Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for the Week of July 25, 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.

3 Ways Companies Make Work Purposeful by Michael Mankins, Eric Garton, and Dan Schwartz

(Harvard Business Review) In the aftermath of Covid-19, many companies have boosted pay, and offered greater flexibility in order to recruit and retain the best people. At some, senior leaders have attempted to inspire employees by emphasizing a corporate purpose or mission, in the same hope.

My Comment: Many companies are finding it difficult to create a great customer experience due to getting and keeping good employees. Our first article of this week’s Top Five roundup address that very issue. Straight from HBR, we learn three ways to make our employees work more purposeful. Purposeful work can lead to employee fulfillment, which leads to long-term employment.

11 Ways to Increase Brand Loyalty Through Better Email Marketing by Young Entrepreneur Council

(AllBusiness) Considering all the emails consumers receive on a daily basis, email marketing can be a tricky form of marketing to undertake. However, when done right, it can be an effective communication tool to gain new clients and customers. This also means that, with a little strategic planning and creative thinking, businesses can leverage their email marketing to increase brand loyalty and keep customers.

My Comment: Email marketing is typical marketing until you focus on the customer and not just making a sale. Here are eleven ways to use email to go beyond typical marketing and sales and to engage and create a better customer experience.

CX + EX: The Formula for a Customer-Obsessed Culture by Nathan Eddy

(CMSWire) Brands seeking to build a customer-obsessed culture need to focus on more than just customers. They also need to think about employees.
A good employee experience (EX) supports and enhances customer experience (CX) in many ways.

My Comment: If you want a good customer experience (CX), the company needs to create a good employee experience (EX). As Chris Pennington, chief customer officer at SugarCRM points out in the article, “Customer and employee experiences are not two separate functions in the business; they are heavily intertwined.” The author draws on the expertise of Pennington and two others to make the case for a strong EX.

6 Considerations for a Meaningful Customer Service Policy by Kate Spirgen

(Garden Center Magazine) The right customer service philosophy can not only help you and your employees provide better service, it can help you find meaning in your work, said Liz Lark-Riley, managing director of Rockledge Gardens, at her Cultivate’22 session, “The Secret to Keeping Promises: Customer Service 101 for Garden Retailers.”

My Comment: What customer service lessons can you learn from a garden retailer? Quite a bit. The Garden Center magazine recaps Liz Lark-Riley’s session at the garden industry’s meeting, Cultivate ’22. She shares the six main tenets that support her “mantra” (my word, not hers), which is “Customer service is really about making and keeping promises.”

Changing Perception: Simple Ways to Improve Your Customers’ Waiting Experience by Jamie Johnson

(business.com) If you’ve ever worked in customer service, you already know that long wait times frustrate most customers. Doctors’ offices, marketing agencies, salons, automotive garages, restaurants, law firms and many other businesses must manage how much time their clients spend in reception areas.

My Comment: For those who have a business where customers wait (doctors’ offices, law firms, restaurants, auto repair centers, salons, etc.), this is a must-read article. Nobody likes to wait. The author shares four ideas on what to do, as well as some thoughts on what to not do, that impacts the customer’s experience with you.