You’ve lost me by then
You know that I’m big into walking in your Customers’ shoes. I write about it all the time and it plays a huge part of the book. But you’ve got to go into it with the right frame of mind. It’s not practical to expect you can shed all your priors and blinders, but you’ve got to assert yourself as best you can and imagine the experience your Customers are having. […]
Why do you ask?
When you ask an analyst a question, ideally it’s met with several in return. That’s because good analysts are inquisitive not just about what you want to determine, but why you’re looking for a quantitative answer. A healthy dialog between you and an analyst will lead to much better analysis and even more importantly, that analysis will come with much better insights. So rather than just sending an analyst off to crunch numbers and produce a figure for you as an output, it’s usually best to chat with him or her a little about what you’re trying to accomplish. […]
I don’t care that you care
I wrote recently about an interaction I had with a support representative in which I told her I was sorry that she was working for a brand that disrespected her enough to preclude her from being allowed to help me. I’m not sure if she appreciated that I was being honest and sincere in my sentiment, but I imagine the interaction made more of an impression on me, as she surely had other calls to take the rest of her day.
Reflecting on that, it occurred to me that ‘sincere’ apologies are often the norm when an agent isn’t allowed to help me…but going the other direction. […]
Adding Support headcount is losing
A while back, I participated in a round of judging for a Customer Service and Support awards competition. It was both an honor to be asked to participate, and a real inspiration to read so many great stories of dedicated Customer centricity. I got a few good ideas from some of the stories that were told, and frankly the future does look bright for Customer Experience, if you know where to look.
That said, one thing I saw several times stood out to me and was a bit of a surprise. There were a number of submissions whose authors touted the brand’s having hired a number of new Customer Service or Support team members as evidence that they’re doing a bang-up job of CX.
Really? […]
Getting CX Right: Discount Tire
This is part of a series of articles about brands that are getting it right. Often we see plenty of examples of brands dropping the ball and failing to live up to their promise, but here’s a chance to highlight those who seem to have gotten it figured out. YMMV, of course, and sometimes these are just anecdotes about only one experience, but as I’ve noticed, when a company really embraces its Brand Promise, these experiences are usually quite common.
How about a little love on this Valentine’s Day?
I recently had new tires put on my car. I’ll glide quickly over the headache I went through trying to work with the national warehouse retailer I originally was going to go with and fast-forward to the excellent experience I had with Discount Tire. […]
I told the agent I was sorry
I was on the phone with an agent on a support line the other day and I told her that I was sorry.
No, I didn’t apologize…
I’d done nothing wrong… Yes, I was upset, I was disappointed, I was frustrated.
But I’d treated the agent with the utmost respect and courtesy and didn’t take it out on her. Such is the subtle difference between saying ‘Sorry,’ and apologizing. You can be sorry for someone’s circumstances for which you have no responsibility. On the other hand, you should apologize if you do something wrong. In this case, it was the former, not the latter.
So I did tell her that I was sorry… […]
