Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of June 24, 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.

Customer Experience Gets Worse. Again. by Katie Deighton

(The Wall Street Journal) The average customer experience rating of U.S. companies hits a new low amid inflation and fallible customer-service chatbots.

My Comment: Let’s start this week’s Top Five Roundup with an article from the Wall Street Journal that indicates customer experience has hit a new low. Forrester surveyed 98,363 consumers’ perceptions of 223 brands across 13 sectors for its latest annual report on CX. The average score has dropped to the lowest it’s been since 2016. This is bad news for CX laggards, but for the companies that excel, our CX research shows that 79% of consumers will switch to a competitor that provides better service.

Customer Loyalty Matters More Than Ever. Rewarding That Loyalty Is Mandatory. by Joe Procopio

(Built In) In the age of AI, the relationship strands between a business and its customers are becoming thinner and thinner, opening up that relationship to various new and more complicated threats.

My Comment: This is an interesting article on customer loyalty programs. The “3 Things to Remember about Customer Loyalty)” at the top of the article summarizes three important points: 1) Everyone is a VIP somewhere. 2) Customers are loyal to people, not a product. 3) Tracking customer loyalty boils down to math. It’s transactional, not emotional. That last sentence has me thinking. Traditional loyalty programs are based on transactions. The more you spend, the more perks you get. However, I believe that true loyalty does have emotion. Take away the perks, and you want customers to still do business with you and say, “I love doing business with them!”

Ageism in the Workplace: Transforming a Challenge into a CX Opportunity by Stacy Sherman

(Doing CX Right) Ageism is a critical issue in the workplace, particularly for women who are often labeled as either “too young” or “aged-out and irrelevant.”

My Comment: I’ve not seen the topic of “Ageism in the Workplace” tied to CX, but Stacy Sherman has an opinion about it. The overarching concern is age discrimination. Sherman recommends age diversity, making the case that ageism can become an opportunity that can enhance the inclusive culture of a company and create a better customer experience.

Embracing 5 Hard Truths of Customer Experience to Improve Your CX Strategy by Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP

(Experience Investigators) I’ve seen organizations adopt a few common mindsets that inadvertently hold them back, as well as CX pros who overlook key resources that can help them get ahead. By facing these realities head on you can more quickly implement the best customer experience strategy for your organization.

My Comment: Jeannie Walters is back in our roundup with an excellent article about five “hard facts” you want to know about CX. I love her first point: Prioritizing the customer isn’t enough! Yes, there’s more. And in point number four, she reminds us that a great customer experience requires a great employee experience.

7 Ways Generative AI Can Drive Innovation in CX Strategies by Foundever

(Foundever) Companies are continually searching for innovative ways to enhance their customer experience (CX) strategies. And since the meteoric rise of generative AI (GenAI), companies have been scrambling to find tangible ways to use it in their approach to customer engagement, support and satisfaction.

My Comment: This is the only article on AI in this week’s Top Five. I included it because some people still wonder about or don’t understand AI’s capabilities for CX. If that’s you, read this article. Generative AI is more than AI-fueled chatbots. This is a short summary of seven ways generative AI is making customer service and CX better.

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.