Tag Archive of: customer communication

What I find really cool is sparring with colleagues. Whether that's in the field of customer experience, master classes or the speaking profession. It always delivers so much. Besides energy and connection, concrete ideas and business opportunities always arise.

Still. If I'm honest, I don't make enough time for it. While it is so valuable. See here the first Open Door. But this Open Door is not what this blog is about.

I am a hiker, you may have already known that. So how nice is it to not only spar, but to combine this right away with a walk. The ideal combo and that's why I call it my Walk and Talk appointments.

For example, this week I walked with Guido Thys through the woods near Naarden. He is the least sought-after speaker in the Netherlands, at least that is what he says himself. Which made me laugh right away. He has over 25 years of speaking experience and a very refreshing take on basically everything. It is exactly that twist, which I find funny and which makes me think.

We both talk about customer experience, and yet we are different. For example, he has a really cool workshop Chasing Customers Away and I focus more on speaking about and training in the subject of customer experience management. We are very different and yet... During the walk we explored the challenges in customer experience and found that they have actually been the same for years.

After all, has much changed in recent years? Of course, there's the rise of digital channels. Is CX getting better organized. But if we look at behavior change, where customer experience and culture come together ... well. That's where we had to draw a sad conclusion.

Leaders are still not eager to engage with customers. Quite honestly; leaders find customers annoying entities and so making time for customers is an afterthought. Run along in the contact center? Go along with a mechanic or truck driver? Or join the in-house solar panel mechanic for a day on the road to customers? Structurally? No.

That's the Open Door I'm talking about. That door that has been open for decades. In my view, that Open Door is the quick win to customer-centric behavior and the boost for a customer-centric culture. Such a culture is about leaders who understand what customer contact is all about. Where the win-win occurs so that leaders understand customers as well as employees at the front end of the organization.

Maybe we should open this door wide. And think of it as a red carpet. This is THE Open Door to the customer-centric organization, for every executive. It's already open, so take off those blinders and cross that threshold. On the other side, you'll find customers and employees who will welcome you with open arms.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on October 3, 2023

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Let's go back in time for a moment. I think it was sometime in 1999. I was working at AMEV as a Life inspector and I closed my mortgage. Because as an employee I got a nice discount on the mortgage interest and I was happy to take advantage of that. A few years later I started to renovate and again, AMEV was a great help.

Within AMEV, there was a special office for employees, where really everything was taken care of when taking out the mortgage. There was coffee ready for you, you could always walk in if you had questions, and communication about papers and the notary was also well taken care of. There was no red carpet just yet, but that's how it felt. As employees, we were well pampered.

As a Life Inspector, I was responsible for a large area, from the east of Utrecht to the German border, helping intermediaries choose AMEV for mortgages and pensions. There are probably some time zones mixed up now, but I do remember that my customers - the intermediaries - did not find our handling of mortgages too florid. Communication was unclear. Their customers didn't understand anything about our letters. It took a long time for official offers to arrive. Things went wrong when sending notary documents.

I understood little of that. After all, we had it so well taken care of, hadn't we? I really didn't know any better than that as AMEV, we gave the red-carpet feeling to customers. Because that was my own experience. In Customer Experience, we call that the "n=1 situation". My own experience, would also be the experience of our customers and their customers. Besides, I didn't realize then either, that I had an inside-out view and was quite infected with the 'curse of knowledge'. The what?! I had far more knowledge of mortgages, legislation, and processes than the client who was taking out a mortgage. That's called the "curse of knowledge". As a result, I couldn't empathize with the person without that knowledge. I missed the outside-in view.

With an intermediary I visited one of his clients and immediately saw where we were going wrong. That the red-carpet feeling only applied to employees. But immediately, I also saw the potential for improvement. 

