5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of March 2, 2020

Each week I read a number of 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.

CX Is Broken: Five Takeaway’s From NTT Ltd’s 2020 Customer Experience Benchmarking Report by Stan Phelps

(Forbes) CX in its current form is broken. That’s one of the main takeaways from NTT Ltd’s Annual 2020 Customer Experience Benchmarking Report. The global study, entitled The Connected Customer: Delivering an Effortless Experience, surveyed over 1,000 participants spanning 13 different verticals.

My Comment: Is customer experience (CX) broken in most organizations? Marketing guru, Stan Phelps, shares some data from NTT Ltd’s Annual 2020 Customer Experience Benchmarking Report that might make you believe that it’s true. 81.6% of businesses surveyed believe that CX offers a competitive edge, but only 14.4% say it forms a crucial part of organization strategy. Ouch!

Use This Pyramid To Increase Customer Loyalty and Grow Your Revenue by Allyssa Munro

(Thrive Global) The higher your product or service is on this pyramid, the more valuable your business is perceived to be.

My Comment: Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a starting point, the author uses the model to assess customer loyalty. Check out this pyramid which shows that the higher the product is on the four levels of the pyramid, the more valuable it is to the customer.

The new guest-centric look of loyalty for hotels by Mitra Sorrells

(PhocusWire) Consumer devotion has become the holy grail of the hospitality industry, and the battle for it is more intense than ever.

My Comment: Just because this article focuses on loyalty in the hospitality (hotel) industry, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read it. Lots to learn here. Most companies are concerned about the rising cost of acquisition – not just hotels. The cost of acquiring a new customer is higher than keeping customers that have bought in the past. More than ever, it’s important to not just get new customers, but keep the customers you have.

How The Amazon Effect Impacts Midsize Companies by Shalini Mitha

(Forbes) Customer expectations often come down to one word: instant gratification. Thanks to industry disrupters such as Amazon, consumers have become accustomed to a world where individual needs are met with one-click ordering, faster delivery, and extraordinary customer service.

My Comment: One of the reasons people enjoy doing business with Amazon is they trust them. They know the package is being prepared for shipping, once it ships and even once it is delivered. While the article focuses on medium-size businesses, I can’t imagine any business, large or small, wouldn’t benefit from learning how Amazon does what they do so well. Their key is creating confidence.

6 tips for building an effective customer focus strategy by Hannah Wren

(Zendesk) The good news is that customer focus can be improved. And it starts by deepening your understanding of what customer focus means and building an effective customer focus strategy.

My Comment: Here’s an interesting stat… 80 percent of companies believe they deliver “super experiences,” but their customers disagree… by a lot! Only 8 percent of customers agree with the company’s assessment. Now, that’s a gap – and we must find a way to eliminate – or at least mitigate – this gap and become more customer-focused.

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