new culture five times, in five different ways. 7. Build an infrastructure for courage. Leaders need to make sure that courage is reinforced and not undermined.   Quote:   "You don't have to be the CEO to create a courageous culture. No matter what role you are in, if you have a great idea to improve customer experience, your leaders want to know about it. Have the courage to bring your ideas forward."   About:    Karin Hurt and David Dye help human-centered leaders resolve workplace ambiguity and chaos so that they can drive innovation, productivity and revenue without burning out employees. As CEO and President of Let’s Grow Leaders, they are known for practical tools and leadership development programs that stick. Karin and David are the award-winning authors of five books including, Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Businesses Can Lean into Their Purpose Shep Hyken interviews Simon Mainwaring, founder & CEO of We First, a strategic consultancy accelerating growth and impact for purpose-driven brands. He is the author of Lead with We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future. They discuss why companies should take part in creating solutions to the significant issues that the world is facing today.  Top Takeaways:   Customers and employees know that customer experience is more than enjoying your product and feeling like they are valued in the way that they are taken care of. It is also in how they feel about your company and what you are doing in the world. Is your company part of the problem or part of the solution? We are facing social, economic, and environmental issues. For the past two years, we have been going through a global health crisis. Your customers and employees are looking at you. They want to see where you stand on these issues and if it aligns with theirs. Why should you care? And, what's in it for your business? The short answer is that people want to buy from, invest in, and work for companies that are doing good. There's a new expectation, not just from customers, but also for employees. How you treat your employees, how they can relate, identify, and invest themselves in your purpose will determine your ability to attract the talent you need and to get the most out of them, even during difficult times. The more you lean into your purpose and share it with your employees, the more engaged they'll be. As a result, you'll retain them longer, they will be more productive, and they'll be more effective advocates for your brand. Quote:   "Employees are the most effective advocates for your brand, your products, and how you're showing up in the world."   About:   Simon Mainwaring is founder & CEO of We First, a strategic consultancy accelerating growth and impact for purpose-driven brands. He is the author of Lead with We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future and the host of the Lead With We podcast. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Proactive Customer Experiences  Shep Hyken interviews Colin Shaw, co-host of the Intuitive Customer podcast and the Founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, a customer experience consulting company that has been recognized by the Financial Times as ‘one of the leading management consultancies for the last three years in a row. They discuss how companies can use customer science to provide positive and memorable customer experiences. Top Takeaways:   When was the last time that an organization did something for you that you weren't expecting? Perhaps it was to email you if you needed a refill of a product that you previously ordered. Or, to show you articles and videos of how you can maximize the use of something you purchased from them. Whatever it was, it was a pleasant surprise. The world's leading companies like Apple, Airbnb, Amazon, and many more are becoming so in tune with not only what the customers say they want, but they also know how their customers behave and what they feel. They can accurately predict what their customers are going to do next – and what they will want next. This week on Amazing Business Radio, I interview Colin Shaw, Founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, to talk about understanding the customers in an even deeper way through customer science, behavioral science, and the journey map. ·      Customer science is the fusion between technology, data, and behavioral science. ·      Behavioral science is looking at what customers are doing as opposed to looking at what customers are saying they are doing. ·      The journey map is looking at the customer journey from the customer's perspective. If you can predict what the customer is going to do next, will it change the way you create customer experiences?  Quote:   “According to Daniel Kahneman, "We don't choose between experiences, but we choose between memories of experiences." You can’t be loyal to something that you haven't experienced.”   About:   Colin Shaw is the Founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, a customer experience consulting company that has been recognized by the Financial Times as ‘one of the leading management consultancies for the last three years in a row. He is the co-host of the highly successful Intuitive Customer podcast, which is rated in the top 5% of all podcasts globally by Buzzsprout.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Defining Success from the Customer's Perspective Shep Hyken interviews Dan Balcauski, founder and principal consultant for Product Tranquility, where he focuses on helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. They discuss what companies can learn from subscription models about focusing on the customer’s journey and feedback. Top Takeaways:   Anything can be a subscription. Whether you are selling razor blades, pens, or a streaming service, the goal is to get the customers to say that they are getting enough value for your products to continue doing business with you. A subscription model solidifies the relationship between the business and the customer but it also requires a focus on customer experience. How do companies ensure that their customers continuously get value over time so they don't leave you for your competitors? What are the outcomes that your customers are trying to achieve? Most of the time businesses focus on operational efficiency, revenue, and profits. These are all great things. But, the problem is that these are not the criteria that the customer is using to define success. Companies need to understand that they are not the center of the customer's world. We need to understand the full journey. This week on Amazing Business Radio, I interview Dan Bacaulski, founder and principal consultant for Product Tranquility, where he focuses on helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. Dan takes us through how businesses can focus on the outcomes that the customer is trying to achieve and how they define success. Learn how to put the customer first, provide value, and define success from the lens of those you serve - the customers. Quote:   "We are not the center of our customer's life. We need to understand the full journey. We need to ask, "What is our customer's day to day like?" and "What are they trying to accomplish?" About:    Dan Balcauski is the founder and principal consultant for Product Tranquility, where he focuses on helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. He is a TopTal certified Top 3% Product Management Professional and also helps to teach Kellogg Executive Education course on Product Strategy. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Personalization and Creativity in Customer Experience Shep Hyken interviews Noa Danon, Co-Founder and CEO of EverAfter. She has extensive experience leading Product and User Experience teams. They discuss how organizations businesses can ensure customer renewals and expansion by creating personalized customer experiences.  Top Takeaways:   ·      The customer who makes the decision to buy a product may not be the same person who uses the product. Businesses need to get to know and personalize the experience for both types of customers. ·      Businesses may start focusing on one type buyer persona but as they scale, they will need to create different types of experiences or services for different types of people. ·      You don't need to be Amazon to create a personalized experience. Most of the time, it only takes a few questions to figure out what is important to your customers and personalize your offerings to them. ·      Companies need data about their customers so they can continue to automate and personalize customer experiences even as they scale. ·      Data helps with personalization both in sales and in customer service. The more you know about your customers, the more personalized the support that you can provide can be. This creates a confidence between the customers and the business. ·      Leaders need to create an environment that encourages front line employees to bring ideas on how to make the customer experience better.  