Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for the Week of October 18, 2021

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.

Why A Sparkler Beats A Candle Every Time by Dan Gingiss

(Dan Gingiss) Find a “candle” in your customer experience and see if you can upgrade it to the way-cooler “sparkler.” Your customers will thank you, and they’ll be much more likely to share their positive experience with friends, family, and social media followers.

My Comment: The Chief Experience Maker, Dan Gingiss shares a blog-version of a story from his latest book, The Experience Maker, about how a “Happy Birthday” experience at a restaurant took a nice experience and made it memorable. It’s the difference between a candle and a sparkler. Which do you think has more impact? Which is more memorable? Which one makes for a better picture that will be shared on Instagram and Facebook? (These are rhetorical questions.) Executed the right way you can take normal to a higher level that is memorable – and even something customers will talk about.

3 Ways Covid-19 Has Changed the Customer Experience Forever by Josiah Johnson

(AdAge) When it comes to the customer experience and the desire of brands to strengthen their ties to consumers, the past year turned all the rules upside down.

My Comment: There’s not much we like about COVID-19. Certain industries were hit hard. Business went under. Some did survive and even thrive. They figured out what they had to do. They were flexible and approached their customers in a way that was different from the past. This article looks at three ways COVID-190 changed CX, as the title suggests, forever. And the change is good for both the customer and the business willing to keep up with the changes.

United Airlines Partners With Paypal for Contactless Onboard Purchases by Alison Fox

(Travel + Leisure) Starting next month, passengers will be able to pay for things like drinks and snacks onboard — even if they don’t have Wi-Fi — thanks to PayPal.

My Comment: I’m including this article, not because United has partnered with Paypal for inflight drinks and snacks, but because it is more about our future. At first, I thought, “So what?” And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is the way it’s going to be. Our future is low or no cash needed. We’ll be able to buy just about anything, as long as we have our mobile phones (where the actual phone is less important than everything else the phone can do). And I predict we won’t even need a phone in the future. But, I digress. Is United Airlines just another business accepting online payments? Yes, but you should pay attention to them – and every other business doing the same – as our way of making payments is rapidly changing. And the way our customers are expecting to make payments will change at the same time. Is your business keeping up?

Improve Customer Experience & Your Brand With Feedback by Jason Grier

(CMSWire) Feedback is everywhere these days. When customers have opinions about your product or service, they aren’t shy about letting the world know.

My Comment: Feedback is a gift. When a customer is willing to share it, unsolicited or not, good or bad, accept it with great appreciation. This is your opportunity to fix what isn’t working or continue to do what is. However you get it, you must choose the right metrics, use the right technology, and more. I’m a big fan of feedback, but remember that it is a history lesson. It’s what happened “yesterday.” You still want to measure the current behavior of the customer. Do they come back, how often, and how much they spend. That information, along with feedback, is a great start to knowing how to create the experience that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back.”

How CFOs Can Enhance a B2B Brand’s Customer Experience by Jared King

(destinationCRM) Although it’s a relatively new discipline, customer experience (CX) has become an increasingly important part of a company’s success. So much so that Gartner found nearly 90 percent of organizations had a chief experience officer (CXO) or an equivalent in 2019, compared to only 61 percent of organizations having a CX leader in 2017. With more companies committing serious resources to this discipline, there is an unexpected opportunity for positions throughout an organization to positively impact a company’s CX and, ultimately, its bottom line.

My Comment: Here’s an interesting idea. The CFO can enhance a B2B’s CX. Yes, there is a right way to structure the financial part of the deal in a way that makes both sides happy. In addition, you can have a process or a way to manage cash flow, collections, and more. Done right, you increase the likelihood of repeat business and increase the customer’s lifetime value. (Who doesn’t want that?!) This is a little different type of article than what is usually included in these weekly roundups. I enjoyed it and hope you will, too.