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Shep Hyken & C-Suite Radio
Amazing Business Radio features customer service expert and New York Times bestselling author Shep Hyken who interviews leading business professionals and other customer experience experts. Each guest shares tips and insights on how to succeed in business. The bright business minds featured on Amazing Business Radio come from all over the world and include viral video stars, corporate CEOs, bestselling authors, thought leaders, and many other inspiring personalities. The show covers a variety of topics related to customer service and customer experience and will provide answers that listeners need to know in order to take their success to the next level. Amazing Business Radio airs every week on, itunes, Soundcloud, and other platforms and channels.
The "Magic" Behind the Words You Use - Featuring Guest Tim David
What if you knew the “Magic Words” to use with your customers?
Shep Hyken sits down with Tim David to discuss the impact that words have on human connection and customer service.
Top Takeaways:
• TIM’S GENEROUS GIFT: To start with, Tim has offered a free video course on body language. Just visit here - https://www.udemy.com/body-language/?couponCode=dyvg53.
• Seven words that motivate, engage, and influence:
1. Because – Studies show that when this word is used, the answer is changed. When not used, the answer may not be the desired one. However, when you add the word “because,” people’s minds change.
2. Yes – The more often we say yes to someone, the more we feel like we like them. The brain loves to use shortcuts, so if it associates a person with the word “yes,” then the relationship is strengthened. Starting the conversation with agreement puts the person on the other end at ease right off the bat.
3. But – When the brain hears this word, everything that came before it is automatically erased as if it were never said. If you’re going to use this word, consider the order in which it comes in a sentence. The meaning is the same, but what’s remembered is different.
4. If – This word engages imagination and frees people up to say what they really feel. When you use “if” and “like” (e.g., “If I had a magic wand, what would be an ideal outcome for you?”) you force the brain to focus on positive outcomes rather than on problems.
5. Name – Using someone’s name allows for a connection to take place.
6. Help – Human connection is a natural reaction. Part of our success as a species comes from working together. But we often have a hard time asking for help. When we do that, we rob people of the opportunity to do what comes naturally. Value the word “help” and create space for it.
7. Thanks – There is so much power behind gratitude. When it is removed, you feel its absence immediately.
8. BONUS WORD: Us – When this word is used, the customer feels as though you are in this together, that you empathize with them.
About:
Tim David is the author of "Magic Words: The Science and Secrets Behind Seven Words That Motivate, Engage, and Influence." An ex-professional magician, he now teaches salespeople and leaders the magic of prioritizing human connection at work and in life.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
38:1505/03/2018
Company Fusion Rather Than Company Confusion - The Importance of a Clearly Defined Culture
Are your brand and culture clearly defined?
Shep Hyken sits down with Denise Lee Yohn, to discuss her new book, Fusion, and discusses the importance of congruency creating a clearly defined culture, which positively impacts the customer experience.
Top Takeaways:
• Brand is your external identity and culture is your internal operations. Many companies deal with them as though they are two separate entities. When that happens, a lot of power gets lost. This leads to a disconnect with how the company is run.
• As a manager, it is your obligation to treat employees how you would like to be treated. That’s the fundamental level. Once that base is covered, work on engaging your employees the same way you want them to engage your customers.
• The problem with mission statements is that many times they are not relevant to employees, and definitely not to customers. They are written for annual reports and are too business-y. If there is a disconnect with the mission statement and the brand of the company, employees get confused when it comes time to make decisions. They are not sure if the decision should be based on the mission statement, or on the brand. When this happens, the employees are not set up for success.
• A mission statement should be a filter, a lens in which you see everything through. It should serve as a clarifying, unifying, and motivating idea for everyone who is impacted by the company.
• In order to cultivate the desired culture within your organization, leadership must take responsibility for it. So much of what employees communicate comes as an example from leaders, who set the tone.
• Do sweat the small stuff: rituals, artifacts, policies and procedures. These things seem like mundane elements, but they are little things that make a big impact.
• Ignite your transformation: kick off your culture statement and then sustain the momentum for employee brand engagement. You don’t just want happy and productive employees, you want happy and productive employees that create extraordinary experiences. The only way they can do that is if they truly understand the company’s mission.
• Build your brand from the inside out. When your culture is healthy, you can take what you are doing on the inside and then make it meaningful to customers. Make that part of your identity.
About:
Denise Lee Yohn is the go-to expert on brand-building for national media outlets, an in-demand speaker and consultant, and an influential writer.
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
32:2026/02/2018
Great Customer Experiences Start With Great Employee Experiences - Valuable Lessons From Comcast
Shep Hyken sits down with Tom Karinshak, Executive VP of Customer Service at Comcast, to discuss the importance of investing in training and equipping employees so that they can better serve customers.
Top Takeaways:
• Your customers know what good customer service is. They aren’t usually comparing your service to a direct competitor. They are comparing it to any company that gives them good service, no matter what the company is selling.
• Look around and take notes from companies that are giving great service. You are a customer as well. When you have a great experience, implement those strategies into your own business.
• Meet your customers where they want to be met. This could be social media, chat, phone calls, email, etc. In whatever way your customers want to reach you, make sure you are there.
• It’s so important to get things right the first time around so that there doesn’t have to be a second time.
• Employees must be armed with the proper tools, technology, and training so that they are able to give great customer experiences.
• Consistency amongst employees is so critical. When customers ask questions, there should be consistent answers, no matter who they talk to.
• Ask your customers for feedback on how you can be better. But also ask your employees for feedback on how the company can be a better place to work.
About:
Tom Karinshak serves as Executive Vice President of Customer Service for Comcast Cable. Tom oversees call center operations including phone, chat and social media agents, in addition to other key touch points and service channels with 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
39:0720/02/2018
Backing Your Customer Off the Ledge - Featuring Guest Skip Cohen
How well do you deal with angry and complaining customers?
Shep Hyken talks with Skip Cohen about the best ways to solve problems and deal with unhappy customers.
Top Takeaways:
• When you empathize with an unhappy customer, this immediately lets them know that you are there to help and they feel valued. Tell them you understand their frustration and let them know that you would feel the same way if you were in their shoes. Then, let them know the problem stops here, that you are here to resolve it.
• Three keys to offering a great customer service experience:
1. Fast response times – How fast is fast enough? As soon as you come into contact with the customer you should respond. So, as soon as you see that email or as soon as you listen to the voicemail, that is when you get back to them.
2. Have the solution – Be equipped to solve the problems and resolve the complaints you are getting.
3. Listen – When you listen to the customer and really hear them out, you get a clearer picture of where they are at and exactly what they need.
• Don’t be afraid to hear what is wrong with your company. It’s in the complaints that you are given the great opportunity for change and innovation.
About:
Skip Cohen is co-host of the webcast Mind Your Own Business, and is the founder of SkipCohenUniversity (http://www.skipcohenuniversity.com/), considered one of the fastest growing educational sites in professional photography. He is the co-author of six books on photography.
Shep Hyken (https://hyken.com/) 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
37:3613/02/2018
Hitting the Reset Button on Omni-Channel Customer Service Featuring Guest Murph Krajewski
Are you where your customers want you to be?
Shep Hyken sits down with Murph Krajewski, discussing the importance of knowing what channels your customers want you to be on.
Top Takeaways:
• Omni-channels today are more of a mindset than a definable term. It’s about being wherever a perspective customer is. Omni can be synonymous with multi, meaning there are multiple ways customers can connect with a company.
• It is crucial for a company to be on as many channels as possible in order to be easily accessible by its customers.
• The big difference between marketing and customer service is that marketing is looking to give messages, whereas customer service needs to be ready to receive messages. It’s a company’s responsibility to know how their customers want to reach them.
• A practical thing that companies can do when it comes to channels, is to stop thinking about channels. Reject the assumption that omni-channel is a list of features. It is simply a concept.
• Let the customer define what the perfect experience is. It doesn’t matter how you think your customers want to reach you. It’s what they want that matters.
• Find technology that fits what you need rather than trying to mold your company to a certain technology.
About:
Murph Krajewski is VP of Marketing at Sharpen (https://sharpencx.com/), a cloud-based contact center platform. He has been in the contact center industry for nearly 20 years, in a variety of roles. These days, Murph is focused on creating better experiences for contact center agents.
Shep Hyken (https://hyken.com/) 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
34:1605/02/2018
How Speaking Your Customer’s Lingo Makes You Irresistible Featuring Guest Jeffrey Shaw
What if you could be speak your ideal customer’s language?
Shep Hyken sits down with Jeffrey Shaw to discuss his new book LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer’s Language and Make Your Business Irresistible.
Top Takeaways:
• Go deep and horizontal in your area of expertise. The new “niche” is an expansive business model. Decide who you want your customers to be, and then build a brand around them. Once you nail that down, you can then go horizontal because there will be multiple audiences who want what you’re offering.
• Lingo, by definition, is the language between a community. When it comes to your business, who is your community? Once you figure that out, you can decide what language you are going to speak. Lingo is also understanding what isn’t said, the unspoken. When a business speaks to that, the customer feels like the company really understands them.
• Rather than build a business you want and try to cram customers into it, build a business with your ideal customers in mind.
• When you think of your customers as a community rather than just a data base, that changes the way you see them. That causes you to care for them.
• Understand that each of your customers, though they all may have some things in common, are unique individuals and want to be treated that way.
• Realize that customers no longer want you to define their experience for them. They want to create their own. You’re setting the stage, but allowing them to make it what they want it to be.
• Every customer is a valued one, whether they buy frequently or once, or whether they spend a lot of money or a little. We don’t have to buy into the 80/20 rule that says only 20 percent of customers make up 80 percent of sales. If you are marketing to your ideal customers, this number should not exist.
• The process to developing the secret language of your ideal customer:
1. Perspective – Understand how they see the world.
2. Familiarity – Create comfort in your environments, in everything the customer does to interact with your business.
3. Style – Customers resonate with style and whether or not it matches their own. You want to emulate the style of your ideal customer so that it draws them in.
4. Pricing Psychology – This should attract your ideal customer, not scare them away. Pricing creates the right perception for what you offer.
5. Words – If your words aren’t chosen carefully to draw a specific kind of customer, you end up getting whoever comes along.
About:
Jeffrey Shaw is the author of LINGO, a book focused on helping businesses stand out (https://www.amazon.com/LINGO-Discover-Customers-Language-Irresistible/dp/0999518704), attract their ideal customer, and create brand loyalty that supersedes price. He is also a portrait photographer whose work has been featured in People Magazine and on The Oprah Show.
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
35:1829/01/2018
When Virtual Reality Becomes Your Customer's Reality Featuring Guest Jeff Day
Shep Hyken Interviews Jeff Day, CEO of Bluewater Technologies
What if you could be face-to-face with your customers, anytime, anywhere?
Shep Hyken sits down with Jeff Day, discussing virtual reality and how companies are using this technology to better serve their customers.
Top Takeaways:
• Virtual reality uses a headset to have multi-projected environments of a space create the realistic sensation of physically being somewhere. It’s being somewhere without actually being there.
• Augmented reality projects in a physical space items that are not physically there. This uses more camera and sensory technology.
• Google created Google Cardboard, a small headset device made out of cardboard that turns your mobile phone into a virtual reality headset. In 2016, 88 million units were sold.
• The Kindle Fire Mayday Button allows you to instantly have a person pop up on your screen and be there to guide you through your problem. It’s not a recording. It’s a real live person in a call center speaking directly to you, on your device, helping you out.
• Microsoft HoloLens allows you to take and pin virtual display monitors in the air, so that they don’t occupy any physical space. When the glasses are worn, the images hover in the air in front of you and allow you to manipulate and move the images.
• People want to see and experience something before they buy it. Think about what your customers would like to see, in virtual reality or augmented realty, and ask yourself if you can bring that experience to life virtually for them.
About:
Jeff Day is the CEO of Bluewater Technologies (http://bluewatertech.com), a Detroit-based technology company that specializes in experiential marketing and events. Jeff and his company want to help enterprising brands better tell their stories.
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
38:4322/01/2018
The Smallest Things Can Make the Biggest Difference to Your Customers Featuring Guest Chris Smoje
The Smallest Things Can Make the Biggest Difference to Your Customer
Shep Hyken Interviews Chris Smoje, Founder of DIME Customer Service
What can you be doing to make a big difference for your customers?
Shep Hyken and Chris Smoje discuss how the smallest actions can make the greatest impact on your customers.
Top Takeaways:
• The DIME Customer Service approach: Deliberate Interactions Memorable Experiences
• Four stages of service: You can’t have one without the other. They must all go together, like steps or levels.
