ShepHyken

DECEMBER 6, 2023

In a confrontation with a customer, you have a goal: win the customer , not the argument. I’ve written about this before, and it’s worth coming back to this topic from another angle with a different example. First, an interaction with a customer should never result in an argument. It’s not about blame.

Customer Service Training 146

Customer Service Training Customers Interaction Customer Service 146

ShepHyken

JANUARY 16, 2024

When it comes to customer service and customer experience (CX), there is a difference between perception and reality. First, how we think our customers perceive our customer service and CX is often not the reality. It’s what our customers say. It’s just our perception.

Customer Service 140

Customer Service Customer Centricity Customer Service Training Survey 140

ShepHyken

DECEMBER 26, 2023

I want this year to be your best year ever for creating amazing customer service and experiences. But as it applies to the customer experience, I thought it would be fun to share some ideas we need to do more of. How fast do you respond to customers? Customers appreciate a quick response. Happy New Year!

Customer Service 155

Customer Service Tips Guidelines Policies 155

ShepHyken

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

So, what does this have to do with business, specifically customer service and CX? In the customer service world, we should create a “game plan” to deliver an experience that is perfect, never requiring a customer to reach out to us because of problems. Plenty! In any team sport, the goal is to win.

Customer Service 136

Customer Service Effort Score Sports Conference 136

ShepHyken

APRIL 30, 2024

When I’m asked to give a customer experience keynote speech , one of the points I like to make is the importance of simplifying the complicated. And we must do the same in business. Customers don’t want or like complication, confusion, or friction. So, let’s take this concept to the next level. All of my books are easy to read.

Entertainment 88

Entertainment Sports Financial ROI 88

ShepHyken

MARCH 12, 2024

The title of the article summed up the point I was trying to make: Do You Give Your Customers an Experience – Or Just a Transaction ? What are the adjectives that customers use to describe you? When customers like the experience personality, they will want to experience more of it! How would you like them to describe you?

Advertising 148

Advertising Customer Service Training Interaction Customer Experience 148

ShepHyken

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Someone asked me a question: Sometimes I’m so frustrated when I call a company’s customer service number. And if you really think you are 100% right and the customer support agent is wrong, consider ending the call and calling back to speak with a different agent who may respond differently. So that’s my advice for the customer.

Customer Service 134

Customer Service Social Media Customer Service Training Training 134

ShepHyken

AUGUST 5, 2020

What gets in the way of creating a great customer service experience for you and/or your organization? Is it a process that is clunky, inconvenient and difficult for the customer? Is it people who aren’t properly trained or don’t have the right people skills? We add one extra question: “How often does this happen?”

Customer Service 156

Customer Service How To Exercises Customer Service Training 156

ShepHyken

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Why does a company send out a customer satisfaction survey? Rather than focusing on short surveys, I would say companies should truly investigate the principles by which customers choose them and then try to match the survey to the customers’ willingness to help. The general consensus was that shorter was better.

Survey 87

Survey Customer Satisfaction Customer Service Training Customers 87

ShepHyken

MARCH 5, 2024

You don’t need outgoing employees wearing loud Hawaiian shirts for a customer to experience your brand. The point is to do something that makes the customer feel as if they are experiencing more than, for lack of a better description, placing an order and having it fulfilled. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.

Customer Experience 80

Customer Experience Entertainment Customer Service Training Connections 80

ShepHyken

AUGUST 29, 2023

I had no idea that years later, I would write about this example in one of my books, Amaze Every Customer Every Time. It doesn’t matter if it’s sales, customer support, or anything else in the customer’s journey. He sold me a better hinge that was less expensive. Who could argue with that? Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.

Customer Service Training 123

Customer Service Training Sales Examples Customers 123

ShepHyken

MAY 24, 2023

No matter how hard you try to please some customers, they aren’t happy. And speaking of reality, no matter how good you are at creating an amazing customer experience, the customer’s perception counts. That patient may be the nicest person in the world, but because of the pain, may become a difficult customer.

