Tag Archive of: customer communication

It is a famous and beautiful book: Love in times of cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez. Now I could also write an intriguing book: Love in times of corona. Just a bit different, but with an exciting plot, some misery and a happy ending.

Now there's limited space for this column, so I'll keep it short and sweet. We were getting married. May 15, 2020 was our plan. And then this pandemic broke out. Everything changed. Do you have to get married? I couldn't throw a big party. But why did we want to get married again? Right, the essence came out. Love, our moms and kids and everything was taken care of. So we wanted to get married. Not with a flash wedding at a desk. Otherwise, we'd have opted for it. No, with a ceremony and preferably in the city hall of Utrecht. Of course, in a small company with all the other rules that go with it. We wanted a bright spot, especially in times of corona. Unfortunately we were unlucky that the municipality of Utrecht had thought that all marriages had to be either a flash wedding or a wedding with a maximum of six people. The courage dropped in my shoes. The steam came out of my ears, I even shouted 'policy snorker' somewhere. I'm sorry! (This story's really going well, wait and see.)

I wouldn't let them get rid of me. Not by policy, not by self-imposed rules. Calling, tweeting and waiting... Not my strong suit. Maybe good news came at the press conference. I'm sorry. Our fate was in the hands of the city council. And that's where we found Anita and Kitty (and probably other colleagues I don't know about). They went looking for what could be done, showed that they wanted to help. Didn't leave us out in the cold, got on with it. And arranged it! We could get married in the town hall, after it had been closed for more than two months. The old council chamber was made suitable for the 'new normal'. With a plexiglass plate for the witnesses at the signing and chairs at a distance of one and a half meters. They even arranged a live stream. So that everyone who couldn't be there could still experience it. Our ceremony was intimate, much more magical than we had hoped. The sun was shining: I suspect the city of Utrecht arranged this too. The carillonneur of the Dom played Dancing Queen for us. I still can't believe it. So it was possible. Thank you ladies from the municipality of Utrecht. You are my heroes when it comes to love in times of corona.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on 1 July 2020

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Emotions you really need to recognize when interacting with customers and employees. For all in in customer experience, marketing, sales and operations.

The last couple of days my feelings are deeper than a month ago. I feel sad when I see awful images on ICU's and when I hear stories of loss. I feel disgust of companies that just keep sending their stupid sales newsletters through email, like nothing is going on. I experienced fear while my fiance had corona. I experienced anger seeing people that were just out in the streets, pretending the world was still normal and they could go to the beach or the park, putting lives in danger. But also, I experience joy while watching funny videos, that I receive through WhatsApp. I felt relieved my fiance recovered from corona. I felt surprised when receiving a thoughtful handwritten card with caring words in my mailbox.

Somehow, my emotions are deeper. Are more on the surface and are more intense. Which actually not only happens in my emotional world. It also happens also in yours, your family, community, actually in the world of most humans that are now affected by corona. This requires that we, Customer Experience Professionals, people working in marketing, sales and operations, need to be aware of the intensity of emotions of our employees and customers.

We definitely need to recognize and learn how to deal with emotions to help our customers and employees in the best way.

To help you out to understand emotions and the range of emotions, I share the knowledge by Professor Robert Plutchick and his wheel of emotions. If you understand this, please use it in scripts, customer journeys, emails, campaigns, conversations, and probably many more situations. So, here we go....

The basics:

Plutchik considers there are eight primary emotions; anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipaation, trust and joy. Plutchik argues for the primacy of these emotions by showing each to be the trigger of behaviour with high survival value, such as the way fear inspires the fight or flight response(info wikipedia).

How are the eight emotions related:

As you can see in the emotion wheel, each primary emotion has an opposite; joy is the opposite of sadness, trust is the opposite of distrust, fear the opposite of anger, surprise is the opposite of anticipation

The emotions in between the eight basic emotions, are the combined emotions. So disgust plus anger, gives the emotion contempt. Or fear plus surprise, gives awe. As emotions are complex, this way of looking at emotions helps to understand where these emotions come from.

The intensity of emotions:

The emotions I feel in these times of corona, feel deeper, like they are more intense. That is what Plutchik visualizes by the brightness of the colors in the wheel. The deeper the color, the more intense the motion is felt. When looking in the yellow column, the lightest emotion is serenity, more deeper is joy and the emotion in the most intense way is ecstasy.

Plutchik's wheel of emotions provides a perfect framework for understanding emotions

Now what?

It is important for all of us, to dive deeper in emotions of our customers and employees. To understand what the emotions are they are experiencing. Because these emotions need to be taken seriously. As I learned on a mindfulness course, you can compare not taking your emotions seriously, like pushing a cork underwater deeper and deeper. In the end it will pop out faster than ever before. Remember my example of the company that just keeps sending me sales-oriented newsletters, that are in my view, not appropriate right now. I canceled their newsletter. As I explained the reason for my un-subscription, they reacted; "thank you so much. We value your opinion" Which I know for certain is a standardized email, so they are not listening at all. Now I am really done with them, since I will remember this for a long time.

Three suggestions how to apply the knowledge of emotions:

1. In customer contact - Acknowledge emotions when you have conversations with customers. Or train your staff to acknowledge emotions. It is proven, that the more you ignore the more red/purple emotions, the more they will intensify. This also means that in these uncertain times, customer contact with regards to health, money and other uncertain topics, will take more time. So take that into account in average handle times.

2. In customer / employee communication - Examine what your customer or employee is feeling and experiencing right know. Describe and acknowledge these situations and emotions, so people will read/watch on. Make sure that when you show videos, that the person in the video, is honest and also shows emotion. A best practice, is the video of Arne Sorenson CEO of Marriott, who explains the impact of covid-19 on Marriott for the associates.

3. In Customer journey mapping sessions - Too often I see that Happy, Neutral and Unhappy are used to map emotions. You just read there are many more emotions and it will help you to diversify the emotions of customers. What are they really feeling right now and also, how do you want them to feel in the To-Be journey. Use the wheel in your design thinking processes. This more detailed wheel with described emotions might come in handy. It shows the diversity of emotions. Praise given to Danny Peters that uses this wheel in his customer journey mapping teaching sessions.

I hope this knowledge helps you to understand your customers and employees emotions better. Maybe even the emotions of yourself and the people close to you. Our emotions have deepened, maybe we even feel different emotions. So it is now even more important to be aware and pay the right attention.

Let's get active; share your thoughts in the comments.

Was this article useful? Please let me know. And even more important, how could you apply or have your applied this knowledge? Please share in the comments. Let's grow our understanding of emotions and the impact on our CX work even more. Thank you and since it is important for all of us, a little personal note; stay safe.

 

Nienke Bloem CCXP CSP is an expert in Customer Experience, both as Keynote Speaker, teacher of the 2 day CX Masterclass to prepare you for the CCXP exam and she is co-founder of The Customer Experience Game. Do you want to read her blogs or learn more about her? Visit her website or subscribe to her monthly CX Greetz.

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Okay, it's the end of January when you read this column. Only I'm writing it now that we've just started the year. And traditionally, we all think of our good intentions for this new year ahead.

I wouldn't be a CX expert if I didn't link those good intentions to customers. That's why I'm giving you a nice overview of 20 Good Customer Intentions. Hopefully, in your organization they are perfectly normal already. Let's check that out.

