Transforming Customer Support with Technology and Empathy  Shep Hyken interviews Derek Allgood, VP of Global Customer Experience (GCX) at eBay. He discusses the importance of nurturing a supportive culture and harnessing innovative tools like AI to enhance employee and customer service.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How does enhancing the employee experience contribute to a better customer service experience?  How can businesses balance automated customer service solutions with human interactions?  What strategies can support remote customer service employees in delivering consistent experiences?  How do self-service solutions impact the overall efficiency of customer service operations?  How essential is a strong company purpose in driving customer satisfaction?  Top Takeaways:    Listening is critical to building strong relationships in business and life. When interacting with customers or clients, it is essential to fully comprehend their needs and concerns before taking action. Active listening involves paying attention, asking clarifying questions, and genuinely showing empathy.     High employee turnover leads to increased costs and decreased customer satisfaction. Focus on creating a fulfilling and supportive work environment for your team members. Employees who feel valued and engaged become more committed to their roles and deliver exceptional service.    Today, more people are working remotely, which requires new ways of maintaining communication and culture. Effectively using technology to communicate improves work efficiency and connectivity. Communication technology helps ensure that employees remain connected and well-informed and can support one another in real time.    Self-service technology helps streamline interactions and solve issues quickly. By implementing self-service options, businesses can empower customers to find the answers they need without waiting to speak with a representative. This reduces wait times and allows customer support teams to focus on more complex issues. It also leads to cost savings for businesses and a more satisfying experience for both customers and employees.    A great business also thinks about how it can contribute positively to the world. This involves supporting causes that align with the company's values and making a meaningful impact on communities. By having a purpose beyond making money, businesses can connect with people on a more personal level. This builds trust and loyalty among consumers and employees alike.    Plus, Derek talks about eBay's innovative AI solutions to support employees and customers. Tune in!  Quotes:   "The first thing that we have to do in any relationship is to listen. As a business with a buyer and seller relationship, listen and try to understand where the customers are in their journey, what's gone wrong, and how you can support the employees helping them."    About:    Derek Allgood is the VP of Global Customer Experience (GCX) at eBay. He has over 20 years of experience leading customer support teams for global companies such as Citiphone, Global Consumer Bank, and Barclays.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aligning Business Goals with Customer Needs   Shep Hyken interviews Jeff Gothelf, author of Who Does What By How Much?: A Practical Guide to Customer-Centric OKRs. He talks about how aligning objectives and key results with customer needs can transform business success.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    What is an OKR?  How do customer-centric OKRs help teams focus on the right tasks?  Why is it important for businesses to align their objectives with customer-centric goals?  How does measuring customer behavior contribute to better customer satisfaction?  How can understanding customer patterns help prevent client defection?  Top Takeaways:    OKR is an acronym meaning Objectives and Key Results. They are a strategic framework for setting clear goals and measuring outcomes. By having clear goals and knowing what results are expected, everyone in the organization moves in the right direction. When these OKRs are focused on the customer, they help companies make decisions that make their customers happy and loyal to the brand.     Objectives are qualitative goals describing the end state you want your customers to experience. For example, you want to offer the best product or be the easiest to do business with. The key results are the quantitative measures of human behavior that tell us we've achieved that state. It answers: What will your customers do differently, and by how much?     Customer satisfaction is important, but understanding customer behaviors is crucial. Often, dissatisfied customers stop using the product. They show up less often. They spend less money. They stop telling their friends about it. If you can understand these patterns of your customer's behavior, you can proactively take action before it becomes a problem.    Determine which behaviors (trying out products, asking more questions, etc.) will deliver the results that your company is looking for. Then, create an environment, a system, a service, or a store that positively amplifies those behaviors for the customer.    Providing your team with the objectives and allowing them to figure out the best way to achieve them communicates that you trust your employees to use their skills to meet customer needs.     Not all strategies will work from the start. Organizations need to develop a culture of learning. It allows teams to learn from mistakes and objectively measure the success of an idea. Then, businesses can make informed adjustments and improve with each attempt.     Plus, Jeff explains why some employees end up working on the wrong tasks  and how organizations can avoid that. Tune in!  Quote:   "Customer centricity puts the customer at the center of all our decisions. Every time we make a decision, the critical question is—What impact do we think this will have on the customer? And, is that something that we want to do?"    About:    Jeff Gothelf is a business strategy and customer-centricity expert, speaker, and author. He is the co-author of Lean UX, Sense & Respond, and Who Does What By How Much?: A Practical Guide to Customer-Centric OKRs.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Personalized Customer Experiences Can Drive Business Growth   Shep Hyken interviews Mark Abraham, Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group and author of Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI. He talks about AI's potential to enhance personalization and the impact of tailored customer experiences on business growth.   This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    What is true personalization?  How can AI enhance personalization?  How does personalization contribute to customer loyalty and satisfaction?  How can businesses balance personalization with customer data privacy concerns?  What are some common misconceptions about personalization in customer service?  Top Takeaways:    Personalization means using what you've learned about the customer from their past interactions to improve their future experiences.     True personalization is not just about using a customer's name or offering customized products. True personalization involves using customer data at scale to make their next experience smoother, faster, and more convenient.     There are some concerns among customers about data privacy and personalization. Businesses must first get the opt-in from their customers. Second, it is important to ensure personalized experiences are contextually appropriate to the customer's journey.    Respecting customer privacy can make or break a personalized experience. Businesses should collect first-party data (data from transactions) and zero-party data (data directly shared by customers) to create a more accurate and respectful personalization strategy.     Artificial Intelligence has the potential to significantly enhance personalization. It can analyze vast amounts of data to predict and suggest the next best actions for customers, recommend products or services, and tailor customer service interactions.    Starting with personalization doesn't have to be complicated. Start by identifying one area where personalization can have the most impact and using available tools and technologies to implement it.    Mark also shares The Five Promises of Personalization, a practical way to think about how you deliver great personalization.    Empower me: Start with the customer. How are you helping them solve problems or fulfill a need?    Know me: To help a customer, you need to know them. Find ways to engage the customer and collect relevant data in between.    Reach me: Use AI to know how to reach out to your customers and what messages are most appropriate and relevant to send them.    Show me: Build a content library and use content management systems and automation to deliver personalized content at scale.     Delight me: Make the personalized experience seem more magical.    Plus, Mark answers the question—Is true personalization an expensive thing to do? Tune in!  Quote:   "Personalization isn't just customization. Personalization is taking what you've learned about a customer in an interaction and making their next interaction better, faster, or more convenient."    About:    Mark Abraham is a Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group and the founder of the company's Global Personalization business. He co-authored Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI with David C. Edelman.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI's Growing Impact on Employee and Customer Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Jim Payne, Director of Product Marketing, Customer Engagement at RingCentral. He talks about how AI is transforming both customer and employee interactions by enhancing productivity and efficiency.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How is AI transforming both employee and customer experiences?  Can AI be utilized effectively in smaller companies with limited budgets?  How does AI improve efficiency and productivity for customer service teams?  What is the impact of AI on employee retention?  What are the challenges related to integrating AI into existing customer service systems?  Top Takeaways:    Artificial Intelligence is significantly impacting both customer and employee experiences. The latest research by RingCentral and Metrigy has uncovered that over 80% of companies are using or planning to use AI to enhance customer and employee interactions this year.     The cost of using AI for business has dramatically decreased. In the past, deploying AI would mean a considerable investment needing data scientists and experts to implement. Today, it has become more accessible to even small and medium-sized businesses. The benefits of AI, such as increased productivity and efficiency, are no longer exclusive to large organizations.    AI will not replace human employees. Instead, it will augment their capabilities, make their jobs easier, and empower them to serve more customers.    By automating repetitive, mundane tasks, AI allows employees to focus on more meaningful work. In customer support,  AI can manage routine inquiries and free agents to tackle more complex issues that need human-to-human interaction. This boosts productivity and reduces stress and burnout, leading to a happier workforce.     Inconsistent experiences with digital tools may cause customers to hesitate to choose self-service options. Companies must ensure their AI systems are reliable and user-friendly to encourage more customers to embrace them.     AI creates seamless experiences for both customers and employees. Whether a customer is talking to a chatbot or a human agent, all relevant information can be retained and accessible. This prevents customers from having to repeat themselves. It also empowers employees with the information they need to resolve issues quickly.    By integrating AI solutions, businesses can enhance their existing workforce. AI helps shorten the time an agent needs to solve problems. In their recent study, RingCentral and Metrigy found that AI helps reduce the time to complete a call by 39% on average. This allows contact centers to handle higher volumes of inquiries with fewer agents, bridging staffing gaps and improving the overall service quality.    Plus, Shep and Jim share innovative ways AI is being used to support customer service agents. Tune in!  Quote:   "AI supercharges people. It doesn't replace human-to-human interaction. It just makes everything better, faster, and easier."    About:    Jim Payne is the Director of Product Marketing, Customer Engagement at RingCentral. He specializes in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and how they can be applied to improve customer experiences.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Impact of the Employee Experience on the Client Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Terry Turner, president and CEO of Pinnacle Financial Partners. He talks about how investing in employee experience can create loyal customers, strong relationships, and higher shareholder returns.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How does a positive employee experience translate to a better customer experience?  What are effective strategies for reducing employee turnover?  How can businesses balance high-tech solutions with high-touch customer service?  How does stability in the workforce enhance overall customer satisfaction?  How does employee empowerment impact the quality of customer service?   Top Takeaways:    The way a company treats its employees impacts how they treat customers. What is happening inside the organization is felt outside by the customers. Happy and motivated employees are more likely to go above and beyond to meet client needs.     Using the word "clients" instead of "customers" can convey a deeper, more lasting relationship. While "customers" might imply a transactional relationship, "clients" suggests a collaborative partnership. This shift in terminology can change how employees perceive and interact with the customers they serve.    Empowering employees can help reduce bureaucracy. Less bureaucracy means faster decision-making and the ability to respond more quickly to customer needs. Building a reputation for being efficient and easy to do business with can set you apart from the competition, no matter the industry.    Personalized interactions can create advocates and promoters out of your customers. Knowing your clients well helps provide better advice and services tailored to their needs. It can be as simple as knowing clients' names and remembering previous interactions.     Trust can transform your customer relationships from a vendor-customer connection to a partnership. Clients need to know they can rely on you for solid, honest advice and consistent service.     The balance of high-tech and high-touch can significantly enhance the customer experience. It is not always about the newest technology. It is about how your technology matches your business process, employee mindset, and customer needs.    Plus, Terry shares how Pinnacle Financial Partners continues to grow without having to advertise. Tune in!  Quote:   "The number one inhibitor of great service is turnover. If you can't stabilize your workforce, there's no chance you'll give great service."   About:    Terry Turner has been the president and CEO of Pinnacle Financial Partners since it was founded in 2000. He is an active member of his community, serving  on the boards of the Nashville Sports Council, Salvation Army, Belmont University, Nashville Chamber of Commerce, and the Nashville branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Effectively Integrating AI into Customer Service  Shep Hyken interviews Laura Burgess, senior research analyst at Capterra (a division of Gartner), a trusted software and services marketplace that offers a wide range of solutions to help organizations meet many of their business needs. She talks about how AI is transforming customer service and how organizations can balance digital interactions with the human touch to enhance customer satisfaction.   This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    Why are customer expectations rising in today's market?  How can AI enhance customer service experience?  How can businesses effectively implement AI in customer service?  Why is transparency when using AI in customer interaction?  How can businesses balance between AI and human support?  Top Takeaways:    Over the last two years, customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores have increased. A study by Capterra found that 63% of U.S. businesses have shown a marked improvement in customer satisfaction.     Customer expectations have risen due to the availability of multiple communication channels like the phone, email, chat, and social media. Today, customers expect quick, efficient, and instant responses. Technology plays  a significant role in meeting these expectations by providing faster service across multiple channels.    Transparency is key when it comes to customer interaction. Letting customers know that they are interacting with AI through notifications before the engagement and during interactions can build trust, comfort, and acceptance.    To optimize customer service, companies should leverage the strengths of both AI and human support. While human support is crucial to personalized interactions, AI excels in faster response times, handling repetitive tasks, providing 24/7 availability, and offering multilingual support.     AI will not eliminate jobs. It will disrupt job roles. Employees believe that, in the next five years, 52% of customer queries will be handled exclusively by AI. Customer service roles will evolve, with humans focusing more on strategic, empathetic, and more complex tasks.     Integrating AI into customer service isn't just about getting the latest technology. It requires training employees to use AI tools and understand AI insights effectively. This training also benefits employees by boosting their technical skills, making them more versatile and valuable to the organizations they work for.    As businesses continue to invest in AI, it's essential to continuously measure its impact on customer experience. Companies should focus on fine-tuning these technologies to deliver accurate and helpful responses while maintaining the availability of human agents for more sensitive or complex issues.     Plus, Shep and Laura discuss more stats from Capterra's 2024 Customer Service Technology Survey and how it shapes the future of customer service. Tune in!  Quote:   "Consumers are more demanding than ever when it comes to their interactions with companies, thanks to multi-channels of communication which enable faster services and instant responses."     About:   Laura Burgess is a senior research analyst at Capterra with specialized knowledge of sales and customer experience (CX). Capterra offers businesses over 90,000 solutions across 1,300 software types and 50,000+ service providers to choose from.     Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Implementing The 5 A's of Successful Customer Engagement  Shep Hyken interviews Brett Frazer, co-founder of Service Matters, LLC and the author of Your Hidden Profit Center: Mastering the Five A's of Successful Customer Engagement. He talks about shifting customer service from a cost center to a value center and outlines the 5 A's framework  for adding value to every customer engagement.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How has the perception of customer service evolved from being seen as a cost center to being recognized as a profit center?  What are the potential long-term effects of prioritizing cost reduction in customer service?  Why should companies focus on aligning with customers on the desired outcome rather than just providing a direct solution?  Why is it crucial for customer service initiatives to gain buy-in and support from key organizational stakeholders and leadership?  How can organizations best empower customer support agents?  Top Takeaways:    Customer service has evolved from being  a cost center to a hidden profit center. Focusing  on reducing investment in good customer experiences has  a long-term negative impact on customer loyalty and profitability.    Brett shares The 5 A's of Successful Customer Engagement.    Acknowledge - Acknowledgment is about empathy and addressing the customer's emotional needs. Acknowledge the customer as a person, their relationship to the company, and the problem and solution they seek.     Align - Listen, troubleshoot, and collaborate with the customer to reach the outcome that they are trying to achieve.    Assist - Provide the most appropriate options for the customer that are personalized to the situation that they are in.     Advise - Enable and empower your agents with knowledge and data about the customer so they can provide insights that add value.    Ask - Ask for revenue, actions, and information, and create awareness to increase the customer's lifetime value.    If you can't get leadership and key stakeholders behind the transformation of your organization's customer service and experience, it's not going to work.     The focus should not only be on providing immediate assistance but also on building long-term relationships with customers. Customer service is an opportunity to add value that creates customer loyalty and can significantly impact the organization's bottom line.    A great customer relationship hinges on understanding the customer's needs, empathizing with their situation, providing tailored solutions, and proactively seeking opportunities to add value to the customer experience.    Plus, Brett shares more tips and strategies from his book, Your Hidden Profit Center: Mastering the Five A's of Successful Customer Engagement, to  help your organization save time and increase profits. Tune in!  Quote:   "Over the years, customer service has been considered a cost center. The focus was on how we could make customer service as cheap and as quick as possible. This mindset takes away from the intent of customer service and support, which is to provide a great experience to keep your customers coming back."    About:     Brett Frazer is a thought leader and expert in customer service and contact centers. He is the co-founder of Service Matters, LLC, and the author of Your Hidden Profit Center: Mastering the Five A's of Successful Customer Engagement.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using the Hospitality Mentality to Shape Your Company Culture  Shep Hyken interviews Alan Williams, Founder and managing director at SERVICEBRAND GLOBAL Ltd and the co-author of Supercharging the Customer Experience: How Organizations Can Drive Performance in Today's Values-Based Economy. He talks about aligning the organization's culture, from the leadership to the frontlines, with its customer experience.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    Why is alignment within an organization important for the customer experience?  How has the customer landscape changed in the last 20 years?  Why does customer experience start with leadership?  How is employee engagement linked to the customer experience?  Why is brand identity crucial for an organization's customer experience?  Top Takeaways:    Customer experience is not just a function or a set of processes. It's not just some department or strategy. It is ingrained into the company's culture from the top leadership to every employee. It's in the DNA.     Everybody's job is important when it comes to customer experience. Every employee must understand how what they do impacts the customer, even if they're two or three places removed.    Over the last 20 years, customer decision has shifted to where it is 80% driven by emotion and values. Customers choose to do business with companies that share the same values and stand for the same social causes as them.    Communication has greatly evolved thanks to the internet and social media. Customers' thoughts about a brand can now be shared with millions of people in an instant. Companies need to ensure that their messaging is authentic to their brand identity and resonates with their audience.    Organizations used to have the majority of control over brand perception. They could decide how they want to be perceived and hire a company to pump out that message. Now, customers put more trust in what their friends, family, or colleagues tell them.      The customer focus should extend to the organization's internal customers as well. Every role, whether customer-facing or support-oriented, plays a part in shaping the overall customer experience. Customers, employees, service partners, and communities now shape how people think about a brand.    Customer experience should reflect the organizational brand identity. Every aspect of the customer journey, from arrival to departure, should embody the organization's values. Every action, whether customer-facing or behind the scenes, should reflect the company's mission. When everyone in the organization understands and represents the brand identity, it creates a consistent and compelling customer experience.     Plus, Alan shares examples of  customer experience from the hospitality industry (every type of business can benefit from a hospitality mentality.) Tune in!  Quote:   "A hospitality mentality helps drive customer experience. It is a brilliant training ground because you can learn a lot from that space and then apply it to other sectors."  About:    Alan Williams is the founder and managing director of SERVICEBRAND GLOBAL Ltd and the co-author of Supercharging the Customer Experience: How Organizations Can Drive Performance in Today's Values-Based Economy.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Partnering with Customers to Co-create an Amazing Customer Experience   Shep Hyken interviews Elisabeth Zornes, Chief Customer Officer at Autodesk. She talks about the evolution of the new customer and creating personalized digital experiences.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How does digital transformation impact customer expectations and experiences?  What are the challenges and opportunities in personalizing the customer experience in a B2B environment?  How does the concept of digital-first change the way businesses engage and provide value to their customers?  What role does AI play in enhancing the customer experience and driving growth for businesses?  How can companies leverage technology and AI to provide customers with personalized insights and experiences that drive long-term loyalty?  Top Takeaways:     The customer experience is evolving rapidly across different industries. Customers today are more informed, empowered, and sophisticated. This has raised the bar for businesses to rethink and rebuild their customer experiences to align with the changing expectations.    When you build and enhance digital experiences together with your customers, you create something very special. You go from interacting in transactions to building a digital relationship. Companies must design intuitive and personalized digital experiences that align with customers' preferences and behaviors.    Even in the B2B world, we need to be focused on customers as if they're consumers because that's what they're basing their stories and expectations on. Customers compare you to the best experiences they've had across all industries, regardless of the type of business are industry they are in.    Personalization is powerful in building a great customer experience because when customers engage with brands who know them, what they are likely to do, how they want to engage, and what they need, that signals that the company is where they can continue to get value. That reliability creates trust.  (This was confusing. I think adding the “them” helps. Agree?)    Partnering with your customers is personalizing the relationship to the point where you understand so much of what your customers want and need that you can make the suggestions that will enhance their experiences, improve their businesses, and choose you over the competitors.    The integration of AI in customer service should not be viewed as a replacement for human interaction but as a means to enhance and support human ingenuity.     The future of customer service lies in transforming the entire organization's mindset. It is about instilling a culture where every employee understands their role in delivering an exceptional customer experience—raising service levels and delivering value across the board.    Plus, Shep and Elisabeth discuss more ways to leverage AI in customer service and experience. Tune in!  Quote:   "There is a significant shift in terms of who our customers are. They are much more sophisticated, informed, and empowered. They are expecting a seamless experience from start to finish."     About:    Elisabeth Zornes is the Chief Customer Officer of Autodesk. She oversees Consulting, Customer Success, Partner Success, Product Support, and Renewals to help businesses drive innovation for their customers.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Empowering Teams through Embracing AI-Driven Solutions and Customer-Centricity  Shep Hyken interviews Rony Vexelman, Vice President of Marketing at Optimove. He discusses  why broken customer journeys create poor customer experiences and how brands can avoid them by leveraging AI, personalization, and customer-centricity at every step of the journey.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    Why is it essential for brands to understand and orchestrate the customer journey?  What are some common pitfalls that lead to broken customer journeys?  How has technology changed the approach to customer journey mapping?  How can AI tools empower professionals to expand their roles?  Why is it essential for brands to break down silos within their organization?  Top Takeaways:    Broken customer journeys result from multiple departments working in silos without integrated communication. Each department may have its automation system, which may lead to conflicting or uncoordinated customer experiences. By breaking down these silos and working towards a centralized system, your company can ensure a unified and smooth customer journey.    Businesses need to prioritize customer needs and experiences over pushing products or campaigns. When making decisions, even the tough ones, it's important to consider how these changes will impact customers and how to communicate them effectively.     You will not always make decisions that will make your customers happy. For example, raising prices is not an easy topic to discuss with customers, but it is, at times, necessary. Acknowledge how it impacts your customers and communicate it with them.    Traditional journey mapping focuses on creating an ideal journey for most customers, often neglecting outliers. With today’s technology, businesses can personalize the customer experience at scale, catering to individual preferences and needs.    AI can empower “positionless professionals”, encouraging individuals to expand their skills beyond their specializations. With AI tools, employees can take on tasks outside their usual roles, becoming more versatile and adaptable. This adaptability can result in faster execution, better employee experiences, and better customer experiences.    Extending personalized experiences beyond physical interactions, such as at a reception desk, to online platforms can significantly enhance the customer's perception of the brand.    Plus, Shep and Rony discuss why "breaking down silos" is still a hot topic for organizations after decades. Tune in!  Quote:   "Do your marketing from a customer point of view, not from a product point of view. "  About:    Rony Vexelman is the Vice President of Marketing at Optimove. He is a seasoned professional in multichannel marketing and customer engagement platforms.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seamlessly Combining AI, Human Touch, and Data in Customer Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Gaurav Passi, Founder and CEO of Zingly.ai. He talks about seamlessly integrating AI and human interaction to create a collaborative and customer-centric experience.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can businesses effectively balance AI and human interaction in customer service?  What are the most effective strategies for leveraging AI to enhance customer experiences?  Why is it important to prioritize long-term customer relationships over individual transactions?  How can AI tools provide hyper-personalized service to customers?  How can businesses effectively handle after-hours customer calls using AI tools?  Top Takeaways:    Bringing the human touch, data, and AI together creates a powerful combination that can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and competitive advantage.     When companies understand when to use AI and when to involve human representatives, it benefits everyone, including the customers, the employees, and the business. AI can efficiently answer quick queries, but human interaction is crucial for building long-term, meaningful customer relationships.     Many customers are experiencing FORO or Fear of Reaching Out. When customers are experiencing a problem, the first step is usually going to the company's website to get the contact information. Once they click on "Contact Us," they get some 800 numbers, call the company, the IVR kicks in, and they are put on hold, plus a few other steps. This long process and the time they have to carve out of their day to resolve their problems deter many customers from getting in touch with companies.    The bigger problem is the dissatisfied customers who never call but end up leaving because they never got the answer they were looking for.     While many customers still prefer traditional phone customer service, there's a growing expectation for digital options, especially among younger consumers. Offering a mix of digital and traditional channels can cater to diverse customer preferences.    AI can handle a large percentage of "one shot, one kill" questions and after-hours customer calls, resolving problems efficiently. However, maintaining a balance between AI and human touch is important, as human interaction adds a personalized, empathetic element that AI can't replicate.     By leveraging AI and personalization, you can address scale issues in call centers, allowing a single representative to handle multiple interactions simultaneously. This enhances efficiency in handling customer inquiries and improves overall customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS).    Plus, Shep and Gaurav discuss why some customers hesitate to use AI. Tune in!  Quote:   "The meshing of human, data, and AI together can significantly elevate customer satisfaction and NPS, offering a competitive advantage in the market."    About:    Gaurav Passi is the founder and CEO of Zingly.ai. He aims to revolutionize customer relationships by leveraging generative AI, human expertise, and data to achieve hyper-personalization at scale.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building High-Performance Teams through Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity   Shep Hyken interviews Jonathan Stutz, President of Global Diversity Partners, Inc. and author of Daily Practices of Inclusive Leaders: A Guide to Building a Culture of Belonging. He shares daily practices and strategies for inclusive leadership that create a workplace where employees feel seen, heard, and valued.   This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can internal culture impact the external customer experience?  How can inclusivity and diversity contribute to creating high-performance teams?  What are SMARTIE goals?  In what ways can leaders focus on inclusion first to build a culture of belonging and positively impact the customer experience?  How can leaders manage difficult conversations in the workplace to promote inclusivity and equity?  Top Takeaways:      Internal culture and employee experience are the foundation for enhancing customer experience. When employees feel valued and connected to their managers, coworkers, and the organization they work for, it positively impacts the quality of service and engagement with customers.    Building an organization's strong and welcoming culture is about making employees feel understood and valued. When this happens, trust between employees and leaders, managers, supervisors, and fellow employees dramatically increases. Establishing trust lessens employee churn. If you want to keep your customers coming back, you must ensure that your employees also look forward to returning to work.     Creating an inclusive and diverse workplace is about building high-performing teams that represent the perspectives and backgrounds of employees and customers. It is not about complying with a quota or hiring diverse employees for the sake of appearing diverse. It is about opening up opportunities for everyone and hiring the best people.     The IDE (Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity) approach emphasizes prioritizing inclusion first, followed by diversity and equity. When employees feel safe, welcome, and comfortable being themselves, they set the stage for attracting and retaining a diverse and engaged workforce.    We all benefit from a diverse, inclusive environment. It's not about one person winning and another losing. Instead, it's about leveraging various perspectives and experiences to benefit the customers, the employees, and the company.    Plus, Jonathan shares practical tips that leaders can start doing today to create a culture of belonging. Tune in!  Quote:   "Employees that feel connected to their managers and coworkers and feel as if they are seen, heard, and understood, give more of themselves to the organizations and their customers."      About:     Jonathan Stutz is the Founder and President of Global Diversity Partners, Inc. He has over 25 years of experience in leadership roles at companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Zulily. His book, Daily Practices of Inclusive Leaders: A Guide to Building a Culture of Belonging, is now available on Amazon.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tips for Training Teams with a Hospitality Mentality  Shep Hyken interviews Michelle Pascoe, CEO of Optimum Operating Procedures and Services, also known as OOPS. She talks about the 3 E's of customer experience and the impact of values-based training on creating a lasting impression.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    What does "Hospitality Mentality" mean?  What is the difference between customer service and customer experience?  How can businesses create a memorable last impression for customers?  Why is a values-based education important in shaping employees' customer behaviors and interactions?  How do you equip frontline team members to deliver an exceptional customer experience?  Top Takeaways:    Customer experience is about creating lasting impressions. Just as the first impression sets the tone, the last impression leaves an impact. Every step in the customer's journey, from the moment they walk in to the moment they leave, is an opportunity to amaze.    Embracing a hospitality mentality is about delivering exceptional customer experiences. It means going beyond merely meeting expectations and striving to make customers feel truly valued. This creates a positive and memorable interaction that can turn ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences that keep customers coming back.    Michelle shares the 3 E's of Customer Experience:    Expectation: What does your marketing say about you? What are you creating in your customers' minds?  Experience: What do your customers get when they walk through your doors? Do you at least meet their expectations? How do you exceed their expectations?   Evaluation: What are your customers thinking about your business as they walk out the door?  When we live out our company's values, it sets the tone for our team. When we connect these values with our business operations, we give our employees a chance to shine and do a great job based on those values. And if something doesn't align with our values, we can call it out with clarity and proper discipline.    Training is not just about onboarding, it is an ongoing process. It is necessary to equip team members with the skills to uphold service values and exceed customer expectations. The training process should be multifaceted, cater to different learning styles, and be constantly reinforced.    Nurturing connections is essential, not just with customers but also between leadership and employees. When leaders take the time to understand and connect with their team members, it creates a positive and supportive work environment, leading to a more aligned workforce.    Plus, Shep and Michelle share their own experiences as customers that left a lasting impression. Tune in!  Quote:   "Customer loyalty and creating a memorable experience starts with meeting the expectations. If we don't even meet the expectation, they will certainly not come back."    About:    Michelle Pascoe is the CEO of Optimum Operating Procedures and Services (OOPS). She is a keynote speaker, the host of The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast, and the author of The VIP Principle: Discover How Guest Experiences Drive Long Term Growth.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Connectivity Impacts Customer Satisfaction, Business Processes, and Public Safety   Shep Hyken interviews Stephen Kowal, Chief Commercial Officer of Nextivity. He talks about how connectivity can impact various aspects of customer experience, from retail experiences to public safety, and seamless experiences.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How does connectivity boost customer experience?  How does poor cellular connectivity affect the customer experience in commercial and retail buildings?  What role does boosting cellular signals play in ensuring public safety and first responder communication?  How does cellular connectivity impact customer decision-making and purchases in retail environments?  Why is seamless cellular connectivity essential for a positive customer experience in today's digital world?  Top Takeaways:    Ensuring strong and reliable cellular and Wi-Fi signals in buildings is crucial for a seamless customer experience. Connectivity issues can impact everything from emergency calls in elevators to personalized store promotions. It is now important for businesses to invest in infrastructure that supports strong digital connections behind the scenes.    Connectivity empowers customers by enabling them to make informed purchasing decisions in the moment.  The ability to access information in real time can guide customers to choose according to their needs, leading to better satisfaction and potentially higher sales for businesses.    Seamless connectivity is vital for customer satisfaction and public safety. Reliable signals inside buildings ensure that customers can ask for help when they need it and emergency responders can communicate effectively. Good connectivity protects experiences and lives.    Connectivity is no longer a luxury but a necessity for delivering exceptional experiences. Providing strong and reliable connectivity is a requirement to meet the expectations of smart, modern customers.    Plus, Shep and Stephen share their own customer experiences related to connectivity and coverage. Tune in!  Quote:   "Stores used to be afraid of online sales. They used to be afraid that if customers could research it online, they might see that it is cheaper elsewhere. But, they have found if customers can validate their purchase decisions while in the store, that experience instant gratification and end up leaving with the product and sometimes even spending more."    About:    Stephen Kowal is the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Nextivity, a company that helps businesses boost connectivity, public safety, and seamless experiences.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Authentic, Augmented, and Applied Technology to Enhance Customer Experiences  Shep Hyken interviews Jeffrey Russell, Chief Executive Officer at C1. He talks about transformative leadership and the need for authentic and empathetic technology solutions that enhance customer experience.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can technology be authentic and empathetic in improving the customer experience?  How can companies maintain a balance between human-to-human interactions and technology?  Why should companies prioritize culture and organizational health before focusing on financial aspects?  How has the concept of AI evolved to prioritize authenticity and human augmentation?  What leadership principles are essential for guiding a company through transformation? Top Takeaways:      Effective leadership in business requires putting culture first. A positive culture within a company influences performance and trust and provides more value to their customers and employees, ensuring sustained growth and success.    Recognizing and leveraging an organization's "superpowers" drives innovation by using what they are best at to create impactful solutions and maintain a competitive edge.    Technology and artificial intelligence must be built with empathy at its core. This means understanding what really matters to customers to creating relevant, valuable, and impactful solutions.    Authenticity, augmentation, and applied intelligence are essential to ensuring technology meets customer needs. Integrating artificial intelligence into the customer experience must be easy for its end users to use, offer genuine value to customers, and enhance the capabilities of employees to serve.    Encouraging customers to utilize technology for simpler inquiries and letting them know that human interaction is available for complex or sensitive matters creates a balanced customer journey.    Plus, Shep and Jeffrey talk about how to engage in a healthy, consultative dialogue when experiencing pushback from clients. Tune in! Quote:   "Empathy expands the human experience. It allows us to understand what really matters to our customers. It drives us to deliver something that is differentiated, relevant, and valuable for our customers."      About:  Jeffrey Russell is the Chief Executive Officer at C1, a company that uses technology and innovation to help companies build meaningful and secure relationships with their customers.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tips on How to Eliminate Friction for Your Customers   Shep Hyken interviews David Avrin, customer experience speaker and consultant. He talks about his latest book, Ridiculously Easy to Do Business With: A practical guide to giving customers what they want—when and how they want it, and shares actionable tips on providing a hassle-free customer experience.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can businesses identify and eliminate points of friction in the customer process?  How has the shift in customer behavior influenced the focus on understanding customer choices and social proof?  Why is customer service the most important marketing tool for brands?  How does prioritizing customer experience serve as a competitive advantage for businesses in today's market?  How has social media shaped brand perception?  Top Takeaways:      Providing a hassle-free and convenient experience means eliminating friction at every step, from the moment a customer engages with a brand and even after the sale is made. Customers should be able to find information, purchase products, and get help without encountering unnecessary obstacles.    While friendliness is important, convenience is even more crucial in customer experience. In the 2024 State of Customer Service and CX Research, we have found that 94% of customers feel convenience is important, 70% are willing to pay more if the experience is more convenient, and 70% say that a convenient experience alone makes them come back to the brand.    "Ridiculously easy" is the new standard. The true competitive advantage lies in delivering a frictionless and convenient customer experience. Quality products and services are the minimum requirement for any business. However, what sets a company apart is how easy and convenient it makes the customer experience. Competing solely on quality is no longer enough. It's crucial to focus on providing a seamless and hassle-free experience for the customers.    Plus, Shep and David share their favorite tips from Ridiculously Easy to Do Business With, such as "be ridiculously easy to see," "ridiculously easy to reach," and more. Tune in!  Quote:   "What people say about our brand today is more impactful than what we say about ourselves."  About:    David Avrin, CSP, GSF, is a customer experience speaker, consultant, and best-selling author. His five books have been published in multiple languages, including Not Who You Know, It's Who Knows You! and Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back). His latest book is Ridiculously Easy to Do Business With: A practical guide to giving customers what they want—when and how they want it.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Get into the Customer Experience Mindset  Shep Hyken interviews Blake Morgan, customer service expert, bestselling author, and the host of The Modern Customer Podcast. She talks about her latest book, The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building a Business Around Today's Customer, and how to create a culture that prioritizes both employee and customer satisfaction.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can leaders in a company build a customer-centric culture from the top down?  How does employee satisfaction translate into a positive customer experience?  What are the keys to hiring and retaining employees who actively contribute to a positive customer experience?  What are the potential downsides of relying solely on customer satisfaction scores to gauge success?  How does company culture impact customer experience?  Top Takeaways:    In business, customer service and experience are not just strategies. They are a way of life. It's not just about how a company sells, but how it serves.     Companies that treat their employees well often provide better customer service. It's not just about what the company offers to the customers but also about how it treats its people. When employees feel valued and happy, they pass that positivity to their customers.    Long-term and short-term goals can go side by side. A successful leader understands the importance of balancing two opposing ideas — figuring out how to address immediate customer needs without losing sight of the organization's long-term goals.     Leading with a customer-focused mindset means putting in the work to elevate oneself first. Whether it is through music, exercise, meditation, etc., do what you must to elevate your own mindset so you can uplift your team and your customers.     The true measure of a company's customer service comes from the customers themselves. It's not about how high the numbers on your metrics can go. It's about creating experiences that make customers want to come back again and again.    Plus, Blake shares more insights from her latest book, The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building a Business Around Today's Customer. Tune in!  Quote:   "If you want to compete on customer experience, you have to work harder than others. You have to bring more energy, more excitement, and a more service-oriented approach."    About:     Blake Morgan is a customer experience keynote speaker, dubbed by Meta as "The Queen of CX." She is the author of three customer experience books, including her latest, The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer. She is the host of The Modern Customer Podcast.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Embracing Changing Customer Needs  Shep Hyken interviews Robert Spector, international keynote speaker, and bestselling author. He talks about his latest book, The Century-Old Startup: The Nordstrom Way of Embracing Change, Challenges, and a Culture of Customer Service and how any company can stay in business during the most challenging times.   This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How does Nordstrom balance tradition and innovation to stay relevant?  How does a successful company prioritize social responsibility in its operations and community engagement?  In what ways can businesses maintain strong connections with their customers in an increasingly digital world?  How does social responsibility impact customer loyalty?  How does an organization instill a culture of empowerment and trust to enhance the customer experience?  Top Takeaways:     In its employee handbook, Nordstrom has only one rule: Use good judgment. It empowers employees by trusting their ability to assess a situation and make decisions based on their values. Nordstrom also empowers employees by sharing examples of what other excellent employees have done to solve problems.    Clear and transparent communication reassures both employees and customers. During challenging times, such as the pandemic, effective communication with leaders and stakeholders helps alleviate uncertainties, creates a sense of stability, and builds trust and confidence in the brand.    Customers prefer brands that support the same social causes that they care about. Social responsibility isn't just about giving back to the community but also about understanding and respecting diverse values and perspectives. Embracing social responsibility means adapting to the changing cultural landscape, from hiring practices to ethical consumption and sustainable business operations.     Building and maintaining strong relationships with customers is the foundation of business stability. Going above and beyond to satisfy customers' needs and create memorable experiences will result in positive word-of-mouth and enduring customer loyalty.    Balancing technology with personal connections and understanding the importance of human interactions is key to creating a differentiated and exceptional customer experience.    Timeless customer service stories from the past continue to inspire and are essential reminders of how businesses should serve their customers. These stories showcase principles that stand the test of time, emphasizing the significance of customer satisfaction and the impact of going above and beyond expectations.    Plus, Shep and Robert discuss the F.A.C.T.S. (flexibility, agility, communication, transformation, and social responsibility) of customer experience. Tune in!  Quote:   "Ultimately, it's about how your decisions positively impact the customer, not just the company."      About:     Robert Spector is an international keynote speaker, thought leader, and best-selling author. His book, The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence: Creating a Values-Driven Service Culture, has become a business classic. His latest book, The Century Old Startup: The Nordstrom Way of Embracing Change, Challenges, and a Culture of Customer Service, is available now.    Shep Hyken a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Good CX Starts With a Good EX - How to Create a Fulfilling and Meaningful Employee Experience  Shep Hyken interviews John DiJulius III, Founder and Chief Revolution Officer of The DiJulius Group and bestselling author. He talks about the role of leadership and company culture in shaping a positive work environment.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can every employee contribute to a better customer experience?  How can company leaders support successful customer experience investments?  What role does employee training play in improving customer satisfaction?  What are common staffing mistakes that companies should avoid for better customer service?  How are customer retention and employee retention similar?  Top Takeaways:    A Good customer experience starts with a good employee experience. The CX will never be better than the EX.    An employee experience revolution is where great companies have leaders who help people live extraordinary lives with meaning and purpose.    The culture of a company is a major driver of the customer experience. As leaders, we set the tone for what the culture is supposed to be. A positive employee experience contributes to a healthy company culture, which affects their motivation and satisfaction. Ensuring a positive employee experience is as essential for your business's success as delivering outstanding customer experience.    There is a quote that says, "You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with." However, in the workplace, your employees cannot choose their five. When a superstar employee is surrounded by underperformers, it can be challenging for them to maintain excellence. Making the right hiring decisions sets the stage for a positive work environment and facilitates the company's and its employees' success. As leaders, we are responsible for creating a team that helps each other excel.    Every employee plays a role in customer experience. Regardless of their position, from the front desk to the C-suite, each employee contributes to customer perception and the company's success.    Prioritizing employee satisfaction and fulfillment is essential for business success. Just as companies strive to fulfill their customers' needs, they must also address the needs of their employees. Companies can boost productivity and morale by providing a work environment that supports employees' growth and fulfillment.    Executive sponsorship is crucial for a successful investment in customer experience. Leaders must empower and support training and customer-centric initiatives. By providing the necessary resources and guidance, executives can drive the company's commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences.    Plus, Shep and John discuss what "hire's remorse" is and how to avoid it. Tune in!    Quote:   "The two biggest mistakes companies make in staffing are hiring just anyone to replace turnover and looking the other way on poor performers."     About:     John DiJulius III is the founder and chief revolution officer of The DiJulius Group and the best-selling author of six books, including his latest, The Employee Experience Revolution: Increase Morale, Retain Your Workforce, and Drive Business Growth.    Shep Hyken a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Proactively Anticipate Customer Needs  Shep Hyken interviews Mikhail Naumov,founder and CEO of Paylode Inc. He discusses how businesses can enhance their customers' experiences by proactively addressing their secondary and tertiary needs, going beyond just selling their core products or services.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    What role do perks and incentives play in driving customer behavior?  How can businesses elevate customer experience and create additional value for their customers beyond their core products and services?  What challenges do businesses encounter when trying to provide complementary products and services to their customers?  How can businesses use special offers and benefits to motivate and reward their customers?  How do businesses in the B2C and B2B worlds differ in their approaches to offering additional value to their customers?  Top Takeaways:    Proactively anticipate and address customers' needs beyond your core product or service. Customers often face secondary and tertiary problems after making a purchase. Meeting them where they are and helping them solve these additional problems thoughtfully can create strong loyalty, engagement, and gratitude that can earn you customers for life.    By offering customers something outside of, but related to, your typical value proposition, you uplift their experience. This approach can set you apart from your competition and make your business stand out.    Every interaction with a customer is a chance to provide value. Businesses can take advantage of these opportunities by offering complimentary perks or rewards to engage, motivate, and reward customers for specific desirable actions.     When businesses want customers to take certain actions that benefit the business, they should consider what's in it for the customer. Rewarding customers for desired actions can be a cost-effective strategy (and sometimes free) that provides value to the customer and the business.    Building and implementing a framework for offering complimentary perks and engagement programs doesn't have to be overwhelming. With the right platform, businesses can streamline the process and launch loyalty programs efficiently, creating a seamless experience for both the business and the customer.    Plus, Shep and Mikhail discuss how companies in the B2B and B2C industries can best utilize customer perks and rewards. Tune in!  Quote:   " Your job may begin and ends with the sale, but customers often have secondary and tertiary needs that you may want to  proactively address."      About:    Mikhail is the Founder & CEO of Paylode Inc and has been recognized by Forbes Magazine in the "Forbes 30 Under 30" list. He is the best-selling author of AI is My Friend: A Practical Guide for Contact Centers.     Shep Hyken a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transforming Customer Experiences One Interaction at a Time Shep Hyken interviews Brian Higgins, Chief Customer Experience Officer of Verizon Consumer Group. He talks about how every interaction can shape brand perception and how to use AI to enhance customer and employee experience.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    Will AI replace human employees?  How can AI and human employees work together to enhance customer service?  Why should companies prioritize customer experience?  What is the role of AI in improving the interaction between employees and customers?  In what ways can AI personalization impact customer loyalty and retention?  Top Takeaways:    The customer experience is essential for any business. It plays a role in attracting and keeping customers. It affects how customers perceive the brand, its products, and pricing. An exceptional experience keeps customers coming back and builds brand love.     Technology is transforming customer experience. Companies use AI to provide employees with real-time information, helping them better assist customers and enhance the overall experience.    Instead of replacing jobs, AI empowers employees by working alongside them. This allows them to focus on interpreting and sharing information with the customer in a way that best suits their needs, whether empathetic, energetic, enthusiastic, detailed, or simplified.     Digital interactions are crucial for enhancing the customer experience, but they must be organic. Brands need to ensure that their customers want to interact with them digitally, and when they do, it needs to be seamless.     The employee experience is closely linked to the customer experience. If the employees are unhappy and don't feel they have the right policies and tools, your customers will not have a good experience.    AI can simplify complex business interactions and lead to a more customer-centric experience. By using predictive and generative AI, businesses can anticipate what customers need, offer relevant deals, and make complex information easier for employees to understand and relay to customers.    Brands must prioritize creating a positive impact in every interaction, keeping in mind that it may be the customer's only interaction with you in a long time. The role of every employee is to prioritize each interaction as a key moment, recognizing that it can significantly impact the brand and Net Promoter Score. By focusing on delivering amazing experiences every time, employees can play an essential role in building brand love and long-term customer relationships.    Plus, Shep and Brian discuss how Verizon continuously monitors and mitigates pain points at every stage of the customer journey. Tune in!  Quote:   "Empowering your employees to quickly and correctly address any breakdown in the customer experience is crucial. Ensure you provide them with the tools to engage with customers effectively."  About:    Brian Higgins is Verizon Consumer Group's Chief Customer Experience Officer. He ensures that Verizon employees have the right tools, capabilities, and resources to excel at delivering amazing customer experiences.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Curiosity and Innovation Can Transform Your Business  Shep Hyken interviews Joseph Michelli, keynote speaker, organizational consultant, and bestselling author. He discusses the principles and strategies in his latest book, Customer Magic – The Macquarie Way, including reimagining customer experience, empowering employees, and transforming businesses.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can companies effectively challenge the status quo to drive innovation in customer service?  What is the "challenger mindset"?  How can storytelling culture contribute to a company's success in customer service and experience?  What drives improvement and innovation in business?  Why is it essential for companies to create products tailored to their customers rather than finding customers for their products?  Top Takeaways:    An insatiable curiosity and a commitment to innovation enable leaders to constantly seek new ideas and solutions that create value for their employees and customers. This is how leaders remain relevant and impactful as their business  grows.      Creating a storytelling culture within the organization is an amazing tool for engaging customers and employees. It builds a culture that resonates with its audience and strengthens emotional connections.    Adopting the challenger mindset or zigging while others are zagging doesn’t always mean contradicting every idea. It means questioning the status quo and driving continual improvement. Leaders must promote an environment where employees are encouraged to challenge prevailing norms and seek opportunities to do things differently. This can lead to unique solutions and fresh approaches that set a business apart.    Shift from finding customers for your products to finding products for your customers. This customer-centric approach focuses on understanding and addressing the needs of your customers.    When hiring, prioritize individuals who embody a customer service-focused mindset. Seeking out employees who not only have the necessary technical skills but also demonstrate genuine care and approachability toward customers can significantly transform your business.    Plus, Joseph Michelli shares how the inspiration for his book, David and Aidan Tudehope of Macquarie Technology, has achieved great success by challenging the status quo of their industry. Tune in!  Quote:   "It's not about the product. The product is a vector to create an impact on the lives of humans. The magic is in how we create an experience in the lives of our customers."    About:    Joseph Michelli, Ph.D., C.S.P., is an international keynote speaker and organizational consultant. He is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Nielson BookScan, and New York Times #1 bestselling author. His latest book, Customer Magic – The Macquarie Way: How to Reimagine Customer Experience to Transform Your Business, is available now on Amazon.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Optimizing Process, People, and Technology to Create a Better Customer Service Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Joseph Walsh, Vice President of Product Marketing for GoTo. He shares the Four Phases of the Contact Center and the significance of placing customer experience at the heart of your company's operations.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    What are the four phases of a customer service center's life cycle?  Why is it important to understand customer demands in the context of social media and other communication channels?  Why is it essential for companies to balance their technology, people, and processes?  How can organizations evaluate and improve customer service to increase revenue and better serve customers?  What potential risk do organizations face when they fail to focus on improving customer experience?  Top Takeaways:    Managers and CX leaders must listen to what's happening on the frontline and how customers interact with agents on the phone, chat, or AI. Find out where your frontline is excelling and what its shortcomings are. Analyze conversations, not just to grade but to determine if you are doing what is best for your customers.    Joseph shares the Four Phases of the Contact Center.    Phase 1 is all about customer-initiated conversations. Agents field multiple calls and answer queries following a script. The tech is often very limited to the standard phone system. There is little room for creativity, and it is all about compliance.    Phase 2 is about collaboration. Beyond the phone system, more technology and communication channels are introduced into the conversation. The CRM platform is integrated, so agents, subject matter experts, and everyone in the company are on the same page and can work together on the customer journey, products, and pain points.     Phase 3 is about entering the digital experience and growth. Customers and agents are using a full array of communication channels, such as web chat, social media, email, and more, that work seamlessly together.    Phase 4 is about automation, AI, self-service, and sustained growth. Customers are empowered to find answers and solve problems on their own through online portals and interactive web chats. Companies are finding ways to reduce repetitive tasks for agents and deliver faster answers to customers, resulting in a better experience for both.    Customers now turn to social media to seek help or voice their frustrations. If your company is on social media, embrace the entire medium, the people who use it, and their expectations.    Customer service is about more than fixing issues. It's about enhancing the overall customer experience. Businesses can continuously evaluate and improve their customer service strategies, increase revenue, and build stronger customer relationships.     Plus, Shep and Joseph discuss the top channels for customer communication. Tune in!  Quote:   "To answer customer needs, you need the entire company working together. It's about ensuring an organization can answer all customer queries and answer them the best they can."    About:    Joseph Walsh is the Vice President of Product Marketing for GoTo. He helps organizations improve customer and employee experience and grow revenue by embracing digital technology.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why Trust, Readiness, and Humanity are Important in Crisis Management  Shep Hyken interviews Chief Master Sergeant Brian P. Kruzelnick, a.k.a. Chief BK, Command Senior Enlisted Leader for U.S. Transportation Command. He discusses integrating crisis management and training into everyday business practices and organizational culture.  NOTE: This episode of Amazing Business Radio is a departure from the emphasis on customer service and CX. He shared how he and his team managed major crises, such as 2021 evacuation in Afghanistan and  humanitarian aid in countries that need it. While his “customers” are different than most of the people listening to this show, the lessons are powerful in any situation, big or small, including customer complaints and issues.      This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can effective crisis management contribute to a company's success and customer experience?  How can leaders effectively prepare for and navigate crises in their organizations?  What lessons can leaders learn from military training to enhance their organization's readiness for challenging times?  How can leaders effectively build trust within their organizations?  What role do empathy and humanity play in customer service and crisis management?  Top Takeaways:    In times of crisis, leaders must be prepared to respond effectively and execute plans thoughtfully. Just as the military trains for the worst moments, an organization can thrive even in chaotic situations by being well-prepared and having capable team members who understand their equipment and protocols.     After an organization successfully handles a crisis or a "down day," the next step is thinking long-term and figuring out how to bake the solution into the culture. If you are making changes, make sure your employees understand where they fit in, how it affects them, and how they can contribute in a positive way.    Consistent training contributes to an organization's culture of excellence. Like a well-maintained car, a highly skilled team delivers amazing customer service and effectively navigates every crisis.    Onboarding sets the tone. Effective onboarding sets the norms and expectations within an organization. New employees must clearly understand their roles and align with the company's mission and values.    Empowerment is when employees do not have a boss or someone with a higher position than them peering over their shoulders, they can still make confident decisions because they understand the organization's culture and their leaders' intent.    Plus, Chief BK shares amazing crisis stories from the military that companies and customer support teams can learn from. Tune in!  Quote:   "Crisis either fractures or forges a leader. An organization can see how to go forward post-crisis by how the leader handled the situation during the crisis."    About:    Chief Master Sergeant Brian P. Kruzelnick, a.k.a. Chief BK, is the Command Senior Enlisted Leader for the U.S. Transportation Command. He is a military leader with over 30 years of experience in crisis management and disaster relief.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Empowering Customer Interactions and Employee Engagement  Shep Hyken interviews Alan Masarek, President and Chief Executive Officer at Avaya. He talks about leveraging AI to improve customer experience, enhance employee productivity, and create better business outcomes.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How is customer experience being transformed using AI?  What are the evolving communication channels and customer support preferences in today's digital landscape?  What impact does AI have on job roles in the customer service industry?  How can businesses use AI to allow human agents to focus on more complex and empathetic customer interactions?  What role does AI play in balancing human and AI-driven customer support?  Top Takeaways:    The customer experience market is expected to be worth almost 50 billion by the end of this decade. In the Internet economy, companies are struggling to differentiate themselves the old-fashioned way through price and availability. Now, you can compare products and pricing from companies worldwide. How can a brand differentiate themselves from its competition? The quality of the experience they provide.     Businesses thrive when they prioritize creating a positive customer experience. A company's success is directly tied to its ability to make customers feel valued.      Leaders must recognize the need to invest in AI not merely as a trendy innovation but as a crucial tool for enhancing customer relationships, improving employee productivity, and boosting engagement.    The impact of AI on customer service has generated concerns about potential job displacement. When the ATM was introduced, people said it would make human bank tellers obsolete. However, most banks still have tellers today. AI is not set to eliminate jobs but rather transform them. AI in customer service aims to automate routine tasks, empowering human agents to dedicate their attention to more complex and empathetic interactions.    The future of customer support includes a blend of human and AI-driven solutions. While many customers still prefer phone support, a significant number are leaning towards digital and self-service options. Brands must leverage AI to meet customers' preferences and enhance their experience without losing the ever important human touch that creates an emotional connection with customers.    Plus, Shep and Alan talk about how companies can embrace innovation without disruption. Tune in!  Quote:   “A pleasant employee experience delivers a pleasant customer experience. The marriage of the two drives a better business outcome. AI solutions are important for optimizing the employee experience, which in turn drives the employee experience.”    About:     Alan Masarek is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Avaya. He has over 30 years of experience in software and cloud-based businesses, technology innovation, enterprise communications, and the cultivation of a dynamic, talent-driven organizational culture.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acquire and Keep Clients for Life  Shep Hyken interviews Richard Weylman, hall of fame inducted keynote speaker and bestselling author. He talks about his latest book, 100 Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Clients for Life, and how an elevated customer experience helps brands stand out amidst the competition.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can companies create elevated experiences at every touch point for their customers?  How does the concept of "lifetime value" impact customer-focused decision-making?  What's the significance of emotional engagement in driving customer loyalty and revenue?  How can small, personalized gestures impact the customer experience?  How does cultivating relationships with customers contribute to long-term profitability?  Top Takeaways:    There are four things that customers are looking for. They are looking for brands that are thoughtful, kind, caring, and empathetic.    Understand your customers' lifetime value (LTV). By recognizing a customer's potential long-term value, businesses can make better customer-focused decisions that are less about the amount they spend on any single purchase and more about nurturing relationships, ensuring positive experiences, and understanding their needs.     Small gestures and careful word choices matter. Businesses can make customers feel valued and respected by paying attention to details, like calling customers by their preferred names and avoiding generic follow-up messages. Even a simple gesture can leave a lasting positive impression, potentially leading to future business opportunities.    Building relationships with customers helps businesses stand out in a crowded market. Creating emotional connections and nurturing long-term relationships drive revenue by de-commoditizing your products and strengthening customer loyalty.    Plus, Richard shares how a thank-you note after a rejection earned him a future opportunity. Tune in!   Quote:   "What happens when you elevate the experience by focusing on kindness, thoughtfulness, caring, and empathy? What happens is you elevate the experience and create emotional engagement."    About:     Richard Weylman is a keynote speaker, customer experience expert, and the author of two international bestsellers, including The Power of Why: Breaking Out in a Competitive Marketplace. His latest book, 100 Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Clients for Life, is now available on Amazon.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Building Resilience Can Positively Impact Customer Service  Shep Hyken interviews Simon T. Bailey, world's leading expert in brilliance and author of Resilience@Work: How to Coach Yourself Into a Thriving Future. In addition to a review of his SPARK concept from his last interview on Amazing Business Radio, he talks about the importance of resilience in the workplace and the journey from being resilient to achieving brilliance.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can practicing resilience impact customer service and experience in the workplace?  What are the principles of the SPARK model, and how can they be applied to enhance customer loyalty?  How can companies transform a transactional customer interaction into a lasting connection?  What are some effective strategies for leaders to create an exceptional customer experience through their employees?  How can a company build an emotional connection with its customers in a crowded market?  Top Takeaways:    Simon gives us a quick review of the SPARK customer service framework that ignites passion, cultivates devotion, and breeds unwavering customer loyalty.  See them as guests.  Personalize the experience.  Anticipate their needs.  Respond immediately.  Keep them loyal.    The SPARK framework works as effectively on your employees as it does on your customers. Leaders create the experience for employees, and employees create the experience for customers.     Resilience is important in both personal and professional life. It's about bouncing back and being flexible in the face of challenges. Instead of spiraling down, ask yourself, “What went well that can help you spiral up instead of spiraling down?”    Recognizing and acknowledging your employees' efforts can encourage them to repeat positive behaviors. One minute spent on recognition can inspire 100 minutes of initiative.     Leaders and managers play a critical role in building resilience within their teams. By reinforcing positive behaviors and recognizing their efforts, leaders can inspire and empower employees to embrace resilience and work towards brilliance.    Plus, Shep and Simon discuss the four characters in business: Hurry, Worry, Ready, and Steady. Tune in!  Quote:   "Those who get the customer experience right make it common practice. It's a part of their culture. They embed it into the heads, hearts, and hands of everyone who connects with their customers."    About:    Simon T. Bailey is the world's leading expert in Brilliance. He has worked with leading organizations worldwide, including Disney, American Express, Deloitte, Marriott, Visa, Stanford Health Care, and Taco Bell.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Seamlessly Implement AI into Your Customer Support Process  Shep Hyken interviews Elizabeth Tobey, Head of Marketing for Digital and AI at NICE. She talks about testing, implementing, and embracing AI to increase customer and employee satisfaction.   This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How does AI impact customer experience and satisfaction?  What are the key considerations for businesses when testing and implementing AI in customer service?  What role does knowledge management play in shaping the quality of AI responses in customer service?  How can AI help in providing a personalized customer?  What are the challenges and benefits of implementing AI in business?  Top Takeaways:    Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing  how businesses interact with customers. It can streamline processes to improve customer experiences and empower employees. The key is to find the right AI partner who understands a company's specific needs and can provide solutions that work seamlessly without making the process more complicated and less convenient for customers and employees.    Implementing AI into business practices doesn't have to be a long and challenging process. Companies should seek vendors who can move quickly to provide solutions that improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. It's important to test AI thoroughly to ensure it positively impacts the customers, employees, and the company.    Some companies make the mistake of creating a solution that's great for the customer but adds three more steps to the agent, creating a more complex process, frustration, and burnout.    Companies need to set clear goals and success metrics before implementing new technology. Establish the outcomes and KPIs you want to see for your customers and employees. Don't put together a solution, be it AI, self-service, or any other type of technology, without an end in mind.    The budget and cost of AI solutions have evolved over the years, making them more accessible to a wider range of businesses. The focus is now on the proof of value that AI can bring, such as reducing cognitive overload for employees and enhancing service efficiency.    Plus, Shep and Elizabeth discuss the gap between digital customer support and what companies provide. Tune in!  Quote:   "AI management is actually knowledge management. Your AI is only as good as the data and knowledge that you feed it. If you put garbage in, you might get garbage out."    About:    Elizabeth Tobey is the Head of Marketing for NICE's Digital Solutions group. She has held leadership roles in marketing, communications, community management, and customer experience across video game, social media, and cloud platform technology firms operating in both B2B and B2C.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Elevate Customer Experience and Strengthen Loyalty  Shep Hyken interviews Katie Mares, brand experience expert and best-selling author of CustomHER Experience. She talks about the 5 steps to creating a 5-star customer experience and the importance of genuine human connection to win over customers.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    What five steps are crucial for creating a five-star customer service experience?  How can language and tone significantly impact customer service interactions?  What are the potential drawbacks of companies relying solely on AI and technology for customer interactions?  How does the human touch impact customer experiences in an increasingly tech-driven world?  How does service recovery contribute to building customer loyalty and trust?  Top Takeaways:    Katie has shared the five steps to a five-star service on her previous episode on Amazing Business Radio. We are bringing it back as a reminder, plus more insights, examples, and actionable tips!    #1 What you say and how you say it matters. Focus on the language and tone you use to communicate with your customers.  #2 Use your customer's name. Break down those walls immediately to create that instant connection.  #3 Be genuine. Customers want to know that you care, not just that you have to care.  #4 Anticipate their needs and deliver that plus one. Customers will give you the information, listen, and use what you know to elevate their experience. #5 Be a hero. Sometimes, humans drop the ball. Service recovery doesn't just fix the problem, it restores confidence.  Women influence $43 trillion of worldwide spending annually. They also refer businesses they like 25% to 35% more than men. They influence 3 to 5 generations of spending. If you provide a good experience, you are not only earning her money and loyalty, but she is referring you to everyone in her orbit.     While technology plays an important role in customer service, it should include the essential element of human interaction. Maintaining a balance between technology and human connection is crucial to providing a holistic and satisfying customer experience.    Plus, Shep and Katie discuss how a good customer experience can double your revenue in 36 months. Tune in!  Quote:   "Often, we forget that our customers are humans who want an experience. Our sales systems and processes make the experience smoother, but they don't make the experience. It is up to us to elevate that experience and create trust that will lead to customer loyalty, increased referrals, and increased revenue."  About:    Katie Mares is a brand experience expert, TED talk speaker, and #1 Best Selling Author of CustomHER Experience.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Impact of “Customer Research” on Achieving Customer Success  Shep Hyken interviews Sara Caldwell, VP of Customer Experience at Dovetail. She talks about the importance of everyone in the company being involved in customer research to understand and meet customer needs.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    Why is it essential for companies to understand the specific needs of their customers?   How can unstructured data from customer conversations be transformed into actionable insights?   How can companies use conversational research to gain insights and improve the customer experience?  How can companies effectively leverage customer feedback from call center recordings for improvements?  How do companies use customer feedback to enhance products and services and better serve customers?  Top Takeaways:    Customer success in any business is about making your customers successful so that they can, in turn, be more successful with their clients. It means understanding your customers' core needs and matching them to a solution. The goal is to focus on how often the product or service is used and how it helps the customer succeed in their role and achieve their objectives.    Researching customer insights is not limited to a specific role or department. It's something that everyone in a company can do to help improve products and services. This allows various teams in a company to learn more about their users and build their products or services accordingly.    Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of understanding customer feedback to inform decision-making. By analyzing and understanding customer conversations, companies can gain valuable insights that inform product development, customer support enhancements, and overall business decision-making.    Self-service customer support is becoming increasingly important. Many customers prefer to resolve their issues without interacting with a support team. Companies must create a seamless customer experience where customers can find answers to their questions without interacting with a support representative.    Transforming complex, unstructured data into actionable insights is key to helping teams build products their customers love. This involves taking conversations with customers and consolidating them into understandable insights. By making customer insights accessible and actionable, organizations can continually leverage this information to enhance their products, services, and support systems.     Plus, Sara shares what every customer success manager needs to know. Tune in!   Quote:   "If you're confident in your resources and abilities to truly excel in providing a remarkable customer experience, and it fulfills a customer need while setting you apart in the market, then it's worth prioritizing."    About:    Sara Caldwell is the VP of Customer Experience at Dovetail. A science school teacher by background, she transitioned into customer service and experience, gaining valuable insights and skills at companies like Asana, Reforge, and Neverware.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Embracing AI for Marketing and Customer Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Spencer Burke, SVP of Growth at Braze. He talks about the significance of collaboration within organizations, the impact of multichannel engagement on customer interaction, and the role of AI in enhancing customer experiences.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can companies use AI effectively to enhance customer experience?  How can businesses leverage multichannel marketing to increase customer engagement and retention?  Why is it important for marketers to balance personalization with customer privacy concerns?  What are the fundamentals of marketing and customer engagement that businesses should prioritize?  What role does AI play in unleashing creativity and improving customer experience?  Top Takeaways:    Effectively connecting with customers is a crucial aspect of marketing and customer service. Understand where your customers are and what tools and data are available to create personalized experiences. The goal is to provide value to the customers and meet their expectations while respecting their privacy and preferences.    Keep focusing on the fundamentals when it comes to customer engagement. Just like in sports, where great athletes consistently work on the basics, we should do the same. Our fundamentals include understanding our customers, communicating with our customers, and serving our customers.      It's essential to be where the customers are and experiment with different channels to understand their preferences and effectively engage with them. Using multiple channels, such as email, SMS, push notifications, and other emerging platforms, can improve customer relationships and increase retention and conversion rates.     One of the top trends that The 2024 Global Customer Engagement has discovered is that creativity and strategy work together with AI. Artificial Intelligence and technology can help automate processes, allowing marketers and customer support agents more time to focus on creativity and strategy. This can include automating repetitive tasks, enhancing analysis, and predicting customer segments. You can access The 2024 Global Customer Engagement for free.    Companies should aim to find the right balance between personalization and avoiding the "creepiness factor" by understanding and meeting customer expectations. Customers expect brands to provide value by understanding their preferences and needs. Companies need to use data to create personalized experiences while respecting customer privacy.    Plus, Shep and Spencer discuss what successful brands are doing to engage with their customers. Tune in!  Quote:   "Marketing is about connecting brands and consumers. There are a lot of touch points in the customer journey that involve customer care and customer support that are done through traditional marketing channels."  About:    Spencer Burke is the Senior Vice President of Growth at Braze, a customer engagement platform that offers messaging solutions spanning push notifications, email, in-app messaging, and other channels.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Leverage AI and Personalization to Anticipate and Exceed Customer Needs  Shep Hyken interviews Joe Tyrrell, CEO of Medallia, a global leader in customer and employee experience technology. He talks about the significant role of AI and technology in creating personalized and seamless customer experiences.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can technology aid in creating personalized customer experiences for businesses?  How does personalization impact purchasing decisions?  What role does data play in predicting and understanding customer preferences?  What are some ethical considerations when using AI and technology for customer interactions?  How can companies utilize technology and automation to assist and support their customer service representatives instead of replacing them?  Top Takeaways:    Personalized experiences are essential for businesses to attract and retain customers. By understanding customer behavior and preferences and using technology to track interactions, companies can anticipate their needs and provide a seamless and tailored experience.     Businesses can harness various data sources, including feedback from surveys, social media, and customer history, to better understand and anticipate consumer needs. By aggregating and interpreting this data, companies can gain valuable insights to personalize the customer experience and improve service.    The goal of technology in customer service is not to replace human interaction but to assist and empower employees. Businesses can offer more personalized, timely, and effective service by supporting employees with technologies that help prioritize essential tasks and understand customer needs.    To deliver personalized experiences, companies should focus on using technological capabilities while maintaining empathy and a human touch. It’s a “balancing act.”     Personalized experiences can significantly impact customer purchasing decisions. Companies can influence consumer buying decisions by offering tailored experiences based on the customer's preferences and history with the brand.    Plus, Shep and Joe answer the question: Is it possible to completely eliminate average hold times and average wait times? Tune in!  Quote:   "We have to think about how we  will use AI responsibly and ethically and not introduce unintended consequences or bias."  About:    Joe Tyrrell is the CEO of Medallia. Before Medallia, he served as president of ICE Mortgage Technology.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can businesses create experiences that get repeat business and nurture brand loyalty?  How can businesses think outside the box to create fan-like loyalty among their customer base?  What lessons can companies learn from the legendary rock band, Van Halen, in creating loyal customer followings?  What can traditional businesses learn from innovative customer-centric strategies employed by the entertainment industry?  Why should organizations prioritize creating special and unforgettable experiences for their customers?  Top Takeaways:    Developing an authentic and meaningful bond with customers can lead to repeat customers and long-lasting brand loyalty. Brands must create memorable and emotionally resonant experiences for their customers. Capturing the essence of live and interactive rock star performances like Van Halen and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, who embody the art of connecting with their audience, can inspire businesses to cultivate the same kind of loyalty and enthusiasm from their own customers.     Addressing issues promptly and effectively before they escalate is crucial to maintaining a positive customer experience. Whether it's dealing with flight issues or helping customers directly, it’s important to find and fix problems quickly.  By doing so, businesses can prevent potential dissatisfaction and reinforce their commitment to providing exceptional service.    Building and maintaining brand loyalty requires businesses to go beyond providing products and services. By emulating the strategies of successful performers who have cultivated a close relationship with their wide fanbase, businesses can cultivate devoted fans who are deeply connected to their brand.     Making customers feel special and valued is a fundamental aspect of amazing customer service. Customers want to feel that you are watching out for them. Recognition and personalized attention can leave a lasting emotional impact and a strong sense of connection. Businesses that prioritize personalized attention to their customers can establish a bond that goes beyond simple transactions, creating a loyal and committed customer base.    Plus, Shep and Jim share the customer experience moments that changed their lives. Tune in!  Quote:   "When you are in the service business, whether on the front lines or in the back office, you have to think like a rock band. You are trying to create loyal fans."   About:    Jim Serger served four years in the U.S. Navy and is a full-time author who has written seven books, including 9:11 A Time To Always Remember and Jump: 40th Anniversary of Attending the "1984" Van Halen Concert.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Company Culture of Good Happy Employees, Satisfied Customers, and Supportive Communities   Shep Hyken interviews Chad Jensen, president of TCC and Wireless Zone, subsidiaries of Round Room. He talks about creating a culture of good within the company and how it impacts the employees, customers, and the community. This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can a company create a positive employee experience during challenging times?  What strategies can a company use to give back to its local communities?  How can businesses foster strong connections between their employees and the communities they serve?  What is the significance of receiving high customer satisfaction ratings for a business, and how can this impact long-term success?  How can a company create a culture that values giving back and community involvement?   Top Takeaways:    Creating a good corporate culture includes “having your employees’ backs.” During challenging periods, companies must prioritize the safety and well-being of their employees. Financial support, flexibility, and emotional assistance can result in high employee satisfaction and retention, ultimately benefiting the company's performance.    The right culture inside the organization has a direct impact on the customer experience. Creating an exceptional customer experience is essential for businesses. When employees are treated well, it often translates into happy customers, leading to positive ratings and customer satisfaction that rival even the most renowned brands.    Giving back (charity, community involvement, causes, etc.) positively impacts the culture. Active participation in local events and donations to local organizations can foster strong connections between companies and their communities. Giving back and engaging directly with local areas can create a positive impact.    The impact of philanthropy and community involvement goes beyond writing a check. By empowering employees to support local causes and giving back to the community through various initiatives, a company can make a meaningful impact on the lives of those it serves and differentiate itself from competitors. It fosters a good brand image and resonates well with customers, influencing their decision to support the business.    Integrating good deeds into daily business practices can inspire a sense of purpose and fulfillment for employees and customers. By creating a positive impact on individuals and communities through support and involvement, the company establishes itself as a force for good and a trusted partner in the community.    Plus, Chad shares the causes and initiatives that his company and employees participate in, such as addressing domestic violence and helping school children in their community. Tune in!  Quote:   "Take care of your employees first, and then take care of your customers. Every decision should  be made through the lens of showing them that we have their back."  About:    Chad Jensen is the president of Round Room, TCC, and Wireless Zone. Before his current position, Chad held roles of increasing accountability, including running finance, supply chain, IT, and HR. He is a dedicated leader who prioritized the well-being of his employees and customers during the global pandemic.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transforming Your Business and Customer Experience  Shep Hyken interviews John Rossman, executive coach, advisor, and keynote speaker on leadership, innovation, and transformation. He talks about leading big bets and driving successful organizational transformations – which is especially important when leading a customer service or CX initiative.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    What is a “big bet” in business?  How does the future press release technique communicate the vision of a transformation to employees and stakeholders?  What is the chief repeating officer, and how do they contribute to improving customer experience?  What causes organizational transformations to fail?  What role does gaining true senior executive alignment play in the success of transformative initiatives?  Top Takeaways:    A big bet is any concept, approach, project, or strategy with a high potential for impacting our customers and business.    Effective leaders communicate their vision clearly. They use techniques including  writing memos, defining the desired outcome, and creating future press releases to make the vision concrete and understandable. This approach rallies everyone in the organization around a common goal and gives them a clear understanding of their roles in achieving it.    Smart communication methods can inspire and mobilize employees. Mission and vision statements should be clear, simple, and focused on the desired outcomes. By consistently repeating the organization's mission and vision, leaders create a unified and empowered workforce.    Obtaining genuine alignment among senior leaders is critical to the success of transformative initiatives. Ensuring that leaders truly understand the mission, outcomes, and implications of the transformation helps to overcome organizational silos and fosters collaboration.    Leading organizational transformations demands an understanding of potential resistance points. Acknowledging challenges and being empathetic towards potential pushback from teams can help in creating a smoother transition.     Plus, John shares transformation strategies that successful leaders and organizations implement from his new book, Big Bet Leadership. Tune in!  Quote:   "The best transformations you can undertake are those that impact your customers directly. It’s all about understanding the problem and outcomes your customers are trying to achieve."  About:    John Rossman is the author of four books on leadership, business, and customer experience, including the bestseller The Amazon Way. His latest book, Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era, is available today.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Identifying and Eliminating Friction for Your Customers and Employees  Shep Hyken interviews John Boccuzzi Jr., president of ISG Research and author of The Art of Seducing Your Customers. He talks about how companies can ensure satisfaction and long-term growth by removing friction and continuously improving the customer and employee experience.  Top Takeaways:    If friction in business processes cannot immediately be fully eliminated, the goal is to minimize it over time. Companies should continually seek to identify and eliminate friction points within their operations to improve employee and customer experiences.    A positive employee experience contributes to positive customer experiences. If the employees are not having a great experience at work, it will reflect in the level of service they provide to customers. Investing in creating positive employee experiences directly influences the quality of service provided to the customers. A happy and satisfied workforce leads to a better customer service experience.    Businesses must design customer experiences that not only retain existing clients but also attract new customers. Creating a balance between customer retention and acquisition is essential for sustained growth and success.    Executives and company leaders should immerse themselves in their company's customer and employee experiences to gain valuable insights. Be a customer of your own business. Take time to experience firsthand the challenges and opportunities your customers and employees face daily within the business.    Companies must consider the balance between cost optimization and delivering exceptional experiences. Prioritizing customer and employee experiences over cost savings can lead to long-term success and sustainable growth.    Plus, Shep and John discuss the S.E.D.U.C.E. framework and how it can be applied to businesses of all sizes. Tune in!  Quote:   "Connect intentions with expectations. Businesses need to ensure that what they aim to deliver matches what the customers and employees experience to ensure consistency in the service."  About:    John Boccuzzi, Jr. is President of ISG Research. Before ISG, John was at Edible Arrangements and, before that, CEO of Kenosia, a data and analytics software company that was ranked #1 for customer experience four years in a row by Consumer Goods Magazine. His TEDx talk “I was Seduced by Exceptional Customer Service” was ranked the most popular video to learn Customer Experience lessons from by Omoto in 2018.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Balancing Technology and Human Support in CX Shep Hyken interviews Venk Korla, President and CEO of HGS Digital. He talks about the integration of AI technology in customer support to create personalized, empathetic experiences.   This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep  Hyken answers the following questions and more:   How is artificial intelligence used to improve customer interactions in contact centers? What are the challenges in finding the right balance between technology and human support in customer experiences? What frustrations do customers face when dealing with customer service, and how can AI address them? How can AI be used to personalize and contextualize customer experiences in contact centers? What tools can be provided to improve employee satisfaction and performance in customer service?  Top Takeaways:     ·Balancing technology and human support is essential, as both play a role in customer satisfaction. When creating a positive customer experience, understanding the value of personalization and empathy is crucial. Companies can build strong connections and foster loyalty by tailoring interactions to individual customers and showing genuine care and understanding. ·Companies can now use  AI to transcribe and analyze customer service calls to gain valuable insights into customer interactions and enhance the quality of support that they provide. AI technology has the potential to make customer interactions more transparent and inclusive for both customers and support agents.  ·Investing in employee satisfaction and providing the right tools for job performance is essential for creating a positive customer experience. Employees who feel supported and equipped to handle their roles effectively are better positioned to deliver exceptional service. ·When offering self-service options, provide clear, frustration-free instructions to empower customers to resolve their own issues. Venk brought up a concept known as the Ikea Effect. Similar to the enjoyment and fulfilling experience Ikea customers have assembling furniture on their own, customers become fulfilled and even elated when they solve problems without having to call customer support.  ·While AI and technology can streamline interactions and provide insights, the human touch, empathy, and personalized support remain essential in creating meaningful customer connections. Integrating technology with human support can enhance the overall customer experience. ·Plus, Shep and Venk discuss findings from the CX Buyers' Insights Report, revealing what CX decision-makers will invest in and focus on for 2024 and beyond. Tune in! Quote:  "Omnichannel traditionally means that a brand can serve its customers in different channels. Today, the goal is to have continuity of service because customers go from channel to channel interacting with the brand." About: Venk Korla is the President and CEO of HGS Digital. He has helped Global 1000 companies, healthcare institutions, universities, and non-profit organizations create digital strategies and solutions. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Latest Trends in Customer Loyalty Programs  Shep Hyken interviews Zsuzsa Kecsmar, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Antavo. She talks about how brands can reimagine their loyalty programs beyond points and monetary rewards to make them more engaging and designed to fit the needs of their customers.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    What are the latest trends in loyalty programs?  How has the traditional concept of loyalty program evolved?  How do loyalty programs impact a customer's purchasing decision?  How can companies effectively track and utilize customer data to drive loyalty?  What role do customer experiences and rewards play in loyalty programs?  Top Takeaways:    Loyalty programs are much more than earning points and rewards. True loyalty involves providing unique experiences and benefits to customers. A successful loyalty program aims to delight customers by offering special privileges, exclusive access, and personalized rewards that go beyond mere financial incentives.    Companies can use technology to identify and track customer behaviors, preferences, and interactions. This data can help them create personalized experiences and tailor loyalty programs to suit the needs of their customers, enhancing satisfaction and retention.    Customers are more likely to return to a brand that offers a loyalty program. In a competitive market, a well-designed loyalty program can play a significant role in influencing purchase decisions, as it adds value to the overall customer experience. Incentives such as points, perks, and exclusive rewards not only create a sense of belonging but also inspire customers to make more purchases and choose a brand over others, even if it means paying a slightly higher price.    Sustainability can be integrated into loyalty programs, offering customers an additional reason to engage with a brand. For example, athletic brands can reward customers for moving more and working out, or fashion companies can accept used clothing donations for store discounts    Loyalty programs are expanding to include a broader range of benefits beyond financial rewards. This includes offering experiential rewards, early access to sales, and other creative incentives that enrich the customer experience and deepen customer loyalty.    Plus, Shep and Zsuzsa share how companies like Peloton, Ripcurl, and Duolingo provide perks beyond the traditional monetary rewards. Tune in!  Quote:   "Loyalty programs used to be ‘earn and burn’ in the past 100 years. You spend a dollar and earn a point. But today's loyalty programs can do much more with experiential rewards, early access, and rewarding other activities outside of purchasing."  About:    Zsuzsa Kecsmar is the Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Antavo, a no-code, fully customizable enterprise loyalty platform. They have worked with brands like KFC, BMW, and Kathmandu to create gamified, experience-based rewards.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Committing to Customer Centricity  Shep Hyken interviews Michael Hinshaw, founder and president of McorpCX and author of Smart Customers, Stupid Companies about his new book, Experience Rules! He talks about the importance of giving employees the tools, confidence, and commitment to shift to a customer-centric culture.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    What are the challenges in creating a more customer-centric culture?  How can leaders support employees in executing customer-centric initiatives?  What is the key to successfully transforming work culture to better serve customers?  Why must employees in all roles understand how their actions impact the customer experience, regardless of direct customer contact?  Why must organizations facilitate conversations geared towards improving the customer experience across various departments?  Top Takeaways:    Customer satisfaction should be a company-wide goal, not just the responsibility of one department. All employees, from the warehouse staff to the legal department to leadership, have a role in delivering a positive customer experience. Everyone must understand their impact on the customer journey and be aligned with the company's mission and values to ensure consistent results.  Break down silos and encourage collaboration to deliver amazing customer experiences. By allowing different departments to work together, companies can address issues and improve processes more effectively, ultimately improving customer experience.    Every job is connected to the customer experience, and employees should be aware of how their performance affects the customer's perception of the company.    Customer-centricity should not be just a poster on the wall but integrated into every aspect of the company's operations. It requires alignment with the company's values, lived out by every employee, and endorsed by strong leadership that ensures a commitment to customer service excellence.    Providing employees with the knowledge, training, and understanding of their role in delivering great customer experiences is critical. It's not enough to expect employees to prioritize the customer without equipping them with the necessary tools and support to execute effectively.    Plus, Michael Hinshaw shares insights for his latest book, Experience Rules! Tune in!  Quote:   "Organizations need to have a discipline and a rigorous system to help them deliver better experiences consistently and systematically. This change needs to be top down, bottom up, and side to side to allow companies to make this part of their DNA."    About:    Michael Hinshaw is the founder and president of customer experience consultancy McorpCX. He's also co-author of the best-selling book, Smart Customers, Stupid Companies, and his latest, Experience Rules!, which he wrote with Diane Magers.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Generative AI's Impact on Customer Service and Employee Empowerment  Shep Hyken interviews Anuj Bhalla, Founder & CEO of serviceMob, an AI-powered analytics platform that helps businesses measure and monitor their customer service performance. He talks about creating exceptional customer experiences while adapting to the changing landscape of the service industry.  Top Takeaways:    Staying ahead of industry trends involves embracing technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a critical role in analyzing and improving customer service. AI can offer companies access to valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, adding value to the customer journey.    Organizations need to know what data and information they should be measuring and tailor it to the processes that make sense to their business.  AI can help us know what data we have and what data we need.    Despite AI's advancements, it's important to recognize that there are situations where human intervention is irreplaceable. In some instances, customer service problems may require personalized attention and empathy, which AI might struggle to provide. Balancing technological innovation with the human touch ensures that customer needs are effectively met across various scenarios.    As AI becomes increasingly integrated into the workforce, the creation of new job roles specifically meant to complement AI's capabilities increases. Instead of eliminating jobs, embracing AI could open new career paths and opportunities for employees.    With user-friendly technologies, the process of reskilling the workforce becomes more accessible, creating a workforce that is adept at leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity and deliver great customer experience.    Plus, Shep and Anuj share their predictions on the future of customer service and experience. Tune in!    Quote:   "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."    About:    Anuj Bhalla is the Founder & CEO of serviceMob, an award-winning software company that helps improve agent performance and enhance customer experience.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating a Culture of Extreme Accountability and Elite Performance  Shep Hyken interviews Art Turock, keynote speaker and author of Competent is Not an Option. He talks about the difference between the victim mindset and the accountability mindset and how they influence individual performance and shape the trajectory of one's career.    Top Takeaways:     Shep’s Comment: Some may not see this as a customer service or CX interview. I beg to differ. This is about the performance of your people. If they are on the frontline, dealing with customers, you want an elite performer, not just a competent performer. I know you will enjoy this episode!    Elite performance in business and sports involves an emphasis on mindset mastery and deliberate practice. Elite performers in both fields recognize that mindset is the trigger that determines choices and results. Extreme accountability is seeing beyond the current circumstances and committing no matter what.     Accountability isn't about assigning blame. It is assuming responsibility for one's decisions and actions. Instead of holding others accountable with blaming questions, invite accountability by asking employees questions to reveal the choices that were made and their consequences. Inviting accountability opens the door to conscious decision-making, enabling individuals to confront their current behaviors, and get better long-term results.    A victim mindset can hinder personal and professional growth. The victim mindset is characterized by minimizing responsibility and blaming external factors.     Elite performance is achieved through an accountability mindset. This means consistently choosing actions and behaviors that align with your goals and long-term success. Recognize the temptations of short-term payoffs and their negative impact on your long-term achievements. An accountability mindset in customer service empowers employees to actively choose behaviors that improve customer experience and ensure success.    Shifting from a victim mindset to an accountability mindset is critical to elite performance. It's a matter of choosing the dominant mindset that determines the course of one's performance and career over time. By adopting a mindset emphasizing accountability, employees, managers, and decision-makers go beyond competence and into elite performance for their customers.    Art Turock has a gift for Amazing Business Radio listeners that will help them demolish excuses and invite accountability. Download 6 Self-Coaching Questions to Transform Your Life for free.    Plus, Shep and Art discuss why leaders need to "stop holding employees accountable" and what they recommend to do instead. Tune in!  Quote:   "If you decide to be competent, you will do the standard, tried and true methods. When you commit to being elite, you're in a different career pattern. All of a sudden, you start taking risks, experimenting, innovating, and looking for best practices."    About:    Art Turock is an elite performer in both business and sports. He is a keynote speaker specializing in "sustaining exceptional performance." His books, Getting Physical: How to Stick With Your Exercise Program, Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine, and Competent is Not an Option: Build an Elite Leadership Team Following the Talent Development Game Plan of Sports Champions, are available on Amazon.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using AI and Automation to Create an Amazing Customer Service Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Boaz Hecht, co-founder and CEO of 8Flow.ai. He talks about the role of AI in streamlining processes and how it is changing the customer support landscape.  Top Takeaways:    AI technology is transforming customer service by streamlining repetitive tasks, saving time, and enhancing efficiency.     By learning customers’ and agents’ patterns of behavior, AI automates processes, enabling agents to focus on high-value tasks. As technology advances, companies should recognize the potential of integrating AI into their customer service platforms to improve the overall customer experience and optimize operational productivity.    The successful implementation of AI simplifies operations and empowers agents to handle more complex tasks, ultimately leading to heightened productivity and elevated customer satisfaction.    AI is driving the customer support industry towards a more efficient and higher-quality standard of service. Companies have the opportunity to upskill their agents, providing them with the tools and training to resolve complex issues effectively, further enhancing the customer experience.    