1. Habitual – This goes hand-in-hand with being deliberate. Great service must be practiced all the time, and it will become habit. Great service doesn’t happen by accident. It is intentional.
2. Enjoyable – Giving customer service is like giving a gift. Doing it should bring joy. It creates a positive emotion, and the gift giver expects nothing in return.
3. Remarkable – To get customers’ attention, something remarkable must happen. This doesn’t have to be something big; it just needs to stand out.
4. Transformational – There is so much more to a sale than just making a sale. In some way or another, each interaction with a customer leads to some kind of change in their life. It goes so much deeper than just what is seen on the surface.
• The five values of a service-focused team: AEIOU
1. Accountable – Every member of the team must be on the same page, and must be held accountable.
2. Energetic – In front of customers, there’s a particular way you must behave. Staff members need to bring energy into each interaction.
3. Innovative – You don’t have to have a lot of resources, or a huge staff to give great customer service. Empower the people you do have so the leadership can focus on the tasks they need to get done.
4. Optimistic – When an organization knows what it’s doing, there is clarity and purpose. It’s important to internalize and really understand what works best for you. Since customer service is a long-term game, evolution is always happening. In order to get through this, optimism is critical.
5. Unique – Leaders must be connected to their customers. This allows the leaders to understand that each customer is unique. In turn, the customers can be served better.
About:
Chris Smoje is the founder of DIME Customer Service where he works with organizations to achieve service excellence through their culture, interactions, processes, and experiences. He is a regular media commentator on customer service in Australia.
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
36:3115/01/2018
Doing the Opposite of Normal Can Lead to Better Customer Service Featuring Guest Jesse Cole
Doing the Opposite of Normal Can Lead to Better Customer Service Shep Hyken Interviews Jesse Cole, Author of Find Your Yellow Tux
Featured Interview:
Do your “fans” come first? When customers come first, success follows.
Shep Hyken speaks with Jesse Cole about how to stand out from the competition and create perfect customer service experiences for your customers.
Top Takeaways:
• To stand out in business, do the opposite of what is normal. Do what the competition is not doing.
• Three areas where you need to find your “Yellow Tux”
1. Yellow Tux yourself – Have a mirror moment. Figure out what frustrates you about your life and how you can start over. Then, figure out what you are best at and run with it.
2. Yellow Tux your business – Have the same mirror moment. Focus on the areas you are best at, and don’t force yourself to do the things you aren’t skilled in.
3. Yellow Tux your legacy – Think about the difference you make, and not just on your accomplishments. Significance over success is what you should be after.
• Six steps to creating attention, standing out, and creating the perfect customer service experience:
1. Have a mirror moment – Look at where you are and where you would like to be.
2. Ask the best question – What can you and your company be the best at?
3. Embrace the different mindset – Whatever is normal, do the opposite.
4. Hello world moment – Create attention to stand out.
5. Love your customers more than you love your product.
6. Make reinvention part of your DNA – Change constantly in order to create attention.
About:
Jesse Cole is the owner of Fans First Entertainment, who owns and operates the Savannah Bananas and the Gastonia Grizzlies. Cole is the author of Find Your Yellow Tux – How to Be Successful by Standing Out. He is also the host of the Business Done Differently 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
32:4608/01/2018
The Most Important Business Strategy - Create Trust Featuring Guest David Horsager
Do your customers trust you?
Shep Hyken sits down with David Horsager, discussing the importance of trust and how gaining it from your customers is the most significant thing you can do.
Top Takeaways:
• Trust is a confident belief in a product or an organization. When there is confident belief, everything changes. When trust goes up, creativity and loyalty do as well. Cost and suspicion goes down.
• When employees get treated properly, it trickles down and the customers feel that.
• 8 pillars that hold up the trust edge: Without just one, you could lose trust. All 8 are necessary to gain trust.
1. Consistency – If you do something consistently, customers will come to expect you to do that, whether it be good or bad.
2. Clarity – People trust the clear, and mistrust the ambiguous.
3. Compassion – If customers believe they are cared about, they will trust you.
4. Character – Do what is right, not what is easy.
5. Competency – Stay fresh and relevant, and capable of being trusted.
6. Commitment – Companies that are trusted most are ones that stick with it.
7. Connection – How we connect and collaborate is vital.
8. Contribution – Trust comes to those who get results, those who perform.
About:
David Horsager, MA, CSP, CPAE, is the CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute, national bestselling author of The Trust Edge, inventor of the Enterprise Trust Index, and director of one of the nation’s foremost trust studies: The Trust Outlook.
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
39:5901/01/2018
Companies Grow When Customers are Treated as Unique Individuals Featuring Guest Eddie Yoon
Shep Hyken Interviews Eddie Yoon, Author of Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth
Do your customers feel like friends, or just transactions?
Shep Hyken speaks with Eddie Yoon, an expert in growth strategy and marketing.
Top Takeaways:
• Leaders of organizations need to have strong personal brands for the employees to rally around and get behind. Not only is this important for entrepreneurs, it is better for large organizations to have leaders with strong personal brands as well.
• You don’t have to create an entirely new product or service. You just need to reinvent the way that it is being offered, and reinvent the way it gets delivered. That’s the key.
• Disruption completely changes the way an industry works. You don’t have to be as big as Uber or Amazon. You just have to think about what can be done that the competition isn’t doing.
• A company that thrives is one that knows that not every customer is the same. They empathize with customers and strive to delight them. These companies know they have a lot to learn from the customers.
• Superconsumers are your customers who come back over and again, your loyal customers. They want and deserve sympathy, respect, and generosity. When the company delivers what the customer wants, the results will be dramatic and bigger than ever imagined.
• Social media is a great place to find your superconsumers.
About:
Eddie Yoon is the founder of EDDIEWOULDGROW, a think tank advisory firm on growth strategy. Eddie is the author of the acclaimed book Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth (Harvard Business School Press, 2016).
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
35:2826/12/2017
Meeting Your Customers Where They Are, Will Cause Them to Stay Where You Are
How would you like a perfect way to reach your customers and keep their attention?
Personalizing the customer experience is a hot topic. Shep Hyken sits down with customer personalization expert, Jim Steinberg, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Partnerships at LoyaltyPlant.
Top Takeaways:
• There is an engagement crisis happening among marketers. Most marketers have the proper tools, but they aren’t using them properly. Sending something to a customer is all about when and where you send it. The crisis occurs when the wrong customer gets the wrong information, or when they get it at the wrong time or in the wrong place.
• The four R’s of Marketing:
1. Get the RIGHT MESSAGE
2. To the RIGHT CUSTOMER
3. At the RIGHT TIME
4. In the RIGHT PLACE.
-If this formula is properly implemented, the customer is going to be absolutely delighted. And, mobile is really the only medium that can do this properly.
• Don’t confuse the concept of personal information with personalized information. Personalization is about one-to-one marketing. It’s getting specific and personalized message to a specific individual. Customers don’t mind sharing personal information in order to receive a personalized and relevant experience.
About:
Jim Steinberg is Senior Vice President of Enterprise Partnerships at LoyaltyPlant. He is passionate about transforming the face of mobile marketing for restaurant chains using the disruptive force of the LoyaltyPlant platform.
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
33:0918/12/2017
Know Your Customers. Understand Your Customers. Keep Your Customers. Featuring Guest Shannon Bell
Know Your Customers. Understand Your Customers. Keep Your Customers.
Shep Hyken Interviews Shannon Bell, Head of Product Management and Strategy at Amdocs
Featured Interview:
How are you using Artificial Intelligence to better understand your customers?
Shep Hyken interviews Shannon Bell, digital intelligence expert, discussing the importance of integrating AI into business and how it benefits the customers and the company long-term.
Top Takeaways:
• Customers crave personalization. Meet them where they are. Who are they? What do they like? Can you suggest something to them? Stats show that customers buy more when the sale is personalized. It’s the ethical upsale.
• In this day and age, generic promotions should no longer exist. Make sure you don’t give everyone the same blanket promotions. Create specific promotions based on the personal preferences of your customers, this not only can create an upsell, but customer loyalty.
• Bots won’t understand 100% of everything. It’s critical that the transition from bot to human is seamless when this happens.
• AI is best used to handle the generic queries. Within call centers, the questions that are asked most frequently are best answered by bots. These are the simple interactions. For the more complicated situations, this is where a human steps in.
• The goal within AI is to get to a point where every interaction can be handled through digital channels. Then it becomes up to the company to decide which interactions get handled by humans and which by non-humans.
• Know the customer. Understand the customer. Don’t recommend the wrong items.
About:
Shannon Bell leads product management, strategy, and go-to market for Amdocs’ digital, intelligence, and BSS portfolio as part of Amdocs Technology.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
33:3111/12/2017
Create a Culture Where Employees Come First Featuring Guests Terry Cain & Steve Church
Create a Culture Where Employees Come First
Shep Hyken Interviews Terry Cain and Steve Church, Co-authors of “The Pinwheel”
Featured Interview:
How would you like to create a culture and working environment that is better for your employees, which in turn is better for your customers?
Shep Hyken sits down with not just one but two guests, Terry Cain and Steve Church. The co-writers of “The Pinwheel” and partners in business, Terry and Steve discuss the importance of involving employees in creating a culture that is better for everyone: leadership, staff, and customers.
Top Takeaways:
• Involve employees in the creation of values.
• Employees must come first. When employees are happy, they treat customers well, which causes them to come back time and time again.
• 5 core values
1. Integrity
2. Customer Service
3. Accountability
4. Teamwork
5. Innovation
• If employees aren’t part of the process, they may not want to buy in to the values. This creates problems for the leadership.
• Some companies have “heroes,” people who create an amazing experience for the customer. However, the next time that customer comes back, they could be dealing with a different employee and have a completely different experience. A good company will have consistency, and all employees will be great, eliminating the hero idea altogether.
• The 7 Veins of the Pinwheel: These are required to create a culture where all employees understand the importance of delivering great experiences to each customer.
1. Vision
2. Attitude
3. Knowledge & Skills
4. Systems & Processes
5. Accountability
6. Passion
7. Integrity & Values
Pick the one that seems most important to your company and work on that one first. Once you seem to have a good handle on that one, you can move on to the next. Never try to attack or take on all seven at a time. Go one at a time.
About:
Terry Cain: Terry’s “dream position” as VP responsible for global customer engagement led to the co-writing of the book “The Pinwheel.” His experience includes 30 years in sales, business development, process mastery, change management, and customer engagement.
Steve Church: At Avnet, Steve has held positions as Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Chief Human Resources Officer, Corporate Strategy Officer, Corporate Business Development Officer, and Chief Operational Excellence Officer. Steve co-wrote “The Pinwheel” with Terry Cain.
Terry and Steve left long careers at Avnet to create their own company, Pinwheel Partners, which focuses on helping executive management teams create cultures that are better environments for the employees.
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
36:4804/12/2017
The Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Experience Featuring Guest Jeff Nicholson
The Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Experience
Shep Hyken Interviews Jeff Nicholson, Customer Engagement Thought Leader
Featured Interview:
Jeff Nicholson enlightens listeners to what he refers to as The Seven Deadly Sins of the Customer Experience Journey. He shares the importance of understanding what customers need, meeting those needs, and the best methods of delivering it to them.
Top Takeaways:
There are seven deadly “sins” along the journey of meeting customers’ needs:
1. Proximity – Are you aware of, or are you close enough to, your customer’s moment of need? Customers want to be able to cognitively offload their need onto the company. The resolution or fulfillment may not come immediately, but the offload of the need can happen sooner and the customer will feel better knowing it’s being taken care of.
2. Accessibility – Your service, is it fit for function, and in the way that the customer wants to consume it? Companies often offer services in a way that works well for them, without keeping the customers’ needs in mind. They offer answers on their own terms, not on the terms of the customer.
3. Duration/Expediency – How fast can you resolve an issue? Some processes will take time, but where can you speed up the process? Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that you rush your customers.
4. Visibility – Are you transparent? Customers want to know where they stand. Even if something is not yet resolved, customers want to know what step of the process they are at. If something can’t be quick, let the customer know; keep them in the loop. When they are informed, they feel valued.
5. Disconnectedness – Is there continuity across all channels? Is your business consistent on the website, on social media, et cetera? Can customers find all of the same information no matter the chosen source?
6. Irresolution – How accurate are you? Did you resolve the problem, or just resolve the call? Is the customer all set, or will they have the same problem again? Are you in such a hurry to resolve the situation that you fail the customer in their journey? Never leave a customer needing more help.