Sports 130

Sports Hospitality Customer Service Training Customers 130

ShepHyken

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Over the years, I’ve observed customer behavior, and some of my conclusions were confirmed by my customer service and CX research, known as the Achieving Customer Amazement Study (sponsored by Five9 ). Customers don’t consciously realize it, but the first time they do business with you, they have uncertainty.

Policies 94

Policies Meeting Customer Service Training Customers 94

ShepHyken

MAY 16, 2023

I like the title of this article, but perhaps a more appropriate title might be: Customer Service Is Like Being Married. The buying cycle for a customer typically includes a little research, talking to a salesperson, making the purchase, and whatever happens after the sale. And that is far from the end.

Customer Service 120

Customer Service Advertising Customer Service Training Sales 120

ShepHyken

JANUARY 10, 2024

I’m always looking for good customer service stories that teach or remind us about creating an amazing customer experience. There are at least three lessons we can learn from this story: Laziness: That should never be an excuse for providing poor customer service. Put the right people on the front line.

Travel 90

Travel Customer Service Airlines Poor Customer Service 90

ShepHyken

AUGUST 1, 2023

One of them asked us to work with her team on a customer experience initiative that included every company employee. One of the regular assignments for their employees is to share examples of how they created a Moment of Magic® for a customer or colleague. It proves Katie was listening to her customer.

Hotels 117

Hotels Travel Exercises Customer Service Training 117

ShepHyken

JANUARY 23, 2024

If you’re making your customer go through the same process multiple times, you’re creating a negative customer experience. As I typed the same thing onto each form repeatedly, I thought, “What a waste of time for the customer – or, in this case, the patient.” Don’t bog the customer down. I’m okay!)

Insurance 84

Insurance Banking Customer Service Training Retail 84

ShepHyken

OCTOBER 10, 2023

It’s about the entire customer experience. Imagine if your organization were bold enough to state that the value it delivers to customers would make price irrelevant. It’s the value provided in the customer experience. My good friend and fellow customer experience expert John DiJulius has often said, “Make price irrelevant.”

Culture 146

Culture Customer Service Training Employee Experience Course 146

ShepHyken

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

Last week, I introduced you to The Customer Hierarchy of Needs based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Before you can have a strong customer experience, you must have a good employee experience. If one of your customers speaks the same language, doesn’t it make sense to let that employee talk to the customer?

Insurance 146

Insurance Employee Experience Culture Customer Service Training 146

ShepHyken

DECEMBER 12, 2023

Customer service and customer experience (CX) are more than what happens after the sale. It actually begins long before a customer ever makes a purchase. Then, there’s the experience during the sales process and what happens after the sale, which could include a typical customer support call and more.

Sales 90

Sales Customer Experience Tips Customer Service Training 90

ShepHyken

OCTOBER 17, 2023

That may be the case for the cat, but it’s not so in the world of customer service. A good customer service rep, salesperson, or anyone interacting with a customer should be curious. The idea of curiosity in customer service is simple. You may even let the customer know you’re taking notes.

Customer Service Training 141

Customer Service Training Customer Service Interaction Customer relationships 141

ShepHyken

DECEMBER 19, 2023

If I asked 10 people who they thought could be planet Earth’s most customer-centric company, I bet a majority would have the same answer. For now, you can guess. Cindy, from my office, had a customer service issue. I’ll share that company’s name at the end of this article. And did you guess what company this article is about?

Omni-Channel 84

Omni-Channel Customer Centricity Company Self Service 84

ShepHyken

OCTOBER 1, 2023

Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. In an age where products and services are often similar, it’s the memorable and positive interactions that truly distinguish one brand from another. The first is from the customer’s experience.

Customer Service 63

Customer Service Contact Center Average Handle Time Customer Service Strategies 63

ShepHyken

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

As customers, we appreciate it when someone we’re doing business with does more than we expect. As he walked through the restaurant, all the customers who had been watching him through the window gave him an enthusiastic round of applause. As a customer, which employee would you want to do business with? He came back drenched.

Customer Service Training 143

Customer Service Training Customer Service Training Customer Experience 143

ShepHyken

JANUARY 3, 2024

I recently wrote two articles in my weekly Forbes column with my top predictions and trends for customer service and customer experience. Smarter Customers This is the same prediction I’ve started with for several years. Smarter Customers This is the same prediction I’ve started with for several years.