Employees trained at a higher level appreciate the company they're working for. They feel they're growing, and that's part of the fulfillment of working with the company, hence lower churn of employees, which saves the company.     Plus, Shep and Boaz answer the question, "Will AI make us dumber?" Tune in!   Quote:   "AI can help agents by reducing the amount of menial tasks so they can focus on the more complex work that they need to do."  About:    Boaz Hecht is the co-founder and CEO of 8Flow.ai, a company that uses AI and machine learning to reduce costs by eliminating repetitive processes in customer support workflows.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Trends, Do's, and Don’ts of Customer Service and Experience (CX) for 2024  In this week's special episode, Shep Hyken, customer service and experience expert and host of Amazing Business Radio shares his predictions for 2024 in customer service and experience, plus 10 things to start doing and 10 things to stop doing, with practical tips and actionable insights.  Top Takeaways:    Customers are smarter than ever before. They are judging your business based on the best experiences they've had from any industry, and it doesn't matter if it's B2B or B2C. This means they no longer compare you to your direct competitors but to their best experiences with their favorite companies.     Employee experience is as important as customer experience. How employees feel in your company directly affects the experience they provide your customers.  Companies that align themselves with social causes are more appealing to customers—especially the younger demographics, Gen Z and Millennials. Forty-three percent of customers believe a company that supports a social cause contributes to their customer experience.     Customers today are less patient and expect quick responses and fast service. Shep refers to this as "Amazonation," which has set a high standard for companies in any industry, worldwide. Companies must focus on increasing their speed in all aspects of their business, from delivery times to response times to emails and calls.    Plus, Shep shares ten tactics that you must start doing, and ten things you must stop doing if you want to create a customer experience that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back.”     And finally, Shep introduces The Super Amazing Show! Each week in 2024, Shep and Brittany Hodak, his friend and fellow customer experience expert, create short videos that include tips and strategies for becoming a more customer-centric company. Tune in!  Quote:   "What's happening inside an organization is felt on the outside by its customers."  About:    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Understanding Customer Behavior   Shep Hyken interviews Akin Arikan, an evangelist at Contentsquare and the author of Customer Experience Analytics. He talks about the importance of using customer experience analytics to better understand and meet the needs of customers.  Top Takeaways:    The customer's perception matters most. Never assume you know what your customer wants without looking at data. Even the most passionate organizations can misinterpret customer behavior, so always rely on data to make decisions.     Embrace continuous improvement. Once you find success, it doesn't mean you should stop. Keep learning and looking for changes to enhance the customer experience. Continuous improvement is essential for businesses to stay ahead of the competition and adapt to changing customer needs and preferences.     Experience what it is like to be a customer in your business to identify areas for improvement and ensure a seamless, engaging experience for your customers.    Use data to understand customers' digital behavior. By analyzing data, organizations can learn valuable insights into what their customer needs and wants. This enables them to have the customer in mind when designing and improving  digital experiences.    Making small, thoughtful adjustments based on customer behavior data can lead to substantial improvements in customer engagement and conversions. These adjustments can make a big difference in how customers interact with your brand online.    When customers interact with your digital channels, their behaviors can provide valuable feedback. Embrace this feedback and be willing to adjust and refine the digital experiences in response to customer preferences and interactions.    Plus, Akin shares what changes brands like L'Occitane and GoPro made to increase sales based on customer behavior and preferences. Tune in!  Quotes:   "Customers can behave differently from what we expect. Customer experience analytics can tell us what didn’t work, what didn’t resonate, and what we should change to really hit home with our customers."  "Customer experience analytics are too important to be the job of just analysts. It is for everyone on the team that needs to make decisions to improve the customer experience."  "It may feel risky to try something new for your customers. Use data to quickly understand what the customer thinks about it. Then, correct and refine, and you will be rewarded."  About:    Akin Arikan has 20 years of experience in analytics. He is the author of two books, Multichannel Marketing: Metrics and Methods for On and Offline Success and Customer Experience Analytics.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Enabling, Recognizing, and Celebrating Great Customer Service  Shep Hyken interviews David Diestel, chief executive officer of FirstService Residential. He talks about delivering exceptional service consistently, creating moments that matter, and empowering the team to provide amazing customer experiences.  Top Takeaways:    A brand is not just about a name. It’s about being united and joining together under a common set of values. It starts with leadership defining who you are as an organization and what you stand for. Then, it is reinforced daily throughout the organization through empowerment and recognition.    Creating an organization's positive and supportive culture is key to delivering extraordinary experiences. Daily meetings involving all team members, regardless of their position, help to unify the company's culture and values. This consistency in communication and empowerment fosters a workplace that is service-aware and dedicated to delivering outstanding customer experiences.    In most organizations, there is a gap between CEOs' perceptions of being customer-centric and customers' actual experiences. This is why feedback is important. Using tools like Net Promoter Scores (NPS) to measure customer and employee experiences provides valuable insights. By understanding the depth of customer relationships, companies can align their culture and optimize their customer experience, ultimately leading to improved service, retention, and growth.    Maintaining a customer-focused culture across multiple regions requires alignment and consistency. Celebrating customer service wins and establishing consistent communication helps maintain a customer-centric focus across various locations.    Plus, Shep and David share examples of Moments of Magic®  and "Moments that Matter." Tune in!  Quote:   "Every interaction with the customer matters. It is important that everyone in the organization learns this and that it is constantly reinforced."    About:    David Diestel is the Chief Executive Officer of FirstService Residential, one of North America's largest property management groups. They serve 9,000 communities and 18,000 employees.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Small Improvements Create Lasting Change in Customer Experience   Steven Van Belleghem, customer experience expert and author of A Diamond in the Rough: Over a 100 Specific Tips to Build a Strong Customer Culture. He talks about how embracing effective empathy, empowering employees to make meaningful decisions, and building emotional customer relationships can transform companies into customer-centric organizations.  Top Takeaways:    The key to transforming companies into customer-centric organizations lies in adopting a customer experience mindset. When leaders prioritize the customer experience, it influences the entire company culture.     Empowering employees to take positive actions that benefit customers can significantly impact team morale and reinforce the company's customer-centric goals. Leaders need to continuously communicate and appreciate the impact of customer-centric behaviors.    True customer loyalty extends beyond transactional interactions and loyalty programs. Building authentic, emotional customer relationships can lead to loyalty and increased revenue. For example, offering knowledge and content for free or demonstrating appreciation for customers at all stages of their journey creates loyalty and long-term relationships.    95% of your customers will be friendly, regular people. But 5% of your customers can be complete nightmares, and nothing you do will be good enough for them. Companies often lean towards focusing on the negative 5% of customer interactions, which can result in the creation of rules and procedures based on outliers. Don't punish your good customers for the sins of the few bad ones.    Embracing a philosophy of making small, incremental improvements can lead to significant overall change in the customer experience. When companies focus on constant improvement, even if it's just 1% at a time, it can create a wave of positive impact on customer satisfaction.    Empowering employees to make small decisions and take immediate action to address customer needs can improve customer experience and loyalty. Training employees to effectively handle customer issues without having to always ask for permission enhances their ability to make decisions that benefit customers. Encouraging and reinforcing customer-centric behavior and sharing success stories during team meetings can motivate and guide employees toward delivering outstanding customer service.    Plus, Shep and Steven discuss why some companies remain "diamonds in the rough" and never successfully cultivate a customer-centric culture. Tune in!  Quote:   "It all starts with leadership. The biggest barrier for companies to succeed in their goal of becoming customer-centric is when teams don't believe their leaders."  About:    Steven Van Belleghem is a customer experience thought leader and keynote speaker. He is the author of six bestselling books. His latest book, A Diamond in the Rough: Over 100 Specific Tips to Build a Strong Customer Culture, is available now!   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Create Customer Loyalty With a Personalized Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Josh Liebman, a guest experience expert and the author of The Hospitality Mentality: Create Raving Fans Through Your Guest Experience. He talks about how organizations, whether in B2B or B2C, can adopt the hospitality mindset to create exceptional guest experiences and drive loyalty.  Top Takeaways:    The hospitality mentality is a mindset that focuses on treating every customer as a valued guest, going beyond their expectations, and providing exceptional service. This mindset can be applied to every organization in any industry.    A hyper-personalized experience is making the customer or guest feel like they are the only one that matters, even if it is only for a brief period of time. It's about delivering an experience that exceeds their expectations and is tailored to their unique preferences and needs.    A “wow moment” is a surprise and delight moment. It goes beyond what an employee, a team member, or the organization typically needs to do, but it shouldn't negatively impact any other guest's experience.     “Wow moments” don’t have to be complicated or costly. There are many ways to create memorable and personalized experiences for guests that have high value but little to no cost to your organization. It's about going the extra mile, finding moments to surprise and delight your guests, and creating a lasting impression that sets your business apart.    Consistency and predictability are crucial in delivering amazing customer service. While “wow moments” are memorable and can create a lasting impact, the foundation of great service lies in consistently delivering positive experiences (that are expected). The word "always" followed by something positive is how every customer should describe your business. Customers value businesses that are always friendly, always helpful, and always reliable.     Plus, Josh shares what it means to “get rid of your customers” and more nuggets from his latest book, The Hospitality Mentality: Create Raving Fans Through Your Guest Experience. Tune in!  Quote:   "The idea behind having a hospitality mindset is to look beyond the dollar amount customers bring into the business. Provide an experience that extends beyond the transaction and allows you to build a framework for a service culture that treats everyone like a guest."  About:    Josh Liebman specializes in guest experience within attractions, hospitality, and tourism. He is the co-host of the AttractionPros Podcast and the author of The Hospitality Mentality: Create Raving Fans Through Your Guest Experience.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Power of Google Comes to Your Website   Shep Hyken interviews Chris Blaisure, senior director of innovation and engineering at Elastic. He talks about using a Google type of search engine on your company’s website to help deliver a better customer experience and help customer support agents get the best answers for their customers.  Top Takeaways:    Businesses use advanced technology like search and generative AI to create better customer experiences. When customers visit a company's website and use the search bar to find information, the technology behind it can provide relevant and helpful results, making it easier to get the answers they need.    Searching on the internet used to be about using keywords, but now it's smarter! It understands what you really want and gives you better answers. This shift allows customers to ask broader questions and receive accurate responses, improving the effectiveness of search platforms and thereby improving customer service.    Customers can now use everyday language to get better results that accurately match what they are looking for. For example, instead of searching "discount iPhone," customers can ask, "I want the best family plan for an iPhone in California." The answer or response suits what the customer needs better.    While digital self-service solutions continue to evolve and enhance the customer experience, phone support remains essential for customers to interact with companies. The goal is not to eliminate phone support but to augment agents with AI-driven tools. This allows support agents to focus on more personalized and complex issues.    Generative AI and advanced search technologies can help build unique customer experiences. Creating meaningful and personalized customer interactions with the help of AI-powered technology can help brands set themselves apart from the competition.    Plus, Chris shares how Elastic started and evolved from searching kitchen recipes to delivering AI-powered CX. Tune in!  Quote:   "Self-service unblocks customer support… and enables a better customer experience.”    About:    Chris Blaisure is the senior director of innovation and engineering at Elastic. He is a technology leader focused on customer satisfaction and driving exceptional user experiences in software and processes.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Benefits of Self-Directed Customer Experiences (CX) for Customers and Agents  Shep Hyken interviews Nicole Kyle, Managing Director and co-founder of CMP Research. She discusses the evolution of self-service and digital customer service and the importance of personalization and customer control in self-service interactions.  Top Takeaways:    Self-service is becoming more than just enabling customers to attempt to resolve their own issues. Customers want a self-directed experience where they have control over how they are served and can resolve their issues in the way they want.   The pandemic has accelerated the normalization of digital experiences and digital tools. The lockdown has changed our customers' perspective on how they want to spend their time. Customers want to be more self-sufficient and spend less time interacting with customer support if they can get answers faster on their own.    Generative AI, like ChatGPT, is expected to grow in customer contact organizations to support agents. AI will remove low-value, repeatable tasks and help with employee burnout.     Generative AI will improve agent experience by making them more self-sufficient. For example, for whatever reason, they can't reach their manager or peers, they can interact with the AI-enabled knowledge base and get the answers they need.     Organizations need to focus on personalization and customer control in self-service experiences. Customers want a personalized experience that makes them feel valued and have the ability to resolve their issues in a way that suits them.   Plus, Nicole share stats from Self-Service CX: Executive Priorities & Technology Adoptions. Tune in!  Quote:   "Generative AI might reduce frontline workers in the future, but the good news is it will create jobs internally for people to monitor those tools and extract and analyze data."    About:    Nicole Kyle is the Managing Director and co-founder of CMP Research. Nicole joined CMP in November 2021 from Gartner, where she spent eight years leading research and advisory.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using Generative AI to Provide a Personalized Customer Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Richard Smullen, CEO of Pypestream, an AI-powered self-service automation platform. He talks about how automation and generative AI can enhance the customer experience and the potential for self-service interactions.  Top Takeaways:    The future of customer service is being transformed by AI-powered technologies that can automate and enhance customer interactions. Technologies, such as ChatGPT and generative AI, are revolutionizing how businesses interact with their customers.    AI is redefining customer support. While there will still be a need for human agents in certain high-touch situations, the majority of customer interactions will be handled by AI-powered systems.    The future of customer service is heading toward self-service and personalized experiences. By providing intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces, businesses can guide customers toward the desired outcome without human intervention.    Companies that embrace AI in their customer service operations are not necessarily reducing their workforce. Instead, they are using AI to augment human agents and improve customer service experiences.     According to Martec's Law, technology changes exponentially, but organizations change logarithmically. The longer organizations delay their adoption and experimentation with technology, the greater the gap will be, and ultimately, they'll never catch up.    Plus, Shep and Richard share their predictions on how generative AI will transform customer service and what happens to businesses that fail to adapt. Tune in!  Quote:   "The customer is not going to believe that they are building a relationship with the AI. They are going to believe that they are building a relationship with the business that happens to be using AI. That level of connectivity and personalization that AI can help a business provide is what is going to drive loyalty."    About:    Richard Smullen is the founder and CEO of Pypestream, an AI-powered automation platform. Pypestream connects businesses to customers through self-service automation and smart messaging.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Use Positive and Negative Feedback as Opportunities to Improve the Customer Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Miika Mäkitalo, CEO of HappyOrNot, a simple, non-intrusive customer feedback platform. He talks about the value of customer feedback and how businesses can benefit from actionable insights.  Top Takeaways:    Customer feedback is crucial for businesses of all industries. By actively seeking and analyzing feedback, businesses can identify areas of improvement, make informed decisions, and ultimately enhance their overall customer experience.    Technology, such as feedback kiosks and tablets, provides a simple and non-intrusive way for customers to provide feedback. These devices allow businesses to gather real-time insights and track customer satisfaction on a regular basis. Customers appreciate the convenience of these devices, as it takes just a few seconds to indicate their level of satisfaction. This encourages more customers to participate, providing a representative sample of feedback.    The value of customer feedback lies not just in data collection but in taking action. By identifying trends and patterns in feedback, businesses can make the necessary adjustments to enhance their operations, increase revenue, and improve customer loyalty.    Feedback devices with open-ended feedback options can provide even more valuable information for businesses. By allowing customers to provide specific comments or suggestions, businesses gain deeper insights into the reasons behind their satisfaction or dissatisfaction, enabling them to address specific issues and make targeted improvements.    Feedback devices can be especially beneficial for retail, healthcare, and industries where customer experience directly impacts revenue. Implementing customer feedback strategies can increase sales and profits as businesses make data-driven decisions to optimize operations and meet customer expectations.    Real-time feedback enables businesses to address issues immediately, whether a dirty restroom in an airport or a staffing gap in a retail store. Monitoring feedback in real-time allows businesses to promptly rectify any problems, ensuring a positive customer experience.    Businesses can benefit from comparing feedback across different locations or time periods. By identifying differences in customer satisfaction levels, businesses can assess the impact of various factors, such as staffing or operational changes, and make effective adjustments accordingly.    Plus, Mikka shares how much revenue a business can gain from investing in easy-to-use, real-time feedback devices. Tune in!  Quote:   "In today's world, the customer is king, and retaining them is so important. It is vital for every organization, whether it is a business or a nonprofit, to  measure their customer experience and think about what they could do better."    About:    Miika Mäkitalo is the CEO of HappyOrNot. He is an entrepreneurial business strategist who has a deep understanding of data analytics and its application in various industries, especially customer service and CX.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Apply the Hospitality Mentality to All Industries  Shep Hyken interviews Paul Rutter, global cruise director, speaker, trainer, and the author of You Can't Make This Ship Up: Business Strategies, Life Lessons, and True Stories from Forty Years at Sea. He talks about the hospitality mentality in the cruise industry and how it can be applied to other businesses.  Top Takeaways:    The hospitality mentality is key to creating a great customer experience in any type of business. Industries like hotels, restaurants, and cruise lines excel in this area because they live with their customers 24/7, which creates a unique dynamic for delivering outstanding service. We can all learn from their methods.    Living with customers means managing their experience from the moment they start considering a purchase to the time they return for another one. It involves addressing any issues they may encounter, no matter how small, and ensuring their overall satisfaction throughout the entire journey.    Employee engagement is crucial for maintaining a high level of service for any company or brand. In industries like cruising, where employees live and work together, fostering a positive work environment is essential to ensuring that employees wake up each day ready to deliver exceptional customer service.    “More than Perfect Service” is all about where you are, where you would like to be, how you will get there, and making sure that your customers and employees sing your praises.    You're not just competing with other businesses in the same industry. You're competing against every business in the world. Take other companies that deliver great service and design your training and education to emulate them.    Plus, Paul shares how he managed a recent moment of misery of a cruise getting canceled and turned it into an opportunity to keep and impress customers. Tune in!  Quote:   "Forming relationships with people is what business is all about. It's the little things that make you stand out, like learning somebody's name or writing a thank you note. It's what makes them want to come back."  About:    Paul Rutter is a seasoned professional in the cruise industry who understands the unique challenges and dynamics of living and working with customers 24/7. He is the author of Repeat Business Inc.: The Business of Staying in Business and his latest book, You Can't Make This Ship Up: Business Strategies, Life Lessons, and True Stories from Forty Years at Sea.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Meaningful Motivation through Understanding Customer Needs  Shep Hyken interviews Aransas Savas, the experience designer at Stone Mantel, and the co-host of the Experience Strategy Podcast. She talks about the transformational experience and creating a more meaningful and valuable relationship between customers and companies.  Top Takeaways:    Transformational experiences involve understanding what truly motivates and inspires customers. This goes beyond mere metrics and focuses on the holistic changes people experience.    Meaningful motivation is key to creating a valuable relationship between a company and its customers. It involves understanding customers' needs and building experiences that cater to those needs, leading to a more lasting and meaningful connection.    Manipulative motivation, where companies use data to manipulate customers for their own needs, is not the ideal approach. Meaningful motivation focuses on creating experiences that genuinely respond to customers' needs and desires.    The power of transformation lies in unlocking and understanding the transformational aspects of a program or service. By shifting focus from just one metric (e.g., weight loss) to a holistic approach, companies can create more meaningful and impactful experiences.    The power of transformation lies in unlocking and understanding the transformational aspects of a program or service. By shifting focus from just one metric to a holistic approach, companies can create more meaningful and impactful experiences.    Understanding what matters to customers and aligning business strategies and experiences to those needs is crucial. Companies can build strong, lasting relationships with their target audience by putting customers at the center and designing experiences around their motivations.    Plus, Shep and Aransas discuss which industries transformational experiences apply to. Tune in!  Quote:   "The transformation economy is about understanding what truly motivates and inspires customers to create lasting change in their lives."    About:    Shep Hyken interviews Aransas Savas, the experience designer at Stone Mantel and the co-host of the Experience Strategy Podcast. She has worked with leading brands such as Weight Watchers, Best Buy, Truist Bank, and Clayton Homes.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Get Your CX House in Order  Shep Hyken interviews  Andrew Carothers, CCXP, Digital Customer Experience Leader at Cisco. He talks about delivering seamless experiences that lead to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue growth.  Top Takeaways:    Building a solid customer experience foundation is essential for all businesses, regardless of their industry or target audience.     Andrew shares the four key steps to deliver experiences that lead to customer satisfaction, repeat business, and retention.    Get your CX house in order. Break down internal barriers, whether they are human or digital, that hinder the success of customer experience initiatives.  Embrace AI. To handle customer experience (CX) on a large scale, go beyond manual, human-driven processes. Instead, focus on meeting customer expectations for instant responses, relevant content, and smart, seamless experiences across multiple channels.  Scale digitally in lockstep with selling partners. Create a comprehensive digital experience encompassing partners, customers, and internal teams. This enables everyone to access a unified, real-time view of the entire customer journey.  Measure what matters. The metric that matters the most is the success and thriving of the customer's business.    To create a successful digital customer experience, businesses must focus on reaching customers directly and through different channels, tailoring their approach based on customer preferences and needs. Utilizing digital tools and technology allows companies to effectively reach millions of customers in different countries and engage with them in a personalized manner.    Plus, Shep and Andrew share more customer experience tips applicable to businesses, whether in B2B, B2C, or in government. Tune in!  Quote:   "We are now in the age of the customer where customers can quickly and easily switch vendors if they want to. Every company must develop a customer experience that brings customers to the value they're looking for quickly, without a lot of hurdles."    About:    Andrew Carothers, CCXP, is a senior customer experience leader, author and speaker. He was a founding member of Cisco's CX function, contributing to the development of the company's digital customer experience strategy.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Enhancing Customer Support Efficiency with AI and Human Collaboration  Shep Hyken interviews Peter Mullen, Chief Marketing Officer of Interactions. He talks about the power of AI in customer service and the benefits of integrating human support when necessary.  Top Takeaways:    Conversational AI technology, powered by artificial intelligence, has revolutionized customer support by providing efficient and personalized assistance to customers. This technology can understand customers' queries, provide relevant answers, and guide them toward a resolution.    Combining AI and human agents can create a seamless and effective customer experience. When AI detects that a customer is not getting the desired answer or experiencing difficulties, it can seamlessly transfer the conversation to a human agent who can provide further assistance. This collaboration between AI and humans can reduce customer frustration and lead to quicker problem resolution.    Conversational AI solutions can be beneficial in voice-led customer interactions. By recognizing ambient noise, heavy accents, or other challenges, AI can identify when a customer's intentions may not be fully understood. In such cases, the conversation can be seamlessly transferred to a human agent, minimizing any disruption in the customer experience.    By automating routine inquiries and tasks, AI allows human agents to focus on more complex or specialized customer needs. This allows contact centers to handle more inquiries while maintaining service quality.    Conversational AI technology has the potential to improve customer satisfaction by reducing the number of interactions required to solve a problem. Studies show that customers often become frustrated after a few unsuccessful attempts to resolve an issue. Therefore, companies that can address customer concerns with fewer engagements will likely see higher customer satisfaction rates.    Plus, Shep and Peter answer the question: Will AI take away jobs? Tune in!  Quote:   “Generative AI has brought about a mix of excitement, fear, and confusion since the beginning. When we emphasize the importance of involving humans, it helps us anchor ourselves as we move forward.”    About:    Peter Mullen is the Chief Marketing Officer of Interactions, a company specializing intelligent virtual assistants and conversational AI. He is a seasoned marketing executive with 20 years of experience. Before his role at Interactions, he also held prominent marketing and communications roles at VXI Global Solutions, Comcast, and Netflix.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Importance of Employee Experience to Customer Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Alex Ross, co-founder and chief operating officer of Hire Horatio. He talks about leveraging customer experience as a competitive advantage and creating a work environment that employees love (beyond the paycheck).  Top Takeaways:    Outsourcing customer service and support functions can be an effective strategy for businesses, especially startups, to offload non-core tasks and focus on their core competencies. It can be beneficial as it allows companies to provide 24/7 support and access to properly trained professionals, even if they are not direct employees of the company.    Customer service should not be viewed solely as a cost center but as an opportunity to enhance customer experience, generate revenue, and improve customer retention.    Customer service can contribute to revenue growth by resolving customer issues and upselling, cross-selling, and retaining customers who may have been on the verge of leaving.    In today's competitive landscape, smart companies focus on designing differentiated customer experiences and leveraging customer support and CX as a competitive advantage.    Creating a positive and supportive work environment for customer service employees is crucial for employee retention in an industry known for high turnover rates.    Plus, Alex shares what they are doing at Hire Horatio to attract, nurture, and keep the best people and create the best customer service and experience. Tune in!  Quote:   "Around 2019 and 2020, everybody just wanted to see top-line growth. It was all about numbers and revenue. Now, investors are looking at retention and customer lifetime value, which all start with customer experience."    About:    Alex Ross is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Hire Horatio. He works with startups, providing them with invaluable customer support and back-office functions.     Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Increased Tipping Influences Value Perception and Customer Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Forrest Morgeson, Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index and Associate Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University. He talks about how tipping and "tipflation" impacts customer satisfaction scores and the need for businesses to improve customer service and experience.  Top Takeaways:    The frequency of tipping, or "tipflation," has increased across industries. Businesses should consider tipping practices' impact on customer satisfaction and carefully evaluate when and how tipping should be implemented.    Rising prices and increased pressure to tip can create a sense of guilt for consumers. This may lead some individuals to avoid experiences where they feel obligated to over-tip. Businesses should be mindful of these factors and strive to find a balance that doesn't cause customer discomfort.    High customer satisfaction ratings contribute to the success of brands and can be indicators of financial performance. Companies that excel in simplicity, convenience, and NPS scores tend to outperform the market collectively.    Positive experiences in one industry can shape customer expectations in others. For example, exceptional customer service at an Apple store can set the bar for expectations in restaurants and other industries. Brands should aim to provide consistent and engaging experiences across all touchpoints to meet customer expectations.    While technology can enhance service delivery, it should be working well and dependable before implementation. Reliability is crucial to maintaining positive customer experiences and satisfaction.    Plus, Shep and Forrest discuss ways to increase your customer satisfaction scores. Tune in!  Quote:   "When tipping becomes a common expectation in service interactions, consumers will mentally factor it into the price and value perceptions."    About:    Forrest Morgeson is the Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index. He is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University, where he teaches marketing management, marketing strategy, and marketing research courses to EMBA and MSMR students.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Impact of Speed in Winning and Retaining Clients    Shep Hyken interviews Howard Moodycliffe, Chief Executive Officer of Timetoreply. He talks about how prompt communication can help companies build trust, enhance credibility, and increase customer satisfaction.  Top Takeaways:  In today's fast-paced world, customers expect timely responses across various communication channels. Whether it's email, phone calls, or social media, consistent and efficient interaction is essential to meet customer expectations.    Speaking of customers expecting quick and timely responses, if they wanted to wait, they would have waited to make ask their question or make their request in the first place. Businesses should value their customers' time and demonstrate respect by delivering quick and consistent responses. This not only helps in acquiring new clients but also strengthens customer loyalty and fosters long-term relationships.    Email remains a dominant channel for B2B communication. Companies across different industries should customize their response speed based on the preferences of their customers. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and understanding industry-specific expectations is essential to succeed.    Consistency is crucial in providing an outstanding customer experience. It is not enough to respond quickly at the beginning of the customer relationship. You must always respond quickly. Maintaining consistent response times builds trust and sets proper expectations.     Finding the right balance between speed and quality is essential. While quick response times are important, businesses should also ensure that their responses are accurate, helpful, and provide value to the customer.  Timetoreply has a special offer for Amazing Business Radio listeners! Get one month of their email analytics and performance optimization software for free.   Plus, Shep and Howard discuss how to create a positive experience even when delivering less-than-ideal news to your customers. Tune in!  Quote:  "Speed makes one of the highest impacts in increasing customer satisfaction whether you're looking to win clients or retain the ones you already have."    About:  Howard Moodycliffe is the CEO of Timetoreply, an email response management and analytics software that helps companies empower teams, delight customers, and boost revenue.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leveraging Data to Improve Your Customer Experience Strategy  Shep Hyken interviews Jason Barro, Partner at Bain & Co. and Founder of NPS Prism®. He talks about the importance of measuring and understanding Net Promoter Score (NPS) in improving customer experiences (CX) and driving business growth.  Top Takeaways:  Net Promoter Score (NPS) evaluates customer sentiment and allows companies to compare their data with competitors. It helps identify areas where organizations may be falling short and prompts them to revise their current strategies for improvement.    To improve customer experience, companies need to break down the customer journey into smaller episodes or touchpoints. By identifying which episodes create promoters (satisfied customers) or detractors (unsatisfied customers), companies can focus on improving specific aspects of the customer experience.    Customers don't just compare you to other companies within your industry. They compare you to the best experience they have ever had. It is crucial to examine why certain companies perform better than others. By analyzing what makes them successful, businesses can identify areas where they can improve and work towards closing the gap.    Having a great product is important, but it can be overshadowed and rejected if accompanied by poor customer service. Likewise, even the best service may only temporarily excite a customer if the product fails to meet their expectations. Companies need to achieve a balance between product quality and customer experience.    Plus, Shep and Jason talk about the NPS leaders in various industries, including automotive, groceries, airlines, and more. Tune in!  Quote:  "Happier customers are more valuable to the business. They buy more, stay longer, and bring their friends into your business."    About:  Jason Barro is a leader in Bain's Customer Strategy and Marketing practice. He is the lead partner and founder of NPS Prism ®, a customer experience and benchmarking service that provides businesses with actionable insights to build loyalty and grow sales.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why Leadership is Overrated and The Power of an Ego-Free Workplace  Shep Hyken interviews Chris Mefford, CEO of Culture Force and co-author of Leadership Is Overrated: How the Navy SEALs (and Successful Businesses) Create Self-Leading Teams That Win. He discusses creating a safe space for teams to feel engaged and empowered to work at their best.  Top Takeaways:    There is a gap between how leaders perceive employee engagement and how employees actually feel. According to Gallup research, 70% of employees are disengaged at work. However, only 30% of leaders feel that way. In the same way, a significant gap often exists between what executives believe about their customer service and what customers actually experience.    Despite the high investment of $300 billion annually worldwide on leadership development, surveys consistently show that employees still feel disengaged. Most of the time, people don't leave because of the company. They leave their managers.    Leaders should give authority to their teams, not just responsibility. Often, leaders think they are empowering their team by giving them more work. Empower teams by listening to their ideas and enabling them to make decisions based on what they believe is best.     In special forces like the Navy SEALs, the leader of a mission is not necessarily the highest-ranking officer but someone with the most relevant experience. The Navy SEALs practice "killing the leader," where they train by removing a leader or two to help the team understand that they are empowered to make decisions.     Acknowledgment is the top motivator for workers, even more than pay. Giving credit and acknowledging the team's efforts along the way, not just when a project is completed, boosts engagement. Boston Consulting surveyed 200,000 workers across the globe to find what motivates them the most. An attractive fixed salary is number eight, while the number one factor is "Appreciation for your work."    When leaders let their egos get in the way, it hinders collaboration and prevents teams from coming together to create amazing results. Great leadership requires humility and putting the team's needs above personal ego.    Plus, Shep and Chris discuss what happens when egos are removed from the leadership with examples from Aretha Franklin to book retailers. Tune in!  Quote:   "Empathy is a billion-dollar industry. When companies are not intentional about making their employees feel engaged and empowered, the financial cost is tremendous."    About:    Chris Mefford is the CEO of Culture Force and co-author of Leadership Is Overrated: How the Navy SEALs (and Successful Businesses) Create Self-Leading Teams That Win. He helped the Dave Ramsey Organization win the “Best Place to Work” award for eight straight years.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building Authenticity and Trust in Business through Impactful Communication  Shep Hyken interviews Patrick McCullough, president of Hallmark Business Connections. He talks about how businesses can use the power of personalization at scale to strengthen relationships, create emotional connections, and enhance the customer experience.  Top Takeaways:  Authenticity and personalization can strengthen business relationships, build trust, and create emotional connections that lead to repeat business and loyalty.    Personalized notes are a powerful tool in business. They break through the clutter of digital communication and create a meaningful connection with customers and clients. Greeting cards can be used strategically to strengthen business relationships. Sending cards for special occasions, milestones, or even reminders for appointments can show thoughtfulness and attention to detail.    A well-thought-out client journey map can ensure that personalized notes are sent at the right moments. By mapping out the timeline of each client's relationship, businesses can create a systematic approach to sending cards and notes.    Building trust and authenticity is crucial in business. Sending personalized notes creates emotional connections and reinforces the credibility and reliability of the brand or company.    The physical and digital worlds can work together to enhance customer experience. By combining the magic of the "old school touch" with digital tools, businesses can create a seamless and impactful communication strategy.    Businesses can use life touch points such as birthdays, holidays, Mother's Day, and Father's Day to connect with customers. But, what customers find surprising are business touch points that also create connections. For example, a customer signing up for a new health insurance plan may be expecting onboarding materials and contracts. So, sending a personalized note that says, "Thank you so much for choosing us, and we're going to do everything we can to stand by you." makes for a more wonderful start to the experience.    The impact of personalized gifts goes beyond the moment it is received. It leaves a lasting impression and can be a catalyst for repeat business, increased customer loyalty, and referrals.    Plus, Shep and Patrick talk about companies that have mastered personalization at scale. Tune in!  Quote:  "Greeting cards provide a tangible and unique way to break through the digital noise and make a lasting impression on customers and clients."  About:  Patrick McCullough is the president of Hallmark Business Connections, which helps businesses strengthen customer and employee relationships by deepening emotional connections with them through life event marketing.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meeting Consumer Demand through Amazing Customer Support and Innovation Shep Hyken interviews Mark Ang, CEO and Co-Founder of GoBolt. He talks about taking a proactive approach to customer service and embracing technology to enhance the customer experience. Top Takeaways:    ·      Customer obsession is a crucial aspect of every business, regardless of its size or industry. It should be embraced by everyone in the organization, from senior leaders to frontline employees.   ·      To provide exceptional customer service, it is essential to have a dedicated customer support team that is well-trained and equipped with the right tools and technology. Utilizing cutting-edge solutions like chatbots and AI can improve efficiency and reduce ticket volume, allowing the team to focus on handling complex support issues.   ·      Respond quickly and be available through your customers' preferred channels, such as phone, email, text, and social media. Customers have high expectations when it comes to responsiveness, and meeting those expectations can significantly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.   ·      Being proactive and using data to anticipate customer needs is a game-changer. By analyzing customer behavior and trends, companies can address potential issues before they arise, providing a personalized and proactive approach to customer support.   ·      While technology plays a significant role in improving customer service, human interaction remains essential. It's about finding the right balance between AI-powered solutions and human touch to provide a seamless and personalized customer experience.   ·      Plus, Mark shares how he founded GoBolt in college and how being customer-obsessed built it to become the award-winning company it is today. Tune in! Quote:  "The goal is not to eliminate humans. The goal is to create more time for our people to deal with higher-level support requirements, manage more complex processes, and oversee different areas of the business."   About:   Mark Ang serves as the CEO and Co-Founder at GoBolt, an organization offering simple, customer-centric, and sustainable logistics solutions. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why Marketing and Training Go Hand in Hand in Shaping Customer Perceptions Shep Hyken interviews Barry LaBov, the founder of LABOV Marketing Communications and Training and author of The Power of Differentiation. He discusses the importance of aligning marketing messages with employee training to create a unique and consistent customer experience. Top Takeaways:  Giving employees a sense of meaning and purpose creates excitement and engagement. When employees feel connected to the brand and enjoy the experience they deliver, it translates into a better connection with customers. Training is crucial in aligning employees with the brand's unique experience. If new hires don't receive the same training as the rest of the team, the result is inconsistency, which can create a disconnect with customers. Onboarding processes that quickly integrate new employees into the company culture are essential. Brands should aim to bridge the gap between their brand image and customer experience. If customers become excited about the product or brand, their expectations should be met or exceeded from the moment they interact with the business. Aligning the messaging and experience is crucial in maintaining customers' enthusiasm. Differentiating a product or brand starts from within. Before promoting to the world, it's important to share and celebrate what makes the product unique with employees. Ensuring employees are knowledgeable promotes consistency and helps avoid miscommunication or confusion. The right customer experience creates brand loyalty. Your brand's reputation is created by every individual representing the brand. It's important for employees throughout the organization to understand their role in shaping how customers perceive the brand. Regardless of location or demographic, customers expect a consistent and predictable experience.  Plus, Shep and Barry discuss how engaging one employee at a time can be more effective than mass engagement. Tune in! Quote: "Marry the message to the experience. The marketing and promotion should be congruent with the actual experience the customer receives."  About:  Barry LaBov is the founder of LABOV Marketing and Training in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He empowers brands to impress their customers and capture the hearts of their employees. He is the author of The Power of Differentiation, a book that helps leaders discover and share what makes their brands unique. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investing in Customer Experience and Employee Engagement Shep Hyken interviews Alan Masarek, CEO and Board Director of Avaya. He discusses prioritizing customer satisfaction and creating a positive workplace culture. Top Takeaways:  Being a destination workplace requires deliberately building a culture that attracts talented individuals. Organizations should strive to create an environment where employees are proud to work, find meaning in their careers, and have growth opportunities.  In today's job market, loyalty to a single company is less common. Employees often see their first job as a stepping stone to their next employment opportunity. Companies need to create a work environment that employees never want to leave and would want to recommend to others. Providing innovation without disrupting existing systems is a strategic approach for companies with large installations. The gradual integration of new channels and capabilities can help customers evolve and expand in the journey they have chosen. Creating a clear and transparent roadmap is key to building trust with customers and employees. Companies can foster stronger relationships and restore confidence in their offerings by demonstrating reliability and actively involving customers in the decision-making process. This can be achieved through open communication, sharing long-term plans, and consistently delivering on commitments. Balancing financial results with customer and employee objectives is essential for long-term success. Companies should prioritize customer delight and creating value for shareholders. Organizations can create a clear roadmap for success by aligning these objectives and holding themselves accountable for achieving results. Plus, Shep and Alan talk about Avaya's North Star and how it can be applied to businesses of any size, in any industry. Tune in! Quote: "The megatrend in business today is towards CX. Brands have to differentiate themselves based on customer experience.” About:  Alan Masarek, CEO and Board Director of Avaya. He is the former CEO of Vonage. and brings over 30 years of software and cloud-based business experience. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Balancing Technology, the Human Touch, and Customer Experience (CX) Shep Hyken interviews Tom Martin, CEO at Glance, a software company focused on helping businesses connect with their customers. He discusses combining technology with human-to-human interactions to create a seamless and personalized customer experience. Top Takeaways:  In the age of advanced technology, it's crucial for businesses to prioritize the overall customer experience. While chatbots and digital solutions are valuable, human-to-human interactions still plays a vital role, especially when technology falls short.  Understanding and predicting customer needs are key to effective customer engagement. By analyzing their data and journey, businesses can provide tailored assistance "in the moment". This not only solves customers' problems efficiently but also strengthens the relationship. Provide seamless connections between various communication channels, including chatbots, apps, phone calls, and emails. The goal is to create an effortless customer experience, removing friction and allowing them to interact with the company through their preferred channels.  Customer interaction often spans multiple departments or silos within a company. It is important for leadership and management to know that the customer doesn't care about silos and what is happening in the background. The only thing that they care about is that they have a great experience with you – and when they do, they reward you with more business. Repetition is unnecessary friction in delivering a seamless customer support. Customers dislike having to repeat themselves or go through verification processes multiple times. Companies should strive to streamline their support systems so that customers can connect easily and quickly without unnecessary steps or frustrations. When offering digital support systems, enable customers to reach a real person whenever needed. Use AI to provide contextual information to the agent as the conversation is happening. When AI pulls information from the customer's history or a knowledge base, support agents are empowered to have better interactions and efficiently provide the best solution. Plus, Shep and Tom talk about "wallet share" and how providing an amazing experience can help companies gain trust and become the go-to provider for all of their customers' needs. Tune in! Quote: "Different channels allow you to communicate with a business, and each one can serve a very specific purpose. All of these need to work together so that the customer experience isn't disrupted and there is no unnecessary friction to get from one channel to the next." About:  Tom Martin is CEO at Glance, a software company focused on the enterprise space, helping businesses connect with their customers inside of a digital journey to bring in the human connection in moments of need. He is a CX contact center strategist, product lifecycle expert, and partnership builder. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How AI is Transforming Customer Communication Shep Hyken interviews Anand Janefalkar, CEO and founder of UJET. He talks about the power of AI enhancing CX and how businesses can leverage it to improve customer support and avoid churn. Top Takeaways:  Customers have so many options and want to get the best out of the money they spend. Since there are many options for companies offering more or less the same services, customer support becomes the differentiator. It comes down to how easy it is to communicate with a business and how delightful the experience is. In the 80s, the White House commissioned the Technical Assistant Research Program to conduct a study on customer experience. They found out that the number one reason customers leave is rudeness or apathy. Almost 40 years later, our customer service and experience research has the same findings - the number one reason customers leave to do business elsewhere is rudeness or apathy.  The evolution of customer communication has expanded beyond traditional phone and mail. Companies must embrace diverse channels like chatbots, social media, and visual communication to meet customer expectations and deliver a seamless experience. Customer service professionals and support agents now mostly consist of young professionals who are digitally acquainted. They are "obsessed" with their phones, and the internet has become a seamless extension of their day-to-day lives. Training them on a stack designed 20-30 years ago, which they have never used in their lives, then asking them to solve a problem for the customer without using their senses of visual and contextual information gathering is a recipe for disaster. The result can be rudeness that comes from frustration from the inability to solve that issue. Technology must feel intuitive. Just like smartphones became popular because they are easy to use, customer service platforms must prioritize user-friendly interfaces that make interactions effortless. They should have a human-first mindset when designing communication between customers, support agents, and AI. Organizations need to be responsible for using AI for customer interactions. Proper training, data, and empathy are crucial to ensure AI understands and responds appropriately to customers, providing a human-like experience while maintaining efficiency and accuracy. Plus, Shep and Anand discuss how AI can empower agents and increase their efficiency. Tune in! Quote: "Natural language processing and AI play a crucial role in customer communication. When communicating with customers, it needs to feel like you're explaining something just like you would explain it to a family or a friend."  About:  Anand Janefalkar is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of UJET. Anand founded UJET to modernize the contact center by addressing long-standing design flaws and conventional thinking that have failed to evolve in parallel with changing human interaction landscape. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workplace That Drives a Better Employee Experience Shep Hyken interviews Philip Mandelbaum, founder, and CEO of Mandelbaum Marketing and Head of Content of Customer Management Practice. He talks about how prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion creates a supportive work environment that drives revenue growth and customer loyalty. Top Takeaways:  Employee experience is the new customer experience. It goes beyond a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce. It is also about company culture, training, work environment, and how an organization supports growth that plays into how people think about a brand.  Many people in diverse workforces report being discriminated against. According to Deloitte's State of Inclusion survey, nearly 2/3 of workers have experienced bias in the workplace, and 40% experience bias at least once a month. Studies have shown that companies devoted to DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) earn 140% more revenue. They are 70% more likely to capture a new market and 35% more likely to outperform their competitors.  There is a difference between equality and equity. Equality is about treating each person with respect regardless of their background. Equity is acknowledging that people show up to work under their own unique circumstances. It considers historical and present-day disadvantages and makes sure that each individual has the appropriate resources to succeed.  Customers buy and support companies that care about the same things that they do. According to our 2023 Achieving Customer Amazement Study, sponsored by Five9, 43% of consumers believe it's important that a company has a social cause that's important to them. 41% are willing to pay more if the cause is important to them, making the price less relevant. 60% of Gen Z said they are willing to tolerate a poor service experience from a company that cares about the same things they do. Plus, Shep and Philip discuss who they think is the most important person in an organization - the CEO, the customers, the employees, or the shareholders. Tune in! Quote: "Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important to a business's internal success with the employees, which translates to customer success." About:  Philip Mandelbaum is a 20-year industry veteran and thought leader in digital marketing, customer experience, and employee experience. He is the founder and CEO of Mandelbaum Marketing and Head of Content of Customer Management Practice. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Benefits of the As-A-Service Model Shep Hyken interviews Yann Toutant, founder of Black Winch and author of AS A SERVICE: Turn Your Product Based Business Into a Subscription Model. He talks about what an As-A-Service model is and how it impacts the customers, the business, and the environment. Top Takeaways:  Usership means using – not buying – what you need for the experience you want at a specific moment and location. For example, customers who enjoy windsurfing do not need to purchase, store, and maintain a windsurfing board. They can go to a good windsurfing shop and rent, lease, or subscribe to the “use” of the equipment for as long as they want.  Customers often have many possessions that require their time and money to manage. In an As-A-Service model, customers become users instead of owners. Through usership, products will fulfill a need without the burden of maintenance, storage, and the added cost of owning.  The benefit of usership in the As-A-Service model is that when the product or solution a customer subscribes to is no longer needed, they can easily opt out of it without being left with something they can't use. The As-A-Service model creates a circular relationship with customers. The interaction does not end when the sale is closed. Instead, companies provide an experience where customers have a much stronger connection to the brand through regular (daily, weekly, monthly) contact.  There is a positive environmental impact with the As-A-Service model for physical products. When a user no longer needs a product, another user can use it, or the manufacturer can refurbish or remanufacture it into new equipment.  Plus, Shep challenges Yann to think of a product that cannot be transformed into an As-A-Service or subscription model. Tune in! Quote: "Do you own your belongings, or do your belongings own you? I decided to rid myself of many belongings anchoring me down and go for usage instead of ownership. You don’t need to own something to get the best experience.”  About:  Yann Toutant is the founder of Black Winch, where he helps organizations focus on the customer experience by implementing a successful and scalable As-A-Service Model. His book, AS A SERVICE: Turn Your Product Based Business Into a Subscription Model, is now available on Amazon. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Simple and Convenient Customer Experiences Shep Hyken interviews Ricardo Saltz Gulko, Managing Director of Eglobalis and Co-Founder of the European Customer Experience Organization (ECXO). He shares how brands prioritizing simple and convenient experiences can gain a competitive advantage. Top Takeaways:  A simple and convenient customer experience can be a competitive advantage for brands and companies, whether it’s B2B or B2C. It starts with leadership, where decisions are made and trickle down to every department in the company. Being nice and respectful is one thing, but there is more. There must also be a process behind delivering an amazing customer experience. Adoption means loyalty. Make it easy for your customers to adopt your products and services. This will make the difference between them continuing to do business with you instead of going to your competitors. There is a place for simplicity and complexity. Behind-the-scenes, your operation can be complex, allowing you to deliver everything your customers need and expect. However, on the surface, it needs to be simple. Most people have a limit on the number of decisions that they want to make in a day. A confused buyer will likely move on and find a place that’s easier to do business with. Make it simple for your customers without sacrificing quality. Measure and get feedback on the different points of the interaction throughout the customer’s journey. Use the data and feedback to improve the experience. Ricardo wrote a must-read article on why brands should simplify customer and employee experiences. Plus, Shep and Ricardo share how much money companies leave on the table by making experiences too complicated for their customers. Tune in! Quote: "If you don't design customer experiences around simplicity, you are leaving money on the table. The easier you make the experience for your customers, the sooner they will adopt your products and services." About:  Ricardo Samuel Saltz Gulko is a global strategist focused on customer experience, operations simplification, technology design, and culture transformation. He is the Managing Director of Eglobalis and the co-founder & initiator of the European Customer Experience Organization. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Empowering Employees From the First 100 Days and Beyond Shep Hyken interviews Joey Coleman, an award-winning speaker and author of Never Lose an Employee Again: The Simple Path to Remarkable Retention. He shares why employees leave and how organizations can create a meaningful work culture that supports longevity. Top Takeaways:   ·      You can only expect to deliver a remarkable customer experience if you have remarkable employees. People think that customer experience and employee experience are two different silos. The better way to look at it is that they are two sides of the same coin because we need to work on both.   ·      The first 100 days are the most important time in the entire relationship with an employee because this is where the foundation is laid. How we onboard employees and make them feel part of our organization’s community can differentiate whether they will be long-time employees or leave as fast as they came.   ·      When onboarding and acclimating your employees, the number of days you're willing to spend teaching them, showing them the ropes, and “holding their hand” is directly proportional to the number of months they will stay as an employee.   ·      Work Institute did a massive survey of exit interview investigations, and here's what they found - Top 5 reasons why employees leave:   ·      Reason #1 Career - 24% of the employees leave because they couldn't see a clear career path.   ·      Reason #2 Job - Stress, lack of resources, training, and empowerment.   ·      Reason #3 Health and Family - Their personal health or a responsibility to care for kids or aging parents.   ·      Reason #4 Work-Life Balance - Travel, commute, or scheduling.   ·      Reason #5 Rewards - Only 9% of employees leave for a bigger paycheck.   ·      Employers may care about their employees, but the employees themselves may not know it. Your employees probably have no idea of all the time and effort you're spending thinking about making payroll, advancing their careers, and making sure people don't suffer burnout. Share it with them, but when you do, spend a little less time telling and a little more time showing.   ·      Plus, Joey shares the two of the eight phases of the employee journey that every organization needs to ace. Tune in! Quotes:  “If you're not painting a clear path for your people and expecting them to manage and figure out their careers on their own, then you deserve to lose them.”   About:   Joey Coleman is the creator of the First 100 Days® methodology for improving customer and employee retention. He is the author of Never Lose a Customer Again: Turn Any Sale into Lifelong Loyalty in 100 Days and Never Lose an Employee Again: The Simple Path to Remarkable Retention. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leveraging Content and Social Media to Provide Customer Care Shep Hyken interviews Mich Hancock, CEO of 100th Monkey and the host of MichMash Podcast. She talks about how brands can use digital content and social media to communicate with customers, showcase their values, and enhance customer experience. Top Takeaways:  Social media is called "social" for a reason. It's more than posting branded content. It is about communicating with your customers, getting feedback, responding to comments, and taking action based on what your customers tell you. Respond thoughtfully to every comment, positive or negative. Instead of replying with a generic "thank you" each time someone leaves a comment, respond in a way that makes the customer feel heard as an individual.  Customers are watching you on social media. They are especially watching how you handle negative comments or complaints. When you handle negative comments effectively, it gives customers tremendous confidence to want to do business with you. Remember, you are not trying to win an argument, you are trying to win the customer – and in the world of social media, everyone can watch Social media is a way for businesses to bring people into their community. It is a way for brands to tell a story about their business so customers can get to know them better and understand how they work.  When you offer customer care through social media, educate your customers to go to that channel, and make sure you are monitoring those channels and engaging with your customers promptly.  Plus, Mich shares how companies can share their values, message, and authenticity with their customers. Tune in! Quotes: "Customers like to do business with companies that care about the same things that they do. If you support an amazing cause, you should talk about it because it says a lot about you." About:  Mich Hancock is the CEO of 100th Monkey. She is the Co-Founder and License Holder of TEDxStLouis and the host of Michmash Podcast, where she helps individuals and organizations raise their voices and be heard. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Delighting Customers Through Effective Communication Shep Hyken interviews Justine Tavares, Director of Customer Success at TextExpander, a productivity tool that automates repetitive tasks and improves communication efficiency. She talks about improving customer relationships through customer-centric, up-to-date, and consistent messaging. Top Takeaways:  TextExpander allows you to access all of the things your team needs at their fingertips. It empowers teams to access the information they need to do their day-to-day, such as support responses, e-mail replies, sales pitches, and many more. It also enhances communication internally and externally, making it easy for your team to delight your customers with less effort in less time. Up-to-date and consistent messaging ensures customer delight. Whenever an update is implemented within your organization, ensure it is communicated from the frontline to the back office so that everyone can access the same information.  You don't always make decisions that are going to make the customers happy, but always keep them in mind when making them.  Proactively communicate changes that could impact customer experience. Provide transparent and open communication with your customers. When there's a change that a customer may not be excited about or happy about, it is received better.  Over-communication is better than no communication. Having information gives customers a sense of control and confidence even when they are facing problems or delays.  When you want to create loyalty and an amazing experience, the word you want to hear the customer use is "always" in front of something good. For example, "They always take care of me even when there's a problem."  Plus, Justine shares how TextExpander uses "white glove onboarding" to meet customers where they are. Quotes: "The customer should be at the core of everything that we do. We think about the customer first in every decision we make and every product we release." About:  Justine Tavares is the Director of Customer Success at TextExpander. She empowers her team to create customer-centric strategies to help individuals and teams achieve productivity goals. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy Employees, Happy Customers Shep Hyken interviews Tiffani Bova, bestselling author and global customer growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce. She discusses the link between employee experience, customer experience, and company growth. Top Takeaways:  Spending time with your customers is a great opportunity to understand their challenges, share best practices, and learn from them.  Employee experience (EX) has a significant impact not only on customer experience but on overall business growth. In a blind study conducted on a US retailer with more than 1,000 storefronts, Salesforce research found that if the company got the EX right, there was a 50% increase in revenue per hour per store associate. If you are going to do something for your customers to enhance their experience, make sure you recognize its intended or unintended impact on your employees. When you implement changes to improve CX, make sure you are not increasing the difficulty for your employees to do their jobs.  Companies have over-pivoted the customer experience at the expense of all else. You need to be flexible because when you pivot, you turn your back on something. 54% of the C-Suite believe that the technology their employees use is effective for them to do their job. Only 32% of employees agree with that statement, and only 20-ish% of customer-facing employees agree. To bridge the disconnect between the C-suite and the frontlines, executives need to spend more time understanding the experiences of both their customers and their employees. Do an inventory of the top five KPIs you are currently tracking for customer experience and see if you have a correlating one for employee experience. For example, if you are measuring Net Promoter Score (NPS), pay attention to Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS). Tiffani shares highlights from her latest book, The Experience Mindset: Changing the Way You Think About Growth, including an intentional approach to happy employees for every team in your organization. Plus, Shep and Tiffani share what happens when executives actually spend time with customers (with examples from Starbucks and Microsoft). Tune in! Quote: "Many executives don't use the tech their employees use. They do not experience inefficiency, yet they are very focused on productivity. They focus on the customers, but they are not aware of what systems, tools, and training are in place that allow or inhibit their employees to be the best that they could be."  About:  Tiffani Bova is the global customer growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce. She is the Wall Street Journal, bestselling author of Growth IQ. Her latest book, The Experience Mindset: Changing the Way You Think About Growth, is now available on Amazon. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Brands Can Find a Balance Between Incentives and Emotional Connection Shep Hyken interviews Mark Ross-Smith a.k.a Mr. Loyalty and the CEO and Co-Founder of Loyalty Data Co, the parent company of StatusMatch.com. He talks about the roles of transactional and emotional incentives and how brands must learn to balance the two to build long-term customer loyalty. Top Takeaways:  Loyalty programs are used in different industries to attract new customers and retain existing ones. They typically involve incentives for spending money on a brand through points, perks, upgrades, or free products. Loyalty programs have now evolved to include enhancing the customer experience. In the recent Achieving Customer Amazement study, 69% of customers say loyalty programs are important to them. That’s almost seven out of ten customers who appreciate a good loyalty program. True loyalty programs are not just about points and perks; that is more about marketing. True loyalty is when a customer chooses to do business with you even when they have other options, regardless of the rewards. A successful loyalty program is not designed for everyone. It should work really well for a certain group of customers and reasonably well for a slightly larger one. There are two ways to get people more invested in a brand. First is the transactional way, such as getting customers to subscribe to a product. Then there is the emotional way which is getting people to connect with your brand through personalized engagement and positive experiences. Transactional incentives and emotional engagement have their roles in creating loyalty. Brands must learn to find a balance between the two to build long-term customer loyalty. Some brands use the five love languages to tap into the emotional side of their customers - Words of affirmation ("You're one of our most important customers."), Quality time (Spending time to ask them about their day or their experience), gifts, acts of service, and physical touch (a handshake or a gentle tap on the shoulder when appropriate). Plus, Mark shares the interesting ways airlines and customers benefit from loyalty programs. Tune in! Quote: "Be a customer of your own product. Learn the challenging situations that your customers face throughout their experience. Being a customer of your business is fantastic training for learning how to improve the customer experience and the loyalty experience." About:  Mark Ross-Smith, a.k.a Mr. Loyalty and the CEO and Co-Founder of Loyalty Data Co, the parent company of StatusMatch.com, a loyalty platform that helps individual consumers and corporate clients get equivalent value status with a competing airline and hotel. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Leveraging Artificial Intelligence Can Be a Win-Win Contact Center Agents and Customers   Shep Hyken interviews Mario Matulich, President and Managing Director of Customer Management Practice. He talks about how organizations can use artificial intelligence and self-service options to empower support agents and elevate the customer experience. Top Takeaways:  There has been significant progress in artificial intelligence (AI), like chatbots and ChatGPT capabilities. This has always been seen as high-potential technology, but in the last few months, it has been used in a more demonstrative way to address challenges faced by contact centers, especially in the post-pandemic environment. Generative AI and other forms of self-service provide a win-win solution for organizations and customers. It gives companies solution to create a better agent experience, and it allows the customers to resolve issues quickly without having to put up with long wait times. To address the challenges of hiring and retaining the best people, organizations need to focus on operationalizing flexibility in remote and hybrid setups and personalizing career development. Artificial Intelligence will not eliminate the need for customer support professionals. Instead, it will assist agents with knowledge management, eliminate mundane work, and allow agents to focus on what they do best: serve customers.  Predictive analytics powered by AI can accurately assess Net Promoter Score and other measurements of customer satisfaction.  The employees in the frontline do more than answer phones. They retain customers, generate revenue, and serve as an extension of the research and development department. They have information and insights from interacting with customers that managers and C-suite may not have access to. Plus, Shep and Mario discuss what to expect in Customer Contact Week Las Vegas on June 19-20, 2023, featuring a keynote speech from Grammy® Award-winning Musician & Entrepreneur, Pitbull. Tune in! Quote: "Customer preferences have shifted dramatically in the last couple of years. Many customers want to self-serve. They want to effectively find a quick resolution to their challenges without the assistance of another human being, and AI can make that possible." About:  Mario Matulich is the President and Managing Director of Customer Management Practice, a leader in market research, events, and customer-centricity. He played professional baseball for the Cleveland Guardians. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How The Savannah Bananas is Changing Baseball through Fan Focus, Creativity, and CX Shep Hyken interviews Jesse Cole, founder of Fans First Entertainment and owner of the Savannah Bananas. He talks about how he redefined baseball and customer and employee experience by creating a culture that puts them first. Top Takeaways:  The Savannah Bananas sells out every game, with a waitlist of 550,000 for tickets. There are 3,000 people joining the waitlist every day. They have 4,000,000 more followers on social media than any Major League Baseball team. The best inspiration happens from what people are doing wrong. Ask what the biggest friction points in your customers’ experiences are. Then, do the opposite. The Savannah Bananas took the biggest friction points in a baseball game and changed the rules. For example, a typical baseball game can run for over 3 hours. In Banana Ball, each game lasts no more than 2 hours. Learn from outside your industry and bring that into your organization. Look at the companies you love and why you love them. Identify what you love about those companies that you can start doing with your team. If everyone in your business makes the customers the stars and gives them the red carpet treatment, you make those customers feel like a million bucks. It changes everything for the customer, and your employees will have more purpose and pride in their work. Ideas are the future. Work your idea muscle like you work out your regular muscles. Write down a few ideas every day, get together with your team, and share them. You'll get more energy, inspiration, and purpose out of ideas. Jesse Cole’s latest book, Bannana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bannanas, just came out May 18, 2005. Get it at Amazon.  Plus, Jesse shares some incredible fan-first moments from their tour. Tune in! Quote: "Imagine what the best possible customer experience is and do that. Don't settle for the way things have been done before." About:  Jesse Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment and the owner of the Savannah Bananas. He is the author of Fans First: Change The Game, Break the Rules & Create an Unforgettable Experience, Find Your Yellow Tux: How to Be Successful by Standing Out, and Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Leverage Customer Feedback to Enhance Every Stage of the Customer Journey Shep Hyken interviews Evan Klein, Founder and President of Satrix Solutions, a customer experience and employee engagement consulting firm. He talks about how businesses can encourage customer feedback and how to leverage that to improve the overall experience. Top Takeaways:   ·      The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the question that lets your customer rate the likelihood of them recommending your business on a scale of 0 to 10. A rating of 9 or 10 is a promoter. Customers are more likely to recommend you after a great experience.   ·      A successful NPS program in your business ensures that all of your employees are aligned and understand their role in delivering an exceptional service experience.   ·      The frontline is important, but we need all employees to act based on the feedback of the customers. Every employee should leverage customer feedback to think about their role in enhancing the customer experience.   ·      Be open to really listening to the customer. NPS is a good way to start understanding your customer’s experience with your brand. Adding open-ended questions like “What can make your experience even better?” can give you so much more context and rich feedback.   ·      Survey and ask for feedback from different audiences. Decision makers, influencers, subject matter experts, and users experience your brand in different ways. Tailor your surveys with each customer's experience in mind.   ·      Leverage your promoters. Use their feedback for marketing purposes, testimonials, and case studies. Find feedback patterns that will influence your product roadmap, service delivery model, support channels, and future investments.   ·      Plus, Shep and Evan discuss how to maximize customer participation in the age of survey fatigue. Tune in!  Quote:  "Be open for context and find patterns across all the feedback you receive from your customers. Probe and understand customer frustrations. Mobilize your promoters and leverage their feedback to operationalize creating excellent customer service."   About:   Evan Klein is the Founder and President of Satrix Solutions. He helps companies increase revenue growth by enhancing customer experience and improving employee engagement. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Keep Employees and Customers Loyal to Your Brand Shep Hyken interviews Bob Phibbs, widely known as The Retail Doctor, host of the Tell Me Something Good About Retail podcast, and founder of SalesRX. He talks about how retail stores (and all types of organizations) can transform their business from a place where people merely buy products to a destination brand known for amazing customer experiences.  Top Takeaways:   ·      Brands sometimes invest more in products and in how their retail stores look without focusing on the experience. No matter how nice the brick-and-mortar store is, if your employees are not trained to properly welcome and pay attention to your customers, they will leave and buy from your competitors, go or online, where it is faster and more accessible. ·      What's happening on the inside is felt on the outside by the customers. Be mindful of the environment that your employees are going to work in. Empower them with the right tools and training to do their job well. If you fix the people side of your business first, you will create a better customer service experience. ·      Create awareness of what great customer service looks like in your company. Ensure that your employees align with how you want them to treat customers. Teach them to recognize when they are providing a good customer experience and continuously train them to be better and better.  ·      Employees are looking for more than just a paycheck when taking on or staying at a job. They are putting employers to the task of providing a work environment that provides growth and satisfaction. ·      Training is not something you did. It's something you do over and over again. Invest in your employees' training and onboarding. Then, constantly reinforce it throughout the time that they are with you, whether in weekly meetings, daily huddles, or sharing customer feedback and make sure what they have learned translates into their day-to-day engagement with your customers. ·      Plus, learn how not to (in Bob's words) piss off your employees. Tune in!  Quote:  "Focus on the people, not the products. You will get higher conversion rates when employees are happy, stay longer, and know how to engage with customers in a way that builds trust."   About:    Bob Phibbs is a customer service expert, author, sales coach, and founder of SalesRX. He works with retailers and brands to increase conversion rates by providing amazing experiences. He shares his expertise on The Retail Doctor. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Use Scarcity to Influence Customer Decisions Shep Hyken interviews Mindy Weinstein, author of The Power of Scarcity: Leveraging Urgency and Demand to Influence Customer Decisions. She talks about the four types of scarcity and how businesses can use them to create community, loyalty, and excitement around their brand. Top Takeaways:    ·      When an organization makes customers feel special by getting something that appears to be hard to get, they endear customers to the company and make them feel connected to the brand.   ·      Our brains are wired in a certain way to react to scarcity. Businesses can use this in a positive way to emphasize value and communicate how working with them through their products or services is in their customers' best interest.   ·      Most people think of scarcity as FOMO(fear of missing out), but it is so much more than that. There are four types of scarcity:   1.    Time-related scarcity - when products or services are available for only a set amount of time. 2.    Supply-related scarcity - when a limited number of products are available or when companies want to create a feeling of exclusivity or uniqueness. 3.    Demand-related scarcity - when customers are excited and want to make sure they can purchase a product before it is gone. 4.    Limited edition – when there is a special or rare version of a product that customers love to collect.   ·      When companies create a scarcity mindset and communicate it well to their customers, it creates a sense of control where the customer feels they have the power to decide when and why they want to buy.   ·      When companies create a mindset of scarcity with products that customers enjoy (for example, limited edition sports or movie memorabilia), they show that they truly know their customers and how to engage with them.   ·      Plus, Shep and Mindy talk about how successful companies use the scarcity mindset to create amazing customer experiences. Tune in! Quote:  "Scarcity creates community. When done right, incorporating scarcity can help brands create loyalty, excitement, and bond with their customers."   About:   Mindy Weinstein is the author of The Power of Scarcity: Leveraging Urgency and Demand to Influence Customer Decisions. She is a marketing instructor at Grand Canyon University and a program leader for The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Business School. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patient Experience Best Practices That Every Business Must Do Shep Hyken interviews Jennifer FitzPatrick, founder of Jenerations Health Education and author of Reimagining Customer Service in Healthcare: Boost Loyalty, Profits, and Outcomes. She talks about how organizations can de-escalate complaints, reduce malpractice claims, and promote better healthcare outcomes by improving patient experience. Top Takeaways:  We go to healthcare providers to address a big problem; our health. Some healthcare practitioners know how to treat symptoms and illnesses; however, they are falling short of making the patients feel like they are human beings with respect and dignity. When patients receive great customer service from their healthcare providers, not only do they provide better reviews, fewer complaints, and malpractice claims, but they also have better clinical outcomes. Patients are not just comparing their healthcare providers with other healthcare providers. They compare their experiences in the healthcare world with the best customer service they received from anyone in other industries. Healthcare must recognize younger generations of employees (GenZ and Millennials) are expressing themselves differently than GenX or Boomers. Instead of focusing on external factors like the color of someone's hair or whether they have tattoos or piercings, identify the top qualities that truly matter to your patient's care. Are they compassionate, intelligent, kind, and reliable? Nobody wants to engage with the healthcare system. On a pain scale of zero to 10, most patients come in because they are at a seven or higher. Find ways to make the experience less painful for them, like setting the right expectations, providing updates, and not making them repeat the same information over and over again when it is not necessary. Plus, Shep and Jennifer discuss what is more important in choosing a healthcare provider, expertise or bedside manner. Tune in! Quote: "Train your people to do the right thing for your patients or customers, don't assume they know. Make sure that anybody who comes into contact with the patient and the patient's family members, from doctors to billing and housekeeping, are properly trained on customer service." About:  Jennifer L. FitzPatrick is the author of Reimagining Customer Service in Healthcare. As the founder of Jenerations Health Education, Jennifer helps organizations develop happier healthcare customers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Organizations Can Reconnect with the Human Side of Their Business Shep Hyken interviews John Sills, Managing Partner at The Foundation, a customer-led growth consultancy. He is the author of The Human Experience: How to Make Life Better for Your Customers and Create a More Successful Organization. He talks about the three myths hindering organizations from connecting with their customers and providing an emotional, human experience. Top Takeaways:  Over the last 20 years, organizations have been busy improving the functional experience (doing more things, faster, and cheaper than ever before) at the expense of the emotional, human experience. In his book, The Human Experience, John Sills shares the three myths that create poor customer service. Myth #1. The Myth of Customer Feedback. There's never been more data coming into organizations through surveys. The danger of this myth is that the amount of feedback convinces leaders that they are doing what matters to customers, but what they actually have is their customers' opinions about their business. Leaders need reconnect with customers and learn about what matters in their lives. This is how businesses can truly be useful to customers. Myth #2. The Myth of Customer Loyalty. Customers are only loyal to companies as long as they stay useful. If a more useful alternative comes along, customers are going to leave. This myth is a problem because once organizations believe that customers are loyal, they stop trying. They start taking their customers for granted. Myth #3. The Myth of Return on Investment. You have to change the mindset that good customer service is going to make you money. The mindset should be that a good customer experience is more efficient and cheaper to execute while a bad customer experience is really expensive to provide. There are two types of efficiency in customer support/contact center. The first one is about taking the maximum number of calls per hour. The second one is getting it right the first time, regardless of how long it takes. Plus, John shares how a Swiss Rail train breaking down has led to one of the best customer experiences he has ever received. Tune in! Quote: "The world is a better place when organizations are making things better for customers." About:  John Sills is Managing Partner at the customer-led growth company, The Foundation, where he works with organizations across the world. His first book, The Human Experience: How to make life better for your customers and create a more successful organization, is now available. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Delivering an Amazing Customer Experience through Seamless Self-Service and Human Interactions Shep Hyken interviews Eric Melchor, Partnerships & Personalization Ambassador at OptiMonk, a company that helps brands improve their customers' shopping experience through personalization. He talks about how personalization can help businesses increase sales and nurture loyal customers. Top Takeaways:  Personalization is the new CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). When done right, it is a game changer for businesses to get customers to perform a desired action, whether it is clicking a link, filling out a form, or buying a product. A study by Epsilon indicates that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. How does personalization impact the bottom line? Better return on ad spend. Personalization can help you get a better return on investment if you are doing paid ads. Personalization can decrease cart abandonment. Personalization helps you grow your email list faster. A personalized experience increases your average order value. When a customer adds something to their cart but doesn't make a purchase, provide a quick survey to find out what prevented them from buying. You will get so many insights about the obstacles your customers face in their journey that will help you create a personalized experience for them.  Plus, Eric shares his easiest, simplest, and most cost-effective suggestion for getting a website to become more personalized. Tune in! Quote: "Personalization used to cost a lot. But now, businesses have access to tools and applications to create personalized messages for each customer segment that does not require coding or a big IT team." About:  Eric Melchor is the Partnerships & Personalization Ambassador at OptiMonk. He is the host of Innovators Can Laugh, a podcast where he interviews European startups. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Delivering Amazing Customer Experiences through Seamless Self-Service and Human Interactions Shep Hyken interviews Declan Ivory, Vice President of Customer Support at Intercom, dedicated to applying digital technologies to empower customer support teams. He discusses the technology available to drive meaningful change and innovation for customer experience. Top Takeaways:  Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) bring significant innovations that can truly transform customer service and experience. We now have technology that companies can apply quickly and cost-effectively to deliver the transformational experience customers have expected from the support industry for a long time. Technology can now deliver a conversational feel to the customer’s interaction with a chatbot. Customer information is now integrated, so chatbots have the same access as human support agents. And often, they can better understand the context of what the customer is contacting them about.  Transitioning from automated to human support needs to be seamless. The customer should have to repeat everything they just said. This personalization and convenience make the customer feel valued throughout the interaction. Most customer support experiences are reactive. Support agents usually respond to the customer’s issues or questions. However, customer expectations have evolved so that a compelling experience is one where customer support doesn't wait for something to go wrong; they can predict an issue before it happens and proactively start the conversation with the customer to solve the problem before the customer ever knows about it.  An omnichannel experience is about enabling the customer to engage with you on any channel that makes sense to them. The important thing about this experience is meeting them where they are and demonstrating that you value and understand the customer in every channel they use. Plus, Shep and Declan discuss how technology has evolved in the customer support world- from clumsy and clunky to a seamless experience. Tune in! Quote: "The future is automation and human support. You need the knowledge and understanding that a human support agent brings to handle complex issues. And, you want self-service to be available to quickly handle the more simple transactions.” About:  Declan Ivory is Intercom’s Vice President of Customer Support. He is an experienced senior leader with a passion for building and developing high-performing teams and applying digital technologies to support organizations. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cultivating Customer Relationships through the Art of Active Listening Shep Hyken interviews Heather Younger, Founder & CEO of Employee Fanatix and author of The Art of Active Listening: How People at Work Feel Heard, Valued, and Understood. She talks about creating a culture of listening to ensure customers feel heard, valued, and understood. Top Takeaways:   ·      Failing to listen to the customer communicates apathy and rudeness. It tells the customer that you do not care enough to engage.   ·      Heather Younger shares her 5-step framework on how to listen better:   1. Recognize the unsaid. Look at the nonverbal cues. Listen for pauses and voice inflections. Sense what is happening in the environment. If you don't recognize what your customers are not telling you, you leave blind spots that hinder you from fruitful listening.   2. Seek to understand. The main focus should be service. Give your customers the undivided attention required to be on the same page. Use techniques like paraphrasing so that the customers know that their verbal and nonverbal message is received properly.   3. Decode. Pause and reflect. If we respond too quickly, we often don't solve the problem that needs solving. Responding too quickly often creates a bigger issue than before because we didn't take the time to investigate, research, or involve a bigger team.   4. Act. Figure out what solutions the customer is looking for, act quickly, and keep your promises if you cannot deliver the solution right away.   5. Close the loop. Thank the customer for their feedback, then let them know what actions you took or are going to take. This lets the customer know that they are more than just a number. It also builds trust.   ·      Plus, Heather shares the biggest barriers to listening that customer service employees are experiencing. Tune in! Quote:  "When you keep your promises to your customers, they feel valued, heard, and understood."   About:   Heather Younger is a keynote speaker, a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist, Founder & CEO of Employee Fanatix, and a bestselling author. Learn more about her new book, The Art of Active Listening: How People at Work Feel Heard, Valued, and Understood. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five Steps to Delivering an Exceptional Customer Service Shep Hyken interviews Katie Mares, a brand experience expert and the author of CustomHer Experience: The Importance of Tailoring Your Brand Experience to the Female Consumer. She talks about how each touchpoint in a customer's journey impacts their perception of your business and how you can create moments that elevate their experience. Top Takeaways:   ·      In this episode of Amazing Business Radio, Katie Mares shares the five steps to executing a 5-star experience. 1. Understand that what you say and how you say it matters. Choose words that elevate the experience. Speak to your customers in a way that is engaging and sincere. 2. Use your customer's name. Dale Carnegie said, “A person's name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Saying their name is a simple first step in connecting with your customers.  3. Show your genuine interest. The customer keeps your business going and helps you live the life that you have by paying for your goods and services. Show up and show genuine interest to every customer. 4. Be anticipatory and deliver the “plus one.” Use the nuggets of information that you have about your customers to elevate their experience. It does not have to be something big or expensive. It can be a little extra effort that levels up the experience.  5. Be a hero. Service recovery should be part of the experience. We're human, and we’re going to drop the ball. Consider a complaint or problem an opportunity to create an even better experience. ·      Plus, Katie combines science and her business knowledge to explain how men and women differ when it comes to how they perceive their experiences as well as how they communicate and want to be communicated with. Tune in! Quote:  “A transactional experience is very utilitarian. It is focused on the facts and the practical aspects of the customer relationship. An interactional experience goes beyond that. It is focused on emotional shift that creates trust that leads to the purchase and the loyalty after that.”     About:   Katie Mares is a brand experience expert and the author of CustomHer Experience: The Importance of Tailoring Your Brand Experience to the Female Consumer. She is the Chief Inspiration Officer at Katie Mares, where she helps brands design experiences for their customers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Including the Customer in Design, Decision Making, and Expansion Shep Hyken interviews Michelle MacCarthy, Global Head of Customer Success at Unit4. She talks about utilizing feedback to improve customer satisfaction and lead company success. Top Takeaways:   ·      Human-centric CX design is all about communicating with customers, and this goes beyond a one-off survey. It is about regularly speaking with customers directly to deeply understand the customer. It is uncovering where they're benefiting from your product and identifying barriers or pain points that they are experiencing.  ·      Bringing engaged customers who are utilizing your products and services into the design process can help shape great outcomes for your company.   ·      New technology will not replace the human-to-human relationship. Companies must shift the contact center agents’ responsibilities to allow them to be more productive and continue to elevate CX.   ·      Anytime you digitize an experience or introduce new technology, ensure you have the basic tools your customers need to easily find what they need, like a good knowledge base on your website, FAQs, or video tutorials.   ·      Customer-led growth is about inspiring loyalty, building trust, and raising the game around customer satisfaction.   ·      Plus, Michelle weighs in on ChatGPT and how it will impact customer experience. Tune in! Quote:  "Customer experience is something that's owned by everyone in the organization. Regardless of role, having a truly customer-centric culture will help fuel better employee retention." About:   Michelle MacCarthy is the Global Head of Customer Success at Unit4. She leads the company's customer experience strategy transformation and customer success evolution. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Intersection Between Marketing and CX Shep Hyken interviews Christoph Trappe, a digital and content marketer and the author of Is Marketing A Good Career? He talks about how marketing can support customer experience and success teams to ensure the brand story resonates with customers throughout their journey. Top Takeaways:   ·      Customer experience, including customer service, is marketing. Create an experience that gests people to say, "I’ll be back," and makes them want to share it with others.   ·      Understand what your customers want and deliver consistently. Customers usually have many options. When your product is available in other places, customer experience becomes the differentiator that determines if your customers continue to do business with you or move on to your competitors.   ·      Every company has a story - what they are about, how they work, and what kind of experience their customers can expect of them. Marketing must tell that story to the customer support team so everybody in the company can embody that story.   ·      The frontline customer service and sales reps dealing directly with your customers are part of your marketing department.   ·      Your best marketing campaign comes from customers who have had an experience with your business and tell people about it.   ·      Social media managers are more involved in customer service now than they used to be in years past. Make sure your brand's story is shared with your social media team – and everyone else in the company.   ·       Plus, Christophe (content marketer) and Shep (customer service and experience expert) each share their definition of what a brand is. Tune in!  Quote:  "Marketing is not just about getting people in the door. Marketing is about supporting customer experience and success."     About:   Christoph Trappe is the Director of Content Strategy at Voxpopme. He is a digital and content marketer and author. His latest book, Is Marketing A Good Career?, is now available on Amazon. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Striking the Balance Between Personalization and Privacy to Best Serve Your Customers Shep Hyken interviews Bill Bruno, CEO of D4t4 Solutions, a company that helps brands provide the most value for their customers using their data. He talks about responsibly utilizing customer data to provide a personalized customer experience without compromising trust. Top Takeaways:   ·      Customers have different levels of tolerance when sharing their information with brands. Some customers are willing to share everything with a brand, some refuse to share anything at all, and there are those that fall in between. This range makes up the different data personas.   ·      Using customer data is an opportunity for brands to create an excellent customer experience, whether it is for preventing fraud, marketing, or enhancing personalization.   ·      Because customers have different levels of willingness to share their data, there is no all-in-one solution when it comes to marketing or providing personalized service. It is up to the brands to invest in and design experiences based on what they know about each segment of their customers.   ·      Customer trust is important. Customers need to know that when they share their data, it will be kept safe and used to create a better experience for them.   ·      The challenge for companies, in B2B or B2C, is to use data in such a way that endears the brand to the customers. You must create trust and let your customers understand the value of sharing their data with you.   ·      Some customers are unwilling to share their personal data with brands, but there is still an opportunity to create a personalized experience. You can personalize the journey based on context. Pay attention to what the customer is viewing, downloading, or purchasing at the moment.   ·      Plus, Bill discusses the technologies used to capture data and what it means to brands and customers. Tune in!  Quote:  "If brands use data to protect their customers and give them value, they will be more willing to share their data because they can see how it helps them."     About:   Bill Bruno is the CEO of D4t4 Solutions. He has over 19 years of experience in the media, data, and analytics sectors and has a passion for fostering a culture of innovation while working with brands to drive transformational change. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Know What Your Customers Feel and What to Do With It Shep Hyken interviews Anita Toth, Chief Churn Crusher at Anita Toth Inc, a Voice of the Customer Strategy, Education, and Research firm. She talks about creating an amazing experience at every stage of the customer's journey.  Top Takeaways:   ·      The customer journey is like a romantic relationship. The marketing and sales phase is like dating. It is tactical and fun. When your prospect becomes a customer, you move them into the "marriage" stage, which is non-tactical and requires a different set of skills to maintain.   ·      Customer service must be built into every aspect of the journey. The customer relationship is not a "one-and-done" thing. It continues even after the sale is made. The relationship needs to be maintained to keep the trust going.   ·      After the sale, the customer goes into a "honeymoon" period with your business. This is where the customer finds out if their expectations meet reality or exceed them, or the stage where they find out that they are not getting what they thought they paid for. This is why a great onboarding experience is critical to customer retention.   ·      Customers know the difference. They can feel that they are just a number to a company. They can also feel when a company truly values their business and is committed to ensuring their success.   ·      When you want to learn more about your customers, start with, "Tell me more..." It is a non-threatening way to start a conversation, and it pushes them to give a clearer, more definitive response.   ·      Plus, Anita shares how she helps businesses crush their churn (in three sentences!). Tune in! Quote:   "When customers start to feel like they made the wrong decision to do business with you, changing their mind is like turning a massive ship in the ocean. It takes a lot of effort to make it happen." About:     Anita Toth is the Chief Churn Crusher at Anita Toth Inc. She helps companies increase customer retention by helping them better understand what their customers think, need, and feel. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Utilizing Consumer Feedback to Eliminate Friction and Improve Service Shep Hyken interviews Scot Pickerill, Vice President for Inside Sales, Service, and Sales Operations in the Americas at Fender. He discusses using customer and employee feedback to evaluate and improve customer experience. Top Takeaways:   ·      Continuous improvement means identifying friction points and reaching out to every department involved in the process to develop a plan to correct the issue and keep it from happening in the future.   ·      Look at the entire customer journey to determine the possible friction points and proactively make it better behind the scenes to create a seamless customer experience.   ·      Make a note of the issues that happen often. Document them, and determine if they are an anomaly or brewing bigger issues. Proactively share what you have learned with everyone in the company.   ·      Treat your customers as partners. If you partner with them by helping them, you are not just selling them a product. You are helping them succeed.   ·      Reach out to customers who leave a negative comment, ask them about what happened, and let them know what you can do for them. You will often end up with a happy customer that will potentially come back and do more business with you.   ·      Plus, Scot shares how buying behaviors have changed in the last couple of years and how businesses can design their strategy to meet customer expectations. Tune in! Quote: "It's one thing to listen to customers. It's another thing to take action. We're all about doing both."   About:   Scot Pickerill is the Vice President of Americas Inside Sales, Service, and Sales Operations for Fender. He previously worked with Fortune 500 companies, including Allstate Insurance Co., Bank of America, and American Express. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why Investment in CX is Even More Important This Year Shep Hyken interviews Josh Wheeler, Strategic Director for Reuters Events Customer Service & Experience. He shares findings from the 2023 State of Experience & Service Report and what businesses should prioritize in CX and EX to remain competitive. Top Takeaways:  ·      Learn from outside of your industry. You will commoditize what you offer if you only learn the best practices and strategies within your industry. If you learn from the best across all industries, you can go from being the best in the industry to becoming world-class.   ·      Your customers don't compare you to your direct competitors. They are comparing you to the best experience they receive from anywhere, from any type of company, and bringing those insights back to what's happening with their relationship with your business. For example, they compare the convenience of online e-commerce companies with their healthcare provider and expect the same quality of experience.   ·      According to the State of Experience & Service Report, here are the most important customer-centric objectives for 2023:   1.    Analyzing and using customer feedback. 42% of respondents see “translating insights into action” as their biggest concern when it comes to data management.   2.    Improving the quality of customer support experiences.   3.    Creating frictionless experiences, especially across different channels. Take every opportunity to remove friction. The easier company to do business with is going to win.   ·      Meet your customers where they are. Communicate with them using the channels that they prefer. For example, if your customers are from older generations who prefer to use the phone over other channels, going fully digital will have a negative impact on customer experience and loyalty. Companies need to teach their customers the easiest and most frictionless way to get the answers they're looking for.   ·      Plus, Josh shares more stats and insights from the 2023 State of Experience & Service Report, including how perks and compensation ranked in what makes employees happy. Tune in!  Quote: "Your customers aren't confined to one industry. They interact with dozens of organizations and will compare their best experiences in any industry to their experiences with you."   About:   Josh Wheeler is the Strategic Director for Reuters Events Customer Service & Experience portfolio. He leads the end-to-end development and production of in-person conferences, virtual events, and thought leadership content for customer service & experience professionals across North America.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Delivering Personalized Support with Technology  Shep Hyken interviews Paulo Almeida, CEO & Co-Founder of Clientscape, a company that helps support agents seamlessly manage customer interactions across multiple channels. He talks about how companies can adapt to changing customer expectations by leveraging data and analytics.  Top Takeaways:   ·      The optimal response time to a customer asking for support has more to do with the problem they are trying to solve than the channel they are using to reach out with.   ·      Some industries require a faster response time than others. For example, in the transportation industry, there is more urgency because the issues customers are trying to solve (such as changing a flight) may need to be resolved in minutes, not hours.  These industries require larger, highly scalable teams to meet the customer's needs.   ·      Text-based communication is an efficient way to manage a large influx of customer support requests. An agent on the phone can only handle one customer at a time, while a text messaging operator can multitask between multiple customer requests. Messaging capabilities alongside a phone option are a cost-effective and convenient way to manage customer issues.   ·      When you have efficient digital channels such as text messaging, chatbots, and social media, you can teach customers to use these options whenever they need to get in touch with your company. When they realize they won’t have to wait through hold times or repeat their story every time they talk to a new agent, they will see these channels as value-added options, not as a deflection method.   ·      An excellent customer experience contributes to having the best product experience, which gives a company pricing power. When you take away from the quality of customer experience, you may no longer be perceived as having the best product. The result could mean lost customers.   ·      Personalized customer support is a mix of doing and listening. Empower support agents by giving them access to data and analytics that can help them better understand customer needs and deliver a personalized experience. Then, collect feedback to ensure that the information you hold is relevant and identify areas where you can do better.   ·      Plus, Paulo shares what cutting costs without affecting customer satisfaction or service delivery should look like. Tune in! Quote:  “Don't cut down on the investments that give your customers the care they deserve."     About:   Paulo Almeida is the CEO & Co-Founder of Clientscape. He has an extensive background in IT, Marketing, and Advertising. He previously worked with multinational companies such as Vodafone, Siemens, and Google. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 How Customer Experience Drives Business Growth  Shep Hyken interviews Keith Meier, Chief Operating Officer at Assurant, Inc., an organization that works with companies that manufacture, sell, or finance their customers' major purchases. He shares how providing customers with a great experience in every support channel they use is crucial to business growth. Top Takeaways:   ·      Customers want digital self-service options for transactional or routine issues and services. But for more challenging concerns, most customers still prefer to contact somebody through the phone.   ·      Some companies force customers to use digital options by creating a difficult and unpleasant experience on the phone, such as extremely long hold times. Instead of creating friction and forcing customers, teach them how to use the digital experience and prove it is a quicker, faster, and more efficient option.   ·      Create a good digital experience that customers love using. Make sure it is intuitive, easy to understand, and able to deliver solutions faster and easier than making a call, waiting on hold, going through the “authentication” process, and more.   ·      Most customers start with a digital experience. When they decide to call customer support, they often go to the website to get the company's phone number. That is a digital experience. That is also an opportunity to suggest an easy self-service option. If you lead the customer down the path of self-service and there are problems, make it easy for them to find a number and transition from the digital channel to the human channel.   ·      Get to know your company's customer experience through a journey mapping exercise. Fix friction points, understand what your customers want, and do it repeatedly.   ·      Plus, Keith shares the challenges companies are facing that prevent them from delivering an amazing experience. Tune in! Quote:  "Digital experiences will not replace all customer service channels, but it will become a bigger percentage of how consumers get service."   About:   Keith Meier is the Chief Operating Officer at Assurant Inc. As COO, he leads Assurant's global operations focusing on digital technology and operations that deliver exceptional customer experience. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Putting the Human Experience First as a Business Strategy Shep Hyken interviews Carla Guzzetti, Senior Vice President for Experience and Product Messaging at Extreme Networks. She shares how companies can design a better experience, in B2B and B2C industries, by focusing on the individual needs of their customers and employees.  Top Takeaways:    ·      Diversity is key to delivering a quality customer experience. Your customers come from various backgrounds, cultures, and pain points. The companies' responsibility is to match the differences by building localization (understanding what their customers need) into their strategy, communication, and overall experience.   ·      Whether you are in the B2B or B2C space, think of the end consumer. The customers using the products must have an experience that feels customized, localized, and meaningful.   ·      When investing in new technology, the top consideration for businesses must be to make customers feel like they are being cared for. Innovation doesn't need to be sexy. It needs to address a need. Often, simple innovations such as making billing more scalable or the capability to understand your customers' needs based on their previous purchases and interactions can be more impactful to their overall experience.   ·      Employees and customers are the same people. A business can only be successful if their needs are addressed appropriately. Employees must be empowered, and customers should feel like they are being cared for.   ·      The product that you have should make your customers' lives better. But the experience you deliver should make doing business with you better than your competition.   ·      There is no B2B in CX. No matter what industry your company is in, in the end, you are still dealing with human beings and should have the human experience in mind. Your B2B clients will still compare you to the best experience they have had with their favorite brands from any industry.   ·      Plus, Shep and Carla talk about how innovation can sometimes cause difficulties for employees and how businesses can support them when taking on new technology. Tune in! Quote:  "Are we innovating technology just for the sake of innovation? Or are we innovating technology to create a better human condition? Brands should focus on innovation that improves customer experience and enhances their ability to connect."   About:    Carla Guzzetti leads the in-product design, user research, user enablement, and product marketing for Extreme Networks as the Senior Vice President, Experience and Product Messaging. She believes in creating meaningful experiences for Extreme Networks' buyers and end users.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moving Customer Complaints from Frustration to Satisfaction Shep Hyken interviews Janelle Barlow, award-winning customer service and experience speaker, consultant, and author of A Complaint Is a Gift: How to Learn from Critical Feedback and Recover Customer Loyalty. She shares how to empathetically transform a customer's complaint into a positive and memorable experience.  Top Takeaways:    · Janelle shares these findings from the 2020 National Customer Rage Study (followed by our commentary): 2/3 of people have a product or a service failure across their lifetime. Most customers who have had a negative experience do not tell the company directly. They either internalize it, affecting their decision to do more business with the brand, or they broadcast it to their friends across social media channels. You don't just want to resolve a complaint. You want to find out the reasons behind the complaint and operationalize around it, so it does not happen again. 58% of customers feel they were dissatisfied with how their complaint was handled. It's not just about fixing the problem. It is how you fixed the problem. You have to create that feeling of engagement and connection that nurtures customer loyalty.   65% of customers who are complaining left filled with rage. When customers have feelings of rage, they often express it by yelling, swearing, or saying, "I'm never going to come back to you again." 47% of customers with a negative experience with a company post reviews online. Negative reviews, posted out of anger, is a customer seeking revenge. They don't always post it on review sites. Most of the time, they post it on social media sites.   · Handling complaints is a mindset. Leaders and managers must understand that people do not naturally know how to handle complaints. Most of us learn how to handle complaints from our families (for example, fighting with our siblings or complaining to our parents) and develop "go-to responses" or defense mechanisms that we then use when dealing with customers.   · If you have the mindset that a complaint is a gift, you begin with a statement of gratitude. One of the most common communication chains is the "thank you - you're welcome" exchange. When you thank the customer for letting you know there is a problem, you can mitigate the anger and start the resolution from a better place.   · When employees feel supported by companies in terms of complaint resolution, they are happier and more effective. They don't have to feel defensive or argue with customers. They know that all they have to do is ensure that customers walk away feeling happy and satisfied.   · Plus, Janelle shares some guidelines to follow when responding to online feedback, both positive and negative. Tune in!  Quote:  "Handling a customer's emotional satisfaction is as important as resolving the complaint. You can handle the customer’s problem, but if they feel that they were treated poorly in the process, they still walk away feeling dissatisfied."    About:  Janelle Barlow is a customer service and experience expert, trainer, consultant, and best-selling author. The latest edition of her book, A Complaint Is a Gift: How to Learn from Critical Feedback and Recover Customer Loyalty, is available now. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using Conversational Data to Enhance the Customer Experience   Shep Hyken interviews Amy Brown, founder and CEO of Authenticx, a software that listens, analyzes, and activates customer voices at scale. She shares findings from Authenticx's Customer Voices Report and how organizations can use data to drive customer experience strategies. Top Takeaways:   ·      Customers want to be empathized with and understood by the brands they interact and do business with.   ·      Customer centricity means taking intentional steps to listen to what your customer needs and having everyone, at all levels in the organization, committed to delivering on them.   ·      Typically, the customers who answer surveys are either very angry or very happy with your organization. However, this leaves out customers who are in the middle or think their experience is only satisfactory. When companies don't learn from this segment of their customers, they often lose them once a competitor that does it better comes along.   ·      The value of listening to customers is that it teaches organizations the points of friction in their processes and identifies their competitive differentiators. It shows them the problem spots they need to pay attention and what drives negative sentiment. And it helps brands determine their value propositions using the words of their customers.   ·      When you hear good feedback and read positive testimonials, put that data into your process so that all your customers can have the same amazing experience.   ·      Frontline workers are a great resource when it comes to what customers are saying about your company and their experience. Train them to listen for customer insights, take notes, and share with everyone in the organization.   ·      Listen to your employees, too, not just your customers. Leaders must be listening for employee engagement and burnout. Turn positive and negative conversational data into actionable strategies that support your employees.   ·      Plus, Amy shares what The Eddy Effect™ is and what it means to customer experience. Tune in!  Quote:  "Customer-centric organizations believe that listening to and understanding what their customers want is vital to their ability to thrive as a business."   About:   Amy Brown is the founder and CEO of Authenticx. As an executive with 20 years of experience in healthcare, she founded Authenticx to bring the authentic voice of the patient into the boardroom and increase positive healthcare outcomes.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Customer Experience, Speed Equals Caring Shep Hyken interviews Jay Baer, customer experience and marketing expert. He shares his findings from his new study, The Time to Win, and insights on how speed impacts customer experience and revenue.  Top Takeaways:    ·      Time is the only inelastic resource. Time is the only thing everyone shares equally, regardless of who they are. We all have 1440 minutes a day, and there's nothing we can do to get more.   ·      If you are slower than your customers expect and anticipate, they will feel like you are stealing time from them. And if you are faster than your customers expect and anticipate, they feel like you have given them the gift of time.   ·      The concept of “The Right Now” means the optimal amount of elapsed time in every customer interaction throughout the entire journey. "The Right Now" is slightly faster than customers expect.   ·      Jay Baer shares some important customer experience findings from his research, The Time to Win:   o  There is a correlation between responsiveness and revenue. Two-thirds of customers say that speed is as important as the price. Customers are willing to pay more if it's faster.   o  Customers would pay up to 50% more if they never had to wait. For example, customers pay more for Disney’s Fast Pass/ Lightning Lane to skip the line at Disneyland.   o  53% of American consumers have chosen a business that responded to them first, even if they were not the least expensive.   o  Gen Z is the most patient generation. Baby Boomers are the least patient generation.   ·      Plus, Jay shares strategies to create better speed for our customers. Tune in! Quotes:   “Speed is the most important component of customer experience and the only one that never pauses or goes backward. Customers' expectations for speed and responsiveness escalate every year without fail.” About:   Jay Baer is a customer experience and marketing expert.  He is the author of six best-selling books, including, Youtility, Hug Your Haters, and Talk Triggers. His new study, The Time to Win, measures the impact of speed and responsiveness to customer experience and loyalty. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Understanding Your Customers Using Quantitative and Qualitative Data Shep Hyken interviews Lesley Mottla, Chief Product & Experience Officer at ButcherBox, a subscription business that delivers meat and seafood to its members. She shares how to get teams across your organization to buy into a culture of member and customer obsession. Top Takeaways:   ·      Customer experience is crucial in a membership business model. The focus is on renewal. You want to maintain the relationship to keep your customers.   ·      To be member (customer) obsessed, you have to have a deep understanding of the customer and their experience.   ·       Invest in listening to your customers. Collect feedback at each point of their journey. Ask them how they perceive your products and services.   ·      Use good data and feedback to create a more positive experience. You can rely on more than one source of information to get the right feedback. Learn about your customers' experiences through feedback, Net Promoter Score, member satisfaction score, diary study, and more.   ·      Understand the different segments of customers that are doing business with you. Know what they want and what they are expecting from you. Use this information to create personalized experiences that will help them get the best outcomes when using your products.   ·      Tell your customers' stories. Paint a picture of what your customers experience and regularly share it with everyone in the company. It is important that everyone in the company, from the CEO to the frontline, buy in to a culture of customer obsession.   ·      Plus, Lesley shares how you can get the CFO to invest in customer obsession. Tune in! Quote:  "The way we show how member obsessed we are is by using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data to figure out where the opportunities are to improve our customers' overall experience."     About:   Lesley Mottla is the Chief Product & Experience Officer at ButcherBox. She is a speaker, coach, and board advisor who is passionate about understanding consumer behavior using data and technology. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building a Customer-centric Culture From the Frontlines to the C-suite   Shep Hyken interviews Diane Hopkins, Certified Experience Economy Expert, CEO of ExPeers Consulting, and author of Unleashing the Chief Moment Officers and It's Hard to be Easy. She shares how to leverage the insights of your frontline staff to design customer experiences and create a customer-centric culture.     Top Takeaways:    When employees interact with customers, they have the great responsibility to represent the entire organization. They should be empowered to answer questions and help customers in a way that motivates the customers to come back. In that interaction, they become the Chief Moment Officer.    When we hire good people and train them to do what they are supposed to, they become empowered to make good decisions for the customers, fellow employees, and the company.    Employees in the frontline have unique knowledge about their customers that comes from constant first-hand interactions. Companies should have systems in place to leverage that knowledge so that everyone, from the frontlines to the boardroom, is headed in the same direction in terms of their customer experience culture.    The company's leadership needs to be aligned with its customer experience goals. Once leaders have figured out the desired success, it is time to invest in training tools like storytelling to facilitate real change in behavior toward customer-centricity.    Create a one-sentence motto that expresses your vision for customer experience. Make it short and simple so that everybody can remember it and it is easy to train for it. It needs to be intuitive to eventually become "just the way we do business." For example, Ritz-Carlton's motto is "We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen."    To build a customer-centric culture, look at what is, what if, what wows, and what works.     What is - What is the current state of our company's culture?   What if - What could we fix that is out of line?   What wows - How can we use innovative techniques and tools to push our goals?   What works - What can we afford? What is legal?    Customers pay the bills. Without customers, there is no company. However, companies still neglect to remove friction points that make it difficult for customers to stay as customers. Most of the time, these friction points, such as making it hard for customers to find a phone number on the website or making customers re-do things unnecessarily, have simple solutions.    Plus, Shep and Diane share exercises you can do with your team to figure out what you are doing that prevents your customers from having a frictionless experience. Tune in!  Quote:   "If your frontline staff doesn't see the company's vision, doesn't feel like their insights matter, or know that their leadership values them, aligned behaviors towards customer-centricity won't happen."  About:    Diane S. Hopkins is a Certified Experience Economy Expert, healthcare strategy consultant, and author of Unleashing the Chief Moment Officers and It's Hard to be Easy. She co-authored Advice from a Patient and Wake Up and Smell the Innovation.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Amazing Experiences that Make Customers Come Back (Again and Again)  Shep Hyken interviews Dominic Constandi, client services and customer success leader and Chief Customer Officer at ZoomInfo. He shares what customer service professionals can learn from their own experiences and use to create lasting value at every point of their customer's journey.  Top Takeaways:    The first impression is not necessarily the first time you meet somebody or do business with a company. It's what sets the tone for what's to follow. The last impression is what you remember that hopefully brings you back.    The Moments of Truth concept goes all the way back to the 1980’s when Jan Carlzon, former president of Scandinavian Airlines, came up with the idea to help his employees create a better customer experience. He defined it as whenever a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, they have an opportunity to form an impression. That impression can make or break the experience.    First impressions are Moments of Truth that set the tone for the customer's journey. For example:    Hotels spend a lot of money on their lobbies to create a great first impression. They spend resources to train staff on how to make customers feel welcome the moment they walk in.    How a salesperson answers the first few questions a customer has often determines if they would do business with that company or not.    There is a window of opportunity when customers are ready to purchase a product or invest in a service. It is up to the companies to use data to know the who, what, and when. Who are we talking to? With what message? When is the best time to deliver that message?    Customer experience is more important than ever. Customers are more critical, in this economy, in evaluating what's giving them the most value when making purchases and investments.     You have heard of FOMO or Fear of Missing Out. In this episode, Shep and Dominic discuss FUMU, or Fear of Messing Up, and how it affects customer success. Tune in!  Quote:   "Good decisions made from bad data are just bad decisions you don't know about yet."    About:    Dominic Constandi is the Chief Customer Officer at ZoomInfo, overseeing client service that ensures a seamless experience for his customers.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Loyalty through Customer-Obsession Shep Hyken interviews Marbue Brown, an accomplished customer experience executive who has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including JP Morgan Chase, Amazon.com, Microsoft Corporation, and Cisco Systems. He is the author of Blueprint for Customer Obsession. He shares what differentiates customer-obsessed companies from the rest and the amazing business results that come with it. Top Takeaways:   ·      There is a distinction between customer-obsessed companies and others. Customer-obsessed companies go to extremes and may do counterintuitive things from the perspective of their customer-focused peers. For example:   o  Costco is known for its extreme return policy that exceeds what other companies in the industry are willing to do. As a result, customers have total confidence that if they buy something from Costco and encounter an issue with the product, they can return it. Costco has over 100 million paid memberships, and its renewal rates are over 90%.   o  Amazon does not take negative reviews down. They leave it up so the customer can make the decision that is right for them.   o  Zappos has the largest selection of shoes, but if they don't have the pair you are looking for, they will direct you to competitor websites to help you find them. As a result, 75% of Zappos sales come from existing customers, and 40% of their new customers come from recommendations.   ·      Customer-obsession creates customer preference. Customer-obsessed companies’ customers are not just casual customers. They think of these companies and brands first.   ·      Customer-obsessed companies have deeply ingrained, pervasive cultures. Their customer service principles are non-negotiable and lived throughout the entire organization.   ·      And does every employee that works at Amazon know the 16 Amazon Leadership Principles? Tune in to find out! Quote:  "Customer-obsessed companies know how to give customers what they want before they know they need it. They understand what the inherent needs of the customers are even when they don't articulate it."     About:   Marbue Brown is a customer experience executive, sought-after keynote speaker, and author on CX, business strategy, and economic policy. His latest book, Blueprint for Customer Obsession, is available now on Amazon. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Companies Can Provide Outstanding CX From Sign-Up to Cancellation  Shep Hyken interviews Tony Sternberg, CEO and co-founder at ProsperStack, a platform that helps companies reduce customer churn and increase their lifetime value. He shares how companies can differentiate themselves by providing an excellent customer experience from the beginning to the end of their journey.  Top Takeaways:    Companies put a lot of focus into their onboarding process, but the end of the customer's lifecycle tends to get ignored. What looks like the end is actually a point where you can provide a great experience that retains the customers.    We are in a digital world, and there are plenty of automated opportunities to make customers feel they are personally taken care of. Differentiate yourself from others by utilizing your data to create automated yet scalable experiences for your customers that still have a personalized touch.    Big companies like Netflix and Amazon have the resources to provide a world-class automated experience for their customers. The challenge of small to midsize companies is that they do not have the resources to create that same level of automated process on their own.     Data points, such as how long customers have been doing business with you or how frequently they use your services, determine whether customers will be long-term subscribers/customers or are ready to unsubscribe or churn. These data points can be leveraged to escalate offers or provide incentives to keep them as paying customers.    Customers disproportionately judge their experiences based on how they felt at the peak (whether this is the most positive or negative experience) and at the end of their experience.     The best companies can track their customers' cadence to determine whether they're making the most use of your products and services. Using this information correctly can help keep the customer coming back again and again.      No matter what, end strong and positive. The customer doesn't have to be right but let them be wrong with dignity and respect.  Quotes:   "Customers remember the end of their experience with a company to a higher degree. If you leave a bad taste in their mouth, you not only negatively impact the customer's experience, but also impact what that customer tells their friends and their network."  About:    Tony Sternberg is the CEO and co-founder at ProsperStack, a platform that helps subscription businesses optimize their customer cancellation experience through automation. Prior to ProsperStack, Tony was President at CATS Software, playing key customer-facing, product, and operations roles.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why Businesses Should Invest in EX (Employee Experience) as Much as CX Shep Hyken interviews Liza Smyth, senior vice president of customer experience at Formstack, a company that helps organizations create workflows that enhance productivity. She shares how to make your internal and external customers feel seen and heard throughout their entire journey with your brand. Top Takeaways:   ·      A defining moment for the employee or the customer is an event that truly matters to them. Even if they started with a bad experience, at the point you turn it around (the defining moment) is what shapes their perception of you.   ·      Every employee in your organization impacts a customer's overall experience. Employees need to understand how they fit into the customer experience, even if they don't directly interact with them.   ·      When you hire brilliant people but ask them to do menial tasks, they will feel like they are not bringing their best selves to work. They become process-driven instead of utilizing their talents effectively.   ·      When an employee interacts with a customer, the employee doesn’t represent themselves or their department. They represent your entire organization. You have to decide what your company's voice is and what you want your customers to experience when they engage with you. This experience needs to be consistent across the board.   ·      Employees are your biggest assets at the company. Create an environment where there is a sense of belonging, their perspective is valued, and they can be their authentic selves.   ·      Determine your company's "true north metric" (your mission, vision, mantra, etc.) and be sure that every employee understands how they influence it. Allow employees to feel like the job they do matters and that they impact the customers, their colleagues, and the organization.   ·      Formstack's State of Digital Maturity report identified that 51% of surveyed workers report spending at least two hours per day on repetitive tasks, and 72% of employees felt that inefficient processes impacted their job.   ·      Plus, Shep and Liza share how to create an environment of belongingness with employees and colleagues who are outliers of the group. Quote:  "A great employee experience delivers a great customer experience."   About:   Liza Smyth is the senior vice president of customer experience at Formstack. She leads customer care for the company's more than 25,000 customers. Before joining Formstack, Smyth worked for top tech companies, including Apple and LinkedIn. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating the Digital Experience That Builds Trust with Your Customers Shep Hyken interviews Tim Hughes, co-Founder and CEO of DLA Ignite, and co-author of Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers. He shares how organizations can establish a strong digital brand identity, share knowledge, and create lasting relationships with their customers through social media platforms. Top Takeaways:   ·      The modern customer is empowered. They now have access to an infinite amount of content at their fingertips. They can look up products and services online before making a purchase. They can look people up on social media before doing business with them.   ·      Like the modern customer, job hunters have changed within the last few years. They are now empowered to evaluate the companies that they want to work for based on what is valuable to them. Through social media, they can see if an organization has the same values as them, whether it is on diversity, inclusion, sustainability, etc.   ·      Social media has become a form of digital theatre for people to see how companies respond to their customers' positive or negative comments.   ·      The three things that brands need to do to excel at social selling and digital CX:   1.    Create a buyer-centric profile that looks good to your customers and positions your organization as the expert that can help them.   2.    Have a wide and varied network that allows you to influence as many people as you can.   3.    Create content that provides your customers with help and advice. Customers respect brands that share knowledge and are helpful to people. Providing informative and easy-to-digest content will get your customers to know, like, and trust you.   ·      Plus, Tim Hughes shares how companies can completely own their brand's narrative through digital dominance. Tune in! Quote:  "Your customers are searching for information and assistance online. Your employees need to be empowered on social because that is where your buyers are"   About:   Tim Hughes is the Co-Founder and CEO of DLA Ignite and co-author of the bestselling books, Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers and Smarketing: How to Achieve Competitive Advantage through Blended Sales and Marketing. He is currently ranked Number 1 by Onalytica as the “Most Influential Social Selling Person in the World.”   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Leverage AI to Reduce Customer Experience Gaps Shep Hyken interviews Gadi Shamia, CEO and co-founder of Replicant, a leader in Contact Center Automation. He shares how contact centers can automate the most common customer service calls and empower human agents to focus on empathy and more complex customer issues. Top Takeaways:   ·      When you design your product, you plan for it to work perfectly. Customer service comes when there is a gap between how your product works and the way it was designed. Effective customer service closes the gap quickly and efficiently.   ·      Not every call can be automated. You don't want to automate calls that are highly emotional and complex. An example of this type of call is when a customer is planning their travels with an agent. The agent is involved in an advisory type of discussion, and the flexibility of the human brain is needed when the customer needs to move around different topics.   ·      The calls that can be easily automated are transactional calls where the goal is clear, like rescheduling appointments or requesting roadside assistance. In these types of calls, we can leverage technology to get to a resolution faster.   ·      Wasting time creates friction for the customer. If we can cut down the time it takes from when a customer calls to having their issues resolved successfully, it would significantly improve their experience.   ·      A company must understand the balance between digital experience and human experience. It's fair to push customers to a digital option first as long as a human agent is ready to take on the call as a backup when needed.   ·      Plus, Gadi shares some highlights from Replicant's first Contact Center Automation Benchmark Report and answers the question, Will AI eventually eliminate contact center calls?  Quote:  "Often leaders in customer service or CMOs think that when a customer calls, they really want the human touch. But most often what people want is for their issue to go away."   About:   Gadi Shamia is the CEO & Co-Founder at Replicant, a leader in AI-powered contact center automation. They offer a platform that automates issue resolution through phone, text, and chat.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Memories, Experiences, and Patterns Impact Leadership Style Shep Hyken interviews Susan Drumm, CEO & Chief Empowerment Officer of Meritage Leadership Development and the author of The Leader's Playlist: Unleash the Power of Music and Neuroscience to Transform Your Leadership and Your Life. She shares how to use music to improve your leadership style and make the changes that no longer serve you. Top Takeaways:   ·      Our childhood “wounds” show up in the way we lead others. Leaders don't just react based on what is happening at the moment. Some reactions are triggered by old patterns and experiences.   ·      Old memories and experiences are deep-seated patterns that trigger different reactions in different leaders, even when they face a similar situation. These patterns become the leader's "internal playlist."   ·      A leader's internal playlist is the “music” playing in the background. It sets up how leaders see themselves and the world. It shows up in their leadership styles and how they work with their employees.   ·      The leader's playlist affects the employee experience. This playlist, based on past experiences, impacts the way a leader acts toward people (employees), which eventually trickles down to the customer experience.   ·      How you retain and engage your employees, how your company is doing, how you show up for your family, and how you feel about yourself are all symptoms of an underlying playlist of how you view the world.   ·      Plus, Susan Drumm reveals the top song on her internal playlist. Tune in! Quotes:  "How music impacts a person is very personal. It is not about the genre of music that you listen to or include in your internal playlist. It is about what emotional state that music puts you in."   About:    Susan Drumm is a keynote speaker, CEO, and Leadership Coach. She is the host of The Enlightened Executive, Chief Empowerment Office of Meritage Leadership Development, and the author of The Leader's Playlist: Unleash the Power of Music and Neuroscience to Transform Your Leadership and Your Life.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Happy Employees Translate Into Happier Customers Shep Hyken interviews Temy Mancusi-Ungaro, Chief Executive Officer of Reachdesk, a global data-driven gifting platform that helps teams send gifts at a large scale and measure their impact. He shares how companies can use gifts to create morale, nurture team connections, and ensure employee retention.   Top Takeaways:   ·      From an employee's onboarding to celebrating work anniversaries, birthdays, and promotions, a meaningful gift is a great way to create morale.   ·      Now that the workplace has undergone a migration where employees have gone partially or fully remote, it has become harder to forge relationships. Personalized and timely gifts are an excellent way for employers to show they care for their employees as humans and that they want to invest in their work experience.   ·      If you are dealing with a hybrid or fully remote workforce, people become disconnected from your company. However, just because they aren't there doesn't mean they want to be disconnected. Something as simple as an inexpensive gift and some company swag can make them feel excited and connected to something bigger.   ·      Personalize gifts… When you receive gifts, the ones you will keep are those that resonate with you. It is all about the meaning behind it that creates a personal connection.   ·      Employees need to feel connected and supported. Gifting is a great way to deliver moments that matter, build a connection, and support your employees.   ·      Plus, Shep shares some of the best corporate gifts that he has received. Tune in! Quote:  "In the same way that we use gifts to build relationships for sales, you can use gifts to build relationships within your employees."   About:    Temy Mancusi-Ungaro is the Chief Executive Officer of Reachdesk, the leading global data-driven gifting platform. He has over 20 years of experience scaling SaaS companies and leading customer and employee success.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Link Between Soccer (Football) and Customer Service Shep Hyken interviews Gregorio Uglioni, a customer experience specialist, host of CX Goalkeeper, and author of Customer Experience 4 (CX4). He shares how customer service teams can implement lessons and best practices that organizations can learn from soccer teams and their fans.  Top Takeaways:   ·      Customer service is a team sport where different experts and teams empower and learn from each other to provide an amazing customer experience.   ·      What can customer service teams learn from soccer teams?   o  Turn customers into fans. Fans are emotionally invested and will defend their teams no matter the game's result. When companies provide great experiences, they will earn "fans" who will continuously choose them over their competitors and become brand ambassadors who recommend them to everyone they know.   o  Customer service teams should have one common goal. Each team member has their own role, but they work towards a common goal - winning the match. In customer service, different teams, such as the customer support team, the social media department, and the sales team, have their individual roles. Still, the goal must be unified to win the customer over with an amazing experience.   o  Players must be trained to improvise. During a soccer game, players don't ask permission from their coach before making a move. They are already empowered by their training, strategy, and team support even before stepping into the field. Customer service representatives must have the tools they need, from knowledge bases, coaching, and training to make empowered decisions on how to best serve the customer.   ·      Plus, Gregorio talks about how organizations can create a customer service architecture that can help teams provide a winning experience. Tune in! Quote:  "The company, like a team, has two additional sources of feedback. The employees who give positive or negative feedback will help the team grow. Then, fans or customers will give feedback through comments, surveys, and brand loyalty."   About:    Gregorio Uglioni is a Business Transformation, Innovation, and Customer Experience specialist. He shares his expertise on his podcast, CX Goalkeeper, and books, including his latest, Customer Experience 4 (CX4). Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Customer Experience Can Save Businesses in the Current Economy Shep Hyken interviews Mita Bedi, CEO and Co-founder of Resonate Solutions, a customer experience management platform. She shares how customers are rethinking every relationship and how leaders can make a business valuable enough to remain profitable. Top Takeaways:   ·      Delighting your customers adds value to your business because it is hard to replicate.   ·      Customer delight is systematic. It is not just driven by one aspect like fast delivery or a good product. It means that a customer can interact in many ways with any employee or branch of the company and walk out with the intangible feeling that they got more than expected.   ·      90% of customer service people want to do a good job and delight their customers. However, most leaders are not providing them with the right tools to make it happen.   ·      Good leaders will shine in an economy that is short on skill and capital. They know how to manage people and create a better employee experience, which in turn creates a better customer experience.   ·      Customers are rethinking every relationship. Businesses can no longer take a customer for granted because customers are evaluating their discretionary spending and deciding what is important to them.   ·      Plus Mita Bedi shares what customers are talking about during "BBQ conversations." Tune in! Quotes:  "Businesses are won and lost at the front line. The customer service person is the one that delights the customer."     About:   Mita Bedi is a customer experience specialist, thought leader, CEO, and Co-founder of Resonate Solutions. With more than 20 years of international experience in business consulting, Mita has been part of leading programs that help drive revenue and competitive advantage using customer strategy. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Use Proactive Communication to Manage Increasing Customer Expectations Shep Hyken interviews Laura Bassett, Vice President of Product Marketing at NICE, a complete platform for delivering an end-to-end customer experience. Bassett shares how customer expectations have changed over the years and how companies can provide amazing customer experiences through proactive communication.  Top Takeaways:   ·      Customers are more demanding than ever because they're learning what excellent service looks like from the best experiences they've had from other companies (not just in your industry). ·      Proactive communication helps both businesses and customers. It will not only help the customers before they ask for help, but it also helps them get more value from the products. It will also help companies retain customers.   ·      How to convert an un-amazing situation into an amazing experience:   o  Walk in your customer's shoes and compare that to what you might expect for your own experience.   o  Make your customer support agents (more) knowledgeable. Help them understand that they don't have to go through a script when it is unnecessary.   o  Empower your agents. Give them the tools, the options, and the information to actually solve the problem.   o  Turn customer support agents into customer service executives who own the experience. Give them their own bot assistants and real-time knowledge bases that they can leverage to solve their customer’s problems.   ·      A NICE survey found that 80% of consumers will start with digital (website, app, Google search, YouTube, etc.) when they have a question, a need, or want to buy something. Quote:  "Companies should understand and predict when they can answer a question before customers even realize they have it."   About:   Laura Bassett is the Vice President of Product Marketing at NICE. She has 20+ years of experience in consulting, development, and delivery. Bassett is an outstanding product marketer, gifted speaker, product ambassador, and strategic thinker.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating a Culture that Gets and Retains the Best Employees Shep Hyken interviews Jon Shanahan, co-founder of Businessolver Inc., a benefits administration solution that combines technology and service to help employees get the most value out of their benefits. He discusses creating a culture that delights and retains loyal customers and the best employees. Top Takeaways:  ·      We need to create a culture that people want to work in. Happy employees will focus on engaging more with customers. ·      Employee retention and client retention can drive business growth. You can't get to client delight unless your employees are delighted. If you want to provide a great customer experience, it starts with a great employee experience.   ·      If employees feel like what they contribute to the organization is not recognized in terms of compensation and benefits, they feel like the organization is not empathetic. They think that their leaders are not listening to them.   ·      How the workforce views the value surrounding benefits is evolving. Five years ago, employees considered a good medical program the most important benefit ("I have a good medical program that meets my needs. I have a good dental program"). Employees may now put more value on flexibility ("I have flexibility around my work hours and where I work").   ·      Jon Shanahan also shares the top "always" factors that ensure employee retention.   o  Employees always need to know that they will receive their paycheck. Compensation and benefits always have to happen because if they don't, that is a significant disruption for employees.   o  Employees must know they will always have leaders they can turn to and have honest conversations with.  o  Employees must always have peers that support the same culture. o  The culture of opportunity. If employees don't believe they always have opportunities within the company, they will stay with you for a while, but when a new opportunity comes along, they will leave.   ·      57% of CEOs believe the most significant benefit of an empathetic workplace is faster business growth. Jon shares more stats from the 2022 State of Workplace Empathy Study. Tune in! Quote: "Empathy is your ability to place yourself in someone else's shoes, understand where they're coming from, and create a space to listen to understand."   About:  Jon Shanahan co-founded Businessolver, Inc. in 1998. He wanted to create a benefits administration solution that combined the best in technology and service with a fierce focus on the end-user. Before founding Businessolver, Jon was vice president of consulting services at Holmes Murphy & Associates, a leading national insurance agency. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Engage the “Whole of Business” to Solve Customer Issues Shep Hyken interviews Bill Price, Amazon’s first global vice president of customer service, founder and president of Driva Solutions, and co-author of The Frictionless Organization: Deliver Great Customer Experiences with Less Effort. He shares how organizations can engage the “whole of business” to create a frictionless experience. Top Takeaways:   ·      There are now more channels for customers to contact companies, making it easier than ever for them to do so. But, what most companies aren’t asking is: Why do they need to contact us? Who can address these issues in the organization?   ·      Frictionless is something that often goes unnoticed. It means that everything is going so well that customers don’t need to contact the companies they are doing business with. For the business, it means the contact rate goes down, and the Net Promoter Score and customer loyalty go up.   ·      When customers experience a frictionless experience with another company, they may say something to you, like, “Why aren’t you as easy as Amazon?” or, ‘When I had to return something to Nordstrom, that was really easy, and it’s really hard when I try to return something to you.” Recognize these comments as opportunities to improve and meet your customer’s expectations.   ·      Identifying why customers are contacting you makes it easy for anybody on the receiving end to pick it up, whether in sales, customer service, or an AI bot.   ·      By looking at the frequency and reasons customers contact you, you can figure out the issues that frustrate them the most.   ·      If an issue is frustrating for your customers and solving it is time-consuming and expensive, businesses need to do a root cause analysis and eliminate it from happening. Companies need to figure out how to engage all areas and departments of the business to find the solution. By engaging the “whole of business,” an organization can eliminate the most frustrating and frequent issues its customers face. Quote:  “The best service is no service. The best thing to do for our customers is to set up everything so well that they don’t need to contact us for help and support.”   About:   Bill Price was Amazon’s first global vice president of customer service and is the founder and president of Driva Solutions, a consultancy dedicated to creating highly effective customer contact strategies and operations. He is the co-author of The Best Service Is No Service, Your Customer Rules! and The Frictionless Organization: Deliver Great Customer Experiences with Less Effort.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where Sales and Customer Service Meet Shep Hyken interviews Frank Cespedes, a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of six books, including his latest, Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World that Never Stops Changing. He talks about how sales and customer service is changing and how organizations, from the frontlines to the C-suite, can adapt. Top Takeaways:    ·      Service for the majority of companies has been focused on the output of selling. However, those selling efforts are changing; one of the changes is that sales and customer service are increasingly intertwined.   ·      Sales and customer service are very closely combined. Selling with service is all about what we can do to enhance the sales experience and make people say, “I like doing business with this company.”   ·      Customer service people are increasingly involved in selling. Buyers in most industries are now online and offline multiple times throughout the buying journey. They are in contact with the company in numerous ways, not just with the sales team.   ·      The days of the salesperson being an organic, walking, talking version of product and price information are gone. Customers now have access to product information, price, and price comparison in just one or two clicks.   ·      People don’t want to be sold. They want to buy. Once they have decided to buy, they want to make sure they made the right decision. Everything that happens after the sale, which is customer service, is validation that they purchased from the right company, and they have a reason to come back again and again.  Quotes:  “You can’t manage a business from a spreadsheet. While you must consider the data, there is no substitute for the experience of  direct customer contact.”   About:   Frank Cespedes teaches at Harvard Business School. He is also the author of six books, including Aligning Strategy and Sales, which was cited as” “the best sales book of the year” by Strategy & Business, “a must-read” by Gartner, and “perhaps the best sales book ever” by Forbes. His newest book is Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World That Never Stops Changing. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don’t Overlook the Value of Emotions Shep Hyken interviews Zhecho Dobrev, leading principal consultant at Beyond Philosophy and author of The Big Miss: How Organizations Overlook the Value of Emotions. He shares how emotions and customer relationships affect buying decisions. Top Takeaways:   ·      Customer loyalty is based on the customer's emotional connection with the company. ·      When you look at typical journey maps, they follow the Customer Infinity Loop. They start with branding, advertising, learning about the organization, getting on board the buying experience, payment, and all the other interactions the customer has with the organization. Nowhere is there a focus on customer relationships.   ·      How much value do relationships have in business? Think about the people you have relationships with in your personal life (your spouse, your kids, your relatives, your close friends). Then, think about what makes those relationships - it's that emotional bond.   ·      How do you get an emotional connection with an eCommerce company or a typical business where you have very little, if any, connection? o  Personalization. Showing that you know customers or personalize things based on the data that you have on them. o  Branding. For example, “Joy” is the core of the BMW branding. They communicate the joy of design, life, progress, and more in their marketing and communications. o  Shared values. Patagonia is all about sustainability in the world, and our customer experience research has shown that consumers are drawn to companies with a cause they're interested in.   ·      Zhecho also shared their findings on the value relationships have in driving business. Tune in!   Quotes:  "When deciding whether to continue doing business with a company, you don't base your decision on that moment. You base your decision on your memory with that organization throughout all the time you’ve done business with them."   About:   Zhecho Dobrev is a customer experience and behavior science consultant & trainer at Beyond Philosophy and the author of The Big Miss: How Organizations Overlook the Value of Emotions. For more than 13 years, he has been helping many of the world's most renowned organizations improve their customer experience, including American Express, FedEx, and Caterpillar. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building Human-Centered AI in Customer Service and Experience Shep Hyken interviews Seth Dobrin, IBM's first Global Chief AI Officer, leading the company's corporate AI strategy. He shares how businesses can take a human-centered approach when utilizing AI to help their customers.  Top Takeaways:    ·      What do we mean when we talk about AI for business? It is a technology that understands the language of your business and automates workflows and processes in a trustworthy manner that complies with regulations.   ·      When organizations build AI, they make it to solve a problem, but they don't often think of the humans that are involved until the end. When building AI solutions, we must start with who will use the AI and why. Then, recognize that the person using the AI technology and the person impacted by it may not be the same person.   ·      AI technology can help us eliminate or reduce the human tendency to have biases when we're driving decisions.   ·      Seth also shares how we can understand the problems that our customers, employees, and contractors face and the value AI create for them. Plus, we take a peek at the AI trends that we can expect in the very near future. Tune in! Quote:  "During the pandemic, we saw a huge acceleration of organizations, companies, governments, and healthcare entities using AI for customer care. Leveraging AI was able to deflect 90% of the conversation so that the 10% who really needed to speak to a human could."   About:   Dr. Seth Dobrin is IBM's first Global Chief AI Officer. He is recognized as AI Innovator of the Year 2021 at the AIconics Awards and named one of Corinium's Top 100 Leaders in Data & Analytics 2022. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building Customer Relationships After the Deal is Closed Shep Hyken interviews Sam Cummings, award-winning Customer Success Manager, Data Scientist, and co-founder of Data Plant. He shares how companies can empower their teams to provide value, create great experiences, and build customer relationships. Top Takeaways:   ·      What is the difference between customer support and customer success? Customer support is transactional. If a customer is having an issue with a product, the customer support department helps them fix it, and that's it. Customer success is relational. It enables the customer to get the most value from the product over a period of time.   ·      The subscription model has been around for a long time. In the last two decades, it has evolved into a mechanism that is a part of every industry. In a subscription business, companies need to have someone in the organization to maintain the relationship after the deal is closed.   ·      The customer success department ensures that customers get the most value out of a product by teaching them to use the product in a way that they are getting the most benefit. The goal is they keep using the product, they buy more, or they renew their subscription.   ·      It is said that the most abused customer is the "sold customer." Customer success ensures that companies don't just close a deal. They start a relationship with their customers that provides value and great experiences.   ·      The ability for customer success teams to have all of the customer's data (marketing data, product usage, support tickets, etc.) in one place can help them understand the customer's experience and uniqueness, empowering them to have more empathy.   ·      Sam Cummings also answers the question - Can customer success be automated? Tune in. Quote:  "Customer success, in a vacuum, is about customer retention. It is about how organizations can motivate customers to keep using their products or services." About:   Samuel Cummings. Co-Founder, Head of Data Science at Data Plant. He has travelled the world, presenting to executives and directors the success stories of applying data science in the customer success domain.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Relationship Between Value, Customer Experience, and Price Shep Hyken interviews Per Sjöfors, aka "The Price Whisperer," Co-founder of Sjöfors & Partners and author of The Price Whisperer - A Holist Approach to Pricing Power. He shares how companies can use pricing to drive higher growth, sales volume, and profits by providing a great customer experience. Top Takeaways:   ·      There is a direct correlation between how much a company can charge a customer and the level of customer experience. ·      How you present your product or service, and your value messages drive customer satisfaction, customer experience, and how much customers are willing to pay.   ·      Any company has profitability based on three variables: total cost, sales volume, and price. Out of the three, price has the highest leverage on profitability.   ·      Pricing drives satisfaction. Often higher prices lead to more satisfied customers than lower prices. Many companies compare themselves to others in their industry and start doing the same. But, if you give a compelling reason why your price is more than theirs, you're going to win customers over.   ·      And Pers talks about the mistakes companies make when pricing affects the customer experience. Check it out! Quote:  "A satisfied customer with good experiences is more likely to be willing to pay higher prices than somebody who is dissatisfied (if that customer ever comes back)."   About:   Per Sjöfors, aka "The Price Whisperer," is the Co-founder of Sjöfors & Partners and author of The Price Whisperer. He is a thought leader and author on everything pricing and how companies can use pricing to drive higher growth, sales volume, and profits. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using AI to Enable and Empower Customer Service Agents Shep Hyken interviews Deon Nicholas, CEO and Co-Founder of Forethought, a company that builds human-centered AI to transform the customer service experience. He shares how companies can use AI and technology to help customer support agents and customers find the best resolution.  Top Takeaways:    ·      A lot of people think that AI is all about deflecting customers away from support agents. However, AI is about solving the customer's problem by providing a self-service option, interacting with a bot, or getting that customer to a human.   ·      Human-centered AI is not just about resolving the issue. It is also about being able to recognize when the best thing to do is to get out of the way. Certain problems require human judgment and empathy. Human-centered AI is all about connecting and getting the customer to an agent in the right channel at the right time. ·      If you can take historical data, such as questions customers have asked in the past and issues they have called about, then you can build a knowledge base around this data that agents can use to help customers.   ·      Customers want speed and an easy experience, but that doesn’t matter if they don’t get the answer to their question or their problem resolved.     ·      Deon Nicholas also talks about the three elements that organizations must have to deliver the ultimate customer experience. Tune in! Quote:  "In amazing businesses, the most important thing to think about is our people. Everything that we have ever done in humanity has been about building technology by people, for people. Double down on your people, and you will see the dividends and the returns."   About:    Deon Nicholas is the CEO and Co-Founder of Forethought, the AI company whose mission is to transform customer experiences with human-centered AI. Before starting Forethought, Deon built products and infrastructure at Facebook, Palantir, Dropbox, and Pure Storage. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Employing Brand Advocates to Improve Customer Experience  Shep Hyken interviews Megan Neale, Co-founder and COO of Limitless, a Gig CX platform that empowers people to earn money by providing brilliant customer service. She shares how brands can leverage brand advocacy and the knowledge of actual product users (customers) to improve customer experience.  Top Takeaways:    ·      Customers who love using your products can be great resources to answer questions, resolve issues, and share experiences. They have the knowledge and passion for the brand that can be turned into a skill to help other customers.   ·       Some customers answer questions on forums for free just because they enjoy doing it. However, relying solely on forums is not scalable or reliable for delivering consistent customer service.   ·      Almost every company could benefit from tapping into their passionate customers and bringing them into the heart of their business by helping other customers.   ·      How does the GigCX work? Megan Neale outlines how her platform, Limitless, works with companies to use a strong community to help brands meet rising customer expectations and demands.   1. Companies identify customers who demonstrate brand loyalty, knowledge, and skills to help other customers. They are invited to join the platform and be a part of the GigCX program.   2. Once in the program, they must prove their skills, knowledge, and brand passion. They are chosen because of their experience using the products and then, they are provided with the proper training around the processes a brand will need them to follow.   3. When they are ready, they receive inquiries and can choose the questions that are right for them. They get paid for every ticket that they are able to resolve successfully.  Quote:   "The volume of customer support requests coming to organizations is increasing. Utilizing customers to help other customers does not displace traditional contact center workers. It is a way to support the volume of engagement in a cost-effective way."   About:    Megan Neale is Co-founder and COO of Limitless, an AI-powered Gig CX platform. Her passion for "customer & client first" and her constant drive for innovation led her to co-found Limitless in 2016.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Empowering Your Team to Deliver a Great Customer Experience Shep Hyken interviews Julius Robinson, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Marriott International. He shares what organizations can learn about customer service from the hospitality industry and how to equip employees to meet and exceed customer expectations. Top Takeaways:    ·      The fundamentals of customer service start with individual customer interactions. First, we must learn how to deal with all the different inquiries at the start of the customer's journey. Then, try to meet them where they are so we can anticipate their needs and find opportunities to enrich their experience.   ·      Technology has allowed customers to take control of their experience. If done right, technology can help provide the great experience they expect from your brand.   ·      Julius Robinson also shares two things organizations can do to create a great customer experience.   1.    Ask the right questions. Customers don't always verbalize what their needs and wants are. Make time to find out what they expect from you.  2.    Empower your employees to deliver a great experience. Find out what the customers’ end goals are. An example from the hospitality industry is if it is a family that hasn't travelled since the pandemic started and is concerned about health, employees need to have the information and tools to give the customers confidence in a safe travel experience.   ·      Marriott International believes that if you take care of your associates, they will take care of the customer. They call it the TakeCare culture. It is a culture that is all about listening, having empathy, responding with clarity, and delivering on the customer's expectations. Quote:  "Enable your teams to overcome problems authentically. Empower them with broad guidelines and proper training, and they will do great things for the customers."   About:   Julius Robinson is the Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Marriott International. He leads the disciplines of Sales, Distribution, Field Marketing, Franchise Sales, Marketing & Revenue Management Support, and Public Relations and Crisis Communications for Marriott International. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Prevent Your Customers from Shopping Your Competition Shep Hyken interviews Matthew Holman, head of growth at QPilot, an eCommerce software company that makes subscriptions more flexible for brands and customers. He shares how subscription models can shape the customer experience to meet the changing needs of their customers. Top Takeaways:    ·      People consume differently and customers’ needs change. Brands should offer flexibility with the frequency of their subscriptions and product options. ·       In the typical subscription experience, customers cancel their subscriptions once their need for the product no longer exists. But what happens when they want to renew their subscription? That can create a huge friction point. ·      Companies that want to offer a subscription service get caught up in how amazing or complex they could make something. Always think of what is available, what you can do now, and scale from there.   ·      Businesses always worry about how to make revenue. If they look at things through the lens of a subscription model, create additional engagement, and nurture relationships, they can earn customers – and revenue – for life.   ·      With subscriptions, around 80% of your customer base will be fairly standard on how they shop. But the difference between a business staying alive and a losing business is that extra 20% of people that are on the margins. Those are the people that need flexibility.   ·      Many people resist the idea of companies having their data, but the goal of any good brand is to create trust, communication, and engagement. Customers will share data with the companies they trust. When the data is used properly, it creates a better experience for the customer.   ·      You need to find out what your customers need and want. Talk to your end-users. Test and survey your customers to understand their actual pain points. If you can develop something within your business model that can service that need, you'll be able to become more profitable and grow revenue. Quote:  "The best model for a subscription service is one that has a product that can be consumed regularly and content that provides value to the customers." About:   Matthew Holman is head of growth at QPilot. He works with brands to scale their subscription programs using data, best practices, and experimentation. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Use Customer Feedback to Improve Performance Shep Hyken interviews Adam Alfia, co-founder of Feedback. He has a firmly entrenched background in high-end hospitality and entertainment. He shares how companies can utilize customer feedback to create a great experience.  Top Takeaways:    ·      There is a slow death of customer service. Many younger employees don't come out of high school or college knowing what they want to do for the rest of their lives, so many don't have a vested interest in their jobs. As a result, they don't go above and beyond to build a strong relationship with the customer base in the industry that they work in.   ·      Many companies think that since their employees will leave after a short time, they don't invest in training. This is flawed thinking because anytime you put somebody that's not prepared on the frontline, they become the face of your brand at the moment. You want all employees on the frontline to be properly trained.   ·      A good training program becomes even more important in an economy where it is difficult to hire and keep good employees.   ·      The generation that grew up behind cell phones may be very vocal on social media, but most of them are unwilling to provide face-to-face feedback. Train your employees to be observant of body language and to respond to your customers' non-verbal cues.   ·      There's an antagonistic relationship that Yelp has created between businesses and customers. Sometimes, customers go to Yelp as a form of revenge when they have had a bad experience, attempting to make the company look bad in front of everyone.   ·      Make it easy for customers to give feedback, especially negative feedback. If you make it hard for them to leave a comment, they could go to the next option, which is to broadcast it to everybody and hope to get a response from the business.   ·      Customer service is a team sport. Technology, like Realtime Feedback, can help you work with your customers to create the best experience for them.  Quote:   "When customers go on social media to share their negative experiences, it is because you didn't give them what they wanted when they asked for it the first time, whether in person, by email, or via a phone call to customer support."   About:   Adam Alfia is the co-founder of Feedback, a digital solution for getting real-time feedback from customers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Impact of Bad Customer Service on Your Customers, Employees, and ROI Shep Hyken interviews Christine Churchill, Founder and CEO of the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA). She shares how organizations can identify, measure, and address issues to improve customer experience. Top Takeaways:   ·      Customers are smarter than ever before. They don't benchmark you against a direct competitor. They're comparing you to the best service they've had from any company out there.   ·      When customers were asked to define great service, they described a company with people who can resolve problems, know their products, are easy to reach, and don't waste their time.   ·      Investing in your employees' training makes them feel good about themselves. Give them the tools so that when a customer is upset, angry, or yelling, they know exactly how to handle the situation.   ·      Your team members feel the pain points in your business process as much as your customers. Customer surveys are helpful, but asking your team members where these glitches are in the process is the first thing you should do.   ·      Christine also shares these stats and facts about the cost of bad customer service for an organization:   o  89% of consumers have said that they will spend 17% more on a service if they feel that they will receive a better service experience. o  If you can increase your customer retention just by 5%, you can improve your bottom line revenue by 25% to 95%. o  A 1% increase in CSAT results in a 4.6% increase in overall market value. ·      And Christine shares the formula businesses can use to calculate the cost of bad customer service. Tune in!  Quote:  "Everything is digital. Anybody can look up and see the service experiences other people, who are their peers, have had with your company before they buy."   About:     Christine Churchill is a customer experience expert and the Founder and CEO of the Customer Service Institute of America. She has worked with organizations around the globe from a variety of industries, management styles, training approaches, systems, and technologies. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trends That Will Affect Customer Service and Customer Experience Shep Hyken interviews Jonathan Shroyer, Chief Customer Experience Innovation Officer of Arise Virtual Solutions, a customer service outsourcing and consulting firm. He shares insights about the future of customer service and the power of customer experience in driving tremendous value for your business.  Top Takeaways:   ·      To get the C-suite to invest in customer experience, demonstrate ROI. You must understand what indicators drive business growth and compare it to the data that the customers provide based on their experience. Find a correlation between these sets of data and how it affects your revenue.   ·      When you lose a customer because of a negative experience, the new customers you gain will only make up for those who have left. It does nothing to increase your revenue. In comparison, if you take care of those customers the right way, they will stay, creating decade-long customers that will continuously bring in more business. And along the way, new customers will help continue to grow the business, as well.   ·      Shroyer shares the top 3 customer service and experience trends that he can see happening in the next decade.   o  Trend #1 People are changing the way they work. In the old days, companies were at the wheel when it came to work-life harmony. Today, workers are moving towards a more flexible framework because they now have a choice of how they want to work. Employees are now empowered to choose where they want to work and where they want to live. We will be seeing a mega trend where companies will become more competitive with compensation, benefits packages, and remote work options to retain their customer service employees.   o  Trend #2 Hybrid AI. When it comes to solving customer service problems in the future, it’s not a choice between bots or humans that will solve the customer's problems. It will take both. A hybrid approach is where a skilled human being can come in, modify or improve upon what a bot has already done.   o  Trend #3 AI One-on-One Companions. In the next five years, multiple companies will launch products where AI can solve 99% of known issues for a customer and only 1% where the customer needs to call a human customer service agent. This takes the concept of products like Alexa and Siri to a different level where AI one-on-one companions are fully customized and integrated with the customer's passions and interests.  Quote:  "Always be learning. Nobody has a silver bullet, but we all have amazing experiences. We can learn, listen, support, and collaborate with each other."   About:   Jonathan Shroyer is the Chief Customer Experience Innovation Officer of Arise Virtual Solutions, a customer service outsourcing and offshoring consulting firm. Recognized as a renowned thought leader in the industry through multiple mentions, Jonathan is a sought-after speaker and writer.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Design Experiences that Exceed Your Customer's Expectations Shep Hyken interviews Ian Johnston, Founder of Quinine, a leading strategic retail design consultancy devoted to the power of design that drives innovation and growth. He talks about building trust and loyalty by designing meaningful customer engagement.  Top Takeaways:    ·      A smart shopper is more than a way to describe a segment of your customers. Every customer seeks value whether they are buying luxury goods or everyday items. Smart shoppers take their past experiences and compare them to the experiences they have with you. ·      The Value Gap is when a customer feels that they are getting more than they paid for. When they get more benefits than the price, this is when customer satisfaction is highest. ·      Value is constantly changing. Each customer segment looks at different aspects of value differently. They may value price, quantity, brand virtues, sustainability, or the look and feel of a store. You have to move with your customers as their expectations of value change. To exceed their expectations, you have to meet them first. ·      Customer service, virtues, and values will differentiate your brand. In retail, you can use your store to bring your company's virtues and values to life by promoting and reinforcing the value proposition in your marketing campaigns. ·      The customer's baseline expectations are shaped by society. If you don't meet the expectations of the customer and that of the community, you will get left behind. Quote:  "Our expectations aren't necessarily set by our competitors. They are set by everything that happens in the world." About:   Ian Johnston is the Founder of Quinine, a leading strategic retail design consultancy devoted to the power of design to drive innovation and growth. The consultancy helps brands create world-class social, cultural, and commercial experiences that enrich and delight their customers’ everyday lives. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There Is No Such Thing as Over-communicating With Your Customers Shep Hyken interviews Jeffrey T. Mezger, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer at KB Home, one of the most recognized brands in homebuilding. They discuss the goal of being customer-obsessed, how your organization can provide an excellent experience in spite of supply chain issues and other problems, and more.  Top Takeaways:    ·      Jeffrey Mezger’s mantra is to be the most customer-obsessed builder in the world. A lofty goal, but it is their “north star” and keeps everyone in alignment with its vision. If ever in doubt, he wants every employee to ask, “What would the most customer obsessed company in the world do?”   ·      How do you deal with bad news? You have to over-communicate in every step. You can't possibly communicate enough, especially if it involves a life-changing purchase.   ·      Economic conditions and supply chain issues disrupted customer service. When delays due to the supply disruption happen, take it up another level and make sure to communicate even more.   ·      The more you communicate with your customer, even if it's about delays or bad news, they feel like they have control because they have a piece of knowledge.   ·      How do you ensure that you stay on top? You can never stop raising the bar, always aiming for a higher target by listening to what your customers want along the way.   ·      A customer-obsessed organization starts with knowing what the customer wants and then partnering with them to achieve it. That’s a  winning combination.   Quote:  "Giving customers information is much more impactful and beneficial than saying nothing. Even if it's something that is unpleasant, you have to talk to your customers." About:   Jeffrey T. Mezger is the Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer at KB Home, one of the most recognized brands in homebuilding. Under his leadership, KB Home established itself as one of the most recognized brands in homebuilding.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investing in Customer Service Shep Hyken interviews Michel Falcon, keynote speaker, owner of Brasa Peruvian Kitchen, and author of People-First Culture: Build a Lasting Company By Shifting Your Focus From Profits to People. He talks about getting leaders to invest in customer service. Top Takeaways:    ·      Why don't all companies deliver a great customer experience? The first reason is that business leaders often focus on the next 30 days instead of long-term investing in their brand. The second reason is some leaders don't treat employees the way they want their customers to be treated.   ·      How do you convince the C-suite to invest in customer service? Show the C-Suite leadership what they are interested in and be specific with the numbers. They are interested in customer churn because when customers leave, the company losses money. They are also interested in customer lifetime value. Assign a dollar value to all the good things that could happen as a result of investing in customer service, and you will capture the attention of the C-Suite.   ·      Your customers don't only compare you to your direct competitors or big brands with recognizable logos and brands. They also compare you to the little shop down the street that treats them so well that they can't wait to come back. The best companies, large or small, set the bar higher for all of us.   ·      Hire the right people and train them well. Utilize what they are already good at and align it to what your organization is doing.  Quote:   "Leadership must walk through their customer's journey. They must ask themselves, ‘Am I proud of this? If I was a customer, would I have friction in doing this customer experience?’" About:    Michel Falcon is a restaurant entrepreneur and keynote speaker. He uses company culture and customer experience management strategies to build his latest restaurant brand, Brasa Peruvian Kitchen. He is the author of People-First Culture: Build a Lasting Company By Shifting Your Focus From Profits to People. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reinforcing Behaviors that Shape Your Organization’s Culture Shep Hyken interviews Dan Cockerell, Walt Disney Company VP for 26 years and owner of Cockerell Consulting Group with his wife, Valerie. He is the author of How's the Culture in Your Kingdom?: Lessons from a Disney Leadership Journey. He shares how a sustainable culture that inspires loyalty from employees and customers. Top Takeaways:   ·      Culture can be defined as "How things are done around here." It is based on your values, it defines what your best practices are, and how you hire people who are going to believe in that culture.   ·      Any organization can decide what its culture is and then start to go after it with intentionality. It is not a matter of cost; you can't buy culture. It is a matter of will.   ·      Dan Cockerell shares how organizations can create the right culture that makes a long-term impact on employees and customers:   1.    Hire the right people. Look at the people in your companies who are superstars and figure out what makes them great. Then, find people who have the same fire and great attitude.   2.    Train them right. Set clear expectations from the beginning, starting from the interview and onboarding process. Your employees should understand why what they do is important in the overall customer experience.   3.    Treat them right. Treat employees with respect. Listen to them, equip them with the right tools, and help them when they need it. Recognize them when they do a great job so you can reinforce the good behaviors that bring a stronger culture. Quote:  "Money is not a long-term differentiator to keeping your employees happy. It is important because it helps you do things in life, but when it comes to human nature, people don't perform for money. What they do every day gives them the purpose that will make them stay in your organization."     About:   Dan Cockerell is a retired 26-year Walt Disney Company VP who now owns Cockerell Consulting Group with his wife Valerie. He is the author of How's the Culture in Your Kingdom?: Lessons from a Disney Leadership Journey.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Use TikTok for Marketing and Customer Service Shep Hyken interviews Dennis Yu, CEO BlitzMetrics and author of The Definitive Guide to TikTok Advertising: How to Access 1 Billion People in 10 Minutes! They discuss how businesses can use TikTok to promote their brand and enhance customer experience.  Top Takeaways:   ·      Social Media is an opportunity for a brand to show the world that they are interested in resolving issues for their customer. ·      The fastest-growing content on TikTok right now is catered to B2B. ·      Dennis Yu shared these tips (and more) on how to use TikTok for business: 1.    Keep TikToks at 15-30 seconds long. ByteDance, the parent company that owns TikTok, found that the most viral videos are 22 seconds long. 15 to 30 seconds is the sweet spot because you have to have a high completion rate. Your audience needs to watch until the end of the video. 2.    Advertise on TikTok. The price to advertise TikTok is about 1/4 of what it is on Facebook because the supply is higher than the demand. There are so many users, and there are not that many advertisers. This might change in a year. 3.    Use Spark Ad. It lets you boost another user's content. Brands can boost their customers' content using a code. Spark Ads performs differently than if you were to post from your brand account because everything on TikTok needs to feel human and personal. 4.    Repurpose content. We want to repurpose content that has already worked on YouTube, Facebook, blogs, etc., and turn those into TikToks.  Quote:  “TikTok in 2022 is Facebook in 2007. Now, it has more traffic than Google, a higher average watch time than Facebook or Netflix, and it is now the top downloaded app.” About:   Dennis Yu is a Digital Marketer, Speaker, Agency Builder and the CEO BlitzMetrics. He is the author of The Definitive Guide to TikTok Advertising: How to Access 1 Billion People in 10 Minutes!   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Empowering Customer Support Agents with Data Shep Hyken interviews Devin Poole, Senior Director of CX Strategy at Dixa, the groundbreaking conversational customer service platform. They discuss connecting with customers using intelligence, empathy, and the right information. Top Takeaways:   ·      Issue Centricity is a focus on a customer's specific situation. It is making sure that support agents have the right data and information about the problem, the issue and resolution history, and the context of where the customer is coming from at their disposal.   ·      When support agents don't understand the full scope of the customer's situation, they can only be reactive. If they have access to the right information, they can solve issues without the customer having to repeat their story again and again. They can feel empowered to guide the customer to the best possible solution or send them to the self-service option if that is more convenient for them. ·      When customers call about a problem and interact with support agents whose goal is to resolve the issue and teach them about the best ways to use the company instead of upselling, they become more valuable to the company's bottom line in the long term.  ·      If you do something internally, whether it is new software, system, or process, that creates more work or difficulty for your employees, it's going to be felt on the outside by customers. ·      We need to get people to recognize that an internal customer support department that focuses on doing nothing but answering questions and resolving complaints is part of the relationship-building that other departments need to drive more sales.  Quote:  "Customers are like water. They will go to the easiest route downhill. They only care about the most convenient resolution to their problem."     About:    Devin Poole is the Senior Director of CX Strategy at Dixa. He is responsible for understanding the needs of customer service & experience leaders, shaping product development initiatives, and advising Dixa clients on best practices in service and experience effectiveness. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Develop Workplace Culture Like a Skill  Shep Hyken interviews Daniel Coyle, New York Times bestselling author of  The Culture Playbook: 60 Highly Effective Actions to Help Your Group Succeed. They discuss developing your team’s culture as a skill through consistent action, practice, and reflection. Top Takeaways:   ·      Culture is not about words. Culture is about actions and behaviours. ·      We always think that culture is like the personality of a group. That's not true. Culture is performance. It is when people act in such a way that contributes to the team’s performance. ·      Daniel Coyle shares three tips (out of 60!) from his book, The Culture Playbook: The Culture Playbook: 60 Highly Effective Actions to Help Your Group Succeed. Tip #1. Keep an open face. Our face is like a door. It has two settings, closed and open. Our face is closed when our thoughts are focused inwards. It is open when we communicate energy, interest, excitement, and enthusiasm. Tip #2. The two-line email. Ask your employees to send you a two-line email with these prompts: Tell me one thing you want me to keep doing, and Tell me one thing you want me to stop doing. Tip #3. AAR or After Action Review. AAR is a 5-minute meeting that has a massive impact on strength and performance. After you do something with your team, pause and ask these three questions: What went well? What didn't go well? What are we going to do differently next time? ·      Daniel also shares more ideas about pillars of building culture, the subtraction game, and the benefits of "taking a pause" in this busy world. Tune in! Quote:  "Great cultures operate like a flock of birds in a forest. They stay connected. They self-organize to go past problems and move toward their goal." About:   Daniel Coyle is a New York Times bestselling author of The Culture Code, The Talent Code, The Little Book of Talent, The Secret Race, and Hardball: A Season in the Projects. His latest book is The Culture Playbook: 60 Highly Effective Actions to Help Your Group Succeed.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 5 Core Concepts to Customer Service Shep Hyken interviews Chris Lynam, Customer Service Expert and multi-franchise owner of Arthur Murray Dance Studios. He is the host of the podcast, Off the Floor, and author of the new book, The Choreography of Customer Service: High Touch Service in a Touch-Free World. They discuss how your organization can implement the five core concepts of good customer service. Top Takeaways:  • Chris shares THE 5 CORE CONCEPTS TO CUSTOMER SERVICE from his book, The Choreography of Customer Service. 1. The Backstory: Customer service professionals should discover what steps have led the customer to their business. Instead of asking, "How can I help you right now?" ask, "What has brought you in here today?" If customer service professionals know their customer's backstory, they will be able to put themselves into their customer's shoes. This is how they can provide the level of service that they would want themselves. 2. The Negative: When you genuinely care for your customers, you will give them the "cautionary tale" when necessary. The most appropriate advice may not always be what the customer wants to hear. But, if it will give your customers the best outcome, you have to make sure they get the complete picture. 3. The Secret Mission: There is something unique that differentiates you from others and will help you outperform what might be considered average in your field or industry.  4. Muscle Memory: What attitudes and good habits developed over time come naturally to you as you serve your customers? 5. Return on Investment: How do you measure the return of investment on the frontlines? The return on investment is not necessarily measured by dollars. It can be measured by customer behaviour. It can be a compliment or the customer coming back to do more business with you. • Chris also talks about building your customer team like you are preparing for a bank heist. Tune in to find out what this means and if you should be preparing for your own "bank heist." Quote: "Feedforward instead of feedback. Instead of examining customer interactions after they happen, prepare your customer service team for different scenarios before they go out into the frontlines."   About:   Chris Lynam is a customer service expert and multi-franchise owner of Arthur Murray Dance Studios. He is the host of the podcast, Off the Floor, and the author of the new book, The Choreography of Customer Service: High Touch Service in a Touch-Free World.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Communication Affects the Employee and Customer Experience Shep Hyken interviews Dorian Stone, Head of Organizations Revenue of Grammarly Business. They discuss how communication affects an organization's productivity, experience, and revenue. Top Takeaways:   ·      Communication is part of the experience. If you don't communicate well with your customers and employees, you are giving them a bad experience.   ·      The Harris Poll research estimates that US businesses are losing $1.2 trillion annually due to poor communication.   ·      Dorian Stone shares what organizations can do to improve communication and experience for employees and customers.   1. Do the math on how much time employees spend on written communication. Most knowledge workers, such as chat agents and email support agents, spend about half of their workweek writing into a system (chat, email, CRM, etc.). Reduce the time they spend writing by helping them eliminate errors, reduce rework, and maintain the appropriate tone through a writing assistant. 2. Look at the English as a Second Language (ESL) versus English First Language mix of your business and then understand the dynamics. Examine the makeup of your workforce and see what your employees are working on. Evaluate how natural and consistent that communication flow is across all teams. 3. Look at where you've made your recent investments. Ask yourself how much safety valve investments are there to avoid errors versus how many are really about throughput. Invest in systems that make things efficient and easy for your employees.   Quote:  "Poor communication is a frustrating productivity issue. Tasks have to be done twice when communication is ineffective."   About:   Dorian Stone is Head of Organizations Revenue of Grammarly Business, overseeing all operations for the integrated business solution. Previously, Dorian was VP of customer experience strategy and marketing at Medallia. He was also a co-founder and leader of McKinsey & Company’s Global Customer Experience practice and a program director and volunteer in the Peace Corps.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Link Between the Top Rated Customer-Focused Companies and the Stock Market Shep Hyken interviews Dr. Claes Fornell, founder of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and the Distinguished Donald C. Cook Emeritus Professor of Business at the University of Michigan. Dr. Fornell is the author of The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference. Top Takeaways: ·      ACSI, or the American Customer Satisfaction Index, researches and tracks more than 400 of the largest corporations in the U.S. marketplace on their customer satisfaction scores. ·      There's a correlation between top-performing companies in the ACSI and companies who do well in the stock market. The 35 top-performing companies, according to the ACSI, have had a return of… (Dr. Fornell suggests sitting down as you read this number) 1788% in the last 15 years. ·      Customer retention provides exponentially increasing returns for your business. However, some companies can have high retention but low satisfaction. Your customers may come back because your products are affordable until another company that offers lower prices comes along. Make sure that your customers come back for the right reasons.  ·      There are obvious issues that companies need to fix to solve customer dissatisfaction: wait time, ease of use, and segmentation. Wait time - If the search, shopping, and buying experience take longer than expected, it creates a problem for the customers. Ease of use - If it's complicated and the customer often needs help, it affects their experience. Segmentation - Don't just segment on age, gender, or location. Segment your customers according to categories that affect the customer’s sensitivity to higher quality. Know what customers are looking for in your products and design customer experiences that deliver them. Quote:  “Buying loyalty is keeping the price low. Earning loyalty is keeping your customers satisfied.”   About:   Dr. Claes Fornell is the founder of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a monthly economic indicator of the quality of economic output, and the Distinguished Donald C. Cook Emeritus Professor of Business at the University of Michigan. Dr. Fornell is the author of The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Employee First: How Culture, People, and Service Work Together Donna Cutting is the Founder and CEO of Red-Carpet Learning Systems, Inc., an organization that provides training and tools to transform your customers into loyal fans. She is the author of Employees First!: Inspire, Engage, and Focus on the Heart of Your Organization. They discuss how to create a culture of safety, inclusion, and empowerment.  Top Takeaways:  ·      Think about how you want employees to treat your customers, flip it and say, ”Are we treating our people that way?” ·       Start with the experience you create for your employees. When you support them to grow their skills and knowledge, they can better take care of customers. ·      Leaders have to show up with more empathy and understanding. If you want your people to stick around, you must make them feel appreciated. ·      If every person in a leadership position would make it a point to get to know their employees better, that would be a huge step in keeping your employees. ·      Listen to your people in a way that you never have before. Model what excellent customer service is, give them confidence by creating opportunities to increase their skills, provide them with agency so that they're empowered to help the customer, and create a culture where they feel safe. Quote:  “Focus on the employees first. Their experience is the foundation of what will happen to your customers.”   About:  Donna Cutting is the Founder and CEO of Red-Carpet Learning Systems, Inc., an organization that provides training and tools to transform your customers into loyal fans. She is the author of Employees First!: Inspire, Engage, and Focus on the Heart of Your Organization. They discuss how to create a culture of safety, inclusion, and empowerment.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Winning Organizations are Built Shep Hyken interviews Annette Franz, founder and CEO of CX Journey Inc. and the author of Built to Win: Designing a Customer-Centric Culture that Drives Value for Your Business. They discuss why customer-centricity needs to be understood and lived by the whole organization. Top Takeaways:   Annette Franz shares the 10 key defining foundational principles that ensure customer-centricity from her latest book: 1. Culture is the foundation. Culture is core values plus behaviors. It needs to be deliberately designed to be customer-centric. 2. Leadership commitment and alignment are critical to success. Customer centricity cannot just be one department or one person. It needs to be organization-wide. 3. Employee experience: employees must be put more first. When employees are happy and engaged, they will be more productive. 4. People come before products. Put the people first and take the time to understand who they are, their needs, pain, and what they are trying to do. Understanding our customers is how we can develop products for them instead of finding customers for our products. 5. People come before profits. Profits and shareholder value are outcomes. Great customer experiences are how we make sure that we get to those outcomes. 6. People come before metrics. If you focus on numbers and metrics, you do things differently than when you focus on improving the experience, which will ultimately move those numbers. 7. Customer understanding is the cornerstone. The voice of the customer is the cornerstone to every discussion, decision, and design of a customer-centric culture. 8. Governance bridges organizational gaps. Governance has two parts to it- the structure and the operating model. The structure is all of the committees that we have to get the organization working together to benefit the customer. The operating model is the people, the tools, the data, and the processes. 9. Outside-in thinking and doing vs. inside-out thinking and doing are core. Thinking outside-in is bringing the customer's voice into everything we do. 10. The Platinum Rule® rules. We’re all familiar with The Golden Rule, which is to treat others the way you want to be treated. Franz shares an important lesson from Dr. Tony Alessandra’s concept he calls The Platinum Rule, which is to treat others the way they want to be treated. Quote:    "A customer-centric culture is a collaborative culture. It's all about bringing the organization together to make sure that the customer has a better experience."   About:   Annette Franz, CCXP, founder and CEO of CX Journey Inc., is an internationally recognized customer experience thought leader, coach, and keynote speaker. She is the author of Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the "Customer" in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of Your Business). Her latest book, Built to Win: Designing a Customer-Centric Culture that Drives Value for Your Business, is now available.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Six Ingredients for Transforming Your Business to Thrive Shep Hyken interviews Joel Bines, managing director and global co-head of the Retail Practice at AlixPartners and the author of The Metail Economy. They discuss how to meet the growing expectations of the smart and savvy Me-centric customer. Top Takeaways:   Joel Bines shares the six ingredients for transforming your business to thrive in this Metail economy: curation, customization, category expertise, cost, convenience, community. 1.    Curation: The art of defining and producing a set of experiences (products, locations, digital, physical, etc.) so that the person thinks that someone picked all of these things just for them. 2.    Customization: Consumers want to have a say in the products they want to spend their money on. Because of technology, it's never been easier to customize some experience component. That doesn't mean it has to be bespoke. You can provide the illusion of customization by finding things that give the consumer the sense that they are customizing something. Add one or two more, and you're fine. You don't have to build one thing at a time. 3.    Category expertise: Expertise means that any question that customers might have is easily answered by the person they are talking to. 4.    Cost: If you are going to use cost as a competitive advantage, then it has to be the lowest cost at all times because consumers are smart and savvy with technology. It’s easy to find a lower cost, if there is one. 5.    Convenience: The question you need to ask when thinking that convenience is an advantage is, “Who is it convenient to?” Too often, company executives start with convenience for the company. If the answer is not “convenient for the customer,” then you’re doing convenience wrong. 6.    Community: If you're going to build a community of people, you have to make sure that every part of your organization is set up to serve that community. It is very difficult to build a community, but losing a community is very easy.   Quote:    "Customers' tolerance and friction level for customer experience is lower than ever. Customers know what they want, and if the companies they do business with cannot give it to them, they go somewhere else."   About:   Joel Bines is a managing director and global co-head of the Retail Practice at the business consulting firm AlixPartners. He is widely regarded as one of the world's leading operational strategists with a 30-year track record of improving performance at retailers, brands, and consumer companies.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CX Is More Important Than Ever! Shep Hyken interviews Simon Harrison, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Avaya. They discuss the importance of creating a personalized and effortless customer experience. Top Takeaways:   ·      Your customers aren't just comparing you to your direct competitors anymore. They are comparing you to the best. For example, customers may ask, Why can't your app be as good as the Peloton app? Why can't your speed be as quick as Amazon's?   ·      If there is a choice between customer experience and the product, CX will usually win. You can have the best product, but if you don't create an experience around it that works for the customer, they will find another provider.   ·      Our experience ambitions have changed in all aspects of how we live our life, how we keep fit, how we eat, how we shop, or how we travel. Companies need to aim for composability, propose solutions to create the right kind of experiences, and make sure that people feel good about what they do.   ·      To realize the benefits of personalization, suggesting what people want and how they want it should be part of how we engage our customers, staff, colleagues, and everyone in our ecosystem.   ·      We must personalize our digital experiences until it rivals the person-to-person experience. Customers need to feel like you are talking to them, even in digital transactions. Quote:   "In this challenging experience economy, we need employees who are connected and empowered. Creating great experiences is enabled by employee experiences. They need to have great experiences themselves."   About:     Simon Harrison is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Avaya, leading the global marketing function to engage with new and existing customers and partners, driving adoption of the company’s software solutions, and supporting Avaya as one of the leading player in a dynamic digital communications market.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Gap Between Your Marketing Message and Frontline Teams Shep Hyken interviews Chris Wallace, Co-Founder and President of InnerView, a marketing consulting firm that helps companies align their brand and product stories with their customer-facing teams. They discuss the importance of a two-way dialogue between the marketing department and your frontline teams. Top Takeaways:   ·      Do you know what the people talking to your customers think of you? The employees who talk to your customers, the people who represent you, are the gatekeeper of your brand’s message.   ·      Just because people get a paycheck from the brands that they represent, it doesn't mean that they can deliver every message perfectly, or that their training is going to stick.   ·      The people who live in the trenches have a unique perspective on the customer experience and the brand promise. They get feedback from customers. They see how decisions are made in real-time. They have valuable input that can help leaders make better decisions. Leadership needs to take advantage of their knowledge!   ·      The goal of marketers is to reach the customer, to drive demand, to catch interest, to capture attention, and to set expectations. We encourage marketers to ask themselves - How do we equip our people to understand, align, and confidently deliver on these expectations?   ·      The base level of what customers expect from you continues to go up. They can buy the product that you are selling elsewhere. What customers are looking for are the brands that can deliver that extra layer of value. They are looking for the best company who creates the most amazing service.  Quote:   "There is nothing better than dealing with somebody on the frontlines that truly believes and cares about the brand that they represent" About:    Chris Wallace is the Co-Founder and President of InnerView. Chris and his team have developed the Brand Transfer Study tool which helps companies measure brand message alignment and engage their frontlines in innovative new ways.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Teaching Employees How to Smile Serving Internal Customers First  Shep Hyken interviews Stephanie Coradin, founder of DEMBO Inc and an advocate of employee empowerment and dynamic leadership. They discuss how leaders can empower your customer service team by serving their internal customers first.  Top Takeaways:   ·      Teaching employees how to "smile" starts with having employees feel comfortable in their skin, having them feel like they are in a place where they can, and allowing them to take ownership. ·      The external customers are important, but the people that are going to serve those customers are also our customers, known as internal customers. We must properly serve our internal customers, even before we send them out to serve others.   ·      We tend to send an experienced employee out to serve customers without allowing them to take a breath and find out what they need from us as leaders. We send them out and they're not able to find out what their guests need from them because they're modeling how their leaders treat them. ·      Every leader needs to understand their leadership style. Understanding their style allows them to adjust to the different personalities and styles of their team members. ·      Have conversations with your team to better understand what they need from you. Ask them, "What can I do to help you move further into your career or into this position?" ·      We have a cultural problem where employees are afraid to speak up. They are afraid they will get punished if they do something wrong or if they say something that may be viewed as negative toward their manager. We have to put them at ease so they know it is okay to speak up. Quote:   "Understanding how you lead first makes it so much simpler for you to go through the steps of leading another, whether it is a team or just one person." About:   Stephanie Coradin is the founder of DEMBO Inc, she has over 18 years of experience in providing leadership and development training, and life coaching to individuals and groups from varied industries. Stephanie is an advocate of employee empowerment and dynamic leadership.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What it Takes to Deliver Great Experiences at All Levels  Shep Hyken interviews Adrian Swinscoe, CX thought leader, Forbes contributor, speaker, and best-selling author of Punk CX and Punk XL. They discuss what experience leadership means to the individual, the team, the organization, the customers, and beyond.  Top Takeaways:   ·      It's no longer sufficient just to talk about customer experience in isolation. We have to start thinking about it holistically and ask, “What does it mean for the entire business?” ·      There's a lot of power in a place called the "gemba", meaning the real place. In business, "gemba" is the place where value is created. Figure out where the gemba in your business is and ask yourself, “How can I go there? And, how often do I go there to understand what's going on with my customers and my employees? ·      On feedback… Psychologically, with a blank text box, people don't know where to start or how to start. When you are asking for qualitative feedback, guide your customers by creating a fill-in-the-blank item. Lead with statements like, "Your experience would be better if we..." ·      Some leaders and executives are suffering from the Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome. Even a reasonable person might reach a point where they, without realizing it, would treat customers in a way that they themselves wouldn't find acceptable.  ·      All proceeds of Adrian's book, Punk XL will go to Doctors Without Borders as an acknowledgment of the work that they have done for the last 50 years. How cool is that! Quote:   "When you are sending a customer survey, make it shorter. You are asking your customers to take the time to tell you what they think. Respect their time by keeping it as short as you possibly can."  About:   Adrian Swinscoe has been growing and helping develop customer-focused large and small businesses for over 25 years. He is a CX thought leader, Forbes contributor, speaker, and best-selling author of Punk CX and Punk XL. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building a Reactive and Predictive Customer Experience Shep Hyken interviews Steve Peltzman head of FeedbackNow, Forrester’s AI-powered physical & digital solution. They discuss how companies can sense, analyze, and react to issues that affect customer experience.  Top Takeaways:  ·      Wherever customers go, something is different. COVID has caused customers to feel anxiety and a lack of control. Good companies recognize this and have stepped up and are doing something different.  ·      Throughout the pandemic, new expectations have been created. Companies have made things easier for their customers, who expect this same level of service to continue, even after the pandemic. According to Forrester’s 2022 predictions, consumers will lean on brands that offer a sense of relief and immediate comfort. In 2022, consumers will turn to uplifting, pleasing products and experiences that offer a reprieve from the ongoing uncertainty. ·      Every advancement creates new complexity and awkwardness that every company has to adjust to. For example, in healthcare, practitioners need to master "Zoom-side manner" aside from the traditional bedside manner. ·      Surveys can benefit future customers but they do not help present customers who are experiencing the inconvenience. Per Forrester, more than 60% of customer experience professionals say their businesses lack closed-loop processes for CX feedback. ·      Use feedback and data to understand the breaking point where a customer becomes upset when the issue is not properly addressed. For example, if, on average, your customers are willing to stand in line for 5 minutes but they start to get upset at the 10-minute mark, open up a new line at 9 minutes.  Quote:   "COVID has brought consumers' CX expectations up to unprecedented levels. Even as we recover, those expectations will largely remain. They want and seek control and comfort."   About:   Steve Peltzman is Forrester’s first Chief Business Technology Officer. He now leads FeedbackNow, Forrester’s AI-powered physical & digital solution to measure, analyze, predict, and act on customer feedback in real-time.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Power of an Easy Search Shep Hyken interviews Joe Jorczak, Head of Industry for Service & Support at Yext, a company that offers an AI-powered Answers Platform that understands the natural language that mirrors how customers ask questions with the capability to provide direct answers. They discuss how customers, support teams, and support leaders can utilize the power of search to create a great user experience. Top Takeaways:   ·      Every question starts with a search. Whenever there was a question, people used to go to the library, ask a friend, or call a store. But now, most of these activities have moved online. ·      In a research with 1500 respondents, Yext found out that "85% of customers say that being able to find information or resolve an issue themselves versus contacting customer support is either very important or fairly important." ·      Most brands don't make it easy for customers to find answers. This is not on purpose. Many brands are still hamstrung by the old ways of organizing information - they typically have answers hidden four, five, or six clicks deep into a knowledge base or scattered across different departments in the organization. ·      Customer support teams are under pressure. A lot of them are still measured by metrics like average handle times, the number of resolutions per day, ticket queue, and backlogs. They have the challenge of jumping across multiple knowledge bases to find the information that customers are waiting on. This takes time and is frustrating for support agents. ·      Support leaders are turning to chatbots and virtual assistants to help meet customer expectations. However, customers may phrase questions in a way that chatbots are not yet designed to answer. This is frustrating for customers.  Quote:   "85% of customers say that being able to find information or resolve an issue themselves versus contacting customer support is either very important or fairly important." About:   Joe Jorczak is the Head of Industry for Service & Support at Yext where he is responsible for defining and executing the strategic direction for the company's service and support offerings.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using Feedback to Drive Change in the Customer Experience Shep Hyken interviews Dave Carruthers, CEO at Voxpopme, a company that redefines the possibilities of video for market research and customer feedback. They discuss how CX practitioners can move away from just measuring customer feedback to driving real change in the customer's experience. Top Takeaways:   VoC or Voice of the Customer is hearing directly from customers about all aspects of their journey to make continuous improvements to all areas of that experience. If done right, it can be a huge driving force for all businesses. So how can companies gather these valuable insights from their customers? Here are the top 3 ways: ·      Timely: Real-time feedback is key. The longer the time lapses between the experiencing and asking for feedback, the more likely the customer's recollection of their journey will be blurred. ·      Flexible: It's all about giving the choice back to the customers. They should be able to decide when and how they can give feedback. ·      Personalized: CX practitioners should take a look at what they already know about their customers and their experiences and base their subsequent survey/feedback questions on that. Tune in for more insights on collecting, analyzing, and using feedback to make meaningful changes in the customer's experience. Quote:   "All customers want to feel heard, that their opinion matters, and that they are not providing feedback which just goes into a black hole."   About:   Dave Carruthers is an entrepreneur who specializes in high-growth tech businesses and a video insight evangelist with global ambitions for growth and adventure. He is the CEO at Voxpopme, a company that provides an end-to-end software solution for video research, enabling researchers to capture video feedback at speed, analyze it at scale, and share it with ease. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investing in Customer Experience and Success Teams  Shep Hyken interviews Adrian Brady-Cesana, author of The Four CX Pillars to Grow Your Business Now: The Customer Experience Manager Playbook, and host of The CXChronicles Podcast. They discuss the four CX pillars: team, tools, process, and feedback. Top Takeaways:   Adrian Brady-Cesana shares what every customer experience manager needs to have in their playbook, the four CX pillars for business growth. 1.    Team: Constantly train, evolve and optimize your CX team. Ask questions like: How are our CX team members hired? How are they trained? How are they retained? How does CX fit with the rest of the organization? 2.    Tools: The world has changed in terms of how we speak to our customers. It's not always in person anymore. Oftentimes, it's via phone, email, zoom calls, text message, etc. Each channel represents opportunities or challenges. Thinking about how you can pinpoint which tools will allow you to best serve your customer base is mission-critical for growth-focused companies. 3.    Process: Have a living playbook and a CX journey map. This could be as simple as a one-page document that gives everybody in the team clarity on what the expectations are. Your team should know where they can find consistent and up-to-date answers. 4.    Feedback: Collect, assess, and act on your customer & employee feedback to grow & scale your business. Take the time to share customer feedback with everyone in the organization - from the executives to the newest customer service rep. Some metrics may even lead to customer neglect. For example, a focus on Average Handle Time may lead to incomplete resolutions, striving for a larger customer support headcount may drain a company's resources. Quote:   "If you want to see a big impact, you have to work on it regularly. If you want to have a world-class team, you have to invest in that team on a weekly basis."   About:    Adrian Brady-Cesana has been working in customer experience, customer success, consulting with organizations for the past 15+ years. He is the author of The Four CX Pillars to Grow Your Business Now: The Customer Experience Manager Playbook, and host of The CXChronicles Podcast. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Changes Customer Experience Teams Need to Make to Meet the Demands of the "Now" Customer Shep Hyken interviews Eng Tan, author of Experience is Everything and CEO of Simplr, a company that is redefining the way brands deliver CX. They discuss what CX teams need to let go of in order to succeed in the new era of CX. Top Takeaways: The old perceived notions of control and measures of customer success are misused or no longer relevant in the new era of CX. Some metrics may even lead to customer neglect. For example, a focus on Average Handle Time may lead to incomplete resolutions, striving for a larger customer support headcount may drain a company's resources. In order to meet the demands of the always-on, demanding, "NOW" customers, Eng Tan recommends that CX teams make the following changes or risk getting left behind by their competitors: ·      “Let go” of old CX metrics - Let go of some of the old customer service metrics that is not doing anything for your business. When specific metrics, such as NPS or AHT, are used in isolation, they don't tell the full story. ·      “Let go” of the omnichannel arms race - Brands tend to stretch themselves too thin across multiple modalities and increase the effort level for customers. But, at the end of the day, customers will choose ease of resolution over channel choice. Train your customers on the best way to get support. ·      “Let go” of old ways of measuring internal influence. - We often hear this question in the customer service world: How many agents do you have? CX leaders should stop measuring their influence by their headcount and instead focus on insights provision, brand, loyalty and revenue impact, and operational resiliency. In this episode, Eng Tan also talks about his new book Experience is Everything, customer neglect, and organizational changes that CX teams need to make to stay competitive in the market. Tune in! Quote: "Conversion rates, repeat purchase rates, and customer lifetime value are influenced by not only by the quality of products and services but by how well customer service executes."   About:  Eng Tan is CEO of Simplr, a company that is redefining the way brands deliver CX. He is the author of Experience Is Everything: Winning Customers’ Hearts, Minds, and Wallets in the Era of NOW CX. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Opportunities and Fears Surrounding Intelligent Virtual Assistant Shep Hyken interviews Genefa Murphy, the Chief Marketing Officer for Five9. They discuss how to use AI and automation to increase efficiency, capacity, and effectiveness within your contact center and ultimately deliver a better customer experience. Summary and Top Takeaways:   Do people still use the phone to reach a company when they have a question or a problem? A lot of companies buy into the "Digital Fallacy" or the belief that digital channels are the only things that matter, and that voice is no longer important. However, The Five9 Customer Service Index 2021 found that: ·      Customers from the US, UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain all ranked phones as the preferred choice when dealing with customer service issues.  ·      51% preferred phone when it comes to general issues. ·      65.2% prefer phone when it comes to urgent or sensitive concerns. People still use voice channels. What people don't like about voice channels is the experience. They don't like waiting on hold, complex IVRs, or conversational AI that doesn't work. So, how do we separate the digital channel and the digital experience? How can customers move through different modes of communications, including voice and digital channels, seamlessly without having to repeat their story? In this episode, Genefa Murphy talks about the Five9's Intelligent Virtual Agent and how AI can be used to improve communication across all channels. Tune in to find out just how intelligent the Intelligent Virtual Agent is, how it enhances customer interactions, and if it will take away jobs from human customer support agents down the line. Quote:   "AI may replace what a human once did but it doesn't mean that humans need to be replaced in customer support."   About:   Genefa Murphy is the Chief Marketing Officer for Five9. With over 15 years of global experience in the field of technology from consulting to product management, strategy, and marketing, she is an accomplished leader and has led worldwide teams in creating and executing compelling and effective go-to-market strategies. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Leaders, Managers, and Staff Can Stay Effective During Unpleasant Conversations Shep Hyken interviews Rebecca Morgan, an international speaker, management consultant, and bestselling author. She wrote the bestseller, Calming Upset Customers that sold more than 250,000 copies. They discuss what leaders and managers can do to help customer service staff manage upset customers and avoid issues in the future. Top Takeaways:   Are customers more easily upset today than 30 years ago? People who would have been rational are now less likely to be patient. And people who are not rational or patient, to begin with, now have an even shorter fuse. This can be attributed to many factors including: ·      The last two years has caused more stress than usual. ·      There is a decline in civility, especially on social media. ·      Customers are projecting anger about things that they have no control over to customer service agents. What can leaders do to help customer service providers manage upset customers? 