Every good milkman knows his customers well and sometimes drops off a free batch. In return, the customers keep ordering and filling his wallet. One sour bottle may however skew the relationship. It’s in the milkman’s interest to ensure the customer only drinks fresh product.

It would be perfect if every customer had such a dedicated account manager (milkman) who would oversee the customer’s subscription lifecycle and intervene whenever things start going bad. In reality though, most complaints wind up in the customer service department when it’s already too late to put out the fire. This Break & Fix model does not drive any value to neither party and leads to dissatisfaction on both ends.

Subscriptions & customer success

Account cancellation is the worst thing that can happen to the milkman. If rational pricing comes into play, the subscription will be profitable after a given number of renewal cycles. Prior to that moment, the revenue is just recouping acquisition costs and not generating profits. This is the reason most subscriptions come with a contract and penalty for breaking it. Unfortunately, the contract sometimes isn’t enough to keep an account.

Success management delivers an enhancement to the entire customer-milkman interaction. In a traditional sales pipeline marketing drives leads, sales signs them up, account management keeps them updated on changes and customer service apologizes for all inconveniences. Success management shifts their original responsibilities to a more subscription-minded approach. This is extremely important in industries ranging from milk delivery to cloud computing.

Customers return to Vegas because they feel special there.

Building a success management strategy

Monitoring churn generating drivers and minimizing their presence should be the first step in building a retention strategy. This will keep the customer ordering more milk.

Churn generating departure drivers categorised by Mikael Blaisdell:

• Disconnection – losing contact with decision makers responsible for subscribing,
• Disengagement – customer losing interest in continuing to subscribe,
• Downturn – bad company decisions making the offer less viable,
• Competition – other players joining the game delivering higher value substitutes,

In order to further improve the numbers without the need to hire more people the milkman should answer the following questions:

• How long do we need to see ROI after an acquisition?
• What actions are we taking to help customers succeed with our offerings?
• What are our major risk factors when it comes to churn?
• When do we take action to save an account?
• How do we diversify customers in terms of level of importance and service?
• Who in our company is taking responsibility for minimizing churn rates?

The video outlines origins of success management especially in software sales. The message is simple: the milkman has to start caring about how his customers actually use his product.

Success management in marketing

Marketing has a fair share of success management. The increasingly popular content marketing technique is all about creating high quality, online articles which supposedly drive prospects. It’s creating an image of usability and high competence. Subscriptions hide behind a pay-wall where premium services are at reach for a small monthly fee.

Not every customer who will reach out to talk is a prospect though. Content marketing has the power of luring in evangelists and influencers who are not subscribers but rather promoters of the brand who use their time to talk or help out others with your services. They must be noticed by customer service and properly guided to keep their endorsement. After all, those guys are free and well spoken promoters of milk in the neighborhood.

Success management in sales

Refills should be the goal of sales. Otherwise customers are left with empty bottles.

The milkman must stop hunting for commission and rather focus on building long term relationships with customers. By knowing them by heart salespeople can become account managers of their own. They can supply customers with knowledge, oversee their problems and minimize negative impact on satisfaction. This also creates opportunities to up- and cross- sell.

Sending complainers straight to customer service instead of looking into their requests is now considered rude and unprofessional. The helpdesk, however, must be prepared to serve customers who are no longer anonymous and feel respected by the company. They must be able to follow through with the highest level of competence and courtesy. Most of all, they have to help with whatever their counterpart was not able to help with.

Success management in customer service

To avoid departure, the milkman must become proactive and look for churn generating factors. Being the primary touchpoint he needs to be included in all sales pipeline steps. Instead of serving as a necessary evil he must look at his customer service role as a fusion of marketing, sales and account management. It’s simple demand.

Customers define the service desk as immediate access to all knowledge inventory tailored to their own requirements. In short they want their milkman to know everything and be capable of fixing everything. Anything short from that is a bad experience which, combined with other departure drivers, can lead to unsubscribing.

Churning butter is good, but customer churn rates are not. Customer service helps minimize them!

Striving for service excellence

By introducing success management to day to day operations, our imaginary milkman can and will increase his customer retention rates. You guessed it – he’s a metaphor for your own business. We keep hearing, especially when put on hold, that the service quality is very important to companies however oftentimes they seem not capable of meeting that declaration. Hopefully this is no issue with your business.

If you found inspiration in this article, please let us know. We’re striving for excellence ourselves and would love to hear from you. How do you manage your success?

With less than two months to the end of the 2012 presidential campaign, both candidates are working hard in hopes that this work will translate into votes later on.

Social media plays a large role in this year’s campaigns. Use of mass communication channels and new technologies is something every marketeer could learn from presidential candidates.

Rise of social media agitation

Although the use of social media for political gains is not an entirely new concept, its true emergence can be associated with the previous campaign, when Obama was clearly ahead of McCain in terms of the Internet presence. The 2008 election gave us an idea how powerful the social media can be when used correctly, since creating a lot of buzz around your candidate allows for a wider reach and easier way to broadcast not only ideas, but also news.

