Articles of Good Communication
This topic is somewhat tangential to CX, but still something that I find impacts it. Warning up-front, it’s (like most of what I write about) a bit of a bee in my bonnet, so apologies in advance for the solipsism.
I wrote a while back about how some brands, likely without meaning to, come off a bit…well, off-putting, based on how they communicate. Trying to keep things running smoothly, they sometimes seem a smidge bossy and even dictatorial. They may not intend that, but it also comes from a mindset of being less interested in what Customers want and more interested in their own processes.
Keeping more with the unintended nature of how sometimes the ways we reflexively communicate project a particular impression, I recently came across a sign at a hotel where I was traveling for client work. Adjacent to the exercise room, they have a pool, and prominently posted there was a sign reading: “No children in pool without adult supervision”
Now. Not to be a grammarian, but, does the lack of the “the” make this message seem more impersonal and officious? It’s an odd thing to ping on, I know. But somehow it would seem that “No children in the pool without adult supervision” would come across as a little nicer…a bit more human. Does that little article really have that much sway? I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to determine for yourself. […]
How to show your team you actually appreciate them
Brands always will tout how important their Customers are to them. Sometimes it’s trite hyperbole, and sometimes it’s a sick joke. There are definitely different levels of no-kidding on-the-ground real-world ardor for Customers from one brand or another, but there never seems to be a lack of brands telling the world how much they love their Customers.
Talk, after all, is cheap.
But also, the same goes for their employees. […]
Is politeness harming your CX?
I have a theory: Politeness is killing CX these days.
Now, no, of course, I don’t mean your politeness as a brand and that of your front-line team members to your Customers. By all means, keep that up!
I mean that, as a society, our politeness is keeping us from delivering and receiving better Customer Experience in general.
Again, I can hear objections right away: What ‘society’ are you seeing, Z? Where are you finding such a polite society?
Okay, okay… It’s fair to say that we’ve likely coarsened as a society these days, sure. And, depending on where you are, you may see regional differences (even between the city of Denver and the mountain towns just an hour or so west, people interact differently), so that’s a good point.
Perhaps what I mean instead of politeness is acquiescence. […]
Two things can be true
One of the things I’ll say a lot is that ‘two things can be true.’ Usually this is when somewhat paradoxical circumstances obtain at the same time. For example, you can love your job, but there’s nothing better than a weekday at a baseball game or on the ski slopes. Comedian Louis CK has a very funny (but certainly objectionable to some, so sorry, no link…you can easily Google it) bit that he titles, “Of course….But maybe,” in which he tackles some obscure instances.
This (that two things can be true, not necessarily Louis CK…although, but maybe…anyway) occurred to me the other day when I encountered a very tense moment while out and about. It doesn’t matter where I was, and I won’t get too far into the details, but there was a lady in front of me in line at a counter who was clearly very agitated and upset by something that had happened or how the establishment had reacted to it, or probably both.
Now, as I say, she was pretty upset. Her emotions had definitely taken over and she was very animated in her irritation. She was raising her voice (and her hands), cutting off the poor chump there left to defend himself (and his employer) in however she had felt slighted. […]
The Office of Something
Last time I wrote about a phenomenon whereby, when an organization stands up an Office of [Your Favorite Thing That’s Oh, So Important!], other parts of the company will have a tendency, instead of embracing the spirit of whatever you’ve decided is so vital to your business, of feeling relieved of having to ever again bother with whatever it is. After all, the thinking may go, now that we’ve got a dedicated department for that, we won’t have to worry about it as it’s now their job.
I’ve seen this happen on many occasions, with many different initiatives. Rather than sparking an enterprise-wide interest and investment in this area of work, somehow putting someone ‘in charge’ of it seems to let everybody else off the hook, not only of doing it, but in some senses, even having to think about it. […]
Has CX made us worse at CX?
I began my corporate career years ago at a brand that briefly became famous (infamous, for sure…so much so that I could probably name names without repercussion…they’ve long since learned the lesson anyway) for hiding the phone number for their Customer Service department. Way back in those pre-Google days, it became almost a cultish rite of passage to find the number if you needed to reach them for help.
At the time, this was a scandal (again, they’ve recovered from that and of course, after thirty-odd years, have had plenty of other things to deal with and worry about CX-wise). Everybody acknowledged how poor form it was to make yourself hard to reach and/or difficult to work with. Their recovery from this was pretty dramatic and itself became a victorious tale of Customer centricity and learning from mistakes. […]