This is exactly why I urge everyone to go on customer visits themselves. Step out of your own processes, systems and mindsets and look at the world through the eyes of the customer. There where the customer is. At the company or just at home. See what customers' needs are, what keeps them awake at night and where the real improvement potential lies. Who knows, you might also see where your organization can give that red-carpet feeling to customers.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on July 4, 2023

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We are at my favorite hotel. The receptionist is waiting for us with a big smile. 'Good afternoon and welcome to...' I tell her we have a room reserved in Bloem's name. She delves into her computer screen and looks up our reservation.

"May I see your ID?" she asks. This surprises me, because it's about the tenth time I've been here. Still, why the legitimacy every time? It must be policy. I don't feel like being difficult, so I take my driver's license out of my wallet.

In the meantime, I also grabbed my credit card. Because I was scammed online last year and so I have new credit card information. 'Can I have yours too?' she asks my husband. He looks at my credit card and she adds "I mean your ID." Huh?! Does the guest also have to provide identification? A small sigh escapes me.

"Then the room will cost X euros. To this we then add 50 euros per person, for if you go for breakfast, use the room service or bar, if you break something and other things. You will get this refunded if you don't use it. Agreed?" I roll my eyes at my husband. If we break something! I guess it's also policy and I know she's probably an intern. But this really does feel like the first time we've been here AND like we're going to get drunk, stoned and then trash the room. Just a little warning for us. Anyway, we are in Amsterdam...

Five minutes later, the procedure is complete. We get our room keys and she explains us how the elevator works. She also tells us that we have a beautiful room (yes I know, because I specifically asked for it). I briefly ask how things are going with the loyalty system because it went wrong last time. "Yes ma'am, that does go wrong sometimes, but you can fix that yourself afterwards." Still no sign of recognition that we are regular visitors. She wishes us a nice stay.

How can this be? Especially in this hotel where we come so often! Where, for the umpteenth time, they do not manage to recognize and greet us at the welcome as returning guests. As a loyal customer, this really makes you feel left out in the cold.

When we enter our hotel room, there is a little bear with a handwritten card on the bed. Written by the person with whom I booked the room. Now we do feel welcome. But if I were the director of this hotel, I would immediately do something about the check-in procedure.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on February 7, 2023

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The newspaper got delivered later and later. As a morning person, I was fed up with that. Meanwhile, I saw the call for new deliverers. With a bonus of no less than 1,000 euros for those who want to get on their bikes early in the morning with my newspaper. The newspaper has too few delivery people and in my case that causes inconsistent delivery times.

Because of this irritation with the delivery time, I also asked myself some critical questions. I could no longer explain, why I took away a huge pile of old paper every week. You can read a newspaper digitally, can't you, just like that?

I switched to a digital subscription during the week with a paper newspaper on Saturday. That way I hit two targets with one shot: one less delivery address for the newspaper in the morning, and my choice also had an environmental impact: less tree felling and no more contribution to the paper shortage.

But here's the thing. Since I have this digital subscription, I hardly read the newspaper during the week. It's weird to read the news through a newspaper app on my screen. In fact, I was already doing that through nu.nl. Of course, that does miss the nuanced opinion. But then again, what do I miss about that?

The ritual of taking the newspaper out of the mailbox, having a cup of coffee and then reading the paper. Now that only happens on Saturdays. So when the newspaper is physically there.

What does this have to do with the fine field of customer experience? Everything. Because in that, too, sometimes you get to take people through a change. And what happens here with my newspaper app, is exactly what also happens with strategy plans. With customer promises. With work instructions. They are somewhere on the web. But where again? Employees have to find for themselves where the information is and what the content was again. It is not top of mind and it never will be this way. And then, as management, we find it strange that people don't know, understand or support the company's strategy.

Therefore - if you are going to change - think very carefully about your message, the timing and the means. Check regularly whether your message has made an impact. Don't refer to that message somewhere on the intranet. Or that one 15-minute presentation in the digital kickoff. Indeed: communication is a profession. Every change requires a solid introduction, repetition and a visible message. Otherwise, out of sight, perhaps out of mind. Or the heart won't even ever be found. Just like that newspaper app doesn't interest me. And we all know how that ends: goodbye newspaper.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on November 1, 2020

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As CX professionals, we often send out customer surveys. Or maybe we don't even send them, but we use the content for metrics or for customer quotes. Or to learn where to improve in our customer journeys.

