Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for the Week of November 21, 2022

Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

8 Big Pain Points in the Online Shopping Experience by Frank Kouretas and Jean-Walter Guillery

(Retail Customer Experience) Consumers today are looking for increasing convenience and a frictionless experience. As a result, their pain points are varied and are constantly changing. All driven by advances in technology, evolving shopping experiences online, and growing expectations around speed, convenience, and delivery. Even the circumstances of their purchase now affect what frustrates them.

My Comment: Today’s customers want an easy and convenient experience. Our customer service research finds that convenience is even more important than friendly service. (So imagine if you had both!) One reason the online shopping experience is appealing to so many customers is convenience. This article includes some excellent tips for online (and traditional) retailers.

Points Are Just the Starting Point: What Loyalty Means Today by Stephanie Meltzer-Paul

(Mastercard) The relationship between consumers and brands has never been as deep — or as complicated — as it is today. The shift to digital has fundamentally changed the conversation around brand loyalty from both sides of the equation.

My Comment: Loyalty programs are typically about points and perks. Spend more, you get more. However, today’s customers want more than that. They want the points and perks, but now they also want the experience. The combination of a good “points” program mixed with great service is a combination that is hard to beat.

Does a Company’s Social Purpose Impact Its Customer Loyalty? by Serena Haththotuwa

(Business Leader) For decades the Net Promoter Score (NPS) has been a recognised metric of customer loyalty and a credible predictor of business growth and success. Most commonly used to benchmark the overall perception of your brand, organisations looking to increase NPS might traditionally focus on anything from new snazzy product features, through to the helpfulness of aftersales staff. There is, however, another approach that can help organisations increase NPS scores: social impact.

My Comment: 45% of consumers surveyed in our 2022 Achieving Customer Amazement study believe it’s important for a company or brand to have a cause that’s important to them. A commitment to the community and/or a social cause is more important than ever. It gets the company better ratings and reviews, not to mention repeat business.

5 Tips from Practitioners to Improve Government Customer Experience by Frank Konkel

(Nextgov) An Office of Management and Budget official on Tuesday reiterated the importance of improving the federal government’s customer experience almost a year after President Joe Biden issued an executive order on the matter. “The American public should get a simple, seamless and secure customer experience when they interact with the government,” said Andy Lewandowski, digital experience advisor to the federal chief information officer within OMB. Speaking at ACT-IAC’s Customer Experience Summit, Lewandowski said customer experience is one of four key priorities for the office of the federal chief information officer, along with cybersecurity, IT modernization and using data as a strategic asset.

My Comment: It’s been a year since President Biden signed off on an executive order focused on improving the customer experience. Is the government giving good customer service? Yes! And the ideas and tips mentioned in this article apply to many other businesses outside of government.

Should You Break Up with Some of Your Customers? by Joseph A. Michelli

(CEOWORLD Magazine) Breaking up with customers evokes fear for many leaders but in the words of entrepreneur and author Tim Ferriss, “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”

My Comment: Customers have options. If they don’t like a company or brand, they leave and do business elsewhere. But what if the company doesn’t like the customer? In spite of trying to build market share and acquire customers, according to Gartner’s report, Customer Service Leaders in 2022 and Beyond, by 2025, 75% of companies will “break up” with poorly fit customers. Companies are determining if certain customers are worth doing business with.