1. Be a role model. There are behaviors that leaders need to practice in front of their customers and their employees, such as listening without getting defensive, watching their tone of voice, and being careful with their word choice. 2. Be willing to fire customers who are repeat offenders. Employees will respect their managers and leaders more when they see that they are willing to let go of abusive customers. 3. Train staff properly. Invest in training whether online or in-person to equip your staff with the tools to connect with customers, even the ones that are upset. 4. Don't throw your staff under the bus. Standing up for your staff is great for morale and loyalty. In this episode, Rebecca Morgan also talks about what customer service providers do wrong when trying to calm upset customers and what managers should do when their staff gets into an altercation with a customer. Quote:   "Customer service representatives should be future-focused. Think of how you can help customers avoid issues in the future." About:   Rebecca Morgan, CSP, CMC, CVP is an international speaker, management consultant and bestselling author. Two of her 28 books have sold more than 250,000 copies each. She's appeared on 60 Minutes, Oprah, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, CNBC, National Public Radio and USA Today. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How CX Avoidance Impacts Customers, Employees, and Brands Shep Hyken interviews Dan Hill, founder of Sensory Logic, Inc. and a pioneer of using facial coding in business to capture and quantify consumer responses. He is the author of nine books including his latest, Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. They discuss how to use technology and staff the customer service department to be effective throughout the entire customer journey. Top Takeaways:   Learn about “customer avoidance” and why it happens. In the age of digital transformation, companies must find ways to eliminate customer service and experience avoidance and create a seamless customer experience with technology and customer relationships. When customers call companies, one of the first things that they hear is "Your call is very important to us", followed by a hold tone. Customers want to feel like they are moving towards progress when they are calling about a problem. When they don't feel that they are progressing to a solution, customers will feel anger towards customer service representatives and ultimately, the brand. Companies avoid engaging with their customers for the following reasons: ·      To limit their cost. ·      To limit the time taken by their staff in interacting with customers. ·      To avoid revealing that their staff is not well-trained or prepared to field questions. Companies sometimes become enamoured with the technology. They use it as a shield to avoid interaction with their customers. When this happens, it negatively affects the brand and the whole value proposition. Dan provides some insights on how to restore the customers’ confidence in the organization: ·      Companies must use technology to facilitate collaboration, not to replace human-to-human contact. ·      The transition from chatbots or any type of automation must be seamless. When the customer is connected to the frontline, they should not have to repeat their story. ·      Frontline employees need to be knowledgeable enough to answer questions and give customers the confidence that they are progressing to a solution. ·      For more insights from Dan Hill, listen to the full episode! Quote:   "About 25% of managers are believed to be bullies. If people are feeling bullied or oppressed, that's going to translate in how they relate to their colleagues and their customers."   About:   Dan Hill, Ph.D., is the author of nine books, including Emotionomics and Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. He is the founder of Sensory Logic, Inc. whose clients represent over 50% of the world's top 100 advertisers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What Customers Expect from CX Practitioners Shep Hyken interviews Baker Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at UJET. They discuss how CX practitioners can put what they know about communication from their personal relationships into their customer relationships. Top Takeaways:   Here is something brands and even CX practitioners often forget - customers just want to get things done. They are not thinking in terms of channels. They are not worried about what department, whether it be sales, marketing, or customer support, resolves their issues. They really only care about problems solved. What do customers expect from CX practitioners? It's not about how many channels of communication are available. Compared to sales and marketing, the advice given to CX practitioners is always lagging. They are told to constantly add channels to meet customers where they are. But, customers don't think in terms of channels. They just want to connect with the brand – how they want and when they want. It's not about departments within the organization either. Sales, marketing, and customer support departments are often fighting on who is the most influential to customer experience to gain more internal power. We have to move away from this and put customers first. At the end of the day, we are all customers. The way that we interact in our lives is how consumers expect to interact with brands. It is also what your employees expect from you. We have to bring what we know about relationships and communication from our personal lives to our work lives and apply it to how we interact with our customers.  Quote:   "Take off your work hat, put on your real-life hat and you'll have all the answers to what needs to be improved in customer experience."   About:   Baker Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at UJET where he is focused on driving corporate growth by evangelizing how UJET’s ultra-modern, customer-and-user-centric approach to CX is radically disrupting the Contact Center ecosystem. He brings more than 15 years of leadership experience to the role driving branding and data-driven strategy transformations to fuel SaaS growth. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Avoid Complacency in Customer Interactions  Shep Hyken interviews Len Herstein, CEO and President of ManageCamp Inc. and author of Be Vigilant!: Strategies to Stop Complacency, Improve Performance. They discuss how businesses can be vigilant against complacency by safeguarding success and customer relationships. Top Takeaways:   What breeds complacency in business? Most businesses don't realize that one of the main drivers of complacency is success. The more success we have in our customer interactions, the more we get overconfident. We become vulnerable to taking customer relationships for granted. This week on Amazing Business Radio, Len Herstein discusses why complacency is dangerous and how to avoid it. He offers the following insights and more: ·      Avoid tunnel vision. Companies can become too focused on matching their top competitors that they lose sight of new competitors or new categories that have entered the market. ·      Be a disruptor. Successful companies like Amazon and Netflix are always coming up with new ways to engage their customers. Instead of reacting to what their top competitors are doing, they are the disruptors in their industry and beyond. ·      Learn from success. Most companies debrief when a mistake happens with the idea they will avoid the same mistakes in the future. However, they often forget to look back on their successes, not realizing there are opportunities to replicate the same moving forward. (DOES THAT SOUND OKAY?) ·      Always be vigilant. The best way to fight complacency is to be aware of it. You can't protect against threats that you didn't see coming.  Quote:   "The best way to fight complacency is to be aware. The more aware you are, the more in the moment you are, the more you have that forces you to think, and the less complacent you're going to be."   About:   Len Herstein, CEO and President of ManageCamp Inc. and author of Be Vigilant!: Strategies to Stop Complacency, Improve Performance, and Safeguard Success. Your Business and Relationships Depend on It. He has worked with brands like Coca-Cola, The Campbell Soup Company, and Nabisco. He is also a volunteer State-certified peace officer with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How NPS Enriches the Lives of Customers, Employees, and Leaders Shep Hyken interviews Fred Reichheld, creator of the Net Promoter® system of management, the founder of Bain & Company's Loyalty practice, and the author of five books including his latest, Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers. They discuss how companies can use Net Promoter Score to enrich lives and drive sustainable growth.  Top Takeaways:   Net Promoter Score is the metric that millions of companies have used for decades to know if they are doing a good job for their customers and their employees. It aims to measure if you have gained your customer's loyalty enough to earn their repeat business and new business from their friends and family. But, in the age of cookies, click rates, and measurable eyeball hang times, is a company's NPS still relevant? And, is your company using the NPS metric correctly? This week, we interview Fred Reichheld, the developer of the Net Promoter score to talk about how many companies are misusing the Net Promoter Score and missing out on the potential benefit that it can help your business achieve. We also talk about how NPS is still applicable in modern business and how it can be used correctly. To put his money where his mouth is, Fred invested his own money in all of the public companies that are NPS leaders. The return on his investments is almost three times the S&P. In today's episode of Amazing Business Radio, Fred and I discuss how you can use the Net Promoter Score to invest in customer loyalty, which pays big dividends!  Quote:   "Who you hang around with in your life influences everything - how you think about success and what's important to you. This is true with who you want to be a customer of, who do you want to be an employee of, who do you want to invest in."   About:   Fred Reichheld, creator of the Net Promoter® system of management, the founder of Bain & Company's Loyalty practice, and the author of five books including his latest, Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers. He is currently a Fellow and Senior Advisory Partner at Bain, where he has worked since 1977. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Opportunities and Challenges Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB’s)Will Face This Holiday Season Shep Hyken interviews Kiel Harkness, Head of Global Marketing and Business Intelligence at UPS Capital®. They discuss how SMB's can compete with giant brands when it comes to problem resolution for delays, theft, and problems during the holiday season. Top Takeaways:   The holidays are upon us! What does it mean for SMB's – and businesses of all sizes? That was the main focus of the interview. UPS commissioned research to find out what really matters to both small to medium business owners and their customers. Here's some good news, some challenges, and some opportunities. ·      Almost two-thirds of SMB's are going to make up to 20% of their sales during the holiday season. ·      Two-thirds of customers will spend at least $100 on SMB's during the holiday season. ·      80% of businesses that were surveyed said that they are worried about inflation. Whether it is on the cost of production or their price point. ·      SMB's are 26% more worried about the delays, damage, and theft of the shipments than labor shortage. ·      Over 40% of SMB's say that they see an increase in porch piracy during the holidays. ·      44% of consumers said that the lack of a strong problem resolution on a stolen or damaged goodwill cause them not to shop with an SMB again. ·      35% of consumers said that it's a huge motivator for them to spend more with retailers who will guarantee the replacement of lost or damaged items. Quote:   "44% of consumers said that the lack of a strong problem resolution on a stolen or damaged goods will cause them not to shop with an SMB again."   About:   Kiel Harkness, Head of Global Marketing and Business Intelligence at UPS Capital®. He led the Digital Transformation of UPS Capital US Domestic Go-to-Market. Supported rebranding of core digital offering and proposition. He manages and directs global UPS Capital Digital Marketing and Digital Properties, Channel Marketing, Business Intelligence, Product Development, Communications and Advertising, and International Field Marketing teams. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bringing Great Customer Experience Ideas Forward  Shep Hyken interviews Karin Hurt and David Dye, CEO and President of Let’s Grow Leaders. They are known for practical tools and leadership development programs that stick. Karin and David are the award-winning authors of five books including, Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates. They discuss how leaders can build a culture of sharing ideas, solving problems, and rewarding contributions. Top Takeaways:   Employees have great ideas on how to improve customer experience and leaders want them. So, why do employees hold back their ideas? This week's guests, Karin Hurt and David Dye started an extensive research study with the University of North Colorado Social Research Lab on why employees are holding back these ideas. Here are some quick stats on what they have uncovered from the respondents from the frontlines. ·      49% of Leaders are not asking for ideas. ·      50% of the responders feel that their ideas will not be taken seriously. ·      40% Lack confidence or they don't know how to share ideas. ·      Two-thirds feel that their managers are stuck in the way of doing things ·      56% Do not share their ideas because they feel that they would not get credit for the idea. So, how can companies build a "courageous culture", one that encourages micro-innovators, problem-solvers, and customer advocates within the organization to voice out their ideas? Karin and David developed a 7-step process: 1. Navigating the narrative. Leaders need to get real with their own relationship with psychological safety and speaking up. 2. Creating clarity. Leaders need to communicate that they really do want ideas and what kinds of ideas are needed. 3. Cultivating curiosity. Managers need to proactively go out and ask for ideas. 4. Respond with regard. Every idea that is shared should get feedback at every level. 5. Practice the Principle. Find out what is truly meaningful about an idea and how it can be scaled and applied in different ways within the organization. 6. Galvanize the genius. Communicate what is important in your new culture five times, in five different ways. 7. Build an infrastructure for courage. Leaders need to make sure that courage is reinforced and not undermined.   Quote:   "You don't have to be the CEO to create a courageous culture. No matter what role you are in, if you have a great idea to improve customer experience, your leaders want to know about it. Have the courage to bring your ideas forward."   About:    Karin Hurt and David Dye help human-centered leaders resolve workplace ambiguity and chaos so that they can drive innovation, productivity and revenue without burning out employees. As CEO and President of Let’s Grow Leaders, they are known for practical tools and leadership development programs that stick. Karin and David are the award-winning authors of five books including, Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Businesses Can Lean into Their Purpose Shep Hyken interviews Simon Mainwaring, founder & CEO of We First, a strategic consultancy accelerating growth and impact for purpose-driven brands. He is the author of Lead with We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future. They discuss why companies should take part in creating solutions to the significant issues that the world is facing today.  Top Takeaways:   Customers and employees know that customer experience is more than enjoying your product and feeling like they are valued in the way that they are taken care of. It is also in how they feel about your company and what you are doing in the world. Is your company part of the problem or part of the solution? We are facing social, economic, and environmental issues. For the past two years, we have been going through a global health crisis. Your customers and employees are looking at you. They want to see where you stand on these issues and if it aligns with theirs. Why should you care? And, what's in it for your business? The short answer is that people want to buy from, invest in, and work for companies that are doing good. There's a new expectation, not just from customers, but also for employees. How you treat your employees, how they can relate, identify, and invest themselves in your purpose will determine your ability to attract the talent you need and to get the most out of them, even during difficult times. The more you lean into your purpose and share it with your employees, the more engaged they'll be. As a result, you'll retain them longer, they will be more productive, and they'll be more effective advocates for your brand. Quote:   "Employees are the most effective advocates for your brand, your products, and how you're showing up in the world."   About:   Simon Mainwaring is founder & CEO of We First, a strategic consultancy accelerating growth and impact for purpose-driven brands. He is the author of Lead with We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future and the host of the Lead With We podcast. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Proactive Customer Experiences  Shep Hyken interviews Colin Shaw, co-host of the Intuitive Customer podcast and the Founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, a customer experience consulting company that has been recognized by the Financial Times as ‘one of the leading management consultancies for the last three years in a row. They discuss how companies can use customer science to provide positive and memorable customer experiences. Top Takeaways:   When was the last time that an organization did something for you that you weren't expecting? Perhaps it was to email you if you needed a refill of a product that you previously ordered. Or, to show you articles and videos of how you can maximize the use of something you purchased from them. Whatever it was, it was a pleasant surprise. The world's leading companies like Apple, Airbnb, Amazon, and many more are becoming so in tune with not only what the customers say they want, but they also know how their customers behave and what they feel. They can accurately predict what their customers are going to do next – and what they will want next. This week on Amazing Business Radio, I interview Colin Shaw, Founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, to talk about understanding the customers in an even deeper way through customer science, behavioral science, and the journey map. ·      Customer science is the fusion between technology, data, and behavioral science. ·      Behavioral science is looking at what customers are doing as opposed to looking at what customers are saying they are doing. ·      The journey map is looking at the customer journey from the customer's perspective. If you can predict what the customer is going to do next, will it change the way you create customer experiences?  Quote:   “According to Daniel Kahneman, "We don't choose between experiences, but we choose between memories of experiences." You can’t be loyal to something that you haven't experienced.”   About:   Colin Shaw is the Founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, a customer experience consulting company that has been recognized by the Financial Times as ‘one of the leading management consultancies for the last three years in a row. He is the co-host of the highly successful Intuitive Customer podcast, which is rated in the top 5% of all podcasts globally by Buzzsprout.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Defining Success from the Customer's Perspective Shep Hyken interviews Dan Balcauski, founder and principal consultant for Product Tranquility, where he focuses on helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. They discuss what companies can learn from subscription models about focusing on the customer’s journey and feedback. Top Takeaways:   Anything can be a subscription. Whether you are selling razor blades, pens, or a streaming service, the goal is to get the customers to say that they are getting enough value for your products to continue doing business with you. A subscription model solidifies the relationship between the business and the customer but it also requires a focus on customer experience. How do companies ensure that their customers continuously get value over time so they don't leave you for your competitors? What are the outcomes that your customers are trying to achieve? Most of the time businesses focus on operational efficiency, revenue, and profits. These are all great things. But, the problem is that these are not the criteria that the customer is using to define success. Companies need to understand that they are not the center of the customer's world. We need to understand the full journey. This week on Amazing Business Radio, I interview Dan Bacaulski, founder and principal consultant for Product Tranquility, where he focuses on helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. Dan takes us through how businesses can focus on the outcomes that the customer is trying to achieve and how they define success. Learn how to put the customer first, provide value, and define success from the lens of those you serve - the customers. Quote:   "We are not the center of our customer's life. We need to understand the full journey. We need to ask, "What is our customer's day to day like?" and "What are they trying to accomplish?" About:    Dan Balcauski is the founder and principal consultant for Product Tranquility, where he focuses on helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. He is a TopTal certified Top 3% Product Management Professional and also helps to teach Kellogg Executive Education course on Product Strategy. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Personalization and Creativity in Customer Experience Shep Hyken interviews Noa Danon, Co-Founder and CEO of EverAfter. She has extensive experience leading Product and User Experience teams. They discuss how organizations businesses can ensure customer renewals and expansion by creating personalized customer experiences.  Top Takeaways:   ·      The customer who makes the decision to buy a product may not be the same person who uses the product. Businesses need to get to know and personalize the experience for both types of customers. ·      Businesses may start focusing on one type buyer persona but as they scale, they will need to create different types of experiences or services for different types of people. ·      You don't need to be Amazon to create a personalized experience. Most of the time, it only takes a few questions to figure out what is important to your customers and personalize your offerings to them. ·      Companies need data about their customers so they can continue to automate and personalize customer experiences even as they scale. ·      Data helps with personalization both in sales and in customer service. The more you know about your customers, the more personalized the support that you can provide can be. This creates a confidence between the customers and the business. ·      Leaders need to create an environment that encourages front line employees to bring ideas on how to make the customer experience better.  Quote:    “Every business is a subscription business. Whether it is a typical subscription renewal of the customer deciding to continue to do business with the business, the goal is to make sure your customers come back instead of going to a competitor.” About:    Noa Danon is the Co-Founder and CEO of EverAfter. Noa’s vision for EverAfter was heavily influenced by her experiences as a product manager, where she observed the disconnect between the user and product experience. EverAfter was created exactly to meet that need, allowing companies to personalize the customer experience beginning with the initial contract all the way through renewal and expansion. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Authentic Leaders Lead with Happiness and Humanity  Shep Hyken interviews Jenn Lim, CEO of Delivering Happiness and the author of Beyond Happiness: How Authentic Leaders Prioritize Purpose and People for Growth and Impact. They discuss how leaders can adapt to the new workplace by being authentic and aligned with their purpose.  Top Takeaways:   ·      As leaders, we need to get more real with ourselves. We want to celebrate the highs in our lives but we also need to recognize our lows and our blind spots. Then, we need to allow the people that we lead to do that, too. ·      In the past year, we have experienced the "Great Resignation" where a record number of 4 million employees, in the US alone, quit their jobs in April. The integration of work and life in a way that has never been experienced before has led people to evaluate what is most important to them and how they can align their lives with it. ·      The experiences that we have had in the past couple of years have prompted many to ask the questions like: How can I align myself and my life with what is most important to me? What are the things that I need to work on and be aware of so I can be a more whole person at work and in life? ·      When employees are unhappy and start leaving the company, leaders can learn so much by asking them why and actually listening. Have an open and honest dialogue as to where your employees are at work and in life. ·      Authenticity goes into the wholeness of a person. Leaders must respect who employees are as human beings beyond their skills and what they bring to the table. ·      The more employees see that they are respected inside and outside their specific role and title, the more they want to be productive, engaged, and loyal. Quote:   "Happier employees equals happier customers equals more profitable and sustainable business." About:   Jenn Lim is the CEO of Delivering Happiness, a company she co-founded with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com to create happier company cultures for a more profitable and sustainable approach to business. Jenn’s mission is to teach businesses how to create workplaces—led with happiness and humanity—that generate more profit, sustain all people at every level of the organization, and share how we can make an impact by being true to our authentic selves.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Empowering Customer Service Agents with Knowledge Shep Hyken interviews Daniel Fallmann, founder of Mindbreeze, a tool that helps companies capture a holistic view of their customers' data. They discuss how organizations can arm their frontline customer service professionals with the technology that can help them offer better customer service.  Top Takeaways:  ·      The lack of information on a specific customer or product is the key problem for most businesses in every industry. Since the data is often scattered across many platforms, it is not readily available to customer service professionals when they need it. ·      Customer service professionals need a one-stop-shop where they can have a holistic view of the customer's information coming from different platforms and departments.  ·      Companies need to equip customer service agents with knowledge of the product as well as knowledge of the customer - who they are, what they search for on your website, and what their questions or challenges are. ·      Having the technology to access the right information reduces ticket escalation. But, when ticket escalations do happen, it also helps customer service agents identify the experts inside the organization to help with non-trivial customer issues. ·      You can predict what the problem is because of customer behavior. For example, what they are searching for on your website? Are they watching your videos or webinars? What issues are they calling in with? Knowing that information can help you come up with implicit problem-solving mechanisms, knowledge base articles, and automatic routines that make sure the problems do not ever occur, to begin with. Quote:  "Customers today have an "I need it now" approach. Customer service professionals need to know how to easily access information for them to understand the context of the customer’s concerns.”   About:  Daniel Fallmann founded Mindbreeze in 2005 at the age of 23, after he finished his studies in computer science. As Mindbreeze’s CEO he is a living example of high quality and innovation standards. His passion for enterprise search and machine learning in a big data environment fascinated not only the Mindbreeze employees but also their customers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Utilizing Customer Experience as a Sales Tool  Shep Hyken interviews Paul Reilly, a professional speaker, sales trainer, and author of Selling Through Tough Times. They discuss how brands can provide value to their customers during uncertain times.  Top Takeaways:   ·      When you create good experiences, especially during tough times, you are providing value beyond the product that you are selling. ·      Certainty and stability are important to your customers. This should be seen in your brand's messaging and felt in your customer's experience.  ·      During times of uncertainty, customers want consistent and predictable experiences that meet their standards. ·      Companies have the opportunity to enhance their overall customer experience during tough times. Ask your customers the question, "What's missing from our current solution?" ·      Every person in an organization should be asking themselves, "What else can I do for the customer?"   Quotes:   "The best sales tool you can have is a great customer experience."   About:   Paul Reilly is a professional speaker, sales trainer, and author. He coauthored Value-Added Selling, fourth edition, and authored Selling Through Tough Times. Reilly also hosts The Q and A Sales Podcast, where he answers the most pressing questions facing today’s sales professional.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Get Your Customers to Come Back Again and Again  Shep Hyken talks about his new book I'll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again. The book comes out on September 21, 2021. Top Takeaways:  ·      Questions like, "Are you happy with our service?" and "Would you be willing to recommend us?" are great history lessons. Another important measure of customer service success is behavior – whether or not customers come back. ·      In the '80s, Jan Carlson came up with the idea of the Moment of Truth. This is when a customer comes into contact with any aspect of the business and has the opportunity to form an impression. Carlson said they could be good or bad. Shep has names for these and added a third one: 1.    Moment of Misery is when the customer encounters a problem or has a complaint. 2.    Moment of Mediocrity is an average experience. 3.    Moment of Magic is a positive Moment of Truth that we need to consistently create. ·      Why would customers terminate you? 1.    Apathy. When you make the customer feel like you just don't care, they're going to find somebody that does. 2.    Rudeness. This creates a negative emotional response within the customer. 3.    You didn't make it easy for the customers to find you. ·      How to create an "I'll Be Back" experience: 1.    Ask, "Why would someone do business with me instead of a competitor?" 2.    Ask your team, "Why would someone do business with the competition instead of me?" 3.    Keep pace. Take a look at what your competition is doing that is different but don't just copy them. Make sure you do something better. 4.    Ask the team, "What companies do we love doing business with and why?". 5.    Take a look at what the best companies are doing that you can implement in your business – and do so. 6.    Go back to question #1 and ask, "Now that we have done all this, why would customers want to do business with us?”  Quotes:  “Customer amazement is within the grasp of everybody in an organization. When you provide consistent and predictable above-average experiences, that is when you are operating in the zone of amazement.”  About:  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Customers for Life Shep Hyken interviews John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of The Ultimate Marketing Engine. They discuss how to serve, understand, and create evangelists out of your ideal customers.  Top Takeaways:   ·      A repeat customer keeps coming back but a loyal customer is someone who will do even more business with you once they come back. ·      Focus your attention on the growth of your customers, not just on the growth of revenue. This can be done with the 5 Steps to Ridiculously Consistent Growth, which are: o  Step 1. Map where your best customers are today and where they want to go. Creating the customer journey is not about a sales funnel. It is about organizing behavior and helping customers reach their goals. o  Step 2. Uncover the real problem you solve for your ideal customers. Your customers don't want your products, they want solutions to their problems. o  Step 3. Narrow your focus to the top 20 percent of your ideal customers. Identify your ideal clients and ask, "What else can we do for them?" o  Step 4. Attract more ideal customers with the narrative they are already telling themselves. Know where your customers are, where they want to go, and how to get them there by understanding the problems that they want to solve. o  Step 5. Scale with your customers by serving their entire ecosystem.  Quote:     "The trick to getting customers for life is serving and understanding your ideal customers. This allows you to grow and scale with them instead of constantly chasing the next new idea or new customer."  About:    John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of The Ultimate Marketing Engine. He is also the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network, which trains and licenses independent consultants and agencies to use the Duct Tape Methodology.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Rick DeLisi and Dan Michaeli, authors of Digital Customer Service: Transforming Customer Experience for An On-Screen World. They discuss why customer-centric companies need digital transformation.   Top Takeaways:  ·        Digital Customer Service is about interactions that take place on-screen or have a component of on-screen enhancements (on-screen automation, on-collaboration, on-screen communication). ·        Virtually every service experience starts as self-service. When a customer goes into a company's website or mobile app, they are at the beginning of their digital self-service journey. ·        In a Digital Customer Service interaction, the customers are already logged in and have already begun their search for answers. If and when a human-to-human interaction is needed, the customer support agent should be able to know who the customer is and what they are looking for. ·        US companies alone still receive more than one billion incoming phone calls every year. Many companies claim to be customer-centric yet still expect customers to call them when they need help even in today's on-screen world. ·        Whether you are a B2B or a B2C business, your customers have learned what the best digital experience looks like from the most successful companies.  Quote:   "Customers are now "on-screen" and companies need to meet them on the channels that they are using to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and experience of every interaction."  About:  Rick DeLisi is the co-author of the best-selling book, The Effortless Experience. He has been researching the psychology of customer behavior and expectations in service for the past two decades Dan Michaeli is the CEO of New York-based Glia, a leader in helping companies reinvent how they serve their customers. He develops solutions that create world-class digital customer experiences for “traditional” non-digital-native organizations. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating Consistent Exceptional Customer Experiences   Shep Hyken interviews Dan Gingiss, an international keynote speaker, coach, and author of The Experience Maker. They discuss how to create experiences that customers want to talk about.  Top Takeaways:   o An Experience Maker is that person in an organization that wears the customer hat at all times. They think through every business problem from a customer's perspective. o Each person in the company should be an Experience Maker. Even those working in the back office without direct customer interaction should always have the customer in mind. o All marketers want the elusive goal of word-of-mouth marketing. It's not about the next marketing campaign or splashy video. It is creating consistent, exceptional experiences that get customers to talk about your brand. o WISER is a framework that companies can use to create experiences that people want to talk about. It means: ·   Witty - This is not necessarily about humor or being funny. Being witty as a brand is about being clever, using language to your advantage, and refusing to be boring. ·  Immersive - Create consistent experiences that people connect with emotionally. ·  Shareable - Give people a subtle nudge to share their customer experiences with others. The more brands tell people to share about them on social media, the less likely they are to do it. · Extraordinary - Be just a little bit better than everyone else. ·  Responsive - Be engaged with customers when they engage with you. o Be a customer of your own company so you can see what your customers see. This is how you can uncover your customers' pain points, the things that you are doing well, and the things that you should be doing more of.  Quotes:     "Every decision a company makes affects the customer. An Experience Maker makes sure that these decisions have a positive impact."  About:   Dan Gingiss is an international keynote speaker and coach. His 20-year professional career included leadership positions at McDonald’s, Discover, and Humana. He is an author of two books (The Experience Maker and Winning at Social Customer Care) and the host of multiple podcasts and video series. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Preventing Customer Churn   Shep Hyken interviews Philipp Wolf, CEO of Custify, a company that helps SaaS businesses deliver great results for customers. They discuss how to utilize customer information and behavior to help ensure customer success.   Top Takeaways:   ·      Customer service can be reactive. It typically happens when a customer reaches out (via phone, chat, email, or other channels) because they have a problem, and the customer service department helps them resolve their concerns. ·      Customer success can be proactive. It happens when a company uses the information that they have to proactively reach out to customers who are having a problem or are not utilizing features of the product that are most helpful to them. ·      Customer service is not a department. It is a philosophy. ·      Delivering proactive customer service is profitable. It saves companies money, ensures customer retention, and encourages customers to spend more. ·      Around 30% of customers who want to cancel a service can be recovered if companies take time to have a conversation with them to uncover why they want to cancel and what can be done (such as discounts or product training) to continue the relationship. ·      Customer Success is about continuously finding ways to add value and ensure that your customers are maximizing the features and benefits of products or services that they bought from you.   Quotes:  "Customer success not only provides a great customer experience, it also helps companies save time and make the next upsell or cross-sell opportunity happen naturally." About:   Philipp Wolf is the CEO of Custify where he helps SaaS businesses deliver great results for customers. After seeing companies spend big money with no systematic approach to customer success, Philipp knew something had to change. He founded Custify to provide a tool that helps companies get the most out of the time they spend with their customers.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Greg Hanover, CEO at Liveops. They discuss the three most uncommon soft skills that make up the best customer service reps: Creativity, Coordinating with others, and Cognitive Flexibility. Top Takeaways:- What's needed to deliver an excellent customer experience is creativity and problem-solving. It's right up there at the top of the list. This is a key personality trait. When running your home-based business or working remotely, you don't have somebody holding your hand every day. You are really in control, and to succeed, you are required to take control and run it as your own business. - Coordinating with others is important. When you consider the different scenarios that individuals are put in, dealing with different contacts every day, they have a lot of people they have to interact with, whether that's the customer directly or the supervisor at the company they're supporting. So, the ability to coordinate across a number of different fronts is critical. - Cognitive Flexibility is the multiple tasks that an individual encounters as a customer care provider. Their ability to adjust based on the content in an activity is an important requirement. So, to be flexible and adjust quickly is a significant skill that is required to be successful. - The shift in the remote work mindset has been happening for a while, even before the pandemic. However, the pandemic has accelerated this shift. Quotes:“Those who have that discipline and the ability to manage their time and are motivated are the ones who have the most success in a flexible workforce model.”  About:Greg Hanover was named CEO of Liveops Inc. in 2017 after 10 years with the company in senior leadership roles. Liveops is a leader and pioneer in the virtual call center space, with a distributed workforce of over 20,000 domestic home-based agents.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Sharad Khandelwal, co-founder and CEO of SentiSum. They discuss Khandelwal’s artificial intelligence platform that collects valuable information and insights from consumers who reach out. Top Takeaways:- The new technology, artificial intelligence, reads and analyzes all support conversations, regardless of channel, and even tags them with reasons. The goal of this platform is to provide you with real-time insight into why consumers are contacting you in the first place.- Customers' input is as critical as what prevents them from checking out, purchasing something, or returning anything. - The ultimate goal of gathering information is to help this customer solve the problem and prevent future problems. This information should subsequently be disseminated across the board with everyone involved.  - Businesses often overlook the value of the customer service department. This department assures and is accountable for your customer's return. They're essentially a client retention division. Companies should appreciate their support workers in addition to their data. Quote: “This is how you can become a bit more proactive and collaborate better to improve customer experience by bringing everyone together by sharing these insights, making everyone at the same pit with another problem. The bigger the company, the bigger the problem of silos.” About: Sharad Khandelwal, co-founder and CEO of SentiSum, aspires to alter the way major corporations make key choices. He believes they should shift away from gut feelings and toward data-driven judgments. He's passionate about using data and technology to help businesses become more customer-centric. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants Shep Hyken interviews Ray Wang, Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Silicon Valley, based Constellation Research, Inc. They discuss Ray’s book, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants, a groundbreaking guide that reveals which companies will thrive and get crushed by the powerful forces now at work.   Top Takeaways: - The biggest insight is that the companies that figured out how to win have actually increased their gap with everybody else. It's like they've left the other companies in the dust.- Do you have a digital business model? Do you understand how you build a business around that? And do you have digital monetization? And then, of course, are you focusing on delivering an excellent customer experience?- Customers are trading loyalty for convenience, status, and value. This is even more important as we advance because brands that don't understand loyalty and community will be dead in the water.- In the middle of the pandemic, we set off this ultimate collection of autonomous data collection and information/insights that actually drive signal intelligence. And that refinement of that information insight is creating competitive modes for organizations that know how to use data. Brands and companies can now predict what you might like, prevent fraud, mitigate risk, or identify a new market that hasn't been touched. - Mass personalization happens in places all around us. So we've gone from transactional systems like CRM to engagement systems that are really like social business to experiences, which is about using technology and AI to craft journeys that deliver mass personalization at scale.- You have to go out and find your turnaround catalysts. Reinvent your board to start thinking long-term, so they can compete, not on the short-term quarter to quarter EBITDA cycle, but long-term in thinking about dominating and building your digital giant. Quote:  “If I don't have any competitors, I'm going to get stagnant.” About:R "Ray" Wang is the Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Silicon Valley, based Constellation Research, Inc. He is the co-host and co-founder of the widely watched DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How To Compete with the Digital Giants Shep Hyken interviews John Wass, CEO of Profit Isle. They discuss how companies can identify and focus on their most profitable customers. Top Takeaways:  ·        Businesses need to know which customers are most profitable for them and what value they can offer that makes them unique. ·        It is critical for brands to choose the customers that their business model, team, and company DNA engages with the best. This is their biggest profit opportunity. ·        Identify your most profitable customers and ask, "Am I spending most of my time and resources there?" Also, consider the opposite. Ask, "Am I distracted with customers that don't make me a lot of money that I'm neglecting my best customers?" ·        Companies need to decide which subset of customers brings in the most profit and become more customer-centric with them. ·        Not all revenue is good revenue. Not all customers will bring more profit to your bottom line. Have the conviction to walk away from some of the revenue that is actually costing you money and profits. Quote:   "The fastest way to make money is to sell more to the customers who already love you."   About:  John Wass is the CEO of Profit Isle. He was an early member of the management team that grew Staples from three stores to over 1,000 nationwide. He is also a successful entrepreneur who has co-founded and been the CEO of three startups after Staples.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews John Ball, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Customer Workflows at ServiceNow. They discuss how companies can create a great end-to-end customer experience and enhance productivity through process mapping.   Top Takeaways:  ·        Customer service is traditionally focused on the engagement layer (how customers make requests) but not on customer operations (getting the job done). However, it is the customer operations that impact the customer's experience the most. ·        A convenient and frictionless experience is what makes customers want to come back. Strive to create ease and convenience externally and internally. ·        Process mapping (having structured processes and workflows) empowers businesses to identify duplication of effort from customers and employees. ·        In 2020, only companies that modernized and digitally transformed processes continued to deliver seamless customer experiences. ·        Customers are more accepting when problems occur if they are given enough information, even before they ask for it.   Quote:  "Process mapping the customer engagement and customer operations is how businesses can improve their end-to-end customer experience." About:  John Ball is the executive vice president and general manager of Customer Workflows at ServiceNow, a company that creates great customer experiences through digital workflows.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jason Ten-Pow, CEO and President of ONR, the CX consulting firm he founded in 2009. They discuss how businesses can create long-term and sustainable revenue and profits by talking to their customers.   Top Takeaways:  ·        When businesses take the mundane transactions to the experiential, customers come to see what they will do next. ·        Customer expectations have evolved over the last year-and-a-half. What brands think their customers want has changed.. ·        Digital transformation has put a lot of power in the hands of some people (in organizations) who have no preparation or know-how on how to perform in digital roles. This has created an area of friction between the brand and the customer. ·        Authentic conversations go beyond "Are you satisfied?" and "Did you buy?" to "What can I do to create a deeper connection?" ·        Authentic conversations allow brands to understand the customer's wants, needs, and desires. This data can be used to make decisions that will lead to long-term and sustainable revenue and profits. Quote:  "Loyal customers are created by having authentic conversations with them. Talk to your customers to find out what they perceive as good customer service, what they want, and what they need." About:  Jason Ten-Pow is the CEO and President of ONR the CX consulting firm he founded in 2009. Ten-Pow’s passion for customer experience was sparked as a teenager working behind the meat counter of a carnival-themed grocery store in Toronto.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  ·        Hire people who assume a leadership position when it comes to taking care of the customer. (Even if you’re not a leader, manager, or supervisor, it doesn’t mean you can’t treat the customer as if you are.) ·        Everybody is a customer. Show up in a way that is receptive to the needs of both your customers (internal customers and external customers). ·        To create self-leaders, the leaders of the company need to provide support and empower their front-line employees to say, "Yes". ·        Empowerment is providing a space for your employees to take risks (within limits and expectations set by your organization) and use their gifts to create a great customer experience. ·        Caring leadership is showing daily actions that show concern and kindness to those you lead. ·        A caring leader allows their people to breathe through the difficult experiences of the job and help them become more resilient in the process. ·        Caring leadership is how you touch the lives of those who are looking to you for guidance. Leaders must look for ways to expand their circle and make people feel like they belong.   Quote:  "No matter what title you have, what matters most is how you make people feel. Lead yourself with integrity and be congruent with who you are."   About:  Heather R. Younger has earned her reputation as “The Employee Whisperer.” She is a best-selling author, and her newest book, The Art of Caring Leadership, emphasizes the need for kindness, compassion, and empathy in all leaders.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: ·        Many companies think that they are customer-obsessed while unaware of the customer-focused gaps within their organization. These gaps can be felt by the customers through their digital channels, interactions with people, and a variety of things in their organization. ·        Gaps in being a customer-obsessed organization happen when companies do not deliver their brand promise. ·        The brand promise falls into three categories: 1. ‘Unlike the others’ - Being different, quirky, or unusual. 2. ‘At your service’ - Differentiating the experience through amazing customer service. 3. ‘On your side, by your side’ - Being the customer's advocate. ·        A customer-obsessed organization listens to their clients and takes actions based on the information that they receive. ·        In 2017, it would have taken 17 interactions with a brand to close a typical B2B transaction. Now, it takes 27 with 4 or more people involved before customers can make a buying decision. ·        Throughout the pandemic, the racial tensions that we are in, and the environmental issues that we are facing, customers are taking a closer look at the brands that they want to trust and do business with. ·        What happens inside an organization is felt on the outside by the customers. ·        Many companies underestimate the importance of how employees feel about how service is delivered to their customers. ·        Alignment in business is knowing who your customer is, how you want them to feel, and shaping your product around customer obsession. ·        Aligned organizations have 19% faster growth and 15% higher profitability. Quote:  "Lead with the customer first. Keep the customer in mind with every decision that your company makes."  About: Shirley Macbeth is the Chief Marketing Officer at Forrester. Macbeth has 25+ years of experience as a marketing executive with a proven track record in increasing revenues and building brand awareness for global B2B companies. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  ·        Even if you are in a B2B industry, decision-makers are still likely to compare you to their best experiences as a consumer. ·        Digital transformation is more than just implementing technology. It is rethinking your business process to make it easier for customers to do business with you. ·        Delivering a WOW experience can result in a 12-58% in the customer's repurchase intent. ·        Hassle-free customer support is the number one element that increases repurchase intent. This is followed by frictionless experience from start to finish and worry-free returns. ·        To create a WOW experience, businesses do not need to do anything extraordinary. It is about delivering the basics consistently. ·        The last best experience that your customers had with any business, in any industry, is what your customers will always compare you to. Quote:   "To get the attention of the C-suite about service improvement initiatives, you need to speak their language, Return on Investments." About:  Paula Courtney is the President of the Verde Group. She leads the development of new research methods for helping companies quantify the financial impact of their customer experience. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: ·        A customer gives us the gift of trust when they choose us. We must return that trust with integrity, passion, relentless effort, and a sound process. ·        Society has allowed companies to give customers mediocrity. Returning to do business with companies that do not provide great customer service sets the tone that it is okay to do less. ·        With so much competition out there, every business cannot afford to provide a bad customer experience. ·        You can't provide a repeatable and sustainable experience without creating process and training around it.   ·        Trust is the outcome of doing the next right thing. Do the right thing often enough and in a sustainable way that it becomes predictable for your customers. ·        Companies need to get in touch with how their customers want to communicate with them whether it is via phone, email, chat, social media, or other mediums. ·        Omnichannel communication is having all the channels that a customer can connect with your brand in a centralized dashboard. Quote: "Most companies claim that they have good customer service but the true defining measure of making the customer feel valued is behavior."  About: Steve Bederman is the President and CEO of NobelBiz, a Contact Center Technology Company that offers state-of-the-art solutions for companies that want to keep their clients happy. His personal creed is 'Make a Promise, Keep a Promise' and he applies it in both his personal and professional life.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: The global pandemic has given businesses time to focus on what customer service means and how it affects their bottom line. When businesses don't understand customer service, they are not able to recalibrate and change their trajectory to succeed in difficult times. A personalized service compels customers to continue doing business with you. Empower your employees to provide personalized service because in business, he who goes the extra mile, wins. When the leaders are willing to jump in to make success happen, it creates a culture where everyone is invested in creating a positive experience for the customer. When you're the customer and you have an experience that makes you say, "Wow! That's amazing!", make a note. When you go back to your business, think of how you can translate that to wow your own customers. The friendship factor is when your customers feel welcomed by you. This relationship makes your customers go out of their way to do business with you. Quote: "Everyone can adjust when they need to but a lot of times, people don't think about other market opportunities in good times or in bad times." About: Dr. Jeffrey Magee is the author of more than 30 books, three college graduate management textbooks, four bestsellers, and is the Publisher of PERFORMANCE/P360 Magazine, and a Human Capital Developer for more than twenty years. He brings over two decades of Executive and Corporate Development Expertise, with the last decade working in both the start-up to the mature-growth market business sector. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: There are two types of energy: Catabolic energy (levels 1 and 2) is the draining and destructive energy. Anabolic energy (levels 3 to 7) is the constructive and healing energy. Level 1: The state of being a victim. In other words, where the customer or the customer service agent feels like there is no solution. Level 2: The Antagonist - Seeing everything through the lens of conflict. This is the 'I win, you lose' state. Level 3: The Rationalizer - People start to take responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Therefore, this is where collaboration begins. Level 4: The Helper - Empathy kicks in. This level is about providing service and making sure that customers win. People at this level are prone to becoming overwhelmed from giving too much. Level 5: The Collaborator - Whatever challenges your customer is facing faces, you always find an opportunity for improvement and provide a win-win solution. Level 6: The Connector - This is where customer service is there to support the customers and connect with other departments in the company who can help. Level 7: The Creator State - This is where winning and losing is an illusion. It is knowing that you are doing the best you can no matter the result. Quote:“Everything is energy. Above all, it is important to understand the energy that you and others bring to the situation.” About:Natalya Berdikyan is the founder and CEO of Life By Design Academy and Frontline Consulting. She helps individuals and organizations grow to their full potential beyond existing borders and boundaries. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  -      People can steal your ideas or create the same products. What they can't take away is the level of service and relationships you've built with your customers. -      Everybody has customer service. You can win by focusing on creating connections and building relationships with your customers at a higher level than others. -      You can coach people on the technical aspects of the job. But, having empathy is something one just has or doesn't have. -      Customer service starts with leadership. Leaders create the service vision and hire the right people to carry it out. -      When hiring someone, let them interact with other people in your business. You can tell a lot about a person by how they talk to other people that are not from a high-level position within your organization. -      Leaders need to participate in the onboarding process and set the tone of the business' culture.  -      Service aptitude is a person's ability to exceed expectations. It comes from 1) Life experiences 2) Previous work experience 3) Current job experience. Teach your employees about your own culture of service. -      Figure out what makes your business stand out. You can have the same product or service as your competition but if you can out-service them, you will always win. Quotes:  "No matter what business you are in, it is extremely competitive. The only way to stand out is by delivering an outstanding service." About:  Hank Ebeling is the founder of H4 Training and author of Crushing the Competition with Service: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Delivering Outstanding Customer Service & Customer Experience. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      In customer service and sales, we build authentic relationships and help our customers to make the right decisions using their logic and emotions. -      The most fundamental part of emotional intelligence is understanding what goes on inside our minds. We have to understand our own personalities and emotions so we can understand others. -      Self-awareness is knowing what you are good at and identifying your limitations. Know how to minimize your weaknesses and connect with people at a deeper level using your strengths, focus, and preferences. -      Self-regulation is knowing how to manage your emotions to deal with and adapt to the environment that you are in. -      Self-awareness and self-regulation help us to modulate our emotions, adjust our pace, and ask questions that enable us to better serve our customers. -      Emotional Intelligence involves how you engage with clients, build empathy, read the emotional climate that you are in, and adapt. -      Sympathy is not empathy. When you are being sympathetic to others, you are expressing your own emotions and taking on a superior role. Empathy is taking on an equal role and understanding things from the customer’s perspective. Quotes: "Emotional Intelligence is how you combine your thoughts with your feelings to make good quality decisions and build authentic relationships."About: Robin Hills is the Director of Ei4Change and author of The Authority Guide to Emotional Resilience in Business and The Authority Guide to Behaviour in Business. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  Often in customer service, we tend to put self-imposed limitations that get in the way of delivering great experiences to our customers and slows down the process. When we don't satisfy our customers sooner (or soon enough), they walk.  Everyone in customer service needs to ask the question: How can I help the customer in the shortest amount of time, so they can get the results that they want?  A customer service mindset plus a velocity mindset equals a great customer experience.  To succeed in customer service, you need to have a high score in empathy. Empathy helps you ask the right questions that get you the information you need to help your customers.  Cortisol is the fight or flight hormone. Every minute that customers wait for resolution, the higher their cortisol levels get. We must lower their cortisol levels by getting to the issue faster and turning their experience into a positive one right away.   Companies often concentrate too much on the message. They should be concentrating more on how it is communicated, so that the customer has the right experience. Customer service is not just about responding to a complaint. It is about taking care of people throughout their entire journey.   Quote: "Customer service is all about eliminating resistance so customers can make better decisions, buy-in to your solutions and move forward."   About:  Ron Karr is the CEO of Karr Associates, Inc. and the author of five books including the bestselling Complete Idiots Guide to Great Customer Service and his latest, The Velocity Mindset.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: ·        Companies spend billions of dollars building their brands, retail stores, and products. But, when it comes down to the moment that's most impactful for a customer, it usually comes down to their interaction with a customer service agent. ·        The feedback economy shifts the service model on its head. There is less focus on broadcasting why your company is great. The focus is on listening to the customer, understanding their pain points, and creating more systemic changes to address them. ·        There are thousands of avenues for empowered consumers to make their voices heard. You need the right tools to harness all this feedback and take action. ·        Social channels don't discriminate. Companies have to learn to change their processes, technologies, and products to be responsive. The customers need to be the center of a company's strategy. ·        Technology is only a piece of what it takes to get the customer service equation right. You need the right judgment and empathy to take action and help your customers. ·        Customer service happens throughout the entire customer journey. The overall user experience is a function of an ecosystem of partners for delivery. Employees, and in some instances, companies need to collaborate to create a great customer experience ·        Policies should be rules or guidelines that empower employees to help the customer instead of hindering service. Quote: “The customer is the center of everything that you do.” About: Colson Hillier is the Chief Marketing Officer for Alorica. He oversees the planning, development, and execution of Alorica’s marketing and communications strategy, as well as initiatives tied to the company's brand principles, value proposition, and revenue growth.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Even though it was just women’s history month it shouldn’t be the only time you think about diversity and inclusion. Good practices around diversity and inclusion should happen every day. -      Anyone can be a leader no matter their gender, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or gender identity. -      It’s important and necessary for leaders to have uncomfortable conversations around diversity and inclusion. -      Businesses need to get feedback from a variety of customers. -      Allow a diverse group of employee’s voices to be heard. -      Keep diversity and inclusion in mind when dealing with employees as well as customers. -      As a leader when a difficult decision comes up, what’s most important is how you adapt and handle the situation. -      Be a strong leader and address issues of diversity within your team head-on. Quotes: “Even if you’re in the back office supporting fellow employees or you’re supporting the server who brings the dish out the guest, you matter, and you have a CX job.” -Stacy About: Stacy Sherman: Customer Experience (CX) pioneer, known for humanizing business, leading with a heart, and DoingCXRight® not just talking about it. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:. -      56% of consumers go to a company's website before they call customer service. In many cases, this can be a missed opportunity to contain and resolve a customer's concern. -      Almost half of the consumers believe that self-service is more convenient. 82% say that they are willing to use self-service but 46% don't expect it to work. -      Right now, most self-service channels are focused on information about the company and its products instead of the customer journey. -      Of the customers who tried self-service, 50% still end up with the live agent. Only 33% are satisfied with self-service. -      Autonomous customer service allows the complete ability to focus on the customer journey regardless of the channel. -      Autonomous customer service can be simple to implement. There are more sophisticated setups, but it can be as simple as setting business rules to monitor data, initiate outreaches based on changes in the data, and track performance. -      Autonomous customer service gives companies the opportunity to avert and resolve most customer inquiries without agent interaction. This gives companies a high cost-benefit while increasing the level of customer service. -      In 5 years, there will still be a need for human customer service agents, but the nature of their work would be more meaningful as mundane inquiries will be handled through autonomous capabilities. -      Organize around the customer journey and activate that across all channels. Quote: "It shouldn't matter how or where the customer seeks their service resolution. You should be able to rise to the challenge and meet them anywhere they want."  About: Jeff Nicholson is the Global Head of CRM Product Marketing for Pegasystems, where he leads the company’s CRM market vision and strategy. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Slack is an online customer support tool that brings all the people who have the customer at the center of their work together. Slack provides a platform where users (both internal and external customers) can talk about customer challenges and solve customer problems together. -      As long as your team understands what’s important and they have access to all the information that they need to do their job successfully, you’ll start to see alignment in your company. -      Everybody in your company, regardless of their responsibilities, should be on the phone or listening to phone conversations with customers. -      Great customer experiences drive engagement, trust, and impact the growth and revenue of your business.  -      Don’t just resolve your customers’ issues. Strive to restore the customer’s confidence in your business to a level where they want to come back and ideally recommend you. Quote: “You do not get recommendations if your customers do not trust you. Make your business worthy of recommendations.” About: Ali Rayl is the Vice President of Customer Experience at Slack, responsible for making the working lives of Slack’s millions of users simpler and more productive. She joined Slack during its and has cultivated a culture of customer “love” for the past eight years.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  Broken promises to your customers can be either implicit or explicit depending on the situation or marketing strategy.  There are lots of reasons why some promises are not kept. Mistakes will happen or there will be miscommunication throughout management, or sometimes people become busy and a little forgetful.  Many companies struggle to provide a consistent customer experience and inconsistent experiences create distrust and causes customer churn.  Shep’s definition of amazement is simply being better than average all the time. Consistently amazing your customers is key in earning their trust and confidence in your business.  Advertising is making a promise to your customers. It sets the expectations for your customers.  A customer doesn’t buy a product or service. They buy a solution. For example, you’ll buy a soda because you’re thirsty. You buy a drill to make a hole.  Businesses can use the framework of a guarantee to provide a more consistent experience and there are three elements to an experience guarantee: 1) Promise to solve a customer’s problem. 2) Act to solve it. 3) Recover from any service failures.  Think about what the real question is, behind the question your customers actually give you. Be aware of the solution your customers are searching for.  Quote:  “Advertising helps set the customer’s expectation on the promises that brands are willing to deliver.”  About:  Jeff Toister is an author, consultant, and trainer who helps companies develop customer-focused cultures. He's written four books including The Guaranteed Customer Experience. Thousands of customer service professionals around the world subscribe to Jeff's Customer Service Tip of the Week email.    Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      While it is an age-old adage that word of mouth is the most powerful advertising, many companies have not yet embraced this wonderful opportunity. -      Many hoteliers (and businesses in general) spend a fortune on advertising and little to no investment of time or energy in inspiring empowering their team to top performance. -      Teach GMs and department heads to start inspiring and empowering. Our teams are full of talent that we can use if we invite them to collaborate. -      Many business owners like the thought of having consistent 5-Star reviews but don’t know where to begin. -      Every interaction you have with external customers as well as internal customers should end with everyone feeling better than when they came to you. -      When interviewing a potential employee, read your company’s mission statement aloud and watch the candidate’s reaction to test whether that candidate truly aligns with your company culture. -      Adele’s six-step process for achieving 5-star reviews: 1.   Write down your ultimate review, with details about what makes your experience so special. 2.   Share your business mission and vision with your team. 3.   Shoot for the stars. If you shoot for 80% guest (customer) satisfaction, you’ll never know the joy of 96%. 4.   Use each critical review as a trigger for continuous improvement. 5.   Hire happy people pleasers and give them the tools, training, support, and freedom from fear that they need to be successful in making guests happy. 6.   Talk about kindness and compassion every day. Quotes: “Remember to C.A.R.E.: Every customer that you talk to should feel Cared for, Appreciated, and Respected at Every encounter.” About: Adele Gutman Milne is a culture and guest experience expert and host of the Hospitality Reputation Marketing Podcast: Get Great Reviews. Adele also has been named one of the Top 25 Extraordinary Minds by HSMAI along with numerous other awards for her leadership in Hospitality Reputation Marketing.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      The reality of today’s digital world is that the transformation of technology is never done. Therefore, all companies need to continuously change and pivot to keep up with their customers’ expectations and the rest of the business world. -      A lot of companies may have an intuitive belief of where their customers are in terms of their needs, expectations, and pain points. Unfortunately, they don’t do the necessary research to keep their finger on the pulse of where their customer is right now. -      Customer behavior is vital in keeping your business profitable – and there are more customer behaviors besides buying and coming back to buy again. -      Many studies have revealed that while the emotional and rational side of a person plays into purchase decisions, the emotional side tends to be more powerful in purchasing behavior. -      Customer love is the feeling that you can count on a brand to give you what you need and more, along with a feeling of alignment or spiritual connection. The companies that inspire a lot of customer love have better business metrics overall. -      The formula for achieving customer love is spilt into three parts: meeting customer needs, periodically delighting your customers, and standing for something that resonates with your customers’ values. -      Brands with high customer love consistently have more growth, profit, and valuation. -      There is a proven transformation process companies can use to improve their fulfillment of the ‘love formula’: -      Step 1. Understand Your Customer -      Step 2. Map the Customer Journey -      Step 3. Build the Future -      Step 4. Optimize the Short Term -      Step 5. Lead the Change Quote: “In this time of rapid change, you really don’t have a choice if you want your business to remain relevant and successful. You must keep changing with the times.” About: Howard Tiersky is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance. Howard is the founder of two companies that enable large brands to win in the digital world: FROM, The Digital Transformation Agency and Innovation Loft.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Some businesses such as a healthcare practice or provider, do not have a product that the customer touches. Instead, it’s all about selling the entire service experience to their customer. -      Remember to manage the Moments of Truth: any time a customer comes into contact with any part of your business they have the opportunity to form an impression. -      Words are very powerful in shaping the perception of the customer experience. For example, the waiting room in a doctor’s office could be renamed as the reception area, implying a different experience from just waiting in a room. -      If your customers are experiencing long wait times or complex systems when trying to call your business, it may be time to hire more help or invest in technology to reduce those hold times or phone trees. -      Creating a positive customer experience increases the likelihood that your customers will tell others of their experience with you, ultimately making you feel more fulfilled with your work to create that experience. -      Dr. Baum’s 10 Personal Promises to His Patients: 1.   We will answer the phone in less than 3 rings. 2.   A human, not an answering machine, will speak with you and make your appointment or take your questions. 3.   We can usually make an appointment to see you on the same day that you call or the very next day. 4.   If you call for the doctor and the doctor is not available, we will call you back the same day and we will tell you what time that call is going to take place. 5.   We use an electronic medical record system to send your prescription to the pharmacy immediately so that the medication will be ready by the time you arrive to pick it up. 6.   We will send a letter to your primary care doctor or referring physician while you’re still in the exam room that lists your diagnosis, the medications you’ve been prescribed and the treatment plan we’ve outlined for you. 7.   We’ll provide you with educational materials on your condition, including articles written by Dr. Baum. 8.   You can communicate with me or one of my staff via email and I will answer you usually within the same day. 9.   We have a very energetic, enthusiastic and smiling staff who will help exceed your expectations regarding your visit to our office. 10. We will make your visit almost magical. Quote:“The customer experience begins with the patient, or customer, the moment you start any sort of interaction.” About:Neil H. Baum, MD, Professor of Clinical Urology at Tulane Medical School, has written over 300 peer-reviewed articles and 10 books on marketing, communications between doctors and patients, as well as publications on men and women’s healthcare issues. Dr. Baum is the also author of The Business Basics to Building and Managing a Healthcare Practice which was published in 2019.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      The secret to getting your employees to love coming in to work is creating an environment where employees feel welcome, loved and empowered. -      One of the most important things you can do every day is huddle with your team. Meet together and talk about your culture and company values daily. -      The number one reason people leave their jobs is because they are not feeling recognized or valued by their boss or management. -      Keeping a healthy, productive company culture is all about making sure your employees feel valued, informed of their responsibilities, participate in ongoing training, and set goals to help them grow. -      The anxiety from having to confront customers on a hard “no” can cause employees to enter their fight or flight mode. Either way, the interaction becomes negative and causes the customer to become even more unhappy with the situation. -      Find ways to say yes to your customers, even if the answer is no. -      Christine Trippi’s four-step process on how to always say yes includes: 1) Make friends first. 2) Explain what you can do. 3) Offer options. 4) Be creative. -      Energy times execution equals your sweet results. After feeling inspired you may have a lot of energy to get started, but it’s the ideas and the execution of those ideas that will make sweet success. Quote:“A lot of companies have a great onboarding process that covers their missions and values, but then it ends on day one. It’s how you pull through every day that’s going to create your company culture.”   About:Christine Trippi is an award-winning hotelier who has been in a romance with hospitality for over 30 years, serving as manager at resorts, and full and select-service hotels. She is the founder of The Wise Pineapple and uses her experience and passion for helping leaders and organizations have Sweet Operations, Sweet Cultures, and Sweet Results.   Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Influencer marketing is a way to add to your customer journey. It starts with social media. One of the first things customers look at when exploring a brand is their social media presence. -      Influencer marketing enhances customer experience through people, visuals and content that are relatable, unlike traditional ads made in a studio. -      A strong, influential social media presence can also help B2B companies negotiate collaborations and partnerships with other B2B companies. -      Current customers can be some of your best social media influencers. -      Social media profiles are the new ‘showrooms’ for manufacturers to present and promote their products or services. -      Negative reviews or comments on social media are a good way to showcase to the public (which includes current and potential customers) how your business handles customer complaints. -      Look at your competitors to see which social media channels they focus on and how they utilize those platforms within their business. That’s a good place to start. -      Your followers want to interact with influencers. That’s why social media platforms work so well. They have the capability to interact, unlike traditional media like TV, radio and print.  -      Social media is a great opportunity to engage with your customers and marketing efforts on a personal level. Quote:“Think about how you can customize the different social media channels to fit your business, regardless of your industry.” About:Elma Beganovich leads A&E’s efforts in building the company’s list of world-renowned partners and clients. Her area of expertise includes identifying roles that A&E can play for a variety of brands in different industries, as well as developing terms and scope of those partnerships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Web accessibility is required by the law for almost every business in the United States. -      According to the CDC, 26% of American adults are living with some form of a disability, and it’s up to American businesses to make sure that all their public spaces are accessible to everyone. -      Accessibility cannot truly be widespread until it is affordable, simple enough for the average business owner to install, and in a format that allows businesses to ‘set it and forget it’ with minimal to no upkeep. -      Right now, the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) created by the W3C, is the only internationally recognized set of guidelines for web accessibility. -      After surveying over 10 million web pages, 98% of those pages failed to be completely accessible. -      The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) states that public places of accommodation need to be accessible to everybody. In 2018, the Department of Justice said business websites are also considered places of public accommodation. -      Customers who have disabilities sometimes already have assistive technology that can detect web accessibility when navigating different websites. -      Being an accessible company increases brand reputation and helps ensure every customer has a positive experience with you. Quote:“Many businesses have no idea that they are required by law to be web-accessible, mostly because no one has ever brought their website’s inaccessibility into question.” About:Rafi Glantz is a sales and marketing executive, small-time musician, and big-time dog lover who currently leads accessiBe’s Strategic Partnerships efforts and collaborates with both partners and people with disabilities worldwide to increase awareness of web accessibility.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Personalization has been and continues to be the big buzzword in the world of customer experience. -      In just a matter of a few months, COVID-19 forced businesses 2-3 years into the future of digital commerce and digital customer experiences. -      COVID-19 has also affected the way customers shop, especially with grocery stores, which saw a 300% increase in online purchasing over the last year. -      Amazon has set the bar for the eCommerce experience. Customers are learning to expect Amazon levels of service and CX from everyone else. -      The pandemic has introduced us to an era where customers are buying almost everything they need online. -      Success today involves customer acquisition, customer loyalty and continuing the same customer experience so that customers can predict what to expect. -      Information and transparency from your business are the keys to creating confidence and building loyalty with your customers. -      Companies need to tie technology, algorithms and AI into the experience customers have with human employees instead of sacrificing one for the other. Quote: “Realize that the customer’s experience with you isn’t just when the customer is on-sight, but all the way through the customer’s journey, from the beginning until they come back the next time.” About:Christy Augustine, Chief Operating Officer at Bloomreach, leads Bloomreach’s efforts to arm customers with the tools and knowledge they need to successfully compete in demanding markets. She is a leading thinker in e-commerce, having been a manager at Bain & Co., focused on technology, retail and strategy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: The Me-conomy is about giving the customer what they want, when they want it, how they want it, with little to no effort. That’s convenience! A perfect omnichannel experience allows a customer to start a support conversation through one channel and finish the same conversation in another without having to repeat information. Kustomer has found that 77% of customers expect their problem to be resolved immediately, placing an emphasis on ‘real-time’ customer service strategies. Personalization has only grown more important throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers are used to it, and it’s not going away. Chatbots have an important role to play. The problem with a lot of today’s chatbots is that they’re not able to connect to a CRM system. It’s crucial in today’s world to position your company in a way that ties your CRM to your channels of communication in order to provide great customer service. Incorporating self-service, real-time responses, personalization, and communication channel-of-choice can ultimately lead to a convenient experience for customers. Quote:“The five pillars that define a me-conomy include self-service, real-time, personalization, channel-of-choice, and low effort.” About:Gabe Larsen currently leads Kustomer’s worldwide marketing efforts, including advertising, brand, communications, demand, and digital. Prior to joining Kustomer, Gabe was the VP of Marketing for XANT where he helped create the sales acceleration category and grow the company to nearly one-hundred million in revenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Scott Harris defines creating ‘wow’ as helping your customers always get more out of CX and going over and above in delivering for your customers. -      If you wait until the end of an interaction to survey your customers, you are essentially surveying the memory of an experience. -      CX for years has been about collecting and analyzing data to make great business decisions. Now that same data can be used as a behavioral driver powering better customer experiences in the immediate moment. -      Legacy CX is telling your customers that their feedback matters because you will be using their feedback to shape the experience for future customers. -      CX feedback in real-time empowers the brand to fix the experience immediately for customers that report problems, which in turn creates confidence and trust in your brand and the experience. -      We’re now seeing a paradigm shift in CX that empowers not only the customer but also the employees to shape the experience. -      Customers who leave positive reviews in a survey allow for opportunities to automatically send follow-up messages and offers for these happy customers to join your rewards program, for example. -      Even small businesses can take the concept of sending immediate surveys to help create a better experience for their customers. Not every company needs data-driven software to fix customer issues and improve CX overall. -      In the enterprise world, there is ROI everywhere and with billions of dollars lost from poor customer service every year, companies cannot afford to use the old paradigm of CX anymore. -      Companies are evolving to systems, processes and connectivity that allows them to interact with their customers and improve CX in real-time.   Quote: “Legacy CX is asking your customers for their feedback so that you can try to do better for customers in the future. What if that feedback could make you better right now?” About: Scott Harris is the CEO and founder of Experience.com, a game-changing Experience Management Platform (XMP). Harris is also the author of CX 2.0: Create WOW Customer Experiences, which outlines the future of real-time experience management, released in 2020.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Certain insights from AI and data can be brought down to the call center to help agents improve the customer experience in real-time. -      Abusive behaviors from customers do exist and companies need to be more aware of these harmful interactions. -      Of the 82 million customer interactions CallMiner examined, just under 50% of those interactions had some form or mention of profanity. Of those that had some form of profanity, almost 87% had profanity throughout the entire duration of the call. -      Customer experience tends to lead people to be concerned only with the customer and less about the contact center agents providing that experience. -      Agents are often expected to jump from one call, where a customer uses profanity and exhibits heightened aggression, to another, where the agents are expected to have an upbeat and positive attitude. -      Research has found that agents typically require about 30-40 minutes to mentally recover from offensive calls with angry customers. -      When customer service agents experience racist and sexist remarks, it can have an impact on those individuals as well as, at an aggregate scale, impact on the company. -      Organizations can leverage offensive instances to learn, operationalize a response, change business processes for the better, and create fairer experiences for everyone. -      Providing support and loyalty to your employees is just as important as providing support and loyalty to your customers. Quote: “When we think about customer experience, we’re always thinking about the customer and not about the agent’s experience working in the contact center.” About: Eric Williamson is CallMiner’s Chief Marketing Officer, with more than 20 years of experience in both the technology and consumer product marketing. Eric oversees all global marketing functions from brand and events, to demand generation as CMO of CallMiner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Companies and brands are connecting in new and different ways. -      The companies that will win are one’s that can deliver consistent, on-brand experiences in every channel, 24-7, because that’s what consumers demand. -      Next-generation chatbots and automation technology allow brands to deliver concierge-like experiences for consumers across every channel empowering the consumer 24/7/365 at a global scale. -      It’s a myth that automation (via chatbots and workflows) and great customer experience (highly personalized, intelligent, on-brand, human agents) are mutually exclusive. They used to be, but that’s not the case anymore. -      Technology is now at the point where you can deliver what customers want, immediately when they want it. -      There are 3 key elements of a ‘concierge-like experience’: Personalization, Human + AI, Omnichannel. -      Brands can build a truly concierge-like personalized conversational experience very fast with platforms like Solvvy. -      Traditional chatbots, the ones you’d see a few years ago, didn’t deliver the type of CX top brands have been needing to incorporate. -      The future of CX involves the potential for combined human and AI experiences in customer support. Together is better. Quote:“The future of CX involves a digitally guided journey to the best possible solution.” About:Mahesh Ram is the founding CEO of Solvvy, the next-gen chatbot and intelligence CS automation platform. He’s been CEO, founder or early employee of three cloud-based software companies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      There are two halves to customer-centricity. One is the great leaders of CX, who are inspirational catalysts for creating a customer-centric culture. The other half is the people in the trenches, who connect those leaders and companies with solutions. -      Any customer experience tactic or strategy you try to implement should be supported by your customer record, which is all the information you can (legally) gather about your customer. -      If you want senior leadership to invest in customer experience, you must show them the ROI (return on investment).   -      The best way to position customer experience to leadership is to highlight the increase in productivity, efficiency and agility. -      Touchless and contactless payments have existed since 1997, but have been accelerated and more widely adopted over the past year. -      The employee experience has a huge impact on the customer experience. If employees are happy and well-supported, they are able to better support customers and deliver a better experience. -      Employee needs will continue to change moving forward. Make the voice of the employee a central part of the decision-making process. -      Become a partner to your customers and clients, rather than another vendor. If you’re not a partner, you’re in a potential churn zone where someone else could come along and build a better relationship with your customers. -      The inspiration and innovation that comes from teamwork is what drives a customer-centric culture. And that is available to executives free of charge! Quote:“What is at the center of the productivity conversation is this notion of employee experience. Employee experiences are central to customer experiences.” About:Dennis Wakabayashi is the VP of CX Solutions Delivery for RR Donnelley, a global business communications firm. He is among the top 50 CX influencers globally and provides relevant customer experience content on many social channels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      If you send a personalized item to your customers, whether it’s a note or other gift, don’t put your logo on it. Ask yourself, “Is this a gift or a promotional item?” -      In today’s world, there is so much mass digital communication—emails, texts and more. That makes a handwritten note stand out even more. -      When someone receives a handwritten note, they are more likely to keep it—and even display it. That’s the emotional impact it has. -      Define a clear schedule for when you want to connect with your customers. This will give you a series of touchpoints with them throughout the year. -      Staying top-of-mind for your customers helps you make your follow-up sale and can make customers come back to do business with you again and again. -      There is a lot of ROI to be had from sending handwritten notes, but that can’t be your sole agenda when sending them. It will make the notes come across as insincere, which will drive customers away. -      Handwritten notes are great for showing gratitude to your customers. They can also be used to ask your customers to write you a review, to remind them to schedule annual appointments or to apologize for mistakes. -      If you do make a mistake with your customer, fix it and send a handwritten note as follow-up. Fixing the problem the right way can increase customer loyalty and the lifetime value of the customer, more than if the mistake had never even happened! -      Personalization is crucial for companies of every size. Even massive companies should feel as though they are small and personal to the customer. -      Gratitude matters. Show your customers that you appreciate them! It goes a long way. Quote:“People keep actual handwritten notes. When someone receives a handwritten note from somebody, not only would they read it, they might even put it on display.” About:David Wachs is the Founder and CEO of Handwrytten, a platform for writing and sending handwritten notes at scale. He is a serial entrepreneur and frequent speaker on marketing technology. Previously, David was the Founder and President of Cellit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Customer centricity happens when everyone in the organization is focused on customer engagement. That engagement is more than just satisfaction—it’s about an emotional connection with your customers. -      There are three components involved in getting everyone in an organization aligned: leadership, culture and talent. -      In order for leaders to be truly customer-centric, they must be immersed in the customer experience. That means spending time on the frontlines of customer service. -      Give your customers a voice in your company. Actively involve them in problem-solving and give them a seat at the table. -      Leaders must model the company culture they wish to see. -      Customer centricity must be part of an organization’s values. These values must be visible to all employees and felt by customers. Define the behaviors you wish to see and empower those frontline employees to deliver on those values. -      Even internal employees who may never directly interact with customers still have an impact on the customer experience. Every employee must recognize their place in the customer journey. -      Emotional engagement is driven by three metrics: pride, passion and confidence. -      Engaged employees lead to engaged customers. Fully engaged employees and customers translate into greater profit and success for your company. -      Service values are similar to core values. They define standards of service on how to delight customers and should ignite and inspire employees, not stifle their initiative. -      Recognize the difference between skill, talent and knowledge. Skill can be transferred, knowledge can be learned, but talent is innate. Part of hiring right is finding that talent. -      Much of driving customer-centricity boils down to measurement. Measurement alone isn’t enough, though—you must use what you learn to improve the process and drive a better customer experience. Quote:“A customer-centric culture is one where everyone is engaged in creating engagement for our customer. That engagement is emotional engagement, not just satisfaction or loyalty.” About:Vibhas Ratanjee is a Senior Practice Expert with Gallup who specializes in organizational development, culture change and executive-level engagement strategies. Vibhas is an executive coach and a leadership consultant to senior executives and CEOs, as well as a well-known speaker and author. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      You may not always be able to keep doing things the same way you have always done them, especially under time constraints. The ability to adapt is crucial. -      Difficult, frightening and challenging times can become opportunities to really shine as a brand and as a company. -      Show appreciation to your customers! Call them to thank them for their recent purchase without any sales agenda. This gesture goes a long way. -      Look for ways to adapt and translate the customer experience without sacrificing the quality of the experience. -      A “luxury” experience does not mean a slow experience. Focus on creating an elevated sensory experience by meeting your customer where they are. -      Not every moment within the customer experience is equal. Focus on managing the beginning, end, high points and pain points. -      Brand promises of customer centricity were put to the test once the pandemic hit. Leaders and companies will be remembered for how they behaved during a crisis. -      You don’t need to be perfect. Be honest and own your mistakes, and keep working to improve the world around you. -      One of the most powerful things a leader can do is listen. That’s much of what customer service is all about. -      The word for 2020 is empathy—followed by “you’re on mute!” Don’t lose hope, find the humor, and keep moving forward. Quote: “Leaders throughout the pandemic said they were moving between front, middle and back more than they’ve ever had to before. You have to have a fluidity of leadership style to a greater degree than prior to the pandemic.” About: Joseph Michelli, Ph.D., is a certified customer experience professional, international keynote speaker and the bestselling author of nine business books. He helps leadership teams improve the experiences they provide for team members and customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Customer success and customer support are related, but different. Customer success is about proactively helping customers to get the most value out of a product or service, while customer support is about reactively solving customer issues. -      Almost every company today is seeking ways to build and deliver connected customer experiences using technology. Having an online business presence is not an option—it’s a necessity. -      Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not replace human agents. Instead, it augments the capabilities and ingenuity of human experts. The result is a more efficient—and delightful—customer experience. -      AI comes in many forms (chatbots, voice systems on phones, etc.) and cab be a quick, easy and convenient way for customers to get a solution to a simple problem. -      AI needs to be able to recognize when it should transfer the customer to a live agent. This can happen when the customer asks to be transferred, when the AI recognizes it doesn’t have the right knowledge to help, or when it detects customer frustration. -      When transferring to an agent, AI should deliver as much information as possible to that agent. This includes the issue the customer is calling about, who they are and their history with the company. -      Executives should regularly take customer support cases and calls so they know exactly what it’s like on the frontlines of their organization’s customer experience. -      Don’t sacrifice the emotional, human connection you have with your customers in favor of the latest tech. -      The future of customer service and experience is more of the ‘know me’ desire. Customers want an experience that is personalized to them as individuals. Quote:“Customer success is proactively helping achieve what they need. Customer support is reactively helping customers whenever something is not working.” About:Gabriele Masili is the Global VP and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Customer Experience & Success at Microsoft. He leads the Digital Customer Experience Council across Microsoft and is responsible for enhancing customer and employee connected experiences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Customer service is what ties all other aspects of a business together. It is the marriage of sales, marketing, product management and more. -      Customer success and customer service are not the same, but they are closely related. Success is about proactive outreach, whereas service is reactive. But they are both part of creating a great customer experience. -      Never leave the customer entirely alone or cease communication with them, even after the initial onboarding process. Maintain communication to ensure they get the most value out of your products and services. -      Don’t wait until it’s time for the customer to renew their subscription or contract with you to reach out to them. -      Renewal isn’t the goal; the goal is helping the customer get the most value. If you do that, the renewal follows naturally. -      Collect and use data to personalize and contextualize your interactions with your customers. -      COVID-19 has changed customer service. It’s still about helping customers through their entire journey, but individual needs may have changed. Meet customers wherever they’re at and help them recover and plan for the future. -      Care for your employees just as well as you care for your customers. The employee experience directly affects the customer experience. -      Give customers a voice in your company. This is possible for companies of every size and greatly improves the customer experience. Quote:“Our goal shouldn’t be about the customer is buying from us. Our goal should be about them getting value.” About:Teresa Anania is VP of Global Customer Success and Renewals at Zendesk. She helps customers realize maximum value across the customer lifecycle, resulting in renewal and customer satisfaction.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Now more than ever, it’s incredibly important to pay attention to your digital customer experience. Most organizations have made the move to virtual, and all should understand how their customers are connecting with them. -      The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated what was already starting to happen in terms of technology. We have been thrust 3-5 years into the future. -      Technology allows brands to reach customers where they are rather than forcing customers to come to brands. It also helps brands communicate more effectively with their customers for a faster, better experience overall. -      Both customers and chatbots must be able to decide when to switch from AI to a human being. And, it should be an easy and seamless transfer. Otherwise, customers may end up frustrated with the experience. -      People use AI all the time without realizing it. It’s important to remember that even big, well-known bots (such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home) that are powered by massive AI can still make mistakes. -      Bots can be just as—if not more—effective in supporting agents behind the scenes as assisting customers on the front line. -      Train your agents how to interact with and interpret your chatbot. Working together, agents and chatbots can provide a much better experience to the customer. -      Your chatbot should work side-by-side with your CRM to help agents better understand your customers. A single pane of glass, with all the customer’s information, is ideal! -      Chatbots will not replace agents. Instead, the roles of those agents will change and evolve alongside chatbots. -      Both humans and chatbots have their strengths. Chatbots are good at automation, speed and efficiency, whereas humans excel at critical thinking and relationship development. You can’t automate a relationship! Quote:“Think about your customers’ digital experience as the first solution, the first frontier and the thing your company wants to solve for.” About:Philippe Mesritz is the first VP, Customers for Life at Khoros, a tech company that helps companies better connect with their customers online. He has over 20 years of customer-facing experience and previously ran the support services organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      The goal of customer service should be to answer questions, eliminate confusion and become your customer’s trusted advisor. -      Customer service training is your most valuable asset. It is always worth investing in. -      More often than not, customers leave companies due to a lack of transparency or authenticity. -      An amazing customer experience can translate directly into word-of-mouth marketing. -      The customer experience doesn’t start after a customer makes a purchase or even on the first sales call. It begins at the first interaction the customer has with your company, which could be as simple as them browsing your website. -      The sales experience is part of the larger customer experience. It’s what makes the customer say “yes” the first time, and hopefully keep saying “yes” over and over again. -      Sales and service go hand-in-hand. If you’re in the sales process, your goal should be to demonstrate an above-and-beyond level of helpfulness and willingness to help your customers achieve their goals. -      Video is a very powerful and effective tool and can be used for a variety of purposes. For example, send a video proposal instead of a PDF, or send a video recap to a decisionmaker after an important call. Video can also be used to cross-sell or upsell in the right scenarios. -      Take the opportunity to learn what your client’s criteria for success are and position yourself in their future. Just ask: A year from now, what would have to happen for you to feel working with us was a success? -      Ritualizing video into your CX can answer questions, share new information and position you to become your customer’s trusted advisor. Quotes:“If you become a trusted advisor, you become a magnet for new opportunities, because the customer knows that you will take care of them at a very impressive level.” About:Todd Hartley is the Founder and CEO of WireBuzz and a rock star of remote selling, video marketing and sales optimization. He creates effortless, on-demand buying experiences that improve clarity and eliminate confusion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:  No matter what you’re selling, there will always be certain conditions of satisfaction. These will vary from situation to situation, but the basic underlying principle will always be the same: Does it meet the customers’ expectations?  Get in the habit of having frank, transparent conversations with your customers. Communication is key!  Customer service is all about engagement. That’s what people crave more than ever.  Packaging is important and includes more than just what’s on the outside of a product. It could include word choice and tone or mode of delivery. Make sure the packaging is an accurate and positive representation of your brand identity.  While packaging is important, it isn’t everything. The product still needs to do what it’s supposed to do and meet customer expectations.  Customer service has always been about relationships and engagement. The number of followers you have on social media, for instance, doesn’t matter if those followers don’t have a relationship with you and aren’t truly engaged.  Look for the people who are so fully engaged with you that they’ve become your biggest fans. Those people will organically drive more connections for you by telling their friends and family about you and the experience you provide.  Your best innovations and insights can come directly from your engaged customers.   Customer complaints can provide valuable information on how you can improve your products and services.  Leaders and managers need to get on the front line and have discussions with customers to gain an accurate view of what’s happening within their company.  Define and identify your “dream customer.” Recognize you can’t please everybody, but this will help you focus your company vision.  Quote:  “Every executive should be the most strategic person in the room. You can’t necessarily be the smartest person in the room, but you can become the most strategic through education, motivation, inspiration and the chance for a little monetization.”  About:  Jeffrey Hayzlett is a global business celebrity, speaker, bestselling author, primetime TV host and podcast host. He is the Chairman of C-Suite Network, home of the world’s most trusted network of C-Suite leaders.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      First you have to get customer feedback. Next you must respond to it. Then you should do something with it—as in, use it to improve internally. -      Customer ratings and reviews can be a powerful employee motivator. If they know their performance will be graded, they may strive harder to achieve good results. -      It’s important to ask for feedback or reviews while the experience is fresh. Optimize your request so that it occurs either during or after the customer’s experience with your brand. -      42% of companies don’t actively collect feedback from their customers. This represents a huge opportunity across the board to implement a survey program to help improve a brand’s experience. -      Set up an automated system that collects on an ongoing basis. It is easy to do this using the tools and technology available today. -      Making surveys quick and easy will increase the number of customers who complete them. Be upfront and honest about how quick and easy you’ve made the process. -      Quantitative surveys should be no longer than 10-12 questions long—ideally shorter. Sometimes it’s good to offer a qualitative (free response) question to allow you customer to tell you how they truly feel in their own words. -      After you get the feedback, you must respond to it. Ideally, you should respond to every single review (positive and negative), but if you have limited resources, prioritize responding to the negative reviews. These are opportunities! -      Remember, when you respond to a negative review, you’re not only talking to the customer who wrote it, but all potential customers who may read the review. One bad review could turn away up to 30 potential customers if not handled correctly. -      After responding to feedback, you must react to it inside your organization. This could mean fixing a broken process or improving an aspect of your service. -      Dig deeper than the surface of what a bad review is telling you. For instance, if someone complains about the price, the right thing to do isn’t necessarily to drop the price. Instead, ask if you’re providing the value customers expect. Quote:“Strike while the iron is hot. Ask for feedback or a review while the experience is still very fresh in your customer’s memory. Take a proactive approach and incorporate asking for feedback into the hospitality component of your business.” About:Joshua Liebman is the founder of BackLooper, a consumer insights tool that helps businesses optimize their feedback loop and foster customer loyalty. His passion for customer experience comes from his background in hospitality and tourism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your service is “good enough.” “Good enough” service is never good enough. -      Customer expectations are evolving so quickly that companies don’t even realize they are failing their customers. By not meeting those expectations, brands will let down and lose customers. -      Companies must utilize AI and technology alongside a human element in the customer experience. Technology alone won’t work. -      Think of your customers in terms of the classic iceberg metaphor. There is so much more going on underneath the surface than what is clearly visible. Work to understand those behaviors and motivators you don’t immediately see. -      NPS and CSAT scores are not enough to get the big picture of your customer base. Not enough customers fill out surveys (even one-question surveys) or provide enough details to allow for global projections of customer satisfaction. -      Customers who have a less than amazing service experience with you may not fill out a survey, but they will tell other people. This will affect your brand reputation and could result in missed opportunities and lost revenue. -      We are in the age of the “now” customer. Customers are no longer willing to wait for answers or products, but companies still believe they are. -      It’s crucial to mystery shop your own business so you can get real data to help you understand what is truly happening with your customer base and how your company can improve areas of weakness. -      Deflection is not a customer-centric concept. You can offer your customers alternatives, but always give them the option to come back. -      For more, read Simplr’s report, “The State of CX in 2020” and attend (or rewatch) Simplr’s webinar, “How to WOW the NOW Customer” featuring Shep and Daniel! Quote:“‘Good enough’ is not good enough. A ‘good enough’ mentality causes you to rest on a laurel that is a false presumption of loyalty by your customers and future customers.” About:Daniel Rodriguez is the CMO of Simplr and an experienced marketing executive, entrepreneur, family guy and musician. Before Simplr, he served as VP of Marketing for Seismic and co-founded multiple other companies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Prioritize your company culture above anything else. When customers purchase from you, they’re really buying into your culture. -      The first thing you do should be to define your company’s culture and values. Do this early on with intention instead of waiting for it to happen accidentally in the future. Be specific about what your values are. -      Assemble a team of your colleagues and employees and work together to define and refine your company’s culture. The people you hire affect the culture you build—for better and worse. -      Any time you communicate with your customers, make sure you do so in alignment with your values. -      Find the customers that align with your culture and values. Don’t be afraid to “fire” customers if they aren’t a good fit. -      Creating an amazing customer service experience really comes down to the idea of delight. Any company can delight their customers. -      Build a process where you work delight into various points along the customer journey. The first step is to map out your customer journey and then recognize those opportunities. -      It can be difficult to work in delight into an online business—but the opportunity is HUGE. Again, it’s all about mapping the journey (which can be easier online) and putting a process in place. -      Creating processes for amazement will eventually become part of your company’s culture. Employees will love it and customers will become “superfans.” This helps you build a great reputation. -      Automate the processes you build, but never your relationships. Never sacrifice the human element. Quote:“It all comes down to the idea of delight. It’s an underutilized word. Have a process for working surprise and delight into every single customer journey.” About:Matthew Barnett is the CEO and “Papa Bear” of Bonjoro. Originally trained as a designer and artist, Matthew is committed to building both great products and great culture. His goal is to be the next Zappos—the most loved brand in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Become a partner to your customer. Work to solve your customers’ business needs without trying to make a sale. -      When selling technology, focus on solutions and success instead of the technology. Identify business problems and needs before turning to technology. -      Lose the mindset of customer service happening only in call centers and contact centers. Go broader, and think instead about consumer engagement and consumer interaction. -      Technology has progressed rapidly, opening up new channels of communication. Companies must be ready to meet their customers on these new channels and provide a consistent consumer interaction experience. -      Ideally, create an omnichannel communication experience. This allows you to communicate with customers across all channels using a single interface on the back end. This creates consistency, helps the agent provide better service and gives the customer a better experience. -      Customers and companies alike should ask more open-ended questions when communicating with each other to facilitate productive conversation. Customers should ask what that company is doing to understand their needs and entire journey. -      Companies must ask themselves what their consumer engagement strategy is, whether or not it is holistic (stretching company-wide) and if it is truly customer-centric (instead of product- or sale-oriented). -      As technology changes so quickly, be mindful of how you do and don’t adopt it. Don’t get too enamored with new tech and lose sight of the humans behind it—both your customers and employees. -      Everyone in an organization has a positive or negative impact on the customer service and experience, not just the customer service department. It’s part of the company’s culture. Quote:“Everybody, in every organization, has positive and/or negative impact on consumer (customer) interaction. Consumer interaction is part of the culture.” About:Lou Gallagher is a Consumer Engagement Specialist at Mitel. With over 35 years of experience as a business leader, business consultant, IT application developer and engineer, Lou has created customer engagement strategies that reduce cost and enhance CX. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      To understand Generation Z as consumers is to understand the future of your (and every) business. They are the fastest growing generation in the workforce, the number one generation of consumer trendsetters (they even influence Baby Boomers!) and the most likely to write positive things online and recommend brands to others. -      The oldest members of Gen Z are 25 and most of them do not remember 9/11. -      While it’s important not to box people in by generation, knowing a customer’s generation can give you clues that help you better understand them. This, in turn, can help you faster connect, build trust and drive influence with those customers. -      When making a purchase decision, Gen Z customers look for a few key things: low price, ease of purchase, ratings and reviews, ease of returns and if someone they know previously made that purchase. -      Gen Z wants an experience before they buy something. When they do buy something, price (not the lowest price) is important to them and they always expect a good deal. They will pay more for an all-inclusive experience if they feel it is a better deal than the cheapest option. -      Ease of purchase is all about asking yourself how simple you can make something so it just works. Often, this involves utilizing new tech—but be careful not to sacrifice the human connection! -      Offering easy returns reduces the risk for online and first-time purchases, which consumers perceive to be very high-risk. Reducing risk helps overcome objection in the sales process. -      Ratings and reviews are incredibly important to all consumers, not just Gen Z. Even more important is knowing someone personally who bought that product or service before. Family and friends’ opinions are the most trusted, even if their tastes do not match the purchaser’s. -      To understand your consumer base better, create a generational snapshot and put it into a pie chart. Create practical urgency to bring in that next generation to ensure your business lasts. Quote:“Generations are not boxes. Generations are powerful and predictive clues. If you know those clues, you can faster connect with, build trust and drive influence, which is ultimately what customers want.” About:Jason Dorsey is the President and Co-Founder of The Center for Generational Kinetics as well as a leading generational researcher, speaker and author. His latest book is Zconomy: How Gen Z Will Change the Future of Business—and What to Do About It. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      The year 2020 has thrown us into the future technologically. This creates many new opportunities for companies to make their customers happy and make their lives easier. -      Customers increasingly expect companies to take a stance on social issues. Remaining silent is no longer an option. Companies must have a point of view, share it with the world, take action and be transparent about the journey. -      Companies don’t need to change the whole world to make a positive impact; they just need to change their world. Find your company’s strengths and leverage them to tackle concrete challenges in society that matter to you. -      As a bare minimum, you must offer a good product for a good price and with good customer service. In the past, this was all it took to make customers happy. Today, they expect more. -      To be truly successful, companies must know how to create convenience for their customers, especially digital convenience. -      A good, working digital interface is a necessity. It must help customers save either time, money or energy (or, ideally, all three)—the resources that no one ever has enough of. -      Look beyond your product and think about the human being that is your customer. Become a partner in their life by asking how you, as an organization, can add value to their life. This is the future of customer experience. -      Identify the tradeoff your customers must make when they buy from you or any company in your industry. What can you do to reduce or even eliminate it? Develop a process and make it part of your mission statement and brand identity. Quote:“Companies don’t have to change the world. They just have to change their world. Look at the strengths of your organization and see how you can leverage them to solve the concrete challenges in society. This is your responsibility as a business owner.” About:Steven Van Belleghem is a co-founder and board member of nexxworks. He is an entrepreneur, an international keynote speaker and the bestselling author of four books. His latest book, The Offer You Can’t Refuse, comes out on October 28, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      It’s important for any and every business to measure the level of service they provide. After all, you can’t change what you don’t measure. Mystery shopping is one method of measuring the customer experience a business provides. -      When designing a mystery shopping or other measurement/feedback program, it’s important to first understand what you’re trying to measure. -      Follow the customer journey as closely as possible to get the best read on what the customer experience is like. -      Mystery shopping and measurement programs are effective everywhere—in both B2B and B2C businesses and both inside and outside the organization. -      Measuring your customer service and experience gives you an objective perspective of what works and what doesn’t work. -      Once you get your results, you must use them. Develop new strategies and implement training where it’s needed. Continue to measure. Identify gaps and celebrate success. Over time, this will vastly improve your CX. -      Design and roll out an internal program before an external one. In other words, focus on your employees and their experience first. Get everyone in alignment with your mission and how they play a part in the customer journey. -      Remember that the beliefs and behaviors of leaders and managers will be passed on to employees. Leadership must model the actions and attitudes they want to see in their employees. It starts at the top. -      Now, more than ever, companies must take care of their customers, across every touchpoint and channel. Start by putting people (employees and customers) at the center of your business and show that your truly care. Quote: “Being able to measure customer service gives you feedback on where to develop new strategies and implement training. Then, measure again to identify gaps and celebrate success.” About: Claire Boscq-Scott is keynote speaker, consultant and trainer specializing in retail and hospitality with over three decades of mystery shopping and customer service experience. She is the author of three books, the latest of which is The Secret Diary of a Mystery Shopper. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      An omnichannel customer service experience is about being able to meet customers at any channel they choose and create a seamless experience for the customer between different channels. -      The difference between omnichannel and multichannel is having all channels work together rather than simply having more than one channel available. -      The transition between a chatbot or any AI technology should be seamless and invisible—the customer should not be able to tell when they’re talking to a bot versus an employee. -      Many call centers focus on antiquated metrics that don’t ultimately best serve the customer. Focusing on resolving the customer’s issue the first time they call in (“first call resolution”) rather than reducing the average handle time can prove more cost-effective down the line. -      More than anything, support center agents must be empathetic to the needs of the customer. Work from a place of wanting to solve the customer’s problem instead of meeting a financial metric. -      Diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) play a huge role both in support centers and in the overall customer experience. Not being able to connect with customers is a pain point. Call centers must be as diverse and inclusive as the customer base they serve. -      Companies should create more self-service options for their customers, especially for common problems. Simply put, customers want this! -      AI will never fully replace the human support agent. A bot will only get you so far before a human has to interject. A better solution is to integrate tech with your human employees to provide a better customer experience. Quote:“How do you make something simple? You start with your process. If you don’t have your processes in place, it doesn’t matter how much technology you get. Tech without process just creates an automated mess.” About:Jerry Campbell is the Head of Customer Experience (CX) and Social Engagement at 7-Eleven, where he leads a team that delivers “world class” customer service and experience through an omni-channel approach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      There must be a balance between artificial intelligence (AI) and human connection. As with any new technology, there always needs to be a human fallback. -      The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a massive shift in both business and consumer buying preferences and habits. Many companies were unprepared to make the shift to e-commerce, self-service and other digital channels. -      Think of AI instead as IA, or intelligent assistant. Have it support an employee (versus a customer) so they have faster access to the right information. This helps them work more efficiently to support the customer, which results in a better customer experience. -      The role of the salesperson is shifting to that of an expert. Consumers (in both B2B and B2C) expect to be able to turn to sales reps for information and answers. -      When a consumer knows they can rely on a sales rep or vendor for the fastest, most accurate information, it can drive customer loyalty. Customers will continue to come back because they know they can rely on that company to give them what they need. -      In B2B buying, the stakes are incredibly high. Any friction or errors within this sales process could have long-lasting repercussions, costing you not only millions of dollars but even the customer. -      Omnichannel solutions can help eliminate friction for both customers and employees. The channels must be easy to use and seamless to switch between. -      Companies need to talk to their customers on a much deeper level to understand their new wants, needs and values in reaction to a rapidly changing world. They must also find new ways to create that personalized experience. Quote:“Bringing together the analytic power of AI and the context and empathy power of a human being can deliver an incredibly personalized, really effective, fast selling process.” About:Geoff Webb is the Vice President of Products at PROS, where he works with technology, marketing and go-to-market teams. He has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry in addition to sales and marketing management. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Good customer service and experience principles can be applied in any relationship—professional or personal. -      Successful companies known for their innovation all share common cultural values of curiosity, grounding, discovery, trust and passion. Add these five elements into your relationship with your customers. -      Secret #1: Curiosity helps you learn about and understand your customers better. This makes customers feel not just heard, but valued, and makes them more likely to collaborate with you to find new solutions. -      Secret #2: Grounding is about focus. Focus on not just your customers’ needs and expectations, but also their hopes and aspirations. This will turn your business relationship into a partnership. -      Before you can focus on the customer, you must first understand who you are, what your company is about and what your collective values are. This will help you understand your role in the customer’s journey. -      Secret #3: Discovery is about risk-taking, which can be scary, so reframe this around learning. Every risk and every mistake are opportunities to learn something new and improve. You must create a safe environment for your employees and customers so they’ll want to take risks. -      Secret #4: Trust is about authenticity, transparency and above all, truth. Companies must emphasize the truth—the whole and complete truth—in their culture and values. -      Secret #5: Passion is the energy, enthusiasm and excitement about what you do. Find out how to create that passion and identify what holds you back. -      Bring the best of who you are not only to your interactions with your customers and colleagues, but to everyone you encounter. Quote:“Curiosity, where someone is intensely interested in who we are and what we’re about, is something we don’t experience a great deal. When customers experience it, they feel valued, not just heard.” About:Chip Bell is a senior partner of the Chip Bell Group, a top customer service keynote speaker and a bestselling author of 24 books. His latest book is Inside Your Customer’s Imagination: 5 Secrets for Creating Breakthrough Products, Services, and Solutions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      In order to build a company’s culture, you must lead with consistent values and reward the behaviors you want to see. -      When your employees are in alignment with your company culture, you can trust that they will make decisions based on those values without the need for an over-abundance of rules. -      A great company culture happens when what you believe, what you say and what your employees do are all in alignment. -      When hiring, you must try to attract employees who are in alignment with your organization’s culture and values. -      There is great value in the seemingly little things. Everyone has the choice to do something well or poorly, and doing those little things excellently really adds up for customers and colleagues. -      Perfection is impossible, but pursuing perfection leads to excellence. -      The “overnight success” is a myth. It’s about hard work. Many people have talent, but not everyone has the perseverance and the will to make it work. -      There’s an old saying that goes, “How we do anything is how we do everything.” This applies to business as well. Strive for excellence in everything you do. Quote:“The quintessential example of culture is the organization that has people with consistent values who make decisions based on those values. You don’t need a lot of other rules when you have those values.” About:Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners, a global partner marketing agency. He is the author of the inspirational newsletter Friday Forward, which inspired his recent book of the same name. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Using video can be a great way to connect with your customers and collect their feedback. -      In order to build a good customer experience, you must get close to the customer by speaking with them more frequently and understanding the path they’re on. Good CX is about connection and relationships. -      It is possible to use technology such as video to build customer connections globally from the comfort of your own home, which can even prompt customers to be more truthful and go deeper in the feedback they provide. -      When connecting with customers to gather feedback and insights, make sure to have purposeful conversations with a set agenda. This will help you glean the most useful information. -      The best insights come from talking directly with your customers, either one-on-one or in a group setting. -      Brands must be prepared to pivot and adapt to rapidly changing customer demands, desires and priorities. Collecting feedback more rapidly can help position companies to meet new consumer expectations. -      A good customer service and experience program is more important than ever for all companies in today’s environment. Without one, a company will not succeed. -      It’s important to collect qualitative data in addition to quantitative data. This will give you insights on top of numbers. Quantitative data gives you the “what” while qualitative data gives you the “why” behind what your customers tell you. -      You must integrate the voice of the customer into your business. This will drive your company into the future and beyond. -      Discuss.io’s moderator guides for driving purposeful conversations can be found on their website. Quote:“Building a good customer experience is about getting closer to the customer, speaking more frequently to the customer and having a finger on the pulse of where the customer is going.” About:Simon Glass is the Chief Executive Officer of Discuss.io, an enterprise-level smart video platform. He is responsible for overseeing all facets of the business and driving the company’s global development strategy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Creating a good customer experience requires doing research. Learn about your customers and their expectations, then build your CX to meet those expectations. -      To find out what your customers want, ask them! Incorporate conversations with customers into your business and CX model. Ask people who may not usually get asked. There are many untapped sources of valuable information that will help you succeed. -      Know who your customers are, and once you do, you will be able to better market to them personally. Personalization will help your product sell. -      Don’t confine yourself to your industry alone. Mine information from other industries. This will help you come up with more creative solutions to problems. -      When you support your community, they will support you. The more you give, the more you get. This is the law of reciprocity. -      Everybody is in customer service whether they realize it or not. Even if an employee doesn’t have direct contact with a customer, they support someone who does. Customer service must be part of the company’s culture. -      Employees who do come into direct contact with customers are best positioned to collect customer feedback. This feedback must be communicated throughout the rest of the organization. -      A great product or service alone is not enough to get and keep customers. You must support your great product/service with amazing customer service. -      Don’t just be a vendor; be a partner. This means helping your clients and customers succeed with the product or service you offer. This goes beyond customer service and into customer support and customer success. Quote:“Make friends in low places. Ask questions and gather information from everyone. It’s amazing what you’ll learn about your customers and their expectations.” About:Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey are the founders of Barefoot Wine and Business Audio Theatre. They are the New York Times bestselling authors of The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Companies can find success by identifying a specific problem and then solving it for their customers forever, turning it into a “forever transaction.” -      Everyone is in the subscription/membership business whether they know it or not. Even if there is no traditional subscription involved, customers “renew” by returning to do business companies they like and trust. -      A subscription is a tactical decision about pricing, whereas membership is the mindset that a customer is going to be with you for a long time through a formalized relationship. -      Thinking of your customers as members opens up new opportunities to deepen and extend new and existing relationships with your best customers. This can happen even without incorporating subscription pricing. -      Offering a subscription model can create a more convenient experience for your customers. -      To move from a one-time transaction to a subscription, you must first step back and figure out your product or service’s goal as it pertains to customers. Build your subscription around meeting that goal or solving a problem for your customers. -      After someone subscribes or becomes a member, you must teach them to make your product or service a habit. If the customer is not engaged or getting value, they will not renew. -      Shift your focus from customer support to customer success. This means not only solving customer issues, but helping them use, value and succeed with your product or service. -      Focus on your customers’ long-term well-being and success. This will help you build a formal relationship with recurring revenue in any company and any industry. Quote:“A subscription is a pricing decision. It’s a tactic. Membership is the mindset that the customer is going to be with you for a long time. It makes the entire organization think differently about marketing, products and services. Pricing is just a small part of this very powerful business model.” About:Robbie Kellman Baxter is the founder of Peninsula Strategies, LLC, a management consulting firm. She is also the author of the bestselling book The Membership Economy. Her new book is called The Forever Transaction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Many companies will do “functional testing” to make sure their products work, but leave out “user testing” to ensure that their customers are having a good experience with their product. -      Brands must remember that they not only sell products and services, but experiences. As much time and effort should be put into making sure the experience is a good one. -      Companies build brand loyalty, not technology loyalty. Whether your touchpoints are digital or in person, there must be a personal element of the brand at each one. -      Though technologies have changed and improved, customer service and experience have remained the same. Nothing has really changed. Customers still want a quick and easy resolution to their problem—and companies want to make their customers happy and get them to come back. -      You can’t have a customer-centric culture without putting actual customers at the center of your business. Do not replace customers with data or technology, or your company will suffer in the long run. -      Listen to what your customers are telling you about their experiences with you, your products and your services. They will tell you where friction is and what they want. -      Every employee at every level of the organization should come into contact with the customer and listen to their feedback. This will foster empathy and create a more customer-focused culture. Leadership must model this. Quote:“If you want to have a customer-centric business model, you have to have a customer at the center of that business model. Technology does not replace that. Data is great, but it is in no way a way to replace actually building empathy with your customer.” About:Andy MacMillan is the CEO of UserTesting and a former product executive at Oracle and Salesforce with 20 years of enterprise SaaS experience. He helps companies become more customer-centric. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Good customer service and experience is a competitive advantage; it sets your company apart from competitors. -      Empower your employees to do whatever it takes to take care of the customer, not just for today or one transaction, but forever. -      When you focus on taking care of the customer, the rest of your business has a way of working itself out. Besides, taking care of the customer is simply the right thing to do. -      Start creating an exceptional customer experience and company culture by hiring the right talent from the beginning. Look for people the with education and experience necessary, but more importantly, look for people who have “fire in the belly” for taking care of customers. -      Once you’ve hired the right people, you must train them to the products, processes, values and culture of your organization. This training should not be a one-time event; it must be ongoing for the rest of their career! -      Don’t punish the majority of your customers or employees for the mistakes or wrongdoings of a few. -      Empower your employees and then TRUST that they will do the right thing. If you do this right, they will never have to say, “Let me check with my manager.” -      Do the right thing for the customer, even if the issue isn’t your fault. Treat the customer how you would want to be treated—as a fellow human being. -      When dealing with customers, remember that you don’t know what’s going on in their lives, either. Always look for the good in everyone. Quote:“I empower all my employees to do whatever they need to do to take care of the customer, not just for this transaction, but forever.” About:Chuck Surack is the Founder and CEO of Sweetwater in addition to owning ten other businesses. He is a frequent speaker and mentor and mentor on issues such as entrepreneurship, quality customer service and the pursuit of excellence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Many people assume (wrongly) that diversity is about equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, which are actually government regulations. Diversity is about who’s on your team. -      All metrics prove that if diversity and inclusion are part of your company, you will outperform your competitors. -      Diversity of thought on your team helps you become more innovative, make more money and ultimately succeed. -      You must ensure that your corporate culture is both diverse and inclusive. -      It’s important to remember that for many questions and issues related to diversity and inclusion, there is no one absolute right answer. -      It’s one thing to have good intention. However, people cannot read each other’s minds to determine intention; we can only measure the impact our words and actions have. -      Racism shows up in the workplace and has a huge impact on both the employee and customer experiences. It is five times harder for Black people to get their foot in the door as it is for white people. It comes down to unconscious bias and microaggressions. -      There is a difference between an ally and an advocate. Allies will speak up in the moment if they see something happen. Advocates do this and more; they intentionally disrupt bias and seek multiple ways of breaking down barriers. -      In order to enact change within an organization, leaders must become advocates for diversity and inclusion. They must do their personal work to overcome bias (conscious and unconscious) first, then actively advocate for the people in their organizations. -      Don’t remain silent. Speak up and take action, even (especially) if you make mistakes along the way. If you want to help, become an advocate. Quote:“We’re all imperfect and we’re going to make mistakes. The point is to not wait until you’re perfect, because that’s not going to happen. Lean into the discomfort. If you’re coming from a place of good intention, people will understand even when you mess up.” About:Lenora Billings-Harris is an award-winning author, thought leader and international speaker in the areas of inclusion, diversity and unconscious bias. She is a Certified Professional Speaker (CSP) and a Council of Peers Award of Excellence (CPAE) Speaker Hall of Fame inductee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Big companies often have more resources and can implement disciplined strategies, whereas small companies are nimbler and are often able to react and make necessary changes more quickly. -      The difference between customer service and customer experience: Customer service is more immediate, often involves a human-to-human interaction and usually is a response to a problem or question. Customer experience is more overarching and can include product packaging. -      A good customer experience can help you better market your business and build your personal brand. -      Don’t underestimate the small, seemingly simple tools like business cards and email. Small details mean everything and can make or break your business. -      Be aware of how the customer service and experience of your business looks from the outside. It can prevent customers from wanting to do business with you in the first place. In other words, it could be the bad customer experience you never hear about! -      When sending an email, there are three things you must get right: a great signature line, a great subject line and a timely response. This is part of your customer experience. -      Self-service options are great to have in place. This can range from a FAQ page to video tutorials on YouTube. -      Don’t be afraid to invest financially in your business. Pay for the tools you need. This will create a better experience for everyone. -      Above all, be genuine when interacting with people. That’s the key to an amazing customer service and experience. Quote:“Be genuine. You have to really love people. It starts with that. It’s hard to fake a smile. If you enjoy people, you’ll be fine.” About:Ramon Ray is a best-selling author, global speaker, event producer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and producer of Smart Hustle Media, and has started four companies and sold two companies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Money should not be your main career goal. You will achieve more success if you instead focus on becoming someone that people want to do business with. In other words, focus on building your soft skills and delivering great customer service. The money will follow. -      A good customer experience has the potential to be your most powerful marketing tool. The better service you deliver, the more likely your customers are to recommend you to others. -      Try to make each and every one of your customers feel like they’re the most important person in the room. -      Recognize the importance of publicity; become a shameless self-promoter. Being good at what you do is one thing, but the world has to know. It’s not so much what you say, but to whom you say it. -      Customer service and the customer experience is all about how you make the customer feel. The goal should be for them to leave feeling better than they did when they arrived. -      Figure out the one, simple question you can ask your customers to gauge whether you achieved your goal. It could be something like, “was your problem resolved?” or “would you recommend us?” -      Your business is only as good as your worst employee. Make sure everyone is in alignment with your company’s culture and customer experience mission. -      When delivering a message to your staff, speak as an audience advocate. Be specific—specificity builds credibility. Quote: “Don’t concentrate on making a lot of money; rather, concentrate on becoming the type of person people want to do business with.” About: Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is an award-winning, Hall of Fame keynote speaker and speech coach. She is a former president (and the first female president) of the National Speakers Association and is a member of Speakers Roundtable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      The product or service you sell isn’t actually your product—the experience you provide your customers and clients is your product! In short, the experience is your product. -      Your goal should be to create a beautiful product, and then elevate that product to another level through the amazing experience you provide. -      Salespeople must consider the tactics they’re using on their customers and ask themselves if those tactics would work on themselves. If you wouldn’t respond well to a certain tactic, odds are your customer won’t either. -      Customers often make purchasing decisions based on subconscious factors rather than specific, tangible metrics. Often, it comes down to the customer’s experience and how a business made them feel. -      Experience beats virtually everything else. When everything else is equal, the experience is what will set your business apart. -      Think about not only what contributes to a great experience, but also about what detracts from that experience. Work to eliminate those factors for your customers. -      Traditional sales “closing tactics” can actually become a detractor to the overall experience. Studies have shown that customers will resist when they feel their freedom to choose is restricted. -      Remember that a good experience is one without friction! -      Oftentimes, the products and apps that consumers love most (because of the way they’re designed) are designed by companies with an amazing culture and amazing employees. An amazing experience is pervasive. Quote:“The experience is the product, and everything is about that experience. We are all in sales and therefore we all have a role to play in terms of creating that amazing experience for our customers.” About:David Priemer is the founder of Cerebral Selling and the author of Sell the Way You Buy: A Modern Approach to Sales That Actually Works (Even on You!). He is the former VP of Salesforce, where he created the Sales Leadership Academy program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      In unprecedented, chaotic and uncertain times, customer interactions are more valuable. Treat your customers with respect and dignity and make sure they feel the value in interacting with you. -      Beware of survey fatigue! This happens when customers receive too many surveys, become frustrated and start ignoring them. -      There are generally four good reasons and ways to use surveys to collect customer feedback: 1.   Tracking studies utilize data from surveys to help both parties manage their relationship. These are typically used in B2B settings and should operate as a two-way street so both the business and the client receive value. 2.   Surveys after tech support or other customer service interactions are important so companies can learn how to improve. Ideally, these should also operate as a two-way street so that customers feel their voices are being heard. 3.   The “get it off your chest” survey collects data on one specific aspect (or “touchpoint”) of an experience. This typically consists of a single question that asks customers to rate their experience on a scale, followed by a more open-ended question about how to improve. 4.   Surveys can be an opportunity for companies to show appreciation to the customer by compensating them or reimbursing them for their time to complete the survey. This could involve anything from a free gift card to a charitable donation or priority service in exchange for the customer’s feedback. -      Consider a customer interview as an alternative to a survey. Customers will speak more freely and may tell you things you never would have thought to ask about. This can be invaluable for improving your CX. -      Above all, make sure you do something with customer feedback once you receive it. Quote:“Customer feedback is always relevant. If you’re not listening to your customers, it’s hard to guide the ship.” About:Martha Brooke is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) and holds a black belt in Six Sigma. In 2004, Martha founded Interaction Metrics to help clients get more value out of the customer experience they provide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Facial coding is not facial recognition, but rather how emotions are displayed on the face. -      Facial coding is universal, spontaneous and abundant. In other words, it is a plentiful resource of information that, when properly utilized, can help companies understand their customers and ultimately create a better customer service experience. -      Collecting and interpreting data from facial coding can help companies understand whether or not customers are having a good experience and if they will return in future. -      The seven different emotions you can get from facial coding are happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust and contempt. The first three are “approach” emotions. Surprise and disgust are reactive emotions. Adverse emotions are disgust and contempt—in other words, customer service killers! -      Every point of the customer journey creates an emotional reaction. Make sure each step inspires the right emotions (such as surprise and happiness) to facilitate moving your customers in the direction you want, rather than driving them away. -      Customers may not remember all the details of their experience with you, but they will remember the high points—the beginning, the ending and above all, how the interaction made them feel. Quote:“There are two currencies in business: dollars and emotions.” About:Dan Hill, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized expert on the role of emotions in business, politics, sports and popular culture. He is also the founder of Sensory Logic, a political pundit and the author of multiple bestselling books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Culture and culture design are management systems. You must embed the right cultural norms into your organization in order to influence and drive the behaviors you want to see in your employees. -      Think of your organization as a community of people who are tasked with certain outcomes. Help employees understand their purpose and the outcomes they are responsible for; in short, it’s about the employee mindset. -      Shift the focus away from making money to taking better care of your employees and customers. That will drive better products and success for your company. -      Customer service is affected by the mindset and psychology of the people who show up to work each and every day. This includes CEOs, managers and leaders, who must model the beliefs and behaviors they want to see across the organization. -      Culture design is about programming the right mindset that will drive the best customer-focused behavior. -      Leaders are hugely influential over a company’s culture, as people naturally emulate the behavior of those they perceive successful. Unfortunately, negative behavior spreads faster than positive behavior. -      Zappos, for instance, uses their company culture as their brand. This is the biggest differentiator in their experience and what sets them apart from other companies. -      Let customers’ high expectations for service directly inform and drive the experience you deliver. -      Don’t only focus on core values—core values are the destination. You must map out the journey for your employees, which includes the right behaviors and beliefs that will get you to the destination. Quote:“Culture actually is a management system. When you embed the right kinds of cultural norms into your organization, you influence the behaviors, mindsets and beliefs people have as they do the work.” About:Jason Korman is the co-founder and CEO of Gapingvoid Culture Design Group. He is a serial entrepreneur who has spent much of his life in the wine business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Influence is not what most people think it is. It’s not something you can turn on and off, but is instead about consistent messaging (both verbal and nonverbal) that drives people to action. -      Customer service is all about relationships. Those relationships are built over time through consistent communication and interactions. Predictability and consistency are the foundation for a good customer experience. -      Remember that communication happens both through language and through nonverbal cues such as body language and facial expression. All of this has an effect on the experience as a whole. -      What does it mean to be yourself? It’s about bringing your best self to every interaction and every single day. Remember that your name is on every single thing you do. -      The 3-step process to redefining and expanding your influence is as follows: -      Make sure you get feedback instead of fluff. Get the truth from people you trust. Find out what works to enhance your influence, and what is getting in your way of influencing your customers. -      Deliberate practice is crucial. Once you know what is working and what isn’t, you must practice to make the changes you want to see. -      Be accountable. If you don’t ask for feedback, you will go through life based on feelings instead of facts. Find people you trust to help keep you accountable. -      Start small. Identify ONE thing that you could have done better, and work to improve that in your next interaction. That’s how you make progress and ultimately, big changes. -      Deliver feedback in a supportive, kind and helpful way. This does not mean you should be dishonest. It doesn’t cost anything to be nice. -      Above all, be kind to each other. You never know what someone may be going through or dealing with. And you never know when you may need that kindness from others. Quote:“Influence is so much about how we show up and present ourselves every single day. How we communicate Monday to Monday, both verbally and nonverbally, determines the level of influence we really have.” About:Stacey Hanke is the founder of Stacey Hanke, Inc. and the author of Influence Redefined…Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be, Monday to Monday®. She has trained and presented to thousands on word choice and body language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Many customers believe that companies don’t about customer service. If this were true, the customer support center or department would not exist. However, companies don’t often have the technological tools to provide a great experience. -      The customer support department and contact centers have undergone a change over the past decade. They are no longer viewed as a cost, but a source of profit. -      Frontline customer service agents have valuable information and data about the customer. Ideally, this information will trickle up to management and leadership to further improve CX. -      The life of a customer service representative can be difficult and there is often a high turnover rate in these positions. Sources of difficulty and stress include upset customers, a lack of resources and frustration with technology they are using (the need to switch between too many programs). -      Companies need to examine what they ask of their CX agents and work to eliminate points of difficulty and stress. If agents are treated better, they will treat customers better. -      It is crucial for companies to adopt an omnichannel system for customer communication. This allows for customers to have a single conversation with a company that spans over multiple channels, rather than a separate conversation on each channel. -      Machine learning and similar technology is now a requirement to deliver a good customer experience. -      Technology can assist companies in proactive service—reaching out to customers before a problem arises. -      Before deploying machine learning, AI and other tech to your customers, utilize it internally first. Use new technology to create a better employee experience, and it will result in a better customer experience down the line. Quote:“Machine learning is not an option in customer service anymore. It is a requirement.” About:Cameron Weeks is co-founder and CEO of Edify Labs. He guides the team to think and act differently when it comes to changing the way companies connect with their customers and employees interact with each other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Even before the world was disrupted by a pandemic, customer service was hard. Customers already thought customer service took too long in terms of hold times and time to resolution. Customers’ expectations have now increased, driving the need for better customer service up even higher. -      There is a higher volume of customer service calls since the pandemic began. Companies and agents need to improve their customer service strategies to effectively handle the volume. -      According to Pega’s recent report, 4 Steps to Exceptional Service Strategy During Disruption, there are four areas of major concern among businesses right now. They are as follows: 1.   How do we show empathy for customers during this time? You must have good self-service strategies available for your customers. You must also be present with them on the channels they want to communicate on. Implement proactive service strategies and act with empathy. 2.   How do we show support for agents during this time? Everything changed for employees and agents, too. Strategies include guided workflows, coaching, augmenting tools that support remote collaboration and applying analytics to improve areas of unproductivity. 3.   How do we keep an eye on our costs? Conveniently, many strategies for improving the customer and employee experiences are also effective at reducing costs. Beware of cutting costs in areas that will negatively affect the customer experience—that will harm your business in the long run. 4.   How do we protect our profits? You must look through an empathetic lens. Work with your customers (and employees) to find solutions that work for both the customer and the business. Protect your profits, but also do right by your customer. -      Make your employees’ jobs easier by providing them a “channel-less” experience—allowing them to interact with and assist customers on any channel from a single program or application. -      Put the right strategies in place from the beginning so you don’t have to re-do temporary fixes later. -      Pegasystems’ annual event, PegaWorld, will be held virtually this year on June 2. For more information and to register, go to the Pega website. Quote:“Your agents aren’t available 24/7, but your customers are.” About:Jeff Nicholson is the Vice President of CRM Product Marketing for Pegasystems, where he leads the company’s CRM market vision and strategy. He is a recognized customer engagement thought leader who has been featured in numerous publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Optimism is a great trait in a leader—and a sense of humor doesn’t hurt, either! -      In order to have a great customer experience, you must have a great employee experiences that incorporates and is empowered by digital technology. Neither technology nor the human element should be sacrificed. -      Prioritize adding proactive service to your CX strategy. This means incorporating strategies to fix problems before they occur. -      Technology can help make agents more productive, efficient and effective by providing them the tools and capability to provide proactive service. -      As a leader, you must find a way to get the two sides of your business (the employee side and the customer side) to meet and work in tandem. Technology can help create a better experience on both sides. -      Take an outbound approach to customer service rather than an inbound one—that is, waiting for the customer to call you with a problem. Instead, take the opportunity to reach out to your customers first to provide support. -      Times of hardship and crisis, while tragic, are also a great driver of change. We must embrace the changes and innovations that come during these times if we hope to keep moving forward. -      The support world has operated primarily with voice technology. Moving forward, video could become the new voice in terms of customer support as customers and companies rely more on video technology. -      When an issue occurs, it’s crucial to not only address it in the moment, but also create strategies for the future. Customers want solutions quickly, but you must also make a plan for if and when a similar problem arises down the line. -      Focus on building resilience within your team and your organization. This will ensure you thrive today and can weather any changes to come. -      The C-Suite must be open and accepting of the ideas of others—at the very least, they must be willing to listen. They also have to look at the people side and the numbers side of every issue. When pitching ideas to the C-Suite, make sure you present them with an ROI attached. Quote:“Have a mindset of change. If you build resilience into your models and encourage that in your people, then you’re building the right fiber into your organization.” About:Jonathan Lerner is the president of TTEC Digital. Prior to joining TTEC in 2019, he was senior vice president and general manager for Customer Engagement Solutions at Verint. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      A key finding from 5WPR’s 2020 Consumer Culture Report was that 71% of people surveyed find it important to buy from companies that align with their values. -      When it comes to customer service and customer loyalty, it is important to attempt to understand your customers’ values. If you can resonate with what is important to your customers, you will build a more loyal customer base. -      Be mindful not only of what you say, but how you say it. These elements have a huge effect on customer purchasing habits and ultimately customer loyalty. -      It is crucial for brands to adapt to worldwide events. For example, many companies that formerly manufactured unrelated products have begun producing items like masks and hand sanitizer to help combat the coronavirus. -      There is always a risk for brands to take a stand on moral issues. Companies must be smart and strategic about weighing in on polarizing issues and determine whether the risk is worth the potential gain in customer loyalty. -      When in a global crisis, brands need to be careful and mindful of their marketing practices. Attempting to sell could rub consumers the wrong way and risk negatively affecting the brand’s reputation in the long term. -      Trust is crucial in any relationship. Businesses must prove to their customers that they are trustworthy. -      The goal is for crises to never occur. However, even a crisis could turn into good PR for a brand. The key is in how the crisis is managed. -      The process for managing a crisis is to first find out what actually happened. Then, you must decide how to handle it—make a plan of action for both the present and the future. Acting quickly and decisively is crucial. -      Don’t forget how to smile and laugh—especially in a crisis. Find at least one thing to smile about every single day. Quote:“Brand sentiment really matters. What you say, how you say it, tone—those things really affect consumer purchasing habits and loyalty.” About:Ronn Torossian is the founder and CEO of 5W Public Relations. He has worked with some of the world’s most visible companies, brands and organizations and has been recognized with numerous rewards throughout his career spanning over 20 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      A web- or cloud-based interface is an excellent option for working from home, as it allows users access to everything they need without being tied to one specific device or location. -      One of the downsides to working remotely is the lack of human interaction and creative in-person collaboration. Communication technology (such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack) can help combat this. -      The biggest mistake companies make when converting to a remote workforce is attempting to recreate the in-office environment. Companies must be flexible and embrace the differences—and benefits—working remotely provides. -      Asynchronous work is a huge benefit of working from home. For this to work, managers must trust their employees to do their job and focus on the things that matter. If they do, often employees will come up with more innovative solutions to get their work done. -      Humanize the remote working experience. Without “water cooler conversations,” we should encourage people to share information and details from their lives with their team. This will help teams stay connected while being physically distant. -      Businesses need to find a way to connect and communicate authentically and empathetically with their customers without a physical presence. Video and voice channels are ideal—but other options may be more feasible or efficient. -      The use of emojis is a great way to humanize a digital interaction. Emojis—and even animated GIFs or memes—soften the tone of text and add empathy. -      Flexibility between channels of communication is imperative. Consumers want to be able to switch seamlessly between channels without having to start over. -      The customer experience starts with the employee experience, and the employee experience starts with leadership. Treat your employees with empathy, authenticity and vulnerability, and they will treat customers better and create a better outcome for your business. Quote:“In the customer service world, the experience that you deliver to your customers is going to start with treat your teams—how you treat your own employees. Having compassion for your employees and being authentic with those employees is what’s defining brands right now.” About:Rowan Trollope is CEO of Five9, a leading provider of cloud contact center software for the enterprise. He is a recognized Silicon Valley leader with a depth of experience in software solutions and cloud innovation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      When the economy is bustling and the unemployment rate is low, the resultant labor shortage makes it very difficult to find (and keep) the best employees for the job. -      Even a single bad employee can dramatically impact the morale of other employees. But customer service ultimately suffers the most at the hands of a bad employee. -      When you understand the differences between yourself and your employees, you will understand how to manage them better and ultimately be a better boss and leader. Additionally, try to help your employees get where they want to go. -      Research your present workforce—understand what makes your current great employees a good fit. Then seek out new candidates who have a similar background, traits, attitude, skillset, etc. -      Expand your search for the perfect candidate to new “hunting grounds.” Become aware of nearby colleges, high schools, vocational schools, etc.—places you think are a good source for new hires. -      It doesn’t matter if you have the best hiring practices if you don’t have an employee retention strategy—a way to improve your workspace. -      Survey your employees regularly and ask them three questions: what they like about working there, what they don’t like about working there and what one thing they would change if they could. -      Remember: it all starts with being a great place to work. Quote:“It starts with being a great place to work. You have to work on that every single day.” About:Eric Chester is an award-winning speaker and bestselling author of five books. His latest book is Fully Staffed: The Definitive Guide to Finding & Keeping Great Employees in the Worst Labor Market Ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      These are strange and unprecedented times. In a very short amount of time, the United States has shifted from having only 5% of its workforce working remotely to over 50%. -      Virtual assistants and workers can help you deliver your value proposition by handling essential tasks that don’t necessarily drive business—such as answering the phone, managing calendars, etc. -      On average, it takes companies 60-90 days to find, hire and onboard a new employee. Turning to a virtual assistant or remote staffing option can reduce that time to about one week. -      Businesses must devise new systems, processes and technologies to better manage a remote workforce. -      During this time, organization leaders must seize the opportunity to connect with their employees and their customer base in an authentic and empathetic way. -      Many people are scared and confused during this time. Reach out to them not to sell a product, but to simply ask how they’re doing. This will strengthen your relationship both now and in the future when things return to normal. -      Communication is moving faster than ever before, and with people working remotely, you must communicate more frequently than in the past. For example, try having a group call with your team three times a day—start-of-day, mid-day and end-of-day. -      Appoint a Director of HR—humor resources. Have this person find something funny or uplifting to share with the team at large once a day to keep morale up. -      Many businesses have slowed down. Be there to support your clients as best you can while acknowledging these changes. As the old saying goes, hope for the best but prepare for the worst. -      Ramsey’s company, MyOutDesk, has put together a guide to working remotely to help businesses adapt. The Go Remote Guide is available for free by texting “MOD” to 31996. Quote:“I believe it’s our civic duty to stay productive as a country. Let’s stay productive as a country and get through this together.” About:Daniel Ramsey is the founder and CEO of MyOutDesk, a virtual assistant company. He founded the company during the 2008 recession to help companies worldwide restructure to a remote workspace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      The concept of transhumanism is that we, as human beings, are able to transcend what we were capable of in the past thanks to new technology and innovations. -      People use technologies such as AI in their daily lives more than they realize. A good example is a Google search. It is the artificial intelligence behind that search engine that allows it to work as well as it does. -      Customers have very little trust in AI and chatbots when it comes to a need for deeper connection and communication. That’s where a human-to-human interaction is needed. -      Our strengths as human beings are our emotional intelligence, our creativity, and our authenticity. AI should support human agents so that they are more able to utilize those strengths. -      Many agents, especially in call centers, deal with repetitive problems. AI can assist by providing those agents (instantly) with the best responses for each situation. -      A huge problem in call centers is employee retention. When employees leave, they take their knowledge and expertise with them. AI can help fill in the gaps. -      Customers are in control today more than they have been in the past. Their expectations for service from a company are much higher—meaning companies need to step up to meet and exceed those expectations. -      Companies need to invest in omnichannel technologies—meaning customers can connect with a company using the channel of their preference and have virtually no gaps in their experience between channels and even agents. -      Above all, AI and other technologies must empower people to use more of their human potential. Quote:“Humans are great at understanding and using emotional intelligence. It is very difficult to build a computer that can understand that.” About:Vit Horky is Senior Director of Digital Experience at NICE inContact. He previously co-founded and served as Co-CEO of Brand Embassy. Vit is also the author of Customer Service in the Transhuman Age. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Everything you learn comes from others. Everyone has an obligation to share what they learn so that more people may benefit. Pass on what you have learned. -      No matter what the outcome of your business is, it all starts with your employees doing the job they’re supposed to do. -      In order for your business to succeed, you must first understand your market—your customers. You must know what they want and need before you can begin to meet their expectations. -      Employees must also have an understanding of the customers they serve. Management must create the system and processes that allow employees to deliver to customers. -      It is the role of leadership to create an environment within the organization in which all employees want to give customers what they want, rather than an environment where employees feel forced to do it. -      Customers should be the number one focus of your business—customers are your bottom line. They are the ones who create revenue for your business. Deliver to them a great product and great service, and you will see income. -      To deliver exceptional service, you must start with a great team. Be selective in your hiring process and treat your employees well. The perfect hire is worth the wait. -      Customers want three things from a product: they want it to be defect-free, they want it to be timely (when they want it) and above all, they want the people who give it to them to be nice to them. Delivering these three things consistently is what creates customer loyalty. -      The biggest driver of customer satisfaction and loyalty is just being nice. Being nice to your customer doesn’t cost anything. Quote: “The employee who wants to take care of the customer will do a better job than the employee who has to do it. Leaders must create this feeling among their employees.” About: Horst Schulze is one of the founding members of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and served as its President and COO. He later founded The Capella Hotel Group. Today, he serves on various boards, speaks and acts as a consultant across industries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Studies have shown that high-performing companies that enjoy consistent growth are those that focus on crafting experiences. -      Studies have also shown that there is a significant gap between the experience businesses believe they’re delivering and the one that their customers are actually receiving. -      Marketing is largely responsible for the creation and sustainment of experiences. Therefore, customer experience is the new marketing. -      Companies need to have a complete understanding of their customer journey so they can better contextualize their marketing and therefore their customer experience. -      There are five factors that go into creating context within the customer experience. All amazing experiences can be broken down into these five categories. They are as follows: Available – An experience must be available to a customer on their own personal time. Permissioned – Customers must ask for this experience of their own volition; companies should not force it on them through ads or unwanted emails. Personal – An experience should not only be personalized, but personal in its delivery. Human-to-human delivery is best. Authentic – Experiences must invoke empathy on the part of customers and employees, creating an emotional connection. Purposeful – Ideally, experiences should go beyond a product and help customers achieve their greater goals. Context goes beyond basic personalization. Companies must ensure they are delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. In order to do that, they need to understand all decisions across the customer journey. Brands need to focus on delivering more human-to-human experiences interactions. This will create a better and more personal experience for the customer. As we move into the future, marketing will continue to become a part of everyone’s role, much in the same way that the customer experience is every employee’s responsibility. Quote: “The creative lens of marketing has to shift toward focusing on the concept of customer experience. Experience wins over everything else.” About: Mathew Sweezey is Director of Market Strategy for Salesforce. He is the author of Marketing Automation for Dummies and The Context Marketing Revolution: How to Motivate Buyers in the Age of Infinite Media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      NPS refers not only to the Net Promoter Score, but also to a system that is a set of behaviors, actions and technology that provides customer feedback directly to frontline employees. While the score itself is important, the bigger impact is on frontline employee learning, making customers feel as though their voice is heard and valued. -      When asking for customer feedback, model your approach off of NPS and Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s original Service Quality Index: ask a single question with a simple metric, then an open-ended follow-up question (“why?”) and finally, follow up on the feedback you receive. -      In his recent Harvard Business Review article, Rob identified four strategies companies can use to achieve consistent and sustained growth in customer value. They are as follows: -      Develop robust customer-value management processes and tools. -      Combine design thinking with loyalty-earning technologies. -      Organize around customer needs. -      Lead for loyalty. -      The value of your customer is the value of your company. -      The best way to grow through customers varies from company to company. For some, acquiring new customers and making sure they are a good fit is the best method of growth. For others, focusing on retaining existing customers may be a better path. -      Companies most often underestimate the value of attaining the right customers in the first place. -      Organize your company around customer needs instead of functional teams and processes. This will eliminate unproductive internal politics and competition for resources that only end up hurting the customer. -      The most important objective for any business should be to grow the value of its customer base. To that end, every individual should understand how they can contribute to and enhance that value. Quote:“The most important objective for a business should be to grow the value of its customer base.” About:Rob Markey is a partner at Bain & Company and a leader in its Customer Strategy and Marketing practice. He also leads the NPS Loyalty Forum and co-authored The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      Even if you think customer reviews don’t apply to your business, they are still important. Regardless of your industry, customers are reading reviews online or on some industry forum before they decide to do business with you. -      Customers look for recent reviews when researching your business. Studies have shown that reviews older than 3 months are considered irrelevant. -      If you don’t follow up with your customers, don’t get their feedback and don’t ask for reviews, you are losing money. Not having any recent reviews (or any reviews at all) can hurt your business. -      Studies have shown that 89% of users read the replies to reviews. This creates a huge opportunity for businesses. It is crucial to respond to all reviews, both positive and negative, because it shows that you care about your customers and their experience. -      Create both a strategy and a budget for customer reviews. Monitor all platforms where your business has a presence and write a customized, personalized response to each and every review. -      Make it easy for customers to leave you a review. If you don’t capture their feedback as they are leaving, send them a brief follow-up message within 24 hours of their experience with you and include a link to a short survey. -      Don’t wait too long before requesting feedback from your customers. Otherwise, they may forget the details of their experience with you. -      When sending a survey to a customer, make sure the survey is a short one! One minute in length is ideal. At the very least, the time it takes to fill out the survey should not exceed the length of their interaction with you! Quote: “We can’t impress everybody. We can’t make every single person happy. But we will try our best.” About: Rupesh Patel is an award-winning hotel owner, hospitality influencer and passionate entrepreneur. He hosts a weekly live hospitality show on LinkedIn and his website, smartguests.com, has helped more than 4,000 hotels improve their customer service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      An organization’s message is related to their brand promise and customer experience. The experience needs to deliver on the customer’s expectation, which is created by the brand promise. -      Everyone in the organization needs to be in alignment with the message and be able to describe the value. This applies regardless of whether someone is in a customer-facing role or not. -      The same consistent message and experience must be delivered to internal customers (employees) as well. This will ultimately help create a better experience for internal and external customers. -      An organization’s message must be relevant to the customer and qualifying—in that it attracts the right customers and repels the wrong customers. -      Even if you do not interact with the customer directly, you likely interact with someone who does. It’s important to remember that the way you treat your fellow employees will be felt by customers on the outside of your organization. -      A confused mind will not take action. Create clarity for your customers and invite them to ask questions. This strengthens the relationship your customers have with you and your company. -      First and foremost, you must determine your company’s value proposition. Ask yourself what message you want to convey and how you provide value for your customers. This excites people and gets everyone in alignment. -      Always give your customers a seat at the table. This will help you create your culture and deliver it in a way that makes sense to them. Quote:“Give your customers a seat at the table. This is how you create the culture internally and externally that you want to present to your customers.” About:Bill Cates is an internationally recognized client-acquisition expert and speaker. He is also the author of four bestselling books, including his most recent, Radical Relevance: Sharpen Your Marketing Message - Cut Through the Noise - Win More Ideal Clients. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      It’s neither luck nor magic that creates success (though those can certainly help)—it’s hard work. Any and every company is capable of putting in hard work. -      Give potential employees a taste of your company’s culture right away. Be upfront about the requirements of the position and the expectations for success. This will help eliminate candidates who may not be the best fit. -      During the candidate’s interview, don’t ask all the questions. Allow the applicant to ask questions of you and your company. This helps them feel they are a part of the company and the culture from day one. -      Be transparent as you describe the job.  New employee orientation should reinforce all the information applicants already heard during the hiring process. It should be a way of further introducing them to the company culture and holding them accountable for previously established expectations. -      Details are what create value for customers, especially throughout multiple points of contact. Paying attention to detail throughout every stage of the customer journey is what will ultimately amaze them. -      Think through the entire customer experience from every angle. More companies need to consider the customer journey in its entirety. -      Leadership must demonstrate the behaviors they want to see in their employees, even for something as simple as picking up trash. When leadership models behavior, it spreads throughout the entire organization. -      Don’t forget that there is an internal customer experience in addition to the external customer experience. This is also known as the employee experience, and it is just as important as the external customer experience. Happy employees create happy customers. -      Create your company’s “Service Standards.” Then, ensure that these standards are consistent across every location and every individual. That will create amazement for the customer. -      Never stop training, even on “the basics.” It is the consistency that creates the magic. Quote:“The key to success is recognizing that there is a ripple or domino effect to internal service. Happy employees create happy customers.” About:Teri Yanovitch is a dynamic speaker, author, trainer and consultant. Her passion is helping organizations create a culture of service excellence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      It isn’t enough to simply gather data. Data collection without action is a waste of time. You must use those insights to drive positive change within your organization. -      Learn how to “fish the big data lake” so you can pull out useful pieces of information about your organization, its processes, and the customer experience. It is crucial to be able to determine what is important and what is not. -      Customers want and expect a personalized experience. Microdata is specific to an individual person and can help you deliver the personalized experience that customers want. -      Consumers want to do business with organizations they trust. Trust is about setting expectations and delivering on those expectations. The first step in any customer relationship should be about building that trust. -      Confirmit’s recent report indicates that a very small number of businesses expect their investment in CX to increase in 2020. This is in spite of the fact that improving CX can lead to more success for businesses overall. -      Instead of thinking about ROI, instead think of ROX—return on experience. You must be able to demonstrate this in tangible terms relating to company goals that executives can immediately connect to. -      Improving your NPS rating alone will not necessarily lead to an increase in sales. You must examine the operational side of your business and either eliminate or mitigate problems that get in the way of improvement. -      Technology can be a powerful tool in creating change, but it is not a solution by itself. There must always be a human element to assist, support, and create connection. Quote:“You must demonstrate the ROI of customer experience. It’s not good enough to just say that this is the right thing to do. You must have the business acumen to speak in terms your organization’s leadership understands.” About:Claire Sporton is the Senior Vice President of Customer Experience Innovation at Confirmit, a leading SaaS vendor for multi-channel customer experience, employee engagement and market research solutions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      Unconscious bias affects the way we think about others without being fully aware of it. It causes people to make assumptions about others that may or may not be true. -      Frontline employees must be trained to be aware of their unconscious biases. When employees act on incorrect assumptions, it can potentially offend customers. -      In today’s digital world, anything and everything can be filmed, put on the internet and go viral. This can turn into a PR nightmare for any company. -      There is a difference between proactive training and reactive training. Proactive training takes place up front in an effort to prevent negative situations from arising. Reactive training occurs after there is a problem. -      If an incident occurs, companies absolutely need to respond with reactive training. However, too few companies take advantage of proactive training for frontline employees. -      Mistakes will happen; this is inevitable. It’s how a company handles the aftermath that is really important. -      The best thing to do to avoid accidentally offending customers is to ask them questions. Ask questions from a position of curiosity, rather than confrontation, to better understand the situation and avoid making incorrect assumptions. -      Our brains process information and make connections very quickly, whether or not those connections make sense. Pause, take a breath, and think for a moment before judging a situation and reacting. -      Becoming aware of unconscious bias and avoiding assumptions is not difficult, nor does it take too much time. Anyone and everyone can do it. -      Diversity and inclusion training can and should be incorporated into a company’s culture, core values and existing training. View it as another way to provide excellent customer service. Quote:·        “You can’t provide excellent customer service when you are making incorrect assumptions about your customers.” About:Bernadette Smith is the founder, president and CEO of Equality Institute. She is also an award-winning author of three books and will release her fourth book in 2020.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      It’s important to consider and optimize CX across the board, but especially within three key areas: digital channels and e-commerce, sales and the frontline, and especially new product development. -      Very few companies take the customer experience into consideration when designing new products. Incorporate the customer’s voice throughout that process and give them a seat at the table from the very beginning. -      Poll the customers and personas to whom you’re marketing and find out their wants and needs. Create your product using that information. -      Customer service is a key component of the customer experience. Ensure every employee understands their role within the larger customer experience, even if they never interact directly with the customer. -      Celebrate your customers and the employees who create excellent experiences. Make it a part of your culture. If you choose to celebrate and devote a day or a week to CX (similar to National Customer Service or CX Week), don’t forget that it’s still a year-round effort. -      Positive change within customer experience and company culture must start from the top. Executives must be fully on board for it to become a part of the culture. They must be role models and champions of the CX initiative. Quote:“Business to business or business to consumer, at the end of the day, it’s human to human. People buy from people.” About:Stacy Sherman is the Director of Customer Experience & Employee Engagement at Schindler Elevator Corporation. She designs and implements successful customer-centric programs and other projects for well-known brands. (Please note that all views expressed are Stacy’s and do not reflect the opinions of or imply the endorsement of employers or other organizations.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways:-      You don’t need to have an out-of-the-ordinary or “exceptional” background to do exceptional things in business and your life. -      Business has the potential to be the most powerful force for good in the world. It begins with companies truly caring about their people. -      The most important thing for any business is to develop a sustainable business model in which people feel valued. -      Many businesses make the mistake of only caring about numbers. Leaders instead should care about their people, making them the number one priority. -      Create a work environment where people feel safe and valued. Give them hope for the future. That will make them feel engaged and give them the desire to contribute. -      A leader’s job should be to help the people they have the privilege of leading grow and develop in line with the company’s vision. -      Customers ultimately benefit from the good treatment of employees. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of their customers. -      Find ways to make work fun. Fun is an excellent motivator that increases employee engagement and productivity. -      The way employees are treated at work affects their behavior outside of work. Therefore, it is a leader’s responsibility to take the best care of the people within their stewardship. This has the potential to make the entire world a better place. -      For more from Bob Chapman, check out his appearance on Shep’s TV show, Be Amazing or Go Home. Quote:“Business could be the most powerful force for good in the world if we simply cared about the people we have the privilege of leading.” About:Bob Chapman is the Chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller. He developed management practices known as “Truly Human Leadership” and co-wrote Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: -      The economy has evolved over time from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy, then to a service economy and finally to an experience economy, where the experience a customer has is the most valuable component. -      Service and experience are two different but related things. Service is what you as the company do. Experience is the customer’s time and perception of the interaction and relationship that occurs through that service. -      Experience goes beyond the product being sold to customers. A good example of this is Starbucks. They are able to sell coffee at a premium because of the ambience, environment, and relationship they create for and with their customers. -      Customization and personalization are key components in staging an experience. Customers today want to spend less time with goods and services, but will spend more time with events and places that engage them with a personalized and memorable experience. -      Today, every business must compete against the smartphone for customers’ attention. It allows customers to instantly disengage from a place, product or service. -      People are consuming experiences today in smaller chunks, which can be referred to as the miniaturization of consumption. People may not take large vacations, but they do seek out and take “mini-vacations” that last just an hour—or two or three. It may be in the form of a fun afternoon at an escape room or even spending time in a coffee shop. -      Experiences are inherently personal and differentiated. Challenge yourself to constantly see things anew through the lens of the customer. This ensures you’re delivering the best possible experience all around. Quote: “Time is the currency of experiences. If you get people to spend more time with you, they will spend more money with you.” About: Jim Gilmore is co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP. He has authored and co-authored several books, has been published in many leading business publications, co-edits Markets of One and teaches/lectures at several colleges and universities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Matt Gillin. They discuss the secrets of driving customer loyalty and a good customer experience (CX). Here’s a hint: it’s all in providing a secure, personalized, and frictionless channel of communication. Top Takeaways: -      The biggest challenge facing business today is how to more effectively engage and connect with customers. Companies must find innovative solutions if they hope to overcome this obstacle and find success. -      Every organization’s goal should be to get their customers to say, “Wow, thank you!” Customers expect this now more than ever before in addition to a more personalized experience. -      The best way to connect and engage with customers is through a channel that is personalized, on-demand, secure, and most importantly, frictionless. If your customer’s experience is not easy, they will not remain loyal to you or your brand. -      A technical advantage alone is not enough to satisfy and delight your customers. Make sure you invest in your core services and customer engagement. That is what will ensure a competitive advantage for your company. -      It can be difficult for businesses to make the shift to a better customer experience due to legacy systems, infrastructures, and thinking. Solutions must also be easy and frictionless. -      Information and the channel through which it is delivered must be relevant to customers. Customers resist technology and AI when it is not relevant, secure, or personalized to them. -      There must always be a human element to each relationship. Customers want to do business with companies that know them and that allow for effortless communication. -      The goal should always be to create a better connection with your customers. At the end of the day, that’s what drives a good CX and customer loyalty. Quote: “When you know your customers and maintain flowing, frictionless lines of communication, that’s when you win as an enterprise. That’s when customers stay.” About: Matt Gillin is the CEO and co-founder of Relay Network, a Gartner-designated “Cool Vendor” in CRM Customer Service and Support. He has over 20 years of experience as an active entrepreneur, pioneer and inventor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews David Meerman Scott. They discuss his new book, Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans, and strategies for businesses to turn their customers into fans and vice versa. Top Takeaways: -      Human beings naturally crave connection and the feeling of belonging. That’s where the concept of the “fandom” comes into play. Companies must figure out how they can utilize this to their advantage. Every organization is capable of developing fans. -      Companies can turn fans into customers by tapping into an already existing fanbase. For example, an auto insurance company found a fanbase for old cars and began catering to that market. -      Companies can also turn customers into fans. If you can find a way to connect to your customers on a deeper level, they will feel more connected to you and your business. This is where fandom begins. -      The neurology behind fandoms explains how and why they are so successful. The closer you are to people physically, the stronger the shared emotion. This is the secret to creating deep, authentic connections. -      Other factors can contribute to the creation of customer “fans” and a loyal fanbase, such as the exclusivity factor, subscription, and the ability to share on social platforms. These can all give customers the feeling of belonging and connection. -      Avoid creating an adversarial relationship with your customers. Remove barriers for your customers to access your content. For example, provide the free ebook first and later ask for the customer’s email, instead of the other way around. This will generate more interest and hotter leads—and create fans. -      Be passionate. Even if the person you’re interacting with doesn’t share your passion, they can feel it. Passion is infectious. Customers like doing business with people who are passionate. Quote: ·        “Fandom is all about a true human connection—a personal connection. It’s hard-wired into our brains as humans that we want to be part of a tribe, that we want to be together with like-minded people.” About: David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, entrepreneur, advisor to emerging companies, VC strategic partner and bestselling author of 10 books, including Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Lindsay Pedersen. They discuss strategies for how brands can differentiate themselves by creating authentic, genuine connections with their customers. Top Takeaways: -      A brand is its customer experience, and vice versa. The brand and the experience are built on the relationship between a business and its customers. -      Advertising and marketing may attract new customers, but it’s rarely the real reason why customers like doing business with a brand. Customers like doing business with companies because of how those companies make them feel. -      Many companies focus too much on acquiring new customers rather than retaining the customers they already have. -      Every company should ask itself why it is in business. This question becomes especially important if the company keeps losing customers. Create an experience that reduces customer churn. -      You must differentiate yourself from your competitors. Be wary of doing this through your product alone; that method is too easy to copy. But if find a way to meet a unique need for your customers, you will find success. -      The most important question a company can ask itself is what emotional reward they want the customer to enjoy by choosing to do business with them. There is emotional value in the connection between a company and its customers, and brands must tap into that. Quote: “Businesses don’t make money by impressing people with cool ads. They make money by attracting and retaining customers.” - Lindsay Pedersen Lindsay Pedersen is a brand strategist and owner of Ironclad Brand Strategy who recently authored Forging an Ironclad Brand: A Leader’s Guide. She has advised companies from burgeoning startups to national corporations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Katie Mares. They discuss her C.O.R.E. Methodology and how it can improve the customer experience in addition to gender inequality in the customer service world. Top Takeways: -      In order for your organization to succeed, it must have a strong, solid core. The core is made up of your systems, your processes and most importantly, your people. -      Strengthen your organization’s core using the C.O.R.E. Methodology, which has four steps: create, operationalize, results and evaluate & evolve. -      Create: The first step is to create systems and processes that involve your entire team, creating greater total buy-in. -      Operationalize: Once you create your processes, you must operationalize them. It’s one thing to create something, but it’s another to actually follow through with it. -      Results: Monitor your results—as the saying goes, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Give your customers a voice as a part of this step. -      Evaluate & Evolve: Customers and their expectations are constantly and rapidly changing. You must evaluate your progress by constantly asking how you can get better and evolve to keep up with changing demands. -      Companies need to be more aware of the purchasing power of the female consumer. More often than not, the shopping experience is designed and, in many industries, delivered by men, and yet women are the ones ultimately saying yes or no. -      Statistics show that women influence 90% of all household purchases, yet 85% of the world’s executives are still men while only 3% of creative directors are women. -      When something in the customer experience goes wrong, more often than not it’s due to lack of consistency. When expectations are unmet, it causes disappointment. -      Consistency and accountability are vital to an organization’s success. You must be accountable for your own actions if you hope to create a consistent experience. Quote: “Customer experience most often fails because we don’t do it consistently.” - Katie Mares Katie Mares, CTDP, MCATD, CPS is the Chief Inspiration Officer of Alkamey Group. She has over 15 years of experience in customer service and leadership. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Rupesh Patel. They discuss Rupesh’s “secret sauce” to creating an amazing guest experience across his hotels, and how those ideas can translate to the larger customer service world. Top Takeaways: Don’t make the mistake of caring more about money than customer service. Focus on customer service and the money will follow. The first step to creating an amazing experience is raising your brand standards. Define the standards for your business and focus on improving your operations to meet and exceed your customers’ expectations. Ask yourself what you can do to make your customers feel special and elevate the experience they have with you. Note: The answer doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming to be effective. Find ways to personalize your customers’ experience. Customization can go a long way toward satisfaction and amazement. Providing good customer service can be some of your most powerful marketing. Invest in your team members; make them feel important and like they’re part of the process. When building your team, find people who genuinely care and are willing to go above and beyond. Reviews are hugely important for any and every business. Create a great experience first and foremost, but don’t expect that to be enough to encourage customers to write good reviews. Quote: “At the end of the day, how you make your team feel and how they feel about their job is huge.” - Rupesh Patel About:Rupesh Patel is a hotel owner/operator and the founder of www.SmartGuests.com. He has over 20 years of experience and has held titles such as entrepreneur, investor, business consultant and more. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Joel Makhluf. They discuss the need for more awareness and empathy among customer service agents and how AI and technology can provide that. Top Takeaways: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool. When used correctly to support customer service representatives and call center agents, it can help humans be “more human.” It’s important to identify the behaviors that annoy customers the most over the phone, whether it’s talking too fast or too slow, interrupting them, speaking in monotone, etc. AI platforms now have the ability to search for and recognize the “empathy cue,” which occurs when a customer is in a heightened state of emotion and therefore needs more empathy from the agent. Pay attention to the nonverbal cues your customers give you. It’s not just what they say, but how they say it that matters. Because AI is able to handle many easy, basic calls, the calls that reach contact center workers tend to be more complicated and more stressful. This leads to agents experiencing cognitive overload and “compassion fatigue.” AI technology and software can guide contact center agents through these pitfalls in real-time, empowering them to take better care of customers through empathy. Identify your best-performing employees and mimic their behavior. Train the rest of your employees to that exemplary behavior. This will result in a more consistent customer experience. Remember that everyone has bad days, even your top performers. Be there to empower and coach your employees through those bad days. “Automation fatigue” is settling in across industries. There needs to be a balance between humans and AI. AI is great for handling simple tasks, but customers crave empathy when dealing with their most personal problems. Quotes:“Model the behavior of your best employees and coach the rest of your employees to that behavior.” - Joel Makhluf About:Joel Makhluf is the Director of Demand Generation at Cogito, an artificial intelligence company that provides real-time conversational guidance and analytics.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Robert Glazer. They discuss his practice of employee “wish-granting,” common service mistakes businesses make and his book, Elevate: Push Beyond Your Limits and Unlock Success in Yourself and Others. Top Takeaways:-       Find ways to do something meaningful for your employees around the holidays—or anytime of year. Experiences often are better remembered and make a bigger impact than money. -       By investing in your employees, you are investing in the culture of your organization. With a strong culture, you will attract and keep the kind of employees you want. -       Customers will not love your company until your employees love your company. Focus your efforts on the employee experience and the customer experience will follow. -       “Capacity building” is the method by which individuals seek, acquire, and develop the skills and ability to consistently perform at a high level in pursuit of their innate potential. -       The four elements of capacity building are spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional. Focus on each of these elements individually and you will improve your entire being. -        “Spiritual” does not necessarily mean religious. In business, it’s about knowing who you are, what you want, and the standards by which you want to live each day. This is crucial to be a successful leader. -       Three common service mistakes even top businesses make are not establishing rapport with customers, over-responding to a single piece of feedback, and not offering customers full explanations. -       You don’t have to tackle 100% of change all at once. Tackle 1% every day, and soon you will see it add up into big, positive change. -       To sign up for Robert Glazer’s weekly newsletter that inspired his book, go to http://www.fridayfwd.com. Quote: “If you really want to impress people, listen to them. You will be amazed by how much they appreciate that.” About: Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners. He is a serial entrepreneur and author of Elevate: Push Beyond Your Limits and Unlock Success in Yourself and Others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Alyona Medelyan. They discuss how natural language processing can help companies focus on the most important problems to drive up customer satisfaction. Sound a little technical? It is, but it’s fascinating. More important, it’s relevant. The future is here today!  Top Takeaways: Natural language processing is an analytic tool that helps programs and AI (artificial intelligence) analyze and understand “everyday” language.   Using natural language processing allows companies to understand what customers are saying in their own words, link it to NPS (Net Promotor Score) and, most importantly, identify the most important problems their customers are facing.  Once companies have identified the problems that are most important to their customers, they can prioritize the order in which they fix them. Too often executives focus on things that matter less to customers rather than fixing the most pressing issues.  More often than not, customer service is not the root of the problem. Broken processes are often the culprit for low NPS scores, while good customer service is the only thing that keeps those scores above 0.  Surveys in general should be kept on the short side. However, they can be a little longer if you allow your customers to opt out of them and also offer them a way to share their thoughts and opinions freely.  Above all, the most important thing is for companies to give customers the chance to explain what they like and don’t like in their own words. Open the channels of communication a little wider and you will reap the rewards.  Quotes: “If you are running a business, think about how you get feedback from customers. Make sure you let customers explain in their own words what matters to them. - Alyona Medelyan  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Antony Brydon. They discuss the role of automation in customer service, and how companies can best use it to improve their customers’ experience. Top Takeaways: When companies switch to AI and other new automation technologies, more often than not it is the customers who suffer. Companies must make this switch without sacrificing the customer experience. AI has the capacity to transform practically every job within the knowledge sector, especially customer service jobs. The key is making it work. The shortcomings of AI include understanding customer intent and using creativity to solve problems. These are areas where people excel. Integrating the human touch into automated systems will allow the AI experience to improve dramatically. Rather than AI supporting humans, humans must support and train AI so it gets better. Connecting automation to a network of human subject matter experts is a good way to start. Technology is changing incredibly fast, so adaptability is key. Humans are good at adapting to new situations and can therefore help automated systems adapt to best serve the customer. The future is conversational, meaning customers are choosing to connect with companies through more casual conversational channels like texting and instant messaging. AI needs to adapt to this. Poor automated systems end up costing far more than efficient ones. The more a company invests in automation and AI, the better the experience will be all around. Don’t associate automation with a poor customer experience. Contrary to popular belief, it is very possible to switch to AI and automated processes that improve the customer experience at the same time. Quote: “So much of a good experience comes down to the investment in that experience.” - Antony Brydon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Dennis Snow. They discuss how to define an organization’s level of service and company culture by looking at examples from the Walt Disney World Company. Top Takeaways: There are two steps to defining your organization’s level of service. Step one is to ask yourself what you want your customers to say about their experience. Step two is to ask yourself what you can do to get your customers to say those things. When considering step one, narrow it down to three things you want your customers to say. This helps you focus in on what differentiates you from others. Your culture is defined by step two. Reinforce the behaviors that elicit the desired customer response. Your company culture is not what you say but what you do. Good company culture starts with the hiring process. Get to know your standout employees and find out what qualities contribute to their success within your organization. Then, hire individuals who are similarly hard-wired to succeed within your culture. Training begins during the hiring process. You must demonstrate your company’s values from the beginning, and that includes the hiring process. The first day of training should focus on company culture. Additionally, this training should never end. Identify behaviors that detract from the brand and culture you have worked so hard to craft. Be on the lookout for these and create processes that prevent them from happening. As a leader, never let a coachable moment pass you by. Seize opportunities to continually coach your employees toward improvement. Similarly, never let a moment of recognition go by. Give praise and credit where it’s due, and positively reinforce the behavior that defines your brand. Leaders must demonstrate and embody the values and culture they want to see throughout their organization. They must not only talk the talk but also walk the walk; leaders are the ultimate role model for company culture. “What people say is your brand; what your employees do is your culture.” - Dennis Snow About:  Dennis Snow is a full-time speaker, trainer and consultant. He worked with the Walt Disney World Company for over 20 years, where he developed his passion for service excellence. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Augie Ray from Gartner. They discuss the importance of investing in the customer experience and how to build a CX that will benefit both customers and companies alike. The Interview with Augie Ray: The emergence of new technology and the rise of social media have changed the way customers interact with brands, giving them more channels of communication than ever before. Brands need to pay attention to the entire customer experience across all channels to stay relevant and successful. Simply acquiring new customers isn’t enough, especially if you experience high customer churn. Create an experience that focuses on retaining customers and building loyalty—and that experience is the result of not just what we say, but what we do. There are two different definitions of customer experience, and they are two sides of the same coin. From the customer’s perspective, CX is their accumulated experiences and perceptions about a brand through every interaction, both direct and indirect. From a managerial perspective, CX is the discipline of understanding and reacting to customer interactions with the goal of meeting and exceeding expectations, creating loyalty and building advocacy. As customer expectations rise, budgets for customer experience need to rise as well. Data shows there is a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and financial gains for businesses. Prioritizing the customer experience benefits the top and bottom lines. Both segments and personas are marketing tools that allow companies to group individuals together in a meaningful way. Segments demonstrate how customers are meaningful to a company, whereas personas flip the perspective and examine how a brand can be meaningful to customers. To access the research that Augie quotes, listeners are invited to connect with him on LinkedIn and to subscribe to Gartner’s newsletter, “Smarter with Gartner.” Quotes: “We are not what we say we are. We are the experience we provide to customers and what they say we are.” “When it comes to the customer experience, we have to look not just at what we say, but at what we do.” “When you succeed for the customer, you succeed for the brand as well.” About: Augie Ray is a Vice President Analyst at Gartner, a research and advisory firm. He covers customer experience for marketing and CX leaders and helps them launch and manage successful CX programs. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Blake Morgan. They discuss her new book, The Customer of the Future: 10 Guiding Principles for Winning Tomorrow’s Business, focusing on the psychological, technical, and experiential components of building a good customer experience. The Interview with Blake Morgan: If you don’t get the simple stuff down, you will lose customers. The “basics” includes knowledge of your customers and their wants and needs. Above all, seek to make their lives easier rather than more difficult. Psychological components of CX are the invisible pieces of your strategy. These include a CX mindset, company culture, and leadership development. Everyone in a company, from executives to frontline employees, must have a CX mindset—an attitude of service and a desire to make their customers’ lives better. There is a correlation between how employees feel at work and the quality of work that they do. Studies show that companies that invest in the employee experience are 4.2 times more profitable than companies that don’t. Don’t leave training up to chance; it must be intentional and consistent. Leaders must understand company culture and what happens at every level of the organization. One person cannot turn a company around alone. There is often a disconnect between technology and human connection. It’s rarely technology that is missing from a company; it’s human connection and a service mindset. On an experiential level, design a friction-free customer experience, consider customer-focused marketing, and, above all, design and commit to a code of ethics. This is especially important in today’s fast-paced world of technology and AI. The most important thing when thinking about the customer experience is simply to make others’ lives easier and better. This extends beyond customers to employees as well. In the end, the companies who “have a soul” in this way will be the ones that succeed. Quote: “Don’t make life harder on your customers to make it easier on your business.” - Blake Morgan About: Blake Morgan is a keynote speaker, customer experience futurist, and author of two customer experience books. Her latest is The Customer of the Future: 10 Guiding Principles for Winning Tomorrow’s Business. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Maria Ross. They discuss her new book, The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success, why empathy creates a competitive advantage in business, and how companies can foster empathy from the inside out. The Interview with Maria Ross: Authentic empathy can create a competitive advantage for companies and can reap huge rewards and bottom-line benefits. In an empathetic culture, employees are more innovative and productive, while customers are more loyal and result in more revenue and good press. Empathy must be authentic for it to be effective. Avoid the “empathy veneer,” which is the mere illusion of empathy without the reality of it. Companies cannot pretend to be empathetic to reap the rewards that true empathy provides—if they try, it will backfire spectacularly. For empathy to be believable on the outside, it must start and be built from the inside out—just like a good brand. This means hiring the right people, training them correctly and continually, rewarding them appropriately, and creating and preserving an internal culture that fosters empathy. Set up internal processes and structures that support the culture of empathy you want to build and preserve. This includes rewards structures—appropriately incentivize the action and behavior that reflects the culture you’re trying to foster. You get the culture you endorse and reward. Empathy can start now, and it can start with one individual. It won’t happen overnight, but rather through small steps that will result in big change. There are five ways leaders and teams can take action now to create empathy: Practice presence. You can’t be empathetic if you’re not present. Listen more; stay humble. Focus on what you hear without being prescriptive. Be curious. The most empathetic people are the ones who ask questions, especially why. Cultivate confidence. You cannot be empathetic toward others if you are not empathetic toward yourself. Create an environment of trust. You cannot have an empathetic workplace if everyone is living in fear. It’s important to facilitate intergenerational understanding. Millennials and Gen Z’ers are some of the most diverse and empathetic people in the workforce. Differences between generations can cause friction and reduce productivity. Embrace communication and work to understand others’ experiences. Quote: “You get the culture you endorse and reward.” - Maria Ross About: Maria Ross is a brand strategist, speaker, and founder of brand consultancy Red Slice. She has authored multiple books, including her latest book, The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Laurie Guest. They discuss her recent book, The 10¢ Decision: How Small Change Pays Off Big, which focuses on small, simple things leaders and team members can do to enact big, positive changes in their customer service. The Interview with Laurie Guest:Business leaders don’t always need to spend a lot of time or energy to improve their customer experience. Small, simple changes can go a long way toward positively impacting customers.Consider your word choice when speaking with customers. For example, you should only say “sorry” in two scenarios: when you have made a mistake and when you want to authentically express empathy. Otherwise, find alternative language that will positively enhance the customer’s experience.Your body language also says a lot. Be aware not only of how you present yourself, but also of what your customers are communicating to you through their body language.One of the most important things for leaders to consider is packaging. How you put together and present the product or service you will influence your customers to buy more from you.Much of customer service comes down to common sense—be nice! You must constantly train to the concepts and cultures you want in your organization, even if it seems like it should be “common sense.”Every person’s level of common sense is different, and is based on five factors: the environment in which they were raised, the era in which they were born, their previous work culture, their personality, and their current work atmosphere.Take an integrated approach to customer service training. Your whole team and organization must approach it as a whole in order to see results and drive success.These concepts and more can be found in Laurie’s book, The 10¢ Decision: How Small Change Pays Off Big. Listeners who purchase the book from her website may use the code PODCAST to receive 20% their copy.Quote: “Business owners do not need to do radical, expensive things to impact their customers. Often they can make little changes to make a difference.” -Laurie Guest About: Laurie Guest, CSP is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, author and “go-to-resource” for customer service excellence. Her latest book is The 10¢ Decision: How Small Change Pays Off Big. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Sam Lessin of Fin Analytics. They discuss the changing needs and expectations of customers, and how to keep customer service simple while delivering satisfaction. The Interview with Sam Lessin:The world is becoming more customer-centric, but not every company is keeping up. There must be more training and coaching present within contact centers and customer-facing roles.Measurement is everything. You can only change what you measure. You must measure and collect data across multiple areas of your business so you can understand which moments in the customer journey need review and repair.Executives are in danger of being too far removed from their customers’ journey. Data can help bridge this gap. The right data can help executives make the best decisions about how to create healthier relationships, improve workflow, and create better customer service.Consumers’ expectations of companies they do business with have never been higher, especially when it comes to communication and availability. Customers now expect companies to be as easy to reach as their friends are.Social customer care involves customers communicating with companies through social media channels. Companies need to be aware of the increased visibility that comes with these territories; it can be good, but it can also be a huge liability.Technology, systems, and processes will continue changing and getting more complicated. Keep it simple by remembering that it’s really about serving people well. Customers just want their questions answered and their problems solved quickly and easily; this has remained constant and will not change.Understand the lifetime value (LTV) of your customers and examine how customer service impacts it. Focus on this aspect more than any others.Customer service is not a separate department or something that only happens in contact centers. It is present throughout the entire customer journey. It drives value for your organization just as much as—if not more than—sales, marketing, product, etc.Quote:  “Your customer service isn’t just a call center; it’s driving value for your organization.”- Sam Lessin About: Sam Lessin is the co-founder and co-CEO of Fin Analytics. Formerly, he was Product VP at Facebook and founded drop.io. He also writes a column for The Information. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Tom Goodmanson. They discuss trends in digital customer service, including hyper-personalization and fast, frictionless self-service. The Interview with Tom Goodmanson:The “CX revolution” is only just beginning. The trend across industries is toward elevating the customer experience. This has become critical for organizations to focus on, as 9 in 10 businesses say they’re competing primarily on the basis of customer experience.With all the recent advancements in technology, AI can provide more insights and support to the customer service world than ever before. Technology helps make contact centers smarter, faster, and better and paves the way for proactive customer service.Human interaction will never be entirely eliminated or replaced by AI. However, digital technologies can help support humans—both the reps serving customers and the customers themselves—by making processes easier, more efficient, and more frictionless. Data and analytics empower agents to engage customers in a way that brings humanity back into the equation.Customers’ expectations are higher than ever. These changing and growing expectations drive the biggest trends and most critical focus points for the future of CX. These focal points include hyper-personalization and fast, frictionless service.Hyper-personalization happens when you are able to collect and analyze enough data to get to a very deep understanding of the individual consumer. It allows for exceptional customer care.Find ways to provide your customers with fast and frictionless service. This starts by saving them time. Give your customers the ability to connect with you the way they want to, not the way you want them to.The Calabrio Customer Connect (C3) conference takes place on October 13-16, 2019 in San Antonio. The conference, where Shep will be a keynote speaker, focuses on the challenges of managing growing contact centers, solutions for increasing customer and employee engagement and voice-of-the-customer innovations happening in contact centers today. Learn more at Calabrio.com.Quote:  “At the end of the day when we build all this software to run and drive, we still believe in the humanization of the contact center. We think it needs to become even more human.” - Tom Goodmanson About: Tom Goodmanson is the President and CEO of Calabrio, a workforce optimization and management company. He has more than 20 years of experience leading fast-growing dynamic software and technology companies. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Annette Franz. They discuss her new book, Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the “Customer” in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of Your Business. They also talk about the crucial role the employee experience plays in the customer experience. The Interview with Annette Franz:Customer understanding is a cornerstone of a customer-centric culture. You must understand who your customers are, the experience they’re having, the problems they face, their goals, and how your business helps them achieve their goals.Communication is crucial in the customer experience. You must communicate openly and honestly with your customers, especially if you need to make changes and decisions that will affect their experience.Everything that affects the customer experience is related to the employee experience. Use the same tools to measure and map the employee experience as you do for the customer experience. Employees, after all, are “internal” customers, and what happens on the inside of an organization will be felt on the outside by external customers.It’s important to eliminate friction for both customers and employees. Be wary of making decisions that will eliminate friction only for customers, while creating more difficulties for employees. That friction, though not direct, will eventually be felt by the customers, too.Happy employees result in happy customers. If you treat your employees well, they, in turn, will treat your customers well. The result is a win-win for your business.Without customers, you have no business. But in order to have happy, loyal customers, you must treat your employees well. At the end of the day, your business focus should really be on the people that drive your business—both customers and employees alike. Quote: “Out of a great employee experience comes employee engagement, productivity, and quality. This translates to a great experience for customers.” - Annette Franz About: Annette Franz, CCXP, is founder and CEO of CX Journey Inc., as well as an internationally recognized CX thought leader, coach, speaker, and author of Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the “Customer” in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of Your Business. Her website is cx-journey.com. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Paul Selby of ServiceNow. They discuss the evolution of customer service and customer needs in a digital world, and how companies can employ self-service and proactive service to meet customer demands. The Interview with Paul Selby:Self-service is all about empowering customers and giving them the ability to solve their own problems. This often allows resolutions to be reached faster, which makes the customers happy and eliminates extra work for customer support agents.Most of today's customer service is reactive instead of proactive. Proactive service is about being aware of you customer's world anticipating problems, and solving them before the customer has a chance to contact you. The goal is to be so good that no one ever has to call customer service.Even if the issues that arise are not your fault, you still need to provide your customers with access to you for support.Despite some customers’ and companies’ preference for AI and chatbots, voice-to-voice (as in, human-to-human) interface remains the fastest and most frictionless way to provide that support. Technology is not yet at a place where it can include and convey empathy in its responses.At the end of the day, customers drive every aspect of a business. Therefore, it is crucial that you focus on creating genuine, authentic connections with your customers.Customer service is a part of, and encompasses, all other departments. Make sure you train and empower all employees to deliver the best experience possible.Quote: “We’re always expecting more as human beings. Customer service will never go away; there will always be a need for it.” - Paul Selby About: Paul Selby is a product marketing director for Customer Service Management at ServiceNow. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Steve Farber. They discuss how to implement love into every aspect of your business to drive customer success. The Interview with Steve Farber:Even if you love what you do, there will still be days that feel like work. You must do the necessary things you dislike in order to be able to do the things you love in your business. Doing only what you love is called retirement—but you don’t necessarily need to be retired to feel this way.Societally, we are unaccustomed to using the words “love” and “business” in the same sentence. Using the word “love” in relation to business raises the standards and expectations in a way that promotes positive growth. However, you shouldn’t use this verbiage if you don’t intend to follow through with it; if you talk the talk, you must also walk the walk.We want customers to love our products and services. If they don’t, we will have no competitive advantage. Achieving this starts on the inside with the company’s culture. You must first create an environment people love working in; do it right, and this love will be felt on the outside by the customer.A cultural focus can begin on any level of an organization and needs to happen on every level. However, you can’t create this as a leader if you don’t love it yourself first. You must love the environment you create so your employees will also love it—and then customers will feel that love too.To kickstart your cultural change, ask yourself the important questions, like what love looks like in business, why you love what you do, and how you can show it. Then ask those around you what you can do to demonstrate customer love and implement those new ideas. Many good ideas already exist within your organization. Ask the right questions so you can have the right internal conversations.Business, like love, is incredibly personal. This is the most important but also the most overlooked aspect of business.Quote: “As businesspeople, we want our customers to love what we do for them. If they don’t love the product or service, then we have no advantage at all.”  - Steve Farber About: Steve Farber is the president of Extreme Leadership Inc., a speaker and consultant, and the author of several books including Love is Just Damn Good Business and The Radical Leap. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Peter Fader and Sarah Toms. They discuss their new book, The Customer Centricity Playbook, and the “Customer Centricity Manifesto,” which teaches individuals and organizations how to build a customer-centric culture. The Interview with Peter Fader & Sarah Toms:A key term is CLV, which stands for “customer lifetime value.” Taking this into account, it is almost always more profitable to retain existing customers versus acquiring new customers.There are high-, mid- and low-value customers. In your customer base, there are fewer high-value customers and losing them could drastically, negatively impact your business profits. There are more low- and mid- value customers. They are easier to acquire and losses don’t hurt your business as much.The paradox of customer centricity is that despite these facts, many companies still expend a lot of effort into acquiring and retaining the risky high-value customers rather than retaining the dependable low- and mid-value customers. Be careful with how you manage your customer base.Don’t prioritize price over customer experience. Focus your efforts into creating a valuable experience first and foremost, and you will find that a loyal and profitable customer base will follow.Wait to create loyalty programs until you learn more about your customer base, their spending habits, and their wants and needs. Also assess the kinds of customers you’re attracting from your marketing campaigns. Then build your loyalty program using this data.Most loyalty programs are really marketing programs. For instance, “Buy nine and the tenth one is free!” True loyalty involves an emotional connection.Customer heterogeneity refers to differences between customers. You must recognize these differences and not attempt to create a one-size-fits-all approach to use across your entire customer base. Celebrate the differences that elevate your customers above “average.”The Customer Centricity Manifesto consists of four major areas:Customer HeterogeneityCross-Functional Uses of CLVMetrics That Reflect Customer EquityClear Communications with External StakeholdersQuote: “Be careful with how you manage your customers. Make sure that you’re not accidentally firing your customers. That’s not what customer centricity is about.” – Sarah Toms About: Sarah Toms is the executive director and co-founder of Wharton Interactive. She works with The Women in Tech Summit and techgirlz.org to support women and girls in the technology field. Recently, she coauthored The Customer Centricity Playbook with Peter Fader. Peter Fader is a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He is the author of Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage. Recently, he coauthored The Customer Centricity Playbook with Sarah Toms. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Chris Bauserman. They discuss how emotions and personalization play a large role in the customer service and experience of today, and how we can use data analytics to harness that knowledge for improvement. The Interview with Chris Bauserman:The experience economy has changed dramatically over time. Today, who we choose to do business with has much more to do with emotion than with products, technology, or even price point. The companies that differentiate themselves through their service are the ones that stand out and succeed.What is the difference between customer service and customer experience? Customer service is part of the customer experience. Bad service can cause a customer to walk out on you and your company, but it’s not the only factor anymore. You must ensure as much as you can that the customer’s entire journey with you is a positive one.A customer may begin their journey with you in a variety of different ways. What matters most to them in the end is that you know them, have their best interests at heart, and resolve their issue quickly.There is a difference between multichannel and omnichannel. They both allow customers the choice of how they want to connect with you, but omnichannel allows for a seamless connection between platforms, which is a crucial element in creating a frictionless, convenient experience. The most important thing is making yourself available to customers on their terms.91% percent of consumers desire a frictionless, convenient experience, but less than a quarter of business focus on or provide that for their customers. This huge disconnect needs to be addressed. Design your customer journey in a way that is truly customer-centric.Be proactive as much as you can. It’s important to provide a fast and easy resolution to a problem, but it’s even better if you can avoid that problem altogether before it becomes an issue or the customer becomes aware of it.Contact centers are a wealth of information. AI and data analytics can help you measure and understand the emotions of the customers and employees to identify the root of common problems. From there, you can make changes and improve, creating a better experience for everyone involved.Quote:  “Your customer experience is your product.” - Chris Bauserman About: Chris Bauserman is the VP of Product and Segment Marketing at NICE InContact. He has over 20 years of experience helping companies improve their customer service. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews John Rossman. They discuss John’s new book, Think Like Amazon, and how to utilize the key factors that drive Amazon’s success.  The Interview with John Rossman:Innovation and success come from developing and committing to systems. Be deliberate in how you approach your work and have a “playbook” you can pull from for any situation. Even though your business may change, a consistent system will drive you to success.Identify the durable customer needs in your industry—the things customers will consistently desire and seek out from companies regardless of other changeable factors. For Amazon, these are low prices, large selection, and fast delivery. It’s helpful to phrase these needs as something like, “I can’t imagine a world where customers would want higher prices.”Once you develop a core set of beliefs about your customers and brand, allow these to act as “swim lanes.” Focus on innovation within those areas; some ideas will work and some won’t, but you will learn from your mistakes. This approach will serve you well over a long period of time.Most companies say they want to change, but very few companies are actually committed to following through with it. Change starts with being honest about who and what you are and whether or not you’re building for the future. Once you’ve done that, you can begin moving forward.Are you a “day one company” or a “day two company”? Day one companies focus on tomorrow; lean forward and look at each day as a chance to grow and improve for the future. Day two companies focus on today; they maintain the status quo and optimize for the short term rather than the long term. They’re often more concerned about money than the customer.A great way to drive change and innovation is to become customer-obsessed. When you’re obsessed, it drives you to do hard things on behalf of your customer. It can lead to more financial gain tomorrow.Be relentless in your approach to innovation. Most innovation comes from every day, operational work. If you approach that relentlessly and put in the hours necessary, you will become better and make a positive impact on your customers.Be willing to adopt change personally as well as professionally. Challenge your own internal status quo in addition to your company’s. This will help you go far.Quote: “When you’re obsessed, you’re willing to do  hard things on behalf of your customer. Building a true customer obsession is a great way to challenge your status quo.” - John Rossman About: John Rossman is the author of Think Like Amazon: 50 ½ Ideas to Become a Digital Leader. Formerly an executive at Amazon, he now heads Rossman Partners, a niche business advisory firm. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jim Tincher. They discuss journey mapping and how it can be used to improve both the employee experience and the customer experience. The Interview with Jim Tincher:What is a journey map? A journey map is a graphic representation of every interaction a customer has with you and your business. Journey maps can be used as effective tools to drive change and improve the customer experience.It is important to make the journey map highly visual. This will help people remember the key points and takeaways, which will help drive the positive changes that are needed in your organization.Jan Carlzon coined the phrase “Moment of Truth,” which is any and every interaction the customer has with an organization that gives them the opportunity to form an impression. These points of contact can come in many varieties, and they all form part of the customer journey.One of the biggest touchpoints is actually Google, which allows customers to form an impression of your company before interacting with it directly. This is a good reminder that much of the customer journey may not directly involve your company, but it still forms an important part of the bigger picture.Before you begin journey mapping, there are five questions you should ask and answer:What’s the problem you want to solve?What’s the right journey for your customers/business?Who is the customer?How do you get customer feedback?Who is on your team?It’s crucial to obtain feedback and get your employees to listen to the customer. And once you get that feedback, you must do something with it. If you don’t, you will betray your customers’ trust and ruin the relationship.In addition to mapping the customer journey, it’s also advisable to map the employee journey. The employee journey behind the scenes has direct impact on the customer.Quote: “You can spend all your time focusing on the customers, but if you don’t enable (empower) your employees to create a great customer experience, it’s going to be a long road.” - Jim Tincher About: Jim Tincher is the founder and Mapper-In-Chief at Heart of the Customer. He co-authored the recent book How Hard Is It to Be Your Customer? Using Journey Mapping to Drive Customer-Focused Change. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jeff Gothelf. They discuss how companies must build a culture around listening and responding to customer need. The Interview with Jeff Gothelf:Do work that has an impact on your customers. Don’t measure your work based on completion; measure it based on growth and the positive impact you can have on those around you—especially your customers.Leaders need to start managing product teams differently, putting the focus on the customer rather than on products and deadlines. If you build a customer-centric product, it will help you attract the best people and have the biggest impact on customers. This is the way to succeed in today’s world.Organization leaders must empower all employees—but especially those closest to the customer and in customer-facing roles—to make decisions that best impact the customer. The employees in customer-facing roles are going to have the best understanding of the customer’s experience—their wants, needs, problems, and potential solutions to those problems.Exemplary companies and technologies have universally raised customer expectations to a higher level. If you and your company don’t meet and exceed those expectations, you will lose customers to a company that does. Find out what your customers like about those exemplary companies, and incorporate some of their practices into your own business.Use the concept of “sense and respond” when delivering your customer service and experience. You must listen to your customers and use what you hear to actively and rapidly grow and change. The rate of change in all industries is faster than ever, and it happens continuously; if you fall behind, you’ll lose customers.Talk to your customers and listen to what they say. Have a real conversation with them instead of merely relying on surveys. This will help you understand them and get more qualitative data that will help you learn, grow, and succeed.Quote: “The faster you can build learning into the culture of your organization, the faster you can build the response mechanisms to adjust course to the wildly changing market conditions and customer expectations.” - Jeff Gothelf About: Jeff Gothelf works as a coach, consultant, and keynote speaker. He founded Sense & Respond Press and co-authored the books Lean UX and Sense & Respond. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Josh Ginsberg. They discuss crisis management and why brand integrity is important to customers. The Interview with Josh Ginsberg:When a problem or crisis occurs, it’s essential for customers to see the company take action. However, that action must come from a place of authenticity. If a company has already established a track record of integrity when there is no crisis, it will be much easier for customers to trust they will fix a problem.There are three main components of crisis management. You must act quickly, you must be authentic, and you must communicate consistently.66% of all consumers say that transparency is the most important quality for a brand. That means communicating even when you’re at fault or don’t have answers, being honest in your communication, and being authentic in yourself and your brand.A crisis can have positive outcomes. If a crisis is handled well, it can increase the visibility and reputation of your brand. This, in turn, can lead to customer loyalty.Social media has changed the landscape of brand identity and customer relationships. The many platforms allow anyone and everyone to be an influencer and to spread information quickly.There is a fairly new expectation of companies and brands to tackle issues that may or may not be related to their product. Customers like and trust companies more that publicly take a stand on hot-button issues.Employees have similar expectations of their company’s brand identity and integrity. When employees’ values line up with their companies’, it results in higher employee retention. It’s in companies’ best interests to consider the things their employees value. Employees can be a brand’s best advocates.Quote: “It’s important for customers to see companies take action in a crisis. But that action has to be authentic.” - Josh Ginsberg About: Josh Ginsberg is the founder and CEO of Zignal Labs, a media analytics platform. Previously, he served as a senior public affairs executive for Fortune 500 companies and political campaigns. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Interview with John Brandt: There’s often a disconnect between organization leaders and customers. Leaders live in a “customer-free zone” where they don’t interact with customers on a daily basis and therefore don’t know what customers most desire. The most important factor to customers is that they feel heard and cared about by the company and its representatives.Get to know your customers. See your organization through their eyes, and take time to shop, work, and even live alongside them. Learn about their struggles and discover their biggest pain points. Then, devise a solution that eliminates multiple headaches for the customer at once. Make their lives more convenient. Sales follow convenience.Nincompoopery is not usually the fault of any individual; its roots often lie with the company or organization. Friction needs to be eliminated at the source and on a larger scale. This starts with training, defining values, and building culture on the inside, which creates a consistent experience for the customer on the outside.Build real, human connections with your customers. Relationships should go deeper than the transactional. This is where AI falls short. Customers still crave that person-to-person interaction.Another definition of a Moment of Truth is “when something happens that can dramatically change the arc of the relationship between you and the customer.” Relationships are formed in these moments, in moments of crisis—both in business and in life. These moments are when you learn who you can trust and who you cannot. Prove to your customers that they can trust you.One of the biggest gifts you can receive is a customer complaint. This is direct feedback from the customer about something that isn’t working in your organization. Use that feedback and do something with it. Make changes and improve.Everyone falls victim to nincompoopery, but you’re only truly a nincompoop if you make no effort to grow. Consistently analyze your own performance by looking through your customer’s eyes—always look for ways to improve. Otherwise, you’ll stay stuck in nincompoopery, and there’s no future for anyone there. Quote: “You can’t improve customer experience and value unless you go live with your customers. Go be a customer with your customers.”- John Brandt About: John R. Brandt is the author of Nincompoopery: Why Your Customers Hate You—and How to Fix It. He is also the CEO and founder of The MPI Group. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Cameron Mitchell, Founder and CEO of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. They discuss Cameron’s customer service philosophies and his new book, Yes is the Answer! What is the Question?. The Interview with Cameron Mitchell:Be goal-oriented. Know the difference between working for a paycheck and working for your career.Define your company’s core values and culture first. Then, build the company for the people, by the people.Rather than putting the guests/customers first, put your employees first. This sets up a triangular relationship: you take care of your employees, your employees take care of your customers, and your customers take care of your company. This all stems from an internal people-first culture.Mitchell shared his company’s Five Pillars of Culture, which are in the form of questions. These questions must be answered with authority and conviction. They are as follows:What do we want to be?How do we define ourselves?What is our mission?What is your role?What is our goal?There should be an almost even split between cultural and fiscal responsibility, the scales tipped in favor of culture. The number one goal should be to maintain your company’s culture and values. Making a profit should be second to that. Never sacrifice your culture for the sake of profit.Your company will have many goals that come and go, but the one constant goal should be to be better today than you were yesterday, and better tomorrow than you are today. This creates a culture of positive change within your organization. Stagnation is a death sentence.The phrase “yes is the answer; what’s the question?” creates an attitude of action. It motivates people to find creative solutions to problems rather than just saying “no.”Attaching an image, symbol, or picture to your company mantra can make for a powerful reminder. Implement and integrate this company-wide to ensure everyone is on the same page.Quote:  “We take care of our people, our people take care of our guests, and our guests then take care of our company.” - Cameron Mitchell About: Cameron Mitchell is the founder and CEO of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. He has enjoyed success as a lifelong entrepreneur, accomplished businessman, culinary expert, and nationally recognized restauranteur. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Michelle Hayward. They discuss how to create and cultivate the core values and culture that keep companies strong.  The Interview with Michelle Hayward:Michelle is a firm believer in the culture and values of a company. She shared the five most important tenets of company culture. They are:Intentionality – It is important to approach your work with intention every day. This helps you be bold, confident, and prepared. Intentional people know what’s expected of them and have a desire to answer questions, make deliberate choices, and move the conversation forward in a positive, productive way.Curiosity – Foster insatiable curiosity in your work. Curiosity allows for creativity, which creates growth. You never want to get to a place where you’re stagnant because there’s no curiosity. Curiosity helps you solve tough problems.Purity of Heart – In many lines of work, you will be given tough problems with strict deadlines. Even when caught in “the struggle,” it’s crucial to be pure of heart and be driven by the notion of service and the desire to help others.Agility – Nothing is ever predetermined, so there will always be a need to be agile. This means being able to “pivot” and adapt to every new challenge that arises.Freedom, Transparency, Accountability – The final tenet is three concepts in one. These three qualities allow for the creation of a platform where people own their work and are accountable for their decisions. This helps with employee engagement because it makes them feel involved and valued.It’s important to recognize a misalignment of values. Team action should be taken to try and rectify the issue, and during this time, everyone involved should remain open and willing to learn and pivot.Never stop learning. Always stay open to new information and lessons. Be willing to take risks with your clients. The reward will be worth it in the end.Be transparent with your clients. Your relationship with them will become a more productive partnership. When done right, values will cross over and positively affect the relationship.Quote: “Culture is steeped in values. Values shape behaviors.” - Michelle Hayward About: Michelle Hayward is the CEO of brand and growth consultancy Bluedog Design. She is a graduate of The Kellogg School of Management’s Chief Marketing Officer Program and Dartmouth’s Executive Women Entrepreneurship. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Adrian Swinscoe. They discuss his new book, Punk CX, and talk about how to apply punk sensibility to the customer service world. The Interview with Adrian Swinscoe:The speed of change is unceasingly fast, but true progress can be impeded by too much to quickly. Many organizations, in fact, make it difficult for their people to deliver good service. The punk movement, inherently, was born out of a desire to disrupt and simplify. That’s what needs to happen with customer service and experience.Customers notice small details and these have a huge impact on their overall experience. For example, let’s say a customer is enjoying everything about a restaurant, but when they go to the bathroom, it is horrifically dirty and smelly. That will affect their overall experience and enjoyment of the restaurant; they may wonder if the kitchen is as dirty as the bathroom, for instance. Make sure every detail is customer-ready.The customer experience is about more than just metrics, and metrics are not always the best way to measure whether or not the experience is a good one. For instance, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to measure being kind to someone or doing the right thing. But just because these things can’t be measured doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be done. And more often than not, this will have a greater effect upon the customer than anything else.Surveys can be helpful, but quite often they are problematic because they’re a selfish venture and don’t truly make the experience better for the customer. The “Six Deadly Sins of Surveys” are making your survey relevant to your company instead of the customer, lengthy surveys, delivering surveys at an inappropriate time, not giving your customers a true voice, not thanking your customers for their time and effort, and surveying your customers too much.There is a lack of real meaning in customer service and experience these days. Many representatives merely paint within the lines of customer service, rather than venturing outside the lines to provide truly exceptional customer service. In order to make a difference and provide an amazing customer experience, you must be willing to try new things—paint outside the lines of your CX.Quote: “Listen to your customers. People will say the most amazing things if you let them talk.” - Adrian Swinscoe About: Adrian Swinscoe is a best-selling author and Forbes contributor who has 20 years of experience growing and developing customer-focused companies. His latest book is entitled Punk CX. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions … and more:What is punk CX?How can I improve my customer service/CX?How do I conduct effective customer surveys?What will turn customers away from my business?How important are metrics to CX?    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Ford Blakely. They discuss pursuing your passion, creating convenience, and balancing technology with human connection. When faced with a problem, it’s important to approach it from the standpoint of convenience. How can you fix things to make them more convenient for your customers and employees?The concept of convenience has come more front and center over the past few years. This is largely due to two main factors. First, the review economy put control in the hands of consumers and allowed them to advocate for what they wanted from companies. Second, the immediacy of convenience created an expectation of on-demand service, placing the importance on how companies deliver their service rather than just what their product is.Even if they’re not your direct competitors, companies like Amazon and Uber have created an expectation of a certain level of guest experience thanks to technology and convenience. Your customers will come to desire and even expect this same level of service and guest experience from you, too.There needs to be a balance with technology use. Some companies implement too much technology, sacrificing the human connection their customers crave. This can prove detrimental to business.As with technology, there needs to be a balance between convenience for customers and convenience for employees/businesses. The goal should be to create convenience for all, but it should definitely be skewed in the customer’s favor. When in doubt, always do what’s best for the customer. Quote: “It’s simple. If you can combine two things that take extra effort into one… that’s convenience.” - Ford Blakely About: Ford Blakely is the founder and CEO of Zingle. He has been involved in startups, finance, and various entrepreneurial projects for over 20 years. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Mary Drumond. They discuss Mary’s recent article, “Bad Experiences Aren’t Always the Problem for Companies” as it pertains to customer feedback, customers’ expectations, and the entire customer experience. The Interview with Mary Drumond:It’s important to look into the reasons why customers make their decisions. Most metrics only look at recommendation potential and satisfaction instead of examining customers’ motivation. That means a huge piece of the puzzle is missing.Customers stop doing business with companies for a number of reasons. The number one factor that drives customers away is when their time is not respected. Customers don’t like having to wait or being kept on hold; do this too much, and you may find your customers leaving to do business with someone who has a higher respect for their time.Why do companies with poor customer service continue to flourish? For certain business models, the most important factor may not be CX—it could be time and/or money. Customers expect an experience equivalent to the company’s price point, whether that is high or low. Additionally, if the starting price is lower, customers using the service who are not price-sensitive will pay more for upgrades.Humans make decisions on a cost vs. benefit and pain vs. pleasure basis. For customers making purchase decisions, this means weighing time and money against quality, product, customer service, etc. The lowest price may not always be the best value.Many companies either ignore or miss out on the most important aspect of feedback: the voice of the customer. Survey questions need to be redesigned to allow the customer to voice the issues that matter to them rather than giving data the company wants. Additionally, surveys need to be conducted in a way that eliminates bias entirely, or the data will be skewed.When customers are inundated with too many surveys, they will be less likely to participate and may become irritated. This phenomenon is known as “survey fatigue.” This also happens when customers feel as though companies aren’t doing anything with their feedback—they don’t want to make the effort to complete the survey if their voices are going to be ignored. Quote: “There’s nothing worse than asking for a customer’s feedback and then doing nothing about it.”- Mary Drumond About: Mary Drumond is the Chief Marketing Officer at Worthix, editor of the Science Behind Decisions blog, and host of the Voices of CXpodcast. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Randy Frisch. They discuss how content marketing has changed and what businesses need to do to create the best content experience for their customers. A good content marketing strategy is part of a good customer experience. The Interview with Randy Frisch:Content marketing, and consumers’ expectations of it, has changed drastically in recent years. No longer are content marketers responsible for sales only; now, they influence the entire customer experience.In order to create a great customer and content experience, there needs to be personalization. The content that the customers come into contact with must be customized to fit their wants, needs, and interests. Companies like Amazon and Spotify are already doing this well.Before you build and market your content, you must understand who you want to connect with. Who is your intended audience? What do they want and need? Your content must be personalized and meaningful to that audience—think of it as “contextual content.”Successful content personalization can lead to customer loyalty. When customers feel that you truly understand them, they are more likely to make a purchase - and more likely to make repeat purchases. Customers want to do business with companies that understand them.It’s better to have less content that is truly personalized rather than more content that is too general.Quote: “It’s not the type or size of audience you care about, but the impact you want to make on them.” - Randy Frisch About: Randy Frisch is the CMO and co-founder at Uberflip, a content experience platform. He is also a host of the Conex: The Content Experience Show podcast and the author of F#ck Content Marketing. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jamie Gilpin. They Discuss how the role of marketers has expanded to include the customer experience, and how social media can positively affect the customer journey. The Interview with Jamie Gilpin:      •The advent of social media has opened new channels for marketers. Marketing is no longer concerned with sales alone; now, marketers must take the whole customer experience into consideration. Social media can provide invaluable insights to marketers for every stage of the customer journey.      •A company’s brand is not determined by first impressions and advertising alone. It is now affected at every interaction and experience a customer has with a company and is comprised of that customer’s feelings toward the company. Marketers can use social media as a tool to manage customers’ impressions and define the company’s brand.      •There are many areas in which marketers no longer have control of a company’s brand. Social media puts control into the hands of the customers, which can create problems when customers use social media as a megaphone to advertise their issues with a company. However, handled well, this also creates an opportunity for marketers to take back control, using those channels to steer the impression other consumers will form of the brand.      •There is a difference between a satisfied customer and a loyal customer. Customers become loyal when they’re not only satisfied, but when they feel a true connection to the company. Loyal customers then become advocates for a brand by recommending it to their friends and family.      •Customers crave authentic, human connection more than anything else, and this is ultimately what drives sales and loyalty. Social media is arguably one of the biggest connection points in the customer experience. Companies must realize this and take advantage of this opportunity to create connection.      •It’s important to identify and uphold a purpose for your company. If your purpose aligns with your customers’ values, this will drive connection and loyalty. However, the purpose must be authentic; otherwise, it will drive customers away. Listen on social media to what your customers are saying to learn what their values, wants, and needs are.      •It’s crucial to truly know and understand your customers. Social media is an under-utilized treasure trove of information; use this tool to get to know your customers and connect with them on an authentic, human level. Quote: “The largest, most unfiltered source of business intelligence for customer knowledge and connection is social media.” - Jamie Gilpin About: Jamie Gilpin is the Chief Marketing Officer at Sprout Social, a leading provider of social media analytics, engagement, and advocacy solutions for business. She received her MBA from Northwestern University. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Roger Dooley. They discuss his new book, Friction: The Untapped Force That Can Be Your Most Powerful Advantage, and how it applies to the customer experience. The Interview with Roger Dooley:Friction is “any unnecessary expenditure of effort to accomplish a task.” This effort can include both time and money and affects both customers and employees. Not eliminating friction can cost you the loyalty of both your customers and your employees alike.Businesses need to develop a “friction-aware culture.” Once you’re aware, not only will you see friction everywhere, but you can start to fix it. A smoother CX results in happier customers, higher sales, and a more productive and engaged team.Trust and friction work in direct opposition to one another. Sometimes we will put up with extra friction to trust in security (i.e., a safety deposit box). But there is often a mismatch between trust and friction, such as complicated online security measures that only frustrate the customer. For your customers to trust you, you must demonstrate that you trust them.Sometimes adding friction can have beneficial results. For instance, moving a candy dish just a few feet further can help someone change their diet. Alternatively, adding a high-friction option results in consumers choosing the low-friction option.Friction and human behavior are linked. Changing friction (usually reducing it) allows you to steer human behavior. It is rare to see positive results from adding friction; if you do add friction, it can’t be too much or you will see adverse effects. There must be a balance.Opportunities can be greater for small businesses because they are less likely to have internal friction and can therefore be more creative.It is crucial for executives and organization leaders to observe their customers, rather than making disconnected assumptions about what’s working and what isn’t. Observation allows you to see where friction exists for your customers so that you can make changes where necessary.Quote: “Wasting your customers’ time and effort will cost you their loyalty.” - Roger Dooley About: Roger Dooley is an author and international keynote speaker. He founded Dooley Direct, a consultancy, and co-founded College Confidential, the leading college-bound website. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Wharton School professors Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch. They discuss their new book, Connected Strategy, and how any company can use the concept to improve their customer experience. The Interview with Nicolaj Siggelkow & Christian Terwiesch:Connected strategy is a concept that allows companies to connect to customers more holistically. By connecting to and anticipating customers’ needs on a deeper level, more value is added to every interaction and transaction that customer has with the company.Customers may be nervous about giving you and your company data. In order for them to feel comfortable enough to share with you, you need to show them a clear value proposition. It is crucial that they feel their data is helping you provide a better experience for them, otherwise they will feel exploited.There is much friction caused by infrequent customer connections. Repeated connections create a positive feedback loop where you are able to add personalization and eliminate friction.Not every customer will appreciate or desire a connected strategy. Predictive analytics can inform you how much connectivity each individual customer wants. It’s important to not create just one type of connected strategy; there need to be options to suit each type of customer.Connected strategy can drive up efficiency and create a more convenient experience for everyone.Parents are the ultimate example of a good company. Their customers are their children. Not only do they take care of their customers’ wants and needs, they are able to predict those needs ahead of time. They are also able to provide what is best for their customers, whether or not their customers are aware of what that is, because they have their customers’ long-term interests at heart. A good company should operate in much the same way.Quotes: “Connected strategies are not just about technology or data. They’re about relieving your customers’ pain points by creating an information exchange.” – Nicolaj Siggelkow “Every business has to answer two questions: the what and the how. What are the needs of the customer and how do you fulfill those needs?” – Christian Terwiesch About: Nicolaj Siggelkow is a Professor of Management and Christian Terwiesch is a Professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. They co-direct Penn’s Mack Institute for Innovation Management and cowrote Connected Strategy: Building Continuous Customer Relationships for Competitive Advantage. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jill Nelson. They discuss her company, Ruby Receptionists, and how to use both technology and humanity to deliver an amazing customer experience.  The Interview with Jill Nelson:The driving force behind good customer service should be human engagement and connection. Technology can allow employees to be more helpful, but it should not be the only layer to the customer experience.Even with the many ways a customer can connect with a company, there is still an expectation of instant availability. Customers increasingly prefer to connect with companies via the phone, and phone calls have the highest conversion rate of interaction to sale.The money you spend on marketing will be wasted if you don’t inject care into the customer’s experience beyond getting them to connect with you. Companies need to communicate that they are there for their customers, that they care, and that they’re human, too. At the end of the day, people want to do business with people.It’s important to hire right from the beginning, as is continuous training. Be careful not to “untrain” or demotivate your employees; assume they want to succeed and help their customers succeed, so empower them to do so.Cultivate a mindset where the customer’s needs supersede your own. Use the customer’s success as your compass, and ask yourself what you can help them accomplish and how you can go about doing so.Quote: “Hiring right is important, but it’s a waste if you don’t also give your employees the freedom, space, and ability to be human and do great things beyond following the rules.” - Jill Nelson About: Jill Nelson is the founder and CEO of Ruby Receptionists. She is a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization and was honored as the Oregon Technology Executive of the Year in 2017. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Karen Jaw-Madson. They discuss her company, Design for Work Experience; her book, Culture Your Culture; and the most effective work cultures for customer service. In Shep’s opening monologue, he talks about the difference between a repeat customer and a loyal customer. The Interview with Karen Jaw-Madson:Karen’s book, Culture Your Culture, is intended as a step-by-step how-to guide for organizations looking to design, customize, and sustain their company culture.It’s important to plan your culture with intention rather than letting it happen by accident. Customization also needs to happen instead of copying what other companies have done; culture is nothing without contextual framework. Culture must be intentional and relevant to its intended context.Companies must do three things to hone their culture. First, they must practice organizational mindfulness—i.e., pay honest attention to what’s in front of them at all points of the process. They must have a willingness to follow through on processes. Finally, and most importantly, they must actually change.Changes need to be implemented consistently for companies to get “good”. Organizations need to commit to ongoing behaviors, mindsets, and processes in order to see results.Organizational leaders must demonstrate the changes they wish to see implemented. Culture starts at the top and is felt throughout the whole company and then by the customers.Treat customers as a part of the company, an internal force. The best customer service cultures are flexible, people-centered, and consistent. Remember: we’re all Think about your company’s top goal and priority for culture, and imagine potential consequences if nothing were to change in one year’s time. Let that drive your commitment to change and develop your company-wide culture.Quote: “See customers as co-designers of the mission of your company.” - Karen Jaw-Madson About: Karen Jaw-Madson is an organizational expert and versatile leader across multiple fields. She is principal of Co.-Design of Work Experience and the author of Culture Your Culture: Innovating Experiences at Work. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Mike Grande, the founder and CEO of Rock Out Loud and The Staten Island School of Rock. They discuss Mike’s successful philosophies of providing an outstanding experience to his customers.  The Interview with Mike Grande:Focus on a simple growth philosophy: to grow your business one customer at a time. If you do your job right, you will earn loyalty and then your customers will help your business grow by recommending your business to friends and family.Know the real purpose of your business and how it can impact your customers. To Mike, music is secondary at his school. He and his fellow teachers—called “coaches”—focus on creating leaders and building self-confidence in their students using music as a tool.Change the customer’s state of mind—break the customer’s preoccupation when they walk through your door or call you. For example, whenever Mike’s students enter one of his schools, a motion detector triggers a crowd chant to pump them up and prepare them for a stellar lesson. Prime your customers in a similar way to ensure their interaction with you is the best it can be.Personalization is a vitally important concept in business. Consider giving your customers personalized gifts to show appreciation for their loyalty. Don’t brand the gifts or turn them into a sales ploy; this is an opportunity to insert some humanity into a service interaction. Have the mindset of “this gift is the least I can do for a loyal customer.”It’s crucial for everyone you work with to be on the same page when it comes to your mission statement. Everyone must be in alignment with the vision of the company, and there needs to be total buy-in from all employees. This comes from creating, cultivating, and defending your company culture.Quote: “For the leader of an organization to be truly successful, you must know your ‘why’ and your mission.” – Mike Grande About: Mike Grande is the founder and CEO of The Staten Island School of Rock and Rock Out Loud. When he’s not teaching or playing music, he is the CTO and a Certified Ethical Hacker for Owl Rock. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Sandy Rogers. They discuss his new book, Leading Loyalty: Cracking the Code to Customer Devotion, and the importance of empathy, responsibility, and generosity in the customer experience.  The Interview with Sandy Rogers:During Sandy’s tenure at Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the company focused on improving customer service to drive loyalty. They measured service quality and strove to improve from the bottom up. Over ten years, the company’s customer satisfaction rating grew from 67% to 80%, service quality became more consistent between all branches, and sales tripled. The employees may have stayed the same, but changes in management and expectation directly lead to the improvement.The biggest factor in customer loyalty is empathy. Loyalty is an emotion that can’t always be explained by numbers and figures. Companies need to remember to include the human element when dealing with their customers if they hope to win their hearts, which is the key to winning their business.Empathy and emotional engagement begin inside the company within the employee experience. Companies must respect and empathize with their employees if they want and expect their employees to do the same with their customers. What is felt on the inside of an organization will be felt on the outside.Implement a regular “loyalty huddle” with your team. Use this time to focus on one of the principles of loyalty outlined in the book, such as empathy, responsibility, or generosity. Celebrate successes and create a safe space to discuss things that aren’t working and ideas for improvement.Empower your employees to come up with ideas for improvement and to deliver the best level of customer service they can, even if that means deviating from established policies. It falls to management to lead this charge and advocate for change. Allow good ideas to come from every level of employee, from frontline representative to CEO.Loyalty programs and rewards points may help with customer loyalty, but they’re too easy for competitors to copy. At the end of the day, loyalty will be more driven by empathy and customers’ emotional engagement with a company.There will always be people who will try to cheat the system and take advantage of you. You can’t let those few dictate your business practices, because you will alienate the rest of your customers and lose their loyalty by being difficult to work with. This will only end up hurting your company in the end.As a leader, you must choose to center your company’s culture around the principles of loyalty. Reward and demonstrate the practices you value as central to your goal. You will start to see positive changes not only in your business, but also in your personal life.Quote:  “We must start by earning the fierce loyalty of our employees by treating them with empathy, responsibility, and generosity.” - Sandy Rogers About: Sandy Rogers is the co-author of Leading Loyalty: Cracking the Code to Customer Devotion and the leader of FranklinCovey’s Loyalty Practice. Formerly, Sandy was the senior vice president at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jeff Nicholson. They discuss self-service, points of friction and effort, and Jeff’s newest whitepaper, “Achieving Digital Customer Service Transformation.” The Interview with Jeff Nicholson:Practically every industry is experiencing a shift to self-service. The result is that previously unknown points of friction are being eliminated, which is good, but it also throws a spotlight on the points of friction that remain.“57 % of consumers dread calling customer service.” Because of self-service, customers now have an expectation that they should be able to find answers on their own via the channels they prefer—social media, texting, websites, etc. Only when they fail to get the information they seek themselves are they finally forced to pick up the phone—and by that time, they’re already frustrated.Friction is a two-sided phenomenon; when a customer experiences friction, employees do too. For example, agents who deal with frustrated customers all day in turn are frustrated themselves. This is one of the reasons why agent turnover is so high. Neither the customer nor the employee wins in this scenario.Companies need to re-think self-service strategies altogether. Ideally, self-service should be integrated and “channel-less”, allowing customers and employees to move seamlessly between channels of communication without the need to repeat information again and again.Customers don’t want self-service; they want proactive service. They want companies to get closer to their moment of need, anticipate problems, and intervene before the need ever arises and they have to reach out. This is also called “predictive maintenance.”Nothing will get solved overnight; friction cannot be eliminated immediately. But you have to start somewhere. Technology is no longer the barrier. You simply need to pick a direction and make changes to move towards results.Quote: “57% of consumers dread calling customer service.” - Jeff Nicholson About: Jeff Nicholson is Vice President of CRM Product Marketing at Pegasystems. He is a recognized customer engagement thought leader who frequently presents at CRM industry events. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jeff Toister. They discuss his book, Getting Service Right: Overcoming the Hidden Obstacles to Outstanding Customer Service, and Jeff offers immediately applicable advice on how to improve your customer service.  In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He discusses the importance of caring for your employees so they can better care for your customers. The Interview with Jeff Toister:It’s difficult to not take angry customers personally. The instinct is either fight or flight, neither of which is helpful in a customer service situation. The key is to recognize this instinct, take a pause and a breath, and choose to respond in a different way.Employees are trained to jump straight into offering solutions to angry customers rather than focusing on the emotions at play. Often, angry customers need to vent first. Once they’ve calmed down, they will be more receptive to your ideas for solutions to their problem.Transform your approach from an adversarial stance to the mindset of a partner. If you approach the problem with the customer as a team, they won’t be on the defensive and will be more open to potential solutions.Organization leaders and executives usually don’t spend much time dealing with customers and can therefore be out of touch with their company’s quality of customer service. They may make the mistake of assuming that customer service is both easy and common sense, which it isn’t.People assume that customer service is getting worse when in reality, it’s getting better. The issue is that “good” customer service is what’s expected, and people remember negative experiences more because it’s a deviation from the expectation.When you witness an employee fall short of an expectation, don’t jump straight to conclusions and solutions. Instead, ask “why?” and suspend judgement. Have a conversation with the employee and involve them in problem solving for the present and the future.Quote:  “Great customer service leaders make it easy for their employees to deliver great service.” - Jeff Toister About: Jeff Toister is a top customer service and experience influencer and the author of three customer service books. He has also created video-based training courses for LinkedIn Learning (a.k.a. Lynda.com). Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Dr. Natalie Petouhoff. They discuss AI in business—what works and what doesn’t work, how it can help companies and employees succeed, and how we can best utilize it. They also discuss the need for diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace. In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He discusses the pros and cons of chatbots. The Interview with Natalie Petouhoff:Companies that become too enamored with chatbots, AI, and other technologies can risk losing touch with their customers.AI shouldn’t replace humans; it’s meant to aid and augment both the employee and customer experiences.AI might be more useful to employees rather than customers. It can eliminate mundane, repetitive task for support center agents and help them build better rapport with their customers, which thereby improves the customer experience.Social media has transformed how customers and businesses interact. Having multiple methods of contact, or channels, removes effort from customers, which customers really like.Contact centers and companies alike need to reorient themselves so that the customer is at the center of their operations. They should be less concerned with statistics and more concerned with people.You don’t have to go above and beyond to create an exceptional customer experience. Most customers simply want a quick, easy, and efficient answer or solution to their problems. Providing that is going above and beyond when that isn’t the standard.Companies and employees need to be able to guide and train their AI so it learns better. AI is not meant to operate in an isolated environment; its intelligence is human-inspired.Companies are no longer competing solely against their direct competitor; they’re now competing against the highest standard for service across the board. AI can help power that without customers even realizing it.When companies don’t have an agile mindset, it can be difficult for them to adjust to how rapidly technology changes. Failing to adapt can spell doom for companies if they don’t respond with urgency and a willingness to learn.Quote: “AI is meant to augment the problem-solving process.” – Dr. Natalie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fostering Good Customer Service Habits to Make Your Business Stand Out Shep Hyken interviews Mark Copeman. They discuss his new book, Helpdesk Habits, which teaches employees how to turn good customer service practices into routine habits. They also talk about the importance of humanity within the employee and customer experience. In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He discusses if and when you should approach the CEO of a company about a problem you’ve experienced. The Interview with Mark Copeman:Copeman’s book is written for agents and other employees on the frontline of businesses. Its aim is to help those agents build habits that will result in excellent customer service.One of the habits the books talks about is the “Service Recovery Paradox.” The principle here is that sometimes things will go wrong. What matters most is how you recover from and fix those problems.If something goes wrong in the customer experience, customer loyalty will dip. However, customer loyalty will increase over time if the issue is resolved.Copeman introduces the concept of the “Habit Loop,” which consists of three steps: trigger, routine, and reward. The most crucial step toward building a habit is reward, which must be associated with the routine.Another habit is called “Lay It Out.” Copeman describes this as taking a little extra time to format emails so that the crucial information recipients need is easily accessible at a glance, whether by using bullet points or bold or italic text.Copeman’s overarching theme throughout the book is “Human Customer Service.” The companies that thrive are the ones that allow and encourage their customer-facing employees to be themselves and let their personalities shine through. It takes very little effort, but the human element is what makes the biggest difference in the customer experience.Quote: “Stuff goes wrong; what counts is how you fix it.” - Mark Copeman About: Mark Copeman is the founder of Wisecurve, a content and product studio. He refers to himself as a “serial entrepreneur” and just released his first book, Helpdesk Habits.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Todd Hopkins. They discuss how having a company-wide culture can lead to better customer service and success for your business. In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He talks about what you should do with customer feedback once you get it. The Interview with Todd Hopkins:Core values can work like a filter to influence every decision you and your employees make. When faced with a difficult situation, employees can think about the core values and compare them to possible courses of action to determine what will best uphold the company’s values.When a company has a set of core values, the entire organization can align itself together. This allows employees to create a better experience for their customers.To motivate your employees, find out what their dreams and goals are. Help them connect the dots between those dreams and job they have with you, and passion and motivation will follow naturally. Integrate that human connection and you will create loyal, hardworking employees.Establish an upfront agreement with both employees and customers that allows for future feedback free from emotion. This helps customers feel comfortable submitting feedback and allows you to have honest conversations with your employees to fix problems without worrying about hurt feelings. The more honest communication you can have inside and outside of your organization, the better.Aim to be better than satisfactory on a consistent basis. That’s how you create amazing experiences, both for your customers and for your employees.Quote:  “I like to hire people that come to us with batteries included.” - Todd Hopkins About: Todd Hopkins is the founder and CEO of Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services, which has over 130 franchise locations in 24 states. He is also the international best-selling author and co-author of four books. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Horst Schulze, the cofounder and COO of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. They discuss Schulze’s new book, Excellence Wins, and how he succeeded in creating one of the best hotel companies in the world by developing and sustaining a culture of excellence.  In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He discusses the importance of creating a customer-focused company culture and how to go about it. The Interview with Horst Schulze:Schulze shares the story behind the famous The Ritz-Carlton Credo, which is “We are ladies and gentleman serving ladies and gentlemen.”There are three things customers want regardless of industry that form the foundation of every customer interaction. Schulze calls these the Three Universals, and they are a flawless product, timeliness, and kindness.The most important of the Three Universals is kindness. Customers may forgive you for minor flaws in the product if you are nice to them. However, they will not forgive you if you are unkind, even if the product is flawless.The next step is to individualize and personalize the Three Universals to each and every customer. Bringing this human connection into the customer experience is what creates above average and excellent customer service and ensures customer loyalty.If you take pride in what you do and always strive for excellence, you will not only create excellence, but earn the respect of your colleagues and your customers.It’s crucial to get every employee into alignment on the standards and mission of your company. This begins with the initial onboarding process and continues every single work day; training must always continue to ensure alignment and company prosperity.You should not simply “hire” employees; you should instead select individuals who you are a good fit for your culture and the specific role within the larger organization. Selecting the best possible people for each position will ensure success for your company.Everything you do in life is a decision. Actively decide to be excellent and pursue it relentlessly.Quote:  “Everything you do in life is a decision. Decide to be excellent.” - Horst Schulze About: Horst Schulze is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Capella Hotel Group and co-founder and former COO of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. He is also a highly sought after keynote speaker and renowned business leader. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jeff Robbins. They discuss the importance of customer feedback, the most effective surveys, and how to use these tools to create customer loyalty and improve your business. In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He discusses the best way to get customer feedback. The Interview with Jeff Robbins:Customers are better informed about both products and services than ever before thanks to the immediate availability of the internet.Businesses need to check their online reviews often—at minimum, once a day. Negative reviews should be handled immediately. Ideally, positive reviews should also be responded to, as this shows customer appreciation.Make it simple and easy for customers to give feedback on your business. Remind them after the service is completed and enable them to leave feedback.As a general rule, surveys should be sent out to customers within 24 hours of their experience. This will vary by industry; test different intervals to see what nets you the highest response rate.Keep surveys short and simple. People have less time to complete long questionnaires. A good format to consider is a single “yes or no” or an NPS or CSAT type of question followed by one open-ended follow up question.Creating customer loyalty isn’t just about having a good product or a low price; it’s about creating a good customer experience. The experience can be what differentiates your business from others and keeps customers coming back time and time again.Solicit feedback from customers in a way that makes them feel like you genuinely care about what they have to say. Their opinion matters; use it to ensure that your business goals align with the customer experience. Quote: “It doesn’t matter how good you think the customer service is that you’re providing; it’s what’s perceived by your customers that counts.” – Jeff Robbins About: Jeff Robbins is the Founder and Managing Director of Database Sciences and GuestInsight. He has over 30 years of experience in the marketing research and data management and analysis fields. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Martha Brooke. They discuss common rating systems implemented by many companies, the faults and flaws of these systems, and ways to improve the feedback process overall. In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He talks about the best ways to handle negative online reviews. The Interview with Martha Brooke:The way many ratings systems are designed makes it easy to skew results. Customers don’t give honest feedback out of fear of potential repercussions.One reason customers give positive ratings after negative experiences is because they don’t want to feel like they’re punishing someone. However, being honest is more helpful because it improves the community. That is the benefit of deep altruism versus superficial altruism.There is little tangible proof that reviews and ratings are anonymous, so customers may also fear repercussions from rated individuals or that it will be harder to do business with that company in the future.People are inundated daily with requests for feedback. It becomes easier to leave a simple 5-star review rather than a negative one or no review at all.Companies need to define what a 5-star rating means so that their customers are on the same page. People tend to look think of extremes when giving feedback, but what 5 stars means to one person may not be the same for another.The ultimate goal is to get the feedback to accurately reflect the customer experience.Quote: “Want great customer feedback? It starts with having really authentic conversations. Open ended questions are where the gold lies.” - Martha Brooke About: Martha Brooke founded Interaction Metrics in 2004 with the mission of dramatically improving the customer experience. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) and holds a Blackbelt in Six Sigma. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jon Ferrara. They discuss his company Nimble, the history of CRMs, customer service philosophies, and life. In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He considers the balance between the digital and the human experience in customer service. The Interview with Jon Ferrara:Jon Ferrara created GoldMine, the pioneer CRM program, by synthesizing existing technologies at the time. His goal was to make it easy for companies to manage not only their customers, but their team collaboration and relationships.Previously, less than 1% of companies used CRMs because they focused more on reporting data rather than the relationships between employees and customers.Good customer service begins from the inside; employees need to be unified in their mission to enhance the customer’s journey.CRM’s help you create positive personal connections, which can only have a positive affect your business.Ask yourself how you can add value to every interaction you have with a customer or an employee, even if it’s as simple as a smile. That attention and focus will help grow your business and fulfill you personally.About: Jon Ferrara is the founder and CEO of Nimble and a CRM expert, having created and co-founded GoldMine. He is also a technology entrepreneur and noted speaker about Social Sales and Marketing. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Quotes:  “Service is the new sales.” – Jon Ferrara  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Brian Sprinkle. They discuss his company, Big Ass Fans, and their approach to providing high quality customer service to support their industry-leading products.  In Shep’s Opening Monologue… He compares the profitability of customer acquisition versus customer retention. The Interview with Brian Sprinkle:It costs 5 to 7 times more (on average) to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing customer. You can grow your business, in part, by creating repeat customers.If you focus on making the customer want to come back next time every time, that will turn into a lifetime of business.The company makes great use of surveys to assess its customer service. Short surveys are sent out after the initial sale, 90 days after the sale, and after a support ticket is closed.There is a Customer Advocate position at Big Ass Fans whose sole job is to be the voice of the customer within the company. They go through and read every survey and communicate with other departments and employees to make changes and reinforce behavior.Companies need to train and support their customer service agents for those agents to provide exceptional service to their customers.About: Brian Sprinkle is the Global Customer Service Manager at Big Ass Fans, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-volume, low-speed fans. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Quote: “If you can keep your employees happy, they’re extremely likely to make customers happy.” – Brian Sprinkle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Ryan Minton. They discuss his new book, “Thanks for Coming in Today,” the hospitality industry, employee and customer appreciation, and the concept of aggressive hospitality. In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He discusses current trends in the digital customer service world. The Interview with Ryan Minton:Having employees with a mentality of hospitality is always preferable to having employees with technical know-how.A successful business comes not only from having happy customers, but from having happy employees.Make a habit of showing appreciation to everyone in your business—employees, colleagues, and customers. Appreciation goes a long way.Operate with “aggressive hospitality.” Good customer service isn’t passive; it’s active, and you need to pursue it.Look forward to opportunities where you get to be someone’s first boss and use those opportunities to mentor your employees in the ways of good customer service. You get to establish what it means to be great manager or leader.Eliminate the phrase, “let me check with my manager” by giving your employees the tools and trust to handle issues.Empathy is crucial in delivering a positive customer experience. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and allow that to drive your customer service.About: Charles Ryan Minton is a customer service and employee experience expert, keynote speaker, author of, Thanks for Coming in Today: Creating a Culture Where Employees Thrive & Customer Service is Alive, and the president of CRM Hospitality & Consulting, LLC. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Quote:  “Take care of the employees, and they’ll take care of the customer.” – Ryan Minton  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Mark Samuel. They discuss Mark’s new book, which outlines how to achieve success by breaking down silos, creating a vision of success, and emphasizing behaviors over outcomes.  In Shep’s Opening Monologue... He addresses the age-old assertion that “the customer is always right” and argues that “the customer is NOT always right. The Interview with Mark Samuel:Mark’s book, B STATE: A New Roadmap for Bold Leadership, Brave Culture, and Breakthrough Results, details a paradigm shift that will lead individuals and companies to success. It’s about getting from point A to point B of success. To get to point B, you must first create a vision of what that B state is for you, then allow that to pull you along rather than trying to push yourself from the A state.By focusing on middle management, cultural changes will trickle down to other areas of company, promoting growth and success.There needs to be a level of human connection and concern in every interaction, and this begins internally in all organizations. More often than not, companies that are rated as good places to work will also be rated positively for their customer service.The customer service industry is changing rapidly. To manage these changes, organizations need to not only handle problems in the present but forecast and strategize for future problems that may arise. The company needs to support the customer through these changes to ensure loyalty.Maintain your own “service consciousness.” When you operate from a mindset of being in service to those around you, it will build positive service habits and ultimately help you deliver exceptional customer service. Find the joy in giving service and making genuine human connections.About: Mark Samuel is the founder and CEO of IMPAQ and has over 30 years of experience working with major companies around the world. His most recent book is B STATE: A New Roadmap for Bold Leadership, Brave Culture, and Breakthrough Results. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Quote:  “Are you of service consciousness, or are you just doing a customer service job?” - Mark Samuel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Claire Boscq-Scott. They discuss the importance of a workplace culture of caring and how it can positively impact the customer experience. Shep’s Opening Monologue In Shep’s opening monologue, he elaborates upon the idea of amazing your employees so that they, in turn, can amaze your customers. The Interview with Claire Boscq-Scott:Every employee needs to understand their role as it applies to the customer experience, even if they have no direct contact with the customer.What is felt on the inside of a company by its employees will be felt on the outside by its customers--that’s why it is crucial to create and foster a culture of caring.Claire starts the relationship with her clients with a company audit that addresses three important issues:          1. The first thing to examine is the work environment. Claire audits the environment and implements changes to make it more pleasant to both workers and customers. If the environment is pleasing and inviting, then employees will want to come to work and customers will want to spend money.           2. The second area of focus is your employees. They need to understand the entire map of the customer journey and how they fit into the bigger picture of the customer experience. If they feel that their company cares about them, they will be more loyal and their performance will be better.           3. The third thing is, of course, the customers themselves. The goal is to create a positive, unforgettable customer experience every single time. Being too focused on results can sacrifice the caring aspect of your business. This will ultimately prove detrimental to the customer experience and to your business. About: Claire Boscq Scott is a speaker, trainer, “coachsultant,” self-described “busy queen bee,” and author of the recent book Thriving by Caring. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Quote:  “If there are no customers, there’s no business!” - Claire Boscq-Scott Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Skip Prichard. They discuss Skip’s new book, The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future, which details the most common mistakes people make in their professional and personal lives. Shep’s Opening Monologue Shep’s opening monologue addresses the question of how new technologies have changed--and haven’t changed--customer service. The Interview with Skip Prichard:Skip wrote The Book of Mistakes for people who are in transition and/or seeking success in their lives.Skip wrote the book as a novel rather than a nonfiction piece, because stories are remembered 22 times more than facts. When backed up by story, facts are more engaging to a reader or audience.Skip shared several of the nine mistakes: The first mistake is “working on someone else’s dream.” It is crucial to find your own unique purpose in life and think about your identity. If you pursue this, you will find more fulfillment in your work.The second mistake is “allowing someone else to define your value.” The nickel analogy helps explain this: nickels cost ten cents to make, but they are worth only five cents because they are stamped with that value.The third mistake people make is “accepting excuses.” Not only do we have a habit of accepting the excuses of others, we create and accept excuses for ourselves. The only excuses that are valid come from things we have no control over.Skip’s team went from being last in the country to first when he asked them what they liked doing best and then incorporated their answers into their jobs. When people pursue things they are passionate about, their work performance drastically improves.Be aware of how you define yourself and how you define your competition. It is crucial to bypass limitations that are placed upon you by others if you want to succeed.About: Skip Prichard is an accomplished CEO, growth-oriented business leader, and keynote speaker. He is also the author of The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Quote: “Your purpose is completely unique to you. How do you design your life to fulfill that purpose?” - Skip Prichard  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken sits down with his longtime friend, Dr. Willie Jolley and discuss the strategies he used to help Ford avoid bankruptcy, why you and your organization should be constantly improving, and the 10 Commandments of Superior Service. TOP TAKEAWAYS: •Dr. Jolley shared five key points great CEO’s focus on in their organizations: Always develop leaders at every level of your organization.Help people understand change is not the enemy, it’s an ally.Don’t have good customer service, have wild customer service.Think like a team and work as a team so you can win like a team.Always grow your attitude and constantly get better.•In his book, Make Love, Make Money, Make It Last!, he talks about keeping the romance alive in your marriage. You should treat your customers the same way by always wooing them and keeping the romance alive by going the extra mile. •Dr. Jolley has 10 commandments of superior service: Thou shalt serve with a smileThou shalt go the extra mileThou shalt greet, speak and be real sweetThou shalt say thank you and please a lot - A LOTThou shalt be willing to apologize quicklyThou shalt anticipate the needs of your customers and clientsDo what is necessary, not what is comfortableThou shalt take responsibilityThou shalt lighten the linesThou shalt constantly improve and practice the CANEI principle.•The CANEI principle stands for Constant And Never Ending Improvement. Everyone in an organization must adopt an attitude in which they strive to be better today than yesterday. •In his book, Dr. Jolley shares his philosophy of Up-Thinking, which means: Think up, show up, stand up, step up, and make up your mind to win. ABOUT: Dr. Willie Jolley is an award-winning speaker, singer, best-selling author, and media personality. He’s spoken for companies like Ford, Wal-Mart, GM, Comcast, Verizon, and Marriott. He latest book is An Attitude of Excellence: Get The Best From Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. QUOTE: “Great people give great service, good people give good service, mediocre people give mediocre service, and negative people will kill your organization.” - Dr. Willie Jolley  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken sits down with Ty Collins. They discussed how to raise your prices without losing customers, why you should be transparent, and how to give customers the best experience possible. TOP TAKEAWAYS:  Shep’s Opening Monologue:In Shep’s opening monologue he answers the question, what is the difference between a loyalty program and a marketing program?The Interview with Ty Collins:In July 2018, a 25% import tariff forced Rad Power Bikes to increase their prices. Because they created a unique experience and were transparent with their customers about the price increase, this did not affect sales.Rad Power Bikes decided to share their opinion about the trade tariffs publicly. This didn’t make every customer happy, but because they expressed their situation diplomatically, they were able to set the narrative and jump ahead of the issue.Because their customer experience and tech support teams are so passionate and fired up about their industry, it wasn’t difficult for Rad Power Bikes to convey the correct message to their customers.Ty likes to sit in with his customer experience team, answer customer emails, and listen to phone calls. No matter what your position is, everybody needs to spend a little time on the front line to hear the real voice of the customer.Most of Rad Power Bike customers never see the bikes in person before making a purchase. It’s the CX team’s job to ease the customer's concerns, build trust, and give them a memorable experience.Providing good CX doesn’t mean always saying yes. There will be times when you have to make hard decisions and say things the customer isn’t going to want to hear at the moment.ABOUT: Ty Collins is the Co-founder and CMO of Rad Power Bikes. He helped increase the company’s revenue to over $40M in just four years despite trade tariffs that forced him to raise his prices. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. QUOTE: “Some of our greatest customer advocates are customers who’ve had issues that have been resolved. ” - Ty Collins  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Annette Franz returns to Amazing Business Radio to discuss becoming more customer-centric, how to understand your ideal customer, and journey mapping. Top Takeaways:The only way you’re going to design a product or service that customers will want and need is to understand their pain points, what problems they’re trying to solve, and what they’re trying to do.Creating a product is grounded in data, insight and customer understanding. Customer understanding can be achieved in three ways:            Listen: Listening to the channels your customers are on and “listen” to existing customer data.Characterize: Developing personas instead of target demographics or segments.Empathize: Walk in your customers' shoes and create a journey map Instead of always ending the customer experience with the survey, you can take an extra step by listening to your customers on places like social media. The goal is to be where your customers are when they want to provide feedback.A Persona is a researched-based representation of your ideal customer. Organizations can have multiple personas for customers that have similar preferences, likes, needs, and pain points.Five reasons why every organization should journey map:                                                         1. There’s no better way to understand the experience, what’s going right and what’s going wrong.                  2. Journey mapping helps you design new and better experiences.                  3. They are great communication and training tools for employees. You can use journey maps to train employees on what the experience should look like and align your organization around the customer.                  4. Journey maps allow you to show instead of tell, which increases your chance of getting an executive commitment towards CX transformation.                  5. Journey maps give employees who don’t usually interact with customers a clear line of sight to the customer. About: Annette Franz is the CEO of CX Journey. For the last 25 years, she’s helped companies understand their employees, customers, and what drives engagement and retention. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Shep Hyken sits down with Jason Bradshaw to talk about his new book, It’s All About CEX: The Essential Guide to Customer and Employee Experience. They also discuss the compounding effect of being 1% better, how customers and employees measure success, and how to build a community of champions.  Top Takeaways:If you focus on improving the customer and employee experience just 1% every day, it’s going to compound into an amazing experience for your employees and customers.Every company focuses on the lifetime value of a customer, but Jason says you should also think about the lifetime value of an employee.What costs more, training your employees, only for them to leave, or risking customers interacting with untrained employees?Customers and employees measure their experience across three key pillars:Success: Could they achieve what they wanted toEase: Could they achieve it with the amount of effort or less than what they expectedConnection: The emotional connection an employee feelsYou don’t have to spend 12 months mapping out the customer journey before you start improving the CX. If you just focus on the feedback you already have from customers and employees, you’ll know where you need to start.A leaders job isn't to do everything. It’s to build a community of people who are committed to the common cause. You can’t improve the employee and customer experience by yourself. About: Jason Bradshaw is the Chief Customer Officer at Volkswagon Group Australia. He created his first business at fourteen, selling telecommunications and computer equipment. Jason’s tested and implemented strategies can be found in his new book It’s All About CEX. He reveals how to generate positive experiences for your customers and employees, win their loyalty, and maximize your profits in the process. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken sits down with Keith Alper to talk about his new book, From Like to Love. They discuss how to create a loving employee culture, the five basic needs of employees, and what millennials want in the workplace.  Top Takeaways: Keith says that employees have five basic needs. Successful organizations with great employee engagement and culture share a lot of these five basic needs.As an employer, you genuinely care about me.I trust you and you trust me.You listen to me.You appreciate me for who I am and you tell me so.We share a meaningful purpose.Meeting your employees’ basic needs and creating a loving employee culture is a 24/7 commitment from the top all the way down through the organization.Millennials are collaborative and think in groups and tribes. Being able to view their peers in the workplace as a family is important and will move them from like to love.Since people spend most of their time at work, it’s not all about the money. They also care about sharing a meaningful purpose and making the world a better place.Ask your employees what they love and what they don’t love. Two of Keith’s employees at CPG (Keith’s company) said the maternity policy was outdated. Because of their great culture, they were comfortable enough to voice their concerns and a change was made in less than 48 hours.When someone comes to CPG’s office in St. Louis, Missouri, Keith wants them to be in love with what they experience on their visit. CPG puts their names up in lights, music plays, and there’s great food and gifts. Keith wants their clients to love CPG because they love them. About: Keith Alper is the CEO of CPG Agency, which specializes in corporate and employee engagement. Keith has over 30 years of expertise in marketing, communications, event production, entertainment, and strategic leadership. His book From Like To Love draws on real-life examples to present his proven process for turning any organization from appreciated to adored. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken sits down with Sean McDade. They discussed how to create a consistent customer experience, why you should listen to your customers (and what to do with what they tell you), and how you can create a customer-centric organization. Top Takeaways: Sean defines being customer-centric as, “Consistently listening to customers and empowering your organization to take what customers are saying and do something about it.”Simply listening to your customers isn’t enough. You have to align your organization to enable people to take action towards putting the customer at the center of your company.Great companies who get great ROI out of listening to customers follow up on every bad customer experience. They find out what went wrong and they make it right with that customer. Then they fix the common reasons that caused those bad experiences so that they might not happen again.The customer experience is everything the customer experiences with your company. This includes people, employees, products/services, and websites. A good customer experience has consistency across all touchpoints that a customer has with an organization.If a customer has a positive experience with your organization, ask them who provided that good experience and what they did. This will allow you to recognize good people within your organization and duplicate their positive actions.About: Sean McDade Ph.D. is the CEO and founder of PeopleMetrics. For over 20 years, he’s helped companies get closer to their customers by systematically listening and improving the experience. He wrote the book Listen Or Die: 40 Lessons That Turn Customer Feedback Into Gold. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Takeaways: Doug shared five traits that can improve your customer service skills in 30 days or less. He calls them the Nice Guy 30:Return Every Phone CallReturn Every E-MailDeliver Every PromiseBe on Time, Every TimeConnect Twice a DayA Journey Map is the representation of the entire customer experience, from their first interaction with your organization to becoming a customer or referrer and every interaction in between.Journey mapping allows you to visually represent the experience the customer has throughout the entire process of doing business with you. It can help your management, the people working for your organization and even your customers.Journey mapping allows you to see where your customers are having friction points and where you're having internal friction caused by employee overlap. Once you’ve identified a potential problem, it becomes easier to fix.Consider including your customers in the journey mapping process, because they can look at things from a different perspective. It’s important you speak with happy customers as well as angry “ex” customers.Doug shared a “risk-quadrant” that allows organizations to determine the risk and value of specific steps along the customer journey. Do your best to add low-risk, high-value opportunities and eliminate high-risk, low-value opportunities.High-risk, low-value A high-risk, low-value opportunity is a place where your customer is likely to get stuck in your system and not be satisfied with the end result.Low-risk, high-value A low-risk, high-value opportunity is easy for you to do and it enhances the customer experience. About: Doug Sandler is a nationally recognized speaker and writer. In 2015, he published the award-winning book Nice Guys Finish First. Currently, Doug is the CEO of Turnkey Podcast Productions. Because of his expertise, he also helps organizations create effective journey maps that improve the customer experience. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Quote:  “Never ignore the comments that your frontline is making. They are a critical component to improving your customer experience.” - Doug Sandler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take Time to Properly Motivate Your Team Shep Hyken sits down with Gregg Lederman to talk about his new book, Crave: You Can Enhance Employee Motivation in 10 Minutes by Friday (https://www.amazon.com/Crave-Enhance-Employee-Motivation-Minutes/dp/0979587514). They discussed how to replicate your best people and give them the happiness and motivation they crave and deserve. TOP TAKEAWAYS: •Your employees' attitudes and actions are affected by the three things they crave the most: 1. Respect: Respect them for who they are and what they do. 2. Purpose: Give them purpose, help them see that there’s meaning in their work and show them that what they do has an impact. 3. Relationship: Build a trusting and happy relationship with their leadership. •In less than 10 minutes a week, you can replicate what your best people are thinking, saying and doing by recognizing what you want to see more of and spotting the moments where your core values are in action. •There are three chemicals that Gregg calls the happy threesome of brain chemicals; dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. They can increase employee happiness and motivation. •Recognition accelerates results. The first result is employee engagement. Employee engagement drives the work culture, and the work culture drives the customer experience. •Gregg shared a five-step process for building any habit, specifically the habit of recognizing employees: 1. Decide why it’s important to you. 2. Create the routines and schedule it in your calendar. 3. Determine any obstacles that may get in the way (time). 4. Focus on the personal and business benefits of forming this habit. 5. Track your effort daily. ABOUT: Gregg Lederman is an author, speaker, and the president of employee engagement for Reward Gateway. Gregg’s valuable insights are documented in his books Achieve Brand Integrity, Engaged, and his upcoming book, Crave. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

National Customer Service Week Is About Customers AND Employees Shep Hyken sits down with Bill Gessert to talk about National Customer Service Week (October 1-5, 2018). They discussed 10 ways to celebrate the week-long event, how to create an employee-centric culture, and how to get C-suite executives involved in the everyday culture. TOP TAKEAWAYS: •The International Customer Service Association started National Customer Service Week (NCSW) in 1984 because they wanted to create a meaningful way to recognize the work people do and the impact it has on the customer experience. •In 2018, NCSW will be held on the first week of October. The theme this year is Exceeding Expectations, Every Customer, Every Time. •The people that provide customer service need to get recognized in order to re-energize their customer-centric focus. National Customer Service Week is a great way to have a positive impact on employee engagement. •There are employees that your customers never meet who have a profound impact on your customers’ overall experience. •Organizations that focus on creating a sustainable culture that is employee-centric will eventually become customer-centric. •Bill shared ten ways to recognize and celebrate the value employees bring to the customer experience during NCSW. A few of them included hosting a kickoff breakfast, having C-suite executives trade places with employees, and writing handwritten thank you notes to employees. ABOUT: Bill Gessert is the VP of business growth at Premiere Response and the President of the International Customer Service Association (ICSA). Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to adopt a hospitality mentality within your organization. Shep Hyken sits down with his friend and restaurateur Kim Tucci. They discussed “the hospitality mentality”, how to hire good people and ways to reduce employee turnover. TOP TAKEAWAYS: •You won’t always exceed the customer’s expectations, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try at every opportunity. •Kim defines the hospitality mentality in three words, “Anything, most friendly.” This means that you are going to do anything for your guest in the most friendly atmosphere, all of the time. •90% of a good customer experience is about your attitude. If you have a quality product, a fair price, and good service, the only missing piece is a good attitude. •Not everything goes well all the time, but how you handle that situation greatly affects the customer experience and their desire to come back. •When hiring new employees, Kim looks at the way people carry themselves, their mindset, and their trainability. Experience doesn’t matter as much, because they’re going to train people the way they want to, regardless. •Your mission statement should only be three words. For The Pasta House, Kim created the mission statement, “Bend Over Backward”, or B.O.B. Every year, Kim creates B.O.B goals around this mission and rewards employees for a job well done. ABOUT: Kim Tucci, a local legend in St. Louis, Missouri, has been in the restaurant business for 45 years. Before moving into the restaurant industry, he was a teacher for 13 years. His experiences as a waiter and Maitre d’ at a five-star Italian restaurant paved the way for his current occupation. Today, Kim owns a well-known restaurant chain in St. Louis called The Pasta House. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why (and How) to Put Your Customers at the Center of Your Decisions Shep Hyken sits down with his close friend, colleague and customer service expert Buddy Rice. They discussed how he helped Delta Airlines with their customer service culture, what customers are really looking for, and the RATER service quality model. TOP TAKEAWAYS: •Customers aren’t always looking for money or a “yes” to fix their problems. They want a professional that can give them options and solutions to their specific issues. •In certain industires, especially in the airline industry, people are willing to pay extra to be guaranteed better levels of comfort. •Empowered companies have employees with the ability to make a decision that’s right for the customer. If you put the customer at the center of your decision, you cannot go wrong. •RATER is an acronym and model that can help you measure and improve service quality. It stands for: •Reliability: Getting it right the first time •Assurance: Keeping your word •Tangibles: Giving your products/services the best look and feel •Empathy: Understanding and caring about people •Responsiveness: Having a sense of urgency •Creating an organizational mission statement starts at the top with the leadership. The six-step process of creating a vision can be described by The Six D’s, which are: •Define: Leadership defines it •Disseminate: Tell everybody •Deploy: Train people on that vision, and constantly train them over them over and over again. •Demonstrate: The leadership is the role model •Defend it: If somebody or a group is out of alignment •Delight: Celebrate it Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Techniques from the stage to optimize the patient/customer experience Shep Hyken sits down with Dr. Bob Baker. They discussed his new book The Performance Of Medicine, how Bob relates his experiences as a magician and doctor to customer service, and how to optimize the customer/patient experience. There is a lot that anyone and any business can learn from Dr. Bob! TOP TAKEAWAYS: • Bob shared four basic techniques that all performers use to create connections with customers. They are: 1. Listening and observing - Listen to what the other person is saying and respond with your full attention. At that moment, be the best version of yourself that you can be. 2. Being in the moment - You want your customer to think that you’re only there for them at that moment. Being present in the moment is the only part of the interaction that you have complete control over. The way you maintain that is by… 3. Staying in character - The character you have to play is the best version of yourself. That character is different than who you are at home or in social settings. 4. Act as if - If you act in a certain way, you will feel it, then you will become it. Act like there is no place that you’d rather be than with that customer. • As a doctor, thinking of people as just patients isn’t enough. It’s the experience that they get that will cause them to come back and refer friends to you. • Bad things are going to happen, the lesson is to own them. Hospitals (and businesses) can decrease malpractice suits (and lost customers) by taking the following steps: 1. Owning their mistake 2. Explaining the mistake to the victim family 3. Explaining what steps the hospital will take to prevent it from happening again 4. Offering some form of compensation ABOUT: Dr. Bob Baker is a retired gastroenterologist. Before medicine, he performed as a professional magician and ventriloquist. He even was a contestant on America’s Got Talent. His experiences in both medicine and performance gave him the knowledge and wisdom that he shared in his book, The Performance Of Medicine. (https://www.amazon.com/Performance-Medicine-Techniques-Experience-Practicing/dp/0999616900) Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get smarter about building your company’s future. Shep Hyken sits down with Tiffani Bova, the global growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce. They discussed her new book Growth IQ, what the carnival can teach you about business, and the 10 simple paths of business growth. TOP TAKEAWAYS: •While growing up in Hawaii, Tiffani worked in a roaming carnival. She learned many valuable lessons about business such as hiring, firing, employee motivation, and customer experience. •According to Tiffani, you can boil down business growth to ten paths. Successful companies are able to maximize at least one of these ten growth paths. •Growth comes down to three things: 1. The context of the market in which someone chose a particular path. 2. The combination of what they did around multiple growth paths. 3. The sequence of how they actually did those things. Context, combination, and sequence make or break the decisions companies make. •By making decisions that lean towards customer experience and radical hospitality, companies like Shake Shack are able to differentiate themselves from the competition. •Starbucks suffered a brand crisis when they overwhelmed their customers by expanding too fast and adding many items to their menu that weren’t congruent with their main offering. They brought back CEO Howard Schultz to course-correct by returning to the customer experience path. •Businesses play a huge role in society. They should choose to do well by doing good, putting  purpose over profit, and becoming better stewards of the people in the world. ABOUT: Tiffani Bova is the global growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce. She spent ten years at Gartner, where she helped companies like Cisco, IBM, and Oracle capture new growth opportunities, win the eyes of customers, and improve the way they take their products to market. Her new book Growth IQ helps companies get smarter about the choices that will make or break their businesses. (For more info on the book - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078G2Z994/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Putting your customer first by putting your employees first. Shep Hyken sits down with James Dodkins to discuss James’s new book, 136 Ideas For Rockstar Employee Engagement,having an employee mission, and the real definition of customer experience. TOP TAKEAWAYS: • James previous experience as a rockstar in a heavy metal band helped him discover that companies can be customer service rockstars, too. • What happens on the inside of a company will be felt on the outside by the customers. That’s why it’s important that you put your employees first. • Your part of the customer's experience is typically a tiny little piece of a much larger puzzle. There’s a lot more that happens across the whole customer journey. • Giving employees an inspiring, empowering, and memorable mission is one of the best gifts you can give them. Employees want to see that they’re making a positive change in customers lives. • Of the 136 ideas for rockstar employee engagement, a few of James’s favorites include having employees meet their customers, writing personal letters to employee family members, and holding fun employee events, such as a a class on how to make cocktails (named after emplyees and departments). • James shares a heart touching story about how Southwest Airlines truly embodies their mission, “Connecting people to what matters most.” • Rockstars don’t have customers. They have fans. Likewise, rockstar companies don’t just have customers, they have evangelists who are willing to share their experiences. ABOUT: James Dodkins is an author and customer experience rockstar. Before he transitioned into his current occupation, he played guitar in a heavy-metal band. Today, James helps companies like Nike, Disney, and Mercedes improve their employee and customer experiences. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Focusing on Business Intelligence and Customer Experience Shep Hyken sits down with Scott Walker, the CEO of ethosIQ,and discuss three levels of customer optimization, finding the correct customer service metrics to focus on, and why companies should give back to their communities. TOP TAKEAWAYS: •Customers don’t mind staying on the phone longer if it means getting their problem solved on the first interaction. This means that metrics like “average handle time” or “time to resolution” can be misleading. •There are three levels where a company may be at in their roadmap to customer optimization. 1. Intermediate/Operations focused 2. Optimized 3. Strategic •You can’t guarantee you’re going to keep your best people forever. However, by doing your best to take care of them, and giving them the opportunity to do what they love to do, they will do what it takes to engage with the customer on a higher level. •When call centers capture and share customer data across their organization in real time, they can leverage this data for the greater good of the company, which can help drive higher profits. ABOUT: Scott Walker is the CEO of ethosIQ. His company uses disparate data to drive the customer journey down to the detail from the cradle to the grave. Before founding ethosIQ in 2009, he worked with companies like Apple, Microsoft, Ticketmaster, and Nike. He also started the non-profit Orphans To Executives, which provides much-needed mentor-ship to orphans. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How any sized business can create customer experience and loyalty. Shep Hyken sits down with Craig McVoy, founder and Chief Experience Officer at Beyond Brand. They discussed Craig’s new book Beyond Brand, the seven customer experience principles every business must follow and the questions you must ask if you want your brand to compete in 2018 and beyond. TOP TAKEAWAYS: •McVoy shares his proven methodology that can help any business, regardless of size, improve their profitability and audience happiness. Not being a big conglomerate or brand shouldn’t stop you from delivering a great experience. •In the omni-channel world we live in, great customer experience is more than just great service on the phone or in store. The experience is an end-to-end feeling the customer has across all touchpoints and channels across the journey. •McVoy states that you cannot deliver a sub-par employee experience and expect your staff to deliver your customers a great experience. 86% of customers say they want to have a meaningful relationship with brands they use. However, 74% of those people said they couldn’t care less if those brands fell of the face of the earth tomorrow. •There are three audiences that brands must be aware of if they want to improve brand loyalty. •Employees - People who work for your brand. •Customers - People who’ve spent money on your product or service. •Community - People who know about your brand, but aren’t an employee or a customer (and have an opinion about you). ABOUT: Craig McVoy is the co-founder and Chief Experience Officer at Beyond Brand. Before Beyond Brand, he spent 25 years helping brands like BMW and Mercedes deliver a better experience to both customers and employees. Currently, while consulting with dozens of brands, he is writing a book titled, Beyond Brand - Why it's the experience that causes people to fall in love with the brand. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can you do to create a smoother effortless customer experience? Shep Hyken sits down with Jim Iyoob, the Chief Customer Officer at E-Tech Global Services, to discuss the balance between AI and human interaction and how to deliver a convenient and effortless customer experience. TOP TAKEAWAYS: • In the past, companies owned the narrative and customers had little control. With social media and various omni-channels, the control has transferred to the consumer. Companies like Apple, GoDaddy, and Amazon understand this simple fact and use it to their advantage to gain market share and win customer loyalty. • 89% of customers will stop doing business with you if they have a poor customer service experience. 86% of buyers will pay for a better customer experience. • Throughout history, nothing has changed in customer service from the standpoint that the goal has always been for the customer to walk away saying, “That was a good experience, I’m going to come back.” What has changed is the technology that allows us to offer a different level of service that is faster, more convenient, effortless, and easy. • Jim warns companies against buying technology that makes things easier for themselves without taking into consideration the effect it will have on customers and the agents delivering the experience. ABOUT:Jim Iyoob is Chief Customer Officer at E-Tech Global Services and the author of Delivering Customer Service That Matters. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to create a customer service culture that solves customers problems, increases revenue, and drives loyalty. Shep Hyken discusses frontline leadership, conflict resolution, and customer loyalty with Jim Rembach, the president of Call Center Coach. TOP TAKEAWAYS: • There are six core reasons why frontline supervisors fail. 1. Lack of interpersonal skills 2. Lack of strategic skills 3. Lack of conflict avoidance skills 4. Lack of trust building skills 5. Poor decision-making skills 6. Poor training • Over 80% of people leave jobs because of their relationship with their frontline supervisor. • In today's business world, frontline supervisors are just as important as senior leadership. They interact with customers and employees day in and day out. • Companies who retain their customers the longest establish an emotional connection with them. This includes (but isn’t limited to) being friendly, knowledgeable, trustworthy, and credible. • When a customer has a complaint, find ways to get alongside the customer instead of butting heads and creating conflict. Ask them questions so that they realize you’re on their side and want to help them solve their problems. • According to research, customers who’ve never had a negative experience with you are not as loyal as customers who’ve had a negative experience that was quickly resolved. ABOUT: Jim Rembach is the president of Call Center Coach. He previously helped AutoZone open their call center, which revolutionized the way stores, customers, and customer service agents interact. He is a founding member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association and currently hosts his podcast, the Fast Leader Show. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How will chat and chatbots transform customer service in the near future? Shep Hyken discusses turning customers into viral promoters, a new customer-focused growth model, and the next phase of automated customer service with Michael Redbord, GM of the Service Hub at Hubspot. TOP TAKEAWAYS: -Redbord shares the five rules of a customer-centric 1) Knowledge of your customer 2) Applying the knowledge 3) Listening and prioritizing 4) Execution 5) Communicating -How to use NPS (Net Promoter Score) to target your best customers, a.k.a. promoters, who are most likely to take the extra time to advocate for you. Then, create a win-win situation for your customers so you can go on the journey of mutual growth together. -Hyken and Redbord both see a trend in customer service becoming more self-service as customers become less patient and want faster access to the answers to their questions. -Redbord urges that making customers more successful is the key to business growth. -The Flywheel model, which takes the traditional business growth model and uses customers to create virality, brand amplification, and scalability. Your customers can be your best marketers and growth engines. -There are three customer-service trends that will likely happen in the future (and already are). 1) Face-to-face communication - As trust diminishes and people feel more disconnected, showing your face is going to be a big deal. 2) Chatbots - People are less patient today, they want answers now, and they expect a 24-hour presence. 3) Self-service - Is an absolute necessity, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does participation create a customer experience culture? Shep Hyken sits down with Doug Bell, a customer experience consultant and founder and CEO of The Experience Manager, to discuss the benefits of creating a customer experience movement. TOP TAKEAWAYS: -A company customer experience movement starts by giving everyone in the company a way to communicate with leadership. -Customer service must start with a dialogue, giving employees a voice that allows them to share how they want to interact with customers. This process gets everyone engaged, ultimately creating a better customer experience. From the top to bottom everyone has an impact on the customer Someone behind the scenes in the warehouse may never see the customer. But, if they don’t package the product properly and it is damaged when it ships, the customer will have a bad experience when the package is received. Even people that have no contact with the customer can have big impact on the customer -To ensure that employees have a forum to speak to executives about ideas, two things must happen: -Communication must be transparent throughout the entire organization. -Employees should have the ability to share their thoughts anonymously. This allows executives to get the truth to make necessary changes. -There are many ways to begin a customer service initiative. In the beginning, someone must take ownership of the internal customer experience and open up the channels of communication. Employers are tasked with sharing ideas to improve how the company currently operates. Consider using a business social platform that allows employees to share their ideas with the entire company. It creates an open environment ideas are shared in one place. Employees can expand on ideas, share feedback and offer suggestions while executives are able to watch the conversation and learn what employees are thinking. ABOUT: Doug Bell is a customer experience consultant. He is the founder of The Experience Manager, an experience management platform for experience leaders, designers, and producers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you create strong customer loyalty while staying inspired? Shep Hyken is joined by Marilyn Suttle, conference speaker, bestselling author, and coach, to discuss her new book, Color Their World - The Art of Creating Strong Customer Loyalty. TOP TAKEAWAYS: ● The more automated things become, the more important it is to have strong customer service. Automated features can always go wrong, and when they do, someone has to speak to the customers. ● Reinforcement is just as important as training. If an employee does not have the right attitude or behavior, a leader needs to step in and provide feedback. This reinforcement ensures expectations are met. ● In a team, if you see someone who is excited about customer service, that excitement becomes infectious. This makes a greater impression than a manager approaching a team with tips or encouragement. Hearing from a peer, even if it is constructive feedback, has a better impact on employees. Finding a top performer to train their peers improves the employee experience, which in turn improves the customer experience. ● Suttle’s new book, Color Their World - The Art of Creating Strong Customer Loyalty is not your typical book. It’s actually a coloring book that features a sentence starter on each page. For example, “If my best customers described me, they would likely say _____.” The combination of the two activities, filling in the blank and coloring, creates a unique situation that can improve focus and reduce stress, which helps retention of the answers to these powerful sentence starters. Transparency is key. You must be transparent, honest, and upfront with your customers to build trust. Without that trust, there will be no loyalty. Customers will find someone else if they do not have confidence in your business. ABOUT: Marilyn Suttle is a leading authority in service excellence, business and personal relationships, and content marketing. Her latest book, Color Their World - The Art of Creating Strong Customer Loyalty is available now. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover the best tools and software to provide a great customer experience. Shep Hyken sits downwith Jackie Gonzalez, Vice President of Operations at PATLive to discuss the best tools and methods for a customer support organization. TOP TAKEAWAYS: • First, some background on PATLive. Some third-party support centers employ thousands of agents, many of whom are overseas. PATLive agents, however, are all located in Tallahassee, Florida. These agents are trained to be like employees of the companies they represent. They provide their clients’ customers with a personalized experience. • Before choosing a tool or software for a support service, an organization must evaluate it for functionality, cost, difficulty, security standards, and other objective factors. With how much tools have changed, however, there are more higher-level factors to consider, including a balance between a tool’s functionality and the message and brand of an organization. • Evaluating the internal tools in addition to the external tools is very important. If the internal tools being used are outdated or difficult to use, it creates a negative in-house operation and frustrates employees. These frustrations can, in turn, lead to a negative customer experience. • Gonzalez shared eight tools PATLive uses that have improved their support center operation: 1. KnowledgeOwl: a knowledge management tool that keeps internal information organized in one place 2. Articulate 360: lets trainers quickly create online courses that are used to train employees 3. Slack: allows for easy communication and collaboration between team members 4. Trello: a project management tool allowing team members to organize and prioritize information 5. LiveChat Inc.: a live chat software tool allowing agents to chat with customers 6. Formstack: allows anybody to create an online web form to collect information and convert into workflows 7. Sprout Social: a social media management tool 8. Tresta: a phone system that records calls for quality assurance purposes • Though tools are necessary for customer support, you cannot let tools get in the way of creating a good employee and customer experience. To engage another person on a personal level, the tool should just be in the background for additional support. Traditional customer service principles must be the priority. ABOUT: Jackie Gonzalez is the Vice President of Operations at PATLive, the number one rated answering service since 1990. PATLive has a team of live receptionists who ensure great customer service. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready for a customer service or brand crisis? Shep Hyken discusses handling and preparing for a customer service or brand crisis with Melissa Agnes, the author of Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World. TOP TAKEAWAYS • Melissa explains that ever since she was a kid in Montreal, she’s had the ability to spot and mitigate potential risk. This skill came into play ten years ago when social media first began to rise. While everyone was talking about how great social media was, her mind immediately thought of the risks it presented. She calls this her “a-ha” moment. • Being “crisis ready” means: o The entire organization knows what risk looks like and how to detect it. o They understand how to assess the impact of risks on their brand: is it a crisis or is it an issue? o They can manage the crisis in a manner that still builds stakeholder trust and credibility. • A crisis is a negative event stopping business-as-usual because it extends to the top of the organization and has potential long-term negative impact on people, the environment, business operations, the organization’s reputation, and/or the organization’s bottom line. An issue, however, does not have the risk of a long-term impact. While an issue can go viral, it does not necessarily become a crisis. • Crisis Response Penalty (CRP), a term coined by Melissa, looks at the short-term and long-term monetary and reputation impact a crisis has on a brand due to that brand’s poor and ineffective response. The longer it takes for a business to provide an effective response, the more credibility and trust you lose, the more control of the narrative you lose, and the higher CRP you have. • In order to become crisis ready for something that has not occurred before, Melissa says though we cannot predict exactly how a situation will happen, we can consider the possibilities of a high-risk scenario where an employee goes rogue or does something wrong that can potentially go viral. For example, an employee may be involved with a sexual harassment issue or make an inappropriate response to a social media post. Additionally, taking societal trends into consideration, including the staggering amount of racial discrimination occurring in retail, coffee shops, etc., allows business to know the likelihood that something will go wrong or against the brand’s values. • To respond to a crisis in a way that is emotionally intelligent, a business must put people first. • There is no circumstance when “no comment” is an acceptable response. It goes completely against putting the customer first. A “no comment” response can lead to mistrust and cause customers to choose another brand. If you are crisis-prepared, you already have a comment ready. ABOUT: Melissa Agnes is a leading authority on crisis management and preparedness. Her book, Crisis Ready, published in March 2018, details how organizations can implement a crisis ready culture. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you separate yourself from the competition? Shep Hyken is joined by Gigi Butler, the founder of Gigi’s Cupcakes, the largest cupcake franchise in the world, to discuss how she differentiated herself from the competition. TOP TAKEAWAYS: • Branding is the experience a company offers, and to get people on board with a brand, a strong, passionate leader is necessary, along with a product people can connect with. In Butler’s case, she wants people to see, smell, and taste the passion she has for her cupcakes, whose recipes were passed down from generation to generation. • For Gigi’s Cupcakes, Butler wanted each cupcake to have its own personality, so her customers receive an immediate feeling, producing a memory. This is what differentiates one business from another. Companies must create products and experiences that connect with customers. • Butler’s book The Secret Ingredient, which is available for preorder now, describes her journey from aspiring country music singer to cupcake entrepreneur. When music didn’t work out and she found herself cleaning other people’s homes (including Taylor Swift’s), she realized she should turn her passion—baking—into a business. Thus, Gigi’s Cupcakes was born. • If you want loyal customers, you need to remember that “one size does not fit all.” You need to provide options for everyone, even if it means allowing a customizable experience. This will ensure customers keep coming back. Butler does this by offering a wide variety - 278 flavors in Gigi’s Cupcakes’ catalog! • Something as simple as packaging plays an important role in the customer’s experience. Seeing recognizable packaging immediately makes you want that product. Your subconscious tells you there is something special inside it. For example, there is excitement and anticipation in opening the box that reveals your new iPhone – or, a delicious Gigi’s Cupcake. • Butler believes passion is a vital part of creating an excellent experience for customers. Without a purpose, it is nearly impossible to draw customers in and encourage them to come back. ABOUT: Gigi Butler is the founder of Gigi’s Cupcakes, the largest cupcake franchise in the world with over 100 locations. Her book, The Secret Ingredient: Recipes for Success in Business and Life, is available for preorder now (https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1501173529?tag=simonsayscom). Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio (https://www.hyken.com). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you create a better online support experience for your customers? Shep Hyken is joined by Jamie Edwards, Kayako’s co-founder and chief operating officer, all the way from London, to discuss the importance of live chat, and how it can improve the customer service experience. TOP TAKEAWAYS • Live chat can boost customer loyalty - customers are more likely to stay with or become a repeat customer if a company offers live chat support. • Chatbots are with computers and live chats are with people. When using a chatbot, customers can get a response instantly, yet chatbots are not good enough to replace actual people for anything complex. • With Kayako, the live chat conversation is always ongoing – you can start a conversation, step away from it, and you’ll be able to pick up the conversation right where you left off. • For some businesses, around-the-clock live chat staffing may not be practical – or even expected. For “off hours,” include a message providing business hours, frequently asked questions, and assuring a representative will get back to the customer soon. ABOUT Jamie Edwards is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Kayako, a service helping companies improve their customer service. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How will AI and bots transform customer service in the near future? Shep Hyken discusses the next phase of customer service, automated messaging, with Joshua March, Co-founder and CEO of Conversocial. (https://www.conversocial.com/) Top Takeaways: - March shares his Six Pillars of Customer Service: 1) be prepared for crises in social era; 2) lean into the power of messaging; 3) make effective use of bot technology; 4) deploy AI effectively; 5) adopt a messaging approach to all digital channels; and 6) use social agents as the model of future customer service teams - March gives the history of clients using Twitter or Facebook pages as customer service platforms despite other channels; recent trend is private messaging, which significantly reduces email and chat volumes. - The next evolution in social customer service is artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and automation, which enable humans and bots to exist in the same conversation in a way that isn't really possible on other service channels. - According to March, private messaging is the first service channel to potentially replace phone-based customer service. Although phone AI misunderstandings can lead to awkward transitions to human representatives, messaging AI can make seamless transitions. - Hyken and March both see a trend in consumers very rapidly starting to expect a messaging option. - March urges entrepreneurs to take baby steps – don’t build a massive chat-bot; instead use machine learning to recognize and respond to the most common questions you currently receive. Automating just 25% creates a huge efficiency gain, speeds up resolution for your customers, and saves your agents a lot of hassle. Small changes can yield big returns. - March sees a future in which AI will handle routine questions, while humans will be top-tier agents who can handle complex issues that require greater access and ability to resolve them, so make sure your human messaging agents have good typing skills. About: Joshua March is Co-founder and CEO at Conversocial, provider of social customer service software for Fortune 500 companies. Marsh is also author of the forthcoming book, “Message Me, The Future of Customer Service in the Era of Social Messaging.” Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken sits down with Jeanne Bliss, author of Would You Do That to Your Mother? The “Make Mom Proud” Standard for How to Treat Your Customers, and discusses her book and the art of making customers happy. Top Takeaways: • “Make Mom Proud” businesses are companies that are deliberate regarding how they will and will not make revenue, how they will enable employees to do the right thing, how they charge customers, and how they make it easy or hard to do business. • Jeanne encourages listeners to go to make-mom-proud.com to join the #MakeMomProud movement by posting a picture of their mother and writing something they’ve done to make her proud. • Because customers first interact and communicate with a company’s employees, businesses must first have happy employees. • Would You Do That to Your Mother?, which includes 32 case studies, is split into five parts: 1. Be the Person I Raised You to Be  This chapter discusses enabling your employees to thrive. Bliss emphasizes that hiring is the most important decision for businesses. 2. Don’t Make Me Feed You Soap  This part of the book describes the importance of honoring your customers’ time. 3. Put Others Before Yourself  For businesses to achieve their own goals, they must first make it possible for customers to achieve their goals. 4. Take the High Road  Bliss discusses the need to be fair and not take advantage of customers. Instead, businesses and customers become partners. 5. Stop the Shenanigans  This section of the book summarizes the “mom” lens with questions and includes a “Make-Mom-Proud-ometer” to help evaluate your organization and find out how close you are to being having a “Make Mom Proud” business. About: Jeanne Bliss is the Founder and President of CustomerBliss, and the Co-Founder of The Customer Experience Professionals Association. She is one of the foremost experts on customer-centric leadership and the role of the Chief Customer Officer. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Find the book here: (https://www.amazon.com/Would-You-That-Your-Mother/dp/0735217815/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1525198239&sr=8-1) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you provide a better experience for the customer and an even better one for the agents? Shep Hyken sits down with Brad Birnbaum, CEO and Co-Founder of Kustomer, to talk about how to understand and know everything about your customer. Top Takeaways: • A common problem is when the customer knows that the company has information about them, yet the customer support rep solving the problem doesn’t know anything about the customer. Every support agent should have all the information about the customer in front of them. By having knowledgeable agents, you can increase productivity by 20%. • When you create friction, you end up creating a complaint. To eliminate friction, agents must have the relevant data about the customer at their fingertips, reducing the time of the phone call and the number of emails exchanged. • Consider using a “sentiment rank” to gauge how happy or angry the customer is. Then find all the unhappy customers and reach out to them to try and get them to re-engage. • Chatbots are best used for simple requests and less effective for personal service. Combining a chatbot with a Conversational Form is an effective way to use the chatbot to collect data or conduct a survey. It may feel like a chatbot but is really collecting data along the way. This makes customers feel like they’re immediately in the chat instead of having to make selections to get to the right place. About: Brad Birnbaum is the CEO and Co-founder of Kustomer (https://www.kustomer.com/) and is a 20-plus veteran of the customer service industry. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you like to provide a better survey experience for your customers? Shep Hyken speaks with Martin Powton, Marketing Manager at Wizu. They discuss the importance of receiving feedback and how to overcome some potential issues with creating the wrong survey for your business and your customers. Top Takeaways: Seven Secrets of Successful Surveys 1. Personalization – Personalize your surveys, including the customer’s name, for example. Make sure you make it relevant to their experience, following up with relevant questions and avoid asking the unnecessary ones. Creating a more personal experience will make your customers feel as if you value their answers. 2. Timing – Send surveys in a timely manner – at the right time. For example, if a customer is placing an order for merchandise, you would want to wait until their order was received before you sent out a survey. Sometimes the right time is more immediate. Take Uber, for instance. You receive the survey immediately after the ride. That’s the right time, while the ride is fresh in the customer’s mind. 3. Close the Loop – You need to engage your customers, so try acknowledging the issues during the survey. 4. Be Concise – Don’t waste anyone’s time by asking them to repeat information. Make sure every question is important and that you will gain insight from it. 5. Make the Survey Engaging ¬– Create an engaging experience that speaks to the voice of your brand. You can use creativity to add things to the surveys, such as gifs to make them more entertaining and enjoyable, which in turn will help boost your completion rates. 6. Measure Emotion – Emotion is a key component of the customer experience. Through your survey, you should try to track the sentiment of the customer. Go above just collecting metrics, and discover how your customers feel about you and your organization. 7. Utilize A.I. to Improve Surveys – Use A.I. to help analyze your results, group emotions and touchpoints. Discover your gaps, areas to improve and more. About: Martin Powton is the Marketing Manager at Wizu (https://www.wizu.com/), a company that creates engaging, entertaining and conversational surveys. Martin has worked in marketing for over 10 years and is passionate about customer centricity and the importance of measuring and improving the customer experience. Shep Hyken(https://hyken.com/) is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Questions this episode will answer: 1. Why do we need customer feedback? 2. What is the best method of getting customer feedback? 3. What are important factors of surveys? 4. How do I increase survey completion rates? 5. How do I create the best customer survey? And much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does the future of brand loyalty look like? Shep Hyken sits down with Patrick Reynolds, Chief Marketing Officer for SessionM (https://www.sessionm.com/), to discuss how technology is transforming traditional customer loyalty programs into a dynamic and personalized customer experience. Top Takeaways: - In the past, it was enough for loyalty programs to offer a “punch card” with a buy-nine-get-one-free approach. Now, the quid pro quo is that in exchange for personal data, the customer receives experiences they might not otherwise. You can't get keyless hotel entry or automated coffee pickups if you aren't willing to share your “data,” which many times is just basic information such as an email or phone number. - If you are part of the Nike loyalty program, you won’t get a discount coupon, you get access to content and materials that others don't. That's what makes brands so “sticky” and so compelling for so many years. With Nike, if you buy a pair of tennis sneakers, you may receive content that shows how Roger Federer works out on the off season to achieve greatness, which fuses product and content into an experience that you can only get through their loyalty program. It makes customers feel like they’re getting a peek under the tent that they can't get any other way and makes for extremely compelling content. Another example is the ability to purchase new sneakers in advance of anyone else. - You're looking to drive incremental behavior, transforming a single purchase into a second and third purchase. If you’re coming into my coffeehouse every day, why would I you a free coffee every other Friday? Don’t give a discount to someone who would otherwise pay full price. Instead, give an offer that rewards that customer for coming in later in the same day when they don't normally go. - The future of brand loyalty is going to look like everybody interacting with the same brand, but very differently based off their ambitions, purchase behavior, how they want to interact, and so on. It’s like how there is one Netflix, but we all have our own personalized Netflix. - Any loyalty program is a defining opportunity for a business to demonstrate its loyalty to its customers by delivering amazing experiences, not the other way around. About: Patrick Reynolds is Chief Marketing Officer at SessionM, and has over two decades of experience in various businesses, media, and creative leadership positions at multiple top-tier advertising agencies. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you get happy customers to become your greatest marketing tool? Shep Hyken sits down with Lars Kristensen, founder of NiceJob, to discuss the importance of customer reviews and making them effective marketing tools. TALKING POINTS: - Lars explains how marketing is often based a company’s budget, not the kind of work or product they delivered. With NiceJob, the marketing hub isn’t an overpriced agency, but the individual customer who becomes a vocal fan of the company. This approach increases trust and reach for a fraction of an agency’s cost. - Customers who have a special experience will want to give a glowing review online or share with family friends. After a customer referred a friend, a NiceJob employee found their favorite NFL team on their FB page and ordered them a team jersey. That customer made multiple recommendations since then. Shep emphasizes there’s no need to send branded merchandise, as customers will never forget where a sincere gift came from. - Only 13% of companies ask for feedback. Compared to a referral, Google or Facebook reviews reach every one of the customer’s friends on social media, plus people they’ve never met before. Reviews can refer thousands of people through one awesome review. - Lars explains the best way to ask for a referral is to start by making it personal, not a form email, and to use the customer’s name. Then frame the request to emphasize how a referral will both help the company and their friends and neighbors. - When asked about the best way to ask for a request, Lars explains that customers rarely follow up on a verbal request. Give a verbal head’s up, then contact the customer preferably through mobile since it’s in the customer’s pocket at the point of peak excitement. - Lars says to include specific instructions and the link for leaving a review. The easier you make it, the more likely the customer will follow through. Shep asked if a company should do something with the written review. Lars suggests choosing a powerful review and using it on social media and website along with photo of the customer service experience, which creates social proof. Posts with photos get triple the engagement. - A bad review is an opportunity to show the kind of company you truly are. How you deal with a bad review creates a story you can use over and over. You can transform any negative to really positive review. to win the argument, it's to win the customer. Instead of making it good again, make it exceptional, and make it public, so others will see what you're willing to do to make it right. - For his final thought, Lars emphasizes the importance of turning your customers into fans. It's not enough that you do that great service – you've got to take those customers and get them talking. ABOUT: Lars Kristensen is the Founder of NiceJob, a marketing service that helps companies improve their public reviews and use them to reach a broader customer base. Kristensen used his marketing agency experience to create a low-budget marketing app that yields big returns. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What could virtual power teams do for you? Shep Hyken sits down with Peter Ivanov, author of Virtual Power Teams, and discusses the benefits of teams that are spread across the globe but joined by one central focus. Top Takeaways: • A virtual power team is a team that has a strong gravity, a group of people bound by one central purpose, working together toward one central goal. • There are three groups of people who can benefit from virtual power teams: 1. The team members – This option allows employees to not have to relocate because of a project. They can work from wherever they like. 2. The manager – He or she is given access to the best experts in his or her given field. The manager is not bound by one location to find the best team members. 3. The organization – The organization can get outstanding results because it is able to have a hand in every market worldwide, because of team members working from all over the globe. • 10 key success factors for retaining the gravity in a virtual power team: 1. Personality and focus 2. Strength metrics 3. Interdependent goals 4. Structured communications 5. Knowledge management 6. Regular feedback 7. Recognition 8. Diversity 9. Winning spirit 10. Next generation leaders About: Peter Ivanov is an internationally sought-after keynote speaker, business consultant, executive coach, and author. He has led virtual teams of 100+ people spread across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. His teams have won multiple prestigious corporate awards. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you never lose another customer? Shep Hyken sits down with Joey Coleman to discuss how to “Never Lose a Customer,” which happens to be the title of his amazing book. Transform a single sale into a lifetime of loyalty. Top Takeaways: • Joey’s greatest insight is that regardless of the industry, somewhere between 20% and 70% of new customers will quit doing business with you before reaching the 100-day anniversary of becoming a customer • Brain science tells us when we make a purchase, our brain floods with dopamine because we've made a decision that we believe is going to solve our problems, answer our prayers, be the product of our dreams, and be the service we've always hoped for. When the dopamine recedes, those feelings of joy and euphoria and excitement are replaced with feelings of fear, doubt and uncertainty. This is what we call buyer's remorse. • Joey Coleman’s eight phases of the customer journey: 1. Assess – When customer decides whether to do business with you or not. Your job is to preview the experience of being a customer. 2. Admit – When customer raises hand and admits they have a problem or need your business can solve. This is when the clock starts ticking. 3. Affirm – There's a gap between purchase and when they experience your product or service. The gap is so great between the euphoria or purchase and the creeping doubt immediately following that you must immediately address it. 4. Activate – Energize the interaction with the customer to let the customer know that doing business with you is unlike any business experience they've had before, whether an amazing unboxing experience or a kickoff meeting. Sets the tone going forward. 5. Acclimate – Hold the customer's hand and get them used to doing business with your company. Directions in the box don't count. Do you read the directions before you use a new product? Do you read every contract? Statistically you don't. 6. Accomplish – When customer achieves the goal they had when they originally decided to do business with you. Most businesses don't take the time to ask what the actual goal is. Don't sell a shirt without asking what it's for? If you know the intention, you can track whether the customer achieves that and remind them that's their goal. 7. Adopt – When customer says "I'm loyal to you and I'm taking responsibility for the relationship. I achieved my goal, I want to give you more of my business." These are the loyal fans every customer is hoping for. 8. Advocate – When your fans become raving fans and referral sources, telling everyone they know to do business with you. Quotes: “All the research shows, somewhere between 20% and 70% of your new customers will decide to quit doing business with you before the 100-day anniversary.” “Most businesses don't even know what their defection rate is and when they lift up the hood they realize they're hemorrhaging customers.” “You spend all this time, money, and effort driving people to your door and they're running out the back door as quickly as you get them in the front.” (steph) “Don't ask for feedback too soon. It's like going on a first date and asking to meet the parents.” About: Joey Coleman is an award-winning speaker at both national and international conferences, and author of “Never Lose a Customer.” A former criminal defense attorney, Joey has offered counsel and advice to small start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike, and he’s an expert on developing customer retention strategies. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. For more information on Joey's book please go to: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Lose-Customer-Again-Lifelong/dp/0735220034/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521576268&sr=8-1&keywords=Joey+Coleman&dpID=41OT94NCxmL&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can accountability create Moments of Magic®? Shep Hyken sits down with Sam Silverstein to discuss the importance of fostering a culture of accountability, which empowers employees to give truly amazing customer service. Top Takeaways: • Sam says that to have great customer service, you need accountability from all employees – especially leadership. • Accountability isn’t about doing things, it's a way of thinking – you’re responsible for things and accountable to people. Sam gives an example of a company with customer service in their mission statement, but has notoriously bad customer service. Fixing a problem isn’t accountability, that’s just being responsible. The problems are caused by lack of accountability in the first place. • Some companies can't migrate into a culture of accountability because they are acclimated to unaccountability. • A perfect example of accountability is Happy State Bank, where Sam once saw a man walk into a bank after closing time at 5:15 p.m. He learned that Happy State Bank, even though they close at 5:00, leaves the doors unlocked until 5:30. Why? Because we all hate that feeling of showing up right at 5:00 and the doors are locked. There’s a huge difference between saying you believe in accountability and showing it. • Organizations need to be willing to fire people who don’t live up to its commitments, even if they’re the top salesperson. Not enough employees are firing their companies fast enough when they don’t believe in the organization’s commitments. Why stay somewhere where they don't get it? • Disney practices a high level of accountability, so the people want to work there. If you create an environment where people want to be accountable, you attract the best and you employ the best. This reduces turnover, and improves both customer service and productivity. • Many leaders are focused on their bottom line, not their people. Yes, you need to make a profit, but if you're focused on your people, you create a culture where everyone is focused on the bottom line. • You can't fake accountability. Care about your people, and create an environment that's emotionally safe for them. Care for people like they're your children. When leadership practices accountability, it's going to show up in the culture. About: Sam Silverstein (http://samsilverstein.com/) is a leadership keynote speaker and author of seven books including “Making Accountable Decisions” and “Non-Negotiable.” A former executive of manufacturing and distribution companies, Sam writes, speaks, and consults with organizations around the globe to think differently, work with renewed purpose, and achieve record-breaking results Shep Hyken (https://hyken.com/) is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Engaged Employees Make Happy Customers - Featuring Guest Julie Ann Sullivan by Shep Hyken Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if you knew the “Magic Words” to use with your customers? Shep Hyken sits down with Tim David to discuss the impact that words have on human connection and customer service. Top Takeaways: • TIM’S GENEROUS GIFT: To start with, Tim has offered a free video course on body language. Just visit here - https://www.udemy.com/body-language/?couponCode=dyvg53. • Seven words that motivate, engage, and influence: 1. Because – Studies show that when this word is used, the answer is changed. When not used, the answer may not be the desired one. However, when you add the word “because,” people’s minds change. 2. Yes – The more often we say yes to someone, the more we feel like we like them. The brain loves to use shortcuts, so if it associates a person with the word “yes,” then the relationship is strengthened. Starting the conversation with agreement puts the person on the other end at ease right off the bat. 3. But – When the brain hears this word, everything that came before it is automatically erased as if it were never said. If you’re going to use this word, consider the order in which it comes in a sentence. The meaning is the same, but what’s remembered is different. 4. If – This word engages imagination and frees people up to say what they really feel. When you use “if” and “like” (e.g., “If I had a magic wand, what would be an ideal outcome for you?”) you force the brain to focus on positive outcomes rather than on problems. 5. Name – Using someone’s name allows for a connection to take place. 6. Help – Human connection is a natural reaction. Part of our success as a species comes from working together. But we often have a hard time asking for help. When we do that, we rob people of the opportunity to do what comes naturally. Value the word “help” and create space for it. 7. Thanks – There is so much power behind gratitude. When it is removed, you feel its absence immediately. 8. BONUS WORD: Us – When this word is used, the customer feels as though you are in this together, that you empathize with them. About: Tim David is the author of "Magic Words: The Science and Secrets Behind Seven Words That Motivate, Engage, and Influence." An ex-professional magician, he now teaches salespeople and leaders the magic of prioritizing human connection at work and in life. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are your brand and culture clearly defined? Shep Hyken sits down with Denise Lee Yohn, to discuss her new book, Fusion, and discusses the importance of congruency creating a clearly defined culture, which positively impacts the customer experience. Top Takeaways: • Brand is your external identity and culture is your internal operations. Many companies deal with them as though they are two separate entities. When that happens, a lot of power gets lost. This leads to a disconnect with how the company is run. • As a manager, it is your obligation to treat employees how you would like to be treated. That’s the fundamental level. Once that base is covered, work on engaging your employees the same way you want them to engage your customers. • The problem with mission statements is that many times they are not relevant to employees, and definitely not to customers. They are written for annual reports and are too business-y. If there is a disconnect with the mission statement and the brand of the company, employees get confused when it comes time to make decisions. They are not sure if the decision should be based on the mission statement, or on the brand. When this happens, the employees are not set up for success. • A mission statement should be a filter, a lens in which you see everything through. It should serve as a clarifying, unifying, and motivating idea for everyone who is impacted by the company. • In order to cultivate the desired culture within your organization, leadership must take responsibility for it. So much of what employees communicate comes as an example from leaders, who set the tone. • Do sweat the small stuff: rituals, artifacts, policies and procedures. These things seem like mundane elements, but they are little things that make a big impact. • Ignite your transformation: kick off your culture statement and then sustain the momentum for employee brand engagement. You don’t just want happy and productive employees, you want happy and productive employees that create extraordinary experiences. The only way they can do that is if they truly understand the company’s mission. • Build your brand from the inside out. When your culture is healthy, you can take what you are doing on the inside and then make it meaningful to customers. Make that part of your identity. About: Denise Lee Yohn is the go-to expert on brand-building for national media outlets, an in-demand speaker and consultant, and an influential writer. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken sits down with Tom Karinshak, Executive VP of Customer Service at Comcast, to discuss the importance of investing in training and equipping employees so that they can better serve customers. Top Takeaways: • Your customers know what good customer service is. They aren’t usually comparing your service to a direct competitor. They are comparing it to any company that gives them good service, no matter what the company is selling. • Look around and take notes from companies that are giving great service. You are a customer as well. When you have a great experience, implement those strategies into your own business. • Meet your customers where they want to be met. This could be social media, chat, phone calls, email, etc. In whatever way your customers want to reach you, make sure you are there. • It’s so important to get things right the first time around so that there doesn’t have to be a second time. • Employees must be armed with the proper tools, technology, and training so that they are able to give great customer experiences. • Consistency amongst employees is so critical. When customers ask questions, there should be consistent answers, no matter who they talk to. • Ask your customers for feedback on how you can be better. But also ask your employees for feedback on how the company can be a better place to work. About: Tom Karinshak serves as Executive Vice President of Customer Service for Comcast Cable. Tom oversees call center operations including phone, chat and social media agents, in addition to other key touch points and service channels with customers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How well do you deal with angry and complaining customers? Shep Hyken talks with Skip Cohen about the best ways to solve problems and deal with unhappy customers. Top Takeaways: • When you empathize with an unhappy customer, this immediately lets them know that you are there to help and they feel valued. Tell them you understand their frustration and let them know that you would feel the same way if you were in their shoes. Then, let them know the problem stops here, that you are here to resolve it. • Three keys to offering a great customer service experience: 1. Fast response times – How fast is fast enough? As soon as you come into contact with the customer you should respond. So, as soon as you see that email or as soon as you listen to the voicemail, that is when you get back to them. 2. Have the solution – Be equipped to solve the problems and resolve the complaints you are getting. 3. Listen – When you listen to the customer and really hear them out, you get a clearer picture of where they are at and exactly what they need. • Don’t be afraid to hear what is wrong with your company. It’s in the complaints that you are given the great opportunity for change and innovation. About: Skip Cohen is co-host of the webcast Mind Your Own Business, and is the founder of SkipCohenUniversity (http://www.skipcohenuniversity.com/), considered one of the fastest growing educational sites in professional photography. He is the co-author of six books on photography. Shep Hyken (https://hyken.com/) is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you where your customers want you to be? Shep Hyken sits down with Murph Krajewski, discussing the importance of knowing what channels your customers want you to be on. Top Takeaways: • Omni-channels today are more of a mindset than a definable term. It’s about being wherever a perspective customer is. Omni can be synonymous with multi, meaning there are multiple ways customers can connect with a company. • It is crucial for a company to be on as many channels as possible in order to be easily accessible by its customers. • The big difference between marketing and customer service is that marketing is looking to give messages, whereas customer service needs to be ready to receive messages. It’s a company’s responsibility to know how their customers want to reach them. • A practical thing that companies can do when it comes to channels, is to stop thinking about channels. Reject the assumption that omni-channel is a list of features. It is simply a concept. • Let the customer define what the perfect experience is. It doesn’t matter how you think your customers want to reach you. It’s what they want that matters. • Find technology that fits what you need rather than trying to mold your company to a certain technology. About: Murph Krajewski is VP of Marketing at Sharpen (https://sharpencx.com/), a cloud-based contact center platform. He has been in the contact center industry for nearly 20 years, in a variety of roles. These days, Murph is focused on creating better experiences for contact center agents. Shep Hyken (https://hyken.com/) is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if you could be speak your ideal customer’s language? Shep Hyken sits down with Jeffrey Shaw to discuss his new book LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer’s Language and Make Your Business Irresistible. Top Takeaways: • Go deep and horizontal in your area of expertise. The new “niche” is an expansive business model. Decide who you want your customers to be, and then build a brand around them. Once you nail that down, you can then go horizontal because there will be multiple audiences who want what you’re offering. • Lingo, by definition, is the language between a community. When it comes to your business, who is your community? Once you figure that out, you can decide what language you are going to speak. Lingo is also understanding what isn’t said, the unspoken. When a business speaks to that, the customer feels like the company really understands them. • Rather than build a business you want and try to cram customers into it, build a business with your ideal customers in mind. • When you think of your customers as a community rather than just a data base, that changes the way you see them. That causes you to care for them. • Understand that each of your customers, though they all may have some things in common, are unique individuals and want to be treated that way. • Realize that customers no longer want you to define their experience for them. They want to create their own. You’re setting the stage, but allowing them to make it what they want it to be. • Every customer is a valued one, whether they buy frequently or once, or whether they spend a lot of money or a little. We don’t have to buy into the 80/20 rule that says only 20 percent of customers make up 80 percent of sales. If you are marketing to your ideal customers, this number should not exist. • The process to developing the secret language of your ideal customer: 1. Perspective – Understand how they see the world. 2. Familiarity – Create comfort in your environments, in everything the customer does to interact with your business. 3. Style – Customers resonate with style and whether or not it matches their own. You want to emulate the style of your ideal customer so that it draws them in. 4. Pricing Psychology – This should attract your ideal customer, not scare them away. Pricing creates the right perception for what you offer. 5. Words – If your words aren’t chosen carefully to draw a specific kind of customer, you end up getting whoever comes along. About: Jeffrey Shaw is the author of LINGO, a book focused on helping businesses stand out (https://www.amazon.com/LINGO-Discover-Customers-Language-Irresistible/dp/0999518704), attract their ideal customer, and create brand loyalty that supersedes price. He is also a portrait photographer whose work has been featured in People Magazine and on The Oprah Show. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken Interviews Jeff Day, CEO of Bluewater Technologies What if you could be face-to-face with your customers, anytime, anywhere? Shep Hyken sits down with Jeff Day, discussing virtual reality and how companies are using this technology to better serve their customers. Top Takeaways: • Virtual reality uses a headset to have multi-projected environments of a space create the realistic sensation of physically being somewhere. It’s being somewhere without actually being there. • Augmented reality projects in a physical space items that are not physically there. This uses more camera and sensory technology. • Google created Google Cardboard, a small headset device made out of cardboard that turns your mobile phone into a virtual reality headset. In 2016, 88 million units were sold. • The Kindle Fire Mayday Button allows you to instantly have a person pop up on your screen and be there to guide you through your problem. It’s not a recording. It’s a real live person in a call center speaking directly to you, on your device, helping you out. • Microsoft HoloLens allows you to take and pin virtual display monitors in the air, so that they don’t occupy any physical space. When the glasses are worn, the images hover in the air in front of you and allow you to manipulate and move the images. • People want to see and experience something before they buy it. Think about what your customers would like to see, in virtual reality or augmented realty, and ask yourself if you can bring that experience to life virtually for them. About: Jeff Day is the CEO of Bluewater Technologies (http://bluewatertech.com), a Detroit-based technology company that specializes in experiential marketing and events. Jeff and his company want to help enterprising brands better tell their stories. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Smallest Things Can Make the Biggest Difference to Your Customer Shep Hyken Interviews Chris Smoje, Founder of DIME Customer Service What can you be doing to make a big difference for your customers? Shep Hyken and Chris Smoje discuss how the smallest actions can make the greatest impact on your customers. Top Takeaways: • The DIME Customer Service approach: Deliberate Interactions Memorable Experiences • Four stages of service: You can’t have one without the other. They must all go together, like steps or levels. 1. Habitual – This goes hand-in-hand with being deliberate. Great service must be practiced all the time, and it will become habit. Great service doesn’t happen by accident. It is intentional. 2. Enjoyable – Giving customer service is like giving a gift. Doing it should bring joy. It creates a positive emotion, and the gift giver expects nothing in return. 3. Remarkable – To get customers’ attention, something remarkable must happen. This doesn’t have to be something big; it just needs to stand out. 4. Transformational – There is so much more to a sale than just making a sale. In some way or another, each interaction with a customer leads to some kind of change in their life. It goes so much deeper than just what is seen on the surface. • The five values of a service-focused team: AEIOU 1. Accountable – Every member of the team must be on the same page, and must be held accountable. 2. Energetic – In front of customers, there’s a particular way you must behave. Staff members need to bring energy into each interaction. 3. Innovative – You don’t have to have a lot of resources, or a huge staff to give great customer service. Empower the people you do have so the leadership can focus on the tasks they need to get done. 4. Optimistic – When an organization knows what it’s doing, there is clarity and purpose. It’s important to internalize and really understand what works best for you. Since customer service is a long-term game, evolution is always happening. In order to get through this, optimism is critical. 5. Unique – Leaders must be connected to their customers. This allows the leaders to understand that each customer is unique. In turn, the customers can be served better. About: Chris Smoje is the founder of DIME Customer Service where he works with organizations to achieve service excellence through their culture, interactions, processes, and experiences. He is a regular media commentator on customer service in Australia. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doing the Opposite of Normal Can Lead to Better Customer Service Shep Hyken Interviews Jesse Cole, Author of Find Your Yellow Tux Featured Interview: Do your “fans” come first? When customers come first, success follows. Shep Hyken speaks with Jesse Cole about how to stand out from the competition and create perfect customer service experiences for your customers. Top Takeaways: • To stand out in business, do the opposite of what is normal. Do what the competition is not doing. • Three areas where you need to find your “Yellow Tux” 1. Yellow Tux yourself – Have a mirror moment. Figure out what frustrates you about your life and how you can start over. Then, figure out what you are best at and run with it. 2. Yellow Tux your business – Have the same mirror moment. Focus on the areas you are best at, and don’t force yourself to do the things you aren’t skilled in. 3. Yellow Tux your legacy – Think about the difference you make, and not just on your accomplishments. Significance over success is what you should be after. • Six steps to creating attention, standing out, and creating the perfect customer service experience: 1. Have a mirror moment – Look at where you are and where you would like to be. 2. Ask the best question – What can you and your company be the best at? 3. Embrace the different mindset – Whatever is normal, do the opposite. 4. Hello world moment – Create attention to stand out. 5. Love your customers more than you love your product. 6. Make reinvention part of your DNA – Change constantly in order to create attention. About: Jesse Cole is the owner of Fans First Entertainment, who owns and operates the Savannah Bananas and the Gastonia Grizzlies. Cole is the author of Find Your Yellow Tux – How to Be Successful by Standing Out. He is also the host of the Business Done Differently podcast. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do your customers trust you? Shep Hyken sits down with David Horsager, discussing the importance of trust and how gaining it from your customers is the most significant thing you can do. Top Takeaways: • Trust is a confident belief in a product or an organization. When there is confident belief, everything changes. When trust goes up, creativity and loyalty do as well. Cost and suspicion goes down. • When employees get treated properly, it trickles down and the customers feel that. • 8 pillars that hold up the trust edge: Without just one, you could lose trust. All 8 are necessary to gain trust. 1. Consistency – If you do something consistently, customers will come to expect you to do that, whether it be good or bad. 2. Clarity – People trust the clear, and mistrust the ambiguous. 3. Compassion – If customers believe they are cared about, they will trust you. 4. Character – Do what is right, not what is easy. 5. Competency – Stay fresh and relevant, and capable of being trusted. 6. Commitment – Companies that are trusted most are ones that stick with it. 7. Connection – How we connect and collaborate is vital. 8. Contribution – Trust comes to those who get results, those who perform. About: David Horsager, MA, CSP, CPAE, is the CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute, national bestselling author of The Trust Edge, inventor of the Enterprise Trust Index, and director of one of the nation’s foremost trust studies: The Trust Outlook. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken Interviews Eddie Yoon, Author of Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth Do your customers feel like friends, or just transactions? Shep Hyken speaks with Eddie Yoon, an expert in growth strategy and marketing. Top Takeaways: • Leaders of organizations need to have strong personal brands for the employees to rally around and get behind. Not only is this important for entrepreneurs, it is better for large organizations to have leaders with strong personal brands as well. • You don’t have to create an entirely new product or service. You just need to reinvent the way that it is being offered, and reinvent the way it gets delivered. That’s the key. • Disruption completely changes the way an industry works. You don’t have to be as big as Uber or Amazon. You just have to think about what can be done that the competition isn’t doing. • A company that thrives is one that knows that not every customer is the same. They empathize with customers and strive to delight them. These companies know they have a lot to learn from the customers. • Superconsumers are your customers who come back over and again, your loyal customers. They want and deserve sympathy, respect, and generosity. When the company delivers what the customer wants, the results will be dramatic and bigger than ever imagined. • Social media is a great place to find your superconsumers. About: Eddie Yoon is the founder of EDDIEWOULDGROW, a think tank advisory firm on growth strategy. Eddie is the author of the acclaimed book Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth (Harvard Business School Press, 2016). Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you like a perfect way to reach your customers and keep their attention? Personalizing the customer experience is a hot topic. Shep Hyken sits down with customer personalization expert, Jim Steinberg, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Partnerships at LoyaltyPlant. Top Takeaways: • There is an engagement crisis happening among marketers. Most marketers have the proper tools, but they aren’t using them properly. Sending something to a customer is all about when and where you send it. The crisis occurs when the wrong customer gets the wrong information, or when they get it at the wrong time or in the wrong place. • The four R’s of Marketing: 1. Get the RIGHT MESSAGE 2. To the RIGHT CUSTOMER 3. At the RIGHT TIME 4. In the RIGHT PLACE. -If this formula is properly implemented, the customer is going to be absolutely delighted. And, mobile is really the only medium that can do this properly. • Don’t confuse the concept of personal information with personalized information. Personalization is about one-to-one marketing. It’s getting specific and personalized message to a specific individual. Customers don’t mind sharing personal information in order to receive a personalized and relevant experience. About: Jim Steinberg is Senior Vice President of Enterprise Partnerships at LoyaltyPlant. He is passionate about transforming the face of mobile marketing for restaurant chains using the disruptive force of the LoyaltyPlant platform. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Know Your Customers. Understand Your Customers. Keep Your Customers. Shep Hyken Interviews Shannon Bell, Head of Product Management and Strategy at Amdocs Featured Interview: How are you using Artificial Intelligence to better understand your customers? Shep Hyken interviews Shannon Bell, digital intelligence expert, discussing the importance of integrating AI into business and how it benefits the customers and the company long-term. Top Takeaways: • Customers crave personalization. Meet them where they are. Who are they? What do they like? Can you suggest something to them? Stats show that customers buy more when the sale is personalized. It’s the ethical upsale. • In this day and age, generic promotions should no longer exist. Make sure you don’t give everyone the same blanket promotions. Create specific promotions based on the personal preferences of your customers, this not only can create an upsell, but customer loyalty. • Bots won’t understand 100% of everything. It’s critical that the transition from bot to human is seamless when this happens. • AI is best used to handle the generic queries. Within call centers, the questions that are asked most frequently are best answered by bots. These are the simple interactions. For the more complicated situations, this is where a human steps in. • The goal within AI is to get to a point where every interaction can be handled through digital channels. Then it becomes up to the company to decide which interactions get handled by humans and which by non-humans. • Know the customer. Understand the customer. Don’t recommend the wrong items. About: Shannon Bell leads product management, strategy, and go-to market for Amdocs’ digital, intelligence, and BSS portfolio as part of Amdocs Technology. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Create a Culture Where Employees Come First Shep Hyken Interviews Terry Cain and Steve Church, Co-authors of “The Pinwheel” Featured Interview: How would you like to create a culture and working environment that is better for your employees, which in turn is better for your customers? Shep Hyken sits down with not just one but two guests, Terry Cain and Steve Church. The co-writers of “The Pinwheel” and partners in business, Terry and Steve discuss the importance of involving employees in creating a culture that is better for everyone: leadership, staff, and customers. Top Takeaways: • Involve employees in the creation of values. • Employees must come first. When employees are happy, they treat customers well, which causes them to come back time and time again. • 5 core values 1. Integrity 2. Customer Service 3. Accountability 4. Teamwork 5. Innovation • If employees aren’t part of the process, they may not want to buy in to the values. This creates problems for the leadership. • Some companies have “heroes,” people who create an amazing experience for the customer. However, the next time that customer comes back, they could be dealing with a different employee and have a completely different experience. A good company will have consistency, and all employees will be great, eliminating the hero idea altogether. • The 7 Veins of the Pinwheel: These are required to create a culture where all employees understand the importance of delivering great experiences to each customer. 1. Vision 2. Attitude 3. Knowledge & Skills 4. Systems & Processes 5. Accountability 6. Passion 7. Integrity & Values Pick the one that seems most important to your company and work on that one first. Once you seem to have a good handle on that one, you can move on to the next. Never try to attack or take on all seven at a time. Go one at a time. About: Terry Cain: Terry’s “dream position” as VP responsible for global customer engagement led to the co-writing of the book “The Pinwheel.” His experience includes 30 years in sales, business development, process mastery, change management, and customer engagement. Steve Church: At Avnet, Steve has held positions as Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Chief Human Resources Officer, Corporate Strategy Officer, Corporate Business Development Officer, and Chief Operational Excellence Officer. Steve co-wrote “The Pinwheel” with Terry Cain. Terry and Steve left long careers at Avnet to create their own company, Pinwheel Partners, which focuses on helping executive management teams create cultures that are better environments for the employees. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Experience Shep Hyken Interviews Jeff Nicholson, Customer Engagement Thought Leader Featured Interview: Jeff Nicholson enlightens listeners to what he refers to as The Seven Deadly Sins of the Customer Experience Journey. He shares the importance of understanding what customers need, meeting those needs, and the best methods of delivering it to them. Top Takeaways: There are seven deadly “sins” along the journey of meeting customers’ needs: 1. Proximity – Are you aware of, or are you close enough to, your customer’s moment of need? Customers want to be able to cognitively offload their need onto the company. The resolution or fulfillment may not come immediately, but the offload of the need can happen sooner and the customer will feel better knowing it’s being taken care of. 2. Accessibility – Your service, is it fit for function, and in the way that the customer wants to consume it? Companies often offer services in a way that works well for them, without keeping the customers’ needs in mind. They offer answers on their own terms, not on the terms of the customer. 3. Duration/Expediency – How fast can you resolve an issue? Some processes will take time, but where can you speed up the process? Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that you rush your customers. 4. Visibility – Are you transparent? Customers want to know where they stand. Even if something is not yet resolved, customers want to know what step of the process they are at. If something can’t be quick, let the customer know; keep them in the loop. When they are informed, they feel valued. 5. Disconnectedness – Is there continuity across all channels? Is your business consistent on the website, on social media, et cetera? Can customers find all of the same information no matter the chosen source? 6. Irresolution – How accurate are you? Did you resolve the problem, or just resolve the call? Is the customer all set, or will they have the same problem again? Are you in such a hurry to resolve the situation that you fail the customer in their journey? Never leave a customer needing more help. 7. Amnesia – How well do you remember the customer and their information? When the customer returns to a channel, does their info get saved or is everything lost, causing them to start over from scratch? About: Jeff Nicholson is Vice President of CRM Product Marketing at Pegasystems. Jeff leads Pega’s CRM market on vision and strategy. A recognized customer engagement thought leader, Jeff works closely with industry analysts and has been a frequent presenter at CRM industry events on subjects including consumer engagement strategy, customer analytics, digital marketing, and customer journey best practice. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI Fuels Virtual Assistants in the Customer Service World Shep Hyken Interviews Robert Weideman on the Merging of AI and Customer Service Featured Interview: How would you like to utilize innovative technology that makes your business more efficient in order to create better customer interactions? Shep Hyken sits down with Robert Weideman, a leader in merging customer service and Artificial Intelligence. Robert gives insight into what customers want and need, and how businesses can deliver it most effectively with the help of AI. Top Takeaways: • Chatbots differ from virtual assistants in that virtual assistants can do more and provide more information. There is more data that goes into a virtual assistant than a chatbot. Chatbots are much simpler and geared toward one specific platform. • AI is measured on a spectrum. A chatbot could be compared to an elementary school student, and a virtual assistant could be compared to someone with a PhD. Virtual assistants are able to have conversations, whereas typical chatbots cannot connect separate sentences. • Virtual assistants are intended to be mimicking a human. In order to do that, the following must happen: o Understanding the words being spoken o Ability to talk back using text to speak o Ability to identify someone by their voice o Understanding what is meant within the context o Ability to have a conversation through advanced dialogue systems • Combining AI with human interaction leads to a much more effective interaction with the customer. The customers questions can be answered or problems resolved much faster than if done by human alone. • As a company, you must automate to all channels because that’s what customers want: to be able to reach you on Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. They want to be able to reach you in the platforms they are already using daily. Customers want control of how and when they connect with companies. • When multiple platforms are used, customers become “friends.” They can text a simple message, in the same way they could to a family member, and get the necessary response. About: Robert Weideman is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division, responsible for customer self-service solutions that are used by leading organizations around the world to automate and optimize the customer care experience – from the call center to the Web and mobile devices. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Turn One-Time Purchasers Into Lifelong Customers Shep Hyken Interviews Joey Coleman, Author of “Never Lose a Customer Again” Featured Interview: How would you like to never lose a customer again? Award-winning speaker Joey Coleman shares the secrets behind not only gaining new customers, but also how to make them customers for life. He shares his 100 Days principle, and discusses his new book “Never Lose a Customer Again.” Top Takeaways: • The Difference Between Customer Service and Customer Experience: Customer service is usually reactive, or the detailed, tactical steps taken when dealing with customers whereas customer experience is usually proactive consisting of the interactions, perceptions, and the feelings and emotions created with a customer. • Customers for life are built within the first 100 days. The 100 Days principle is a strategy for running a business, starting from the moment a customer decides to do business with your company. From there, it’s a ticking clock from day 1 to day 100. This is an opportunity to navigate the customer through a journey. • Social media should be used more as a listening device than as a megaphone device. You should be listening to what your customers are saying at an individualized level on social media so that you can personalize their experience versus using social media as megaphone for you to blast your content and message out to the world. • After closing the deal with the customer, the job is not done. Continually nurture the relationship, rather than just walking away after a sale is made. That is how you create loyalty. About: Joey Coleman helps companies keep their customers. An award-winning speaker, he works with organizations around the world ranging from small startups to major brands such as Deloitte, Hyatt Hotels, Zappos, and NASA. He is co-host of the “Experience This” podcast with customer thought leader, Dan Gingiss. His First 100 Days methodology fuels the remarkable experiences his clients deliver. In his upcoming book, “Never Lose a Customer Again,” (scheduled for publication March 2018) he shares strategies and tactics for turning one-time purchasers into lifelong customers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wouldn’t you like to learn a few tips from a company that sees over 35 million customers a year? Shep and Steve Hockett, President of Great Clips, discuss the importance of knowing your customers and delivering a consistently amazing customer service experience. Steve shares how information about roughly 35 million customers’ information each year are put into a database, so that each and every time they return, the salon knows exactly how to best serve them individually. As President of Great Clips, Inc, Steve preaches the importance of consistency on every level so that every customer has an predictably amazing experience. Top Takeaways: -There is much we can learn from the Great Clips Approach: customers are coming primarily as customers of a Great Clips salon, not to a specific stylist. The Great Clips experience is about the brand, not an individual that works there. -Great Clips knows their customers, when they last came in for a haircut, and when they need to come back for the next one. They understand what the customers want and what’s important to them. -The Great Clips Five Steps to Customer Care: 1. Greet the customer when they come in, with eye contact. 2. The consultation – ask the customer what they want. 3. Create the cut, and talk product. 4. The confirmation – make sure they are happy. 5. Thank the customer and invite them to come back. -Great Clips is hyper-focused on what they do best. They cut hair. They don’t do manicures, pedicures, or massages. They offer quick, efficient, high quality, moderate price haircuts, and are able to repeat that experience every time. -Great Clips is using technology to connect with their customers. They call it Clip Notes… notes about each customer’s specific details. What clipper guard number was used , what kind of neckline, etc. It’s all stored in the cloud. So, when a customer comes to Great Clips, if they’ve ever been there before, no matter the location, all the details of the previous haircut show up. Also in the Clip Notes are personal details of the client… did this customer just get married, or recently go on vacation…? That all helps build rapport. -The power of managing the wait time is given to the customer. The Great Clips app allows their customers to know exactly how long the wait time is so that they can avoid the busiest times. -Great Clips knows it can’t be all things to all people. It’s about simplicity and staying in their lane. About: Steve Hockett is President of Great Clips, Inc, soon to be CEO beginning in January 2018. Steve began his career with Great Clips, Inc. in 1988 and has spent 20 years with Great Clips in three separate segments, serving in various positions starting as a franchise owner. During his experience, he has worked extensively in marketing and operations, and was heavily involved in the massive growth of the system from 150 units to now over 4,200 operating salons in the United States. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it comes to receiving complaints, there are many people who would view this as a negative occurrence. However, Josh Liebman encourages companies to seek out complaints, saying that there are likely many other people who feel the same way, but will never say anything. Without complaints, you never know what needs improving. Shep speaks with Josh Liebman, an expert in handling complaints. Josh is a fanatic about the benefits of hearing complaints. He encourages companies to seek out constructive criticism in order to improve their way of doing business. Josh also explains how to recover from service failures and gain loyal customers. If you have customers (and I know you do), this this is a powerful must-listen-to episode of Amazing Business Radio! Top Takeaways: In addition to amazing information about mystery shopping and managing customer complaints, Josh Liebman shares his LTAST formula for managing service failure: • L – Listen: Understand and process the complaint. Validate the customer’s comments even if you don’t agree with what is being said. • T – Thank: Thank the customer for the complaint. Don’t get defensive. This will tear down the wall between you and the customer. • A – Apologize: Apologize, but don’t apologize for the cause of the complaint; apologize for the effect. If you apologize for the cause, this only places blame on someone or something. • S – Solve: Provide specific service recovery that fits the complaint. • T – Thank: Thank the customer again, this time for the opportunity to make it right. Also, thank them for future business that will result because of the solution. About: Josh Liebman is the Director of Business Development at Amusement Advantage, Inc. (http://www.amusementadvantage.com/). In this role, Josh has enabled numerous attractions to improve how they meet and exceed expectations, and then follow through by harnessing satisfaction and converting it to lifelong loyalty. With more than 12 years of experience in the Hospitality, Tourism, and Attractions Industry, Joshua specializes in guest experience training, feedback analysis, mystery shopping, and quality assurance consulting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There seems to be a lot of talk about artificial intelligence lately, but what do we really know about it? Is it anything like what we see in the movies, like computers taking over the world, or is it something else entirely? Mikhail Naumov shares in-depth what AI is and what it can do for companies when it is properly partnered with human interaction. Featured Interview: Shep talks to Mikhail about artificial intelligence, and how it can be a tool for customer service employees. Mikhail shares with listeners the benefits, and value that using AI can bring to every type of company. At his company, DigitalGenius, the main focus is tying AI to customer support. Top Takeaways: • AI is best used when it is teamed up with real people – the combination is better than the sum of its parts. • Some companies want AI to be used for everything, but successful companies use it to focus on one thing, one function. In the case of DigitalGenius, that one focus point is customer support. • AI is a tool for customer service representatives, in the same way that a calculator is a tool. • AI does not eliminate the customer’s interaction with a human customer service representative; rather it adds to it, fueling the knowledge behind the agent. • When done properly, the integration of AI and human interaction is so seamless that the customer is completely unaware of its existence. • AI can range in capability, depending on the size of the company using it. It can do more for bigger companies, but that doesn’t mean smaller companies can’t join the AI revolution. • AI isn’t magic. It is simple mathematics based on history. The machine learns and understands based on past interactions with customers, and then knows what information to deliver that is most useful and helpful. About: Mikhail Naumov is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of DigitalGenius, a venture backed artificial intelligence company focused on transforming customer service and brand communications. He is the leading voice in the Human+AI movement, which focuses on the seamless interaction of human and machine intelligence in business applications and everyday life. Mikhail was recognized as Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Enterprise Technology. He is passionate about bringing emerging technologies to life. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. (www.hyken.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is common belief that the customer’s needs should always come first, but what if employees’ needs were put first in order to ensure customer satisfaction? James Dodkins shares his ideas on what a company looks like when the employees are made top priority, so that in return they can be best prepared to treat customers as their main focus. Featured Interview: Shep speaks with James Dodkins about his idea of what it looks like for companies to put employees first and customers second. James shares seven key components to creating a working culture that best allows for customer success, when the employees are taken care of first and foremost. Giveaway: Download James’ book Foundations for Customer Centricity at no charge! (URL - http://www.jamesdodkins.com/books.html) Top Takeaways: Seven components to creating a culture of outstanding customer experience: 1. Vision: Have a core understanding of who your customer is, what their needs are, and what a successful outcome would be. 2. Align: Align the vision around the delivery of those specific things. 3. Capability: Make sure the people within the company are skilled enough to make the vision come to life. 4. Workplace: Have the right environment for the right employees, to ensure the best work is being done. 5. Incentive: Make sure workers are getting paid for doing the right and important things, not just doing mundane tasks. 6. Resources: People within the company must have the budget to be able to make the right things happen for the customer. 7. Empowerment: Without this key component, the rest don’t work. Workers must feel confident that their decisions will be supported by leadership within the company. About: James Dodkins helps companies create outstanding and unforgettable customer experiences. He travels the globe learning the secrets of the world’s best performing companies, and he uses that information to help organizations replicate that success. He specializes in customer experience and customer centricity. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you like to be able to anticipate your customers’ needs before the even ask? Featured Interview: Shep Hyken interviews Daniel Burrus, author of The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change Into Opportunity and Advantage, in which he explains how to predict what customers need rather than simply waiting to be asked. They discuss understanding the difference between anticipatory customer service and reactionary customer service. Daniel shares with listeners the importance of being able to predict problems before they occur, and how to predict game-changing opportunities to redefine and reinvent customer service. Top Takeaways: • Know the difference between assumption and fact. • Look at the big problems like you would an onion, and peel back the layers until you get to the core. • Anticipating doesn’t have to be based on a feeling. It can be based on fact. • Two types of trends to help you anticipate: 1. Hard trends – based on future facts. These can’t be stopped. 2. Soft trends – based on assumption. These can be changed. • Look at the hard trends and look to create opportunities based on facts. • Predict where your customer is going so that you can meet them at the next intersection. About: Daniel Burrus is considered one of the World’s Leading Futurists on Global Trends and Innovation. The New York Times has referred to him as one of the top three business gurus in the highest demand as a speaker. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Would you like every employee to know how they fit into your company’s customer experience? Shep Hyken interviews Doug Bell, founder of The Experience Manager, a system that helps manage and unify the entire customer experience. Featured Interview: Shep and Doug discuss the importance of unifying the customer experience throughout an entire company, Every employee must understand how they fit into the customer’s journey. Top Takeaways: • Decide how your company wants to interact with your market. What do you want your customers to experience when they do business with you? Whatever the answer, it must be packed into every touchpoint the customer has with your company. This is the beginning of “experience management,” • The true problem with managing the customer experience comes when employees don’t understand how they fit into the overall customer experience. • The customer experience must be evaluated and managed EVERY DAY. You should always ask yourself, “What can we learn from today’s experience that can make tomorrow’s even better?” • The best way to change the way a company manages its customer experience starts with unifying your customer experience vision throughout the entire company. About: Doug Bell is a CX consultant and the founder of The Experience Manager, a platform that allows companies to build their customer journey map, and in turn, keep ALL customer interactions that your company is managing known to across all departments. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you like to be the Nordstrom of your industry? Well stay tuned and you’ll learn tips to help you do just that! Shep Hyken interviews Robert Spector, author of The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence: Creating a Values-Driven Service Culture. Featured Interview: Shep and Robert discuss the impact Nordstrom’s values and culture have on their customer and employee experience. Robert shares a bit about the history of Nordstrom – like the facts they have been around 116 years – they’ve survived two world wars, made it through The Great Depression, and more. Nordstrom sets a standard above the rest by making trust their number one value and by constantly innovating and adapting to the changing consumer buying habits. This is all about customer service and creating a customer focused culture that makes customers want to come back again and again! Top Takeaways: • Don’t try to convince employees to share your core values – you want to attract employees who already instill your core values. • Trust – it is the basis for all relationships. Nordstrom demonstrates how it trusts it’s employees through their unique employee handbook which is on a 5 by 7 card that reads on one side, “Welcome to Nordstrom we’re glad to have you with our company, we have only one rule…” Turn it over to reveal that one rule, “Use good judgment in all situations.” • Three Incredible Truths 1. Most people want to do a good job. 2. Most people want to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. 3. It’s up to management to make that happen. • Innovation and Adaptation – Nordstrom has been around so long due to its ability to innovate and adapt. They started as a shoe store. They moved into selling clothing and accessories. They moved from just the big store anchoring a mall to the addition of Nordstrom Rack, an online presence and several forward-thinking concepts. And throughout all of this they never lost sight of the importance of the customer. Everything is about the customer! • Define and live your values – If you want to instill a culture of employee and customer focus, you have to identify your values and then hire, attract, and coach to those values – that’s how you become the Nordstrom of your industry (and you have to emphasize that every day). About: Robert Spector is and author, teacher, co-founder of RSI consultancy and the co-author of The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence: Creating a Values-Driven Service Culture. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you looking to deliver a better customer experience? Then you are in the right place! Shep Hyken interviews Judy Hoberman, President of Selling in a Skirt – international speaker, trainer, coach, mentor, and author, who has a passion for customer experience. Featured Interview: Shep and Judy Hoberman discuss how S.K.I.R.T. and K.I.S.S. can help you create better customer experiences for your organization. Judy shares how building relationships is the key to gaining and keeping your customers. Top Takeaways: • S – Standing Out – We live in a noisy world, you need to figure out how to stand out as an expert in your field. When you give someone an experience it has to be something that they love so much that they are going want to do it again and bring back their friends. Do the best that you can do – then do even a bit more, that’s how you create walking ambassadors (customer advocates). • K – Keys to Success - You have a toolbox you work with every day. There is something in that toolbox that you’re going to use that is going to make sure your customers are getting the experience that you want them to get. Judy’s keys to success focus on asking questions. You don’t want to be interesting to your customer, you want to be interested in your customer. If you show somebody you care, then they will want to gravitate towards you and bring you into their circle – which makes them your customer advocate. • I – Inspiration - Sometimes we need to be inspired to do the best job we can do. And, sometimes we inspire others, without even knowing we are inspiring them. Something as simple as an image posted on social media can inspire someone. • R – Results – Everything is judged on results. Everyone looks at results. Decide how far you want to push yourself. Don’t make the goal too hard or too easy. You need to set yourself up for success. • T – Time Management – It doesn’t matter who you are, everyone struggles with some sort of time management. Put the cell phone down, be in that moment, and show someone enough respect by truly being present. • KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid – If you’re trying to get people to have a great experience you have to make it easy and you have to make it obvious. You also have to know what it is that your customer is really looking for. If you’re not 100% sure – ASK – people will tell you exactly what it is that they want. Make it simple, exciting, and motivating. About: Judy Hoberman is the President of Selling in a Skirt, an international speaker, trainer, coach, mentor, and author. Judy’s mission is to help her clients live the S.K.I.R.T. philosophy while having fun! She is the author of ‘Selling in a Skirt,’ ‘Famous Isn’t Enough,’ ‘Pure Wealth’ and her upcoming book is called ‘Walking on the Glass Floor.’ Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do your customer facing employees have everything they need to do their jobs properly? Shep Hyken interviews Murph Krajewski, VP at Sharpen, a cloud based service company that strives to create better agent experiences in support centers by merging technologies and relationships. Featured Interview: Shep and Murph Krajewski discuss how Sharpen started by wanting to fix the root problem in customer service. Murph explains that the problem starts with the customer service agent’s experience. They discuss how the needs of an agent (both technological and human) must be met to allow that agent to be in a position to properly serve the customer, and Murph shares numerous examples. Giveaways: In this whitepaper, “Exposing the True Cost of Legacy Contact Center Software” Sharpen gets real about the true impact it can have for your operations, agent satisfaction, and customer service. (Link: www.SharpenCX.com/ABR) Top Takeaways: • A person in distress can’t help anyone. Murph explains that if you don’t give the people on the front line, the tools (training/technology), they can’t give your customers the best experience possible. • Don’t get stuck in the past. New technologies should be embraced. As older technologies fade away new technologies are created and then new standards are set. When the original iPhone came out ten years ago, it was nothing short of amazing. But, today hardly anyone is using an original iPhone, which many consider to be an antique piece of technology. We’ve moved on to faster and updated versions like an iPhone 7 or iPhone 8. • Create a better experience for your support or front-line staff. Customer service jobs are one of the lowest rated jobs in the country; due to the hours, the pay, the stress levels, etc. These employees shouldn’t be undervalued and underpaid, they are responsible for making your most important asset – your customers – happy. • 92% of customers say that an agent’s mood effects their experience. That is a tough statistic to ignore. A business must figure out how to improve the agent’s experience to be as good as, if not better, than their customer’s experience. Customer service is, after all, a service job. You need to create a service culture, and embrace those team members who need and want to serve, which is all of your front line and support center agents. About: Murph Krajewski is VP of Marketing at Sharpen, a cloud based contact center platform. He’s been in the contact center industry for nearly 20 years, in a variety of roles. These days Murph is focused on creating better experiences for contact center agents. He believes this will make for happier customers, and could one day change the world. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you like to know how to set yourself apart from the rest of your industry? Shep Hyken interviews Matt Peterson, CMO and co-founder of Jive Communications, a worldwide cloud based communication company that offers VoIP, video conferencing, and contact center support. Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview by talking to Matt about NPS (Net Promoter Score) and he made that an important focus in his company. Matt explains why he feels NPS is the right method for his company, and how it helped Jive elevate their service above the rest of their industry. Top Takeaways: • Measure your customer satisfaction. Matt knows the important of measurement, especially in the area of service and satisfaction. He also emphasizes how important it is to make a satisfaction score an important part of the company’s culture and mentality. • Don’t automate customer care. There are certain things that you can automate but you shouldn’t dehumanize the experience. You should use automated intelligence properly and allow for a smooth natural transition to a human when the automated support can no longer handle the issue properly. • Communicate the way your customers want to communicate. You don’t need to be everywhere, but you need to know where and how your customers want to communicate with you, whether it’s via social media, email, chat, etc. Customers should be able to communicate with you however is most convenient and comfortable. • Get out of the “Ivory Tower.” You need to stay connected to your customers, so get out there meet with them. Get their opinions and feedback. You won’t be able to do that if you never leave your office. About: Matt Peterson is Co-founder and CMO of Jive Communications, one of the highest-rated communications companies. Matt is responsible for designing the marketing strategies and processes that drive Jive’s growth, it’s obvious he cares about his customers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you like to increase customer loyalty? Shep Hyken interviews Nick Francis, CEO of Help Scout and thought leader in the customer service support world. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on introducing Nick Francis and his company Help Scout, and the recent fireside chat they had at a recent customer service and support conference. Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview by asking Nick Francis about Help Scout, which provides customer support assistance to small businesses. They discuss how important customer service is to your business and why it’s vital to set yourself apart from your competition. After all, word-of-mouth is by far the best advertising you can get. Nick shares his tactical steps to creating a better customer experience. They discuss the importance of customer trust and how to regain it if it’s lost. Top Takeaways: • Tactical Steps to Improve Your Customer Service 1. Create a customer service vision – or as Shep calls it, a customer service mantra. This is a vital step for anyone who wants a customer-focused organization. 2. Make it easy for your customer – don’t just make it easy for the customer to find you and contact you but make it easier by providing different methods of contact. Nick suggests focusing on only a couple of channels to start until you master those, then expand to the channels where your customers are. 3. Don’t just collect data – do something with it! You not only need to get customer feedback, you need to do something with it. Eliminate pain points for customers, create a list of FAQs. Leverage the customer feedback – Pay attention to both the qualitative and quantitative data, as these will help with ensuring adequate staff and by preventing potential customer complaints from being repeated. • Ensure your interactions are human. Be empathetic and most importantly be authentic when speaking with your customers. • Trust is key – Don’t make anything about you. Make it about the customer. If you make a mistake own it, and then do everything you can to regain their trust. Nobody’s perfect - mistakes are bound to happen. It’s how you handle them that counts. • Content is important to any business. It enhances the customer experience. Help Scout has a customer service blog they post at least twice a week. About: Nick Francis is Co-founder and CEO of Help Scout, where he is on a mission to make every customer service interaction a more human one. Nick lives and breathes product design, customer experience, and building a thoughtful, thriving company. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you like to know how to build your own personal brand to become a thought leader in your industry? Shep Hyken interviews Nicky Billou, internationally best-selling author of Finish Line Thinking: How to Think and Win Like a Champion. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how thought leadership applies to everyone. He explains how managers and individuals can be thought of as an expert in their company and industry. This ties into Shep’s concept that when it comes to customer service, everyone can be a leader. Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview by asking Nicky Billou about his definition of a thought leader and how everyone could be considered the “go-to” person or expert in their company. Shep then introduces why getting your customers and coworkers to trust you is an important part of building your personal brand and for being known as an expert. They discuss how everyone has an opportunity to be considered a thought leader by knowing the answers; or if you don’t know, knowing where to find the answers. Top Takeaways: • Anyone can be a thought leader. Thought leadership is not just for authors or speakers, everyone can be known for their expertise within their area of genius – especially in customer service and support. • Create champions. – As a manager, you need to find those champions and nurture them to become the experts you know they can be. You can help bring out the best in your people. • The Four Phases of being a thought leader. o Wannabe Phase – This person has not yet figured out what their expertise is. o Unconscious Expert – They intuitively know they have some level of expertise, but they aren’t quite clear on it yet. o Conscious Expert – You know you have expertise and you are actively applying it. o Known – This is the final stage where you are known as an expert/thought leader. • Build your personal brand. – You need to find your area of expertise and create a LinkedIn profile. Everyone has a brand – you should consciously create your own brand. • Your customers are the only people who can tell you what your brand is. You not only need to create your own brand you need to also ensure what your customer’s perception of you is. At any given time, anybody in your organization that is dependent upon you for anything is also your customer. About: Nicky Billou is Cofounder of eCircle Academy, Cohost of The Business of Thought Leadership Podcast, and #1 International Best-selling Author of Finish Line Thinking: How To Think & Win Like A Champion. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you create the best experiences for your customers? Shep Hyken interviews Jason Bradshaw, the Director of Customer Experience at Volkswagen Group Australia, who believes that you become great by thinking small. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how you should strive to be number one and deliver the best possible customer service, but your real goal should be ranked in the top tier within your industry. Even the best sports teams don’t win championships every year, but they are still considered to be elite. Do you always pursue what’s best for your customers? What do you do to drive the love of your customers? You need to be number one for whatever they need. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Jason Bradshaw about his experiences as a young entrepreneur. Jason explained that he had major disadvantages. First, he was a new start up, and second, he was young – just a teen ager. How did he compensate for these supposed disadvantages? By loving his customers more than anyone else. This fueled his passion for creating the best experience for his customers. Shep and Jason discuss that by creating trust with your customers, you create loyalty And, you do that by delivering a personalized experience that is consistently above average. Jason adds that the small things matter. So, rather than focus on creating big changes you should focus on making smaller changes that are easier to implement. Small things can make a big difference. Top Takeaways: • Your first customer is always your team. Be consistent with them. Empower them so they can achieve what they desire while delivering a consistent experience for your customers. • The key is not in being perfect; the key is to be human. When something doesn’t go perfectly, respond quickly to fix it, improve or to do what you need to do get back on track. • Wow is not about Champaign, caviar, or fireworks. Wow is about connecting with your customer and delivering just a little above their expectations - all the time. • You don’t build customer loyalty by having the cheapest product. You build loyalty by giving an experience that the customer values. • Think Small – If you don’t pay attention to the smallest details, then everything else will unravel. Your customer is looking for consistency and wants an easy experience. • Tenacity - Never give up in your pursuit of delivering the best customer experience possible, one that, at a minimum slightly exceeds your customers’ expectations. About: Jason Bradshaw is the Director of Customer Experience at Volkswagen Group Australia. At just fourteen-years-old, he started his own telecommunications and hardware distribution business. This first foray into entrepreneurship gave him a taste of how to offer customers an experience, not just a product. It was there he began a lifelong passion for customer experience. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments discuss the company Talkdesk, their upcoming roadshow, and how to improve your customers’ experiences. Featured Interview: Shep Hyken interviews Gadi Shamia, COO of Talkdesk, about how you can improve your customer service. The interview begins with Gadi sharing some background on himself and  Talkdesk, a cloud based contact center platform that connects their support team to their customers. Gadi gives us the backstory on Talkdesk and shares some examples on how Talkdesk has improved upon existing technology to create a simpler cloud solution for support agents. That leads to a fascinating conversation about how technology has impacted customer service, and what tools and solutions you can use to make for a better customer experience. Top Takeaways: Make it easier for the customer. You need to ensure what you’re doing impacts the customer in a positive way. Provide self-service options for your customers. Empower your team. – Using current technologies, we have the power to make customer information available to our teams to allowing them to assist the customer the best way they can. Knowledge is power! We can’t teach empathy, but we can provide agents with more information so they can be empowered to understand the customer’s issue from the start. Don’t deflect calls. If a customer is calling, take advantage of the opportunity to resolve the customer’s issue yourself. Do not send a customer to a website or a self-service option. Nowadays most customers only call when self-service options have already failed them, whether they couldn’t find the solution or they couldn’t understand the self-help option. This is your opportunity to connect with the customer and build a relationship. Spend less on marketing and more on customer service. Once you get a customer through the door you can do a lot to retain them, which is much more cost effective than trying to always focus on new customers. About: Gadi Shamia is the Chief Operating Officer at Talkdesk, the world’s leading call center software start-up. Gadi has had much success throughout his career working for such great companies such as Adobe, SAP, and Reach Local - just to name a few. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. "(Today most people use self-service options first) So, when you call customer service you don’t do it because you have to, you do it because self-service failed you.”  – Gadi Shamia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How will artificial intelligence (AI) enhance the relationship you have with your customers? Shep Hyken interviews Jeff Nicholson, the Vice President of CRM Product Marketing at Pegasystems, about how AI technology will help companies serve their customers even better. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on artificial intelligence and how it can use data to create meaningful interactions with customers. Once people become more comfortable with AI, they’ll begin to understand how useful it can really be. Currently, there are some common misconceptions that people have about AI, especially the kinds of AI that they are already seeing in their day-to-day lives. Giveaways: • To view the PDF of the Pega Study, “What Consumers Really Think About AI: A Global Study” discussed on the episode - go to https://hyken.com/wp-content/uploads/what-consumers-really-think-about-ai.pdf Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Jeff Nicholson about Pega’s recent global consumer study, “What Consumers Really Think About AI.” Pega published its study after surveying 6,000 consumers across six countries. AI is poised to transform how customers interact with businesses, but some customers must first overcome some educational and emotional hurdles. They must feel comfortable enough to use AI to its full extent. Jeff suggests rather than being omnichannel, be channel-less. Don’t focus on the channels individually, but use AI to streamline the customers’ experience across all channels. Jeff provides an example explaining how if you are on amazon.com you can easily transition to any computer, or even their mobile shopping app to continue your shopping with the same consistent experience. Some key findings from Pega’s Study: • Only 33% of respondents think they use technology with AI, but 71% actually use an AI-powered device or service • 70% are fearful of AI, yet 71% are open to businesses using AI with them if it makes life easier • 33% said that AI is never going to know them and their preferences as well as a human being When the respondents were asked, “How do you describe what AI can do?”: • 51% said AI could think logically • 37% said AI could interpret speech • 35% said AI could replicate human interaction Those are realistic responses, yet some respondents erroneously identified what AI could do: • 14% said AI could feel emotion • 10% said AI will take over the world • 8% said AI controls your mind Top Takeaways: • AI doesn’t get rid of customer service jobs. It changes them, for the better. With the help of AI, customer service representatives will be able to devote their time to helping customers better, adding value to the relationship. • AI systems will interpret customer data, compare it to customers with similar histories, and work to understand the customer’s mental state. Based on that, AI will recommend to the customer service representative good ways to handle the interaction. This concept is called Next Best Action. • AI will be the employee’s “wingman”, making suggestions for the agent to share with the customer. About: Jeff Nicholson is a recognized customer engagement thought leader. Jeff works closely with industry analysts and has been a frequent presenter at industry events on subjects including consumer engagement strategy, customer analytics, digital marketing and customer journey best practice. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, “New York Times” best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can we move from just satisfying our customers, to making them truly happy, which results in loyalty? Shep Hyken interviews Chase Clemons, a highly-experienced customer service professional at Basecamp, who tells us how to go above and beyond for your customers. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how, when your customer calls you, they need to know three things: 1. That you know them. 2. That they like the information that you give them and trust that it is accurate. 3. That when they get off the phone they’ll be able to do what you tell them to do. If you can do that quickly, or if it takes longer, they don’t care. They need someone they can rely on. As the old saying goes, “People like to do business with companies and people they know, like, and trust.” Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Chase Clemons how he goes above and beyond answering his customers’ questions. Chase explains that when people use Basecamp, it’s not really about Basecamp. It’s about what Basecamp does to make their lives easier. They want to take whatever they are working on, get in, get out, and get back to running their business. So, the more he can help with that the process the better. “Go the extra little bit,” Chase advises. Be a partner rather than just a business. Find the information that truly solves the customer’s needs, rather than just answering the question that they raise. This includes thinking proactively and resolving issues that may arise later on, before they happen, while assisting them with their initial issue. Solve the short-term problems, but address long-term issues. Chase also explains that you can be clear and concise, whether on email, a phone call, or live chat, and still be human. The biggest key is to not have a standardized reply for every part of the interaction. Yes, have templates (Chase calls them “snippets”) that you can work with. But those should just be building blocks for creating a personal experience with the customer. The dialog should be unique for each customer. Top Takeaways: • The best thing you can do for your customers is to surprise them. If they have an issue, after you fix it, and you notice they have been a customer for a long time, give them something. Give them a free month, send them some flowers, chocolates, or a book. Don’t tell them you are going to do it Let it be a surprise. That’s the next step in getting the loyalty you are after, and establishing and deepening the relationship. • Don’t just resolve the customer’s initial question at face value. Ask questions and dig further to find out the details of their request. This will not only allow you to answer their initial request, but will open the door to resolve other potential issues, and will allow you to make the best suggestions for them as well. • Make sure you take time for yourself. You’ve got to put your oxygen mask on first – meaning you have take care of yourself first or you’ll burn out and you won’t be good to anyone. Chase believes, “Work a good 40 hours a week.” It’s important to make sure you and your employees have a good work-life balance. About: Chase Clemons is a hands-on “in the trenches” with his customers in his role as a customer support pro at Basecamp. Basecamp is project management software that helps their clients stay organized as they work through projects. Chase is also the host of the Support Ops podcast, a popular show for people in the customer support industry. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What should you do when someone posts a negative review about your company or your products or services? Shep Hyken interviews keynote speaker and author Mason Duchatschek on steps you can take to protect your online reputation. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on why it is important for any business, not just a retail or online business, to protect their online reputation. There are now online review sites for virtually every industry (even B2B businesses), which although they may not be as visible as Yelp, TripAdvisor or Amazon, they are every bit as influential within that industry. People within each niche can now consult these sites before making a buying decision. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Mason Duchatschek, “What should you do when a customer posts a negative review - a rant - about you and your company on the Internet?” Mason refers to this reviewer as an “Internet Boogeyman.” Mason’s response is that the goal is to not have them rant in the first place. The best way to solve problems is stopping them before they occur. And you do that by implementing a four-step process: 1. Hire good employees. 2. Train them in customer service. 3. Have good policies and use good judgement in the absence of policies. 4. Be nice and do what’s right. If (or when) an Internet boogeyman rants online, the first step is to respond immediately, either by direct message or by phone. Mason points out that you should never discuss the issue with the Internet boogeyman in a public forum, although you should update the progress toward a resolution on that forum, so that others can see the positive actions you have taken. Top Takeaways: • Business owners can’t solve problems they don’t know exist. Go to Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) to set up a free, early warning system for your name, company name, and product or service names – any text consumers would type into a search engine to find your company, products, or services. Any time something is posted on the Internet about those items, Google will send you an email alert along with the link so that you can check it out. If people are saying good or bad things about you, you’ll know it, almost in real time. You can monitor and then respond quickly to circumstances, before they cause unnecessary harm to you or your business. • If companies don’t get their online reputation right, customers won’t buy from them, no matter how good their products or services are. • Online reputation is critical; it creates credibility and builds trust. In the absence of a personal relationship, few things (if any) are more important. When people did business face-to-face, they would use their own judgement to determine if they liked and trusted you. Now, in the absence of that personal encounter, they now look to see what others have said online before making a buying decision. About: Mason Duchatschek is a #1 bestselling author, entrepreneur and professional speaker. His ideas have been featured in Selling Power, Entrepreneur, The New York Times and Fox News. He is the author of Defeating an Internet Boogeyman: Simple Secrets of Reputation and Crisis Management Using Social Media and Web Marketing Strategy. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are your employees fulfilled, appreciated, and understood? Shep interviews Carol Lee Andersen, the President of Questback North America, about the importance of listening to not just your customers, but also to your employees. And, she shares the advantages and occasional difficulties of doing so. First Up: Shep starts off by introducing Tiny Pulse, a company that has created a simple software program to gain an ongoing “pulse” of your employees with quick, short, and simple surveys for employees. This frames the discussion for the entire episode on customer and employee feedback. He discusses a key fact about collecting feedback – you need to use it, or you will leave employees and customers dissatisfied. Featured Interview: Shep begins the show by asking Carol Lee about Questback’s history. Carol Lee explains that the company got started with a quest for gaining feedback. They discuss the importance of customer and employee feedback, and stress the importance of not only collecting the feedback but also taking action – you must do something with it. Otherwise, your employees and customers will suffer what Carol Lee calls feedback fatigue, which is when customers or employees fill out too many surveys and don’t see anything come out of it. She goes on to explain that when you collect feedback from employees and actually use it, employees feel valued; they feel they are being listened to, and that in turn creates trust. Otherwise, if an employee feels their concerns are falling on deaf ears, then the employee can feel unfulfilled, unconvinced, and even disengaged. They conclude the show with Carol Lee’s final thoughts which are; think before you act, use the appropriate tools, get some advice from the right people, and be thoughtful in your process. Top Takeaways: • Engage Your Employees – Create dialog with your employees. Even if the feedback is unsolicited, if your employees want to provide you with feedback – take it! Employees can frequently pick up on potential issues before they become a big problem. • Avoid Feedback Fatigue – If you collect data you must do something with it. Collecting feedback and not doing anything with it is worse than not collecting at all. If you collect it and take action on the feedback, then employees and customers feel they are being listened to, and that creates trust. • Think Before You Act – Feedback has to be deployed strategically to succeed. It is not enough to have highly engaged employees, you want highly engaged employees that are working towards the same goal. About: Carol Lee Andersen is president of Questback North America and voted as one of the Top 150 Most Powerful Women in New Zealand. She leads a diverse team in crafting and delivering a feedback platform that helps enterprises make better decisions, mitigate risk and avoid costly failures through redefining relationships with the most important people: customers and employees. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Would you like to know how to better handle difficult customer service situations? Shep interviews Laura Baxter, author of Dealing with Divas and other Difficult Personalities: A Mindful approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization!. First Up: Shep begins the show by discussing difficult customers. He briefly goes over his Five Step Process to dealing with customer complaints, and explains how some customers are more demanding or sometimes more unreasonable than others. Sometimes, we need to understand our customers’ personalities to resolve their complaint. That’s what customer service is all about – understanding who your customer is and trying to adapt to their personality. Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview with asking Laura for her definition of “Diva.” Laura provides a bit of history about the word Diva, as well as her own definition. She then continues to explain how a Diva doesn’t have to be female. A Diva can be a man, customer, co-worker, or anyone you have issues with. Laura then discusses her new book, introduces the acronym D.I.V.A., and shares how to overcome difficult customers. They discuss the importance of how a Diva or difficult customer interaction must not negatively affect the rest of your encounters. You need to find your triggers and be able to reprogram yourself to react more calmly in tough situations. The key is to adapt to the difficult personality. Stop, look, and listen to discover the needs of the difficult customer so you can better assess how to take care of the Diva/difficult personality, and connect with them. Top Takeaways: • DIVA stands for: o D – Define the situation o I – Finding your Inner strength o V – Valuing yourself and the other person (understand them) o A – Associating with the Diva • Stop, Look, and Listen before dealing with the difficult customer. o Stop – Pause for a moment and make sure you are centered and calm in this moment. o Look – Watch what they are doing. Watch how they are, and what signals can you get from their behavior that show their needs? Perhaps even hidden needs. o Listen - Listen to the words they say and how they say it and mirror back what they are saying to you. • The Four Most Powerful Mental States - Try to master being in these states and you will be successful. o Love o Gratitude o Forgiveness o Play About: Laura Baxter is an American opera singer, author, and performance coach. She has studied the effects of the voice and body on non-verbal communication and leadership for over 25 years, and she brings this experience together to help her clients perform and communicate better. She is the coauthor of several German books and sole author of her new book, “Dealing with Divas and other Difficult Personalities: A Mindful approach to Improving Relationships in Your Business or Organization.” Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you create a customer experience that doesn’t just get business, but keeps customers coming back for more? Shep Hyken interviews customer experience futurist, Blake Morgan, about her life, her book, and how to do more for your customers. First Up: Shep discusses his history with Blake, compares her book “More is More” with his amazement concepts, and mentions the importance of exceeding customer expectations — including the expectations that they don’t yet know that they have. Featured Interview: Shep begins the episode by sharing some information about Blake and her new book More is More: How the Best Companies Go Farther and Work Harder to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences. Shep starts the interview by asking Blake how she got started in customer experience. Blake goes on to discuss her definition of the customer experience, and shares some great tips from her book on how to improve the customer experience by implementing strategies at the company level. She shares examples of how some of the best companies, like Airbnb and Amazon, set the bar for creating amazing customer experiences. It’s about building simple, beautiful customer experiences; Blake says, “If you’re not adding value, you’re dead in the water.” You have to do more to set yourself apart from your competition. Top Takeaways: • Do More – This acronym is from Blake’s book. These are some principles that the top companies follow to “do more” for their customers. o D – Design something special o O - Offer a strong employee experience o M - Modernize with technology o O - Obsess over the customer o R - Rewards responsibility and accountability o E - Embrace disruption and innovation • Hold leaders to a higher standard. Leaders need to be more focused on the customer experience and long-term success, rather than focus on just immediate profits. • Outwork your competition. Every company needs to find passionate excited employees who want to work harder (and smarter). You’ve got to be thoughtful and work harder for the customer. About: Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist. Her first book is “More is More: How the Best Companies Go Farther and Work Harder to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences.” She is also the host of The Modern Customer podcast and a weekly customer experience video series on YouTube. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you increase your influence with your customers? Shep Hyken interviews John Hall, author and CEO/co-founder of Influence & Co., a content marketing agency that helps brands and individuals leverage expertise to create, publish, and distribute content. John shares how everyone can overcome trust barriers and build confidence and top-of-mind awareness through content marketing. First up: Shep’s opening comments focus on creating trust and confidence with your customers. The old saying is people like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. The knowing and liking are easy, but the trust takes more. Trust requires your customers to see you as an expert, and they must value your knowledge. In order to influence your customers, trust is crucial. Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview discussing with John Hall how to influence your customers. John discusses trust barriers, and how to overcome them by creating trust in another way, with content marketing, which includes articles, blogs, videos, and more. Look for content triggers (which are ah-ha moments that reveal ways you can provide content to help your customers) to spark ideas for key points to focus your content on. Your goal is to add value for your customers to be able to engage with you and stay relevant in their minds. John introduces us to the term moment of vulnerability, which is a moment that emotion is tied to an interaction. This moment will most likely be remembered – it is up to you to manage that moment into a positive interaction, or a Moment of Magic®. These emotional moments, or moments of vulnerability, can lead to trust by helping a customer at the right moment. Top Takeaways: • Consolidation. This happens when you move from the customer’s short-term memory into long-term memory. It is easiest to make this happen by having an emotion tied to an interaction or a moment of vulnerability. • Build trust. Consistently work on building trust with your customers, whether it's through content marketing, a gift, or even a simple phone call – keep your customers engaged. • Engage your customers. Stay “top of mind” with your customers. The easiest way to do this is to consistently provide engaging content to your followers and prospects. Important Note: It’s not necessary to create all the content yourself. It can be an article written by and/or about someone else, but it’s of interest to your customers. The key is to provide valuable content regularly. About: John Hall is the CEO and co-founder of Influence & Co., a tech-enabled content marketing agency that helps brands and individuals extract and leverage their expertise to create, publish, and distribute content to gain influence, visibility, and credibility with their key audiences. John has been called “one of the most powerful people in media that you’ve never met” by Inc. and a “must-see keynote speaker” by Forbes. He is the author of the book “Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You.” Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes Amazon great? Shep Hyken interviews John Rossman, author of The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles of the World’s Most Disruptive Company and former executive at Amazon. John shares how Amazon creates a culture of operational excellence and innovation – and why you should, too. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on Amazon, and how when it started, it was only selling books. At first, nobody thought much about them. But soon that started to change. Major book retailers started to struggle; some even went out of business. The internet was starting to change how buying books worked, and Amazon was ahead of the curve. Jeff Bezos showed the book industry – and the rest of the business world – the importance of constant innovation. Why is it so important? Somebody in your industry, like Jeff Bezos, is likely going to find a way to do things better, quicker, cheaper, faster or more conveniently. Because of its innovation, Amazon went from an online bookseller to the leading e-commerce company. And, even today at the top of their game, they’re still constantly pushing the envelope to become even better and more efficient. Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview by asking John Rossman what he believes has made Amazon great. John shares that one of the big differences between Amazon and other companies, is that at Amazon’s leaders are empowered and expected to make changes and to do the right thing. They avoid the mentality of “this is my job, and that is an issue outside of my job, so I am going to ignore it or leave if for somebody else.” In short, they’re expected to engage issues rather than respond to them with an excuse. When you are dealing with hard, new, innovative concepts, it is always easy to come up with reasons why something can’t get done. But the expectation of a leader and innovator at Amazon is to get it done – to make something new and bigger. And they get there by constantly forcing themselves to figure out how to create a better experience for their customers. Top Takeaways: • Obsess over your customers. Leaders at Amazon work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. • Invent new capabilities and simplify things. Making things simple for the customer can be as hard as inventing new capabilities. Simple is not always easy to do. • At Amazon, the customer experience is never done. When you think of the customer experience as being broader than just what your products or services provide, you will come up with new ideas on how to expand your business. That’s how Amazon grew from being just an internet-based seller of books to the e-commerce giant that it is today. • Deliver hard results, despite dependencies and setbacks. When you set the expectation that there is no choice but to succeed, then leadership and employees will find ways to succeed that they had never expected. About: John Rossman is the author of The Amazon Way book series, and a Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal (A&M), a global professional services firm. John is an expert in innovative and digital business models and organizational change, including internet of things (IoT). Prior to A&M, John was an executive at Amazon.com where he launched their third party selling business, which today is over 50% of all Amazon units and supports over 3 million sellers. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can your business be more like Amazon? Shep Hyken interviews Bryan Eisenberg co-author of the book, Be Like Amazon: Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how any company can improve their customer service, by thinking about how they can become more convenient for their customers. The reason that Amazon has become so successful is that they have developed a way to create customer convenience. Shep gives an example of how, in areas where Amazon offers two-hour delivery, a product could arrive at your home faster than the time it would take you to drive to the mall to purchase it. Featured Interview: Shep begins the interview by asking Bryan Eisenberg about the four secret ingredients to making a great presentation, which are: 1. Provide entertainment – tell a story. 2. Present a Big Idea. 3. Give the “How to’s.” 4. Give the audience or the reader the hope that they, too, can do it. Bryan continues his “rule of four” by telling you exactly how you “can do it,” by discussing the four unifying principles of how to successfully run your business: 1. You must be customer-centric. 2. You must have a culture of innovation. 3. You must be agile. Execute, test and fail quickly, so you can keep learning. 4. You must continually optimize by shaving costs and adding value. Top Takeaways: • Don’t “water the soup.” Putting a little water in the soup may give you more soup, but it takes away from the great taste. It’s not smart to do things that produce an immediate profit if what you are doing isn’t in the best interest of the customer. • Don’t think short term. An example Bryan gives is when Starbucks payment system went down, they gave away the coffee. Most coffee shops would have shut down until they could take payment for their coffee. But, not Starbucks. They knew the cost of free coffee was better than losing customers – and it showed how committed Starbucks is to taking care of their customers. About: Bryan Eisenberg is the co-founder of BuyerLegends. He is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today and New York Times bestselling books “Call to Action”, “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?”, “Always Be Testing” and “Buyer Legends.”. Bryan is also a professional marketing keynote speaker. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you create a purpose-driven, values-based, socially-conscious company that can deliver both success and significance? Shep Hyken interviews Nick Friedman, co-founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving about how to develop a customer-focused, values-based company that can benefit you, your employees and your customers. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how delivering great service is about being a little bit better consistently, with special opportunities to step up whenever there is a complaint, problem or a chance to create a Moment of Magic. To illustrate his point, Shep related a story of Cesar Larios, a student at The Art Institute of Florida and a part-time employee of College Hunks Moving, who was inside an elevator with a 79-year-old resident of an assisted living facility when the elevator got stuck. The resident didn’t think she could stand long enough until the two could be rescued. So, Cesar dropped to his hands and knees to turn himself into a human bench until they were saved. Shep then quoted Nick Friedman, president of College Hunks, as saying, “I thought this was a great example of old-fashioned service and helping your fellow neighbor. Our mission is to move the world, both literally and emotionally. This was a perfect example of a brand coming to life.” Featured Interview: Nick Friedman started the College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving in college with his childhood best friend, now business partner, Omar Soliman in a beat-up cargo van and has grown to over 100 franchises nationwide. So, Shep begins his interview by asking Nick Friedman how can a relationship survive with someone who is both a business partner and best friend? Nick answered by saying that the long-term reason for their success and partnership is because their vision and values have always been in alignment. The partners communicate regularly, openly and candidly. Any time that they do disagree on how they are going to accomplish something, they have a discussion then decide to commit to that decision, even if one of the partners doesn’t fully agree. Nick then explained how his company’s brand promise, which comprises the acronym H.U.N.K.S., standing for Honest, Uniformed, Nice, Knowledgeable, and Service has made a huge difference. Top Takeaways: • Emotions matter in any service industry, especially with a stranger coming in to the home (or office). • The two emotions that matter most to a homeowner are trust and care. (This applies to anyone in any business.) • You want to provide people a stress-free experience that will lead to the three R’s: repeat, referral and reputation. • In your employee training, don’t just show what has gone wrong and how to fix it, but also celebrate what has gone right, and ask how can we make more of THIS happen? About: Nick Friedman is the President and Co-Founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk and College Hunks Moving, the largest and fastest growing junk removal and moving franchise opportunity in North America with over 100 franchisees. He has been named among the Top 30 Entrepreneurs in America Under 30 by Under30CEO.com. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are some ways that you can show your customers, and your employees, that you are truly customer focused? Shep Hyken interviews Megan Singh, Project Management Director at Squaremouth, a four-time Gold Stevie Award winner for Customer Service Department of the Year, to get ideas that you can implement in your organization. First Up: Shep Hyken begins his opening comments by asking, how easy are you to do business with? Part of that easiness is how you guarantee what you sell. You want to create confidence and trust, because those feelings will convert to customer loyalty. The old saying is, “People want to do business with people they know, like and trust.” The knowing and liking is easy. The trust part is hard. It comes from predictable and consistent experiences. And, it doesn’t hurt to guarantee your products and services, either! Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview with Megan Singh by asking about Squaremouth’s guarantee, known as the Zero Complaint Guarantee. Megan explains that Squaremouth sells travel insurance policies through their comparison website. So, anything through Squaremouth is actually another company’s insurance policy. Squaremouth wants their customers to feel comfortable with the company they have chosen, so they ask all the insurance companies they represent to comply with their Zero Complaint Guarantee. Squaremouth promises every customer that if they have any complaint at all about their claim, Squaremouth will get involved and mediate with the provider on the customer’s behalf. As a result, this policy gives their customers confidence in Squaremouth’s offerings, and it gives Squaremouth a good working relationship with their providers to make sure that all claims are mediated fairly. In addition to their customer-focused guarantee, Megan attributes much of the company’s success to their amazing employee culture, from the various employee perks like unlimited vacation time and a boat for employee happy hour cruises, to having every employee spend time once a week directly interacting with customers. For Squaremouth to be totally customer-focused, everyone in the organization must feel connected to the customer. Squaremouth aims to exceed everyone’s expectations – even their employees! Top Takeaways: • Develop a customer service mantra, credo or vision for your company. Squaremouth’s credo is “We want to be the best place for our employees to work and the best place for our customers to buy products. Period.” • To be one of the best places to buy from, you also need to be one of the best places to work. Squaremouth treats their employees the way they want to them to treat their customers. Maybe even a bit better. • To have all employees understand the customers’ needs and wants Every employee in their St. Petersburg headquarters (even the CEO) at some time during the week, works in customer service, communicating directly with the customer. • ‘Downsell’ the customer. Many of Squaremouth’s customers are shocked by this policy, but Squaremouth will not sell the customer more coverage than they need. As a matter of fact, they often suggest less expensive policies. The least expensive policy can often be the best one. About: Megan Singh is the Project Management Director for Squaremouth, and like all members of the Squaremouth team, Megan remains close to the customer base by taking customer phone calls on a weekly basis. Squaremouth helps travelers easily and instantly compare travel insurance products from every major U.S. travel insurance provider. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you improve both customer and employee satisfaction? By getting customers to provide feedback on individual employee service performance. Shep Hyken interviews Kevin Berk, creator of a new customer rating platform called ServiceGuru, about how using services like these can improve your company revenues. First Up: Shep Hyken begins his opening comments by asking, “How much does bad service cost your business?” and “What is the value of a customer who leaves you?” If you multiply the value of a customer by the number of customers who leave you, you have a good estimate of what losing those customers cost you. Now, not all customers leave because of poor customer service. Some of them leave for reasons beyond your control. Sure, new customers can help negate some of the effects of lost customers, but not only do you lose the business of unhappy customers, you also lose when those customers share their negative feedback with everybody else. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview with Kevin Beck, Founder and CEO of ServiceGuru, by discussing some customer service statistics. According to studies by Bain & Company, 80% of businesses believe that they are delivering superior customer service, but only 8% of customers agree. $62 billion is the amount of business companies lost last year as a result of bad customer service. That’s up 50% from two years before. The laggards simply aren’t keeping up with the companies that are doing it right. Kevin asserts that great service is paramount to the success of any business. Since it is six to seven times more expensive to attract a new customer than to keep an existing customer, it makes sense to invest in the customer service experience and to make sure that we are meeting, if not exceeding the customer’s expectations. One way to find out if the company is meeting their customers’ expectations is through online reviews. However, Kevin states that when it comes to leaving reviews about the service customers receive, most people don’t leave reviews because they don’t think anyone is listening. They don’t think that anybody cares. They don’t think it will make a difference. But, Kevin explains why ServiceGuru, his new and revolutionary platform, does make a difference. Instead of a customer reviewing the company, ServiceGuru allows the customer to review the employee who delivered the service. Not only is this valuable feedback for the company, but the employee sees a system dedicated to tracking, measuring, and improving customer service by reviewing the employee who is delivering the service – not the company. There is a big difference, and the responses from the customers are overwhelmingly positive. Top Takeaways: • Companies spend $80 billion to $90 billion each year on marketing, but only $8 billion annually on customer service. • How much can bad customer service cost your business? It could cost you your business. • Only one out of every 26 customers who has a complaint will let you know. Instead, they will tell everybody else. • The best marketing you can have involves your customer walking out the door after an amazing experience, talking about you with everyone else. • The number one component of employee job satisfaction is recognition. • Customer feedback on employees can be even stronger than feedback on the company. About: Kevin J. Berk, the Founder & CEO of ServiceGuru, has been involved in startup organizations for over 25 years. He is focused on the success of ServiceGuru, which can allow you to improve customer service and increase repeat visits to your business. You can collect service feedback from your customers and use the Service Guru platform to drive repeat visits and increase revenue. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A convenient, frictionless experience is something that consumers want and need, and are willing to pay for. Shep Hyken interviews noted business writer and sought-after speaker, Matt Dixon, to define the effortless experience. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how important it is to create an easy experience for your customers. Delivering convenience is going to be the battleground for what future customer service is all about. Shep talks about a list of the top retailers who create the best customer service list, provided by Bruce Temkin, co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. Ace Hardware, which tops the list, also understands the importance of creating customer convenience. For example, one of the ways they deliver this convenience is through “rock star” parking. Parking spaces just steps from the store’s door can help make shopping effortless. Having smaller stores that are easier for customers to navigate is also a way Ace delivers a convenient experience. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Matt Dixon how can we build a differentiating, loyalty-building service experience? Dixon says that in this market where so many consumers look at products as commodities, there are four steps you can take: 1. Next issue avoidance – How can we resolve the issue the customer is calling about, but also resolve the next issue that they don’t even know they may be calling back about. 2. Too many choices lead to confusion – Too many choices overwhelm the customer, so they fall back to asking for help to solve the problem by calling support, which leads to increased call volumes. Instead, develop a clean and intuitive web experience, which may also result in spending less on technology. 3. Train your people to use language in a much more principled way – By using words and language properly, your reps can get people to do things they wouldn’t do naturally. 4. To get control of the customer service experience, give more control to the frontline customer service reps- This comes down to who you hire, how you equip those people (with the proper training and tools), and allowing them to use their own judgement to best serve the customer. Top Takeaways: • Most service interactions actually drive disloyalty. On average, any service interaction is about four times more likely to make a customer disloyal. The things that can make a customer disloyal – callbacks, transfers, repeating information, and treating customers in a generic, robotic kind of way – are sources of low customer service effort. • The real way to delight your customer is to deliver an effortless experience. If you can create an effortless, no friction, easy-to-do-business-with, convenient experience, you are on track to meeting or exceeding expectations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can listening to your customers’ needs and wants actually provide a new strategic direction for your business? Shep Hyken interviews Chris McCann, the President and CEO of 1-800-Flowers, who talks about how they built their business to more than a billion dollars in revenue based on customer feedback. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on 1-800-Flowers’ competitive strengths, which all companies should be focusing on to provide outstanding customer service: 1) Provide amazing response times. 2) Think outside the box (or, in the case of 1-800-Flowers.com, thinking “outside the vase”). 3) Make doing business easy and seamless. 4) Exceed customers’ expectations, especially when responding to customer’s questions, problems, and complaints. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview with Chris McCann, president and CEO of 1-800-Flowers, by asking what has given his company a unique advantage over other florists or other floral networks. Chris said that from the beginning, they tried to stay in touch with their customers to understand why they were doing business with them, and what customers expected and wanted. By listening to customers, they expanded their product line to include gourmet foods (rather than only floral arrangements) which has become more than half of their business. They found that as they added these products, the customers didn’t buy less flowers, they only bought more often. The company constantly works to figure out, how to enhance the value that they bring to their customers? As a result, 1-800-Flowers went from being a retailer selling a product to becoming a value-added service solving customers’ gift-giving needs. Top Takeaways: • Getting thousands of independent business owners to join a network – When 1-800-Flowers started out, they weren’t trying to build a network of thousands of florists. Instead, they started working with people who knew the industry, who had design capabilities, and were hired for their commitment to customer service. Once they mastered that strategy, they expanded their network into thousands of independent business owners that represent their brand. • Response times – 1-800-Flowers has a service level target of handling 80 percent of phone calls within 20 seconds (3 rings). They respond to an email within two hours. Customer expectations on social media are very different. The company’s initial response target is 5 minutes. As Chris McCann says, “We’re in the business of delivering smiles. A smile for some emotional reason. People can’t sit and wait, wondering what is going to happen when they try to tell a loved one ‘I love you’.” • Gifts When You Need (GWYN) – 1-800-Flowers worked with IBMs’ Watson platform to create GWYN, an early-stage artificial intelligence (AI) product. GWYN gives customers the ability to interact with her via text in a conversational manner to find the right gift for the right person at the right time. Further, the amount of learning they are getting from GWYN allows them to constantly tweak their questions based on the responses they are getting from their customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can your business do better by doing good? Shep interviews Scott Moorehead, co-author of Build A Culture of Good: Unleash Results by Letting Your Employees Bring Their Soul to Work, who discovered that it is possible, as he went through a process that reignited passion and loyalty in his employees. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on the benefits of being part of something bigger than yourself – when you give back to your community, if not the world. And, when you do this right, two things happen: 1. Your customers appreciate that you are willing to give back and reciprocate by doing more business with you. 2. It creates a feeling of fulfillment, especially to your employees, when they recognize that the company they work for is doing something bigger and better than just trying to make money. Our willingness to give back to the community may be our best measure of our success. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Scott Moorehead to tell about his journey which led him to create a Culture of Good. Scott shared that when you have a company with under a hundred employees, it’s easy to have camaraderie, trust, and fun and he didn’t want to lose that as his company grew. As Scott’s company got larger, none of the new employees knew what it was like to be part of the experience in the beginning. What used to be a very small, family-owned, Midwestern values-based company was becoming a big company with a lot of bureaucracy and less trust. Policies and procedures needed to be implemented. The environment began to feel more robotic. People started to feel less valued. So, Scott set out to create a Culture of Good for his company, the largest Verizon Authorized Retailer’s (3,000 employees at 800 stores) in the U.S. What began as a movement—in which employees have done everything from dressing up as superheroes for a children’s hospital to distributing hundreds of thousands of backpacks for kids—has grown into a business teaching other companies that inspired employees can ignite positive change in the world and at the same time, positively impact the bottom line. Top Takeaways: • Scott knew what his employees were signing up for (a paycheck), but if he expected them to stay, he also had to give them a why. • Your why is all about what is making the people who work for your organization want to stay and want to care. • Scott needed to determine the answer to two key questions: 1) What is our company purpose? 2) What is our company’s greater mission? If the mission was simply to make more money, that mission will not keep people in their jobs. About: Scott Moorehead, co-author of Build A Culture of Good: Unleash Results by Letting Your Employees Bring Their Soul to Work, is the co-founder of Culture of Good, Inc., and also the CEO of TCC Verizon. Scott is a recognized thought leader on what it takes to create and develop purposeful for-profit organizations that abide by the philosophy of doing well by doing good. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you obsessing about taking care of your customers? If not, maybe you should! Shep Hyken interviews Amy Downs, Chief Customer Success and Happiness Officer at Lifesize, a connected video conferencing company, about why you should be obsessed about taking care of your customers. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on April being customer loyalty month. Customer loyalty should be a year-round focus, and not just a monthly effort, but let’s take this month to celebrate. We need to obsess about creating such an amazing customer experience that our customers will want to do business with us and nobody else. When Shep talks about creating an amazing customer experience, it’s important to remember that amazement is not always an over-the-top, blow-me-away, most incredible service you have ever had type of experience. It is more about consistently and predictably being just a little above average. Consistency is the key word. That’s the hard part. That’s what the best companies in the world do. They execute their service consistently. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Amy Downs what does it mean to be customer obsessed? Amy responds by saying that Lifesize has four core values, and that customer obsession is number one. Many companies talk about “treating customers great,” but you must make sure that you have the right people on board. People with customer service DNA and customer service hearts. Then you must have the right systems and processes in place that allow these employees the ability to understand what is important to your customers. Top Takeaways: • Customer obsession can be the foundation for growth in your business. Amy stressed the importance of customer retention. You can link an increase in customer retention or a decrease in churn directly to the overall bottom line. If you lose a customer, it is usually very hard to get them back. The easiest customer to sell is the one that you already have. Regardless of what industry you are in, your customers are talking to each other and to other potential customers. When word of mouth starts getting out there, you start to better references and referrals that convert to customers at a much higher rate than traditional marketing. • How you can know that your customer obsession efforts are paying off. Amy said there are a lot of data analytics that they use to help understand the relationship they have with each of their customers. It is important to capture both qualitative and quantitative data to determine how you are doing in your relationships. For example, with quantitative data you can examine Net Promoter Scores as well as churn rates. • Best tips on how to become customer obsessed. Amy suggests to set a strategy and educate your people. Everyone in the company must understand the importance of building a customer-best company and how it impacts the bottom line. Continually share with them the results of the positive change in your customers’ lives, so that they can feel proud of the work they do. Be sure to make course corrections when needed, but do them in a super positive way. The front-line employees are the most critical piece of any business, but ensure that you are listening to all of your employees. Create an environment and a culture where employees can thrive, and where they’re empowered to drive change on behalf of customers. And, this helps people to feel like they have a much greater purpose in they work they do. About: Amy Downs joined Lifesize in 2014 to evangelize the importance of customers throughout the organization, and ensure that everyone who interacts with the company has a smile on their face. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you use the Net Promoter Score® to retain your customers? How can you sell the C-Suite on the benefits of investing in Customer Retention? Shep Hyken interviews Adam Dorrell, the CEO and co-founder of CustomerGauge. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on the Net Promoter Score®, which is the result of a survey question that asks a customer “How likely would you be to recommend us?” Shep feels that NPS is one of the simplest, yet most powerful feedback measurement tools. However, according to the annual Net Promoter Score® benchmark survey from 2016, it was found that 90 percent of the companies were not clear if, after implementing their Net Promoter Score® program, whether they had increased customer retention. The score is nice to know, but what does it mean to your business? Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview with Adam Dorrell by discussing the Net Promoter Score® Benchmarks, The Annual Survey, (available as a free download at https://npsbenchmarks.com ) which discusses the latest in the Net Promoter® industry, best practices, and recently added company scores. CRM software tools have been around for about 30 years, but these tools are about the acquisition of a customer, not so much about the maintenance or retention of a customer. Adam said that about 40 percent of survey respondents were not sure how much business they retain each year. The average retention number for companies is about 80 percent, so the average American business loses 20 percent of their customers every year. Top Takeaways: • A repeat customer will do more business with you than a new customer. Repeat customers spend more. • The CEO and leadership team must buy in to the power of the NPS measurement and approve a budget for customer experience and retention. Success must be measured with proper KPI’s. • Customer feedback should be responded to in a timely matter. Too often companies push the survey out once a year and then take three months to process the feedback. By then it’s too late to properly respond to the customer. • Low scores require attention in a timely manner. Dorrell recommends focusing on detractors first, typically within 48 hours. Find out why the customer scored the company low and what the company can do to retain the customer. Beyond trying to “save” the customer, use the feedback to eliminate the same issues from happening to other customers. • High scores are also worth responding to. Find out the “why” behind the score. Your promotors are gold and will share information that can help create an even better customer experience. About: Adam Dorrell started CustomerGauge in 2008 to help companies solve the problem of retaining customers. Compatible with the Net Promoter Score®, CustomerGauge allows organizations to improve customer relationships and encourage loyalty, most immediately in e-commerce functions. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly every company says that they want to have a customer-focused culture, but then why are so many companies lacking one? What are the steps that your company needs to take to be committed to becoming customer focused? Shep Hyken speaks with Jeff Toister about his new book, The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how the best companies have an amazing service culture, because they have an amazing culture. Period. For instance, Zappos has their Ten Core Principles on how to create that customer-focused culture. CEO Tony Hsieh has even been known to fire employees if they can only buy into nine of the ten principles. Tony doesn’t even particularly care if his employees like shoes, but he is adamant that all his employees fit into the culture. The culture starts on the inside and is felt on the outside by the customer. If a company has a good customer-focused culture, there is a pretty good chance that the company has a great internal culture. The companies known for providing the best customer service are typically the best companies to work for. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Jeff Toister, “Why don’t more companies have a customer-focused culture?” Toister claims the challenge is that we simply don’t know how to get there. There is so much information about how to develop a customer-focused culture. Some of it lines up, and some of the information is conflicting. With so much conflicting advice, how can you make sense of it all? To help you to get there, Jeff Toister wrote his book as a guide that anyone could pick up and follow as a step-by-step plan to develop a customer-focused culture in their organization. When you have finally achieved the goal of creating a customer-focused culture, you will find that your employees are absolutely obsessed with service. They know what they are supposed to be doing. They’re committed. And they always seem to do the right thing. Top Takeaways: Three steps to developing your customer-focused culture: 1. Define what your culture is going to be. Your customer service vision needs to be one sentence, that everyone can remember. It needs to focus on the customer, not that you will be “industry-leading” or will make a lot of money. It cannot be a fluffy statement that no one believes in, but it must become a way of life for everyone in the organization. Who are we on our best day? Example: In-And-Out Burger’s “Quality, Consistency, and Courtesy” 2. Engage your employees and get them committed. Employees must fully understand what makes the organization successful, and they are committed to achieving that success. Many organizations have a difficult time having their employees give a consistent answer as to what “success” means. 3. Align everything in your organization around that definition of success, that customer service vision. We tend to do things that create conflicts and, that make it harder for our employees to deliver outstanding customer service. For example, we focus on customer service survey scores, and reward or penalize employees accordingly. Instead, we should focus on the feedback and learn how to use it, so that we can continually improve and deliver even better customer service. About: Jeff Toister helps customer service teams unlock their hidden potential. He has authored customer service training videos on Lynda.com and was named one of the Top 30 customer service professionals in the world by Global Gurus. He was also named one of the Top 50 Thought Leaders to Follow on Twitter by the International Customer Management Institute. Jeff holds Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) certification from the Association for Talent Development. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you want to embrace technology and provide your customers a better experience? Shep Hyken interviews Anthony Goonetilleke, the President of the Amdocs Product Business Group. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how companies are currently incorporating artificial intelligence into their customer experience. For example, 1-800 Flowers uses GWIN, which is powered by IBM’s AI system known as Watson, to help you pick out gifts. GWIN asks you questions, you give “her” answers, and then “she” makes recommendations to you based on the answers you give. Shep says that if you are not onboard with artificial intelligence, don’t understand it, and are not at least considering AI for your business, then you may find yourself playing catch up with your competition. You want to be ahead of the game. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview with Anthony Goonetilleke by asking if we have reached the point of HAL, the computer in 2001 A Space Odyssey? Should we be nervous or scared of that type of technology? Anthony Goonetilleke says rather than being intimidated by new technology, we need to reach the customer where they are. For too long, we have thought that if you need to interface with Company X, you should be required to use the customer service application from Company X. But Millennials and Generation Z want more convenient service on the technologies that they prefer. If they are on Twitter, they want to tweet something out. If they are on Facebook, they will want to message or post on there. When you talk about the customer experience, you can incorporate a layer of intelligence and then start adding these various channels on top. It is important to note that we don’t even know what channels will be available two years from now. But once you have the proper framework built to provide a customer experience system, adding these unique channels when they become available, should be just like adding an a la carte menu. Artificial intelligence should interact with you as though you are communicating with another human. This is because AI can know who you are, your story, and has the ability to contextually learn what’s going on. For example, if all you need to do is change your billing address, rather than calling and waiting on hold for 10 minutes to talk to a person, using AI can get you through this basic customer service interaction in a matter of seconds. Top Takeaways: • Artificial Intelligence tools are available today. What we are in the process of doing is stitching them together in the right way, to make the process seem more human. • A lot of developmental work is also being done within artificial intelligence trying to analyze customer sentiments and conversations. A frustrated customer is a great precursor to churn. The faster you can determine the frustration the better the experience will be for the customer. • Artificial intelligence won’t take jobs away from people. Artificial intelligence won’t replace humans, but it will replace many basic tasks that humans don’t want to do. About: Anthony Goonetilleke is the Group President - Chief Technologist and Head of Product at Amdocs. Amdocs is a leading software & services provider to the world’s most successful communications and media companies, enabling their digital and network transformation through innovative solutions, delivery expertise and intelligent operations. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What lessons can we learn from rock stars in the world of customer service and customer experience, like Ritz-Carlton? Shep Hyken interviews award-winning training and development expert, international consultant and speaker, former VP of Ritz-Carlton Leadership and current Executive VP of Owner Experience at NetJets, Diana Oreck, about the traits that make for good customer service. First Up: In Shep Hyken’s opening comments he relates an experience from the customer service workshops his company conducts for client companies. In these workshops, attendees are asked, “What is a quality that all customer-focused employees possess?” After a list is tallied, an interesting observation can be made. While a few of these qualities, are the skills required to do the job, the clear majority of the qualities are attitudinal traits. What Shep then challenges you do to is to make a list of all the attitudinal traits that you think would be required for a truly customer-focused employee, specifically in your organization. Then choose ten of them. Combine this top ten list with the skills that an employee must have to do their job. When you find a candidate that possesses all the qualities on the list (both attitudinal qualities and skills), you will likely have your next amazing employee! Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview with Diana Oreck, who served as the Vice President of the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, and is currently the Executive VP of Owner Experience at NetJets, about what makes customer service and the customer experience at Ritz-Carlton so special. Oreck says it all stems from their often-quoted motto: “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” We should all expect respect and kindness. That’s how the Ritz-Carlton treats people, both internally and externally. They have truly hardwired the concept of the most important word, which is always. Because always leads to consistency, which leads to trust, which leads to profitability. That spirit to serve, regardless of your role in the company, is wired into people’s DNA. And management at the Ritz-Carlton is fantastic, because they walk the talk. Top Takeaways: • If you are in a service industry, competence is the price of entry. We left the transactional economy years ago. • Easy to do business with has now become a greater predictor of customer loyalty than customer satisfaction. • We shouldn’t be calling them “soft skills.” There is a connotation there that they aren’t really that important. They are. We should call them “real skills” instead. About: Diana Oreck is a nationally and internationally recognized, results-driven, creative, senior executive with 30 years’ experience in the hospitality industry. Additionally, Oreck is an international consultant in corporate culture, branding, leadership, employee engagement and legendary service. She was named 2011/2012 Professional Woman of the Year by the National Association of Professional Women. After a 12-year career at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Oreck is currently the Executive Vice President of the Owner Experience for NetJets. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are the major trends that are evolving in customer service, what do you need to do to keep up, and why? Shep Hyken interviews Keith Pearce, VP Product Marketing, Salesforce Service Cloud. Shep and Keith will discuss the motivation behind businesses doubling down on customer service as customer expectations evolve in the always-on, on-demand environment. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on Salesforce’s State of Service Research Report (https://www.salesforce.com/form/pdf/2017-state-of-service.jsp), which shows that connected customers are going to reshape the service industry. Customer service and the customer experience are going to completely dominate the competitive nature of business. According to the report, 85% of business executives believe that customer experience is a key competitive differentiator. Further, empowered customers expect their customer service to be personalized. Finally, 69% of consumers and 82% of business buyers say that personalized customer care has a major or moderate impact on their loyalty toward companies. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview with Keith Pearce asserting that as products and services become more commoditized, customer service is the only sustainable differentiator that most companies have. Pearce states that we are all mobile-driven first. Increasingly, we see more and more consumers using mobile messaging. Not just SMS, but mobile messaging apps like Facebook Messenger. Companies need to be present on those apps. We are moving to conversational service, to provide service where the customers are. Top Takeaways: • Artificial intelligence (AI) rises to the top. Service leaders are looking to leverage AI to provide a more intelligent, personalized and conversational form of service. • It’s not just about the customer service department anymore. If a company is going to be a customer service and customer experience leader, it needs to break down the departments it established to form the enterprise. It needs to communicate and collaborate across the company to provide a great customer experience. • Companies will realize that service is not just something they have to do, instead it is a competitive differentiator, and it’s strategic. This is good news for anyone in the service industry, because it is about to go through a major disruption. About: Keith Pearce is responsible for marketing strategy, vision and execution in his role as Vice President of Marketing for Salesforce Service Cloud. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the customer service, call center management and cloud industries. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the best way to improve your customer experience? Shep Hyken interviews the Chief Customer Experience Analyst and Founder of Interaction Metrics, Martha Brooke, who says she thinks about customer experiences differently. "Experiences can be measured,” Martha says, “and measuring is how you improve—but only if your measurement is sufficiently nuanced." First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on a CX Solutions (formerly TARP Worldwide) study which showed that only 4% of customers that were “wronged” by a business will actually complain to that company. The important point is not that other 96% of the customers don’t complain; they do, but they instead send that unhappy message on to family members, friends, and colleagues at work. But perhaps what is now even more damaging to a business, they use social media channels to broadcast their dissatisfaction… to the world. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by stating that customer experiences can be measured, and that measuring is the first step in how you improve your interactions with the customer. One way to measure is through the use of the Net Promoter Score® (“On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend our business?”). But Martha Brooke asserts that the Net Promoter Score® doesn’t really get into what is going on with the experience. It doesn’t answer the why behind the score, nor does it explain what you as the business could do to improve your Net Promoter Score®. The score simply does not get into sufficient depth to be actionable. It’s critical that you understand what is going on with the customer, so that you can make precise changes to the customer experience you deliver. Shep and Martha continue the interview by discussing the “voice of the customer,” The best voice of the customer programs present both accurate facts and actionable facts that can help you strengthen your relationship with your customers. Martha concluded the interview by explaining her recent Customer Listening Study. Working off the National Retail Association’s list of top retailers, she and her team chose the top 50, went in and took their surveys, then recorded the information and evaluated it. Based on 15 points of objective criteria, they wanted to determine how good the surveys were. Were these retailers collecting accurate data, and were they engaging their customers? What they found was ‘no’ and ‘no.’ At 23 questions on average, the surveys were excessively long, sometimes taking longer than the original transaction itself! Martha and her team also wanted to know, did the questions avoid any bias or lead-in wording? 32% of all questions were actually leading customers to give the answers the companies wanted to hear. Learn more about the study, at http://interactionmetrics.com/Customer-Listening-Study/. Top Takeaways: • The best time to have a customer take a survey: as soon as the interaction is completed. • Most companies are asking their customers the wrong questions, and even if they are asking the right questions, they are asking them in the wrong way. • Customer experience really matters. The best way to make efficient changes to the customer experience is with actionable, accurate and objective data. About: Martha Brooke is the Chief Customer Experience Analyst and Founder of Interaction Metrics and is certified in Black Belt Six Sigma. Prior to Interaction Metrics, Martha worked for two dot-coms (Lucy.com and Food.com). Now, in addition to overseeing client programs, Martha leads top-rated workshops and sessions for many professional associations. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rather than attempt to cut the costs of delivering customer service on the phone, how you can use that opportunity to actually increase customer satisfaction and revenue through the use of technology? Shep Hyken speaks with Kyle Christensen, VP of Marketing at Invoca, about using technology to create a better customer experience. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how it is reasonable for our customers to expect a good experience on the phone. They shouldn’t have to know and repeat their account number. They shouldn’t need to be transferred to someone else. They shouldn’t have to tell their story again and again. As usual, Shep shares examples that we can all relate to that give clarity to his ideas and concepts. Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Kyle Christensen, Senior VP of Marketing at Invoca, “How can you enhance the experience of customers on the phone?” Christensen responded by saying, that customers have avoided calling and have sought out answers on their own because we have made the phone experience a painful one. The problem is that some companies haven’t invested in the right processes and technology. First, they can make it difficult to even find the customer service phone number –almost hiding it on their websites. Second, they make the customer navigate through a phone tree with (what seems like) at least seven options. Third, if the customer does find the correct option, companies make you sit on hold for (what seems like) 10 minutes before ever talking to someone. While we are pushing people toward alternative solutions to customer service, we must recognize the power of the live phone conversation with a customer. Artificial intelligence, is going to unlock an incredible amount of data that has never been available before, particularly as it relates to voice. Through the use of technology, customer service agents will be able to deliver a better customer service experience. As a result, customers won’t need to announce their account number three times during a series of conversations. The system will already know this and additional information about them that the agent can readily access. The resulting friction-less conversation can deliver a better service experience and the agent can get feedback about their customers’ needs and expectations. This can be a goldmine of information that the agent can then use to deliver a better customer experience and to find opportunities to create more revenue. Top Takeaways: • 74% of people who have a bad phone support experience are likely to choose another business the next time they shop for that product or service. In fact, 70% of them will also complain to their friends and family about that experience. • If they are using their smartphone rather than their desktop computer, people are three times more likely to make a call to the business rather than to fill out a form to contact that business. • AI will help support agents eliminate the common problems with support calls, by providing account information automatically to agents with customer voice recognition. About: Kyle Christensen is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Invoca, a call intelligence company. Kyle has also served in senior strategic product marketing and management roles at Zuora and at Salesforce.com where he ran enterprise marketing for Data.com and helped launch the Service Cloud line of business. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the best way to get your customers to truly become your advocates? Shep Hyken speaks with keynote speaker and author Chip Bell about the best way to inspire customer loyalty. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how to inspire loyalty with your customers. He challenges you to go back to your team and ask them to take a look at other industries. How have companies in other industries been able to create what he calls Moments of Magic® for their customers? Next ask the team, “What would happen if we could do the same thing here?” Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Chip Bell about his definition of customer loyalty. Bell says that there are many ways to define a loyal customer. Some experts define loyalty as a customer who comes back. Others say it is someone who buys more, or trusts you more. Some even say, in the case of purchasers of Harley-Davidson jackets or Bass Pro Shop Shirts, it is someone who uses your product as part of their identity. But Bell asserts that the best expression of customer loyalty is customer advocacy. In other words, the customer talks about you, tells stories about you, and tweets about you. In essence, the customer becomes an extension of your sales and marketing staff. They’re not just coming back; they’re bringing their friends with them when they do come back. In fact, they have become your evangelists. Bell talks about the concept of “value add,” which is taking what the customer expects and adding a bit more to the experience. The challenge you face, is that as the customer’s expectations climb, you’ll quickly run out of additional offerings. Instead, Bell suggests the concept of “value unique,” which is to create for the customer an experience that is unique, unusual and unexpected. Yet, at the same time, the experience is appropriate and simple. Bell insists that value unique is not a process to try to create a ten percent increase in the level of your customer service. Instead he challenges you to ask, what would I do if I wanted to increase my level of service by 100%? What would I do totally differently? Top Takeaways: • The best expression of customer loyalty is customer advocacy. This goes beyond asking the Net Promoter Score question of “On a scale of 0 to 10, what is the likelihood that you would recommend us?” • Your customers are not just comparing you to others in your industry, but to those in other industries who provide a gold standard customer experience. • Bell talks about the concept of “value add,” which is taking what the customer expects and adding a bit more to the experience. The challenge you face, though, is that as the customer’s expectations climb, you’ll quickly run out of additional offerings. Instead, Bell suggests the concept of “value unique,” which is to create for the customer an experience that is unique, unusual and unexpected. About: Chip Bell has helped many Fortune 100 companies dramatically enhance their bottom lines and marketplace reputation through innovative customer-centric strategies. Bell reveals the best practices from the organizations leading the customer loyalty charge, giving his audiences powerful cutting-edge ideas and unique strategies they can immediately put into practice. Bell has authored eight national best-selling books. His latest book is Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What thinking goes into creating an amazing customer experience? Shep Hyken speaks with Lynn Hunsaker, who talks about a mistake that companies typically make in this process. First Up: Shep’s opening monologue takes a look at two companies that truly understand the customer experience. First is Olark, a live chat software company, that chose not to hire a person dedicated to handling customer service. Instead they rotated the job among the four partners. This allowed each of the founders to not only learn how to answer questions and deal with problems, but to also find out what customers were actually experiencing when they used their products. At the second company, Anheuser-Busch, in what could be an early version of Undercover Boss, executives were required to ride with the route salesmen in their beer trucks. As a result, these executives received first-hand knowledge of the customer experience. Featured Interview: Shep interviews Lynn Hunsaker who says that in Silicon Valley the danger exists to think that a concept like innovation can take precedence. Many companies in her area think, “What is the next new mouse trap that we can create?” The concept of attempting to retain existing customers rather that to attain new ones seems a bit foreign to them. So Lynn wrote the book "Innovating Superior Customer Experience," to find a common ground with her peers in Silicon Valley. She discovered that everybody in the organization should have a role in being creative and in making suggestions for customer experience innovations. In Silicon Valley, Adobe gives us an example of such a company. Anybody at Adobe can make a suggestion, have it presented to a peer review board, and fast track their ideas into reality. Everybody at Adobe can have a stake in setting the customer experience. Many companies, to help them manage their customer experience, create customer personas. Lynn tells us there is a much simpler and easier process: just look at the ultimate aims and sets of expectations across those many customer personas. Once you truly understand your customers, through the use of personas or otherwise, you are better able to market to them. Customer service and customer experience are the new marketing. And when you understand who your competitors are, not just your direct competitors, you can begin to craft a better experience for your customers. When you examine the customer experience, realize that the time and effort customers expend as well as the stress they experience is a huge part of why customers churn. When you are thinking of customer experience improvement, you should be aiming to minimize the occurrence of these issues. We ask ourselves, how do we engage our employees to make the customer’s plight better? For example, how can we simplify something for a customer? When you are thinking about engaging customers, think first about earning their trust. If you focus on earning their trust, they will engage. But if you focus on engaging them just for the sake of engagement, that effect might be short-lived. Take for example, loyalty programs. In addition to your own loyalty program, your customers may also be subscribers in all of your competitors’ loyalty programs, thus defeating the purpose of your program. Many loyalty programs are simply marketing programs. Ask yourself, would a customer still do business with you if you eliminated your loyalty program? Have we been able to earn their trust? That is how good you need to be! And if you have a loyalty program, use it to thank the people who continue to do business with you. Certainly do not offer even better deals to first-time buyers. Otherwise you will certainly offend your loyal customers! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you realize there is a hidden gem in your customer service department? Shep Hyken speaks with Jeremy Watkin to discuss the strategies you can use to mine that hidden gem, which can give your organization a competitive advantage. But first... Shep Hyken discusses the power of the customer satisfaction survey. Just about everything related to the success of a business is tied to numbers, and the customer satisfaction survey is a big part of that. With the survey, it is important to ask the right questions, but even more importantly, to be prepared to do something with the answers you get. As Peter Drucker said, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” After Shep’s opening comments, Shep and Jeremy discuss how you can measure what the customer is saying through listening, and paying attention to your customer satisfaction or Net Promotor Score surveys, and the verbatim feedback that accompany them. It may also be through anecdotal comments they are making to your customer service department on the phone. It may be the comments customers are typing on your website when they are canceling their service. All of these comments can be used to give valuable insights into how we can improve our customers’ experience. A few tips from Jeremy Watkin on improving customer service: • Create a Customer Service Focus Group Jeremy suggests as a solution to create a focus group, not only among your customers, but also with your customer service department. You’ll never be short for material when you ask your customer service department for feedback on the pain points your customers are experiencing. The customer service department will happily share feedback from your customers. Ask them the right questions, and you will get incredible answers. • Customer Service Stop Words There are a number of words that some people in customers say on a regular basis that simply turn our customers off. We must get away from telling our customers things like “Sorry, there is nothing we can do” or “Our policy prohibits us from taking any action on your behalf.” Sometimes the customer service rep may resort to saying, “No,” because it’s easier than trying to figure out a way to fix the customer’s issue. Here are a few “Customer Service Stop Words” to avoid: • Unfortunately • Policy • Can’t • Won’t • No Any time you invoke policy, it is not going to sit well with the customer! Instead using phrases such as, “Let me see what I can do,” or, “Here is what I can do for you.” Customer Service Support Tools To help your customer service department do their job more effectively, consider artificial intelligence tools like Gridspace or Call Miner. These tools can ‘listen’ to how your customer service department interacts with the customer, and will give you ideas on how to improve words, syntax and cadence to make a better connection with the customer. And, since many customers (especially millennial customers) like to solve problems on their own, consider the use of self-service tools like Solvvy (for email support) or Nanorep (for chat), a Frequently Asked Questions page or even a “how to” video on YouTube. Jeremy Watkin is the Head of Quality at FCR, an outsource provider of customer service. He is also the co-founder and regular contributor to the blog Customer Service Life, where he continues to write about customer service, customer experience, and contact center life. Be sure to connect with him on Twitter at @jtwatkin for more awesome customer service and experience insights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Show business is a multi-billion dollar (and thriving) industry. What can we learn from show business that we can apply to our own business? Shep Hyken speaks with Scott McKain who states that all of us, no matter what our business is, are in show business. And here’s why . . . The purpose of entertainment is to create the desired emotional response from the audience. As business people, we need to determine as a first step how we want our audience (our customers) to feel as a result of our production (whatever product or service we provide). Unfortunately, and the reason Scott wrote the book All Business is Show Business, is that businesses don’t think about how they make their customers feel. Yet, we must make it part of the process. How do we, as a business, think about the compelling experiences we are creating for our customers? In business, this is usually the last step we take. We create our storefronts or design our websites, and then, after everything else has been put in place, we ask, “Okay, how do we improve the experience for our customer?” We simply do not think about defining the customer experience and customer service as we should – or at least at the right time. With motion pictures, the real profitability is in the sequel, the repeat business. Yet how are we as business people preparing for our repeat business? Additional profitability for motion pictures comes from licensing products and spinoffs. Similarly, how can we extend and expand our products and services? Another subject that was discussed was one of Scott’s other books, Create Distinction: What to Do When ''Great'' Isn't Good Enough to Grow Your Business. Scott wanted to find out why some organizations were standing out in the marketplace and others weren’t? Looking at the book Good to Great by Jim Collins, he noticed that most companies represented in the book as “great” had either gone bankrupt or had fallen from their lofty perches. He wanted to understand why, and determined that they had their ability to be distinctive. Part of what made companies distinctive was the level of service they were delivering, but Scott determined it was much more than that. Through his research, he was able to determine the four cornerstones of distinction: 1. Clarity – This process involves becoming totally precise and what you are, and being just as precise about what you are not. If we try to be everything to everybody, we end up being very generic and very bland. 2. Creative – It is easy for an organization like Amazon to be creative because they are so clear on who and what they are. Steve Jobs could be so creative with the iPhone because he was so clear on what kind of products Apple builds. Creativity must be grounded in clarity. 3. Communication – We need to communicate the narrative of what really matters. We know the narrative of distinctive businesses like Southwest Airlines, yet we tend to in our own businesses and our own careers to run away from our uniqueness. Your story can define your culture. 4. Customer Experience Focus – What will the customer feel like when they do business with us? How do we refine that experience? How to we make it stand out? Business is hyper-competitive, and one way to separate your business from the competition is to focus on these four cornerstones and creating distinction. Scott McKain is an internationally known authority who helps organizations create distinction in every phase of business. He is the author of three Amazon.com #1 business bestsellers; all teaching how to expand profits, increase sales, and engage customers. This year, Scott will be releasing an updated 15th year anniversary version of his book, which will be entitled All Business is Still Show Business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sure, you hire your people based on job function, but shouldn’t you also be hiring on job essence? Shep talks with Steve Curtin who says, “Employees consistently execute mandatory job functions for which they are paid, yet they inconsistently demonstrate discretionary customer behaviors, which are known as ‘voluntary job essence.’” In other words, your employees may be doing what they were hired to do, trained to do, and are paid to do. What they are less clear about is why they’re doing it, and how they’re doing. By way of example, Steve talks about waiters in a restaurant. Their job function may be to take orders and deliver the food to the guests. That’s easy to understand. However, if the waiters were clear about their job essence, they might also: • Express genuine interest by making eye contact • Smile • Add energy to their voice • Convey authentic enthusiasm • Be respectful and be discretionary when they approach the table • Provide the guest with a surprise There are many things waiters, or anyone who has a customer-facing role, can do to elevate a transactional experience into one that is more relational. And the way to do that is by being intentional as you interject essence into the various job functions you were hired to do, trained to do, and are paid to do. Another way to demonstrate job essence, in addition to the attributes listed above, includes displaying a sense of urgency and paying attention to details, such as Disney employees (or “cast members”) do as they pick up trash as they walk the park. Tasks are determined by your job role. The behaviors you choose to exhibit are determined by you. For instance, employees may be trained to use customers’ names, and they may be trained to smile, but they still need to choose to demonstrate those behaviors. Steve does not believe that customer service standards are being raised, and he gives a specific example as to why. Employees at one of the retail stores he frequents are indifferent to his presence. All of what the employees are doing on the job becomes incredibly transactional. All of the employees are doing exactly what they have been hired to do, trained to do, and are paid to do. Yet this is only one dimension of their job function. The reason that they are miss the more important function (job essence) is because their immediate supervisor lacks this all-important information. The more important dimension of the employees’ role may be to inspire confidence, to delight customers, or to create a promoter. But it definitely has nothing to do with bringing in carts, stocking shelves or sweeping the floor! There is a way to operationalize exceptional customer service so that it occurs reliably over time by design rather than by chance. And that is by being intentional, deliberate and purposeful about incorporating job essence into every job function. Steve Curtin, author of Delight Your Customers: 7 Simple Ways to Raise Your Customer Service from Ordinary to Extraordinary, has 20 years of experience between hotel operations, sales and marketing, training and development, and customer service roles working for Marriott International, one of the premiere customer-focused companies in the world. Steve now devotes his time to speaking, consulting, and writing on the topic of extraordinary customer service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some companies follow up a transaction by sending you a lengthy survey that may take five or ten minutes or even longer to complete. In other words, after you have given the company money, it rewards you with a “homework assignment.” There has to be a better way! Shep talks with Chad Keck, CEO and co-founder of Promoter.io, about a simple but scientifically proven method of measuring customer satisfaction – the Net Promoter Score. Word of mouth is the best form of marketing for your business, but how do we actually put that into practice? Customers can feel strongly, either positively or negatively about your brand, which impacts referrals and recommendations. Capitalizing on positive word of mouth is the key to driving long-term sustainable growth. The unique feature of the Net Promoter Score is that it gives you a consistent, method-drive approach to determine if customers are satisfied or dissatisfied. Net Promoter Score asks, “How likely are you on a scale of 0 to 10 to recommend this company?” So how does the customer feel about your brand? Are they willing to put their name and reputation on the line to recommend you? Consumers tend to pause as they think about the question. This causes them to be more critical, which drives out more candid responses. Along with the follow-up, open-ended question of “‘What is the most important reason for your score?” this ultimately gives you the best kind of data to use to understand what you are doing well, or what you are not doing well and thus where you need to improve. Part of the beauty of the Net Promoter Score is the very short and concise format of the survey. The completion rate of the typical customer survey (the “homework assignment” mentioned above) is typically 3 to 5 percent. On the other hand, the Net Promoter Score, implemented properly, will usually generate a response rate of between 30 to 40 percent! With the Net Promoter Score, we can identify which customers are likely to recommend us. We can then begin to strategically engage them individually, which is a critical (but often neglected) part of the process. We are also more likely to identify which customers will churn or spread negative information, and deal with them appropriately. Without the Net Promoter Score, it would be very difficult to take those actions, especially if we received a very low survey response rate. The Net Promoter Score helps us to break down customers into three groups: promoters, passives and detractors. We then need to engage customers based on the patterns they fall into. Finally, the Net Promoter Score represents a single score or metric we can easily trend over time. Chad Keck is the CEO and Co-Founder, Promoter.io, which helps companies measure the true 'voice of the customer' by allowing them to easily build Net Promoter Score campaigns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What will brands and businesses need to do in the future to be successful? Shep Hyken speaks with Brian Solis, who asserts that all thinking needs to start with the customer experience design. Design what your customers are supposed to feel at all parts of their customer journey. Think beyond the products and services that you sell. Think about the entire customer experience. The customer experience is defined as the sum of all engagements the customer has with your company throughout their lifecycle. Go through your customer’s journey and map the entire process so that you can improve their overall journey. In fact, you will find there may be more than a single journey you will need to map. This is exactly what Airbnb did when they needed to reinvent themselves four years into their existence, and just as Walt Disney did decades earlier when planning the movie Snow White. Disney had success with shorter cartoons, but he wanted to create a feature-length film with enough depth that told a complete, detailed story. So Disney used storyboarding to plan the entire journey. Similarly, Airbnb created a storyboard; a list of the emotional moments that comprise an Airbnb stay. If any one part of your customer journey fails, you can never have a 100% great experience. So we must focus on the sum of the customer engagement, and the parts of the engagement that equal that sum. This philosophy breaks down the silos of disparate business units throughout the organization and forces a single-minded focus on the customer, from beginning to end. Apple, Disney and Tesla are prime examples of companies that create a holistic customer experience design. For a fresh perspective, take a look at other popular products and services from industries outside of your own. What insights can you gain from that customer experience that you want to design into yours? For example, in writing (and then rewriting) his book, Brian looked at apps and other technology to redesign his book, rather than looking at and comparing his book to other books. Brian challenged the convention of what a book should be. He did research into how our brains process long-form content, given the short attention spans of today. After all of his research, Brian determined how the reader could have a very different kind of book experience. Besides creating a book that is rich with content, he also built in experiences with joys and pleasures, resulting in a book that you not only want to read, but also experience. As a result, Shep Hyken places X: The Experience when Business Meets Design on his list of the all-time top 10 business books. Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders, keynote speakers, and best-selling authors in innovation and digital transformation. His book X: The Experience When Business Meets Design explores the importance of experiences and how to design them for customers and employees. As Principal Analyst at Altimeter, a Prophet Company, he humanizes technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is your business equipped to deliver exceptional customer experiences? Shep Hyken speaks with Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell, authors of the new book “Woo, Wow and Win: Service Design, Strategy and the Art of Customer Delight,” who assert that a customer’s experience should be designed just as thoughtfully as your product was designed. A successful customer experience will not happen by accident. O’Connell says that service design, which has its roots in Europe, is a fairly new discipline in the United States. The real crux of service design is for a business to think, reimagine and engineer the customer experience - from start to finish. Stewart states that every part of a service should be designed to create a set of expectations, and then deliver on them in a way that maps to your strategy. For example, Starbucks wants to create a different experience from a deli, Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s. How you design your experience is part of your strategy. Stewart asserts that some moments matter more than others. These are known as the critical customer interactions, those moments when you either make it or break it with a customer. For instance, the time of an automobile insurance claim is that moment when a customer will decide to either love you or hate you. You’ve got to deliver an “aha” moment. O’Connell describes the Five Principles of Service Design: 1. The customer is always right, provided it is the right customer for you. 2. Don’t surprise and delight customers, just delight them. 3. Great service should not require heroic efforts. 4. Anywhere you play, you need to play well (across all platforms or channels) 5. You’re never done. Stewart discusses the importance of aligning yourself with one of the Nine Archetypical Service Designs, including these three: 1. Bargain – Are you the Walmart of your industry? 2. Trend setter – Are you the Apple of your industry? 3. Safe choice – Are you the CVS or Macy’s of your industry? Which is your archetype? Do not study others in the same archetype in the same industry as yours, as you’ll just be copying them. Instead, study others in the same archetype as you, but in different industries. What can you learn about delivering an extraordinary customer experience from them? Thomas A. Stewart, the executive director of the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM), shows executives how to design, manage and run organizations that keep pace with innovation and achieve sustainable growth. Before joining NCMM, Stewart served as the chief marketing and knowledge officer for the international consulting firm Booz & Company (now Strategy&). Prior to that, for six years, he was the editor and managing director of Harvard Business Review. Patricia O’Connell, president of Aerten Consulting, works with companies to devise content strategies, and develop thought leadership. For 12 years, O’Connell served as news editor and then as the management editor of BloombergBusinessweek.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you thought about how you and your organization can use technology to enhance the customer service experience? Shep Hyken speaks with Bill Aston about how the pace of change is increasing in the customer care environment. They discuss how companies must now rely on technology to deliver a satisfactory customer experience due to increased demands placed on them. Yet, the ability to get all of the technologies to work in synchronicity is becoming more and more of a challenge. If your customer calls in and then later comes in via chat, your customer believes that, as part of that experience, your company should have a record of the prior contact. There needs to be a seamless flow in your company from one channel to another. Multiple channels and multiple technologies need to come together to deliver a seamless customer experience. For instance, one support rep can have 20,000 or more customers. Support reps can also be located in different geographical locations. As a result, getting everything to work together to deliver a satisfactory customer experience can be a very challenging (but necessary) exercise. Since it can take months to rectify a problem once technology has been rolled out, it is important that any new technology be thoroughly tested before rolling it out to your customers. Adding to the complexity is the fact that video will be the foundation of a successful customer experience within the next one to three years. By using video, organizations can create a better connection with their customers, allowing them to notice facial expressions and to share information that they wouldn’t normally be able to gather. If you are not planning to use video as part of your customer experience, and a competitor is, you could lose business to that competitor. Bill Aston is the General Manager for the Americas for Cyara, the market leader and the world’s fastest growing provider of an automated customer experience platform. Cyara’s technology enables you to mimic your customer behaviors, proactively monitor your customer experience, and keep pace with your customers’ expectations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Would you like to learn how your organization can stand out, create customer experiences and use celebration as a strategic tool? Shep Hyken speaks with Scott Friedman, Certified Speaking Professional, and past president of the National Speakers Association (NSA) about his book, Celebrate! Lessons Learned from the World’s Most Admired Organizations. Scott says that your organization must be characterized by four factors: 1. Inclusivity – Make sure that everybody in your organization feels like they are part of the team. Happy employees create happy customers. 2. Gratitude – Your employees and customers feel cared for, and not just because they have an economic impact on the organization. 3. Play – How to put your employees and customers in a state of flow. 4. Surprise – Nothing creates an emotional connection with your employees and customers like surprise! While generic surprises (a bowl of fruit or a box of candy) are nice, customization and personalization can make a tremendous impact. Scott and Shep give many examples of how this can be done simply, cheaply and easily – by using Facebook. Scott Friedman discusses how to turn on your GPS (gratitude, play and surprise) for your employees and customers. Scott Friedman, Certified Speaking Professional, and former President of the National Speakers Association (NSA), is the author of Celebrate! Lessons Learned from the World’s Most Admired Organizations, Happily Ever Laughter, Using Humor for A Change, and A Celebration a Day – 365 ways to a Happier, Healthier Workplace. For over 30 years Scott has traveled the globe speaking on employee innovation, customer experience and using humor/celebration as a strategic tool. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Help Scout’s Customer Evangelist, Mat Patterson, about the difficulties of maintaining great customer service while your company grows. While the focus is on growing companies, Mat shares some amazing tips for creating and maintaining great customer service that can be applied to any company. As an organization grows, this episode of Amazing Business Radio is more important than ever, as it can provide you with some of the answers you need to know no how to scale your customer service to keep up with the growth of your company. Mat Patterson worked as a web designer, before switching careers to lead the customer service team at Campaign Monitor, a popular email marketing web application. After building a successful team there, he then moved into the Customer Evangelist role at Help Scout, crafters of exceptional helpdesk and customer service tools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with consultant, speaker and bestselling author, Noah Fleming, about customer loyalty and his new book, “The Customer Loyalty Loop: The Science Behind Creating Great Experiences and Lasting Impressions.” Not only do they review the four steps of the customer experience, but they also provide tips to make every step a success and how that leads to customer loyalty. We all know that keeping our customers is a key to success, so tune in to this episode of Amazing Business Radio and be well on your way to acquiring more loyal customers! Noah Fleming is the person you talk to when you want to discover the goldmine of profits hiding inside your business, and then add them straight to the bottom line. He helps his clients cultivate enduring customer loyalty to create perpetual business growth. When not speaking, writing, mentoring and pulling hidden profits out of seemingly thin air for businesses … Noah likes to cook for and spend time with his wife, Heather, and two daughters, Avalon & Ella. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep speaks with customer service evangelist and Chief Operations Officer and Co-Founder of ClearSource, Nate Spears, about providing exceptional customer service. Nates defines the meaning of an exceptional customer experience and explains how it’s not as hard as you think to go above and beyond for your customers. He also shares his opinion about how customer complaints are a gold mine, filled with opportunity. Nate shares an excellent example of how (and why) all complaints really need to be listened to. Shep and Nate also discuss how to continue to create personal interactions in this digital age and the future of customer support. In this episode of Amazing Business Radio, you will learn many ways to provide an exceptional customer service experience - and who doesn’t want that?! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with professional speaker and author Andy Masters about his bestselling book, “Kiss Your Customer: 77 Reasons Why Sales & Service Are Just Like Dating & Relationships.” Andy shares humorous stories and provides some great tips about loyalty, social media, showing appreciation, overcoming bad customer experiences, listening skills, and much more. Andy loves to be unique and surprising to the people he cares about – in both his personal and professional relationships. So if you need some help surprising your customers or your loved ones, don’t miss this episode! It’s packed full of hilarious stories from Andy, while also providing excellent tips for building better relationships. And he even offers an amazing tip for surprising your significant other for Valentine’s Day! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep speaks with Matt Wilbanks, CEO and co-founder of HelpSocial, about providing a better social customer care experience. Matt shares his past experiences as a member of Rackspace Hosting’s social customer care team and how these experiences helped him find the need to create HelpSocial. They discuss social customer service (social care) and how automated intelligence can help create better support in all channels. Social care isn’t a fad. It is a trend that is forever changing how customers interact with companies they do business with. HelpSocial is the number one integration platform for customer care and social media. As a customer service innovator, Matt honed his support skills at Rackspace Hosting, recognized in their industry for fanatical customer service. During his tenure at Rackspace, Matt was an initial member of the company’s social customer care team. HelpSocial was developed inside Rackspace and eventually spun out with initial seed money funding from Mark Cuban in 2014. As CEO Matt is responsible for HelpSocial’s growth strategies, as well as ensuring the HelpSocial team has plenty of snacks and a working Netflix account. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with HDI’s senior writer/analyst, thought leader, customer support guru, and co-host of the popular #CustServ Tweet Chat, Roy Atkinson. They discuss how technology is advancing customer service and support. From self-service options to social media, from chatbots to AI, technology is changing how businesses and their customers interact. Roy shares how the best companies know to not only empower their people to overcome obstacles, but also support their customers using technology and confidence. They also touch upon how communicating and interacting with internal customers has changed. For example, they discuss how IT departments are focused more on customer service than ever before. This episode of Amazing Business Radio will shed some light into the advancing world of customer service! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Merrick Rosenberg, CEO of Take Flight Learning and author of "The Chameleon: Life Changing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has a Personality or Knows Someone Who Does." They discuss how understanding your customers better will lead to a better customer experience. Merrick shares his versions of the DISC behavioral style types, using birds (yes birds) to reference each style. He explains the different behavioral styles and traits associated with each style, making it easy to recognize and properly adapt to each style for better communication. This episode of Amazing Business Radio will help you delight your customers and build better relationships! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with best-selling author, blogger, speaker, and podcaster, Peter Shankman. They share stories about some exceptional customer service experiences and how to create loyal fans. Peter shares tips from his bestselling book on customer service, Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans. He also discusses his upcoming book, Faster Than Normal; Unlocking the Gifts of an ADHD Brain. The book, is based used his award-winning podcast Faster Than Normal, providing insights into an ADHD mind, and how to create a more productive day with proper planning. This episode of Amazing Business Radio is fast-paced and packed full of great information – an episode you don’t want to miss! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with consumer advocate, author, and journalist Christopher Elliott about how to get what deserve as a customer. They discuss how the secretes to getting better customer service, how to reach the CEO of a company when you have a problem, the misconceptions of “loyalty” programs and more. Elliott has earned the reputation of “every customer’s best friend.” He not only has four syndicated columns, but he also writes for numerous publications, and runs Elliott.org, a site for customer advocacy. Elliott exposes the differences between loyalty and marketing programs, and shares several great insights for how consumers can resolve their complaints against companies. This episode of Amazing Business Radio provides greats points of view from experts on both sides of the counter; how to get better customer service (as a consumer), and how to give better customer service (from a company). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Donna Peeples, a customer experience expert and Chief Customer Officer of Pypestream, a technology company offering secure mobile messaging, about how embracing change can enhance customer service and improve customer loyalty. Before Pypestream, Donna was Chief Customer Officer at AIG Property and Casualty, where she was responsible for leading communication, management, service delivery strategies, and practices for customers. She talks about the difficulties of compliance, staying within federal regulations while still maintaining a great customer experience. In addition, they discuss how customers are now in control and businesses are having to adapt to meet the needs and wants of their customers. Finally, Donna shares her thoughts on content marketing and how customers are wanting a more personal experience, both in support and sales channels. This episode of Amazing Business Radio will help you gain insights into how you can adapt to create an amazing customer experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with blogger, speaker, DJ, and bestselling author, Doug Sandler. They discuss his book, “Nice Guys Finish First.” Doug shares his expertise about how to provide excellent customer care, and how you can achieve more with customers by being nice. If you want to finish first in customer care, tune into this episode of Amazing Business Radio! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with the author of one of his favorite customer service books, professor, speaker and world famous author Dr. Michael LeBoeuf. They discuss his timeless classic that was well ahead of its time titled, “How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life.” Dr. LeBoeuf was a pioneer of his industry, who was discussing the customer experience well before it was a trend. He shares expert advice on how to not only gain a customer, but how to gain that customer’s loyalty. In this episode of Amazing Business Radio, you’ll hear Dr. LeBoeuf share stories and ideas on how to win over your customers and keep them forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with leader, innovator, call center educator, and co-founder and CEO of Fonolo, Shai Berger about improving customer support. They discuss some of the friction points customers have when dealing with companies, and Shai offers great tips and solutions for eliminating these pain points. Do you want to provide a better customer support experience? You should, and this episode of Amazing Business Radio will help you do just that! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with writer, speaker, and the President of International Customer Service Association (ICSA), Bill Gessert about National Customer Service Week. (This year the dates are October 3-7, 2016.) They discuss the background and history of this week, which includes a Presidential Proclamation, and discuss the importance of appreciating both your external and your internal customers (the people you work with). In addition to sharing ideas that your entire company can celebrate, they also provide great tips for making this special week successful. If you want to make your National Customer Service Week a success, you can’t miss this episode of Amazing Business Radio! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy and bestselling author, Colin Shaw. They discuss Colin’s new book “The Intuitive Customer: 7 Imperatives for Moving Your Customer Experience to the Next Level.” Colin shares tips to help you understand your customer’s behaviors and how you can use that to increase sales. Is customer service important to you? Is sales important to you? Then, this episode of Amazing Business Radio shouldn’t be missed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with fellow customer service expert, keynote speaker, and author, Adam Toporek. They discuss Adam’s new book, “Be Your Customers Hero: Real World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines.” In addition, Adam shares seven service triggers that can ruin the customer’s experience and the importance of avoiding them. So, if you want to be your customer’s hero, don’t miss this episode of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with James Gilmore, co-author of, “The Experience Economy,” one of the best business books of all-time. In this episode of Amazing Business Radio, Shep talks to Jim about his latest book, “Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills.” Jim shares tips on improving your observational skills and how to gain different perspectives that will help you become more successful at work - and especially with what you do for your customers. You don’t want to miss Jim’s amazing insights! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with brand evangelist, social marketing strategist, and keynote speaker, Ted Rubin about branding, customer service, customer experience and, most important, building trust (with both employees and customers). Ted is one of the most influential CMO’s followed on social media and he provides us with great tips and ideas to help strengthen your “Return on Relationships” (#RonR). Business is all about trust, relationships, and the customer experience; so don’t miss this episode of Amazing Business Radio! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Bob Thompson, speaker, author and CEO/founder of the research and publishing firm CustomerThink, about his latest book, “Hooked on Customers: The Five Habits of Legendary Customer-Centric Companies.” Bob also shares some best practices for customer service and what is necessary to ensure a successful customer service strategy. If you want to create more customer loyalty (and who doesn’t), you can’t miss this episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep speaks with branding expert, author, and professional speaker Bruce Turkel about how to brand your company for customer service. Bruce shares important tips and tools from his new book, “All About Them,” as they discuss the influence your customers have on your brand and how properly branding your company is essential for success. Listen to this episode of Amazing Business Radio and learn how to build your brand and reputation with your customers. The books may be titled, “All About Them,” but this episode is all about you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with customer experience expert, Vice President of Client Experience at Compellon and author of the popular blog CX Journey™, Annette Franz. In this high-content packed interview, they discuss seven deadly “sins” of the customer experience. Annette shares tips that can help you prevent some of these deadly sins. Annette is also an expert in customer journey mapping and gives us some ideas that we can implement immediately. So, if you want to avoid some common, yet potentially devastating, customer experience and service mistakes, you can’t afford to miss this episode of Amazing Business Radio! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with the CEO of 360Connext, keynote speaker, and Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) Jeannie Walters, on improving customer experience. They discuss customer experience mission statements, customer expectations, and how to improve everyday interactions. Jeannie shares her expertise, as a leading authority on microinteractions, and how by improving these seemingly minor details you can greatly impact the customer experience. The customer experience is integral for every business, so you can’t afford to miss out on this expert advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with customer service thought leader, author, Sr. Product Manager at Microsoft, and one of the top customer service influencers of 2016, Tricia Morris, about global customer service. Tricia shares stats and facts from Microsoft’s State of Global Customer Service Report and how customer service is changing globally. They talk about how customer expectations are changing, and just as important, what customer support centers are doing about those changes. This is must-have information to help you navigate the ever changing world of customer service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken discusses social customer care with Dan Gingiss, head of digital marketing for a Fortune 100 healthcare company, expert on social media & social customer care, and co-host of the “Focus on Customer Service” podcast. Dan shares his thoughts on the impact that social media is having on customer service and provides tips on how to deliver a better customer experience by using social media. There is a convergence of social media, marketing and customer service, and you can’t avoid integrating the three. So, don’t miss out on some expert advice from a social media and marketing guru! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Twitter’s Senior Marketing Manager, Jeff Lesser, about how to use Twitter for customer service. More and more customers are posting comments and questions for companies on Twitter. It is becoming a viable customer service channel as an alternative to email and the phone. Jeff shares several best practices and new tools that Twitter has created especially for customer service. They discuss how social media has greatly impacted customer service interactions between the customer and businesses, and how you can use this to your advantage. Don’t miss out on Jeff’s expert advice on how to improve customer service using Twitter! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with John Ruhlin, the number one Cutco Knife salesman in the world and author of his new book “Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention.” John shares gift giving strategies and ideas for you to use in both your personal and business life. John has taken the act of gift giving and turned it into an art. Don’t make a logo mistake or giving something that won’t be remembered – or even appreciated. And, why giving food or candy is a bad idea. Everyone can use these great tips from the guru of gift giving, so don’t miss this episode of Amazing Business Radio! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with John DiJulius, international consultant, best-selling business author and owner of the award winning John Robert’s Spa. John shares ideas from his latest book, “The Customer Service Revolution.” They discuss the radical overthrow of conventional business mentality which is transforming what employees and customers experience. This provides an opportunity for higher sales, a boost in employee morale, and brand loyalty. The result is that price becomes irrelevant. You can’t afford to miss this episode as John shares his expertise on creating an amazing customer experience! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with coaching and retention expert Michael Bungay Stanier on coaching for customer service. They discuss coaching methods and tips from Michael’s new book, “The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More, & Change the Way You Lead Forever.” Great customer service starts by hiring the right employees. Then you not only train, but coach them to success. Michael shares tips, techniques and strategies to that coach your employees to customer service victory! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Vala Afshar about how customer service is the future of marketing. Vala is the chief digital evangelist for Salesforce and author of “The Pursuit of Social Business Excellence.” He was named the most influential social media contributor on twitter for CMOs, CIOs, and CFOs. In this lively conversation Shep and Vala discuss how technology has evolved customer service into the “new marketing.” Vala shares how you can leverage technology to improve your customer service interactions, and in turn increase customer satisfaction. You can’t afford to miss this episode on cutting edge customer service technology! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken discusses how to create and maintain a customer-focused culture with Donn Sorenson, speaker, philanthropist, and Regional President of Mercy, a large healthcare organization based in St. Louis, MO. Donn shares his leadership principles and how they help to drive customer service and experience. He also shares tips from his new book, “Big Hearted Leadership: Five Keys to Create Success Through Compassion.” You can’t miss this episode on how to reshape your culture through leadership! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with customer service expert, international speaker, best-selling author, and business owner, Marilyn Suttle about customer loyalty. They discuss mistakes leaders can make that hurt customer loyalty, and explain the different expectations customers have, and the level of importance each expectation plays in gaining customer loyalty. She also shares tips from her new book, “Taming Gladys: The Busy Leaders Guide to Fierce Customer Loyalty.” This episode will get you one step closer to gaining more loyal customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews marketer, speaker, author, and “The Idea Man”, Steve Miller about Marketing. Steve shares common marketing mistakes, and offers non-traditional ways to improve your marketing and avoid mistakes. So, don’t make a mistake and miss this episode of Amazing Business Radio! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Andrea Michaels, CEO of Extraordinary Events, Pillar of the Industry award winner, and author on overcoming obstacles and conflict. Andrea shares her story on how she became one of the most recognized event planners in the world and provides lessons on how to properly handle crises. Everyone will encounter conflicts throughout their life. If you want to learn some great lessons on how to handle them, you can’t afford to miss this show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken discusses marketing and sales with, CEO and Co-Founder of Revizzit, Nick Night. They discuss creating your 21st century fan club by offering exclusive content through untraditional means. Nick shares some great ideas and tactics he uses within his company – ideas that everyone can apply to their businesses. You’ll also learn about Revizzit.com, a publishing platform that is revolutionizing the publishing industry and is an outstanding way to provide value to your customers. The result adds value to your customer’s experience and helps create customer loyalty. (And, who doesn’t want that!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Karin Hurt, Leadership speaker and CEO at Let’s Grow Leaders, and David Dye, award winning author and owner of Trailblaze Inc., on leadership. Karin and David share techniques from their new book, “Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results---Without Losing Your Soul.” Their focus is on developing people. They show you how to escape the metric maze and focus on getting better results AND building stronger relationships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Matt Hall, author, co-founder and president of Hill Investment Group, about investing. He shares some details from his new book, “Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor.” Are you interested in a powerful investment strategy for your long term financial success? Of course you are, but finance and investing can be boring...not this book and not this interview! Tune in to hear the thoughts, ideas, and experiences of Matt Hall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with fellow customer service and experience expert and author, Adrian Swinscoe. Adrian shares insights and tips from his new book, "How to Wow: 68 Effortless Ways to Make Every Customer Experience Amazing". This episode will not only share how to create a better customer experience, but it will guide you to create an amazing customer experience for every customer. Most importantly it will help you give your customers an effortless experience. If you are in any way a leader, manager, or in any type of customer service, this episode is especially for you! You can pre-order a copy of Adrian's book "How to Wow: 68 Effortless Ways to Make Every Customer Experience Amazing" here: http://amzn.to/1OhY1fI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with New York Times Bestselling author, speaker, and philanthropist, William (Bill) Donius, about thinking differently. Bill shares his methodology from his book, “Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius.” He shares very specific techniques that you can put to use immediately. It’s time for you to stop saying you’re going to think outside the box, and start doing it! Listen to this episode and find out how to unlock your inner genius! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with relationship expert, author, and hall of fame speaker, Jim Cathcart, on his take on personal development. Jim shares tips that everyone can utilize to make the world, and most important, your life better. He shares his path to success and his ideas and strategies about being positive and taking control of your life. From CEOs, to entrepreneurs, to students - everyone can benefit from Jim’s words of wisdom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Stan Phelps, author, experience architect, speaker, founder and Chief Measurement Officer of 9 Inch Marketing. They discuss the value of the customer experience and how some of the best companies exceed their customer’s expectations. Stan shares details and tips from his Goldfish anthology and his TEDx event “The Power of G.L.U.E.” If you value your customers and want to provide an amazing customer experience, this episode is for you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Anna Liotta, author, award-winning speaker, creator of Generationally Savvy™ Communication Solutions, founder of Generational Institute, & CEO of Resultance. Anna talks about the different generations, giving great insights on how to understand the differences and how to apply that knowledge to better serve your customers. Everyone can benefit from learning to communicate with different generations. So if you want to better understand your customers and your employees this episode is for you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with author, attention expert and keynote speaker, Neen James. They discuss the importance of paying attention, and how paying the right amount of attention to the right things can actually save both time and money. Learn how to disconnect when necessary and apply your attention appropriately to succeed in both your business and personal life. So stop multitasking and pay attention to this show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken discusses leadership with Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter, keynote speaker, author, and sales trainer. Mark explains the differences between managing and leading, sharing great examples on how leading makes a better impact than managing. If you are an entrepreneur or involved in any management role, this show has some great insights on how to lead your team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Marc Elliot, public speaker and author, about overcoming obstacles and how he was able to fulfill his dream of becoming a public speaker. Marc had Tourette’s syndrome, and despite the preconceptions of his supposed incurable disorder, through changing his mindset, he was able to defy modern-medicine and conventional thinking. His story will inspire you and give you confidence to achieve what you want out of life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep discusses embracing your customer complaints with Jay Baer, marketing consultant, social media guru, speaker and New York Times best-selling author. In Jay’s new book, “Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers,” he shares why complaints are actually good for business. He explains his “hug your haters” concept and why you should respond to customers in every channel. So if you want to get an edge on the competition and turn your complainers into loyal advocates (raving fans), this episode is for you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken discusses business etiquette and the cultural differences of doing international business with Tom Eggemeier, President of Genesys, a customer experience software company, specializing in creating great customer service experiences. Doing business internationally can sometimes be tricky. Listen to Tom share some of his experiences and tips on how to conduct business internationally. After all, with the Internet, the world has become a much smaller place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep discusses seven brand strategies with Denise Lee Yohn, consultant, speaker, and author on brand-building. This show shares tips from her best-selling book "What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles That Separate the Best from the Rest." These are amazing ideas you can use to help make your business successful. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken discusses creating a plan for success in your personal life and in business, with Govindh Jayaraman. In his new book “Paper Napkin Wisdom: Your Five Step Plan for Life and Business Success,” great leaders share pearls of wisdom simply and briefly - on a Paper Napkin. Govindh’s goal is to show people everywhere how they can be successful, and change the world in the process. So if you want to make a change for the better, listen to Govindh share wisdom he’s learned from top entrepreneurs, leaders, and difference-makers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken discusses attracting more loyal, repeat customers and leveraging social media with speaker, author, and growth innovator, Ford Saeks. Ford shares some expert tips on dominating search engines and generating leads that convert into loyal customers. These tips will help you expand your reach, build your database, and make more money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Dennis Snow, professional speaker, bestselling author of “Lessons from the Mouse” and a man with a passion for service excellence. His abilities were born and developed while working at The Walt Disney World Company. Dennis shares his tips from Disney on how to provide exceptional customer service incorporating the entire customer journey into the customer service experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Scott Page; rock star musician (Pink Floyd), technologist, and entrepreneur, about media and technology and their impact on the entrepreneur/artist. Scott has worked with the great minds and talent of: Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Garth Brooks, Will Smith, Elon Musk, and Quincy Jones, just to name a few. He shares his insights on technology, creating your "superfan" (loyal customer), and how to stay fully connected with your customers. Everyone can use technology to their advantage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks to advertising genius and best-selling author, Linda Kaplan Thaler, on her book, “Grit to Great,” in which she shares how grit has led to her success. She is responsible for such advertising campaigns as the Aflac duck, “I don’t wanna grow up I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid” Slogan, Kodak Moments, and the provocative Clairol’s “Yes, Yes, Yes,” just to name a few. She attributes her and her companies’ successes to their grit. This show, and Linda’s book, will empower you to believe you can achieve more than you thought you could. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Donna Cutting; author, speaker, and customer service expert, about creating exceptional customer experiences; including some tips from her new book, "501 Ways to Roll Out the Red Carpet." Donna shares insight on how you can give your customers the celebrity treatment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Sarah Petty, owner of Sarah Petty Photography Studios, author of "Worth Every Penny: Build A Business That Thrills Your Customers And Still Charge What You're Worth." Sarah shares marketing techniques like the "dog whistle", "slug bug", and how building your business like a boutique can give you a competitive advantage. How to make your customers know you are worth every penny. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Deepak Advani, General Manager of IBM Commerce, which focuses on leveraging data, analytics, and cloud; to build deeper more valuable engagements with their customers, partners, and suppliers. The discussion focuses on analytics and how to use them to market to your customers to keep them engaged and have an exceptional experience. This is powerful info for anyone involved in marketing, sales, and customer retention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Juliet Funt, CEO of WhiteSpace at Work, a training and consulting firm that helps flip the norms of business in order to reclaim their creativity, productivity, and engagement. Juliet explains that WhiteSpace is a necessity and how to use it to help you excel at work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Tariq Farid, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Edible Arrangements International. Tariq is a customer service “fanatic” that has created his success by building a customer service organization. He started the first Edible Arrangements store in 1999 and has grown into more than 1,200 stores worldwide. Listen as Tariq describes how to build a world-class customer service company and how you can too! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Rene Vidal, chief executive officer of Rene Videl Companies and tennis pro; and Steve Finkelstein, Sr. Partner and co-founder of Experience on Demand, a consultant firm. They are co-authors of "Play Smart to Win in Business: Leadership Lessons from Center Court to Corner Office." Rene and Steve explain how sports’ winning practices also apply to business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Jullien Gordon, founding partner of Newhire, and author of "Work Softer." Jullien shares how to perform on a higher level, and the differences between a high performer and a workaholic. Jullien will tell you how you can use this to achieve a great work – life balance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Dawnna St. Louis, Chief Innovation Evangelist, keynote speaker and leading innovation expert, about how to achieve an innovation trifecta. Dawnna explains what a real innovation is and what you need to pick the best innovation. You will also learn about disruptive innovators such as Donald Trump and reality TV. This conversation is fascinating and not to be missed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Eric Chester, best selling business author, on how great companies ignite passion in their people without burning them out. No matter what type of business you have, or how big or small it is, you need to pay close attention to what Eric says. He shares his seven cultural pillars that drive employee performance. These include compensation, alignment, atmosphere, acknowledgement, autonomy and growth. He interviewed dozens of executives in top performing companies and brought us back actionable ideas that will help inspire you and the people you work with. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Ken Weber, one of the premier mutual fund experts in the United States. They have an engaging conversation about Ken's book "Dear Investor, What the HELL are You Doing?: Smart and Easy Ways to Fix the Mistakes You Make With Your Money." Ken shares some of the most common mistakes he sees investors making and what he sees ahead for the stock market. If you've invested any money into the stock market, mutual funds or insurance you must listen to this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Bruce Turkel, branding guru, speaker and author, about the seven steps to building your brand. Bruce has helped to create some of the world's most compelling brands. Bruce defines branding as the feeling of your company that precedes you into the room and stays after you leave. If you want to know how to define your brand and your authentic truth, then tune in to listen to what Bruce has to say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Josh Linkner, jazz guitarist, entrepreneur, New York Times Bestselling author and proud, multi-generational Detroiter. In addition, Josh is one of the foremost experts on creativity and innovation, and talks about how individuals and companies should continuously seek ways to reinvent themselves. Tune in to hear Josh share ways to improve the customer experience, and his new, AMAZING business that is shaking up the leadership event category. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Fran Tarkenton, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Minnesota Vikings to three Super Bowls. But as Fran says, he's "an entrepreneur, first and always." That's why he was building businesses during his playing days, and why he's developed more than than 20 successful companies during his 50+ years in business. But along the way, Fran has encountered many failures, including his three trips to the Super Bowl. That led him to write his latest book, "The Power of Failure: Succeeding in the Age of Innovation." Listen to Fran as he explains why he embraces failure and why you should too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Jeffrey Hayzlett, keynote speaker, bestselling author and global business celebrity. The two discuss Jeffrey's new book, "Think Big, Act Bigger: The Rewards of Being Relentless," and highlight some of the key concepts such as empowering employees and creating positive tension in a business. Listen as Jeffrey explains "The Katelyn Rule" (you'll love the story), as well as why the best leaders sometimes need to stretch their employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Mark Schulman, world class Rock 'n' Roll drummer, about his new book, "Conquering Life's Stage Fright: Three Steps to Top Performance." Mark discusses using your excitement, as well as the audience's energy, to create a passionate presentation. After giving inspiring performances to sold-out arenas around the world while he was touring with artists like Foreigner, P!nk and Cher, Mark now inspires audiences in the business world as a keynote speaker and author. Tune in to hear some AMAZING stories, and Mark's tips and tricks on how to give a rock star presentation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken speaks with Craig Smith, president and managing director of Marriott International (Asia Pacific). From his days as the assistant housekeeping manager to his high-level role today, Craig has placed an emphasis on supporting and caring for his employees. In turn, his staff takes care of their customers/guests, which leads to high customer satisfaction. Regardless of your industry, you need the right people with the right attitudes who want to make others happy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Danny Meyer, CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group. The award-winning restaurateur opened his first establishment, Union Square Cafe, in 1985 at the age of 27. Due to its emphasis on service and hospitality, Union Square Cafe soon became one of the premiere dining locations in all of New York City, and remains highly regarded today. Listen as Danny describes how to use those same principles - hospitality and service - to make any business a success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Tom Dowd, a professional development expert and author of "The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing From a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World." Tom, a self-proclaimed "recovering cynic" has spent more than 25 years climbing the corporate ladder. After experiencing the ups and downs of corporate life, Tom developed a list of the top 10 ways for employees to take accountability of their own career development and satisfaction. Tune in to hear Tom's tips for self-engagement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Peter Voogd, entrepreneur, GameChanger, and author of the 27-time International Bestseller, "6 Months to 6 Figures." When he was 15, Peter started his first business - selling Air Jordan shoes on eBay. At 22, Peter found himself broke, stressed, and discouraged. But by the time he reached 23, Peter was making a six figure salary. He is now the CEO of the GameChangers Movement and is a leading expert on Generation Y leadership. Peter shares valuable lessons he's learned through success and failure, and how those lessons are applicable to any job and any situation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Scott Halford, hall of fame speaker, and author of the recently released book, "Activate Your Brain: How Understanding Your Brain Can Improve Your Work and Life." For years, Scott has studied a variety of subjects relating to psychology, including brain-based behavioral science. It's given him unique insight into how people can maximize the power and performance of their brains, thus helping them achieve success and fulfillment. From exercising to unplugging, Scott provides tips on how to best engage your brain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Bill Cates, recognized as one of the world's authorities on referral selling. In this episode of Amazing Business Radio, Bill Cates talks about how customer loyalty at one level is about repeat business, but on a higher level is about the customer's willingness to recommend others to your business. Repeat business gives you incremental growth while referrals can give you exponential growth. Bill gives us examples from all types of businesses from all types of industries as well as how to create the system to help you build referrals from your most loyal customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Jared Kleinert, social entrepreneur and co-founder and co-author of the book "2 Billion Under 20: How Millennials are Breaking Down Age Barriers and Changing the World." Named the "Definition of Social Entrepreneur" by Forbes when he was just 17, Jared is now one of the foremost experts on millennials. He consults for some of the largest companies in the world on how to market to and hire young people, and travels the world as a public speaker. Through his 2 Billion Under 20 community, Jared hopes to help everyone find and act on their passion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Dina Dwyer-Owens, the Co-Chair of The Dwyer Group, a billion dollar franchise organization with more than 1,700 franchisees. Her business success has been built on a proven Code of Values, and she proves how any and all organizations can be more successful and have happier and engaged employees by creating and living by their own Code of Values. Her book "Values, Inc" is being embraced by some of the most recognized companies on the planet. Dina lives and breathes values and integrity. She is a rock star in business, and this episode of Amazing Business Radio is guaranteed to inspire to do great things! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Brian Kramer on how there is no B2B or B2C. It is H2H, Human to Human. Businesses do not have emotion. Products do not have emotion. Humans do. Brian also shares important information about the concept of sharing in business. His newest book, "Shareology," takes a look at the power of sharing content and how individuals and companies of all sizes can take full advantage of doing so. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Dr. David Moffet about how he uses customer service as the "ultimate business weapon" in his business. Dr. Moffet is one of the most successful dentists in the world and understands that being a dentist is really about business. His secret is to create what he calls the UPE, the Ultimate Patient Experience. Even though Dr. Moffet is a dentist, his ideas cross all industries. It doesn't matter if you have a patient, customer, guest, member, etc., all of Dr. Moffet's ideas will help you raise the bar of your organization's customer service experience. In addition, he shares some valuable advice about marketing and social media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Dr. Alan Zimmerman about his new book, "The Payoff Principle." Dr. Zimmerman believes that everyone deserves to be happy and successful in their personal and professional lives, and tells us that knowing your purpose, passion and process is the key to doing so. It's about having the right mind-set and an appreciation for the good that comes your way. Do you want to happier? More successful? Who doesn't? Enjoy the wisdom of Dr. Alan Zimmerman on this episode of "Amazing Business Radio." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Jeanne Bliss, the original Chief Customer Officer, about strategies and ideas that the customer-focused organization does to keep and grow their customer base. This is important for any business of any size. None of this is theory as Jeanne was the COO for Lands' End, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker and Allstate Corporation. She has an incredible background, and she generously shares her experiences with us. The focus of a company must be on the customer. Leadership must be in alignment with this customer focused vision. Everyone must understand how they impact the customer. Jeanne Bliss tells us how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Josh Turner, the founder of Linked Selling, a marketing firm that specializes in using LinkedIn for lead generation. It doesn't matter what type of business you have, or how big or small your business is, you will learn LinkedIn strategies to help you get leads and sell more. In addition, Josh shares an excellent strategies that uses webinars to help build business. Josh knows how to exploit this very inexpensive (and sometimes free) marketing strategy and he will teach you how you can, too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Stacy Tetschner, the CEO of the National Speakers Association. You don't have to be a professional speaker to enjoy and learn from this episode of Amazing Business Radio. Stacy explains that everyone is a speaker. Everyone has a story to tell. It may be to your customer, your team at work, your boss or your fellow employees. And, in case you want to learn about the business of speaking, Stacy talks about that as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Connie Podesta, award winning speaker, bestselling author, entrepreneur, educator, playwright, actress, comedienne, career coach and therapist. Connie shares ten things to quit before you die. Some find Connie to be counter-intuitive and a little "in your face," and that's just fine with her. She tells it like it is and won't hold back. If you want to be happier in life and more successful in business, then listen closely to the wisdom Connie shares in this interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Steve Spangler, a teacher that turned entrepreneur, going from the classroom to the boardroom. His story is filled with business lessons. He's appeared on TV over 1,000 times and will be back for his 17th episode on Ellen. Steve's business went "viral" when his YouTube videos started going "viral." He has over 850,000 YouTube subscribers with over 160 million views. He'll share how he did it and how you and your company can do this, too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Sam Silverstein, business expert and author of "No More Excuses" and the upcoming book, "Non-Negotiable: The Story of Happy State Bank and the Power of Accountability." Sam shares the concept of accountability and how important it is to virtually any organization's culture. He shares his "Five Elements" that create a culture that inspires and prioritizes accountability. More than just a part of a company's culture, it translates to ROI on the bottom line. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Mark Eaton, an NBA All-Star who played 12 years with the Utah Jazz. Since retiring from a successful career as a seven foot, four inch basketball star, Mark has continued his success in the business world, helping organizations create winning teams. In this episode of Amazing Business Radio, Mark shares the "Four Commitments of a Winning Team." You'll learn the importance of creating a team and the positive results that come from doing so. You'll also hear the fascinating story about how a 21 year old mechanic who couldn't play basketball was recruited and coached to become an NBA Two-Time Defensive Player of the Year that holds the NBA record for most shots blocked. An amazing story that mixes an athletic career with success lessons that can be used in business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Mel Kleiman, hiring guru, about the state of the labor market, the biggest mistakes employers make in an interview, the biggest mistakes applicants make in an interview, and more. Kleiman shares what you need to know and the questions you should ask to get the best talent to work for you. Conversely, if you are looking for a job, you will get tips to make sure the company you are considering is right for you. Kleiman's energy is contagious and this episode is loaded with practical information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Ricky Kalmon, motivational speaker and celebrity hypnotist, about the power our words and mind have to influence others - and ourselves. Ricky talks about hypnosis, its misconceptions and how we can use techniques to help us be better in our personal and professional lives. The words we use have incredible impact and can trigger emotional reactions that will help us improve personal accountability, lose weight, overcome fears, break negative habits, sell more, boost productivity, build stronger relationships and more. Ricky believes that one of the greatest gifts we have is that our thoughts and beliefs have the power to guide us and frame our reality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken talks with Gregg Lederman, CEO of Brand Integrity and author of "Engaged! Outbehave Your Competition to Create Customers for Life." Gregg gives us ideas on living your brand, how to create motivated and committed employees, what makes a trusted leader and more. He shares a powerful concept he calls the One Minute Reminder, which has literally transformed corporate cultures and created engaged employees. This is Amazing Business Radio at its best! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Maxine Clark, the Founder and former Chief Executive Bear at Build-A-Bear Workshops. Maxine opened her first store in 1997 when a ten-year-old girl suggested she open a store where kids could "build" their own teddy bears. The successful chain grew to more than 400 stores worldwide. That story by itself is amazing, but Maxine shares much more as she talks about her background, role models who influenced her, tough decisions she has made and her belief in giving back. This interview is what Amazing Business Radio is all about! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken visits with John Ruhin, the #1 Cutco Knife salesman in the world. John shares how he has sold millions of dollars of knives and how it turned into passion to create memorable and appreciated gifts. Today John 's company creates gift programs (that include much more than knives) for clients that span across all sizes and industries. John's philosophy is that appreciation is about the recipient, not the giver. Putting a company logo on a gift turns the gift into a marketing campaign. Sometimes it isn't what you spend, it's what you do. Appreciation can be as simple as a thank you note. It really is the thought that counts. Done well, a "strategic gifting program" can open doors with impossible to reach C-level prospects, create employee engagement, drive referrals and sales, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken visits with Dr. Tony Alessandra, the bestselling author of 30 books that have been translated into more than 50 languages. Dr. Alessandra enthusiastically shares his expertise in personality and behavioral styles, describing the four styles in the DISC model; Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. Once you understand your style you can adjust and adapt to others, which leads to better communication and success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Lisa Greene-Lewis of TurboTax about filing taxes and saving money. Lisa shares great tax advice and mentions the most common mistakes people make when they file their taxes as well as a number of surprising deductions that many people miss. You have to pay your taxes, but you shouldn't pay more than you have to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken interviews Don Hutson on Selling value and Negotiation. Don has written 14 books and is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. He is a guru in the world of sales training. Everyone is in sales, whether they are selling a product or just selling themselves. In this interview he shares the four types of negotiation that you must know to be successful. He also shares incredible sales tips from his latest book "Selling Value," which is a must-read book for anyone who does anything related to sales or communication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken visits with Ben Newman, bestselling author, International speaker and performance coach. Mr. Newman has coached leaders in business and super-star professional athletes. In this interview Ben shares how his childhood background prepared him to deal with the ups and downs in life. He shares his six Mental Training Tools that have been put to the test by athletes in the NFL, PGA, NCAA, Fortune 500 business leaders and successful entrepreneurs. His stories and tips are fuel to help anyone be more successful in their business and personal lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices