{"id":31022,"date":"2014-05-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/is-customer-service-getting-worse\/"},"modified":"2024-01-22T11:37:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T11:37:39","slug":"customer-service-getting-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/customer-service-getting-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Customer Service Getting Worse?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hyken.com\/customer-experience-2\/customer-service-getting-worse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5104 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Customer-Serivce-is-Harder-Low-Res.jpg\" alt=\"Customer Serivce is Harder - Low Res\" width=\"360\" height=\"372\" \/><\/a>\u201cCustomer service isn&#8217;t getting worse.\u00a0 Customer service is getting harder.\u201d<\/h3>\r\nThis was the message that Barak Eilam, the CEO of NICE, a technology company focused on customer experience solutions, shared with an audience of customers at the recent NICE Interactions users conference in Las Vegas.\u00a0 How profound.\u00a0 And, he\u2019s right.\r\n\r\nSurveys in the customer service world are coming back and indicating that customers perceive customer service to be worse than last year. W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University finds that in 2013 customer problems climbed to 50% from 45% in 2011 and 32% in 1976.\u00a0\u00a0Yet, at the same time, companies are marketing and bragging about how they provide great customer service.\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s my take.\u00a0 The customer is smarter than ever when it comes to customer service.\u00a0 The best companies are becoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hyken.com\/business-tip\/benchmarking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">benchmarks<\/a> for others to aspire \u2013 not just in their own industry, but across all industries.\u00a0 Companies such as Apple, Amazon, Zappos, Ace Hardware, Ritz-Carlton, Nordstrom and others are consistently top performers in the world of customer service.\u00a0 They are very proud of it, and they tell the world about it, thereby educating the consumer on what really good customer service looks like.\u00a0 As a result, customers hope to get this level of service from all of the companies they do business with.\r\n\r\nThat just makes it harder for companies that aren&#8217;t quite as customer-focused and that is a good thing.\u00a0 Companies that really want to compete and stand out are being forced to raise the bar and give customers a better experience.\u00a0 It can only be good for customers \u2013 and good for business.\r\n<h3>So, how does a company begin not just to meet but exceed the customer\u2019s expectations?\u00a0 How do they raise the bar?<\/h3>\r\nA good start is to identify the typical customer\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hyken.com\/customer-experience-2\/customer-service-journey-map-can-lead-instant-gratification\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">journey<\/a>.\u00a0 Determine all of the main touch-points or front-line interactions.\u00a0 Think of each of these interactions as a link in a chain.\u00a0 If there is a weak link, figure out a way to strengthen it to eliminate or mitigate problems and customer complaints.\u00a0 Look at the strong links and determine what might be done to make them even stronger.\r\n\r\nAt the same time, take a look at what is happening behind the scenes to support these front-line interactions.\u00a0 The systems and people behind the scenes can make or break the front-line customer experience.\r\n\r\nThere is no doubt that some companies aren&#8217;t good at delivering customer service.\u00a0 But what about the ones that try yet fail?\u00a0 Is it that they are bad or getting worse?\u00a0 Maybe not.\u00a0 They may be failing because the bar has been raised and the customer is expecting more.\u00a0 Or maybe it\u2019s just getting harder.\r\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shep Hyken<\/a>\u00a0is a customer service\/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/speaking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">customer service and customer experience keynote speeches<\/a>\u00a0and his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/training\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">customer service training workshops<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hyken.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.Hyken.com<\/a>. Connect with Shep on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/shephyken\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>(Copyright \u00a9MMXIV, Shep Hyken)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cCustomer service isn&#8217;t getting worse.\u00a0 Customer service is getting harder.\u201d This was the message that Barak Eilam, the CEO of NICE, a technology company focused on customer experience solutions, shared with an audience of customers at the recent NICE Interactions users conference in Las Vegas.\u00a0 How profound.\u00a0 And, he\u2019s right. Surveys in the customer service [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6791,6794],"tags":[4937,5108,5109],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.5 (Yoast SEO v22.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Customer Service Getting Worse? | Shep Hyken CX Expert<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Surveys in the customer service world are coming back and indicating that customers perceive customer service to be worse than last year.|\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/customer-service-getting-worse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Customer Service Getting Worse? | Shep Hyken CX Expert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Surveys in the customer service world are coming back and indicating that customers perceive customer service to be worse than last year.|\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/customer-service-getting-worse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shep Hyken | Customer Service Expert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ShepHykenSpeaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ShepHykenSpeaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-28T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-22T11:37:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Customer-Serivce-is-Harder-Low-Res.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shephyken\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"shephyken\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/customer-service-getting-worse\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/customer-service-getting-worse\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"shephyken\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b92dbe4f9f734f7c0d600fc8014b7fe2\"},\"headline\":\"Is Customer Service Getting Worse?\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-28T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-22T11:37:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/customer-service-getting-worse\/\"},\"wordCount\":502,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b92dbe4f9f734f7c0d600fc8014b7fe2\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/customer-service-getting-worse\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Customer-Serivce-is-Harder-Low-Res.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"customer focused\",\"customer experience solutions\",\"front-line customer experience\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Customer Experience\",\"Customer Service\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/customer-service-getting-worse\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/customer-service-getting-worse\/\",\"name\":\"Is Customer Service Getting Worse? 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