The Impact Of Customer Service And CX On Your Customers

This week was the Five9 CX Summit in Las Vegas, and I was honored to be the closing keynote speaker. Five9 sponsored my customer experience research, and the speech was to focus on some of the most important findings and how they impact your customers. This speech included content I’d never presented before, and I thought it would make an excellent article with ideas, tactics and strategies that any company in any industry can use almost immediately. So here are the “Cliff Notes” of the speech.

Customers Are Smarter than Ever: Our customers know what excellent customer service and CX are. They have learned from the best brands on the planet such as Apple, Amazon, Chick-fil-A, Lexus and other CX leaders. They no longer compare you just to your direct competition but to the best service they have received from any company, even in non-related industries. These best brands have raised the bar, and your customers expect the same from you.

An Introduction to the 2023 State of Customer Service and CX: There are hundreds of findings in our survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers. Here are some of the general stats that make the case for investing in a good customer experience:

· 76% will go out of their way to do business with a company that provides better customer service.

· 86% are willing to switch brands because another company will provide a better customer service experience. Are you a company that customers will switch to?

· 48% say customer service is more important than price. Consider this: The price becomes more important when the value of the experience is missing.

How to Be Amazing: This concept (and the next) is included in almost every customer service keynote speech I present. To me, being amazing is a foundational concept. It’s probably not what you think it is. My definition of creating customer amazement is consistently and predictably meeting and exceeding—even just a tiny bit—your customer’s expectations. For example, you want a customer to use the word always followed by something positive. “They always return my calls quickly.” And returning calls is a bottom-line expectation. Or “They are always so knowledgeable and helpful.” Your customers expect you to have intelligent people who will help them with their problems. Adding the word always indicates consistency, and when that word is used in front of something customers want and expect, you’re operating at an amazing level. Remember, it must always be consistent and predictable.

Manage the Moment: Simply put, you must manage every interaction a customer has with your company. Journey-map the different experiences your customers have with you, such as researching your products and services, purchasing, seeking support, etc. Look at every touchpoint and determine if it is being managed for the optimum experience.

Be Convenient: Convenience is a competitive differentiator. Here are some of the findings that prove the point:

· 67% will pay more for convenience. Not only do customers love a company that’s easy to do business with, it makes price less relevant.

· 65% say convenience is more important than friendly customer service. So, imagine if you do both—if you are easy to do business with and have friendly people helping customers. That’s a winning combination!

· 41% would be willing to pay more if they knew they would never have to wait on hold for customer support. Most of the Five9 CX Summit audience worked in customer support and contact centers. They understand that customers are often put on hold. That is a friction point, which is the opposite of convenience. For some customers, it’s painful enough that they would pay to skip the line.

In the contact center space, some opportunities for convenience include:

· Easy-to-find contact information.

· Minimal hold times.

· Intuitive self-service options that are easy to use.

· Alternatives to the phone, such as messaging, chatbots, an app and more.

· Hours of availability. If you’re unavailable to call 24/7, consider a powerful digital self-service support system.

Practice Common Sense: Some of the findings indicate that common sense may not be so common. In the survey, we asked about the experiences that were important to them. Here are the top five:

1. Convenience: This came out on top. Customers want an easy, hassle-free experience.

2. Knowledgeable Support Agents: This was the first in a three-way tie for the second most important experience. Customers expect support agents to know their products and to know who’s calling. They don’t care if the agent has to look up information and answers on a computer. They just want the best answers.

3. Contact Information Must Be Easy to Find: Also tied for the second most important experience, this one is easy to implement. Don’t put customers through the unnecessary friction of spending more than a moment on a website looking for the contact info for customer support.

4. Employees Who Are Kind and Helpful: Third in the three-way tie is friendly service. This simple expectation is the No. 1 reason customers will switch to another company, and it’s been that way for decades.

5. Fast Response: Rounding out the top five of these common-sense expectations is that customers want you to respond quickly to phone messages, emails, text messages, etc.

Create an Amazing Customer Experience: I can’t discuss creating a great customer experience (CX) without mentioning the employee experience (EX). What’s happening inside a company or brand is felt on the outside by the customer. Consider practicing what I refer to as the Employee Golden Rule, which is to do unto employees as you would want done unto your customers. In other words, treat employees the way you want customers to be treated. Customer service and CX start on the inside of an organization!

Going back to the beginning of this article (and my speech), our customers have let us know that they expect more from us. They have higher expectations for customer service than ever, but none of what they expect is all that complex or sophisticated. It’s time to rethink and, in some cases, reinvent your CS and CX strategy. Focus on simplicity as the foundation of the strategy. What your customers want is an experience that seems like common sense, but unfortunately, as previously mentioned, is not always so common. It’s not rocket science! It’s customer service!