  1. We don't use small print for things we can't really explain.
  2. We don't do 'no-reply e-mail addresses'. Because it's strange that we as an organization are allowed to talk to a customer, but that the customer is not allowed to say anything in return.
  3. Our surveys are clear and concise and look great.
  4. If a customer fills out a survey, we actually do something with it. We improve our service and provide feedback on what we have done.
  5. We respond to reviews left by the customer.
  6. We like our customers and they experience this in all our customer contacts.
  7. If we promise to call a customer back, then we will.
  8. Of course the customer never has to repeat his or her story, we use our CRM system in such a way that all colleagues know what has been discussed.
  9. If our customer experiences digital problems, we offer an alternative.
  10. We thank the customer, because he has been a customer for many years. If our new customers get a nice offer, then our valued customers get that offer too, of course.
  11. We do not hide our phone number on our website.
  12. Our management regularly works at the 'front end', in order for them to enjoy our customers too.
  13. We might send our customers a card this year. For their birthday, or just because we like to do so.
  14. We will never put a client call on hold for long, not even if we are the tax authorities.
  15. We don't use any annoying waiting music.
  16. If something goes wrong, we apologize sincerely and solve it.
  17. We never blame another organization if something goes wrong, but take the lead ourselves.
  18. Our letters are written in clear understandable language.
  19. We never ask for nines and tens for our services, but we are sincerely curious about every customer experience.
  20. Of course, our contact centre is also open in the evenings and/or weekends, if our customer needs it.

Are there any points in this list that you don't do for customers yet? Then decide to do it differently as of today. Let's get to work. Happy 2020!

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on 29 January 2020

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I had another one there. Such a letter of confirmation from a service I took. In corporate terminology, I would call it a process letter - one that the system defecates of its own accord because a customer has ordered, changed or cancelled something.

Of course, it is important that these letters come out automated. Because it's not quite nowadays, that there's a room full of typists. Who type these types of letters to measure, based on every customer thing that passes by. But why are these system letters so not contemporary? So distant? And why do they use references I can't reach with my hat? Who came up with them? K-532-Zleven. Or 54352-trxxx. It must have something to do with my customer number, address or date of birth. Or is it a system as complicated and ingenious as car license plates? Someone made up a series, it ran out, so a new series was introduced. Something like that.

But I'm wandering off. I myself have been responsible for customer communication. I know how difficult it is to change these process letters. It's just a huge fucking job. A job that nobody really wants to burn their fingers on. Because it involves quite a bit. It starts with the question: do we use 'you' or 'you' and ends with 'which letter is sent when' and 'where does a possible answer go'? And which words should you use? Words the customer should be able to understand. B1, Jip and Janneke. Oh, well, choices, choices...

Really, no one is eager to do this job in the area of customer communication. And yet... if the faucet leaks, you have to make it (or have it made) and then mop it up. That's where I want to make my point. About that mop. That goes best when the crane is repaired. Otherwise it becomes such a mess. So from today on there will only be letters and e-mails that bring the right message to the right recipient, in the right language and at the right time. And then what? Then it's time to start mopping up: you're going to tackle the process communication. That mega project. Pull out two years for that. At least, I'd say.

The nastiest thing is that you don't get many honourable mentions for this. Because as soon as you're done, the first letter is already outdated. Or does it have a new name. Or a new tone-of-voice. Or a new logo. Or a new director. Because, well, all those letters have to have the right signature... It would make you despondent.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on 13 November 2019.

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What do you think? A yes or a no? I'm curious. But before I share my opinion, we’ll go for an experiment.

Suppose. You wake up and you are happy. You jump fresh and energized out of your bed. Because you are looking forward to this new day. Full of passion you go to work. You walk into the kitchen of McDonalds, greet your colleagues and start working (after washing your hands; of course!) First order is that of a BigMac. What do you do?

  1. 1. You have done this so many times that you no longer have to look at the picture of this hamburger. But you know exactly what the structure is. Sandwich, sauce, lettuce, tomato, pickle, two hamburgers, a slice of cheese and even more sauce (for the real experts, I hope I'm right). So, you build the hamburger as it should be, put it in the box and there you go: this burger is ready to be eaten.

Or

  1. Today you are going to think outside the box. You have heard your manager talking about autonomy and you are going to make this hamburger even better. A little more sauce, little less meat. Because yes, you consider the environment. Maybe three slices of tomato are a good idea. Just put your passion in it and you're done. Hamburger in the box and there you go: this burger is ready to be eaten.

What do you do: 1 or 2? I hope you chose for scenario 1, because that is exactly what the customer expects. Hopefully the hamburger will be handed over to the customer with a big smile in order to create a great customer experience.

Because that is what customer centricity is all about. About the product or service the customer expects and receives in a certain degree of consistency. That requires frameworks. What should that consistency be for your company? Is this a certain speed, quality, tone-of-voice, or structure of the hamburger? And yes, of course you can give that little extra in terms of service or a small gift. But the basics is that hamburger, that product.

So, no. Customer centricity is not everybody’s responsibility. The foundation of customer centricity lies with those people who design it. That can be the customer experience team. Or marketing for example, or the customer contact center. They set up frameworks that employees can and will have to stick to. And if you know how to give that little bit extra as an employee... That smile. That service. That real contact with your customer. Then you made it: you are really customer centric. If so, you can be very proud of that.

 

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

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

The perception a customer has of all interactions with you as a company during the whole customer journey, in all customer channels.

And I’m happy to explain this a bit more. Imagine, we are talking about your company. And the organization you work for is a hotel. But it could just as easy be an insurance company, a car dealer, or even a large B-to-B business. The type of business is not important, because customer experience and its fundament stays the same. So, let’s see. For now, we focus on the hotel example and step into the shoes of the customer.

Perception

In this example I am a customer and I am looking for a hotel. I want to book a room. So what I do is check your website, maybe read some reviews on independent websites, or I might have received an email from your reservation desk with answers to some questions I have sent earlier. All these experiences form my perception. And perception is important when it comes to customer experience: it’s all perception. So, customer experience is not what you think as a company, or what you would like to come across like. No, it is 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 interactions to be more precise. With all interactions I mean – in our hotel case – all interactions this customer has while booking (website, reviews and an email). But maybe later – once the booking has been made – this customer enters your hotel. She or he (but for now we make her a She) is greeted by the bell boy, or is maybe at the pool and talks to the lifeguard. Her experience is defined by all interactions in the whole customer journey and in all channels, both online and offline. That is what customer experience is really about.

All channels

This might sound easy, but it takes a lot of efforts to be consistent in all interactions and channels. Is you’re website great, but your reviews are not: you have a problem. If the bell boy is really courteous, but the lifeguard at the pool acts like a jerk: you have a problem. When booking through your website is easy, but by phone a disaster: again, you have a problem.

It really takes your whole organization to be consistent in all interactions and channels. Of course, you can also be consistently underperforming, but each organization wants to deliver what’s promised. Or even better: deliver some extra’s too, to become top of mind with customers; to stand out from competition.

So Customer Experience is all about the customer. About his or her perception of interacting with you as a company. I have taped this video where I show what Customer Experience is, using LEGO.

 

Are you curious to learn more about Customer Experience? It’s my mission to make the world a better place for customers. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel where I regularly upload informative and interesting videos on Customer Experience. Plus: you can register for my monthly CX Greetz where I’ll give you inspiration and some good facts on how to create these valuable customer experiences. Join me in my mission to make customer experience WORK!

 

Did you have such a nice vacation? Did you get away from it all? Whether it was a long trip to Fargistan, a Mediterranean hotel, a cruise, or a week and a half of camping - how nice it is to get away from it all. Getting other experiences, walking around on the computer and being together. With family, friends or just with yourself. Let go of everything and give the radar in your head some air.

This year we chose a very nice campsite in Drenthe, where everything was allowed. Much more than a traditional campsite, where I still think of conifer hedges, a snack bar, with a toilet roll over the field, large caravans with an outdoor tent and an awning, recreation team and many rules...

This campground was different, just think alternative. Of course there was a restaurant, with healthy and less healthy snacks, a daily snack, with organic meat but also vegacombi's that don't come out of my kitchen every day. With a bar, sometimes a DJ or band, a performance and above all delicious hammocks.

The place for meetings, occasionally (ok, regularly) a drink, and also the place of the playground. There was a swimming pool and that was nice and traditional again: blue water, bombs, floating flamingos and delicious splashing for all. But what was less standard, was that from 19 hours the pool was reserved for 18 + and so the parents could have a relaxing swim. Zennn.

Light a fire

Man, I enjoyed it. The fact that we were allowed to light fires. Of the fact that we got to fuck around. Kids showing off their collection of self-sought stones. Of all those awesome structures, that creative souls had built and that you could rent for a week or two. Where above all anything was allowed.

That 'may' is at the heart of who this campsite wants to be for its guests; just a little bit different. For me, the best example of individuality was how the staff dealt with error parking. Of course they wanted as few cars as possible on the terrain. But what if somebody parked the car where it wasn't allowed? A fine? A wheel clamp? No, here the wrongly parked car got a note under the wiper with the message 'This is only allowed if you bribed the receptionist with a bar of Tony Chocolonely caramel sea salt!'.

Ha, that's too much fun, isn't it? Turn around when it comes to customer experience. What a top campaign, what a top camping, what a top holiday. We'll definitely come back next year.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on 18 September 2019

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The call center agent, a friendly lady, finishes the conversation; “Madam, you will receive an email with a survey later. This also asks you to give me an evaluation. This is meant for my personal review. What rating would you give me? Between 0 and 10? ". While she poses this question, I am taken by surprise, and stammer: "A nine... " She doesn't ask why I give this number and we end the call. (these are not the exact words that have been said, but it reflects certainly the drift of the conversation)

Is this new? That a call center agent first asks for the rating? For me it was clearly a first and I really don't get it. From the profession of Customer Experience, I question these practices.

Looking back at this conversation, I recognize three cases of Gaming, which I have given names to make them recognizable for you. (Gaming is a term about influencing scores (NPS, CSAT, CES, and so on)

  1. The effect of asking about the grade and that this was important for the personal assessment of the call center agent. I call that bribery.
  2. The effect that I am taken by surprise by this question and I don’t want to give her a bad feeling in this very short phone call. So I give a relatively high mark, while the conversation was really not worth it. I call this the effect of social desirability.
  3. She first reports that I get a survey and then ask me personally how I evaluate her. I call this "framing", with the effect of a higher chance that I complete the survey. And so the company gets a higher response rate and a higher mark.

What's most striking to me, is that I have not received a survey a week after the interview.

I also wonder why I have to have a survey. Don't they have speech analytics that can extract the grade from the conversation? And what is even more striking, of course, is that the employee does ask for the grade, but is not allowed to put it into the system herself. Which, by the way, often causes Gaming, because what is nicer than giving yourself a higher grade. Especially if it is low by accident?

The most important thing when asking about customer feedback is of course curiosity. Curiosity about what I have experienced as a customer. What was good, what could have been better. Not the outcome in a figure. That is where things go wrong. Sigh. Deep sigh. She has my number, a nine, but as a customer I couldn’t care less, because the conversation was really mediocre.

Now I am curious. Which forms of Gaming have you experienced in the past weeks? What examples have you seen of Gaming that were merely about numbers, not about learning what the company could improve?

 

** Nienke Bloem CCXP is an expert in Customer Experience, both as Keynote Speaker, teacher of the 2 day CX Masterclass to prepare you for the CCXP exam and she is co-founder of the customer experience game. Do you want to read her blogs or learn more about her? Visit her website or subscribe to her monthly CX Greetz. **

** Feel free to comment on this blog and share it in your community! **

When I hear the title of this movie, what comes to my mind, is Clint Eastwood on a horse and the great title song with the whistle in it. A real spaghetti western which was taped long before I was even born. But I love the movie, the plot and of course the title. It is the silly season in the Netherlands. Summer holidays, and there is not much news going on, and the good thing is that many people enjoy some well-deserved time off. To recharge, to enjoy quality time with their family and to enjoy themselves basically. I hope you too or maybe you have already returned back to the office. This holiday I decided to rethink my customer experiences in the past. When looking back, what are the THREE customer experiences that I really remember, that stand out? Whether they were good, bad or ugly.

