5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of February 29, 2016

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online 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.

Lexus – a beacon of customer centricity by Christopher Brown

(MarketCulture) Traditionally auto dealers have focused on each transaction – just getting a sale – and not on nurturing the long term relationships with their customers that will make them lifetime brand loyalists.

My Comment: Lexus is a great role model as a company that focuses on the customer and not the money from a sale. When you focus on the customer, the money follows. This article shows how Lexus is focused on the long-term relationship – the customer’s process – more than anything else. And, it pays off.

CMO Surveys: Customer Experience, Social and Technology Top of Mind by Mark J. Miller

(Brand Channel) When 723 CMOs talk, IBM listens. In its annual survey, “Redefining Markets: Insights from the Global C-suite Study—The CMO Perspective,” the company found that 63 percent of CMOs are sinking more dollars into customer experience this year. About that same number see industry convergence as the biggest business challenge they currently face. The latter is due to shifts in technology that allow entry into industries and audiences that weren’t easy to access before.

My Comment: Most C-level executives are in agreement that customer experience is going to be (and in many cases already is) the competitive differentiator – even more so than price. This study has some excellent information. Read the short article and then be sure to download the actual survey.

Customer loyalty 101: How small businesses can retain more loyal customers by Lauren Licata

(GoDaddy) There’s nothing quite like the rush of seeing new customers walk through your door. But without a strategy to retain these fresh faces, up to 50 percent of new customers will never return to your business. Considering that it costs five to seven times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, one-time customers, like one-hit wonders (Blue (Da Ba Dee), anyone?) are not very lucrative.

My Comment: The first stat in the first two sentences sums up the importance of this article: “There’s nothing quite like the rush of seeing new customers walk through your door. But without a strategy to retain these fresh faces, up to 50 percent of new customers will never return to your business.” The satisfied customer is not a loyal customer. This article has some stats, facts and ideas that every company (small or big) to pay attention to.

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 at www.Hyken.com. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.