Top 5 Customer Service Articles For the Week of September 5, 2016

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online 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.

Create Great Customer Experiences with These Three Principles by Opinurte Team

(Opinurate) Matt Watkinson has worked with some of the biggest businesses in the world on customer experience strategy, service design, websites and mobile apps. His book has been described by Forrester Research as a fundamental must-read for CX professionals with well reasoned conceptual theory and pragmatic examples that include rich case studies.

My Comment: This article has three very simple, yet powerful concepts to help improve any company’s customer experience. I’m especially partial to number three, which is to “Reduce Effort.” The frictionless experience, as I like to call it, is more and more important. Ease of doing business is a competitive advantage.

5 Hospitality Customer Service Habits – Warm & Welcoming by Rupesh Patel

(LinkedIn) In this article, I share five ways you and your hospitality team can offer more memorable welcomes, that your guests will love (and what to avoid saying). Incorporating these five habits into your daily life can also make you a highly valuable and productive person.

My Comment: This article is filled with information. While the author shares five concepts, underneath each one there is a list of how to deliver on each of them. I especially like number two, which focuses on the words you use that do and do not work. You will definitely want to share ideas from this article with your team.

This Magical DMV Serves Cupcakes and Is Winning at Customer Service by Eliza Murphy

(ABC NEWS) Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a horrendous DMV experience. Well, the customers at the Holly Springs DMV in North Carolina certainly can’t relate.

My Comment: When you think of the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicle), you don’t always think of stellar customer service. However, this DMV in North Carolina is raising the customer service bar, not just for other DMV’s, but for any business. Talk about delivering customer amazement!

Premium Customer Care from Premium Employees by Amanda Wilks

(Switch & Shift) Recent studies show that customers abandon their favorite brands because they lack quality customer service. So it’s high time the customer care team was properly taking care of and here are the 5 best ways to do that.

My Comment: If you treat the employees right and give them the tools they need to get the job done, they will be more engaged and be better equipped to take care of their customers. It may seem like I’m stating the obvious, but unfortunately, the obvious isn’t always as common as it should be.

Customer Service is Dead… Welcome to the Customer Experience by Jeffrey Hayzlett

(Salesforce) The customer service industry is as old as time, but it’s an industry that has had to evolve in order to target a more diverse clientele and their demands for better, more personalized, service. Change is inevitable in business and no matter how much we like to think we’re prepared for it, we need to constantly pay attention to new trends and new ways of doing things.

My Comment: Very catchy title. No, customer service is not dead. It is just wrapped up in the concept of customer experience. Jeffrey Hayzlett shares his thoughts on this topic and reinforces the importance of looking at the entire experience, not just the one-to-one service experience.

Comcast Tops the Customer Service Wall of Shame While Amazon Shines in the Hall of Fame by Maria Minsker

(Smart Customer Service) In a study by equity insight and analytics provider 24/7 Wall Street and research company Zogby Analytics, Comcast was named one of the worst performers in customer service, while Amazon was named the best. More than 1,500 Americans were asked to evaluate companies across 17 industries.

My Comment: This is a “bonus article.” It includes a list of the best and worst customer service companies. Nothing on the lists surprises me. The best keep getting better and the worst, while making some improvement, still lag. I was honored to share some comments about the survey findings throughout the article. Interesting update on the state of customer service.

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

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