I know that many CX professionals are not responsible for closing the loop. Which is a pity, because it is actually a very important topic. You can truly impact the customer experience and make a difference in your customers life. This is where too many companies go wrong. So, if you get it right, you diversify from the rest.

Lessons to learn and actions to take:

A. The strategic lens:

  1. Responsibility. Find out who is responsible for closing the loop. If no one is responsible, make sure you arrange the conversation and responsibility.
  2. Leadership commitment. Align leadership on the topic. Do they find it acceptable that you don’t react to surveys or reviews? Let them trip over the truth, so they find out themselves how your company is handling feedback. This way you create the buy in you need.
  3. Future experiences. Determine how closing the loop fits your company’s strategic goals and how you want to act accordingly. Are there certain segments of customers you do want to respond to or not? Do you focus on bringing detractors to neutrals, or neutrals to promoters? Bring the strategic lens and have those valuable conversations.
  4. Business case: Yes, you must calculate what it will cost, to start handling the feedback. Or maybe start a pilot to see what the impact is, so you can calculate the ROI later.

B. The tactical lens:

  1. Why - Describe clearly why you are doing what you are doing. This way you can explain to the team members how closing the loop fits into the company's strategy. What the benefits are. What went wrong in the past. How this will help towards the future.
  2. Who - Who is actually going to act on the feedback? Is it the web care team, or the contact center? Plan time and have a conversation with Work Force Management if appropriate. The who is often ignored. But also think of the who in customers. Is it the zeros and ones you come back to? Or the neutrals? Or just the people who complain? Make it very specific.
  3. What - Describe what to do. Maybe a little script is needed. Always apologize, fix the problem, and do something extra. What can your colleagues do as a little gift? Help them out, by giving the framework on what is expected. Arrange the logging in the CRM system.
  4. When - Do you call the customer the day after the feedback? Do you do that in the morning? How many times do you try? But also, do you need to report on progress? Describe all, so you get it right in the long run.

C. The operational lens:

a. This is just about doing it. Calling customers. Fixing problems. Celebrating successes. Getting others involved.

I suggest you think big and start small. Choose a pilot project. Experiment. That will lead up to your big success in the long run.

At the ferry service they gave it their primary focus (I checked afterwards). They had training how to handle feedback and made a little game out of it. They took pride in solving issues and getting back to customers. They arranged it and acted on it. As a customer I felt it. Now it is up to you to do the same

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This blog is about an old customer experience. It is more than 2 years old, and I remember it like it was yesterday. So, here we go.

As my mom lives on the island of Texel, we take the ferry to the island often. I am even a ferry shareholder. One of the shareholder benefits, is a special pass with five credits every year to take your car for free. On the 1st of January, the credits are automatically transferred to the pass, so easy peasy.

It is the 5th of January and me and my car are at the ferry’s check in. I give my shareholder pass to the clerk and she says “Sorry, no credits left.” I am a little bewildered and start the conversation that something must have gone wrong. It is the 5th of January, so it is almost impossible to have used up all my credits. There is no willingness to help, no empathy. I should go to the Teso office, which is only open during weekdays. And that is exactly when I am not on the island of Texel. But that was my problem. Not hers. She makes me buy a ticket and I am not happy. To say the least.

I cannot remember exactly how I got in touch with TESO. Maybe I sent an e-mail. But I received a survey from the ferry services and I gave them my feedback. Expecting nothing from it to be honest, since 99% of companies don’t handle on feedback. In CX terminology: they don’t closing the loop.

The next day the phone rings. It is a number from Texel, since I recognize the area code. A colleague of the TESO Ferry Services asks me for my experience. What happened, how did it make me feel, what do I see as a solution?

