Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of October 14, 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.

How to Improve Customer Experience In Your Organization by Mike Henry

(InMoment) Working to improve customer experience is an important part of CX management and something that organizations should be continuously striving for. If your customer experience does not evolve with your business, it can negatively impact your revenue and overall business performance.

My Comment: Let’s kick off this week’s Top Five roundup with a list of ten different ways to improve customer experience. In addition, the article shares five benefits of implementing a customer experience improvement program. What is a CX improvement program? It’s a “structured initiative designed to enhance the interactions a customer has with a brand.”

The CX Trends to Watch in 2025 by Melanie Mingas

(CX Network) From data utilization to consumer tech and the role of CX in business, there are big changes on the way for CX in 2025

My Comment: It’s hard to believe we’re less than three months away from 2025. Here’s the first list of CX trends I’ve seen. CX Network gathered some insights from some well-known CX experts. Of course, AI and technology play a big role in our future, so it makes sense that the interest and capabilities continue to trend in the upward direction. I especially appreciate Ian Golding’s closing comments, which should be a warning about meeting our customers’ expectations: “As customer expectations continually increase, there appears to be a downward trend in the ability of organizations to meet those expectations.”

Reviews — and Businesses’ Responses — Build Customer Trust, Study Finds by Kristen Doerer

(CX Dive) The outsized impact of reviews is one of the reasons some businesses are looking to engage with customers’ good, bad and middling reviews.

My Comment: Reviews are important to the customer experience. They create confidence in a decision to buy (or not to buy) a product or do business with a company or brand. Our annual CX research (sponsored by RingCentral) finds that 84% of customers say ratings and reviews help them decide to make a purchase, and 71% say reading a review has stopped them from making a purchase. This short article confirms several important facts related to reviews and reminds us the Federal Trade Commission has created a rule to ban the sale or purchase of fake reviews, which should give consumers more confidence that the reviews they are using to make decisions are legit.

How Customer Marketing Helps You Maintain an Audience by Shopify Staff

(Shopify) Customer marketing allows you to attract and retain satisfied customers over the long haul, tailoring ads to each stage of their buyer journey.

My Comment: We have a new word for personalized CX marketing messages. It’s simply called customer marketing and implies that you know your customers’ buying habits: what they’ve bought, how often they buy, how much they spend, and more. With that information, you can create personalized marketing messages that help you strengthen the relationship with your customers. The article shares the four benefits of customer marketing and six customer marketing strategies.

Customer Experience vs. User Experience: Key Differences by Sudarshan Somanathan

(ClickUp) This article discusses the key differences between CX vs. UX and how customer management tools can help you enhance both. CX professionals and UX designers must understand these differences to enhance customer lifetime value and ensure a positive customer experience.

My Comment: Is there a difference between a customer experience (CX) and a user experience (UX)? Aren’t the customer and the user the same? They are, but the author of this article makes a point. The CX is everything related to the customer’s experience with a brand and its products, but the UX is a narrower look at the specific experience the customer has with the product. In effect, the UX is part of the CX. It’s an interesting description and may help differentiate areas to focus on when developing your CX strategies and initiatives.

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.