Quote:    “Every business is a subscription business. Whether it is a typical subscription renewal of the customer deciding to continue to do business with the business, the goal is to make sure your customers come back instead of going to a competitor.” About:    Noa Danon is the Co-Founder and CEO of EverAfter. Noa’s vision for EverAfter was heavily influenced by her experiences as a product manager, where she observed the disconnect between the user and product experience. EverAfter was created exactly to meet that need, allowing companies to personalize the customer experience beginning with the initial contract all the way through renewal and expansion. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Authentic Leaders Lead with Happiness and Humanity  Shep Hyken interviews Jenn Lim, CEO of Delivering Happiness and the author of Beyond Happiness: How Authentic Leaders Prioritize Purpose and People for Growth and Impact. They discuss how leaders can adapt to the new workplace by being authentic and aligned with their purpose.  Top Takeaways:   ·      As leaders, we need to get more real with ourselves. We want to celebrate the highs in our lives but we also need to recognize our lows and our blind spots. Then, we need to allow the people that we lead to do that, too. ·      In the past year, we have experienced the "Great Resignation" where a record number of 4 million employees, in the US alone, quit their jobs in April. The integration of work and life in a way that has never been experienced before has led people to evaluate what is most important to them and how they can align their lives with it. ·      The experiences that we have had in the past couple of years have prompted many to ask the questions like: How can I align myself and my life with what is most important to me? What are the things that I need to work on and be aware of so I can be a more whole person at work and in life? ·      When employees are unhappy and start leaving the company, leaders can learn so much by asking them why and actually listening. Have an open and honest dialogue as to where your employees are at work and in life. ·      Authenticity goes into the wholeness of a person. Leaders must respect who employees are as human beings beyond their skills and what they bring to the table. ·      The more employees see that they are respected inside and outside their specific role and title, the more they want to be productive, engaged, and loyal. Quote:   "Happier employees equals happier customers equals more profitable and sustainable business." About:   Jenn Lim is the CEO of Delivering Happiness, a company she co-founded with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com to create happier company cultures for a more profitable and sustainable approach to business. Jenn’s mission is to teach businesses how to create workplaces—led with happiness and humanity—that generate more profit, sustain all people at every level of the organization, and share how we can make an impact by being true to our authentic selves.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Empowering Customer Service Agents with Knowledge Shep Hyken interviews Daniel Fallmann, founder of Mindbreeze, a tool that helps companies capture a holistic view of their customers' data. They discuss how organizations can arm their frontline customer service professionals with the technology that can help them offer better customer service.  Top Takeaways:  ·      The lack of information on a specific customer or product is the key problem for most businesses in every industry. Since the data is often scattered across many platforms, it is not readily available to customer service professionals when they need it. ·      Customer service professionals need a one-stop-shop where they can have a holistic view of the customer's information coming from different platforms and departments.  ·      Companies need to equip customer service agents with knowledge of the product as well as knowledge of the customer - who they are, what they search for on your website, and what their questions or challenges are. ·      Having the technology to access the right information reduces ticket escalation. But, when ticket escalations do happen, it also helps customer service agents identify the experts inside the organization to help with non-trivial customer issues. ·      You can predict what the problem is because of customer behavior. For example, what they are searching for on your website? Are they watching your videos or webinars? What issues are they calling in with? Knowing that information can help you come up with implicit problem-solving mechanisms, knowledge base articles, and automatic routines that make sure the problems do not ever occur, to begin with. Quote:  "Customers today have an "I need it now" approach. Customer service professionals need to know how to easily access information for them to understand the context of the customer’s concerns.”   About:  Daniel Fallmann founded Mindbreeze in 2005 at the age of 23, after he finished his studies in computer science. As Mindbreeze’s CEO he is a living example of high quality and innovation standards. His passion for enterprise search and machine learning in a big data environment fascinated not only the Mindbreeze employees but also their customers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Utilizing Customer Experience as a Sales Tool  Shep Hyken interviews Paul Reilly, a professional speaker, sales trainer, and author of Selling Through Tough Times. They discuss how brands can provide value to their customers during uncertain times.  Top Takeaways:   ·      When you create good experiences, especially during tough times, you are providing value beyond the product that you are selling. ·      Certainty and stability are important to your customers. This should be seen in your brand's messaging and felt in your customer's experience.  ·      During times of uncertainty, customers want consistent and predictable experiences that meet their standards. ·      Companies have the opportunity to enhance their overall customer experience during tough times. Ask your customers the question, "What's missing from our current solution?" ·      Every person in an organization should be asking themselves, "What else can I do for the customer?"   Quotes:   "The best sales tool you can have is a great customer experience."   About:   Paul Reilly is a professional speaker, sales trainer, and author. He coauthored Value-Added Selling, fourth edition, and authored Selling Through Tough Times. Reilly also hosts The Q and A Sales Podcast, where he answers the most pressing questions facing today’s sales professional.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Get Your Customers to Come Back Again and Again  Shep Hyken talks about his new book I'll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again. The book comes out on September 21, 2021. Top Takeaways:  ·      Questions like, "Are you happy with our service?" and "Would you be willing to recommend us?" are great history lessons. Another important measure of customer service success is behavior – whether or not customers come back. ·      In the '80s, Jan Carlson came up with the idea of the Moment of Truth. This is when a customer comes into contact with any aspect of the business and has the opportunity to form an impression. Carlson said they could be good or bad. Shep has names for these and added a third one: 1.    Moment of Misery is when the customer encounters a problem or has a complaint. 2.    Moment of Mediocrity is an average experience. 3.    Moment of Magic is a positive Moment of Truth that we need to consistently create. ·      Why would customers terminate you? 1.    Apathy. When you make the customer feel like you just don't care, they're going to find somebody that does. 2.    Rudeness. This creates a negative emotional response within the customer. 3.    You didn't make it easy for the customers to find you. ·      How to create an "I'll Be Back" experience: 1.    Ask, "Why would someone do business with me instead of a competitor?" 2.    Ask your team, "Why would someone do business with the competition instead of me?" 3.    Keep pace. Take a look at what your competition is doing that is different but don't just copy them. Make sure you do something better. 4.    Ask the team, "What companies do we love doing business with and why?". 5.    Take a look at what the best companies are doing that you can implement in your business – and do so. 6.    Go back to question #1 and ask, "Now that we have done all this, why would customers want to do business with us?”  Quotes:  “Customer amazement is within the grasp of everybody in an organization. When you provide consistent and predictable above-average experiences, that is when you are operating in the zone of amazement.”  About:  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Customers for Life Shep Hyken interviews John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of The Ultimate Marketing Engine. They discuss how to serve, understand, and create evangelists out of your ideal customers.  