Connie Harrington
5 Expert Tips to Gain More Customer Feedback
Customer insight is the heart of every customer experience (CX) program. But in today’s information-saturated world, customers may not always notice or respond to feedback invitations. How can brands collect more customer feedback—that is both meaningful and actionable—in an environment where multiple priorities compete for...
Do You Know Your Ratio of Positive to Negative CX Feedback?
Metrics are a foundational element of every Customer Experience (CX) program. With all the metrics available--including industry-standard ones and internally-developed ones--it can be hard to determine which ones to track on a regular basis. Many of the most important metrics to monitor are the ones...
3 Best Practices to Manage Negative CX Feedback
Over two decades ago, writing in the Harvard Business Review, Frederick Reichheld—best known as the creator of the Net Promoter Score ® measurement approach— stated that companies should learn all they could from customer defections. However, he noted, companies seemed resistant to looking closely...
3 Strategies to Keep a Human Focus in Customer Experience
No doubt about it: digital customer engagement and service is on the rise. In fact, many customers assume that businesses will have digital channels to complete transactions and resolve service issues. According to one study, 70% of customers expect company websites to include a...
Avoid These 5 Survey Mistakes to Gain More CX Feedback
Surveys are ubiquitous. Customers have grown accustomed to seeing survey links at the bottom of receipts and receiving survey invitations by email. The good news about the proliferation of surveys is that it shows more companies are taking customer experience (CX) seriously. The bad news:...
5 Key Lessons About Emotions and Customer Experience
Recent years have seen heightened attention--and spending--on customer experience (CX). For many companies, customer satisfaction is the primary target for most of their CX investment. That seems like a worthy goal, but is it enough? Many CX industry experts suggest that businesses should focus...
Why Consistency Matters in Customer Experience
Creating a single standout customer experience (CX) may get a customer’s attention—but does it win their loyalty? Not always. Companies that have made progress along the CX path recognize that delivering consistent experiences across multiple interactions helps fortify customer loyalty. Fostering consistency in experiences is...
5 Small CX Actions That Can Yield Big Results
When done well, a mature Customer Experience (CX) program touches every corner of an organization. Companies less far along the CX path can find it challenging to contemplate that potential future. By selecting targeted, but small CX actions companies can achieve solid results—and the...
Are Your Customers Secretly Unhappy with Your Brand?
Customer service teams handle complaints every day. Even so, consumer studies indicate that most unhappy customers don't take their concerns to companies that disappoint them. A popular metric in the customer experience (CX) community suggests that for every one complaint companies receive, 25 go...
3 CX Metrics You Should Be Tracking
“You can’t manage it if you can’t measure it,” is an often-quoted business adage—and very applicable to customer experience (CX). However, extracting meaning from customer feedback can seem daunting. With endless options to construct surveys—and assess the results—CX practitioners can feel overwhelmed. Starting with one…
Closing the Gap Between CX Aspiration and Reality
Do today’s companies truly deliver a quality customer experience (CX)? Or do they just think they do? Research from Bain and Company shows a large gap between organizations’ perceptions of their CX competence and customers’ actual experiences. In fact, while 80% of companies believe they...
How to Keep Your Frontline Team Focused on Customers
Whether an organization is large or small, its frontline employees have significant influence over customer perceptions. At best, they can deliver memorable experiences that turn customers into loyal brand advocates. However, when interactions go astray—customers may be quick to churn or voice their displeasure to...
How Mature is Your CX Program? A Review of 3 CX Maturity Models
Business leaders know that establishing a solid customer experience (CX) foundation is essential. They may understand the core elements of a CX program—collecting and analyzing customer feedback—and feel successful after getting these baseline practices in place. However, CX industry experts have a different view. These...
4 Practices to Build and Sustain Customer Focus in Field Service
Many organizations have field service operations that have direct contact with customers—typically in customers’ own homes or businesses. This makes field service a highly-visible organizational component, with a strong influence over customer perceptions. Field service professionals have a unique opportunity to deliver positive customer experiences...
5 Strategies to Gain Executive Support for Your CX Initiative
Successful customer experience (CX) programs require strong executive commitment. And industry research reveals that today’s business leaders do cite the value of CX. In an in-depth study of more than 400 executives, Harvard Business Review researchers found that: 53% said CX provides competitive advantage. 45%…
The 4 Phases of Closed Loop Alerting Maturity [Infographic]
Now that 2016 is underway, many companies have embarked on a new set of annual strategic goals. And for many, CX is a top-of-mind issue. In fact, Gartner has projected that almost 90% of companies will compete on customer experience this year. Other sobering stats...
Is 2015 the Year of the Employee?
Many brands are embracing the truth that engaged employees deliver higher-quality service to customers. That means 2015 could be a big year for employee engagement programs. In fact, according to customer experience industry expert Bruce Temkin, 2015 promises to be “The Year of the Employee.”...
NPS Isn’t a Silver Bullet – Here’s 3 Reasons Why
Once a Harvard Business Review article billed it as “The One Number You Need to Grow.” Today, the Net Promoter Score’s (NPS) fabled beginnings have met with a dose of reality. NPS features a simple, one-question survey. It asks customers how likely they are to...
10 Need-to-Know Customer Dissatisfaction Stats
2015 promises to be a pivotal year. Many companies realize they must take steps now to bolster customer happiness and shrink churn. With an estimated $5.9 trillion up for grabs worldwide each year as customers shift brand loyalties, companies need to make customer satisfaction...
3 Musts for Your 2015 VoC To-Do List
Gartner research affirmed that 89% of businesses expect customer experience to be a key competitive force in 2016. That means many brands will be focusing on their customer programs next year. It should come as no surprise that many companies plan to up their investments...