7. Amnesia – How well do you remember the customer and their information? When the customer returns to a channel, does their info get saved or is everything lost, causing them to start over from scratch?
About:
Jeff Nicholson is Vice President of CRM Product Marketing at Pegasystems. Jeff leads Pega’s CRM market on vision and strategy. A recognized customer engagement thought leader, Jeff works closely with industry analysts and has been a frequent presenter at CRM industry events on subjects including consumer engagement strategy, customer analytics, digital marketing, and customer journey best practice.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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35:2627/11/2017
AI Fuels Virtual Assistants in the Customer Service World Featuring Guest Robert Weideman
AI Fuels Virtual Assistants in the Customer Service World
Shep Hyken Interviews Robert Weideman on the Merging of AI and Customer Service
Featured Interview:
How would you like to utilize innovative technology that makes your business more efficient in order to create better customer interactions?
Shep Hyken sits down with Robert Weideman, a leader in merging customer service and Artificial Intelligence. Robert gives insight into what customers want and need, and how businesses can deliver it most effectively with the help of AI.
Top Takeaways:
• Chatbots differ from virtual assistants in that virtual assistants can do more and provide more information. There is more data that goes into a virtual assistant than a chatbot. Chatbots are much simpler and geared toward one specific platform.
• AI is measured on a spectrum. A chatbot could be compared to an elementary school student, and a virtual assistant could be compared to someone with a PhD. Virtual assistants are able to have conversations, whereas typical chatbots cannot connect separate sentences.
• Virtual assistants are intended to be mimicking a human. In order to do that, the following must happen:
o Understanding the words being spoken
o Ability to talk back using text to speak
o Ability to identify someone by their voice
o Understanding what is meant within the context
o Ability to have a conversation through advanced dialogue systems
• Combining AI with human interaction leads to a much more effective interaction with the customer. The customers questions can be answered or problems resolved much faster than if done by human alone.
• As a company, you must automate to all channels because that’s what customers want: to be able to reach you on Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. They want to be able to reach you in the platforms they are already using daily. Customers want control of how and when they connect with companies.
• When multiple platforms are used, customers become “friends.” They can text a simple message, in the same way they could to a family member, and get the necessary response.
About:
Robert Weideman is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division, responsible for customer self-service solutions that are used by leading organizations around the world to automate and optimize the customer care experience – from the call center to the Web and mobile devices.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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39:1320/11/2017
Turn One Time Purchasers Into Lifelong Customers - Featuring Guest Joey Coleman
Turn One-Time Purchasers Into Lifelong Customers
Shep Hyken Interviews Joey Coleman, Author of “Never Lose a Customer Again”
Featured Interview:
How would you like to never lose a customer again?
Award-winning speaker Joey Coleman shares the secrets behind not only gaining new customers, but also how to make them customers for life. He shares his 100 Days principle, and discusses his new book “Never Lose a Customer Again.”
Top Takeaways:
• The Difference Between Customer Service and Customer Experience: Customer service is usually reactive, or the detailed, tactical steps taken when dealing with customers whereas customer experience is usually proactive consisting of the interactions, perceptions, and the feelings and emotions created with a customer.
• Customers for life are built within the first 100 days. The 100 Days principle is a strategy for running a business, starting from the moment a customer decides to do business with your company. From there, it’s a ticking clock from day 1 to day 100. This is an opportunity to navigate the customer through a journey.
• Social media should be used more as a listening device than as a megaphone device. You should be listening to what your customers are saying at an individualized level on social media so that you can personalize their experience versus using social media as megaphone for you to blast your content and message out to the world.
• After closing the deal with the customer, the job is not done. Continually nurture the relationship, rather than just walking away after a sale is made. That is how you create loyalty.
About:
Joey Coleman helps companies keep their customers. An award-winning speaker, he works with organizations around the world ranging from small startups to major brands such as Deloitte, Hyatt Hotels, Zappos, and NASA. He is co-host of the “Experience This” podcast with customer thought leader, Dan Gingiss. His First 100 Days methodology fuels the remarkable experiences his clients deliver. In his upcoming book, “Never Lose a Customer Again,” (scheduled for publication March 2018) he shares strategies and tactics for turning one-time purchasers into lifelong customers.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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35:3513/11/2017
Be A Cut Above the Rest - Featuring Guest Steve Hockett
Wouldn’t you like to learn a few tips from a company that sees over 35 million customers a year?
Shep and Steve Hockett, President of Great Clips, discuss the importance of knowing your customers and delivering a consistently amazing customer service experience. Steve shares how information about roughly 35 million customers’ information each year are put into a database, so that each and every time they return, the salon knows exactly how to best serve them individually. As President of Great Clips, Inc, Steve preaches the importance of consistency on every level so that every customer has an predictably amazing experience.
Top Takeaways:
-There is much we can learn from the Great Clips Approach: customers are coming primarily as customers of a Great Clips salon, not to a specific stylist. The Great Clips experience is about the brand, not an individual that works there.
-Great Clips knows their customers, when they last came in for a haircut, and when they need to come back for the next one. They understand what the customers want and what’s important to them.
-The Great Clips Five Steps to Customer Care:
1. Greet the customer when they come in, with eye contact.
2. The consultation – ask the customer what they want.
3. Create the cut, and talk product.
4. The confirmation – make sure they are happy.
5. Thank the customer and invite them to come back.
-Great Clips is hyper-focused on what they do best. They cut hair. They don’t do manicures, pedicures, or massages. They offer quick, efficient, high quality, moderate price haircuts, and are able to repeat that experience every time.
-Great Clips is using technology to connect with their customers. They call it Clip Notes… notes about each customer’s specific details. What clipper guard number was used , what kind of neckline, etc. It’s all stored in the cloud. So, when a customer comes to Great Clips, if they’ve ever been there before, no matter the location, all the details of the previous haircut show up. Also in the Clip Notes are personal details of the client… did this customer just get married, or recently go on vacation…? That all helps build rapport.
-The power of managing the wait time is given to the customer. The Great Clips app allows their customers to know exactly how long the wait time is so that they can avoid the busiest times.
-Great Clips knows it can’t be all things to all people. It’s about simplicity and staying in their lane.
About:
Steve Hockett is President of Great Clips, Inc, soon to be CEO beginning in January 2018. Steve began his career with Great Clips, Inc. in 1988 and has spent 20 years with Great Clips in three separate segments, serving in various positions starting as a franchise owner. During his experience, he has worked extensively in marketing and operations, and was heavily involved in the massive growth of the system from 150 units to now over 4,200 operating salons in the United States.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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31:4106/11/2017
Josh Liebman Encourages Running Toward Complaints Not Away From Them
When it comes to receiving complaints, there are many people who would view this as a negative occurrence. However, Josh Liebman encourages companies to seek out complaints, saying that there are likely many other people who feel the same way, but will never say anything. Without complaints, you never know what needs improving.
Shep speaks with Josh Liebman, an expert in handling complaints. Josh is a fanatic about the benefits of hearing complaints. He encourages companies to seek out constructive criticism in order to improve their way of doing business. Josh also explains how to recover from service failures and gain loyal customers. If you have customers (and I know you do), this this is a powerful must-listen-to episode of Amazing Business Radio!
Top Takeaways:
In addition to amazing information about mystery shopping and managing customer complaints, Josh Liebman shares his LTAST formula for managing service failure:
• L – Listen: Understand and process the complaint. Validate the customer’s comments even if you don’t agree with what is being said.
• T – Thank: Thank the customer for the complaint. Don’t get defensive. This will tear down the wall between you and the customer.
• A – Apologize: Apologize, but don’t apologize for the cause of the complaint; apologize for the effect. If you apologize for the cause, this only places blame on someone or something.
• S – Solve: Provide specific service recovery that fits the complaint.
• T – Thank: Thank the customer again, this time for the opportunity to make it right. Also, thank them for future business that will result because of the solution.
About:
Josh Liebman is the Director of Business Development at Amusement Advantage, Inc. (http://www.amusementadvantage.com/). In this role, Josh has enabled numerous attractions to improve how they meet and exceed expectations, and then follow through by harnessing satisfaction and converting it to lifelong loyalty. With more than 12 years of experience in the Hospitality, Tourism, and Attractions Industry, Joshua specializes in guest experience training, feedback analysis, mystery shopping, and quality assurance consulting.
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37:4930/10/2017
Mikhail Naumov Discusses How AI Is a Tool for Customer Service, Not a Replacement
There seems to be a lot of talk about artificial intelligence lately, but what do we really know about it? Is it anything like what we see in the movies, like computers taking over the world, or is it something else entirely? Mikhail Naumov shares in-depth what AI is and what it can do for companies when it is properly partnered with human interaction.
Featured Interview:
Shep talks to Mikhail about artificial intelligence, and how it can be a tool for customer service employees. Mikhail shares with listeners the benefits, and value that using AI can bring to every type of company. At his company, DigitalGenius, the main focus is tying AI to customer support.
Top Takeaways:
• AI is best used when it is teamed up with real people – the combination is better than the sum of its parts.
• Some companies want AI to be used for everything, but successful companies use it to focus on one thing, one function. In the case of DigitalGenius, that one focus point is customer support.
• AI is a tool for customer service representatives, in the same way that a calculator is a tool.
• AI does not eliminate the customer’s interaction with a human customer service representative; rather it adds to it, fueling the knowledge behind the agent.
• When done properly, the integration of AI and human interaction is so seamless that the customer is completely unaware of its existence.
• AI can range in capability, depending on the size of the company using it. It can do more for bigger companies, but that doesn’t mean smaller companies can’t join the AI revolution.
• AI isn’t magic. It is simple mathematics based on history. The machine learns and understands based on past interactions with customers, and then knows what information to deliver that is most useful and helpful.
About:
Mikhail Naumov is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of DigitalGenius, a venture backed artificial intelligence company focused on transforming customer service and brand communications. He is the leading voice in the Human+AI movement, which focuses on the seamless interaction of human and machine intelligence in business applications and everyday life. Mikhail was recognized as Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Enterprise Technology. He is passionate about bringing emerging technologies to life.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. (www.hyken.com)
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31:1823/10/2017
James Dodkins on Putting the Employee First, the Customer Second
It is common belief that the customer’s needs should always come first, but what if employees’ needs were put first in order to ensure customer satisfaction?
James Dodkins shares his ideas on what a company looks like when the employees are made top priority, so that in return they can be best prepared to treat customers as their main focus.
Featured Interview:
Shep speaks with James Dodkins about his idea of what it looks like for companies to put employees first and customers second. James shares seven key components to creating a working culture that best allows for customer success, when the employees are taken care of first and foremost.
Giveaway:
Download James’ book Foundations for Customer Centricity at no charge! (URL - http://www.jamesdodkins.com/books.html)
Top Takeaways:
Seven components to creating a culture of outstanding customer experience:
1. Vision: Have a core understanding of who your customer is, what their needs are, and what a successful outcome would be.
2. Align: Align the vision around the delivery of those specific things.
3. Capability: Make sure the people within the company are skilled enough to make the vision come to life.
4. Workplace: Have the right environment for the right employees, to ensure the best work is being done.
5. Incentive: Make sure workers are getting paid for doing the right and important things, not just doing mundane tasks.
6. Resources: People within the company must have the budget to be able to make the right things happen for the customer.
7. Empowerment: Without this key component, the rest don’t work. Workers must feel confident that their decisions will be supported by leadership within the company.
About:
James Dodkins helps companies create outstanding and unforgettable customer experiences. He travels the globe learning the secrets of the world’s best performing companies, and he uses that information to help organizations replicate that success. He specializes in customer experience and customer centricity.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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36:3916/10/2017
Daniel Burrus Shares how to Anticipate Your Customers’ Needs Rather than Reacting
How would you like to be able to anticipate your customers’ needs before the even ask?
Featured Interview:
Shep Hyken interviews Daniel Burrus, author of The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change Into Opportunity and Advantage, in which he explains how to predict what customers need rather than simply waiting to be asked. They discuss understanding the difference between anticipatory customer service and reactionary customer service. Daniel shares with listeners the importance of being able to predict problems before they occur, and how to predict game-changing opportunities to redefine and reinvent customer service.
Top Takeaways:
• Know the difference between assumption and fact.
• Look at the big problems like you would an onion, and peel back the layers until you get to the core.
• Anticipating doesn’t have to be based on a feeling. It can be based on fact.
• Two types of trends to help you anticipate:
1. Hard trends – based on future facts. These can’t be stopped.
2. Soft trends – based on assumption. These can be changed.
• Look at the hard trends and look to create opportunities based on facts.