Top Takeaways:   ·      A repeat customer keeps coming back but a loyal customer is someone who will do even more business with you once they come back. ·      Focus your attention on the growth of your customers, not just on the growth of revenue. This can be done with the 5 Steps to Ridiculously Consistent Growth, which are: o  Step 1. Map where your best customers are today and where they want to go. Creating the customer journey is not about a sales funnel. It is about organizing behavior and helping customers reach their goals. o  Step 2. Uncover the real problem you solve for your ideal customers. Your customers don't want your products, they want solutions to their problems. o  Step 3. Narrow your focus to the top 20 percent of your ideal customers. Identify your ideal clients and ask, "What else can we do for them?" o  Step 4. Attract more ideal customers with the narrative they are already telling themselves. Know where your customers are, where they want to go, and how to get them there by understanding the problems that they want to solve. o  Step 5. Scale with your customers by serving their entire ecosystem.  Quote:     "The trick to getting customers for life is serving and understanding your ideal customers. This allows you to grow and scale with them instead of constantly chasing the next new idea or new customer."  About:    John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of The Ultimate Marketing Engine. He is also the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network, which trains and licenses independent consultants and agencies to use the Duct Tape Methodology.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Rick DeLisi and Dan Michaeli, authors of Digital Customer Service: Transforming Customer Experience for An On-Screen World. They discuss why customer-centric companies need digital transformation.   Top Takeaways:  ·        Digital Customer Service is about interactions that take place on-screen or have a component of on-screen enhancements (on-screen automation, on-collaboration, on-screen communication). ·        Virtually every service experience starts as self-service. When a customer goes into a company's website or mobile app, they are at the beginning of their digital self-service journey. ·        In a Digital Customer Service interaction, the customers are already logged in and have already begun their search for answers. If and when a human-to-human interaction is needed, the customer support agent should be able to know who the customer is and what they are looking for. ·        US companies alone still receive more than one billion incoming phone calls every year. Many companies claim to be customer-centric yet still expect customers to call them when they need help even in today's on-screen world. ·        Whether you are a B2B or a B2C business, your customers have learned what the best digital experience looks like from the most successful companies.  Quote:   "Customers are now "on-screen" and companies need to meet them on the channels that they are using to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and experience of every interaction."  About:  Rick DeLisi is the co-author of the best-selling book, The Effortless Experience. He has been researching the psychology of customer behavior and expectations in service for the past two decades Dan Michaeli is the CEO of New York-based Glia, a leader in helping companies reinvent how they serve their customers. He develops solutions that create world-class digital customer experiences for “traditional” non-digital-native organizations. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Consistent Exceptional Customer Experiences   Shep Hyken interviews Dan Gingiss, an international keynote speaker, coach, and author of The Experience Maker. They discuss how to create experiences that customers want to talk about.  Top Takeaways:   o An Experience Maker is that person in an organization that wears the customer hat at all times. They think through every business problem from a customer's perspective. o Each person in the company should be an Experience Maker. Even those working in the back office without direct customer interaction should always have the customer in mind. o All marketers want the elusive goal of word-of-mouth marketing. It's not about the next marketing campaign or splashy video. It is creating consistent, exceptional experiences that get customers to talk about your brand. o WISER is a framework that companies can use to create experiences that people want to talk about. It means: ·   Witty - This is not necessarily about humor or being funny. Being witty as a brand is about being clever, using language to your advantage, and refusing to be boring. ·  Immersive - Create consistent experiences that people connect with emotionally. ·  Shareable - Give people a subtle nudge to share their customer experiences with others. The more brands tell people to share about them on social media, the less likely they are to do it. · Extraordinary - Be just a little bit better than everyone else. ·  Responsive - Be engaged with customers when they engage with you. o Be a customer of your own company so you can see what your customers see. This is how you can uncover your customers' pain points, the things that you are doing well, and the things that you should be doing more of.  Quotes:     "Every decision a company makes affects the customer. An Experience Maker makes sure that these decisions have a positive impact."  About:   Dan Gingiss is an international keynote speaker and coach. His 20-year professional career included leadership positions at McDonald’s, Discover, and Humana. He is an author of two books (The Experience Maker and Winning at Social Customer Care) and the host of multiple podcasts and video series. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Preventing Customer Churn   Shep Hyken interviews Philipp Wolf, CEO of Custify, a company that helps SaaS businesses deliver great results for customers. They discuss how to utilize customer information and behavior to help ensure customer success.   Top Takeaways:   ·      Customer service can be reactive. It typically happens when a customer reaches out (via phone, chat, email, or other channels) because they have a problem, and the customer service department helps them resolve their concerns. ·      Customer success can be proactive. It happens when a company uses the information that they have to proactively reach out to customers who are having a problem or are not utilizing features of the product that are most helpful to them. ·      Customer service is not a department. It is a philosophy. ·      Delivering proactive customer service is profitable. It saves companies money, ensures customer retention, and encourages customers to spend more. ·      Around 30% of customers who want to cancel a service can be recovered if companies take time to have a conversation with them to uncover why they want to cancel and what can be done (such as discounts or product training) to continue the relationship. ·      Customer Success is about continuously finding ways to add value and ensure that your customers are maximizing the features and benefits of products or services that they bought from you.   Quotes:  "Customer success not only provides a great customer experience, it also helps companies save time and make the next upsell or cross-sell opportunity happen naturally." About:   Philipp Wolf is the CEO of Custify where he helps SaaS businesses deliver great results for customers. After seeing companies spend big money with no systematic approach to customer success, Philipp knew something had to change. He founded Custify to provide a tool that helps companies get the most out of the time they spend with their customers.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Greg Hanover, CEO at Liveops. They discuss the three most uncommon soft skills that make up the best customer service reps: Creativity, Coordinating with others, and Cognitive Flexibility. Top Takeaways:- What's needed to deliver an excellent customer experience is creativity and problem-solving. It's right up there at the top of the list. This is a key personality trait. When running your home-based business or working remotely, you don't have somebody holding your hand every day. You are really in control, and to succeed, you are required to take control and run it as your own business. - Coordinating with others is important. When you consider the different scenarios that individuals are put in, dealing with different contacts every day, they have a lot of people they have to interact with, whether that's the customer directly or the supervisor at the company they're supporting. So, the ability to coordinate across a number of different fronts is critical. - Cognitive Flexibility is the multiple tasks that an individual encounters as a customer care provider. Their ability to adjust based on the content in an activity is an important requirement. So, to be flexible and adjust quickly is a significant skill that is required to be successful. - The shift in the remote work mindset has been happening for a while, even before the pandemic. However, the pandemic has accelerated this shift. Quotes:“Those who have that discipline and the ability to manage their time and are motivated are the ones who have the most success in a flexible workforce model.”  About:Greg Hanover was named CEO of Liveops Inc. in 2017 after 10 years with the company in senior leadership roles. Liveops is a leader and pioneer in the virtual call center space, with a distributed workforce of over 20,000 domestic home-based agents.