She apologized for what had happened. What I really loved, is that she didn’t blackguard her colleague, but she said it wasn’t the right reaction. She was going to solve the matter. Of course, I didn’t have to come into the office. If I could send a recent photo of myself (there is picture on the shareholder pass) by email, she would arrange a new pass. Which would be sent to my house with the credits on it.

Two days later my pass arrives in the mail. With a sincere apology and with a little present. Four tokens for free coffee and apple pie for me and my family when we take the next ferry. What a way to create a perfect moment for me. I can show off to my family with a treat and TESO is put in the spotlight because they are rockstars when it comes to closing the loop. Problem solved, bad emotions taken away and a sweet reminder that this company understands how to make customers happy.

From this blog, I have distilled a number of CX lessons. Curious? Read them here!

If you are a customer who books a large number of tickets, you are probably a B2B customer. But in this case, I was not. Still, in such a case, you want to feel a bit special. I book 13 tickets! That must be a good deal for the company, right? Better than 1 plane ticket, right?!
I didn't feel a thing about this whole transaction. It was difficult, process-oriented and I even felt unclear. Because, do I have the tickets or not! There is no portal where I can see if my booking was successful.

Looking at this process with my CX-glasses on, I have four ideas how to improve:

  1. Step into the shoes of your customer.
    Try booking a group ticket yourself. See how long it takes to get an offer. Experience the waiting time on the phone. Print out the offer and the contract. See how ugly it looks. Find the differences between what is written in the contract and in the e-mail.
  2. Make a shortlist of simple improvements and let a dedicated team pick it up.
    Especially the contract and communication. Add the 'warm customer feeling'. Give me, the customer, the feeling that you are happy with this 13-ticket deal. And see where you can remove ambiguities and add clarity.
  3. Align with other processes that customers are familiar with.
    Align with the convenience of individual processes, especially when it comes to booking an individual ticket. Align the terms and conditions as well. Why do I have more flexibility as an individual than a customer who has booked 13 tickets? Align and design the future. Think about the digital channels, especially if you have problems with waiting times in your customer contact centre.
  4. Share in the organisation, when it comes to customer-centred change.
    I would share this kind of example in the organisation. In the Group Ticket team, these contracts and practices are the norm. People have been working like this for years. They have 'The Curse of Knowledge'. But if you are a customer, like me, who is completely new to this, you feel trapped in the internal jargon and processes. So sharing the need for change and continuing to question daily routines is necessary for shaping a successful future when it comes to changing culture.

This is really about process improvement, but from the lens of the customer. So not just Business Process Redesign, but really stepping into my shoes (that of your ideal customer) and helping me. Customer Journey mapping is the perfect way to do this. Did you know that my colleague Barbara van Duin has a great course to learn this. I took the course myself and recommend it.

I hope everything will work out with the tickets and that my friends, daughter and mother will fly to Bologna on 20 May! Time to experience La Dolce Vita. And then the experience with the group ticket booking will probably be completely forgotten.

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I will turn 50 this year. Then comes the question. How do you want to celebrate? I am walking 1000 kilometres to Rome this year and will celebrate on 17 May in St Peter's Square with my husband. But there was also a little voice in my head that I would really like to celebrate with my girlfriends. Something really crazy for once. Extravagant. So... I invited all my girlfriends, my daughter and my mother for a weekend in Italy. I rented a beautiful villa above Verona and arranged for good food, drink and a bike ride through the rolling hills.

Now I did not want to be a travel agent, so I asked all the ladies to pay (and arrange) the ticket themselves. However, it soon became clear that the prices were quite different. One friend was quoted 221 euros and the other 271. In order not to get any lopsided faces, I offered to arrange a group ticket.

So I went to the website on Saturday morning and went through a number of fields. Where do you want to go, what time, with how many people, etcetera etcetera. When I pressed 'Enter' after the last field, I was promised that I would receive an offer within a day.