In terms of social media use, the 2012 campaign seems very similar to the 2008 one. Once more, we can observe a lot of activity from the Democratic party candidate and considerably less from the Republican party candidate. President Obama seems to garner a lot more attention on the Internet than Mitt Romney. Romney seems to be a lot less active on his Twitter feed (@MittRomney) than Obama on his (@BarackObama). The number of tweets and followers speaks for itself about the amount of importance each candidate gives the social media.

President Obama writing first Presidential tweet with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

This disproportion may be due to the general voters base that uses such platforms. It would seem that social media platforms are more appealing for younger voters in general, however, Romney’s social media followers tend to be a bit older than their democratic counterparts. This can be important for those who decide what kind of content to post on the social media platforms – different kind of content will be appealing for different demographics.

Providing new tools for organizers

Even though the use of new technologies has taken a turn for the better in the recent years, i.e. more and more political parties and figures embraced the idea of using new technologies for gaining support, this year’s campaign seems to have slowed down a bit when it comes to technological improvements. Since the last election, apart from the social media feeds, both candidates embraced the idea of using apps for gathering useful information about their voters. What is interesting, the App presented by Obama’s campaign offers a function that has no precedent so far.

Obama for America App

The app contains all the valuable information every voter may require: news, events, facts – it’s all there. However, the app doesn’t only provide information about news and events tied to the campaign.

The most interesting and innovative thing about this app is the Canvas section, allowing community organizers to feed valuable information about their neighborhood to the campaign HQ.

It makes it possible to send information about voting preferences in a particular area to the campaign headquarters, which allows for much more direct participation in a campaign from normal citizens.

If this trend continues and future campaigns will also try to make use of new technologies to gain voters’ support and gather data, it is possible that, in the future, the voice of a normal citizen will have a much greater impact on the way the campaign is doing and in which direction it should turn. It’s all about getting the message out there after all, the supporting community will continue to spread it through various channels.

Kindling the buzz flame

The importance of producing viral messages that will spread like wildfire on various social media channels can be clearly observed on the example of the Democratic National Convention. The speech given by President Obama lit a spark that would soon turn into millions of tweets.

Will the social media turn the tide at the polls?

At its peak, the Twitter craze over the speech produced over 52 thousand tweets per minute. Twitter users were going crazy during the whole speech setting a new record for the highest frequency of sent tweets. The Democratic National Convention generated over 9 million tweets, which is over a double the number of tweets the Republican National Conversion received.

Although the DNC provided a lot of buzz-generating moments, the RNC has also had its fair share of memorizable moments. The one that seems to have created the biggest hype among Twitter users is the speech produced by Clint Eastwood. It started a new Internet trend called Eastwooding, where the speaker is talking to an empty chair, pretending to be talking with a person. In this case, Eastwood was talking with President Obama. This went viral in the matter of minutes and given rise to a lot of alternative versions.

We are yet to see if the social media hype and buzz generating actions will convert into ballots later on, when the whole nation will go into polls. Will we see a higher turnout for the more social media-active party or will the social media efforts translate into votes?

All is still undecided, however, future presidential campaigns can certainly draw some valuable lessons from what we can observe right now and create even more effective ways to turn the voting scales in their favor. What kind of technological improvements to presidential campaigns we will see in the next four years?

Here’s a quick and simple guide for live chat operators and website visitors who discuss sales and support matters over the chat.

Although some of the tips below might seem obvious, the communication goes much better if goals of the chat operator overlap with those of the customer.

How to help through a chat session? The operator’s view

The main goal is to help the customer. Assistance might be needed with various things: placing an order; setting up, fixing or replacing a product, scheduling an appointment, etc.

Something extra to gain here is customer satisfaction. Lightning quick service with friendly approach, sense of humor and a little surprise (like upgrade on delivery, discount for future orders, better deal) will turn the chat into a memorable experience and will make the customer a lifelong fan of your brand.

Great experience turns delighted customers into true salesmen willing to share their story.

At the same time – slow service and negative attitude combined with multiple transfers between agents are the best way to lose the customer forever.

Here are my suggestions for the three main areas that should be covered to create the perfect experience for a clients serviced by live chat customer service teams.

Knowledge tips

• Know the offer – be certain of what you are saying about the product or service. Well trained and knowledgeable staff is a good way to impress people.
• Know your resources – it’s also part of good training to know where to send people asking for detailed product specifics or particular section of the website. It will work especially well with comprehensive base of links and canned responses.

Behaviour tips

• Focus on solving the issue – although sometimes a general chit-chat might be appreciated, especially with a returning customer, try not to go off-topic too much. ‘Let’s get back to business’ usually helps with bringing the visitor back to the right subject.
• Leave your attitude at the door – restrain from comments and own opinions, keep the sarcasm for yourself. Instead of inflaming the situation, try to calm down the angry person on the other side.
• Listen patiently – allow customer to explain the issue in details. Understanding where lies the actual problem is the quickest path to the solution.
• Be cheerful and polite – well, it’s not only about solving the issue, but also about the way it’s done. Try to put a smile on customer’s face.
• Don’t lie – the obvious one, huh? If you promise something (like free delivery), keep that promise and spare the future disappointment (‘I need to pay for that?!’). The worst truth is better than the sweetest lie.
• Be clear – reply yes/no and elaborate on that, do not simply use one or the other.
• Don’t be afraid of transferring the chats – don’t ask for permission when you need to make a transfer. However, you need to make sure to inform the customer that all chat details are being transferred to another rep. Customers hate repeating themselves.