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Sharad Khandelwal, co-founder and CEO of SentiSum. They discuss Khandelwal’s artificial intelligence platform that collects valuable information and insights from consumers who reach out. Top Takeaways:- The new technology, artificial intelligence, reads and analyzes all support conversations, regardless of channel, and even tags them with reasons. The goal of this platform is to provide you with real-time insight into why consumers are contacting you in the first place.- Customers' input is as critical as what prevents them from checking out, purchasing something, or returning anything. - The ultimate goal of gathering information is to help this customer solve the problem and prevent future problems. This information should subsequently be disseminated across the board with everyone involved.  - Businesses often overlook the value of the customer service department. This department assures and is accountable for your customer's return. They're essentially a client retention division. Companies should appreciate their support workers in addition to their data. Quote: “This is how you can become a bit more proactive and collaborate better to improve customer experience by bringing everyone together by sharing these insights, making everyone at the same pit with another problem. The bigger the company, the bigger the problem of silos.” About: Sharad Khandelwal, co-founder and CEO of SentiSum, aspires to alter the way major corporations make key choices. He believes they should shift away from gut feelings and toward data-driven judgments. He's passionate about using data and technology to help businesses become more customer-centric. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants Shep Hyken interviews Ray Wang, Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Silicon Valley, based Constellation Research, Inc. They discuss Ray’s book, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants, a groundbreaking guide that reveals which companies will thrive and get crushed by the powerful forces now at work.   Top Takeaways: - The biggest insight is that the companies that figured out how to win have actually increased their gap with everybody else. It's like they've left the other companies in the dust.- Do you have a digital business model? Do you understand how you build a business around that? And do you have digital monetization? And then, of course, are you focusing on delivering an excellent customer experience?- Customers are trading loyalty for convenience, status, and value. This is even more important as we advance because brands that don't understand loyalty and community will be dead in the water.- In the middle of the pandemic, we set off this ultimate collection of autonomous data collection and information/insights that actually drive signal intelligence. And that refinement of that information insight is creating competitive modes for organizations that know how to use data. Brands and companies can now predict what you might like, prevent fraud, mitigate risk, or identify a new market that hasn't been touched. - Mass personalization happens in places all around us. So we've gone from transactional systems like CRM to engagement systems that are really like social business to experiences, which is about using technology and AI to craft journeys that deliver mass personalization at scale.- You have to go out and find your turnaround catalysts. Reinvent your board to start thinking long-term, so they can compete, not on the short-term quarter to quarter EBITDA cycle, but long-term in thinking about dominating and building your digital giant. Quote:  “If I don't have any competitors, I'm going to get stagnant.” About:R "Ray" Wang is the Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Silicon Valley, based Constellation Research, Inc. He is the co-host and co-founder of the widely watched DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How To Compete with the Digital Giants Shep Hyken interviews John Wass, CEO of Profit Isle. They discuss how companies can identify and focus on their most profitable customers. Top Takeaways:  ·        Businesses need to know which customers are most profitable for them and what value they can offer that makes them unique. ·        It is critical for brands to choose the customers that their business model, team, and company DNA engages with the best. This is their biggest profit opportunity. ·        Identify your most profitable customers and ask, "Am I spending most of my time and resources there?" Also, consider the opposite. Ask, "Am I distracted with customers that don't make me a lot of money that I'm neglecting my best customers?" ·        Companies need to decide which subset of customers brings in the most profit and become more customer-centric with them. ·        Not all revenue is good revenue. Not all customers will bring more profit to your bottom line. Have the conviction to walk away from some of the revenue that is actually costing you money and profits. Quote:   "The fastest way to make money is to sell more to the customers who already love you."   About:  John Wass is the CEO of Profit Isle. He was an early member of the management team that grew Staples from three stores to over 1,000 nationwide. He is also a successful entrepreneur who has co-founded and been the CEO of three startups after Staples.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews John Ball, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Customer Workflows at ServiceNow. They discuss how companies can create a great end-to-end customer experience and enhance productivity through process mapping.   Top Takeaways:  ·        Customer service is traditionally focused on the engagement layer (how customers make requests) but not on customer operations (getting the job done). However, it is the customer operations that impact the customer's experience the most. ·        A convenient and frictionless experience is what makes customers want to come back. Strive to create ease and convenience externally and internally. ·        Process mapping (having structured processes and workflows) empowers businesses to identify duplication of effort from customers and employees. ·        In 2020, only companies that modernized and digitally transformed processes continued to deliver seamless customer experiences. ·        Customers are more accepting when problems occur if they are given enough information, even before they ask for it.   Quote:  "Process mapping the customer engagement and customer operations is how businesses can improve their end-to-end customer experience." About:  John Ball is the executive vice president and general manager of Customer Workflows at ServiceNow, a company that creates great customer experiences through digital workflows.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jason Ten-Pow, CEO and President of ONR, the CX consulting firm he founded in 2009. They discuss how businesses can create long-term and sustainable revenue and profits by talking to their customers.   Top Takeaways:  ·        When businesses take the mundane transactions to the experiential, customers come to see what they will do next. ·        Customer expectations have evolved over the last year-and-a-half. What brands think their customers want has changed.. ·        Digital transformation has put a lot of power in the hands of some people (in organizations) who have no preparation or know-how on how to perform in digital roles. This has created an area of friction between the brand and the customer. ·        Authentic conversations go beyond "Are you satisfied?" and "Did you buy?" to "What can I do to create a deeper connection?" ·        Authentic conversations allow brands to understand the customer's wants, needs, and desires. This data can be used to make decisions that will lead to long-term and sustainable revenue and profits. Quote:  "Loyal customers are created by having authentic conversations with them. Talk to your customers to find out what they perceive as good customer service, what they want, and what they need." About:  Jason Ten-Pow is the CEO and President of ONR the CX consulting firm he founded in 2009. Ten-Pow’s passion for customer experience was sparked as a teenager working behind the meat counter of a carnival-themed grocery store in Toronto.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  ·        Hire people who assume a leadership position when it comes to taking care of the customer. (Even if you’re not a leader, manager, or supervisor, it doesn’t mean you can’t treat the customer as if you are.) ·        Everybody is a customer. Show up in a way that is receptive to the needs of both your customers (internal customers and external customers). ·        To create self-leaders, the leaders of the company need to provide support and empower their front-line employees to say, "Yes". ·        Empowerment is providing a space for your employees to take risks (within limits and expectations set by your organization) and use their gifts to create a great customer experience. ·        Caring leadership is showing daily actions that show concern and kindness to those you lead. ·        A caring leader allows their people to breathe through the difficult experiences of the job and help them become more resilient in the process. ·        Caring leadership is how you touch the lives of those who are looking to you for guidance. Leaders must look for ways to expand their circle and make people feel like they belong.   