Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of July 22, 2024

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 comments about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

Everything I Need To Know About Customer Experience I Learned From A Jack Nicholson Movie by Chip Bell

(Forbes) Excellent customer experience is an assertion, not a response. It is an attitude, not a tactic. Done well, it elevates the customer as it meets a need. We glimpse that orientation when we witness customers receiving generosity and empathy. Such customer experiences make us feel valued and significant. To borrow a line Jack Nicholson gave Helen Hunt in the 1997 movie As Good as It Gets, it makes customers “want to be a better man (or woman).”

My Comment: Let’s start this week’s Top Five with a fun article by fellow customer experience expert Chip Bell. He uses some of Jack Nicholson’s characters to teach us valuable customer service and experience lessons. I love the diner scene from the 1970s movie Five Easy Pieces, which I featured in my first book, Moments of Magic. Jack’s character asks for an omelet and a side of toast. The scene is classic lousy service because of bad “rules.”

The Ongoing Decline of Brand Loyalty, What’s Driving It and What Should Be Done About It – Interview with Simon Morris of ServiceNow by Adrian Swinscoe

(CustomerThink) Today’s interview is with Simon Morris, the Area Vice President of Solution Consulting at ServiceNow. Simon joins me today to talk about ServiceNow’s new Consumer Voice Report 2024, the ongoing decline of brand loyalty, what’s driving it, why “The future of customer experience is high-tech meets high-touch” and some of the biggest lessons coming out of the report.

My Comment: What’s happening to customer loyalty? According to this article, which includes highlights (in the form of bullet points) from an interview with Simon Morris from ServiceNow, it’s on the decline. You’ll find lots of interesting findings and commentary.

Measuring the Roi of Customer Experience by Annette Franz

(CX Journey) Measuring return on investment, though it seems as simple as benefit divided by cost, is more detailed than that. Understanding the benefits, understanding the costs, and understanding all that impacts both components is critical to getting a true assessment of ROI.

My Comment: If you’ve ever approached the C-suite about investing in CX, there is one thing that will capture their attention more than anything else: ROI. Leadership wants to see the numbers before they make an investment. They won’t move forward on a guess or a hunch. Annette Franz, CX and journey mapping expert, highlights some of the metrics that help you measure the ROI of CX and capture the attention of your organization’s leadership.

How to Lead an AI Transformation with Customer Care by Ruth Zive

(Fast Company) Business leaders know AI can make a positive impact on their companies, but there’s still a lot of debate as to how to get started. Transforming your business with artificial intelligence is like exploring uncharted waters: There may be treasure and glory at the end of the journey, but there’s also much to fear.

My Comment: I’m reading dozens of articles weekly about AI – and could do so daily. It’s the topic of the year. As much progress has been made, there is still a long way to go for customers to feel 100% confident when interacting with AI. Still, Ruth Zive, CMO at LivePerson, suggests using AI to fuel customer care is the obvious place to start.

10 Bad Customer Service Examples, and What You Can Learn from Them by Rhys Fisher Fisher

(CX Today) With the advancements in technology, particularly generative AI (GenAI), the space is buzzing with vendors releasing fresh solutions and enhancements every other day – all aimed at improving the overall customer experience. However, despite the excitement around the potential of these new tools, the sector continues to see its fair share of bad customer service stories.

My Comment: Most of the time, we learn from legendary customer service examples from iconic brands. This article does the opposite and teaches valuable lessons from customer service disasters. There is much to learn from experiences gone bad—really bad! So, let’s learn!

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. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.