• Predict where your customer is going so that you can meet them at the next intersection.
About:
Daniel Burrus is considered one of the World’s Leading Futurists on Global Trends and Innovation. The New York Times has referred to him as one of the top three business gurus in the highest demand as a speaker.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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34:3809/10/2017
Doug Bell Discusses Improving the Customer Experience
Would you like every employee to know how they fit into your company’s customer experience?
Shep Hyken interviews Doug Bell, founder of The Experience Manager, a system that helps manage and unify the entire customer experience.
Featured Interview:
Shep and Doug discuss the importance of unifying the customer experience throughout an entire company, Every employee must understand how they fit into the customer’s journey.
Top Takeaways:
• Decide how your company wants to interact with your market. What do you want your customers to experience when they do business with you? Whatever the answer, it must be packed into every touchpoint the customer has with your company. This is the beginning of “experience management,”
• The true problem with managing the customer experience comes when employees don’t understand how they fit into the overall customer experience.
• The customer experience must be evaluated and managed EVERY DAY. You should always ask yourself, “What can we learn from today’s experience that can make tomorrow’s even better?”
• The best way to change the way a company manages its customer experience starts with unifying your customer experience vision throughout the entire company.
About:
Doug Bell is a CX consultant and the founder of The Experience Manager, a platform that allows companies to build their customer journey map, and in turn, keep ALL customer interactions that your company is managing known to across all departments.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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31:5002/10/2017
Robert Spector Shares The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence
How would you like to be the Nordstrom of your industry? Well stay tuned and you’ll learn tips to help you do just that!
Shep Hyken interviews Robert Spector, author of The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence: Creating a Values-Driven Service Culture.
Featured Interview:
Shep and Robert discuss the impact Nordstrom’s values and culture have on their customer and employee experience. Robert shares a bit about the history of Nordstrom – like the facts they have been around 116 years – they’ve survived two world wars, made it through The Great Depression, and more. Nordstrom sets a standard above the rest by making trust their number one value and by constantly innovating and adapting to the changing consumer buying habits. This is all about customer service and creating a customer focused culture that makes customers want to come back again and again!
Top Takeaways:
• Don’t try to convince employees to share your core values – you want to attract employees who already instill your core values.
• Trust – it is the basis for all relationships. Nordstrom demonstrates how it trusts it’s employees through their unique employee handbook which is on a 5 by 7 card that reads on one side, “Welcome to Nordstrom we’re glad to have you with our company, we have only one rule…” Turn it over to reveal that one rule, “Use good judgment in all situations.”
• Three Incredible Truths
1. Most people want to do a good job.
2. Most people want to feel a part of something bigger than themselves.
3. It’s up to management to make that happen.
• Innovation and Adaptation – Nordstrom has been around so long due to its ability to innovate and adapt. They started as a shoe store. They moved into selling clothing and accessories. They moved from just the big store anchoring a mall to the addition of Nordstrom Rack, an online presence and several forward-thinking concepts. And throughout all of this they never lost sight of the importance of the customer. Everything is about the customer!
• Define and live your values – If you want to instill a culture of employee and customer focus, you have to identify your values and then hire, attract, and coach to those values – that’s how you become the Nordstrom of your industry (and you have to emphasize that every day).
About:
Robert Spector is and author, teacher, co-founder of RSI consultancy and the co-author of The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence: Creating a Values-Driven Service Culture.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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34:5625/09/2017
Judy Hoberman Shares Tips for a Better Customer Experience
Are you looking to deliver a better customer experience? Then you are in the right place!
Shep Hyken interviews Judy Hoberman, President of Selling in a Skirt – international speaker, trainer, coach, mentor, and author, who has a passion for customer experience.
Featured Interview:
Shep and Judy Hoberman discuss how S.K.I.R.T. and K.I.S.S. can help you create better customer experiences for your organization. Judy shares how building relationships is the key to gaining and keeping your customers.
Top Takeaways:
• S – Standing Out – We live in a noisy world, you need to figure out how to stand out as an expert in your field. When you give someone an experience it has to be something that they love so much that they are going want to do it again and bring back their friends. Do the best that you can do – then do even a bit more, that’s how you create walking ambassadors (customer advocates).
• K – Keys to Success - You have a toolbox you work with every day. There is something in that toolbox that you’re going to use that is going to make sure your customers are getting the experience that you want them to get. Judy’s keys to success focus on asking questions. You don’t want to be interesting to your customer, you want to be interested in your customer. If you show somebody you care, then they will want to gravitate towards you and bring you into their circle – which makes them your customer advocate.
• I – Inspiration - Sometimes we need to be inspired to do the best job we can do. And, sometimes we inspire others, without even knowing we are inspiring them. Something as simple as an image posted on social media can inspire someone.
• R – Results – Everything is judged on results. Everyone looks at results. Decide how far you want to push yourself. Don’t make the goal too hard or too easy. You need to set yourself up for success.
• T – Time Management – It doesn’t matter who you are, everyone struggles with some sort of time management. Put the cell phone down, be in that moment, and show someone enough respect by truly being present.
• KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid – If you’re trying to get people to have a great experience you have to make it easy and you have to make it obvious. You also have to know what it is that your customer is really looking for. If you’re not 100% sure – ASK – people will tell you exactly what it is that they want. Make it simple, exciting, and motivating.
About:
Judy Hoberman is the President of Selling in a Skirt, an international speaker, trainer, coach, mentor, and author. Judy’s mission is to help her clients live the S.K.I.R.T. philosophy while having fun! She is the author of ‘Selling in a Skirt,’ ‘Famous Isn’t Enough,’ ‘Pure Wealth’ and her upcoming book is called ‘Walking on the Glass Floor.’
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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29:2318/09/2017
Murph Krajewski Shares Keys to Creating Better Customer Support Experiences
Do your customer facing employees have everything they need to do their jobs properly?
Shep Hyken interviews Murph Krajewski, VP at Sharpen, a cloud based service company that strives to create better agent experiences in support centers by merging technologies and relationships.
Featured Interview: Shep and Murph Krajewski discuss how Sharpen started by wanting to fix the root problem in customer service. Murph explains that the problem starts with the customer service agent’s experience. They discuss how the needs of an agent (both technological and human) must be met to allow that agent to be in a position to properly serve the customer, and Murph shares numerous examples.
Giveaways: In this whitepaper, “Exposing the True Cost of Legacy Contact Center Software” Sharpen gets real about the true impact it can have for your operations, agent satisfaction, and customer service. (Link: www.SharpenCX.com/ABR)
Top Takeaways:
• A person in distress can’t help anyone. Murph explains that if you don’t give the people on the front line, the tools (training/technology), they can’t give your customers the best experience possible.
• Don’t get stuck in the past. New technologies should be embraced. As older technologies fade away new technologies are created and then new standards are set. When the original iPhone came out ten years ago, it was nothing short of amazing. But, today hardly anyone is using an original iPhone, which many consider to be an antique piece of technology. We’ve moved on to faster and updated versions like an iPhone 7 or iPhone 8.
• Create a better experience for your support or front-line staff. Customer service jobs are one of the lowest rated jobs in the country; due to the hours, the pay, the stress levels, etc. These employees shouldn’t be undervalued and underpaid, they are responsible for making your most important asset – your customers – happy.
• 92% of customers say that an agent’s mood effects their experience. That is a tough statistic to ignore. A business must figure out how to improve the agent’s experience to be as good as, if not better, than their customer’s experience. Customer service is, after all, a service job. You need to create a service culture, and embrace those team members who need and want to serve, which is all of your front line and support center agents.
About:
Murph Krajewski is VP of Marketing at Sharpen, a cloud based contact center platform. He’s been in the contact center industry for nearly 20 years, in a variety of roles. These days Murph is focused on creating better experiences for contact center agents. He believes this will make for happier customers, and could one day change the world.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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33:2311/09/2017
Matt Peterson Shares Tips on Delivering Amazing Service
How would you like to know how to set yourself apart from the rest of your industry?
Shep Hyken interviews Matt Peterson, CMO and co-founder of Jive Communications, a worldwide cloud based communication company that offers VoIP, video conferencing, and contact center support.
Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview by talking to Matt about NPS (Net Promoter Score) and he made that an important focus in his company. Matt explains why he feels NPS is the right method for his company, and how it helped Jive elevate their service above the rest of their industry.
Top Takeaways:
• Measure your customer satisfaction. Matt knows the important of measurement, especially in the area of service and satisfaction. He also emphasizes how important it is to make a satisfaction score an important part of the company’s culture and mentality.
• Don’t automate customer care. There are certain things that you can automate but you shouldn’t dehumanize the experience. You should use automated intelligence properly and allow for a smooth natural transition to a human when the automated support can no longer handle the issue properly.
• Communicate the way your customers want to communicate. You don’t need to be everywhere, but you need to know where and how your customers want to communicate with you, whether it’s via social media, email, chat, etc. Customers should be able to communicate with you however is most convenient and comfortable.
• Get out of the “Ivory Tower.” You need to stay connected to your customers, so get out there meet with them. Get their opinions and feedback. You won’t be able to do that if you never leave your office.
About:
Matt Peterson is Co-founder and CMO of Jive Communications, one of the highest-rated communications companies. Matt is responsible for designing the marketing strategies and processes that drive Jive’s growth, it’s obvious he cares about his customers.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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34:5805/09/2017
Nick Francis Shares How to Create a Customer-Centric Company
How would you like to increase customer loyalty?
Shep Hyken interviews Nick Francis, CEO of Help Scout and thought leader in the customer service support world.
First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on introducing Nick Francis and his company Help Scout, and the recent fireside chat they had at a recent customer service and support conference.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins the interview by asking Nick Francis about Help Scout, which provides customer support assistance to small businesses. They discuss how important customer service is to your business and why it’s vital to set yourself apart from your competition. After all, word-of-mouth is by far the best advertising you can get. Nick shares his tactical steps to creating a better customer experience. They discuss the importance of customer trust and how to regain it if it’s lost.
Top Takeaways:
• Tactical Steps to Improve Your Customer Service
1. Create a customer service vision – or as Shep calls it, a customer service mantra. This is a vital step for anyone who wants a customer-focused organization.
2. Make it easy for your customer – don’t just make it easy for the customer to find you and contact you but make it easier by providing different methods of contact. Nick suggests focusing on only a couple of channels to start until you master those, then expand to the channels where your customers are.
3. Don’t just collect data – do something with it! You not only need to get customer feedback, you need to do something with it. Eliminate pain points for customers, create a list of FAQs. Leverage the customer feedback – Pay attention to both the qualitative and quantitative data, as these will help with ensuring adequate staff and by preventing potential customer complaints from being repeated.
• Ensure your interactions are human. Be empathetic and most importantly be authentic when speaking with your customers.
• Trust is key – Don’t make anything about you. Make it about the customer. If you make a mistake own it, and then do everything you can to regain their trust. Nobody’s perfect - mistakes are bound to happen. It’s how you handle them that counts.
• Content is important to any business. It enhances the customer experience. Help Scout has a customer service blog they post at least twice a week.
About:
Nick Francis is Co-founder and CEO of Help Scout, where he is on a mission to make every customer service interaction a more human one. Nick lives and breathes product design, customer experience, and building a thoughtful, thriving company.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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31:2128/08/2017
Nicky Billou on How to Think and Win Like a Champion
How would you like to know how to build your own personal brand to become a thought leader in your industry?
Shep Hyken interviews Nicky Billou, internationally best-selling author of Finish Line Thinking: How to Think and Win Like a Champion.
First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how thought leadership applies to everyone. He explains how managers and individuals can be thought of as an expert in their company and industry. This ties into Shep’s concept that when it comes to customer service, everyone can be a leader.
Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview by asking Nicky Billou about his definition of a thought leader and how everyone could be considered the “go-to” person or expert in their company. Shep then introduces why getting your customers and coworkers to trust you is an important part of building your personal brand and for being known as an expert. They discuss how everyone has an opportunity to be considered a thought leader by knowing the answers; or if you don’t know, knowing where to find the answers.
Top Takeaways:
• Anyone can be a thought leader. Thought leadership is not just for authors or speakers, everyone can be known for their expertise within their area of genius – especially in customer service and support.
• Create champions. – As a manager, you need to find those champions and nurture them to become the experts you know they can be. You can help bring out the best in your people.
