Top 5 Customer Service Articles for the Week of October 29, 2018

Each week I read a number of 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.

4 Major Customer Service Faux Pas by Holger Reisinger 

(Business 2 Community) When someone reaches out to your customer service team, more often than not, they’re experiencing some sort of issue. As a result, the business is already at a disadvantage during the interaction.

My Comment: We kick off this week’s “Top Five” articles recap with a focus on bad customer service. Here are four behaviors that may drive your customers away; four customer service “faux pas.”

My Comment: Data is worthless if you don’t do anything with it. I’m a big fan of NPS (Net Promoter Score) to measure customer satisfaction. Just knowing you’re doing a good job (or not) isn’t good enough. Using the data properly will contribute to your organization’s growth and bottom line.

20 Strategies for Creating a Seamless Customer Service Experience by Alan Finlay

(Relay) The first goal of customer service is to make a customer’s experience with your business as easy and convenient as possible.

My Comment: If you want some ideas on how to deliver a better customer service experience, this list is a good place to start. If you get just one idea, you’ll be glad you invested the three or four minutes it takes to read this article.

How Does Comcast Tell 29 Million People About Customer Experience Transformation? by Jay Baer

(Convince and Convert) The team at Convince & Convert and I have been working with Comcast for nearly two years, helping them understand the landscape of customer experience influencers, and how that community thinks about CX transformation and storytelling.

My Comment: When you think of the cable TV industry, great customer service is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. While the industry is trying to shake this reputation, Comcast is making customer experience its highest priority. Here is a great recap of a recent event where Comcast invited twelve of the top customer service and experience experts together to tell their story.

Reinventing Customer Service by Matthew Dixon

(Harvard Business Review) The T-Mobile model is paying huge dividends for the company: In the three years since launch, T-Mobile’s overall cost to serve is down 13%, its Net Promoter Score (a measure of customer loyalty) is up by more than half, and its customer churn rate has dipped to an all-time low. Employees are happier too; attrition and absenteeism have plummeted.

My Comment: Here’s another story of a company that is reinventing itself. Customer satisfaction ratings are up, churn is down and employees are happier. Matt Dixon shares some of the details behind T-Mobile’s focus on winning back its reputation using customer service as the catalyst.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to www.TheCustomerFocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken