Tag Archive of: customer review

Putting the customer first belongs to all of us

What do you think? A yes or a no? I'm curious. But before I spread my opinion, I'll take you through an experiment.

Set. You wake up and be happy. You jump out of bed fresh and fruity. Because you're looking forward to it. You get to work full of passion. You walk into the kitchen of the McDonalds, greet your colleagues and start (after washing your hands; of course!) with an order for a BigMac. What are you doing?

  1. You've done this so many times that you don't have to look at the picture of this hamburger anymore. But you know exactly what the build-up is like. Bun, sauce, lettuce, tomato, pickle, two burgers, a slice of cheese and more sauce (for the real connoisseurs, I hope I got it right). So you build the hamburger as it should be, put it in the box and hopsa; ready to be eaten.

Or

  1. Today you're going out of the box. You've heard something from your manager about autonomy and you're going to make this burger even tastier. A little more sauce, a little less meat. Because yes, that's not good for the environment. Maybe three slices of tomato is a good idea. Just put your passion into it and Klara is ready. Hamburger in the box and hopsa; ready to be eaten.

What do you do: 1 or 2? I hope scenario 1, because that's exactly what the customer expects. Hopefully, the hamburger will be handed over to the customer with a big smile and it will also be in order in terms of customer service.

Because that's what the customer is all about. About the customer expecting and receiving a product or service in a certain degree of consistency. That requires frameworks. What are the requirements for consistency for your company? Is this a certain speed, quality, tone-of-voice, or structure of the burger? Yes, of course you can give just that little bit more, in terms of service or a little extra. But the basis is that hamburger, that product.

So, no. Putting the customer first does not belong to all of us. The customer's foundation is the responsibility of those people who design the foundation. That could be the customer experience team. Or, for example, marketing, or the customer contact center. They set up frameworks that you can and want to adhere to. And if you know how to give that little bit extra as an employee... That smile. That service. That brilliant BigMac. That real customer contact. Then you've made it. And the customer is central. You can be very proud of that.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on October 16, 2019

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*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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The Definition of Customer Experience

Customer Experience: you read and hear a lot about it. But what is it exactly? What is the definition? The definition of Customer Experience that I always use is:

The perception a customer has of all interactions with you as a company throughout the customer journey, across all customer channels.

I would like to explain this to you in more detail. Imagine, we're talking about your business. And the organization you work for is a hotel. But it could just as easily be an insurance company, a car dealership, or even a large B-to-B company. The type of business is not important: the customer experience and its basics remain the same. Let's take a look. For now, we'll focus on the hotel example and step into the customer's shoes.

Perception

In this example, I'm a customer, so I'm looking for a hotel. I want to book a room. So what I'm doing is checking out your website, maybe I'm reading some reviews on independent websites, or I might have received an email from your reservations department with answers to some questions I've sent out earlier. All my experiences together form my perception. And perception is important when it comes to customer experience: everything is perception. Customer Experience is not what you think as a company or how you would like to come across to your customers. No, it's about what the customer really thinks and experiences.

All Interactions

The second word that is really important in the definition of Customer Experience is interactions. All interactionsto be a bit more precise. And by all interactions, I mean – in our hotel case – all the interactions that this customer has during the booking process (website, reviews and an email). But maybe later – after the booking has been made – this customer will come into your hotel. She or he (but for now we'll make her a she) is greeted by the receptionist, or maybe she's talking to the lifeguard by the pool. Her experience is defined by all interactions in the entire customer journey and in all channels, both online and offline. That's what Customer Experience is all about.

All Channels

This may sound pretty simple, but it takes a lot of effort and dedication to be consistent across all interactions and channels. If you have a great website, but your reviews aren't: then you've got a problem. If the receptionist is really courteous and hospitable, but the lifeguard at the pool behaves like a jerk: then you have another problem. Can you easily book through your website, but are you sent from pillar to post when booking by phone? From a customer point of view, this is an unmitigated disaster.

Your entire organization needs to be consistent in its approach to customers, across all interactions and across all channels. Of course, you can also consistently perform poorly, but every organization wants to keep its promise. Or even better: wants to deliver something extra to become and stay top-of-mind with customers; wants to stand out from the competition.

Customer Experience is all about the customer. About his or her perception of interaction with you as an organization. I recorded this video where I use LEGO to easily show what Customer Experience is.

 

Would you like to know more about Customer Experience? My mission is to make the world a better place for customers. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel where I regularly upload informative and interesting videos about Customer Experience. Plus: you can sign up for my monthly CX Greetz where I provide inspiration and interesting facts on how to create these valuable customer experiences. Help me with my mission: to make Customer Experience WORK!

 

 

*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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Gaming for a higher NPS

The lady on the phone from the power company closes the call; "Madam, you will receive an email with a questionnaire later. It also asks you to give a grade. This is for my personal review. What grade do you give me? Between 0 and 10?" I'm slightly bewildered, stammer 'a nine'. She doesn't ask any further questions about why this figure is made and we hang up. (this is not exactly what has been said, but certainly the gist)

Is this new? That the call center agent first asks for the grade? For me it was clearly the first time and I really don't understand it. From a CX point of view, I refer to these as weird practices.

Looking back, I recognize three instances of Gaming, which I have given my own name. (Gaming is influencing scores (NPS, CSAT, CES, and so on))

  1. The effect of asking for the grade and that this is important for her personal assessment. That's what we call bribery.
  2. The effect that I am surprised by this question and its personal does not waste so on the phone. So give a relatively high grade, while the conversation really wasn't worth it. We call this the effect of social desirability.
  3. Telling them first that I'm getting a survey and then asking me personally. We call this 'framing', with the effect that I fill out the survey. And so they get a higher response rate

What is most striking for me is that half a day after the interview, I have not yet received a survey.

I also wonder why I need to get another survey. Don't they have speech analytics that allow them to extract the number from the conversation? And what is of course even more striking is that the employee asks for the grade, but is not allowed to enter it into the system herself. Which, by the way, often also causes Gaming, because what is nicer than giving yourself a higher grade. Especially if it's accidentally low for once?

Of course, the most important thing when asking for customer feedback is curiosity about what I have experienced as a customer. Not the outcome in a number. That's where things go wrong. Sigh. Deep sigh.

Now I'm curious. What forms of Gaming have you experienced in recent weeks? Who weren't about curiosity at all, but purely about getting the highest possible grade?

 

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*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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George Michael

The waiter of the restaurant puts down the plate of sushi and gives me his big smile again. "What's your favorite George Michael song?" I ask him. He doesn't have to think long about it. And he replies that he is secretly a bigger fan of Engelbert Humperdinck. But that George Michael is his mother's favorite and that's why he put this artist on his nameplate.

At the All Inclusive HardRock hotel in Mexico, where I'm staying for a cool speaking assignment, all the staff wears a name tag. Something I also saw last year in Disney in the hotel, where colleagues had their passion next to their name. Which ranged from Russian, to dogs, to jazz music.  In this hotel in Mexico, under the name of the staff member, it says the favorite artist. This fits perfectly with the theme of the hotel and it opens the door for a chat in a very accessible way.

Orlyss, that's the waiter's name, chatters happily about Engelbert Humperdinck, his mother and the link to George Michael. If I'm being honest, I don't know any music by his great hero Engelbert and I honestly admit that. He quickly switches gears, because you can't embarrass the guest, and asks for my favorite music. It's a good thing I don't work at this hotel, because I'm not a fan of any one artist or band. I think again, he points out to me with a wink that I look a bit angry when I think and he bursts out laughing again. "Bruce Springsteen" I say quickly.

What a gift this waiter is. Of course, he's in a good mood, knows exactly how to serve, and knows the menu by heart. He's a Pro, but his employer has made it easy for him to make that connection. Because of that nameplate with his favorite artist. It makes it so easy for me to have that chat, connect and have an even more fun stay. Now that I think about it, I don't know if I would have started a conversation otherwise. Just after my sushi, would have said thank you and given him a small tip.

But not tonight. Orlyss gets a big tip. The tip I give you and all companies in the Netherlands: make it easy for your staff with that nameplate and put the 'something' underneath. Favorite animal in the pet store, beauty vlogger in perfumery or favorite car at the dealership. It's a real conversation starter. It works at Disney, HardRock and probably for you too!

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on November 28, 2018

Don't miss another blog? Sign up for my monthly CX Greetz!

 

*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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F#ck the FAQ

That's not language for a lady, is it? No, that's right. Sorry in advance. But sometimes it slips my mind. Does the steam come out of my ears, when I'm looking for the answer on a website. If I get lost in the Frequently Asked Questions again.

FAQ is a widely accepted term in the world of customer experience. Now I understand that, because V.G.V. – as in Frequently Asked Questions – sounds a bit strange. It is also too similar to the TGV and let's face it, few customers experience their digital search on websites as that of a high-speed train. More of an old-fashioned bumble between tjilitjap on the heath and flapperdieflap by the sea.

So off I went. Travelling in the FAQ. Just a quick answer to a question I had: how I could convert my subscription. I didn't understand the information I was given. Also, I had the feeling that this answer was not about my question and problem. Of course, I searched further, clicked furiously and after a few minutes – yes, I'm impatient sometimes and I'm not the only customer – I decided to call. Maybe this was the shortcut I needed, because I couldn't figure it out on my own. It felt like an admission of weakness. Of course, I would have preferred to find the answer myself. The company also didn't want me to call. Not only did they try to hide their phone number (but I'm a master magician, HA!), the employee also made this clear on the phone. In no time she found the answer and she didn't understand why I hadn't gotten there myself while clicking. It could also have been done in the My environment, she told me.

If you lose me in your own FAQ, it's not my fault, is it? Too often I see that the flow is set up from an internal perspective. Or that there are words in it that I don't use as a customer. Or that I want something that is not allowed online. Like canceling a subscription. This is only possible during office hours and by phone. That FAQ remains a mystery to me. If I pronounce it the Dutch way, we also say EF, EE, KIOE. But then there should be dots in between, right? Which, by the way, few companies do. For me, it's just the FAQ. If you look at it phonetically, it looks suspiciously like F#CK. Unfortunately, I can't make anything else out of it.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on 30 May 2018

Don't miss another blog? Sign up for my monthly CX Greetz!

 

*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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15 Remedies to prevent your customers feeling blue

It is that time of year. Especially in the Northern hemisphere, where it is the heart of winter. It is dark when you wake up and also when you return home from your office, the sun has set – if the sun has even shown her face at all during the day... Since most of the days it is raining, snowing or just so cloudy that you want to fly to the sun. Immediately.

This is what your customers are experiencing too. So this is the perfect time to step it up a little bit. Give your customers some extra love and attention. Because you don't have to let your customers feel even bluer than they already do. This blog gives you 15 suggestions, simple but so effective:

  1. Send a birthday card to a customer who celebrates his or her birthday. Congratulate and tell them how happy you are with their relationship with your customer.
  2. Buy a 25 American Dollar Kiva card of (kiva.org) and send it to a customer and share a message that you would like to pay it forward.
  3. Open the door for a customer in your store. Welcome them with a genuine HELLO.
  4. Look into complaints and pick one out that needs extra love and attention. Solve the problem sooner than you have promised and add your TLC to give the customer a good feeling.
  5. Invite a customer for a really good cup of coffee in your favorite coffee bar. Ask them for genuine feedback and listen intently.
  6. Give a customer something extra. If you work in a coffee bar, add a snack. If you work in telecom, some extra mobile data. Try to find something that you can give, which makes your customer happy.
  7. Welcome a new customer with a video you have made especially for them. A genuine welcome with a big smile.
  8. Drive down the country, buy a big bunch of flowers and visit a customer. Thank them for being a customer and have a cup of coffee together.
  9. Dive a little deeper into the lives of your customers. Find a customer with an anniversary, buy a personal gift online and send it to them.
  10. On a rainy day, bring an extra umbrella along and offer this to a customer that comes into your store soaking wet. With compliments of you and the company of course.
  11. Give a compliment to your customer. Easy, but so effective.
  12. Especially in business to business, find out about the interests of the customer and find one or more articles that are in line with these interests. Send the article(s) with some happy greetz.
  13. Go to the logistics department, bring some small gifts along and add them to customers packages that are sent out today.
  14. Find blogs that are written by your customers and leave nice comments.
  15. A more indirect suggestion, but with great effect: Buy a cake for customer service colleagues and tell them how much you appreciate them. If you want to take it up a notch, join them and listen in to customer calls.

So plenty of ideas here. But I would love it if you add to this list, the more ideas the better. Because in these gloomy January days, our customers can use some of your Tender Love and Care.

Do you want to share this message? We have made a printable version that you can download. Print it and hang it where you colleagues can see it. To spread the kindness. Thank you!

 

*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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