Top 5 Customer Service Articles for the Week of September 23, 2019

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.

How To Tell If A Customer Service Agent Will Help You by Christopher Elliott

(Forbes) When you’re on the line with someone like Valerie Zhou, there’s no question this customer service agent will help you.

My Comment: Chris Elliot is a consumer advocate. At first, I thought this article was written for consumers. After all, the title is “How to Tell if a Customer Service Agent Will Help You.” Then as I read it, I realized there is solid information about what makes for a great customer service agent. Perhaps the title should be “How to Tell if Your Customer Service Agents Will Help Your Customers.”

3 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Customer Experience by Inge De Bleecker

(CMSWire) Artificial intelligence (AI) is here. The technology is already making an impact across many industries. According to IDC, worldwide spending on AI systems is forecast to reach $35.8 billion in 2019 — a 44% increase over 2018.

My Comment: I like how AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been improving the customer experience. Used the right way, it is a great aid in so many ways. This article gets to three areas that truly benefit the customer; personalized recommendations, biometric recognition and virtual (digital) assistants. I’m a big fan of these CX improvements and am excited to see how they get even better in the near future. The improvements in AI are happening so fast that it may be akin to Moore’s Law and the increased processing power of a computer.

5 Ways to Keep Happy Customers by Matt Shealy

(G2) Improving customer happiness is the key to success for any business, whether you’re selling products or providing services.

My Comment: You want happy customers? Do you want to keep your happy customers? Then read this article. The author shares five ways to keep them coming back. Content marketing, social media, customer feedback, customer support, and training and analytics… These aren’t just buzz words. These are the ways great companies are getting their customers to return again and again.

The Ultimate Guide to B2B Reviews by Sarah Fraizer

(CustomerGauge) Learn the benefits and obstacles of modern B2B review management, as well as how to use your CX program to automate the review process and generate pipeline.

My Comment: Reviews are not just for consumers to rate retailers and other B-2-C businesses they frequent. There are review sites for every type of business in every type of industry. This excellent article goes into great detail about the benefits and obstacles of reviews in the B-2-B world.

3 Common Errors That Can Render Your Customer Journey Maps Ineffective by Leonie Brown

(Forbes) We’ll look at three common errors that could be derailing your company’s efforts at customer-journey cartography.

My Comment: Journey maps are an important exercise for virtually any organization to go through. It’s worth the time and effort to identify the touchpoints a customer has with your organization and how you can improve them. And, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. This article points out three common mistakes that, as the title indicates, can render your journey map effort ineffective.

BONUS

Don’t Diss the Tech: Best Uses of AI in Customer Service and How Attitudes Toward AI Have Changed by Cassandra Vincent

(Navedas) Building on our article, Human and Machine are Best Together, I wanted to discover how attitudes toward AI have changed. I connected with respected pros in the sector for their thoughts and best uses of AI in customer service.

My Comment: As you can tell from my comment in the second article of this week’s “Top Five” list, I’m a fan of AI. I wanted to add this “bonus article” as it includes my response to a question about the effective use of AI in customer service and experience. It also includes a comment from my friend, Jeremy Watkin, who has been in the customer service “trenches” for years.

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