• The Four Phases of being a thought leader.
o Wannabe Phase – This person has not yet figured out what their expertise is.
o Unconscious Expert – They intuitively know they have some level of expertise, but they aren’t quite clear on it yet.
o Conscious Expert – You know you have expertise and you are actively applying it.
o Known – This is the final stage where you are known as an expert/thought leader.
• Build your personal brand. – You need to find your area of expertise and create a LinkedIn profile. Everyone has a brand – you should consciously create your own brand.
• Your customers are the only people who can tell you what your brand is. You not only need to create your own brand you need to also ensure what your customer’s perception of you is. At any given time, anybody in your organization that is dependent upon you for anything is also your customer.
About:
Nicky Billou is Cofounder of eCircle Academy, Cohost of The Business of Thought Leadership Podcast, and #1 International Best-selling Author of Finish Line Thinking: How To Think & Win Like A Champion.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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29:2021/08/2017
Jason Bradshaw Explains Wow is Not About Champagne, Caviar, or Fireworks
How can you create the best experiences for your customers?
Shep Hyken interviews Jason Bradshaw, the Director of Customer Experience at Volkswagen Group Australia, who believes that you become great by thinking small.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how you should strive to be number one and deliver the best possible customer service, but your real goal should be ranked in the top tier within your industry. Even the best sports teams don’t win championships every year, but they are still considered to be elite. Do you always pursue what’s best for your customers? What do you do to drive the love of your customers? You need to be number one for whatever they need.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview by asking Jason Bradshaw about his experiences as a young entrepreneur. Jason explained that he had major disadvantages. First, he was a new start up, and second, he was young – just a teen ager. How did he compensate for these supposed disadvantages? By loving his customers more than anyone else. This fueled his passion for creating the best experience for his customers.
Shep and Jason discuss that by creating trust with your customers, you create loyalty And, you do that by delivering a personalized experience that is consistently above average. Jason adds that the small things matter. So, rather than focus on creating big changes you should focus on making smaller changes that are easier to implement. Small things can make a big difference.
Top Takeaways:
• Your first customer is always your team. Be consistent with them. Empower them so they can achieve what they desire while delivering a consistent experience for your customers.
• The key is not in being perfect; the key is to be human. When something doesn’t go perfectly, respond quickly to fix it, improve or to do what you need to do get back on track.
• Wow is not about Champaign, caviar, or fireworks. Wow is about connecting with your customer and delivering just a little above their expectations - all the time.
• You don’t build customer loyalty by having the cheapest product. You build loyalty by giving an experience that the customer values.
• Think Small – If you don’t pay attention to the smallest details, then everything else will unravel. Your customer is looking for consistency and wants an easy experience.
• Tenacity - Never give up in your pursuit of delivering the best customer experience possible, one that, at a minimum slightly exceeds your customers’ expectations.
About:
Jason Bradshaw is the Director of Customer Experience at Volkswagen Group Australia. At just fourteen-years-old, he started his own telecommunications and hardware distribution business. This first foray into entrepreneurship gave him a taste of how to offer customers an experience, not just a product. It was there he began a lifelong passion for customer experience.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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32:0214/08/2017
Gadi Shamia Discusses the Latest Trends in Customer Service and How to Create a Better Experience
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments discuss the company Talkdesk, their upcoming roadshow, and how to improve your customers’ experiences.
Featured Interview:
Shep Hyken interviews Gadi Shamia, COO of Talkdesk, about how you can improve your customer service. The interview begins with Gadi sharing some background on himself and Talkdesk, a cloud based contact center platform that connects their support team to their customers. Gadi gives us the backstory on Talkdesk and shares some examples on how Talkdesk has improved upon existing technology to create a simpler cloud solution for support agents. That leads to a fascinating conversation about how technology has impacted customer service, and what tools and solutions you can use to make for a better customer experience.
Top Takeaways:
Make it easier for the customer. You need to ensure what you’re doing impacts the customer in a positive way. Provide self-service options for your customers.
Empower your team. – Using current technologies, we have the power to make customer information available to our teams to allowing them to assist the customer the best way they can.
Knowledge is power! We can’t teach empathy, but we can provide agents with more information so they can be empowered to understand the customer’s issue from the start.
Don’t deflect calls. If a customer is calling, take advantage of the opportunity to resolve the customer’s issue yourself. Do not send a customer to a website or a self-service option. Nowadays most customers only call when self-service options have already failed them, whether they couldn’t find the solution or they couldn’t understand the self-help option. This is your opportunity to connect with the customer and build a relationship.
Spend less on marketing and more on customer service. Once you get a customer through the door you can do a lot to retain them, which is much more cost effective than trying to always focus on new customers.
About:
Gadi Shamia is the Chief Operating Officer at Talkdesk, the world’s leading call center software start-up. Gadi has had much success throughout his career working for such great companies such as Adobe, SAP, and Reach Local - just to name a few.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
"(Today most people use self-service options first) So, when you call customer service you don’t do it because you have to, you do it because self-service failed you.” – Gadi Shamia
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32:0607/08/2017
Jeff Nicholson on What Consumers Know (and Don’t Know) About Artificial Intelligence
How will artificial intelligence (AI) enhance the relationship you have with your customers? Shep Hyken interviews Jeff Nicholson, the Vice President of CRM Product Marketing at Pegasystems, about how AI technology will help companies serve their customers even better.
First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on artificial intelligence and how it can use data to create meaningful interactions with customers. Once people become more comfortable with AI, they’ll begin to understand how useful it can really be. Currently, there are some common misconceptions that people have about AI, especially the kinds of AI that they are already seeing in their day-to-day lives.
Giveaways:
• To view the PDF of the Pega Study, “What Consumers Really Think About AI: A Global Study” discussed on the episode - go to https://hyken.com/wp-content/uploads/what-consumers-really-think-about-ai.pdf
Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Jeff Nicholson about Pega’s recent global consumer study, “What Consumers Really Think About AI.” Pega published its study after surveying 6,000 consumers across six countries. AI is poised to transform how customers interact with businesses, but some customers must first overcome some educational and emotional hurdles. They must feel comfortable enough to use AI to its full extent.
Jeff suggests rather than being omnichannel, be channel-less. Don’t focus on the channels individually, but use AI to streamline the customers’ experience across all channels. Jeff provides an example explaining how if you are on amazon.com you can easily transition to any computer, or even their mobile shopping app to continue your shopping with the same consistent experience.
Some key findings from Pega’s Study:
• Only 33% of respondents think they use technology with AI, but 71% actually use an AI-powered device or service
• 70% are fearful of AI, yet 71% are open to businesses using AI with them if it makes life easier
• 33% said that AI is never going to know them and their preferences as well as a human being
When the respondents were asked, “How do you describe what AI can do?”:
• 51% said AI could think logically
• 37% said AI could interpret speech
• 35% said AI could replicate human interaction
Those are realistic responses, yet some respondents erroneously identified what AI could do:
• 14% said AI could feel emotion
• 10% said AI will take over the world
• 8% said AI controls your mind
Top Takeaways:
• AI doesn’t get rid of customer service jobs. It changes them, for the better. With the help of AI, customer service representatives will be able to devote their time to helping customers better, adding value to the relationship.
• AI systems will interpret customer data, compare it to customers with similar histories, and work to understand the customer’s mental state. Based on that, AI will recommend to the customer service representative good ways to handle the interaction. This concept is called Next Best Action.
• AI will be the employee’s “wingman”, making suggestions for the agent to share with the customer.
About:
Jeff Nicholson is a recognized customer engagement thought leader. Jeff works closely with industry analysts and has been a frequent presenter at industry events on subjects including consumer engagement strategy, customer analytics, digital marketing and customer journey best practice.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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33:1231/07/2017
Chase Clemons Discusses How to Create Customer Happiness
How can we move from just satisfying our customers, to making them truly happy, which results in loyalty?
Shep Hyken interviews Chase Clemons, a highly-experienced customer service professional at Basecamp, who tells us how to go above and beyond for your customers.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how, when your customer calls you, they need to know three things:
1. That you know them.
2. That they like the information that you give them and trust that it is accurate.
3. That when they get off the phone they’ll be able to do what you tell them to do.
If you can do that quickly, or if it takes longer, they don’t care. They need someone they can rely on. As the old saying goes, “People like to do business with companies and people they know, like, and trust.”
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview by asking Chase Clemons how he goes above and beyond answering his customers’ questions. Chase explains that when people use Basecamp, it’s not really about Basecamp. It’s about what Basecamp does to make their lives easier. They want to take whatever they are working on, get in, get out, and get back to running their business. So, the more he can help with that the process the better.
“Go the extra little bit,” Chase advises. Be a partner rather than just a business. Find the information that truly solves the customer’s needs, rather than just answering the question that they raise. This includes thinking proactively and resolving issues that may arise later on, before they happen, while assisting them with their initial issue. Solve the short-term problems, but address long-term issues.
Chase also explains that you can be clear and concise, whether on email, a phone call, or live chat, and still be human. The biggest key is to not have a standardized reply for every part of the interaction. Yes, have templates (Chase calls them “snippets”) that you can work with. But those should just be building blocks for creating a personal experience with the customer. The dialog should be unique for each customer.
Top Takeaways:
• The best thing you can do for your customers is to surprise them. If they have an issue, after you fix it, and you notice they have been a customer for a long time, give them something. Give them a free month, send them some flowers, chocolates, or a book. Don’t tell them you are going to do it Let it be a surprise. That’s the next step in getting the loyalty you are after, and establishing and deepening the relationship.
• Don’t just resolve the customer’s initial question at face value. Ask questions and dig further to find out the details of their request. This will not only allow you to answer their initial request, but will open the door to resolve other potential issues, and will allow you to make the best suggestions for them as well.
• Make sure you take time for yourself. You’ve got to put your oxygen mask on first – meaning you have take care of yourself first or you’ll burn out and you won’t be good to anyone. Chase believes, “Work a good 40 hours a week.” It’s important to make sure you and your employees have a good work-life balance.
About:
Chase Clemons is a hands-on “in the trenches” with his customers in his role as a customer support pro at Basecamp. Basecamp is project management software that helps their clients stay organized as they work through projects. Chase is also the host of the Support Ops podcast, a popular show for people in the customer support industry.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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33:3324/07/2017
Mason Duchatschek on the Internet Boogeyman, and What to Do When You Encounter Him
What should you do when someone posts a negative review about your company or your products or services?
Shep Hyken interviews keynote speaker and author Mason Duchatschek on steps you can take to protect your online reputation.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on why it is important for any business, not just a retail or online business, to protect their online reputation. There are now online review sites for virtually every industry (even B2B businesses), which although they may not be as visible as Yelp, TripAdvisor or Amazon, they are every bit as influential within that industry. People within each niche can now consult these sites before making a buying decision.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview by asking Mason Duchatschek, “What should you do when a customer posts a negative review - a rant - about you and your company on the Internet?” Mason refers to this reviewer as an “Internet Boogeyman.”
Mason’s response is that the goal is to not have them rant in the first place. The best way to solve problems is stopping them before they occur. And you do that by implementing a four-step process:
1. Hire good employees.
2. Train them in customer service.
3. Have good policies and use good judgement in the absence of policies.
4. Be nice and do what’s right.
If (or when) an Internet boogeyman rants online, the first step is to respond immediately, either by direct message or by phone. Mason points out that you should never discuss the issue with the Internet boogeyman in a public forum, although you should update the progress toward a resolution on that forum, so that others can see the positive actions you have taken.
Top Takeaways:
• Business owners can’t solve problems they don’t know exist. Go to Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) to set up a free, early warning system for your name, company name, and product or service names – any text consumers would type into a search engine to find your company, products, or services. Any time something is posted on the Internet about those items, Google will send you an email alert along with the link so that you can check it out. If people are saying good or bad things about you, you’ll know it, almost in real time. You can monitor and then respond quickly to circumstances, before they cause unnecessary harm to you or your business.
• If companies don’t get their online reputation right, customers won’t buy from them, no matter how good their products or services are.
• Online reputation is critical; it creates credibility and builds trust. In the absence of a personal relationship, few things (if any) are more important. When people did business face-to-face, they would use their own judgement to determine if they liked and trusted you. Now, in the absence of that personal encounter, they now look to see what others have said online before making a buying decision.
About:
Mason Duchatschek is a #1 bestselling author, entrepreneur and professional speaker. His ideas have been featured in Selling Power, Entrepreneur, The New York Times and Fox News.
He is the author of Defeating an Internet Boogeyman: Simple Secrets of Reputation and Crisis Management Using Social Media and Web Marketing Strategy.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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30:1617/07/2017
Carol Lee Andersen on How to Gain and Use Employee and Customer Feedback
Are your employees fulfilled, appreciated, and understood?
