“Our company,” the CEO’s voiced boomed cheerfully at the company's annual leadership conference, “is an industry leader in customer experience. I’m immensely proud of your efforts in establishing our global reputation for innovation and customer-centricity.” As the applause of the 300 or so company managers began to die down, I glanced at the executive vp sitting next to me. She appeared to be choking on some arugula.
“Yikes,” she muttered under under her breath.
I understood where she was coming from. The problem was it was highly unlikely that most of our company’s customers would have agreed with our CEO's assessment.
In fairness to him, his comments weren’t entirely unfounded; the company’s monthly metrics on customer experience did tell an exciting story. And, as for the marketing department collecting the data, its staff had used common and well-established methodologies.
But what our leader didn’t realize, was how much of the overall story was data-driven fiction. Specifically, the company's net promotor score -- a single-question metric that predicts customers' loyalty by assessing their likelihood to recommend a company or brand -- was being manipulated by the front-line employees and managers.
Read the full article here.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/329401/
Over the last few years the financial services sector has made significant improvements in the decisions it makes that affect customers. The major fines that resulted in big newspaper headlines a decade ago have dwindled, but at the same time customers still lack trust. A YouGov poll last year found that more than half of British consumers (55%) don’t think banks are working in their customers’ best interests. Given that it has never been so easy to switch a bank account or change insurance companies this has long-term negative consequences for financial institutions.
Today’s more demanding, sceptical consumers won’t hesitate to jump ship if they feel they are not getting the service they want, so it is incumbent upon companies offering financial services to improve customer satisfaction, build loyalty and reduce churn. Surely this is common sense? Making customers happier increases their long-term commitment, provides up-sell and cross-sell opportunities and drives profitability. Which begs the question, why is this still a problem?
The likelihood is that the financial services sector is not effectively listening to client feedback.
http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2018/Mar/16/why-understanding-the-voice-of-the-customer-reaps-long-term-dividends/
In this article, we are going to go over the main points of collecting Customer Feedback, why it matters to your business to hone in your customer satisfaction, and finally, answer our main question: why most of you are not doing it properly.
https://hackernoon.com/why-do-you-s-ck-at-collecting-customer-feedback-9d0a42d8233b/
It might seem like a good idea to use email to resolve customer issues or to simply solve customer issues wherever they find you. It’s simple. It’s cost-saving. But you know what else it is? Messy and risky. Messy, because your communications with customers are all over the place. There’s not a single, unified platform to manage your customers. Risky, because you can easily overlook customers’ messages from email. While it may be unintentional, you are more likely to neglect your customer issues and lose them, which isn’t exactly good for business. Enter customer service software.
https://mopinion.com/best-customer-service-software/
In a corporate environment, it's easy to get too focused on performance measurement. While individuals within departments concentrate on achieving their personal and departmental key performance indicators (KPIs) by necessity, these, in isolation, must be aligned with other departments and their goals within the organisation.
Occasionally, one department can succeed at the other's expense. Streamlining channels, optimising processes that link back- and front-offices, and monitoring of productivity ensure that competitive behaviour is harnessed in a productive manner, suggests Wynand Smit, CEO of INOVO: "Aligned company-wide goals require a strategy that unifies objectives and provides an environment that works for everyone, one that can be scaled to mirror company growth."
https://www.itweb.co.za/content/KWEBb7yakkA7mRjO/
New research from NewVoiceMedia shows there are significant gaps between customer preferences and reality. This means many companies are missing out on opportunities to deliver a better level of service, especially through customer support centers where using new technology could not only help improve the overall customer experience, but also help in holding onto existing customers, which leads to more business and, ideally, word-of-mouth referrals.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2018/01/14/is-your-customer-support-killing-your-business/
As a keyed in customer service leader, you are constantly looking for ways to measure and improve customer experience. Perhaps you have heard of the CES metric, and are considering implementing Customer Effort Score for your team. Let’s talk about what it is, how it can improve your service offerings, and the steps to get you started with CES in your organization.
http://customerthink.com/implementing-customer-effort-score/
Earlier this month I attended Social Media Marketing World, the largest conference on social media marketing in the world. Over the last few years, customer service has shifted from traditional phone support toward social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others. Dan Gingiss started the Social Customer Care Track and interest has grown exponentially. The room I spoke in this year was three times larger than last year’s room, and we packed the house.
https://customerthink.com/how-to-turn-social-media-customer-service-into-a-marketing-strategy/
Analyzing your website can give you many insights into what your customers like or don’t like. But sometimes it’s not enough. Wouldn’t it be better if you could just ask them and get straight answers from them?
https://www.optimonk.com/blog/15-ways-e-commerce-websites-get-customer-feedback/#.W2g6etgzZmB/
Gartner revealed over 50 per cent of businesses plan to reinvest in improving customer service experience. Another study showed that 72 per cent of customers will share a positive experience with six or more people. Getting your customer service right not only improves retention and brand reputation, but it reduces the reliance on new business through upselling to an already captive audience.
With this in mind, I’ve written down some of the core activities I believe every small business should be doing in 2018 to improve customer service experience online.
https://realbusiness.co.uk/sales-and-marketing/2018/04/09/why-customer-service-still-remains-the-most-valuable-weapon-in-your-digital-strategy/