Quote:  "No matter what title you have, what matters most is how you make people feel. Lead yourself with integrity and be congruent with who you are."   About:  Heather R. Younger has earned her reputation as “The Employee Whisperer.” She is a best-selling author, and her newest book, The Art of Caring Leadership, emphasizes the need for kindness, compassion, and empathy in all leaders.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: ·        Many companies think that they are customer-obsessed while unaware of the customer-focused gaps within their organization. These gaps can be felt by the customers through their digital channels, interactions with people, and a variety of things in their organization. ·        Gaps in being a customer-obsessed organization happen when companies do not deliver their brand promise. ·        The brand promise falls into three categories: 1. ‘Unlike the others’ - Being different, quirky, or unusual. 2. ‘At your service’ - Differentiating the experience through amazing customer service. 3. ‘On your side, by your side’ - Being the customer's advocate. ·        A customer-obsessed organization listens to their clients and takes actions based on the information that they receive. ·        In 2017, it would have taken 17 interactions with a brand to close a typical B2B transaction. Now, it takes 27 with 4 or more people involved before customers can make a buying decision. ·        Throughout the pandemic, the racial tensions that we are in, and the environmental issues that we are facing, customers are taking a closer look at the brands that they want to trust and do business with. ·        What happens inside an organization is felt on the outside by the customers. ·        Many companies underestimate the importance of how employees feel about how service is delivered to their customers. ·        Alignment in business is knowing who your customer is, how you want them to feel, and shaping your product around customer obsession. ·        Aligned organizations have 19% faster growth and 15% higher profitability. Quote:  "Lead with the customer first. Keep the customer in mind with every decision that your company makes."  About: Shirley Macbeth is the Chief Marketing Officer at Forrester. Macbeth has 25+ years of experience as a marketing executive with a proven track record in increasing revenues and building brand awareness for global B2B companies. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  ·        Even if you are in a B2B industry, decision-makers are still likely to compare you to their best experiences as a consumer. ·        Digital transformation is more than just implementing technology. It is rethinking your business process to make it easier for customers to do business with you. ·        Delivering a WOW experience can result in a 12-58% in the customer's repurchase intent. ·        Hassle-free customer support is the number one element that increases repurchase intent. This is followed by frictionless experience from start to finish and worry-free returns. ·        To create a WOW experience, businesses do not need to do anything extraordinary. It is about delivering the basics consistently. ·        The last best experience that your customers had with any business, in any industry, is what your customers will always compare you to. Quote:   "To get the attention of the C-suite about service improvement initiatives, you need to speak their language, Return on Investments." About:  Paula Courtney is the President of the Verde Group. She leads the development of new research methods for helping companies quantify the financial impact of their customer experience. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: ·        A customer gives us the gift of trust when they choose us. We must return that trust with integrity, passion, relentless effort, and a sound process. ·        Society has allowed companies to give customers mediocrity. Returning to do business with companies that do not provide great customer service sets the tone that it is okay to do less. ·        With so much competition out there, every business cannot afford to provide a bad customer experience. ·        You can't provide a repeatable and sustainable experience without creating process and training around it.   ·        Trust is the outcome of doing the next right thing. Do the right thing often enough and in a sustainable way that it becomes predictable for your customers. ·        Companies need to get in touch with how their customers want to communicate with them whether it is via phone, email, chat, social media, or other mediums. ·        Omnichannel communication is having all the channels that a customer can connect with your brand in a centralized dashboard. Quote: "Most companies claim that they have good customer service but the true defining measure of making the customer feel valued is behavior."  About: Steve Bederman is the President and CEO of NobelBiz, a Contact Center Technology Company that offers state-of-the-art solutions for companies that want to keep their clients happy. His personal creed is 'Make a Promise, Keep a Promise' and he applies it in both his personal and professional life.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: The global pandemic has given businesses time to focus on what customer service means and how it affects their bottom line. When businesses don't understand customer service, they are not able to recalibrate and change their trajectory to succeed in difficult times. A personalized service compels customers to continue doing business with you. Empower your employees to provide personalized service because in business, he who goes the extra mile, wins. When the leaders are willing to jump in to make success happen, it creates a culture where everyone is invested in creating a positive experience for the customer. When you're the customer and you have an experience that makes you say, "Wow! That's amazing!", make a note. When you go back to your business, think of how you can translate that to wow your own customers. The friendship factor is when your customers feel welcomed by you. This relationship makes your customers go out of their way to do business with you. Quote: "Everyone can adjust when they need to but a lot of times, people don't think about other market opportunities in good times or in bad times." About: Dr. Jeffrey Magee is the author of more than 30 books, three college graduate management textbooks, four bestsellers, and is the Publisher of PERFORMANCE/P360 Magazine, and a Human Capital Developer for more than twenty years. He brings over two decades of Executive and Corporate Development Expertise, with the last decade working in both the start-up to the mature-growth market business sector. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: There are two types of energy: Catabolic energy (levels 1 and 2) is the draining and destructive energy. Anabolic energy (levels 3 to 7) is the constructive and healing energy. Level 1: The state of being a victim. In other words, where the customer or the customer service agent feels like there is no solution. Level 2: The Antagonist - Seeing everything through the lens of conflict. This is the 'I win, you lose' state. Level 3: The Rationalizer - People start to take responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Therefore, this is where collaboration begins. Level 4: The Helper - Empathy kicks in. This level is about providing service and making sure that customers win. People at this level are prone to becoming overwhelmed from giving too much. Level 5: The Collaborator - Whatever challenges your customer is facing faces, you always find an opportunity for improvement and provide a win-win solution. Level 6: The Connector - This is where customer service is there to support the customers and connect with other departments in the company who can help. Level 7: The Creator State - This is where winning and losing is an illusion. It is knowing that you are doing the best you can no matter the result. Quote:“Everything is energy. Above all, it is important to understand the energy that you and others bring to the situation.” About:Natalya Berdikyan is the founder and CEO of Life By Design Academy and Frontline Consulting. She helps individuals and organizations grow to their full potential beyond existing borders and boundaries. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  -      People can steal your ideas or create the same products. What they can't take away is the level of service and relationships you've built with your customers. -      Everybody has customer service. You can win by focusing on creating connections and building relationships with your customers at a higher level than others. -      You can coach people on the technical aspects of the job. But, having empathy is something one just has or doesn't have. -      Customer service starts with leadership. Leaders create the service vision and hire the right people to carry it out. -      When hiring someone, let them interact with other people in your business. You can tell a lot about a person by how they talk to other people that are not from a high-level position within your organization. -      Leaders need to participate in the onboarding process and set the tone of the business' culture.  -      Service aptitude is a person's ability to exceed expectations. It comes from 1) Life experiences 2) Previous work experience 3) Current job experience. Teach your employees about your own culture of service. -      Figure out what makes your business stand out. You can have the same product or service as your competition but if you can out-service them, you will always win. Quotes:  "No matter what business you are in, it is extremely competitive. The only way to stand out is by delivering an outstanding service." About:  Hank Ebeling is the founder of H4 Training and author of Crushing the Competition with Service: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Delivering Outstanding Customer Service & Customer Experience. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      In customer service and sales, we build authentic relationships and help our customers to make the right decisions using their logic and emotions. -      The most fundamental part of emotional intelligence is understanding what goes on inside our minds. We have to understand our own personalities and emotions so we can understand others. -      Self-awareness is knowing what you are good at and identifying your limitations. Know how to minimize your weaknesses and connect with people at a deeper level using your strengths, focus, and preferences. -      Self-regulation is knowing how to manage your emotions to deal with and adapt to the environment that you are in. -      Self-awareness and self-regulation help us to modulate our emotions, adjust our pace, and ask questions that enable us to better serve our customers. -      Emotional Intelligence involves how you engage with clients, build empathy, read the emotional climate that you are in, and adapt. -      Sympathy is not empathy. When you are being sympathetic to others, you are expressing your own emotions and taking on a superior role. Empathy is taking on an equal role and understanding things from the customer’s perspective. Quotes: "Emotional Intelligence is how you combine your thoughts with your feelings to make good quality decisions and build authentic relationships."About: Robin Hills is the Director of Ei4Change and author of The Authority Guide to Emotional Resilience in Business and The Authority Guide to Behaviour in Business. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  Often in customer service, we tend to put self-imposed limitations that get in the way of delivering great experiences to our customers and slows down the process. When we don't satisfy our customers sooner (or soon enough), they walk.  Everyone in customer service needs to ask the question: How can I help the customer in the shortest amount of time, so they can get the results that they want?  A customer service mindset plus a velocity mindset equals a great customer experience.  To succeed in customer service, you need to have a high score in empathy. Empathy helps you ask the right questions that get you the information you need to help your customers.  Cortisol is the fight or flight hormone. Every minute that customers wait for resolution, the higher their cortisol levels get. We must lower their cortisol levels by getting to the issue faster and turning their experience into a positive one right away.   Companies often concentrate too much on the message. They should be concentrating more on how it is communicated, so that the customer has the right experience. Customer service is not just about responding to a complaint. It is about taking care of people throughout their entire journey.   Quote: "Customer service is all about eliminating resistance so customers can make better decisions, buy-in to your solutions and move forward."   About:  Ron Karr is the CEO of Karr Associates, Inc. and the author of five books including the bestselling Complete Idiots Guide to Great Customer Service and his latest, The Velocity Mindset.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: ·        Companies spend billions of dollars building their brands, retail stores, and products. But, when it comes down to the moment that's most impactful for a customer, it usually comes down to their interaction with a customer service agent. ·        The feedback economy shifts the service model on its head. There is less focus on broadcasting why your company is great. The focus is on listening to the customer, understanding their pain points, and creating more systemic changes to address them. ·        There are thousands of avenues for empowered consumers to make their voices heard. You need the right tools to harness all this feedback and take action. ·        Social channels don't discriminate. Companies have to learn to change their processes, technologies, and products to be responsive. The customers need to be the center of a company's strategy. ·        Technology is only a piece of what it takes to get the customer service equation right. You need the right judgment and empathy to take action and help your customers. ·        Customer service happens throughout the entire customer journey. The overall user experience is a function of an ecosystem of partners for delivery. Employees, and in some instances, companies need to collaborate to create a great customer experience ·        Policies should be rules or guidelines that empower employees to help the customer instead of hindering service. Quote: “The customer is the center of everything that you do.” About: Colson Hillier is the Chief Marketing Officer for Alorica. He oversees the planning, development, and execution of Alorica’s marketing and communications strategy, as well as initiatives tied to the company's brand principles, value proposition, and revenue growth.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Even though it was just women’s history month it shouldn’t be the only time you think about diversity and inclusion. Good practices around diversity and inclusion should happen every day. -      Anyone can be a leader no matter their gender, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or gender identity. -      It’s important and necessary for leaders to have uncomfortable conversations around diversity and inclusion. -      Businesses need to get feedback from a variety of customers. -      Allow a diverse group of employee’s voices to be heard. -      Keep diversity and inclusion in mind when dealing with employees as well as customers. -      As a leader when a difficult decision comes up, what’s most important is how you adapt and handle the situation. -      Be a strong leader and address issues of diversity within your team head-on. Quotes: “Even if you’re in the back office supporting fellow employees or you’re supporting the server who brings the dish out the guest, you matter, and you have a CX job.” -Stacy About: Stacy Sherman: Customer Experience (CX) pioneer, known for humanizing business, leading with a heart, and DoingCXRight® not just talking about it. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:. -      56% of consumers go to a company's website before they call customer service. In many cases, this can be a missed opportunity to contain and resolve a customer's concern. -      Almost half of the consumers believe that self-service is more convenient. 82% say that they are willing to use self-service but 46% don't expect it to work. -      Right now, most self-service channels are focused on information about the company and its products instead of the customer journey. -      Of the customers who tried self-service, 50% still end up with the live agent. Only 33% are satisfied with self-service. -      Autonomous customer service allows the complete ability to focus on the customer journey regardless of the channel. -      Autonomous customer service can be simple to implement. There are more sophisticated setups, but it can be as simple as setting business rules to monitor data, initiate outreaches based on changes in the data, and track performance. -      Autonomous customer service gives companies the opportunity to avert and resolve most customer inquiries without agent interaction. This gives companies a high cost-benefit while increasing the level of customer service. -      In 5 years, there will still be a need for human customer service agents, but the nature of their work would be more meaningful as mundane inquiries will be handled through autonomous capabilities. -      Organize around the customer journey and activate that across all channels. Quote: "It shouldn't matter how or where the customer seeks their service resolution. You should be able to rise to the challenge and meet them anywhere they want."  About: Jeff Nicholson is the Global Head of CRM Product Marketing for Pegasystems, where he leads the company’s CRM market vision and strategy. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Slack is an online customer support tool that brings all the people who have the customer at the center of their work together. Slack provides a platform where users (both internal and external customers) can talk about customer challenges and solve customer problems together. -      As long as your team understands what’s important and they have access to all the information that they need to do their job successfully, you’ll start to see alignment in your company. -      Everybody in your company, regardless of their responsibilities, should be on the phone or listening to phone conversations with customers. -      Great customer experiences drive engagement, trust, and impact the growth and revenue of your business.  -      Don’t just resolve your customers’ issues. Strive to restore the customer’s confidence in your business to a level where they want to come back and ideally recommend you. Quote: “You do not get recommendations if your customers do not trust you. Make your business worthy of recommendations.” About: Ali Rayl is the Vice President of Customer Experience at Slack, responsible for making the working lives of Slack’s millions of users simpler and more productive. She joined Slack during its and has cultivated a culture of customer “love” for the past eight years.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  Broken promises to your customers can be either implicit or explicit depending on the situation or marketing strategy.  There are lots of reasons why some promises are not kept. Mistakes will happen or there will be miscommunication throughout management, or sometimes people become busy and a little forgetful.  Many companies struggle to provide a consistent customer experience and inconsistent experiences create distrust and causes customer churn.  Shep’s definition of amazement is simply being better than average all the time. Consistently amazing your customers is key in earning their trust and confidence in your business.  Advertising is making a promise to your customers. It sets the expectations for your customers.  A customer doesn’t buy a product or service. They buy a solution. For example, you’ll buy a soda because you’re thirsty. You buy a drill to make a hole.  Businesses can use the framework of a guarantee to provide a more consistent experience and there are three elements to an experience guarantee: 1) Promise to solve a customer’s problem. 2) Act to solve it. 3) Recover from any service failures.  Think about what the real question is, behind the question your customers actually give you. Be aware of the solution your customers are searching for.  Quote:  “Advertising helps set the customer’s expectation on the promises that brands are willing to deliver.”  About:  Jeff Toister is an author, consultant, and trainer who helps companies develop customer-focused cultures. He's written four books including The Guaranteed Customer Experience. Thousands of customer service professionals around the world subscribe to Jeff's Customer Service Tip of the Week email.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      While it is an age-old adage that word of mouth is the most powerful advertising, many companies have not yet embraced this wonderful opportunity. -      Many hoteliers (and businesses in general) spend a fortune on advertising and little to no investment of time or energy in inspiring empowering their team to top performance. -      Teach GMs and department heads to start inspiring and empowering. Our teams are full of talent that we can use if we invite them to collaborate. -      Many business owners like the thought of having consistent 5-Star reviews but don’t know where to begin. -      Every interaction you have with external customers as well as internal customers should end with everyone feeling better than when they came to you. -      When interviewing a potential employee, read your company’s mission statement aloud and watch the candidate’s reaction to test whether that candidate truly aligns with your company culture. -      Adele’s six-step process for achieving 5-star reviews: 1.   Write down your ultimate review, with details about what makes your experience so special. 2.   Share your business mission and vision with your team. 3.   Shoot for the stars. If you shoot for 80% guest (customer) satisfaction, you’ll never know the joy of 96%. 4.   Use each critical review as a trigger for continuous improvement. 5.   Hire happy people pleasers and give them the tools, training, support, and freedom from fear that they need to be successful in making guests happy. 6.   Talk about kindness and compassion every day. Quotes: “Remember to C.A.R.E.: Every customer that you talk to should feel Cared for, Appreciated, and Respected at Every encounter.” About: Adele Gutman Milne is a culture and guest experience expert and host of the Hospitality Reputation Marketing Podcast: Get Great Reviews. Adele also has been named one of the Top 25 Extraordinary Minds by HSMAI along with numerous other awards for her leadership in Hospitality Reputation Marketing.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      The reality of today’s digital world is that the transformation of technology is never done. Therefore, all companies need to continuously change and pivot to keep up with their customers’ expectations and the rest of the business world. -      A lot of companies may have an intuitive belief of where their customers are in terms of their needs, expectations, and pain points. Unfortunately, they don’t do the necessary research to keep their finger on the pulse of where their customer is right now. -      Customer behavior is vital in keeping your business profitable – and there are more customer behaviors besides buying and coming back to buy again. -      Many studies have revealed that while the emotional and rational side of a person plays into purchase decisions, the emotional side tends to be more powerful in purchasing behavior. -      Customer love is the feeling that you can count on a brand to give you what you need and more, along with a feeling of alignment or spiritual connection. The companies that inspire a lot of customer love have better business metrics overall. -      The formula for achieving customer love is spilt into three parts: meeting customer needs, periodically delighting your customers, and standing for something that resonates with your customers’ values. -      Brands with high customer love consistently have more growth, profit, and valuation. -      There is a proven transformation process companies can use to improve their fulfillment of the ‘love formula’: -      Step 1. Understand Your Customer -      Step 2. Map the Customer Journey -      Step 3. Build the Future -      Step 4. Optimize the Short Term -      Step 5. Lead the Change Quote: “In this time of rapid change, you really don’t have a choice if you want your business to remain relevant and successful. You must keep changing with the times.” About: Howard Tiersky is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance. Howard is the founder of two companies that enable large brands to win in the digital world: FROM, The Digital Transformation Agency and Innovation Loft.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Some businesses such as a healthcare practice or provider, do not have a product that the customer touches. Instead, it’s all about selling the entire service experience to their customer. -      Remember to manage the Moments of Truth: any time a customer comes into contact with any part of your business they have the opportunity to form an impression. -      Words are very powerful in shaping the perception of the customer experience. For example, the waiting room in a doctor’s office could be renamed as the reception area, implying a different experience from just waiting in a room. -      If your customers are experiencing long wait times or complex systems when trying to call your business, it may be time to hire more help or invest in technology to reduce those hold times or phone trees. -      Creating a positive customer experience increases the likelihood that your customers will tell others of their experience with you, ultimately making you feel more fulfilled with your work to create that experience. -      Dr. Baum’s 10 Personal Promises to His Patients: 1.   We will answer the phone in less than 3 rings. 2.   A human, not an answering machine, will speak with you and make your appointment or take your questions. 3.   We can usually make an appointment to see you on the same day that you call or the very next day. 4.   If you call for the doctor and the doctor is not available, we will call you back the same day and we will tell you what time that call is going to take place. 5.   We use an electronic medical record system to send your prescription to the pharmacy immediately so that the medication will be ready by the time you arrive to pick it up. 6.   We will send a letter to your primary care doctor or referring physician while you’re still in the exam room that lists your diagnosis, the medications you’ve been prescribed and the treatment plan we’ve outlined for you. 7.   We’ll provide you with educational materials on your condition, including articles written by Dr. Baum. 8.   You can communicate with me or one of my staff via email and I will answer you usually within the same day. 9.   We have a very energetic, enthusiastic and smiling staff who will help exceed your expectations regarding your visit to our office. 