{"id":55684,"date":"2024-01-08T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T06:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/?p=55684"},"modified":"2024-02-05T07:01:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T07:01:19","slug":"top-5-customer-service-cx-articles-january-8-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience\/top-5-customer-service-cx-articles-january-8-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 Customer Service &#038; CX Articles for Week of January 8, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<em>Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comments about each article and would like to hear what you think too.<\/em><span id=\"more-55051\"><\/span><span id=\"more-55115\"><\/span><span id=\"more-55151\"><\/span><span id=\"more-55333\"><\/span><span id=\"more-55473\"><\/span><!--more-->\r\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailtouchpoints.com\/topics\/loyalty\/deloitte-shares-loyalty-trends-and-best-practices-for-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Deloitte Shares Loyalty Trends and Best Practices for 2024<\/a> by Alicia Esposito<\/h3>\r\n(Retail TouchPoints) To drive customer retention and loyalty, most brands and retailers continue to rely on purchase discounts (77%) and loyalty program points (61%), according to Retail TouchPoints research.\r\n\r\n<em>My Comment:<\/em> Let\u2019s kick off this week\u2019s \u201cTop Five\u201d with a trends report from Deloitte. The first trend that caught my eye had to do with paid loyalty programs. Yes, people will pay to be in a program that offers perks, discounts, and more. I refer to these more as membership programs, but let\u2019s not quibble over words. Whatever drives repeat business \u2013 and ideally, customer loyalty \u2013 is a good program.\r\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qualitydigest.com\/inside\/customer-care-column\/taking-customer-service-next-level-customer-centricity-010324.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Taking Customer Service to the Next Level With Customer-Centricity<\/a> by Phil Geldart<\/h3>\r\n(Quality Digest) Customer service involves those everyday interactions between customers and the frontline employees whose job it is to greet them, wait on them, ring up their purchases, or otherwise engage them directly. It\u2019s common for businesses to have clear standards on how employees should interact with customers. After all, they want those customers to keep coming back and, ideally, be so pleased with how they are treated that they tell their friends about the business.\r\n\r\n<em>My Comment:<\/em> What makes some companies and brands great? It\u2019s the experience, and this author has some excellent insights. I\u2019m often asked to define customer centricity. My definition is that a company or brand considers how every decision will impact the customer (good or bad). This article describes it as \u201cWhen every person thinks about how their actions will affect the customer\u2019s experience, even employees who never have direct contact with those customers.\u201d It must become part of the company\u2019s values.\r\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jennmcmillen\/2024\/01\/03\/6-retail-loyalty-programs-with-something-to-offer-in-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">6 Retail Loyalty Programs With Something To Offer In 2024<\/a> by Jenn McMillen<\/h3>\r\n(Forbes) If customer relationship marketing were to be recognized for its innovation, the best likely measure of it would be the millions of loyalty programs it has spawned. Most, however, are more likely to be copycatting than introducing new ideas.\r\n\r\n<em>My Comment: <\/em>If you\u2019re interested in loyalty programs, this article is excellent. The author shares six mini-case studies from brands you\u2019ll recognize, such as Starbucks, NASCAR, and more. This is a taste of what they do to create a better customer, guest, and fan experience. I always enjoy learning what rockstar companies and brands do.\r\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nojitter.com\/contact-center-customer-experience\/customer-experience-2024-banner-year-acceptance-ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">For Customer Experience, 2024 is the Banner Year for Acceptance of AI<\/a> by Robin Gareiss<\/h3>\r\n(No Jitter) With all the hype around artificial intelligence over the past few years, you\u2019d think we would be tired of AI and moving on to the next big thing in customer experience (CX) by now. However, per our sneak peek at Metrigy\u2019s upcoming research study, AI for Business Success 2024-25, 2024 will be a banner year for AI in terms of company acceptance of the technology.\r\n\r\n<em>My Comment:<\/em> Did you think I could go a week without including an article on AI? I agree with the title. What a difference a year makes. The improvement in the digital experience is huge. And it not only supports the customer, but also the customer service agent. Yes, 2024 will be a banner year for AI, and it will continue to get better!\r\n<h3>BONUS<\/h3>\r\n<h3>6 Contact Center Automation Trends for 2024: Predictions from Cx Leaders by Madeline Jacobson<\/h3>\r\n(Tethr) Automation in the contact center isn\u2019t new, but in 2024, we expect to see automated technologies taking on more routine processes and workflows than ever before. If 2023 was the year that contact center leaders began thinking about how new AI-driven technologies could improve operational efficiency and the customer experience, then 2024 is poised to be the year many of those leaders put those new technologies into practice.\r\n\r\n<em>My Comment:<\/em> This excellent article about trends in the contact center features six experts (including myself) weighing in on the most significant trends and predictions for 2024. You\u2019ll enjoy some interesting and relevant insights from those who know!\r\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/hiverhq.com\/ai-vs-human-customer-support\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AI VS HUMAN: The Future of Customer Service in 2024<\/a> by Hiver<\/h3>\r\n(Hiver) Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved in recent years. Its significant impact is visible in various sectors, including customer support.\r\n\r\n<em>My Comment:<\/em> Let\u2019s end this weekly roundup of customer service and CX articles with a report discussing AI replacing humans. If you\u2019ve followed my work, you know that I believe it will not replace humans, but we will have to adapt and adopt new ways of working. The report is \u201cgated,\u201d so you\u2019ll have to share your contact info to get it, but if AI is in your world (and it probably is), this is a report worth reading.\r\n\r\n<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>\u00a0Connect with Shep on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/shephyken\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comments about each article and would like to hear what you think too.<\/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],"tags":[2266,5212,5726],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.6 (Yoast SEO v22.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Top 5 Customer Service &amp; CX Articles for Week of January 8, 2024<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this week&#039;s top 5, we read about customer loyalty, customer-centricity, AI, automation in contact centers, and more!\" \/>\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\/top-5-customer-service-cx-articles-january-8-2024\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top 5 Customer Service &amp; 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