5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of November 28, 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.

Five Ways Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Customer Experience by Titir Pal

(TechZone360) AI is also transforming the way companies interact with customers. That’s good news since the ability to consistently deliver an excellent customer experience is critical for companies in today’s hyper-competitive economy. Here are five ways AI is changing the customer experience:

My Comment: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the hot topics of the day. Here are five good ideas – and I’m especially partial to number three, which is about personalized recommendations. AI can remember more about a customer than is humanly possible, and the machine (computer) can make some excellent recommendations to personalize the CX.

You May Be Thinking about Customer Experience All Wrong by Danny Wong

(Salesforce Canada) In recent years, the term “customer experience” has garnered buzz in the business community. Recent research found that as of 2016, almost 90 percent of companies believe they are competing mostly on customer experience, as opposed to only 36 percent at the start of the decade.

My Comment: Salesforce has done us a great service with this excellent article that compares and contrasts the differences between customer service and customer experience (CX) and gives us some very important insights to consider. This article is essential reading for anyone in leadership and management.

How to Put People in the Right Mood by Kevin Daum

(Inc.) Want people to enjoy doing business with you? Here is how to use the 5 senses to close the deal.

My Comment: Want to put your customers in the right mood? Then read this article on how to incorporate the five senses into the customer experience (CX). It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in, creating the right mood is powerful.

Black Friday: Gimmick, gone or more relevant than ever? by Judy Mottl

(Retail Customer Experience) Is Black Friday relevant, needed, necessary or even a valuable marketing event, or has it become a gimmick in the quest to grab consumers’ attention earlier than ever in the holiday season and get that cash?

My Comment: It may not be customer service, but I’m still including this article in the weekly roundup. The information in this article gives us a hint about how the economy in general is going to be. Black Friday was just three days ago and the numbers are in. According to Adobe Digital Insights, Black Friday sales passed the $3 billion mark with over $1 billion of that attributed to mobile sales. This is a substantial increase in sales over last year, which leads me to believe that 2017 will be a good year for business.

How to Staff Your New Social Customer Service Team by Julian Nguyen

(Sparkcentral) So your company has acknowledged social media customer service might be “a thing” these days. It’s true, providing support to customers on social channels isn’t just cool… it’s ice cold!

My Comment: Our friends at Sparkcentral have offered up a great article by Julian Nguyen that has excellent information and is also fun to read. (It was written a few months ago, but just popped up on my feed this week.)  So, be prepared to get a few insights on staffing social service care teams and smile at the same time.

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.

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