Shep interviews Carol Lee Andersen, the President of Questback North America, about the importance of listening to not just your customers, but also to your employees. And, she shares the advantages and occasional difficulties of doing so.
First Up: Shep starts off by introducing Tiny Pulse, a company that has created a simple software program to gain an ongoing “pulse” of your employees with quick, short, and simple surveys for employees. This frames the discussion for the entire episode on customer and employee feedback. He discusses a key fact about collecting feedback – you need to use it, or you will leave employees and customers dissatisfied.
Featured Interview: Shep begins the show by asking Carol Lee about Questback’s history. Carol Lee explains that the company got started with a quest for gaining feedback. They discuss the importance of customer and employee feedback, and stress the importance of not only collecting the feedback but also taking action – you must do something with it. Otherwise, your employees and customers will suffer what Carol Lee calls feedback fatigue, which is when customers or employees fill out too many surveys and don’t see anything come out of it. She goes on to explain that when you collect feedback from employees and actually use it, employees feel valued; they feel they are being listened to, and that in turn creates trust. Otherwise, if an employee feels their concerns are falling on deaf ears, then the employee can feel unfulfilled, unconvinced, and even disengaged. They conclude the show with Carol Lee’s final thoughts which are; think before you act, use the appropriate tools, get some advice from the right people, and be thoughtful in your process.
Top Takeaways:
• Engage Your Employees – Create dialog with your employees. Even if the feedback is unsolicited, if your employees want to provide you with feedback – take it! Employees can frequently pick up on potential issues before they become a big problem.
• Avoid Feedback Fatigue – If you collect data you must do something with it. Collecting feedback and not doing anything with it is worse than not collecting at all. If you collect it and take action on the feedback, then employees and customers feel they are being listened to, and that creates trust.
• Think Before You Act – Feedback has to be deployed strategically to succeed. It is not enough to have highly engaged employees, you want highly engaged employees that are working towards the same goal.
About:
Carol Lee Andersen is president of Questback North America and voted as one of the Top 150 Most Powerful Women in New Zealand. She leads a diverse team in crafting and delivering a feedback platform that helps enterprises make better decisions, mitigate risk and avoid costly failures through redefining relationships with the most important people: customers and employees.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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30:4910/07/2017
Laura Baxter Shares Tips on How to Deal with Divas and Other Difficult Personalities
Would you like to know how to better handle difficult customer service situations?
Shep interviews Laura Baxter, author of Dealing with Divas and other Difficult Personalities: A Mindful approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization!.
First Up: Shep begins the show by discussing difficult customers. He briefly goes over his Five Step Process to dealing with customer complaints, and explains how some customers are more demanding or sometimes more unreasonable than others. Sometimes, we need to understand our customers’ personalities to resolve their complaint. That’s what customer service is all about – understanding who your customer is and trying to adapt to their personality.
Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview with asking Laura for her definition of “Diva.” Laura provides a bit of history about the word Diva, as well as her own definition. She then continues to explain how a Diva doesn’t have to be female. A Diva can be a man, customer, co-worker, or anyone you have issues with.
Laura then discusses her new book, introduces the acronym D.I.V.A., and shares how to overcome difficult customers. They discuss the importance of how a Diva or difficult customer interaction must not negatively affect the rest of your encounters. You need to find your triggers and be able to reprogram yourself to react more calmly in tough situations. The key is to adapt to the difficult personality. Stop, look, and listen to discover the needs of the difficult customer so you can better assess how to take care of the Diva/difficult personality, and connect with them.
Top Takeaways:
• DIVA stands for:
o D – Define the situation
o I – Finding your Inner strength
o V – Valuing yourself and the other person (understand them)
o A – Associating with the Diva
• Stop, Look, and Listen before dealing with the difficult customer.
o Stop – Pause for a moment and make sure you are centered and calm in this moment.
o Look – Watch what they are doing. Watch how they are, and what signals can you get from their behavior that show their needs? Perhaps even hidden needs.
o Listen - Listen to the words they say and how they say it and mirror back what they are saying to you.
• The Four Most Powerful Mental States - Try to master being in these states and you will be successful.
o Love
o Gratitude
o Forgiveness
o Play
About:
Laura Baxter is an American opera singer, author, and performance coach. She has studied the effects of the voice and body on non-verbal communication and leadership for over 25 years, and she brings this experience together to help her clients perform and communicate better. She is the coauthor of several German books and sole author of her new book, “Dealing with Divas and other Difficult Personalities: A Mindful approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization.”
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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32:0703/07/2017
Blake Morgan Shares How to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences
How do you create a customer experience that doesn’t just get business, but keeps customers coming back for more? Shep Hyken interviews customer experience futurist, Blake Morgan, about her life, her book, and how to do more for your customers.
First Up: Shep discusses his history with Blake, compares her book “More is More” with his amazement concepts, and mentions the importance of exceeding customer expectations — including the expectations that they don’t yet know that they have.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins the episode by sharing some information about Blake and her new book More is More: How the Best Companies Go Farther and Work Harder to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences.
Shep starts the interview by asking Blake how she got started in customer experience. Blake goes on to discuss her definition of the customer experience, and shares some great tips from her book on how to improve the customer experience by implementing strategies at the company level. She shares examples of how some of the best companies, like Airbnb and Amazon, set the bar for creating amazing customer experiences. It’s about building simple, beautiful customer experiences; Blake says, “If you’re not adding value, you’re dead in the water.” You have to do more to set yourself apart from your competition.
Top Takeaways:
• Do More – This acronym is from Blake’s book. These are some principles that the top companies follow to “do more” for their customers.
o D – Design something special
o O - Offer a strong employee experience
o M - Modernize with technology
o O - Obsess over the customer
o R - Rewards responsibility and accountability
o E - Embrace disruption and innovation
• Hold leaders to a higher standard. Leaders need to be more focused on the customer experience and long-term success, rather than focus on just immediate profits.
• Outwork your competition. Every company needs to find passionate excited employees who want to work harder (and smarter). You’ve got to be thoughtful and work harder for the customer.
About: Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist. Her first book is “More is More: How the Best Companies Go Farther and Work Harder to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences.” She is also the host of The Modern Customer podcast and a weekly customer experience video series on YouTube.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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32:0726/06/2017
John Hall Shares Tips on Building Trust & Influence with Your Customers
How do you increase your influence with your customers?
Shep Hyken interviews John Hall, author and CEO/co-founder of Influence & Co., a content marketing agency that helps brands and individuals leverage expertise to create, publish, and distribute content. John shares how everyone can overcome trust barriers and build confidence and top-of-mind awareness through content marketing.
First up:
Shep’s opening comments focus on creating trust and confidence with your customers. The old saying is people like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. The knowing and liking are easy, but the trust takes more. Trust requires your customers to see you as an expert, and they must value your knowledge. In order to influence your customers, trust is crucial.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins the interview discussing with John Hall how to influence your customers. John discusses trust barriers, and how to overcome them by creating trust in another way, with content marketing, which includes articles, blogs, videos, and more. Look for content triggers (which are ah-ha moments that reveal ways you can provide content to help your customers) to spark ideas for key points to focus your content on. Your goal is to add value for your customers to be able to engage with you and stay relevant in their minds. John introduces us to the term moment of vulnerability, which is a moment that emotion is tied to an interaction. This moment will most likely be remembered – it is up to you to manage that moment into a positive interaction, or a Moment of Magic®. These emotional moments, or moments of vulnerability, can lead to trust by helping a customer at the right moment.
Top Takeaways:
• Consolidation. This happens when you move from the customer’s short-term memory into long-term memory. It is easiest to make this happen by having an emotion tied to an interaction or a moment of vulnerability.
• Build trust. Consistently work on building trust with your customers, whether it's through content marketing, a gift, or even a simple phone call – keep your customers engaged.
• Engage your customers. Stay “top of mind” with your customers. The easiest way to do this is to consistently provide engaging content to your followers and prospects. Important Note: It’s not necessary to create all the content yourself. It can be an article written by and/or about someone else, but it’s of interest to your customers. The key is to provide valuable content regularly.
About:
John Hall is the CEO and co-founder of Influence & Co., a tech-enabled content marketing agency that helps brands and individuals extract and leverage their expertise to create, publish, and distribute content to gain influence, visibility, and credibility with their key audiences. John has been called “one of the most powerful people in media that you’ve never met” by Inc. and a “must-see keynote speaker” by Forbes. He is the author of the book “Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You.”
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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38:4119/06/2017
John Rossman on How to Innovate Like Amazon
What makes Amazon great?
Shep Hyken interviews John Rossman, author of The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles of the World’s Most Disruptive Company and former executive at Amazon. John shares how Amazon creates a culture of operational excellence and innovation – and why you should, too.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on Amazon, and how when it started, it was only selling books. At first, nobody thought much about them. But soon that started to change. Major book retailers started to struggle; some even went out of business. The internet was starting to change how buying books worked, and Amazon was ahead of the curve. Jeff Bezos showed the book industry – and the rest of the business world – the importance of constant innovation. Why is it so important? Somebody in your industry, like Jeff Bezos, is likely going to find a way to do things better, quicker, cheaper, faster or more conveniently. Because of its innovation, Amazon went from an online bookseller to the leading e-commerce company. And, even today at the top of their game, they’re still constantly pushing the envelope to become even better and more efficient.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins the interview by asking John Rossman what he believes has made Amazon great. John shares that one of the big differences between Amazon and other companies, is that at Amazon’s leaders are empowered and expected to make changes and to do the right thing. They avoid the mentality of “this is my job, and that is an issue outside of my job, so I am going to ignore it or leave if for somebody else.” In short, they’re expected to engage issues rather than respond to them with an excuse.
When you are dealing with hard, new, innovative concepts, it is always easy to come up with reasons why something can’t get done. But the expectation of a leader and innovator at Amazon is to get it done – to make something new and bigger. And they get there by constantly forcing themselves to figure out how to create a better experience for their customers.
Top Takeaways:
• Obsess over your customers. Leaders at Amazon work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust.
• Invent new capabilities and simplify things. Making things simple for the customer can be as hard as inventing new capabilities. Simple is not always easy to do.
• At Amazon, the customer experience is never done. When you think of the customer experience as being broader than just what your products or services provide, you will come up with new ideas on how to expand your business. That’s how Amazon grew from being just an internet-based seller of books to the e-commerce giant that it is today.
• Deliver hard results, despite dependencies and setbacks. When you set the expectation that there is no choice but to succeed, then leadership and employees will find ways to succeed that they had never expected.
About:
John Rossman is the author of The Amazon Way book series, and a Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal (A&M), a global professional services firm. John is an expert in innovative and digital business models and organizational change, including internet of things (IoT). Prior to A&M, John was an executive at Amazon.com where he launched their third party selling business, which today is over 50% of all Amazon units and supports over 3 million sellers.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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33:1612/06/2017
Bryan Eisenberg Tells Us The Secrets of Amazon’s Success
How can your business be more like Amazon?
Shep Hyken interviews Bryan Eisenberg co-author of the book, Be Like Amazon: Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how any company can improve their customer service, by thinking about how they can become more convenient for their customers. The reason that Amazon has become so successful is that they have developed a way to create customer convenience. Shep gives an example of how, in areas where Amazon offers two-hour delivery, a product could arrive at your home faster than the time it would take you to drive to the mall to purchase it.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins the interview by asking Bryan Eisenberg about the four secret ingredients to making a great presentation, which are:
1. Provide entertainment – tell a story.
2. Present a Big Idea.
3. Give the “How to’s.”
4. Give the audience or the reader the hope that they, too, can do it.
Bryan continues his “rule of four” by telling you exactly how you “can do it,” by discussing the four unifying principles of how to successfully run your business:
1. You must be customer-centric.
2. You must have a culture of innovation.
3. You must be agile. Execute, test and fail quickly, so you can keep learning.
4. You must continually optimize by shaving costs and adding value.
Top Takeaways:
• Don’t “water the soup.” Putting a little water in the soup may give you more soup, but it takes away from the great taste. It’s not smart to do things that produce an immediate profit if what you are doing isn’t in the best interest of the customer.
• Don’t think short term. An example Bryan gives is when Starbucks payment system went down, they gave away the coffee. Most coffee shops would have shut down until they could take payment for their coffee. But, not Starbucks. They knew the cost of free coffee was better than losing customers – and it showed how committed Starbucks is to taking care of their customers.