We have so many customer experiences. Actually, we have them every day. Same goes for me. Working on my laptop, browsing the web, doing groceries, having lunch at a restaurant, calling my provider, booking a ticket, I could go on and on and on. But what are the ones that really stand out, positive or negative?! In this blog my summary of the top 3 Good, Bad and Ugly since the moment I became an entrepreneur (January first, 2015) and the emotions that go with it. And I must be honest, I am not the one that is too fond on sharing the bad and ugly ones, because of the great impact I might have with my exposure. But let’s be honest, it is my duty as a customer experience pro and speaker to tell it as it is. So here they are.

The Good

Still my very best customer experience is my flight to Adelaide with Emirates. Of course, I relive it a lot, because I share the magic in my keynote ‘Great customer experiences don’t happen by accident’. But everything about it was perfect. I loved the digital information on the website, the ease of booking, the pre-flight information, the picking up by a limo to bring me to the airport, the stop over and the lounge in Dubai, the upgrade to first class, the service on the plane, the photo they made with a polaroid, the coming home, the survey I filled out and… the way they reacted on the survey. They reacted on the survey. Yes, that is what I am writing. One of the few companies that reacted on a survey I filled out. What a brilliant Customer Experience. I still remember the names of two flight attendants. Miriam and Gigi. That is what happens when customer experiences are great. I loved everything about this experience, it inspired me and it sparked joy. A lot of joy. If you want to read more, see some pictures, read my blog I wrote on it.

The Bad

This was a difficult one to pick, because I had so many bad experiences. But for the worst of them all, we have to go back three years, when I ordered a book through Amazon. That was not the issue, but the issue was that I needed it fast. So, I chose for express delivery and I would receive it in two days. I received a text message indicating at what time the package would arrive. Of course, I waited at home. You probably guess what happened. No package. So, I called and they couldn’t trace the package. From that moment I entered Purgatory, the place close to hell. Yes, that rimes to DHL, which is the company I am talking about. They promised to deliver the book three times, never came at the moment they promised, their social service on Twitter was messy, to say the least. They even explained to me their whole process in direct messages (like I care, just deliver the book) and after four days the package arrived. I had spent over three hours on the phone, no chat, but Twitter, and the crazy thing was, once I finally had the book, I still received texts to tell me when the book would be delivered. I still fume when I think about it, kind of shocked. I have learned their internal processes, their internal business lines and many people that hide behind all of the above. Brrr. The book I ordered was good though: “Must win battles” by J. Killing, Thomas Malnight and Tracey Key.

The Ugly

Well, this is where it gets really messy. The first time in my life that I had to go to court when it comes to my own customer experience. I watch customer rights programs always with an ambiguous feeling. First of all, a feisty powerful feeling that I admire the consumers that bring their issues to these programs. But secondly a nauseous feeling, one of disgust that businesses don’t help their customers and that these customers have to bring it to a tv studio to get what is rightfully theirs. I just can’t understand businesses, that won’t help customers. PERIOD. But they do exist. Listen to my story and NO, I didn’t go on national tv with it. In 2015 I bought a car at Avi Automakelaardij, and I loved the car in an instant. But after a month I had the first issues and my local car mechanic found out that the mileage had been reversed. I contacted the car broker I bought the car from, right away. Because in Dutch law it is the obligation of the car trader to check the mileage and as a consumer, I could annul the sale, which I did. He didn’t want to help me in any way. My car got more failures, even had a motor issue in the end (no driving any more). Still the car dealer didn’t help out. So, I had to get to court to get my right. It was an awful phase in my life (what was I doing in court?!) and I still cannot believe the business owner went as far as to court, instead of helping me out. Yes, he lost the case, had to pay all costs. But no sorry, no excuse. Thinking back of it, I still feel sadness, anger and most of all the frustration of the process.

What is incredible and good to bear in mind? That is that both the Bad and the Ugly happened in 2016. THREE years ago. I even wrote about them in a blog. As I have written them down now, they are what comes to mind. They are the memory of the customer experience. It is not at all factual, but colored with emotions. Like what happens in CX. What feels good, can feel even better after months or years. And what felt awful, bad or ugly, could still feel frustrating now. While writing this, I went to have a look at Plutchik's wheel of emotion. I learned about this for the first time in the course Learn-to-Customer-Journey-Map-in-One-Day by Conexperience and I have used it a lot since. Because it helps to color in emotions even more. In this wheel, you find many emotions. Not just the happy or sad ones, but all their varieties. Good to use while journey mapping, but also for the next step in this blog.

What I would like you to do is think of your Good, Bad and Ugly customer experiences and find the two emotions per experience. For the wheel, click here. Take ten minutes, write down the Good, Bad and Ugly, as well as your emotions. This is good for you and your own business. What kind of emotions did you experience? Do you know that you might be giving these experiences to your customers and the emotions that come with them? And most important, how did you deal with your emotions? Know your customers have to deal with their emotions too and might lash out on contact center agents or store employees. A good exercise of emotions to walk in your own shoes as a customer and to get out of the traditional business context. Of course, feel free to share your stories and experiences with me in the comments. Let’s learn and grow together. And for now, I am whistling the soundtrack of the Good, the Bad and they Ugly for you. Happy and hopeful greetz from the Netherlands.

 

** Nienke Bloem is an expert in Customer Experience (CCXP), both as Keynote Speaker, teacher of the 2 day CX Masterclass to prepare you for the CCXP exam and she is co-founder of the customer experience game. Do you want to read her blogs or learn more about her? Visit her website or subscribe to her monthly CX Greetz. **

 

** Feel free to comment on this blog and share it in your community! **

I'm sitting on the terrace in Mechelen. The waiter asks me if I want something to drink, to his Flemish with a very nice soft G. I order a beer and I don't know exactly what he says back, but it's something like: 'Allee vrouwke, shall I bring it pinteke, or do you use it at the bar? Maybe it's better if I give a reading instruction: just read the sentence again, but now with your own Flemish accent.

I see. Are you getting warm inside, too? Do you get fun lights in your eyes and gently melt away? At least I am. There's something about the soft language in Belgium that touches me. It buzzes and sings right into my ears. I think it's also much harder to get angry with a Flemish-speaking customer service employee. Suppose she works at Zalando and she sticks strictly to the script. Even if I'm connected and then she puts me on hold twice. When she says that my blue dress will be delivered tomorrow in the afternoon, I smile from ear to ear. By that she does not mean that the courier will bring a tablecloth. No, then the courier of my blue dress will be at the door. Same words with a different meaning, but just preferable.

Before writing this blog, I got lost on the internet for hours to delve into other lovely Flemish words. Subiet, uitschuiver, valies, gazet and french fries. Ah, I can go on and on and maybe now I'll move on. That of the bar, I have a nice story to tell. I first heard that word when I was 14 years old. We went skiing in Austria and in the hotel there was also a Belgian family. The woman went on the slopes with her two children every day, but the man preferred to stay in and around the hotel. He said he was a 'champion hangout'. I was mesmerized. Where was he hanging? How high was that bar? And where could I find it? Since it was quite large, I thought it had to be very strong. For two days I wondered exactly what he was doing, until he explained to me that he liked to hang out at the bar.

Yeah, your imagination can run wild if you don't know. But that's also what makes Flemish so mysterious and sweet. If I have a shitty day, I'll call a Flemish call centre. Or even better, I'll drink a pint at the bar.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on 3 July 2019

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