10. We will make your visit almost magical. Quote:“The customer experience begins with the patient, or customer, the moment you start any sort of interaction.” About:Neil H. Baum, MD, Professor of Clinical Urology at Tulane Medical School, has written over 300 peer-reviewed articles and 10 books on marketing, communications between doctors and patients, as well as publications on men and women’s healthcare issues. Dr. Baum is the also author of The Business Basics to Building and Managing a Healthcare Practice which was published in 2019.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      The secret to getting your employees to love coming in to work is creating an environment where employees feel welcome, loved and empowered. -      One of the most important things you can do every day is huddle with your team. Meet together and talk about your culture and company values daily. -      The number one reason people leave their jobs is because they are not feeling recognized or valued by their boss or management. -      Keeping a healthy, productive company culture is all about making sure your employees feel valued, informed of their responsibilities, participate in ongoing training, and set goals to help them grow. -      The anxiety from having to confront customers on a hard “no” can cause employees to enter their fight or flight mode. Either way, the interaction becomes negative and causes the customer to become even more unhappy with the situation. -      Find ways to say yes to your customers, even if the answer is no. -      Christine Trippi’s four-step process on how to always say yes includes: 1) Make friends first. 2) Explain what you can do. 3) Offer options. 4) Be creative. -      Energy times execution equals your sweet results. After feeling inspired you may have a lot of energy to get started, but it’s the ideas and the execution of those ideas that will make sweet success. Quote:“A lot of companies have a great onboarding process that covers their missions and values, but then it ends on day one. It’s how you pull through every day that’s going to create your company culture.”   About:Christine Trippi is an award-winning hotelier who has been in a romance with hospitality for over 30 years, serving as manager at resorts, and full and select-service hotels. She is the founder of The Wise Pineapple and uses her experience and passion for helping leaders and organizations have Sweet Operations, Sweet Cultures, and Sweet Results.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Influencer marketing is a way to add to your customer journey. It starts with social media. One of the first things customers look at when exploring a brand is their social media presence. -      Influencer marketing enhances customer experience through people, visuals and content that are relatable, unlike traditional ads made in a studio. -      A strong, influential social media presence can also help B2B companies negotiate collaborations and partnerships with other B2B companies. -      Current customers can be some of your best social media influencers. -      Social media profiles are the new ‘showrooms’ for manufacturers to present and promote their products or services. -      Negative reviews or comments on social media are a good way to showcase to the public (which includes current and potential customers) how your business handles customer complaints. -      Look at your competitors to see which social media channels they focus on and how they utilize those platforms within their business. That’s a good place to start. -      Your followers want to interact with influencers. That’s why social media platforms work so well. They have the capability to interact, unlike traditional media like TV, radio and print.  -      Social media is a great opportunity to engage with your customers and marketing efforts on a personal level. Quote:“Think about how you can customize the different social media channels to fit your business, regardless of your industry.” About:Elma Beganovich leads A&E’s efforts in building the company’s list of world-renowned partners and clients. Her area of expertise includes identifying roles that A&E can play for a variety of brands in different industries, as well as developing terms and scope of those partnerships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Web accessibility is required by the law for almost every business in the United States. -      According to the CDC, 26% of American adults are living with some form of a disability, and it’s up to American businesses to make sure that all their public spaces are accessible to everyone. -      Accessibility cannot truly be widespread until it is affordable, simple enough for the average business owner to install, and in a format that allows businesses to ‘set it and forget it’ with minimal to no upkeep. -      Right now, the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) created by the W3C, is the only internationally recognized set of guidelines for web accessibility. -      After surveying over 10 million web pages, 98% of those pages failed to be completely accessible. -      The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) states that public places of accommodation need to be accessible to everybody. In 2018, the Department of Justice said business websites are also considered places of public accommodation. -      Customers who have disabilities sometimes already have assistive technology that can detect web accessibility when navigating different websites. -      Being an accessible company increases brand reputation and helps ensure every customer has a positive experience with you. Quote:“Many businesses have no idea that they are required by law to be web-accessible, mostly because no one has ever brought their website’s inaccessibility into question.” About:Rafi Glantz is a sales and marketing executive, small-time musician, and big-time dog lover who currently leads accessiBe’s Strategic Partnerships efforts and collaborates with both partners and people with disabilities worldwide to increase awareness of web accessibility.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Personalization has been and continues to be the big buzzword in the world of customer experience. -      In just a matter of a few months, COVID-19 forced businesses 2-3 years into the future of digital commerce and digital customer experiences. -      COVID-19 has also affected the way customers shop, especially with grocery stores, which saw a 300% increase in online purchasing over the last year. -      Amazon has set the bar for the eCommerce experience. Customers are learning to expect Amazon levels of service and CX from everyone else. -      The pandemic has introduced us to an era where customers are buying almost everything they need online. -      Success today involves customer acquisition, customer loyalty and continuing the same customer experience so that customers can predict what to expect. -      Information and transparency from your business are the keys to creating confidence and building loyalty with your customers. -      Companies need to tie technology, algorithms and AI into the experience customers have with human employees instead of sacrificing one for the other. Quote: “Realize that the customer’s experience with you isn’t just when the customer is on-sight, but all the way through the customer’s journey, from the beginning until they come back the next time.” About:Christy Augustine, Chief Operating Officer at Bloomreach, leads Bloomreach’s efforts to arm customers with the tools and knowledge they need to successfully compete in demanding markets. She is a leading thinker in e-commerce, having been a manager at Bain & Co., focused on technology, retail and strategy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: The Me-conomy is about giving the customer what they want, when they want it, how they want it, with little to no effort. That’s convenience! A perfect omnichannel experience allows a customer to start a support conversation through one channel and finish the same conversation in another without having to repeat information. Kustomer has found that 77% of customers expect their problem to be resolved immediately, placing an emphasis on ‘real-time’ customer service strategies. Personalization has only grown more important throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers are used to it, and it’s not going away. Chatbots have an important role to play. The problem with a lot of today’s chatbots is that they’re not able to connect to a CRM system. It’s crucial in today’s world to position your company in a way that ties your CRM to your channels of communication in order to provide great customer service. Incorporating self-service, real-time responses, personalization, and communication channel-of-choice can ultimately lead to a convenient experience for customers. Quote:“The five pillars that define a me-conomy include self-service, real-time, personalization, channel-of-choice, and low effort.” About:Gabe Larsen currently leads Kustomer’s worldwide marketing efforts, including advertising, brand, communications, demand, and digital. Prior to joining Kustomer, Gabe was the VP of Marketing for XANT where he helped create the sales acceleration category and grow the company to nearly one-hundred million in revenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices