CX Conferences, Heal Thyself!
About a month ago I received an email inviting me to speak at an upcoming CX conference. If you know me, you know that I used to do a lot of these. Between client work, military duty, and domestic obligations, it’s hard to find the time anymore. But this one happens to be occurring at a time when I’m available, so I set up a call with the organizers to discuss details.
It turns out I’m unlikely to appear at this conference because I was informed right away on the Zoom call that, for this “opportunity” to speak, all I’d have to do is sign up and pay the $2,000 registration fee (that attendees are obligated to pay), and book a room—at the group rate, at least—via their website. So basically, this invitation was for me to attend the conference. I was supposed to be incentivized with the prospect of…performing for them for free.
Now, a couple things up front here: […]
Are you listening to the people who are yelling at you?
A while back I made hotel reservations for a big event. Since it was a big event, not only were the prices sky-high, but bookings came with extra strings and complications. Naturally the hotel (and likely all the others in the region) wanted to ensure maximum capacity as it’d be a real shame to leave any rooms open with so much demand at that time.
One thing the hotel required was a pre-payment for the stay. They still had a reasonable cancellation policy (although not nearly as liberal as the usual 24-hours-before-checkin standard we’re used to), but of course if you needed to cancel, it’d take that whole “eight-to-ten business days” for the refund to show up on your card. Et cetera, you get the gist.
But the real hitch (glitch, really) was that all this was pretty obscured to someone making a reservation. I didn’t realize any of this until I saw a few minutes later that my credit card had been charged (Did you know that you can set up the Chase app for push-notifications every time your card is charged?). Once I saw the charge, I pretty much put two-and-two together, though, and figured what it probably was. I called nevertheless, just to clarify and understand, lest I get caught in the gears of whatever their policy was down the road if, say, I had to make an adjustment to my reservation.
While waiting on hold, I went online to the hotel’s site again and also confirmed that both, Yes, they have the policy listed there on their website when you’re booking, but also, No, it’s not in any realistic way, obvious. This is another one of those circumstances where the CX seems to have been orchestrated by the Legal Department instead of the digital team. “As long as we put it up there somewhere, we’re covered,” as opposed to, “We should make sure this is as absolutely clear as possible.”
The agent explained the details of the policy (up to when I could make a change or cancel, what the terms are, and how to do all of it) in a way that was even more clear than the website, and I was grateful. As we were wrapping up, I asked, “Say, I bet you get calls about this all the time regarding that weekend?”
Oh yes, the agent replied, and many people are truly fuming mad about it. (I wasn’t.) […]
Pro-tip for increasing survey response: Mean it
I am asked all the time by clients and potential clients how they can improve their survey response rate. In fact, my reply is so readily available off my hip that I’m surprised I hadn’t written about it until now, although I’m sure there are podcast episodes all over the place with me sharing this tip, so it’s out there in the ether one way or another.
And it occurred to me recently when I came across an article I wrote a while back about how Copper Mountain Resort is Getting CX Right with their survey invitation, that there’s even more they could do to improve their response rate. In that example, the brand explicitly hit the incentive nail on the head when they went beyond simply offering something of value in return for filling out a survey (no, I never did win, I don’t think!). What they offered beyond that was a promise to take what their Customers have to say in their survey responses seriously. While not being specific or guaranteeing that they’d literally make every improvement that every Customer points out (but here’s hoping they’ll extend those hours on the Excelerator lift!), they do mention that they’ll take all our suggestions into account, even going so far as to boldly say that, unlike some other brands who simply cast aside the thoughts their Customers offer, they will take our feedback seriously. That acknowledgement goes a long way to demonstrate their seriousness, or at least make note that those among us less likely to want to bother based on shared experiences of other brands blowing us off are in good company with Copper Mountain who promises better.
But they could go further, and this is the advice I always offer: Offer an example of how they’ve done it in the past.
