Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for the Week of November 29, 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.

Increase Employee Retention With These 4 Tips by David Finkel

(Inc. Magazine) Employee turnover is always a stressful situation. For many businesses it can take months or even years to recover from losing a key team member, especially if you struggle with hiring and onboarding employees.

My Comment: With “The Great Resignation” being such a hot topic, I felt this article should be at the top of the list for our Top Five roundup this week. The customer experience really starts on the inside of an organization with the employee experience. Take care of employees and they stay. And remember what I always say: “What’s happening on the inside of an organization is felt on the outside by the customer.”

4 Tips for Avoiding Another ‘Shipageddon’ This Holiday Season by Valerie Metzker

(Total Retail) Remember last year’s “Shipageddon,” when many delivery providers struggled to meet demand in the lead-up to the holidays? Well, like a sequel to a movie that no one enjoyed the first time around, Shipageddon 2 could be coming soon. But the good news for retailers is that if you play it smart, you can avoid being front row, center.

My Comment: “Shipageddon” is back! If you are in a business that ships merchandise, then you must read this article. Yes, it’s focused on retail, but with supply-chain issues hitting virtually every industry (B2C and B2B), the ideas shared in this article are applicable to most businesses.

5 Smart Strategies That Help Avoid Losing Loyal Customers by Natalya Bucuy

(HelpSquad) The important task for businesses is to retain their customers as much as possible. How? Well, that’s a good question. And we asked some experts to share their best tips on how to gain customer loyalty. Here are five strategies that can help avoid losing loyal customers.

My Comment: It’s one thing when a first-time customer doesn’t come back, but what about loyal customers. If repeat customers are gold, loyal customers are platinum. To upset them – and lose them – has a much higher cost than a one-time or once-in-a-while customer. Here are several excellent ideas on how to ensure you don’t lose a loyal customer, even when there is a problem or complaint.

5 Questions to Ask in Building a Customer Experience Strategy for 2022 by Phil Britt

(CMSWire) Customer experience has a lot of moving parts and recent shifts in customer behaviors have made the pace seem frantic at times. Navigating all of this requires a good plan.

My Comment: We’re just a little over a month away from 2022, and if you haven’t started strategizing on how to have your best year ever, it’s time to do so. And of course, the main focus of that strategy should be on CX. This article will give you several questions to consider using as conversation starters in your next planning meeting.

4 Ways Chatbots Help for CX Smooth Sailing This Holiday Season by Bob Grohs

(Total Retail) The holiday season guarantees a seasonal spike in customer support tickets, resulting in a 42 percent increase. This is because 20 percent to 40 percent of annual sales take place during the holiday season, followed by an inevitable spike in product returns. To ensure that the customer experience (CX) isn’t negatively impacted by this surge, you’ll need to ramp up your business’s customer service capabilities.

My Comment: Chatbots are becoming more and more popular as a way to scale customer support and give customers the answers they need in a quick and efficient manner. While the focus of this article is on retail and the holiday season, three of the four ideas apply to any business, in any industry, and during any time of the year. In short, chatbots allow you to keep your brand messaging consistent, allows you to scale your support without having to hire more employees, and as already mentioned, get customers the answers they need quickly.

BONUS

Best New Customer Experience and Design Books – 2021 List by Ricardo Saltz Gulko

(Eglobalis) Here are the best twelve books for generating business growth of 2021 that I read and can highly recommend to you, as we have been doing since 2017 with our yearly lists.

My Comment: I’m proud, honored, and flattered to have made another list. This time it is Ricardo Saltz Gulko’ s picks of the best customer experience and design books of 2021, and he included my latest book, I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again.