Technical tips

• Use precise and simple questions – it will allow you to quickly locate the issue and deal with it.
• Avoid jargon – customers may not know any specific terminology, so you have to make sure you are understood.
• Avoid typos and use proper spelling – valuable chat solutions offer dictionaries, it’s a good idea to make use of them.
• Describe your actions – inform about checking on more information, use phrases like ‘please hold on’, ‘allow me to check that’, ‘let me get that information for you’.
• Never leave the customer unanswered – confirm that you read the question and that the reply is being prepared.
• Make use of canned responses – people expect valuable answers in real-time. Properly prepared canned responses make work more efficient and allow to handle several chat sessions at once with quality remaining on a high level.
• Use real photo and real name – this creates a better relation between a customer and the operator, as well as builds a trust between both parties.
• Make use of remote desktop tool – it’s especially useful in troubleshooting software issues, because nothing helps as much as seeing customer’s desktop.
• Try to solve the issue in one contact – the best way to win hearts of your customers is to close their cases during one chat, without having them have to come back several times and go over the same questions again.

Wow your customers

Once you take care of general practices of the online support, your base is ready and it is time to take a step forward and work on customer amazement.

Doing something memorable, something crazy that positively surprises people you chat with not only makes them happy, but also turns them into brand ambassadors. Simply said: positive experience makes people talk.

The natural extension will be measuring the results and constant work on their improvements. Here’s the infographic that will give you an idea of what to focus on:

Customer Happiness in Live Chat

How to get my problem solved? The customer’s view

The main goal of the customer is to have the issue solved. Most of them are sure how to behave to make it easier for the operator to get problems solved.

Knowledge tips

• Get the information ready – any information that might be useful should be collected before entering the chat – this way the operator will be able to help quicker.

Behaviour tips

• Read what the operator says – follow the instructions.
• Don’t be afraid to ask again – if you don’t understand something, ask for clarification.
• Keep your emotions down – it’s probably the hardest part, because the encountered problem is usually something that brought the customer to the website and had him start the chat. Caps and exclamation signs make it hard to read the text. Don’t try to make the operator get mad as well.
• Be patient – some issues are more complex and require a bit more time. Some operators lack certain skills or system access – don’t go mad if they transfer you to a higher tier.
• Appreciate help – it’s nice for the customer service rep to see his work is commented positively and appreciated. Thank for help if the solution was correct – it won’t cost you much, while it might give a boost to the agent.

How would a business change…

… if engineers had to spend two weeks doing customer training?

… if managers had to spend two weeks doing testing?

… if executives had to spend two weeks doing customer service?

Would it make things harder or simpler?

Here are more options to think of.

Technical tips

• Provide your real name and email address – this way it’s easier for the operator do follow up.
• Do not use caps lock – typing entire word with capital letters means screaming. No one likes to be shouted at (using caps means you are screaming).
• Answer questions in your own words – don’t worry about the terminology, elaborate when asked to.
• Explain the problem in details – provide as many details as possible. Give the operator time to understand your issue. He’s far away and can’t see what you see.
• Allow use of remote desktop tool – if asked, let the operator preview your screen, it will be easier to troubleshoot.
• Rate the help you were offered – fill the surveys after chats and honestly rate the operators. They are being paid based on quality they offer.

Don’t make it hard for the other side

A thing to remember is that text lacks feelings without context, which makes chat more advantageous than phone, as it does not pass the emotions as easily as voice. On the other hand it might be a reason for misunderstandings between people located in different locations and conducting a chat, when emotions are not clearly expressed by words.

The point is to get on the same page, understand positions of the person on the other side and to work together on getting things done.

How is chat working out for you?

Chat support can be quantified similarly to the help offered by call centers. There’s a handful of measures that describe the value of live chat implementation and reflect customer satisfaction.

Take a look at live chat best practices based on data gathered from over 600 companies and 1.76 mln chats. Compare the results in your business with other companies in your industry.

Grab your copy of the report.

Great communication choices utilised by marketers should also be part of customer service. Being official or casual is just the tip of the iceberg of possibilities and different approaches should be applied ad hoc, ones that are well defined and flexible.

Characteristic styles stem from types of queries in context with the industry, process complexity levels and channels of interaction. An Armani suit salesclerk will be elegant and distinctive, while an outsourced Verizon rep will seek to meet standards and KPIs rather than to please clients.

Bottom line though, it’s all about conversations that affect the customers’ feelings, boost retention, and possibly, cross-sell. Style definition should come after realizing how to measure performance of customer service at those levels. A commonly used report triad consists of availability time, average handle time and level of satisfaction. It’s a good idea to track the volume of wow effects because mainly those generate true loyalty and positive word of mouth. A specific combination of these standards should, ideally, have a foreseeable outcome.

Define desired interaction outcomes

It is crucial to understand the role of customer service in day to day operations. Whether it’s turnig around angry customers or upselling, there are a few similarities in the emotional outcome.