Trends 92

Trends Customer Service Customer Service Training Customer Retention 92

ShepHyken

JUNE 9, 2021

Everybody has angry customers. Some customers are angry because they have a complaint. Whatever the reason, you must know how to handle angry customers. In our customer service training workshops , we provide a number of tactics to manage these difficult customer situations.

Customer Service Training 147

Customer Service Training Customers Training Customer Service 147

ShepHyken

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

I was asked the same question three times in the last week: “What is the biggest opportunity in customer service?” If a customer has a problem, issue or question, the speed in which you move them from concerned or upset to happy could be the difference between the customer coming back or not.

Customer Service 82

Customer Service Customer Service Training Customers Interaction 82

ShepHyken

MARCH 26, 2024

There is some very practical wisdom in these motivational and inspiring quotes that we can apply to the customer service and CX world. Think of the best customer experiences you have had. There’s lots of work, thinking, planning, practice, experimenting, training, and more that goes into creating an easy experience.

Entertainment 84

Entertainment Sports Customer Service Training Training 84

ShepHyken

OCTOBER 31, 2023

But if the company leaders know how much they can give away without losing money and incorporate it into a competitive price, they may have a value proposition that gets and keeps customers. Southwest Airlines is the perfect example of this. It markets the heck out of Two Bags Fly Free®. On the contrary, I’m a huge fan of free.

Airlines 132

Airlines Customer Service Training Marketing Customer Service 132

ShepHyken

OCTOBER 24, 2023

That employee is the type of team member who will do whatever they can to take care of their internal and external customers. Because they do what it takes and know, “If I don’t do it, who will?” Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author.

Customer Service Training 139

Customer Service Training Video Course Customer Service 139

ShepHyken

MAY 30, 2023

Slutsky looked at the long hold issue and came up with a solution to create a frictionless customer experience. How do you handle the friction points in your business to provide a frictionless customer experience? Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author.

Wait Times 152

Wait Times Customer Service Training Customer Service Customer Experience 152

ShepHyken

JUNE 20, 2023

territories, such as Puerto Rico. From these stories – and there are plenty more just like them – here are a few lessons we can take away: Customer Service Training: Many problems can be avoided with good customer service training. First, it shows empathy and care for the customer and the situation.

Customer Service 67

Customer Service Customer Service Training Travel Entertainment 67

ShepHyken

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

It’s time to come back to a very important topic in customer service and customer experience. Uninformed customers – in this story, passengers – who know or feel something is wrong could become frustrated. Like pulling off the Band-Aid, it may hurt for a moment, but your customers (and employees) will appreciate you more.

Communication 88

Communication Airlines Customer Service Training Leadership 88

ShepHyken

JULY 4, 2023

Instead, I focused on how to use the information to efficiently get the correct answer. So, how does this apply to customer service? Many people think that AI will be used to replace customer support agents – and even salespeople. They believe all customer questions can be answered digitally with AI-infused technology.

Conference 127

Conference Customer Service Training Customer Service Study 127

ShepHyken

AUGUST 16, 2023

There was one customer ahead of me in the drive-through lane. Of course, there is more than just hiring, training, and staffing, but the point is not to be so quick to blame the employee for a bad customer experience. The short version of the story is this. At about 9:15 p.m., I assumed he was placing an order.

Customer Service Training 118

Customer Service Training Training Leadership Course 118

ShepHyken

AUGUST 8, 2023

CX is the abbreviation for customer experience. For example, there is UX, or user experience , which is the experience the customer has with your products and services. Here are some others that you may have heard of: EX is to employees as CX is to customers. What experience do your customers have with your website?

Customer Service Training 117

Customer Service Training User Experience Customer Experience Employee Experience 117

ShepHyken

MAY 10, 2023

There is a massive benefit to empowering employees to “break the rules” for their customers. And what I mean by “breaking the rules” is to consider what you can do for a customer outside of the norm that doesn’t cost the company money, isn’t illegal or immoral, and won’t hurt “business as usual.” That’s all this really is.

How To 64

How To Policies Customer Service Training Training 64