You can feel it. I got nothing. And I felt the fear, that because of delays on this line, the tickets would only get more expensive. So I started calling, but I couldn't get through. So I waited.

After four days the offer came. And what a quotation it was. Four choices, while I had very clearly indicated what I wanted. 13 tickets and at very specific times to and from Bologna. Within 10 minutes I responded with what I wanted and then I got a kind of contract.

One for which you really have to have been at the Ticketacademie. I also suspect that this is from an AS400 system, when I look at the font. But anyway. A lot of attention to the cancellation conditions, terms and dates. All in text. Four pages full.

It also says when I have to provide a passenger list. Now that is nice, that clarity. But what should a passenger list contain? Only names, or also dates of birth? Or also identity card numbers? I have searched online for what this list should contain, but I cannot find it. What a lack of clarity... Especially because it is so different from how I book an individual ticket. Simply, nicely online, very clear and as it turns out. For a much better price too.

When I agree, I run into a contradiction. The contract says that I have to sign and email it. But the accompanying e-mail says that the payment confirms the reservation. So there is no need to e-mail it. Oh well, just to be sure I sign, scan and confirm. Better safe than sorry. And then I make the first payment. I have to mention "Tigre" and the contract number with the payment. But should I or should I not add the 'A' mentioned in the letter? Or also the '1/1' which is behind it. Oh help. I have paid and hope that this will go well.

So, I don't see the added value of this group booking option. Maybe if you are an event agency and have this kind of software yourself. But I really feel lost as an individual. I will soon have 13 tickets, but I am dependent on an e-mail address that you just have to hope will respond. And a department that I have not been able to reach by phone so far.

Fortunately, it is KLM and I trust that all will be well. It is the big blue bird after all. Which reminds me of the slogan of that other organisation that I associate with blue. We can't make it more fun, but we can make it easier. Well, they should take a look at that here too!

From this blog, I have distilled a number of CX lessons. Curious? Read them here!

In my childhood Bassie and Adriaan were my heroes on Dutch television. With of course the clown and acrobat as protagonists, but also with brilliant roles for the baron, B2 and Vlugge Japie. B2 was the half-deaf rascal, who was either East Indian deaf, or had a hearing problem. His winged pronunciation was: "Watzeggie?", if again he didn't understand something. And I've been thinking about him a lot the past few weeks. Because several times I desperately said "What's to say?" to customer service people.

If I had them on the line, they'd either mumble or talk too fast. Or I had someone from Limburg or Twente on the phone. I love those accents. But if the accent prevails and I don't understand the technical information I need, the fun of the accent is gone.

Let me get straight to the point. Understandability is the basis, the foundation, the principle of a good telephone conversation. You have to be able to understand and understand what that person is saying. That I as a client at the other end of the line - and in my case with a well-functioning hearing aid - understand what someone is saying. And I'm not talking about complicated language, jargon or content. No, just speaking Dutch intelligibly. Or English.

Because let's be very honest. Have you ever called an English-style call centre where you were put through to someone in India? I don't know how you experience such a conversation, but I often have a hard time making chocolate out of what's said. It sounds lilting and delicious.

But what if that doesn't make me understand?! Then, in my opinion, you've failed. I'll call again, hoping this time I can get someone else on the line. Someone who does articulate and speaks better general civilized English (if that exists). So that's two phone calls instead of one and you're wasting more time unnecessarily. Not good for the KPI's and certainly not for me as a client.

It's a tricky subject. Because do I reject people with an accent or a dialect? Definitely not. But it's important that you're understandable and understandable. Especially when you're on the phone and it's your profession. Customer service is a profession. Surely the basis of it is a voice I can follow. So... Ask customers whether they understand your employees well. Listen back to conversations and look closely at signals from customer feedback. Poor intelligibility is more common than you think and you don't want customers expressing themselves as the Baron. Who went crazy from B2 and kept shouting: "Drums, drums, drums!"

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on 7 October 2020

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