Scott McKain, expert on company culture, suggests a typology of four possible customer service interaction results:

• Conforming disappointment – I didn’t think you would be very good, and you weren’t.
• Confounding disappointment – You missed the mark to such a degree, it is simply unbelievable!
• Conforming delight – I expected you to be remarkable, and you were.
• Confounding delight – You are so good, I just can’t imagine how you do it! You “wow-ed” me!

Conformity in style means following scripts, showing up on time, exchanging pleasantries and going over it time after time. This usually gets the job done, since people don’t have big expectations either way. It may quickly burn out CSRs, negatively impacting satisfaction levels of both engaged parties.

Confounding, on the other hand, is placing the customer in an emotional state he had no idea he’d be in after the experience. It’s individual, requires intuition and can sometimes make customers angry for having to deal with representatives too witty for their taste. The point is that being unique and a little crazy will increase the CSRs job satisfaction and deliver more wows to clients.

Steering customer service representatives to focus primarily on the triad (availability, reaction time and satisfaction) results in conformity and is a safe way to deliver decent quality. There is no risk that clients will misunderstand reps or that reps will waste time on helping people with topics that are not in their job descriptions.

Outstanding performance of wow generating reps can be difficult to spot. They will have average reaction times, borderline customer satisfaction reviews, however, they’re the guys who make people call your company for the sole pleasure of the conversation, oftentimes buying more and prolonging contracts. Under the influence of confounding delight, customers will recommend you to their closest circles, which is way more effective in getting new sales than any sales pitch.

Adapt to your customer’s language

An easy way to achieve the desired outcome is to align with the way your customer actually verbalizes his request. Imagine a Rennaisance faire. A knight walks by, bows and greets thou as art didst come. Hi yourself, you’d reply. What if this happened at your local grocery store? It would definitely be weird, disappointingly confounding and you would probably get out of there right away.

Avoiding this cognitive dissonance is the first commendment in storytelling, and appropriate communication style. Every brand has a story to tell. It’s a necessity that the style is aligned and relevant. Marketing slogans, website design and copy, along with customer service are required to follow the same principals and communicate in a unique, branded style. If it’s strong, the customer will adapt, but in most cases it’s the other way around.

If you are a high-tech company providing complex services, absolutely do not try to look like a genius when facing customers who don’t know how to turn it off and on again. If you’re all about organic veggies, don’t look down on people coming in for a few apples while carrying a bucket of KFC chicken wings.

Most of the time you’re probably right. The customer should take a computer class or cut down on deep fried meats, but your role is to meet his expectations, not patronize. If you become an obstacle between him and his desire, he’ll get frustrated, go away and potential revenue will be lost. Just like a policeman is supposed to catch bad guys, you are supposed to tell the customer what he wants to hear. Sticking to roles in customer service conversations ensures a positive outcome. Going out of character is undesired. If the interaction gets to private topics, it’ll be unprofessional. If the customer, instead of the rep, solves his own problem, he’ll feel too good to buy at such a place. There’s a lot of science behind this, and the Zimbardo experiment is the most spectacular example where social role definition had determined stratified relations of complete strangers in merely a day.

Choose your customers wisely

Style requires flexibility. People have different attitudes so it’s important to shift empathy from query to query and always try to be in their position.

Complaining customers are not that bad!

The fact is, most customers requiring assistance are emotional and irrational. People hate to call because they’re used to clueless support. When they buy a new iPad and it won’t work, no one can blame them for being agitated though. Peter Shankman, founder of HARO, divided these people into five categories:

First time complainers: they experience issues for the first time. They’re the easiest to wow. Be quick and surprise with quality. It’s an opportunity to cross-sell and show how great of a company you are.

Serial complainers: forget about these guys. Even though they hate your company, they stick with you because of habit, oftentimes ranting about irrelevant issues. If they feel like it, they are capable of wasting your whole day over the colour of your website that is not of their liking. Be nice, stay focused, however, don’t try to hard. It’s not worth it.

Best-Customer complainers: the 10% that generates 90% of your revenue. They are delighted with the service, happened to found a glitch and are too embarrassed to report it. This is a friend, who should be treated in the best of ways. Prioritize!

Multimedia complainers: they’ve got a webcam and have a Youtube account. They will record whatever they can to discredit your offerings. Here’s where the social media customer service comes into play. Be original - record one of your own videos where you send out a replacement to that customer and post it as a reply!

Best @LiveChat complainers: Twitter shoutouts spread like wildfire. They know it and will not stop complaining until they’re satisfied. Meanwhile, half of the web population will learn that there was a long line in your store or that the order came one size too small. Make use of the attention and show something spectacular while compensating the client.

Neither style is right, but all are good

Whatever you’re trying to accomplish in customer service, remember to be flexible in communication. You cannot enforce one particular style and expect great results. Everybody’s different and everybody’s moody. Adapt and choose the right way individually every single time.

The key is alignment. Stick with your brand’s strategies and flex a little for customers. Balance conformity and confunding to provide stellar service!

How do you determine which approach is right for your business? Are you official, or are you casual?

Photo courtesy of Victor1558 and flowcomm.

The web population of the world had its fair share of breath-holding moments when we’ve all watched NASA’s Curiosity Rover landing on Mars. An amazing feat that already marked its place in history.

Although, the ongoing Mars mission is, without a question, a great advancement in science, all those who are interested in social media will find a part of it also very interesting.