When you apply for a job, your resume should represent experiences that you’ve had that are relatable to what you’ll be expected to accomplish in the new position. If you make it to the interview process, you’ll be peppered with questions about, “Tell me a time when you’ve had this or that issue, and how you handled it.” Among other things, this sort of experiential questioning is intended to give the hiring manager or recruiter faith that, while you may not have done the exact same job previously, at least you’ve demonstrated a history of being able to do the things they want you to do there.
Similarly in our case, if you really want to incentivize your Customers to give you the best feedback so you can improve your business processes,* it’s best to demonstrate that you have a history of taking such feedback seriously. And the best way to do that is to demonstrate that you’ve historically not only collected but acted upon such criticism. This may be tricky if, for example, it’s the first time you’ve ever sent out a survey to Customers. But surely if you’re the sort of brand who’s looking for feedback in […]
Asking Why is just the first step
I’ve written on several occasions (and many others I’m sure I could dig up) about how it’s your responsibility as a brand to take care of your Customers, not just to give them excuses.
Sometimes when I lodge a criticism of a policy or process with a brand, I’m given an excuse in reply. When I call requesting something or bringing something to light, what I expect (well, maybe there’s my problem!) is that the brand, in response, will take to heart the trouble their systems and/or policies present to their Customers and see it as an opportunity to fix the issue, not a reason simply to explain why they have those in place…even if they’re softened by a heartfelt expression of regret that I have to endure them.
As I’ve said before I don’t care that you care. I’m not contacting you looking for sympathy or understanding. I’m not one to simply enjoy griping for no real reason. For me, it is about the nail! So don’t treat it simply as a gripe-session. […]
Sometimes it’s not even your processes
As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Process Engineer, and if you’ve ever read any of my stuff about the whole purpose of CX, you know I’m all about processes. One of the coolest things I ever discovered in my professional journey was the great applicability of these traditional waste- and error-reduction methods to simply making your Customers happier and driving alignment between your Brand Promise and your Brand Delivery. It’s quite truly my bread-and-butter and the animating principle of my entire practice. So yes. Let’s fix your processes; and thus your outcomes.
But here’s the thing, too: Sometimes it’s not even your processes that are the problem, but rather your policies. […]
How I came around on the ROI of CX
One could say that I’ve been a bit schizophrenic about the idea of a Return On Investment for Customer Experience. I may be a bit more charitable to myself and say that I continue to evolve on “the ROI question.”
One of the first things I ever did as a CX “thought leader” was a video for the CXPA imploring CX leaders to tie their endeavors and CX-based metrics directly to those of the overall enterprise. Specifically, I emphasized how making that correlation between, say, NPS or C-SAT, and overall revenues would help with buy-in: People outside of the “CX bubble” are more inclined to care about where their CX KPIs are headed if they know that they’re a harbinger of good-or-bad sales. After all, as I like to say, we’re all in the business of business to make money.
That said, as I ventured out more into the wilderness as a CX consultant and fractional CX leader, I found that a lot of people were simply hand-waving CX…treating it as a newest flavor-of-the-month and making Customer-centric-sounding speeches, but not really putting anything into it. Surely there were some out there who truly saw the value of getting CX right, but many were just paying it lip-service. It was that exposure that led me to kind of drift the other direction: If your heart’s not really in CX, you’re likely not going to be very successful with those CX endeavors, because you’re not doing it for the right reason.
For that matter, I also noticed a bit of a paradox when business leaders would have to be convinced to engage in better Brand Promise alignment simply because of the ROI. That’s fine as it is, but I saw hypocrisy when the same CEO would stand up in front of an all-hands meeting and aver that by golly, nothing’s more important than The Customer! (Really? Why did we have to battle it out, then, to decide to focus on CX, and only after I convinced you there was this fantastic pot of gold at the other end?) That zeal led me on more of a mission on behalf of Customers. I even went so far as to write in several places (including in my own book!) that, if you’re “doing” it simply for the money, you’re “Doing CX Wrong.”
Well. Then again… […]
