Top Customer Service and Business Articles
Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
New Generation of Business: Connecting Employee Loyalty with Customer Loyalty by Colin Shaw
(LinkedIn) Successful companies have loyal employees. They also have loyal customers. But the question for researchers and consultants for the past two decades is how these two groups are related, if at all.
My Comment: There is a definite connection between companies who provide the best customer service and companies that are considered the best place to work. Lots of articles and surveys list the same companies on both lists. The secret is how the employee feels about his/her company and, as a result, how they treat the customer. The part of the article that especially resonated with me is three traits of “employee ambassadors” that state that the employees are committed to the company, the company’s value proposition and to the customer. That is a winning combination!
Know Your Customer Experience Elephant by Peter Malamas
(Foresee) During my travels, I notice a lot of common themes around the data being used and how company leaders from a wide range of organizations and across every industry use it to make business decisions.
My Comment: Love the elephant metaphor here. It is so true. Customer data can be overwhelming at times. The original Wikipedia definition of Big Data is an amount of data that is overwhelming. The key is not about having a lot of data, but knowing what data is relevant. The best leaders don’t just know how to interpret data. They know which data is important to interpret.
Consistently Good Customer Service Has Knowledge at Its Core by Tricia Morris
(Parature) No matter how many paths each customer takes or crosses in their multichannel service journey, knowledge, used both internally and externally, can create a solid foundation for a consistently good customer experience. Here are three ways best-in-class service providers are putting knowledge to good use in improving the customer experience.
My Comment: How much do you know about your customer? Do you know if he/she contacted you before? How they contacted you before? Did they just email a question and ten minutes later, because they didn’t get the response they wanted, followed up with a phone call? Can your company track that type of information? That type of knowledge gives you power – a power that better equips you to take care of the customer. Isn’t that what customers want? And, isn’t that what we want to do for our customers?
How to Hire Employees Who Deliver Great Customer Service by Jay Forte
(Human Capitalist) Today’s 24/7 customer contact requires that organizations do a better job of hiring and retaining teams of employees who are both good at what the job requires — making on-the-spot judgments — and are interested in doing it. If not, customers know it — instantly.
My Comment: Creating a team of customer-focused people starts with the hiring process. It’s tough to get the right people with the right personalities. Everyone asks questions in an interview, but are they the right questions? The concept of “talent based” questions is a great start to finding the right people for your company.
10 Ways Technology Can Enable Customer Loyalty (INFOGRAPHIC) by Jason King
(Huffington Post) In an evermore-connected world, it is not just more important to give customers an incredible experience with your brand; it is increasingly easier and more fun for you.
My Comment: I love a good list and this one focuses on ten ways that technology can help create customer loyalty. As great as technology is, it is always important to consider the human touch in any technological situation. Most of the time, there needs to be a human back-up for support, emergencies, unique situations and more. So maybe an addition to the list is the technology that will get you to a human being – in the fastest, most direct and easiest way.