Is your “loyalty” program aligned?
I have a friend in the loyalty business. By that I mean loyalty programs: airline miles, hotel points, punch-cards from your favorite sub shop. We were talking recently and the conversation got me to notice: A lot of loyalty programs don’t really advance their own brand. Sure, they’ll keep Customers coming back (But is it really “loyalty” if you’re more or less giving them stuff to encourage their return? A topic for another day, I suppose.), but consider the dynamic of the entire concept.
Sure, some of these make pretty good sense, at least on the face: Fly with an airline a bunch, you’ll accumulate enough ‘miles’ to use toward…another flight. Visit a restaurant a lot, get a free side or even main course.
But in addition to the conceit of buying off your Customers to continue to come around more (rather than, say, reliably providing brand-aligned experience every time for every Customer), notice that the “reward” for their “loyalty” is…more of your own stuff. Seems a little redundant. Maybe the thought is that, your Customers have demonstrated that they like what you offer (they came in the first place), so why not give them more of what they like, right? On the other hand, they’ve also demonstrated their willingness to pay for what you sell. Everybody likes free stuff, but if you think about it, don’t most of the products and services you purchase yourself come without such incentives? Perhaps the ubiquity of loyalty programs has made us all a little immune to the reality that, in most circumstances, we don’t really need them to encourage us to buy what we want to buy. If they do it well, we’ll come back, even without the freebies.
But what if you’re still interested in recognizing and rewarding your Customers for their continued patronage? Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Many brands are already doing certain things that I think could help point us toward a better approach. […]
Getting CX Right: Xfinity
Yes, you read that right…
Hold on to your hats, because I’ve actually got something good to say about a recent experience I had with a cable company.
Obviously, this is a very qualified Getting CX Right example: Xfinity, historically is one of the worst brands I’ve ever encountered when it comes to CX. Now, I rarely write long-form about negative experiences with brands as I prefer to call out the good when I see it instead of naming names when it comes to CX failures (sure, I’ll write about them, but usually I’ll mask the brand itself). If you read carefully enough, plenty of my examples about what not to do come from dealing with this very brand.
And it’s true: Their digital and over-the-phone support systems and experiences are, frankly, enraging. More on that in a second.
But the other day I paid a visit to my local Xfinity brick-and-mortar location in Silverthorne, Colorado. […]
You’re teaching your Customers not to bother
In the profession I am, I often interact with brands much more than the average Customer would.
Frequently, I find myself reaching out to an organization simply to offer them feedback, not necessarily because I need help. Usually, it’s after I’ve had an interaction in which I have needed help that I’m moved to ping them just to give them some of my thoughts.
After all, I often think that if you’re (as a brand) not willing to hear people who are directly offering you feedback (rather than simply responding to a survey you’ve sent out for your own purposes), why are you ever bothering with “VoC” anyway. So, sure, I’ll reach out to a brand and give them some thoughts on how their processes are impacting their Customers.
My husband laughs at this, seeing me as Grandpa Simpson outside yelling at clouds, or some Karen demanding to ‘speak with a supervisor.’ But in reality, it’s partly a professional responsibility, and in fact, an obligation… most Customers won’t really go out of their way to offer feedback figuring (likely very justifiably so) that it’ll simply fall on deaf ears. Again, you’ll say that your Customers’ feedback “is important to us!” But do you actually walk that talk? […]
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 […]