About:
Bryan Eisenberg is the co-founder of BuyerLegends. He is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today and New York Times bestselling books “Call to Action”, “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?”, “Always Be Testing” and “Buyer Legends.”. Bryan is also a professional marketing keynote speaker.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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37:3005/06/2017
Nick Friedman Explains What It Takes to "Move the World"
How can you create a purpose-driven, values-based, socially-conscious company that can deliver both success and significance?
Shep Hyken interviews Nick Friedman, co-founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving about how to develop a customer-focused, values-based company that can benefit you, your employees and your customers.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how delivering great service is about being a little bit better consistently, with special opportunities to step up whenever there is a complaint, problem or a chance to create a Moment of Magic.
To illustrate his point, Shep related a story of Cesar Larios, a student at The Art Institute of Florida and a part-time employee of College Hunks Moving, who was inside an elevator with a 79-year-old resident of an assisted living facility when the elevator got stuck. The resident didn’t think she could stand long enough until the two could be rescued. So, Cesar dropped to his hands and knees to turn himself into a human bench until they were saved.
Shep then quoted Nick Friedman, president of College Hunks, as saying, “I thought this was a great example of old-fashioned service and helping your fellow neighbor. Our mission is to move the world, both literally and emotionally. This was a perfect example of a brand coming to life.”
Featured Interview:
Nick Friedman started the College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving in college with his childhood best friend, now business partner, Omar Soliman in a beat-up cargo van and has grown to over 100 franchises nationwide. So, Shep begins his interview by asking Nick Friedman how can a relationship survive with someone who is both a business partner and best friend? Nick answered by saying that the long-term reason for their success and partnership is because their vision and values have always been in alignment. The partners communicate regularly, openly and candidly. Any time that they do disagree on how they are going to accomplish something, they have a discussion then decide to commit to that decision, even if one of the partners doesn’t fully agree.
Nick then explained how his company’s brand promise, which comprises the acronym H.U.N.K.S., standing for Honest, Uniformed, Nice, Knowledgeable, and Service has made a huge difference.
Top Takeaways:
• Emotions matter in any service industry, especially with a stranger coming in to the home (or office).
• The two emotions that matter most to a homeowner are trust and care. (This applies to anyone in any business.)
• You want to provide people a stress-free experience that will lead to the three R’s: repeat, referral and reputation.
• In your employee training, don’t just show what has gone wrong and how to fix it, but also celebrate what has gone right, and ask how can we make more of THIS happen?
About:
Nick Friedman is the President and Co-Founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk and College Hunks Moving, the largest and fastest growing junk removal and moving franchise opportunity in North America with over 100 franchisees. He has been named among the Top 30 Entrepreneurs in America Under 30 by Under30CEO.com.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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33:5729/05/2017
Megan Singh on How to Create the Best Place to Work and the Best Place for Customers to Buy
What are some ways that you can show your customers, and your employees, that you are truly customer focused?
Shep Hyken interviews Megan Singh, Project Management Director at Squaremouth, a four-time Gold Stevie Award winner for Customer Service Department of the Year, to get ideas that you can implement in your organization.
First Up:
Shep Hyken begins his opening comments by asking, how easy are you to do business with? Part of that easiness is how you guarantee what you sell. You want to create confidence and trust, because those feelings will convert to customer loyalty. The old saying is, “People want to do business with people they know, like and trust.” The knowing and liking is easy. The trust part is hard. It comes from predictable and consistent experiences. And, it doesn’t hurt to guarantee your products and services, either!
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview with Megan Singh by asking about Squaremouth’s guarantee, known as the Zero Complaint Guarantee. Megan explains that Squaremouth sells travel insurance policies through their comparison website. So, anything through Squaremouth is actually another company’s insurance policy. Squaremouth wants their customers to feel comfortable with the company they have chosen, so they ask all the insurance companies they represent to comply with their Zero Complaint Guarantee. Squaremouth promises every customer that if they have any complaint at all about their claim, Squaremouth will get involved and mediate with the provider on the customer’s behalf. As a result, this policy gives their customers confidence in Squaremouth’s offerings, and it gives Squaremouth a good working relationship with their providers to make sure that all claims are mediated fairly.
In addition to their customer-focused guarantee, Megan attributes much of the company’s success to their amazing employee culture, from the various employee perks like unlimited vacation time and a boat for employee happy hour cruises, to having every employee spend time once a week directly interacting with customers. For Squaremouth to be totally customer-focused, everyone in the organization must feel connected to the customer. Squaremouth aims to exceed everyone’s expectations – even their employees!
Top Takeaways:
• Develop a customer service mantra, credo or vision for your company. Squaremouth’s credo is “We want to be the best place for our employees to work and the best place for our customers to buy products. Period.”
• To be one of the best places to buy from, you also need to be one of the best places to work. Squaremouth treats their employees the way they want to them to treat their customers. Maybe even a bit better.
• To have all employees understand the customers’ needs and wants Every employee in their St. Petersburg headquarters (even the CEO) at some time during the week, works in customer service, communicating directly with the customer.
• ‘Downsell’ the customer. Many of Squaremouth’s customers are shocked by this policy, but Squaremouth will not sell the customer more coverage than they need. As a matter of fact, they often suggest less expensive policies. The least expensive policy can often be the best one.
About:
Megan Singh is the Project Management Director for Squaremouth, and like all members of the Squaremouth team, Megan remains close to the customer base by taking customer phone calls on a weekly basis. Squaremouth helps travelers easily and instantly compare travel insurance products from every major U.S. travel insurance provider.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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33:5522/05/2017
Kevin Berk on How to Get Customers to Want to Leave Reviews
How can you improve both customer and employee satisfaction? By getting customers to provide feedback on individual employee service performance.
Shep Hyken interviews Kevin Berk, creator of a new customer rating platform called ServiceGuru, about how using services like these can improve your company revenues.
First Up:
Shep Hyken begins his opening comments by asking, “How much does bad service cost your business?” and “What is the value of a customer who leaves you?” If you multiply the value of a customer by the number of customers who leave you, you have a good estimate of what losing those customers cost you.
Now, not all customers leave because of poor customer service. Some of them leave for reasons beyond your control. Sure, new customers can help negate some of the effects of lost customers, but not only do you lose the business of unhappy customers, you also lose when those customers share their negative feedback with everybody else.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview with Kevin Beck, Founder and CEO of ServiceGuru, by discussing some customer service statistics. According to studies by Bain & Company, 80% of businesses believe that they are delivering superior customer service, but only 8% of customers agree. $62 billion is the amount of business companies lost last year as a result of bad customer service. That’s up 50% from two years before. The laggards simply aren’t keeping up with the companies that are doing it right.
Kevin asserts that great service is paramount to the success of any business. Since it is six to seven times more expensive to attract a new customer than to keep an existing customer, it makes sense to invest in the customer service experience and to make sure that we are meeting, if not exceeding the customer’s expectations.
One way to find out if the company is meeting their customers’ expectations is through online reviews. However, Kevin states that when it comes to leaving reviews about the service customers receive, most people don’t leave reviews because they don’t think anyone is listening. They don’t think that anybody cares. They don’t think it will make a difference. But, Kevin explains why ServiceGuru, his new and revolutionary platform, does make a difference.
Instead of a customer reviewing the company, ServiceGuru allows the customer to review the employee who delivered the service. Not only is this valuable feedback for the company, but the employee sees a system dedicated to tracking, measuring, and improving customer service by reviewing the employee who is delivering the service – not the company. There is a big difference, and the responses from the customers are overwhelmingly positive.
Top Takeaways:
• Companies spend $80 billion to $90 billion each year on marketing, but only $8 billion annually on customer service.
• How much can bad customer service cost your business? It could cost you your business.
• Only one out of every 26 customers who has a complaint will let you know. Instead, they will tell everybody else.
• The best marketing you can have involves your customer walking out the door after an amazing experience, talking about you with everyone else.
• The number one component of employee job satisfaction is recognition.
• Customer feedback on employees can be even stronger than feedback on the company.
About:
Kevin J. Berk, the Founder & CEO of ServiceGuru, has been involved in startup organizations for over 25 years. He is focused on the success of ServiceGuru, which can allow you to improve customer service and increase repeat visits to your business. You can collect service feedback from your customers and use the Service Guru platform to drive repeat visits and increase revenue.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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33:0515/05/2017
Matt Dixon Discusses New Ways to Win the Battle for Customer Loyalty
A convenient, frictionless experience is something that consumers want and need, and are willing to pay for.
Shep Hyken interviews noted business writer and sought-after speaker, Matt Dixon, to define the effortless experience.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how important it is to create an easy experience for your customers. Delivering convenience is going to be the battleground for what future customer service is all about.
Shep talks about a list of the top retailers who create the best customer service list, provided by Bruce Temkin, co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. Ace Hardware, which tops the list, also understands the importance of creating customer convenience. For example, one of the ways they deliver this convenience is through “rock star” parking. Parking spaces just steps from the store’s door can help make shopping effortless. Having smaller stores that are easier for customers to navigate is also a way Ace delivers a convenient experience.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview by asking Matt Dixon how can we build a differentiating, loyalty-building service experience? Dixon says that in this market where so many consumers look at products as commodities, there are four steps you can take:
1. Next issue avoidance – How can we resolve the issue the customer is calling about, but also resolve the next issue that they don’t even know they may be calling back about.
2. Too many choices lead to confusion – Too many choices overwhelm the customer, so they fall back to asking for help to solve the problem by calling support, which leads to increased call volumes. Instead, develop a clean and intuitive web experience, which may also result in spending less on technology.
3. Train your people to use language in a much more principled way – By using words and language properly, your reps can get people to do things they wouldn’t do naturally.
4. To get control of the customer service experience, give more control to the frontline customer service reps- This comes down to who you hire, how you equip those people (with the proper training and tools), and allowing them to use their own judgement to best serve the customer.
Top Takeaways:
• Most service interactions actually drive disloyalty. On average, any service interaction is about four times more likely to make a customer disloyal. The things that can make a customer disloyal – callbacks, transfers, repeating information, and treating customers in a generic, robotic kind of way – are sources of low customer service effort.
• The real way to delight your customer is to deliver an effortless experience. If you can create an effortless, no friction, easy-to-do-business-with, convenient experience, you are on track to meeting or exceeding expectations.
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35:0308/05/2017
Chris McCann, CEO of 1-800-Flowers, on How to Gain the Competitive Advantage
Can listening to your customers’ needs and wants actually provide a new strategic direction for your business?
Shep Hyken interviews Chris McCann, the President and CEO of 1-800-Flowers, who talks about how they built their business to more than a billion dollars in revenue based on customer feedback.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on 1-800-Flowers’ competitive strengths, which all companies should be focusing on to provide outstanding customer service:
1) Provide amazing response times.
2) Think outside the box (or, in the case of 1-800-Flowers.com, thinking “outside the vase”).
3) Make doing business easy and seamless.
4) Exceed customers’ expectations, especially when responding to customer’s questions, problems, and complaints.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview with Chris McCann, president and CEO of 1-800-Flowers, by asking what has given his company a unique advantage over other florists or other floral networks. Chris said that from the beginning, they tried to stay in touch with their customers to understand why they were doing business with them, and what customers expected and wanted. By listening to customers, they expanded their product line to include gourmet foods (rather than only floral arrangements) which has become more than half of their business.
They found that as they added these products, the customers didn’t buy less flowers, they only bought more often. The company constantly works to figure out, how to enhance the value that they bring to their customers? As a result, 1-800-Flowers went from being a retailer selling a product to becoming a value-added service solving customers’ gift-giving needs.
Top Takeaways:
• Getting thousands of independent business owners to join a network – When 1-800-Flowers started out, they weren’t trying to build a network of thousands of florists. Instead, they started working with people who knew the industry, who had design capabilities, and were hired for their commitment to customer service. Once they mastered that strategy, they expanded their network into thousands of independent business owners that represent their brand.
• Response times – 1-800-Flowers has a service level target of handling 80 percent of phone calls within 20 seconds (3 rings). They respond to an email within two hours. Customer expectations on social media are very different. The company’s initial response target is 5 minutes. As Chris McCann says, “We’re in the business of delivering smiles. A smile for some emotional reason. People can’t sit and wait, wondering what is going to happen when they try to tell a loved one ‘I love you’.”
• Gifts When You Need (GWYN) – 1-800-Flowers worked with IBMs’ Watson platform to create GWYN, an early-stage artificial intelligence (AI) product. GWYN gives customers the ability to interact with her via text in a conversational manner to find the right gift for the right person at the right time. Further, the amount of learning they are getting from GWYN allows them to constantly tweak their questions based on the responses they are getting from their customers.
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32:5101/05/2017
Scott Moorehead on How Your Company Can Do Better with a Culture of Good
Can your business do better by doing good?
Shep interviews Scott Moorehead, co-author of Build A Culture of Good: Unleash Results by Letting Your Employees Bring Their Soul to Work, who discovered that it is possible, as he went through a process that reignited passion and loyalty in his employees.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on the benefits of being part of something bigger than yourself – when you give back to your community, if not the world. And, when you do this right, two things happen:
1. Your customers appreciate that you are willing to give back and reciprocate by doing more business with you.
2. It creates a feeling of fulfillment, especially to your employees, when they recognize that the company they work for is doing something bigger and better than just trying to make money.
Our willingness to give back to the community may be our best measure of our success.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview by asking Scott Moorehead to tell about his journey which led him to create a Culture of Good. Scott shared that when you have a company with under a hundred employees, it’s easy to have camaraderie, trust, and fun and he didn’t want to lose that as his company grew.
As Scott’s company got larger, none of the new employees knew what it was like to be part of the experience in the beginning. What used to be a very small, family-owned, Midwestern values-based company was becoming a big company with a lot of bureaucracy and less trust. Policies and procedures needed to be implemented. The environment began to feel more robotic. People started to feel less valued.
So, Scott set out to create a Culture of Good for his company, the largest Verizon Authorized Retailer’s (3,000 employees at 800 stores) in the U.S. What began as a movement—in which employees have done everything from dressing up as superheroes for a children’s hospital to distributing hundreds of thousands of backpacks for kids—has grown into a business teaching other companies that inspired employees can ignite positive change in the world and at the same time, positively impact the bottom line.
Top Takeaways:
• Scott knew what his employees were signing up for (a paycheck), but if he expected them to stay, he also had to give them a why.
• Your why is all about what is making the people who work for your organization want to stay and want to care.
• Scott needed to determine the answer to two key questions: 1) What is our company purpose? 2) What is our company’s greater mission? If the mission was simply to make more money, that mission will not keep people in their jobs.
About:
Scott Moorehead, co-author of Build A Culture of Good: Unleash Results by Letting Your Employees Bring Their Soul to Work, is the co-founder of Culture of Good, Inc., and also the CEO of TCC Verizon. Scott is a recognized thought leader on what it takes to create and develop purposeful for-profit organizations that abide by the philosophy of doing well by doing good.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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34:5224/04/2017
Amy Downs on How Customer Obsession Can Drive Your Bottom Line
Are you obsessing about taking care of your customers? If not, maybe you should! Shep Hyken interviews Amy Downs, Chief Customer Success and Happiness Officer at Lifesize, a connected video conferencing company, about why you should be obsessed about taking care of your customers.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on April being customer loyalty month. Customer loyalty should be a year-round focus, and not just a monthly effort, but let’s take this month to celebrate. We need to obsess about creating such an amazing customer experience that our customers will want to do business with us and nobody else.
When Shep talks about creating an amazing customer experience, it’s important to remember that amazement is not always an over-the-top, blow-me-away, most incredible service you have ever had type of experience. It is more about consistently and predictably being just a little above average. Consistency is the key word. That’s the hard part. That’s what the best companies in the world do. They execute their service consistently.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview by asking Amy Downs what does it mean to be customer obsessed? Amy responds by saying that Lifesize has four core values, and that customer obsession is number one. Many companies talk about “treating customers great,” but you must make sure that you have the right people on board. People with customer service DNA and customer service hearts. Then you must have the right systems and processes in place that allow these employees the ability to understand what is important to your customers.
Top Takeaways:
• Customer obsession can be the foundation for growth in your business. Amy stressed the importance of customer retention. You can link an increase in customer retention or a decrease in churn directly to the overall bottom line. If you lose a customer, it is usually very hard to get them back. The easiest customer to sell is the one that you already have. Regardless of what industry you are in, your customers are talking to each other and to other potential customers. When word of mouth starts getting out there, you start to better references and referrals that convert to customers at a much higher rate than traditional marketing.
• How you can know that your customer obsession efforts are paying off. Amy said there are a lot of data analytics that they use to help understand the relationship they have with each of their customers. It is important to capture both qualitative and quantitative data to determine how you are doing in your relationships. For example, with quantitative data you can examine Net Promoter Scores as well as churn rates.
• Best tips on how to become customer obsessed. Amy suggests to set a strategy and educate your people. Everyone in the company must understand the importance of building a customer-best company and how it impacts the bottom line. Continually share with them the results of the positive change in your customers’ lives, so that they can feel proud of the work they do. Be sure to make course corrections when needed, but do them in a super positive way. The front-line employees are the most critical piece of any business, but ensure that you are listening to all of your employees. Create an environment and a culture where employees can thrive, and where they’re empowered to drive change on behalf of customers. And, this helps people to feel like they have a much greater purpose in they work they do.
About:
Amy Downs joined Lifesize in 2014 to evangelize the importance of customers throughout the organization, and ensure that everyone who interacts with the company has a smile on their face.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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32:5217/04/2017
Adam Dorrell on How to Monetize the Net Promoter Score
How do you use the Net Promoter Score® to retain your customers? How can you sell the C-Suite on the benefits of investing in Customer Retention?
Shep Hyken interviews Adam Dorrell, the CEO and co-founder of CustomerGauge.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on the Net Promoter Score®, which is the result of a survey question that asks a customer “How likely would you be to recommend us?” Shep feels that NPS is one of the simplest, yet most powerful feedback measurement tools. However, according to the annual Net Promoter Score® benchmark survey from 2016, it was found that 90 percent of the companies were not clear if, after implementing their Net Promoter Score® program, whether they had increased customer retention. The score is nice to know, but what does it mean to your business?
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview with Adam Dorrell by discussing the Net Promoter Score® Benchmarks, The Annual Survey, (available as a free download at https://npsbenchmarks.com ) which discusses the latest in the Net Promoter® industry, best practices, and recently added company scores.
CRM software tools have been around for about 30 years, but these tools are about the acquisition of a customer, not so much about the maintenance or retention of a customer.
Adam said that about 40 percent of survey respondents were not sure how much business they retain each year.
The average retention number for companies is about 80 percent, so the average American business loses 20 percent of their customers every year.
Top Takeaways:
• A repeat customer will do more business with you than a new customer. Repeat customers spend more.
• The CEO and leadership team must buy in to the power of the NPS measurement and approve a budget for customer experience and retention. Success must be measured with proper KPI’s.
• Customer feedback should be responded to in a timely matter. Too often companies push the survey out once a year and then take three months to process the feedback. By then it’s too late to properly respond to the customer.
• Low scores require attention in a timely manner. Dorrell recommends focusing on detractors first, typically within 48 hours. Find out why the customer scored the company low and what the company can do to retain the customer. Beyond trying to “save” the customer, use the feedback to eliminate the same issues from happening to other customers.
• High scores are also worth responding to. Find out the “why” behind the score. Your promotors are gold and will share information that can help create an even better customer experience.
About:
Adam Dorrell started CustomerGauge in 2008 to help companies solve the problem of retaining customers. Compatible with the Net Promoter Score®, CustomerGauge allows organizations to improve customer relationships and encourage loyalty, most immediately in e-commerce functions.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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35:1811/04/2017
Jeff Toister Provides 3 Steps to Developing a Customer-Focused Culture
Nearly every company says that they want to have a customer-focused culture, but then why are so many companies lacking one? What are the steps that your company needs to take to be committed to becoming customer focused?
Shep Hyken speaks with Jeff Toister about his new book, The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how the best companies have an amazing service culture, because they have an amazing culture. Period.
For instance, Zappos has their Ten Core Principles on how to create that customer-focused culture. CEO Tony Hsieh has even been known to fire employees if they can only buy into nine of the ten principles. Tony doesn’t even particularly care if his employees like shoes, but he is adamant that all his employees fit into the culture.
The culture starts on the inside and is felt on the outside by the customer. If a company has a good customer-focused culture, there is a pretty good chance that the company has a great internal culture. The companies known for providing the best customer service are typically the best companies to work for.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview by asking Jeff Toister, “Why don’t more companies have a customer-focused culture?” Toister claims the challenge is that we simply don’t know how to get there. There is so much information about how to develop a customer-focused culture. Some of it lines up, and some of the information is conflicting. With so much conflicting advice, how can you make sense of it all? To help you to get there, Jeff Toister wrote his book as a guide that anyone could pick up and follow as a step-by-step plan to develop a customer-focused culture in their organization.
When you have finally achieved the goal of creating a customer-focused culture, you will find that your employees are absolutely obsessed with service. They know what they are supposed to be doing. They’re committed. And they always seem to do the right thing.
Top Takeaways:
Three steps to developing your customer-focused culture:
1. Define what your culture is going to be. Your customer service vision needs to be one sentence, that everyone can remember. It needs to focus on the customer, not that you will be “industry-leading” or will make a lot of money. It cannot be a fluffy statement that no one believes in, but it must become a way of life for everyone in the organization. Who are we on our best day? Example: In-And-Out Burger’s “Quality, Consistency, and Courtesy”
2. Engage your employees and get them committed. Employees must fully understand what makes the organization successful, and they are committed to achieving that success. Many organizations have a difficult time having their employees give a consistent answer as to what “success” means.
3. Align everything in your organization around that definition of success, that customer service vision. We tend to do things that create conflicts and, that make it harder for our employees to deliver outstanding customer service. For example, we focus on customer service survey scores, and reward or penalize employees accordingly. Instead, we should focus on the feedback and learn how to use it, so that we can continually improve and deliver even better customer service.
About:
Jeff Toister helps customer service teams unlock their hidden potential. He has authored customer service training videos on Lynda.com and was named one of the Top 30 customer service professionals in the world by Global Gurus. He was also named one of the Top 50 Thought Leaders to Follow on Twitter by the International Customer Management Institute. Jeff holds Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) certification from the Association for Talent Development.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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36:3303/04/2017
Anthony Goonetilleke Discusses How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Customer Service
Do you want to embrace technology and provide your customers a better experience?
Shep Hyken interviews Anthony Goonetilleke, the President of the Amdocs Product Business Group.
First Up:
Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how companies are currently incorporating artificial intelligence into their customer experience. For example, 1-800 Flowers uses GWIN, which is powered by IBM’s AI system known as Watson, to help you pick out gifts. GWIN asks you questions, you give “her” answers, and then “she” makes recommendations to you based on the answers you give.
Shep says that if you are not onboard with artificial intelligence, don’t understand it, and are not at least considering AI for your business, then you may find yourself playing catch up with your competition. You want to be ahead of the game.
Featured Interview:
Shep begins his interview with Anthony Goonetilleke by asking if we have reached the point of HAL, the computer in 2001 A Space Odyssey? Should we be nervous or scared of that type of technology?
Anthony Goonetilleke says rather than being intimidated by new technology, we need to reach the customer where they are. For too long, we have thought that if you need to interface with Company X, you should be required to use the customer service application from Company X. But Millennials and Generation Z want more convenient service on the technologies that they prefer. If they are on Twitter, they want to tweet something out. If they are on Facebook, they will want to message or post on there. When you talk about the customer experience, you can incorporate a layer of intelligence and then start adding these various channels on top.
It is important to note that we don’t even know what channels will be available two years from now. But once you have the proper framework built to provide a customer experience system, adding these unique channels when they become available, should be just like adding an a la carte menu.
Artificial intelligence should interact with you as though you are communicating with another human. This is because AI can know who you are, your story, and has the ability to contextually learn what’s going on. For example, if all you need to do is change your billing address, rather than calling and waiting on hold for 10 minutes to talk to a person, using AI can get you through this basic customer service interaction in a matter of seconds.
Top Takeaways:
• Artificial Intelligence tools are available today. What we are in the process of doing is stitching them together in the right way, to make the process seem more human.
• A lot of developmental work is also being done within artificial intelligence trying to analyze customer sentiments and conversations. A frustrated customer is a great precursor to churn. The faster you can determine the frustration the better the experience will be for the customer.
• Artificial intelligence won’t take jobs away from people. Artificial intelligence won’t replace humans, but it will replace many basic tasks that humans don’t want to do.
About:
Anthony Goonetilleke is the Group President - Chief Technologist and Head of Product at Amdocs. Amdocs is a leading software & services provider to the world’s most successful communications and media companies, enabling their digital and network transformation through innovative solutions, delivery expertise and intelligent operations.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio.
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37:5527/03/2017