Next level of generating social media attention

The social media hype surrounding the whole campaign is of immense volume. Hundreds of thousands of Twitter users follow an official account of the mission, and it is no ordinary account!

The Curiosity Rover has “its own” official account and posts updates about its journey to the Red Planet. Twitter users could follow the Rover’s preparations to the trip, the trip itself along with a pretty dramatic landing dubbed “7 minutes of terror” and, finally, photo updates from the surface of the planet.

Entering Mars’ atmosphere. 7. Minutes. Of. Terror. Starts. NOW. #MSL

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012

Apart from the sheer awesomeness of this idea, there are a few reasons why it should impress every social media enthusiast out there. A simple idea of a machine tweeting about its mission to Mars, and doing it in first person, allowed for a ton of great content that is not only entertaining but also servers as news channel.

The team of NASA’s social media wizards standing behind this project consists of three people. Veronica McGregor, who already had some experience in this field – she was responsible for the Twitter account of Phoenix Mars Lander back in 2008, was joined by Courtney O’Connor and Stephanie Smith and formed the group responsible for this social media sensation.

I’m safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!! #MSL

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012

They were given the task of translating the scientific mumbo-jumbo of NASA engineers into easily digestible language and, while they’re at it, generate a few laughs and giggles.

During an interview for USA TODAY, Smith said that “The difference between ‘I will deploy my remote sensing mask’ and ‘I’ll get head up’ is all the difference in the world.”

We simply couldn’t agree more. Even though the tweets are undeniably entertaining, Smith says that accuracy of the presented news comes first: “We want to be engaging and we want to be timely, but above all, we have to be accurate.”

To the entire team & fans back on Earth, thank you, thank you. Now the adventure begins. Let’s dare mighty things together! #MSL

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012

With a growing number of followers, now reaching well over 830K, NASA’s social media expert team definitely deserves a good pat on the back. Actually, they managed to do their job so well that they’ve fooled Fox News! In this epic blunder, the news channel giant reported that, apparently, there is Twitter on Mars.

The idea of interplanetary Tweeting is definitely something, however, it wasn’t engineers who devised this campaign but the wonder social media trio.

I want this too

You don’t need to fly a $2.5 billion rover over 566 million kilometers away to achieve this kind of social media success for your brand or business. The campaign happened here, using resources available for every modern company. You can definitely replicate this effect through clever use of tools available to you and generation of genuine and interesting content.

There are many companies who had a lot of success with their social media companies. Here are some examples to show that there is a lot to gain through simple means:

1. Wendy’s Girl Behind Six

   Wendy’s devised a clever way to introduce a new item in their menu. “The W” burger was supposed to be introduced after a short campaign that would reveal what will take the sixth slot in the new Wendy’s menu. The campaign took the form of an interactive game show hosted on a Twitter account @GirlBehindSix.Through a number of competitions and games, spanning over two weeks, participants could win a wide variety of prizes, ranging form monetary prizes, through tech gadgets to tiger PJs.

1. Raffles of this kind always drive a lot of attention to your channel and can get you a bunch of subscribers. They also tend to spread very fast, so you should be prepared for the sudden influx of interests in your social media page.
   

2. Honest Tea

   Honest Tea, an organic tea producer launched an interesting guerilla campaign promoting the core idea behind their brand – honesty. Stand with their tee on them were set up in several major cities. Everybody could grab a drink from one of the stands. People were given the option of paying $1 for the tea. Hidden cameras recorded reactions of the public, i.e. whether they would honor the price or simply take the drink.
   

1. The campaign turned out to be a huge success and received a lot of attention. Honest Tea was able to raise awareness about their brand by putting people in a peculiar situation and simply waiting to see what happens next.
   

2. Greg Burney and #DrawMyFollowers

   There are many ways of gaining new followers. Artist @GregBurney promised to draw the first 3000 people who followed his Twitter account. He reached that number and went way beyond it very vast, earning himself a lot of attention, possibly gaining some new opportunities.

1. This challenge managed to produce genuine interest in people who have heard about his story. They were wondering if he will actually finish all the drawings and complete his goal. Greg’s story shows how important it is to show something original in a social media campaign.

What makes it click

To put it simply, every social media campaign should have three key elements: original idea, user engagement and great content. Placing your social media efforts on those three pillars will allow you to produce not only interesting but also engaging content for your followers.

How do you build your social media campaigns?

A good customer experience can increase the length and value of any buyer-vendor relationship. In a marketplace, where every product has a better or cheaper substitute, it becomes obvious that commercial success is tied to care, going way beyond closing sales.

Successful companies roll out complex customer experience strategies, adding value to their offering in greater service, up/cross selling, giveaways and loyalty-based bonuses. They also build ideologies and tell stories with underlying emotional charges that affect the way people experience and talk about their favorite brands.

At Beyond Philosophy, Industry luminaries define the Customer Experience:

Processes like meeting delivery times, politeness in helpdesk communication, delivering quality items or packaging them along with surprise gift certificates are as important, as measurable. Quantifying the emotional impact of all those processes on a customer unfortunately isn’t. This is why storytelling and customer experience theories often get crushed by the reality of discounts, refunds, Christmas cards and the occasional free ride coupon. They do put a smile on everybody’s face, however, whenever there’s a chance to opt-out and get a less expensive or feature-rich offer and in turn customer loyalty flakes. A seemingly well tailored customer experience strategy, based on non-emotional incentives, just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Customer experience ideologists

New ideas in customer service and customer experience strategies are being thrown around by top industry experts. These people make a living out of creating client-centred philosophies, which are used by companies to leverage the emotional aspects of the experience.

