I’m heading off on vacation shortly, and from the recent conversations I’ve had with members it sounds like I’m not alone in getting geared up for a summer getaway.  While I’m definitely taking a break from work (and away from my iPhone), I’m also planning on a lot of quality reading time on the beach. 

So, what’s in my beach bag?  I thought I’d share what I’m currently reading that’s related to customer service (some more directly than others, but all fuel my thinking in the space).  Read More »

This week marks the official release of the Customer Effort concept into the “wild” with the publication of our article, entitled “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers,” in the July/August issue of Harvard Business Review.  If you haven’t seen the article, feel free to download a complimentary copy.  You will also find some cool podcasts and our Customer Effort Audit tool available to download.

As you’ll read in the article, our research shows that “delighting” the customer—in other words, going above and beyond—yields only marginal additional loyalty from the customer. 

We also found that customers are four times more likely to leave a service interaction disloyal as compared to loyal, and the primary thing companies can do to mitigate this disloyalty in the service channel is to focus on reducing the effort customers must put forth to get their issues resolved. 

Put succinctly, loyalty in the service environment is a matter of reducing effort, not delighting the customer. Read More »

Pick up any business publication and you can’t miss the numerous articles on mission statements.  Books on the topic abound, consultants offer services—the economic downturn seems to have left many organizations soul searching, questioning their purpose, focus, and value.

Service and support organizations are not immune from this, and we’ve heard several companies thinking anew about customer bills of rights and service commitments.

CCC members recently debated the value of even creating a service commitment in the CCC Customer Experience Forum, and we see two camps emerge:

1. Those who are in favor of explicitly publishing high standards and expectations for both customers and staff.

2. Those who prefer action to statements—living the right philosophy, not spending time mincing words.

Read More »

About a month ago, I weighed the pros and cons of different automated channels for surveying customer – including e-mail, Web, and IVR.   To continue to help members select the right channel for their post-contact customer surveys, I wanted to use part two of this post to address manual channels – like outbound phone and mail surveys.       

By and large, compared to automated options, manual survey administration channels such as phone and mail are not as popular with members. This often due to time lag and resources required with manual survey channels.  Still, they offer a few advantages and pose some disadvantages worth considering. Read More »

While reading The Economist last week, the cover story on developing countries and innovation caught my eye.  The gist of the article: developing countries are not just low-cost sources of labor, but are in fact increasingly the source of product and service innovation.  Everything from Kenya’s leading use of money transfer by mobile phone to Bharti Airtel’s partnership with competitors to share radio towers was mentioned. 

This idea got me thinking more specifically about the service organization.  No, not about offshoring or outsourcing implications, although Dan has written on that topic recently.  I actually started thinking about times when new ideas come from previous unexplored or even unlikely sources.  Just like the world is waking up to the insight potential within developing countries like Brazil and India – service leaders are beginning to realize the untapped ability of their frontline reps to bring new ideas to the business. Read More »

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a financial services member after walking her through our work on the key service interaction attributes that drive customer loyalty.  She asked me, “Do you ever get a chance to revisit and update your past research?”  The question got me thinking – both about the ideal state and the reality.    

Being a true research geek at heart, I wish I could spend all my days digging deep to re-examine a past topic – but I know that our member’s immediate business needs often mean we need to press on to explore new, emerging topics too.  Luckily, sometimes – like with our customer loyalty work – there is a perfect storm which allows us to dig deeper on a topic that is also of high interest to our members.

What our loyalty work told us was clear.  Two points stand out to me in particular:

1. Service organizations should focus on preventing and reducing customer effort: A staggering 96% of customers who put forth high effort in a service interaction are more disloyal – and only 9% of customers with low effort are more disloyal.

2. The best way to measure the customer experience is through an effort measurement: Measuring effort with CCC’s Customer Effort Score (CES™) is far more predictive of repurchase, growth, and positive word of mouth as compared to typical experience measures.

Since we debuted this research back in 2008, we’ve seen countless members start to measure effort and find initial ways to eliminate sources of customer effort.  But the question soon became, “What can I do (next) to reduce customer effort?” Read More »

A common question I hear members ask is, “Given all of the channel options available, how do I select the right channel for my post-contact customer survey?” In this two-part post, I weigh the pros and cons of using different channels for surveying customers.

Here, I cover automated survey channels, including e-mail, Web, and IVR.  Part two will address manual channels, like outbound phone and mail surveys. Taken together, this information can guide you toward the survey administration channel that is best suited for you and your customers.  Read More »

My husband drives a Toyota included in the recall that gained widespread media attention in the last two weeks.  After hearing about the company’s solution (replacing the gas pedal), my husband quipped: “Too bad; I was hoping they’d give me a new car!”  Obviously an irrational expectation.  But, I bet Toyota customers have a range of expectations given the current scenario – ranging from the “just-get-it-fixed” mentality to my husband’s “give-me-a-new-car.”

And so Toyota’s current situation got me thinking – how can the service center be best positioned to mitigate customer frustration in situations like mass recalls or large process breaks? The short answer is “reduce customer effort”, but when you are faced with a large number of customers needing assistance, a good approach is often to get ahead of the curve with proactive service. Read More »

By Dan Clay

For years I’ve been saying “No” (a firm “No” at that) but recent findings push me to temper this inference.

Like any good researcher, my shift in opinion comes with plenty of data—particularly important for a topic rife with some very loud assumptions. 

CCC’s been measuring customer service preferences for over 5 years, and we always came to the same conclusion about service with an accent: it’s a constant “noisemaker.”  A customer complains about the offshore location only when something else goes wrong on the call (let’s say it was a transfer).  Poor service is seen as a product of the accent—“I didn’t understand the rep” says the customer—but the real problem is the transfer (and the customer would be just as negative if he had been transferred by an onshore rep).  If the transfer hadn’t happened, then the customer would have had no issue with the accent. 

Customers notice it, they mention it in surveys, but our data showed us that if the customer received proper service, rep accent had no meaningful impact on the customer experience.

This conclusion was corroborated by data from our prominent offshore members and bolstered by my nagging faith in global brotherhood (the citizenry behind “We Are the World” couldn’t possibly devalue discussions simply because the service rep sounded different than the weatherman).

Then this happened.  The recession not only changed where we eat and how we shop, but what we value in the customer experience.  Read More »

Apple’s release of the new iPad has caused a stir well beyond the product itself. It seems several lessons are emerging based off this new launch:

• Marketing circles are reeling over how Apple created buzz without saying a word. 
• Revisited are lessons on researching customer segment reactions when naming a product.

But this release also highlights the continued emergence of the “Good Enough Revolution,” where feature-rich products are being replaced by lower-cost straightforward ones.

Compared to standard personal computers, there are a lot of things the iPad can’t do, and while it wasn’t intended to replace Macs or PCs, many are saying their next computer will be an iPad – it is good ‘nuff for what customers need.

Read More »