Filed under: Customer Experience, Employee Communication, Employee Engagement
One of the things we do well is help our clients engage employees and customers and create brand loyalty. We do this in several ways—mainly by harnessing the power of employee, customer and stakeholder feedback to improve company performance.
Our friends at Bolster (www.bolstercreative.com) are also in the business of driving brand loyalty. They use authentic storytelling, and engaging and sustainable communications tools to strengthen the reputation of a brand.We thought they had some good ideas and that you might find them interesting as well. Let us know what you think.
Once Upon A Time-Driving Brand Engagement Through the Power of Story
Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact. — Robert McKee, Screenwriter
“Tell me a story.”
“What’s your story?”
“That reminds me of a great story!”
The overwhelming familiarity of these phrases reminds us that we are all truly hardwired for stories. They are how we learn about our world as small children and how we come to define our social and cultural values as we grow older. Listening to others’ stories is how we decide whom to invite into our social circles. If the story someone tells us contains values that align with ours, a connection is made. And perhaps best of all, stories are universal. There have been societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories – true story. (more…)
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction Issues, Employee Development
Here I am, Tuesday night at a major retailer. I’ll be in and out in a jiffy, I tell myself—just need one thing, that’s all.
“Can I help you find anything, sir?” a young employee asks me as I enter the store.
“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.”
“Can I help you find anything?” another employee asks me twenty seconds later.
“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.”
“Can I help you find anything?” Another employee.
“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.”
It was at that moment—thirty seconds before another “Can I help you find anything?”— that I asked myself “can there really be too much of a good thing when it comes to customer service?” I think, the managers at this retailer and this particular location must take a lot of pride in servicing customers well. They definitely understand the importance of the customer experience and employee accessibility and attentiveness. They’ve trained the staff well…and the staff is following through. I should be proud. This validates the work we do every day at Questar.
And yet my answer to that question “can there really be too much of a good thing when it comes to customer service?” A resounding yes!
The year was 1935. Two brothers – aged 10 and 8 – walked along the road to town. It was the height of the depression, so these kids didn’t have any money to spend once they got to town. But they picked up bottles in the ditch and by the time they got there they had enough to buy a couple of small packaged pies at the local café.
In 1935 packaged foods did not print the “sell by” date that we’re so accustomed to seeing today. It wasn’t until he bit into his pie that Kenneth, the younger of the two brothers, noticed that his pie was moldy. The kids tried to return it, but the café refused. “All sales are final” – the kids were out of luck. (more…)
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction Basics, Executive Leadership, Talent Management
Customer satisfaction survey results are often a key component of a multi-unit organization’s corporate bonus structure. Such programs ensure that customer satisfaction remains top of mind for managers at all levels within a company. While the decision to link survey results and employee rewards must ultimately be made by each individual organization, it is certainly worth investigating. If your company decides that such a bonus program is right for you, it is important to give serious consideration to the approach you will take and to be mindful of the possible risks and complications.
What Works
Quarterly bonus payments work well for many organizations. They offer a nice compromise in that they occur often enough to maintain interest but are spaced far enough apart to give managers an opportunity to impact their scores. Compensation plans with a tiered pay out are often very effective. With a tiered pay out, most participants can achieve the lowest level of compensation, while the very highest level of compensation is reserved for only the best performers. These payments work well when they are based on two criteria:
1. Progress towards a corporate goal- Managers at or above their goal should be motivated to stay at that level. It’s easy for customer satisfaction to slip without continuous effort.
2. Demonstrated improvement over last quarter- This is also a good time to identify strong performers and set them up as mentors for those who missed the mark.
Inherent Risks
While data integrity is always of great importance in any research effort, the connection of compensation to customer satisfaction survey results on this sort of program heightens the potential for fraudulent activity. However, there are ways to establish customer feedback systems that reduce the risk of this occurring.
Take, for instance, the data integrity associated with using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) as a means of collecting customer feedback. This is a commonly used method for collecting feedback among organizations with multiple locations. Customers call a toll-free number and use their telephone keypad to input answers to questions about their experience with a product or service. Unfair survey practices using IVR data collection are noticeable in some fairly common ways:
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction Issues
Every encounter with a customer – whether it is face-to-face, over the phone, through the mail, in email, etc. – is an opportunity to build company credibility and put to rest any post-sale jitters that sometimes come with making a large purchase.
I recently bought a new vehicle. Putting on my customer experience management hat and reflecting on what I encountered, there were soooooo many missed opportunities to positively engage me as a customer. The whole experience turns out to be a great case study in how NOT to cultivate a positive relationship with a new customer and gain their loyalty for the long haul.
I know that for some of you, car shopping is a fun, energizing undertaking. For others – like me – it’s a dreaded, torturous necessity of life. While I was looking forward to downsizing to a smaller vehicle and improving on fuel efficiency, parting with my mini-van after seven years was a bittersweet thing. With all the fond memories associated with it, it was sort of like saying good-bye for the last time to an old friend. (more…)
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction Issues
A few weeks back, Joe Stanton wrote a blog entitled “Return…I Don’t Think So.” He told us two stories of recent shopping experiences, one he had while returning a stuffed toy and one his friend “Mike” had while returning a blue ray player. Both returns were done at different national retailers. Mike had an awful experience with his return while Joe had a great experience. Would they shop at these stores again? Mike claimed he would never shop at the store where he had the poor return policy experience. Joe, on the other hand, said he would definitely shop at his retailer again.
How would other shoppers react? Well, 56 of you shared your opinion via the poll on our website. And the results were….….(Drum roll, please)………
Do return policies at stores affect where you shop?
Yes – 46%
No – 29%
Sometimes – 25%
So what can we learn from both the experiences of Joe and Mike and our small poll? It seems that for most of you return policies play a role in where you shop. In fact, over 70% of those who responded, “sometimes” take into account what the return policy of the store is before they shop there. In times like these, where every customer counts, it might not be a bad idea for retailers to take look at their return policies to make sure they aren’t losing customers before they’ve even stepped into the store.
– Beth Holine | Strategic Communications & Marketing Coordinator
Note: stick with me here in the beginning. I know what you’ll be thinking in a second: quit with the sales pitch. I only do it to provide a context for my experience from the other day. I promise. Well, sort of…
At Questar, we measure the customer experience. We help our clients deliver a consistent, superior experience for their customers, because consistent, superior experiences breed customer loyalty. And loyalty equates to sales growth.
It’s what we do.
In our industry, customers are typically invited to provide feedback through transaction-based invitations, meaning that you purchase a good or service and then the invitation is printed on your receipt or emailed to you as a follow up. When customers participate in the survey they’re asked to rate the recent experience across all critical touch points, such as: greeting at the door, friendliness of cashier, wait time in line, etc.
The two critical bits of information here are: transaction-based and critical touch points.
So…let’s get to my recent experiences. One is an experience I actually had and one is the experience of a good friend—let’s call him Mike. Mike recently purchased a Blu-ray player and some necessary components from a large retailer. And he received a survey invitation on his receipt as part of the transaction. But after he set up the player, he realized that one of components was the wrong part. When he went to exchange the component the retailer would only provide him store credit because the box had been opened, even though they didn’t carry the right component. Even after he got the manager involved. (more…)
Fad (fād) n. A temporary fashion, notion, manner of conduct, etc., esp. one followed enthusiastically by a group.
Every year begins with such promise for new ideas and new ideals, a new way of life we fondly refer to as New Year’s Resolutions (So what’s yours this year? Mine: lose ten pounds, what else?) And every year ends with fads…most of them being that year’s resolutions; sorry to burst your bubble so soon. But some fads do go on to become trends. Some of them stand the test of time. Think iPod and YouTube in 2006; Facebook and Poker in 2007; Wii and Obama for President in 2008.
So I thought it fitting, this being my first blog of 2010, that I take a stroll back through the past twelve months—as painful as that might be…and I’m not even talking about the economy. Take a look at these 2009 fads (in no particular order) I collected from various websites: (more…)
A Jaguar.
A Mercedes.
A BMW.
Can you guess where I am? A high-end car dealership would make for a very logical guess, but you would be wrong. Sorry. Maybe a Simon and Garfunkel reunion concert at the Excel Energy Center? That would be a more creative guess—and creativity counts for something, I suppose—but wrong again. How about a Minnesota Timberwolves game? Possibly, if this were five years ago when people went to the games. Give up? I’m actually standing in the parking lot of a discount retail chain. (more…)
