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Gate-keeper or problem-solver?

I wrote recently about how the term “representative” can take on a different meaning depending on whether you consider your front-line agents as representatives of you as a brand, or of your Customers as they navigate your systems. When dealing with a hospitality brand recently, that came to mind.  There was a discrepancy and I [...]

By |2024-03-19T14:35:31+00:00March 19th, 2024|Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts|0 Comments

Who can?

I once had a great co-worker and mentor who, when teaching his Lean Six Sigma courses, would drop the quote:  “Never take ‘No’ as an answer from somebody who doesn’t have the authority to say ‘Yes.’” Now, in his context, we were talking about internal politics and change management in general.  As he was putting [...]

By |2024-03-05T15:39:42+00:00March 5th, 2024|Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, Leadership|Comments Off on Who can?

Some Customers Never Learn

“Your feedback is important to us.”  Sometimes those are just words.  And some Customers are suckers and will fall for it. A while back, I had some work done with a service provider and, to say the least, the experience was not up to snuff whatsoever.  This was a luxury brand and as such I’d [...]

By |2024-02-20T15:50:23+00:00February 20th, 2024|Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, VoC|Comments Off on Some Customers Never Learn

Representative for whom?

Folks who work in your Customer-facing organizations have a lot of different names.  Agents, technicians, associates (which always makes me chuckle a little bit), service providers, and others. One that often makes me think is:  Representative. It’s curious to me because it can go either way, can’t it?  Whenever I get a ‘representative’ on the [...]

By |2024-02-06T15:26:30+00:00February 6th, 2024|Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, Leadership|Comments Off on Representative for whom?

When to survey

I know I rail on about VoC (truth be known, that’s not my strongest topic of expertise; I’m much more of a Process Engineer)…Sure, VoC and Customer Insights inform the work we do to improve and better align our Customers’ Experiences with our Brand Promise, but it’s really just the first step. Nevertheless, I get [...]

By |2024-01-23T15:52:24+00:00January 23rd, 2024|Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, VoC|Comments Off on When to survey

All I want is information

We recently needed a battery replacement in one of the household computers, so I made an appointment at the brand’s retail location in a local mall.  The process of registering and scheduling an appointment was super easy, and the appointment times were remarkably specific, so I figured I was in for a very tightly-run experience.  [...]

By |2023-10-24T14:42:43+00:00October 24th, 2023|Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, Leadership|Comments Off on All I want is information

It’s not about what you want

I recently wrote an—unintended to be, but maybe could be construed as, snarky—article about not doing VoC anymore.  The upshot was that, anything you put into your VoC program is wasted time, money, and effort if you’re not doing stuff with the insights you get out of it. You may say maybe I’m not interested [...]

By |2023-10-10T15:02:53+00:00October 10th, 2023|CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, VoC|Comments Off on It’s not about what you want

Maybe just stop doing VoC?

I’ve been toying with an idea recently:  Tell my clients to simply stop doing VoC. Yes, I realize that sounds kind of controversial.  But as opposed to my usual way of doing things, that’s not why I suggest this.  In fact, I’m only (partly) sort of kidding anyway. But here’s my reasoning: Brands sometimes spend [...]

By |2023-09-12T14:53:22+00:00September 12th, 2023|Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, Measures & Metrics, Process Engineering, ROI of CX|Comments Off on Maybe just stop doing VoC?

No Be There

Probably one of the worst shows streaming these days is Kobra Kai, but if you’re like me, you can’t look away.  Naturally, being a Gentleman of a Particular Age™, the original Karate Kid movie was part of my growing up, so I was curious.  In the modern iteration, the acting is atrocious, the dialog is [...]

By |2023-08-29T15:26:28+00:00August 29th, 2023|Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, Process Engineering|Comments Off on No Be There

Resolved or Closed

I’ve written before about how astonishing it is that some brands seem to be actively trying to alienate their Customers with obvious slights like specifically using the words “Do_Not_Reply” for the actual name of the mailbox when communicating.  It’s as though someone asked a hypothetical question:  “How could we best indicate to our Customers that we [...]

By |2023-07-19T14:55:33+00:00July 19th, 2023|Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts|Comments Off on Resolved or Closed
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