Shep Hyken, @hyken, author of The Cult of the Customer, encourages development of a culture and loyalty mindset revolving around client relations. He points out that no matter how many sales you make or how little buyers you have, it’s the interaction and exchanged values that make it special. The goal is to convert the customer into an evangelist who will make use of his own social relations and promote the product to them. Losing such a customer means potential loss of his entire network and this must not happen.

Colin Shaw @ColinShaw_CX, experience consultant, predicts the trends which will drive the industry in the near future. In his book, The DNA of Customer Experience, he analyses the subconscious mind and consumer psychology using a scientific approach. The author points out that brain activity can be stimulated throughout all stages of the customer experience, resulting in an engineered, positive response to the offered item. Combined with the rising tide of social media interactions, direct emotional relations and value gets driven. The goal is to evoke or avoid clusters of emotions. Minimizing destructive ideas like frustration reduces the, so called, shopping cart abandonment. Maximizing attention, advocacy, pleasure and loyalty increases retention. Shaw proves that control of these feelings is key in generating revenue.

Ken Varga, @KenVarga, author of a book that claims you will more than double your business in less than a year, takes a more marketing driven approach. He points out something so obvious that many seem to overlook it. Advertising in yellow pages, or search engines if you will, should be aligned and relevant because the customer who is already looking for something is also ready to buy it. The experience should start at the first interaction with the ad and, be led through portions of information that educate, excite and, quoting the author, “make customers beg for more”.

Donna Fluss @DMGConsultLLC, president at DMG Consulting, sheds light on technological processes behind delivering outstanding client experiences. She points out how to effectively use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software in broad communication facilities like contact centers. Having acquired her experience over at Gartner, she provides lots of free, yet invaluable resources on back-office management or quality assurance. These in-depth studies will be useful for every company looking to optimize their customer experience policies.

Hank Brigman, @TouchpointGuru, the Touchpoint Guru, takes measurements and analysis to the next level. Every interaction customers have with you is a touchpoint. If well designed, it can lead to quantifiable success. Three elements take part in the equation: identity, intelligence and consistence. It comes down to living a specific, emotional identity, delivering appropriate information to the right people, right on time and with cross-channel, standardized touchpoints. Translating this to layman’s terms, we should communicate our offering as a personalized entity that uses newsletters, advertising and word of mouth. The goal is to be present in lives of our consumers, guaranteeing that this presence will always have the same taste – regardless of being on the radio or in the internet. If you ever wondered why companies have their mascottes, now you know.

It seems that by living a customer-centered company culture, understanding of emotional aspects of interactions, communicating relevant information and funneling it via right technology to measure impact is the right way to go. It’s easier said than done because very little companies utilise services of a dedicated customer experience manager.

Influencers and the “wow” effect formula

The difference between ideologists and influencers is blurry. It may seem the latter focus less on revenue and more on enhancing whatever fun there is to have. In the long run though, it’s the influencers who affect customer expectations and push companies introduce new, more customer-centered mechanics into play.

These individuals thrive in the social media environment, making invaluable use of Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and social video channels like YouTube or MySpace to provide their thoughts on the subject. Since their backbone is charisma, as opposed to thorough analytics of ideologists, they garner much wider crowds of both ordinary people and renowned experts. Needless to say, it’s good to have them on our side and make use of the insights they provide.

Influence can be used as a marketing tool. Infographic by CrowdTap

These guys don’t need to be published authors. Everyone around who is strategizing, creating concepts and new ideas on how to leverage the customer experience to drive happiness and revenue is an influencer. This is why executives constantly share their thoughts in magazines or the social sphere. Good ideas spread like wildfire and, given the power of hash-tag search and the retweet button, there are simply too many influencers to list. It’s important however to look at this individual.

Joseph Michelli, @JosephMichelli, keynote speaker, makes the notion a bit more interesting, leaving numbers and analytics to Forrester and Gartner and focusing on the fun part – the “wow” effect. It’s the metaphorical name for a good customer experience goal, and quite frankly, everybody’s talking about it. He analysed research of the Verde Group on this subject, and his findings are fascinating. 70% of respondents state a “wow” effect, or great shopping experience, happened in face of at least 5 outstanding touchpoints. More than 80% of shoppers facing “wow” declare they will recommend the offer to others. The formula for this requires:

Interestingly only the brand experience and engagement have a significant impact on loyalty. Should a company decide to increase this KPI, it can use mechanics like gamification, customer support empowerment and feed the culture into the community. Starbucks is a great example of a company, where people get to use their smartphones with FourSquare to get bonus points, baristas take names of customers making it more personalized and everybody seems to have an opinion whether this is fun or not.

Additional resources

There’s more and more happening in the area of customer experience studies. If you’re looking for more information, there are a few invaluable resources you could look into.

Ken Varga’s blog: Attracting customers and engagement. Blog of one of the highlighted ideologists. Well written, easy to digest and very useful.

