Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for the Week of May 1, 2023

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.

U$ 402bn is on the Table for Brands That Simplify Their CX and EX – Here’s Why by Ricardo Samuel Saltz Gulko

(Eglobalis) Simplicity is an essential aspect of customer and employee experience that can greatly impact a company’s success and its ability to innovate. When an organisation’s offerings are simple and easy to adopt or use, people are prepared to pay a premium for the simpler experiences. Siegel+Gale put the figure at 57%. Making customers’ lives easier can lead to greater loyalty, enhanced customer satisfaction, and ultimately, improved business results.

My Comment: Convenience is one of my favorite topics – so much so I wrote a book about it (The Convenience Revolution). Ricardo Saltz Gulko, a simplification expert, gives his take on Siegel+Gale’s research and much more. How big is simplicity? According to the research, since 2009, a stock portfolio of the publicly traded brands in Siegel+Gale’s research outperformed every major index with a return of 1,841%.

Looking Ahead for Loyalty in 2023 by Meg Tronquet

(Concentrix) Loyalty programs were the talk of the town in 2022. As the economy struggled to stabilize due to lingering supply chain shortages caused by the pandemic, coupled with the highest inflation in 40 years, retailers turned to loyalty to attract and retain customers. For brands with existing membership programs, we saw many updates to benefits, rewards, and redemption terms—some of which members received positively, while others were seen as making it more difficult to redeem the rewards members had worked so hard to earn. As we look to 2023, let’s consider what will carry over from last year, and what we can expect to see more of in 2023.

My Comment: Another one of my favorite topics is customer loyalty. This article covers seven “carryovers” from what helped drive customer loyalty for many companies and brands. Some of these include personalization, standing for an important cause, and the end of trust-eroding third-party cookies.

How Brands Can Optimize Their Customer Retention Strategy by The Drum

(The Drum) How do brands play the loyalty long-game more effectively at a time when customer retention is more important than ever? Acxiom’s Tate Olinghouse, chief client officer, shares his thoughts on the topic, rounding out his series on customer acquisition, growth, and retention strategies.

My Comment: While this is another customer loyalty article, what makes this interesting is that it starts with the idea that there is a difference between customer retention and customer growth. It’s one thing to get the customer to come back. It’s another to grow the relationship to create a more profitable customer. Research shows that repeat customers spend more, and this article suggests we be more purposeful about it.

7 Tips for Effective Customer Management by Abubakar Bilal

(Newscase) As a business owner, you’re always going to be trying to keep everyone happy. From your employees to your vendors, you’re going to need to navigate a lot of different relationships to lead your company to success. But the relationship you have with your customers will be the most important one of the bunch. You’ll need to make customer management a top priority since you aren’t going to have much business success without satisfying your customers. So, what can you do when managing customers to make the most of it? We’ve put together a list of seven tips that’ll help you make your business/customer relationship better than ever before.

My Comment: Here’s another customer loyalty strategy: make the customer smarter. Does this really work? According to the research cited in the article, consumers are 131% more likely to buy from a brand after they engage with a brand’s educational content. Another survey found nearly 9 in 10 respondents said they’d be likelier to stay loyal to a business that welcomes and educates them after buying their product or service.

Three Storytelling Lessons From The Best Customer Service Experience You Might Ever Hear by Carmine Gallo

(Forbes) In just ten years, Will Guidara and his business partner turned “a beloved, but middling” two-star brasserie into the world’s number one restaurant. While transforming Eleven Madison Park into an iconic New York City restaurant, Guidara learned about the power of stories—how to tell them and how to create them.

My Comment: Some of you may remember the legendary story of the customer that returned a set of tires to a Nordstrom department store, and the salesperson refunded the customer his money – even though Nordstrom has never sold tires! This story emphasized the importance of always taking care of the customer. This article shares several other great stories but, most important, suggests that we create some of our own legendary examples that our customers will share with others. These stories can also become the foundation of your customer service training. Employees need to hear these stories and be encouraged to create some of their own.

Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.