Customers Rock: Written from the heart by Becky Carrol, customer experience advocate. Based on her experience and real life examples. Must read.

Customer Experience Matters: Part of the Temkin Group. This blog emphasizes the importantce of customer-centricity in terms of building loyalty.

Forrester Blog: Looks at how Fortune 100 companies make use of customer experience strategies.

These blogs aside, be sure to monitor Twitter feeds like #custexp, #cxo, #cxp, #custserv. They revolve around the subject of customer happiness and you can find even more great influencers and concepts, perhaps even better for your company than the ones highlighted in this article. Do you already improve the customer experience processes in your company? Please share some secrets!

First impressions, as important as they are, don’t always net you a lead or a sale. Nurturing your leads is as important as acquiring them. To make successful attempts at converting visitors that resisted the initial pitch you ought to learn the art of follow up.

Third time’s a charm?

Oftentimes, you can have a potential customer arrive at your page, be very interested in your initial pitch and generally seem like a sales opportunity that simply can’t go wrong. However, in general, the sale won’t be made until 5th to 12th contact.

With impulse buying on the rise, e-commerce site owners allocate a lot of resources into technologies facilitating this purchase trend. Mobile owners seem to be the aim of such campaigns and are prone to impulse buying. The purchase power that comes with it seems unmatched in the mobile heavy tech environment.

Even though impulse buying can be used successfully, most of the sales require some additional contact. This is where following up comes into play. It gives you another go at a particular sales opportunity, one that had a chance to develop to some degree.

The buyer already had a chance to learn about your product, maybe even declared interest in a particular aspect of the offering. You have a lot of information that will help with the follow up already available. You don’t have to begin the sales process from scratch, which may significantly increase your success rate.

If you don't keep them interested, the initial fire will die out, just as well as your chance

Kindling the fire of their interest is as important as gaining it in the first place. If you simply rely on the first contact with your potential customers and won’t do any follow-ups, you might find yourself in a situation where you allocate a lot of time and effort to gain very few clients. Following up on a previous call or e-mail on the other hand keeps the case alive and doesn’t require a lot of effort.

Go for it!

In a situation where a visitor already knows your product and some attempts to convert the visitor have been made, the worst thing you can do is back out and not follow up. You shouldn’t be afraid that you might seem forceful – it is better to make some effort than to make no effort. Follow up on your pitch with an e-mail or a phone call within a week or so. The potential buyer will certainly appreciate the extra attention he is receiving and maybe that extra attention is just the thing that will convince him to make the purchase.

Another thing you should remember is that you don’t need to worry about not getting an answer right away. We lead busy lives nowadays, having to attend a lot of matters during the day and it is easy to miss an email or a call. In such situations, simply make another follow up after a while. As I mentioned previously, most sales aren’t made until the 5th to 12th follow up so one or two not answered e-mails/calls don’t mean the end of the world for that particular sales opportunity.

Get to know them

One of the great opportunities following up creates is building a relation with your prospects. Throughout the course of a few calls and e-mails you really get to know them and their potential desires and hesitations. Having that information is the key to making the sale. When you specifically know what your potential customer needs and which points of your offering are still unclear for him, you are able to prepare a customized offer for him, one that would address his needs and get rid of his hesitations.

Nurturing a lead is like watering a flower - you have to give it time and attention for it to bloom into a sale

Creating such relation works both ways too. The potential buyer gets to know you and your company, sees how much effort you put into making sure he gets the product he really needs. These things are priceless when it comes to the sales process. No pitch can buy you that. You can make thousands of calls and none of them will result in such relationship with your client. These things need time and the follow up is a great way to give yourself and your client a bit of that time.

The successful follow-up

Just as your relationship with your customer develops, your offer must develop as well. It has to be adjusted to the needs of the specific prospect. Through following up your goal is to learn what your client wants, i.e. which parts of your offering he is interested in and which parts are stopping him from making the sale. This can take a couple of e-mails or calls, but in the end, your customer ends up with an offer that he simply can’t resist.

Here are some points a follow up should include:

• Let the potential customer know who you are and what are you contacting him or her about
• It is good to make a reference to your previous conversation, this will help the potential customer to identify you among all the other offerings
• Make sure your prospect knows you want to find the best possible solution for him or her
• When following up after a call with an email, it could be useful to summarize the call, set some goals for the next call and propose a date for it

Remember that you can also follow up after the sale process have been completed. This boosts the confidence of the buyer and convinces him about his choice, earning you a faithful and long-lasting customer.

Carefully preparing your follow-ups, learning about your customers needs and modifying your offering to fit those specific needs is what makes the follow up such a successful sales tool. Having all that additional information seems like a way better course of action than making a number of blind calls, without any follow-ups. It takes only a few e-mails or calls to be that much closer to your customers – every e-marketeer should make use of that power.

Photo courtesy of Dawn Huczek, Uli H. and Images_of_Money.

In order to thrive in today’s volatile economy, it’s imperative to manage customer service departments with care and finesse. Tony D’Amato, portrayed by Al Pacino in “Any Given Sunday“, is a prime example of a man making excellent choices in team building and leadership. Any manager can learn from him.

Companies can use a few tricks in order to qualify for the gold medal in customer service. It’s about hiring the right people, and letting them do their jobs. This post will introduce you to the niche of acquiring new talent and growing an a-team.

Understand employee demographics

Customer service positions are entry-level or temporary jobs, taken up by undergraduates trying to make some extra cash and choose a carrer plan. Most of those applicants are between 20 and 30 years old, and belong to a generation called Millenials. They constantly develop their skillset and crave for huge success and immediate rewards. Ambition and self-improvement incline incline them to creating a healthy balance between work and life. Millenials’ parents, the baby boom generation had different priorities when it came to their career: they wanted to lead a secure life. Studies predict, unfortunately, that Millenials will switch jobs frequently due to their great expectations. High turnover rates and costs associated with new-hires of this demographic in customer service can be avoided by creating a flexible and individualistic work environment.

When interviewing candidates look for traits that HR reps call Steadiness and Influence. They can be indicated by devotion to a brand or band, participation in team sports, and reading magazines like People or National Geographic. Kathi Graham-Lewis, Coach and Behavioral Analyst supports the notion:

This combination of styles lends itself to people who like to continually work in a stable environment, appreciate the security of being located in an office and receiving a steady paycheck; but also like the challenge and excitement of dealing with new people on a regular basis.

Most customer service skills can be taught, whereas attitude can only be managed. Sympathetic and enthusiastic people with less experience are a better choice than temperamental experts.

An infographic by SalesForce.com helps understand the Millenial work perspective. It also shows how HR departments adapt to changes in employee expectations

Break out of the cubicle

89% of millenials cite that flexibility is important. They won’t settle only for decent pay. They feel that as long as company goals and standards are met, there is no point in struggling with traffic to get to the cubicle every day. Telecommuting cannot be a substitute of actual office work and relationships, but having options is what savvy employees consider an asset. Two years after HSBC launched its work-at-home Flexible Work Arrangement in India, 88% of participants display an improved productivity. Plus, you could save on real estate rental costs.

Working from nine to five doesn’t apply to customer service. They need to be available around the clock. It’s difficult to plan a regimen though, because each employee expects freedom of choice as to when they work, as long as they do it right. If equally qualified, there is no harm in enabling them to create a regiment themselves.

Don’t limit breaks. A single lunch break during the day won’t cut it for most people. Best players will not slack off, and studies show that mid-work relaxation can significantly improve productivity and satisfaction. An agitated customer service representative who can’t take five to blow off some steam, can do much harm.

Best-in-class customer service follows the same principals.

Mentor and recognize achievements

Millenials were raised by baby boomers who spent most of their time at work. As children they had to adapt to such responsibilities, and learn to look after themselves. Ann Fisher of Fortune Magazine brings up a management training session with Sivi Yael of the FutureWork Institute, depicting how and why to manage these employees.

What did you do when you came home from school?” He replies that he hung around the house waiting for his parents to come home from work.

So you structured your own time,” says Sivi. “Doing your homework, maybe making yourself a snack? Maybe you even started dinner?” She gestures to the group. “Fast-forward 20 years. How does this guy want to be managed? He doesn’t want to be micromanaged. Hands off! Because he’s been managing himself since he was 10 or 12 years old.

Customer service staff of this generation appreciates when a manager inspires and shares his knowledge. Mentorship helps the CSRs in climbing the corporate ladder and motivates to learn and outperform themselves. A manager who leads by authority has lots of influence on his subordinates. He is usually not considered as the boss. This friendly relation is a comfort that customer service position applicants look for.

"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better." - Abraham Lincoln. Timeless inspiration for both CSRs and management.

Managing best-in-class customer service

There are a few useful techniques that managers can use in order to boost morale and efficiency of modern customer service. Here’s a list of what best managers do to achieve their goals.

• Divide goals into smaller tasks and set short deadlines – the faster a project is finished, the better. Reps need the satisfaction to feel important. The longer they need to work for it, the lower their engagement.
• Treat employees as equals and lead by authority – Millenials look for someone who will help them advance in their career. They don’t want to be bossed around, because they can do it themselves and with good result. Their effectiveness will drop if undermined.
• Reward performance - this is the key word in how customer service staff perceives the importance of their work. Whenever noticed, performance should be rewarded, be it a public appraisal or financial incentive.
• Promote flexibility – get rid of all clocks and timetables. Do not register when people come in and out. If someone has an appointment and wants to leave, let them. Be sure to ask out loud, if they feel the company can manage without them when they’re gone.
• Guarantee constant feedback – watching over their shoulder and pointing out how to correct lesser, performance irrelevant mistakes will just annoy your employees. A five minute, heartfelt talk about department strategy on the other hand will show the CSR how important he is, in effect improving his performance.

Modern times call for modern practices

Hire for attitude and passion, don’t micro manage, and influence employees to learn new skills. Focus on quality first, and efficiency second. Avoid outsourcing high turnover call centers, and try to build an inbound, qualified CustServ team. A good customer service experience can be the difference in client satisfaction, so it’s crucial to optimize productivity of this department.

Assembly line management is a relict of the past. The sooner companies adapt to new rules governing employee and talent retention, the faster they will grow. After all, today’s young workforce are the executive officers of tomorrow.