Tagged : effective

in Business, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Excellence, Leadership, Management, Popular

12 Customer Service Trends for 2012, the Year of Customer Experience

As a new year begins, let’s look at 12 customer service trends for 2012, the year of customer experience. We’ve recently seen more and more evidence of the shift in power from companies to customers. Companies will have to adapt to the ways customers want to engage with them in the overall experience with the company.

Organizations in all fields should see themselves as SERVICE companies that provide a product. Or service companies that sell merchandize. Zappos, is one of those organizations leading the way. They set the tone for their entire company mission by making their stand on customer service. There are certain customer service trends that have brought a lot of success recently which experts see as becoming more mainstream in the years to come. I think that 2012 will be one of those transformational years as most organization reach out to customers, focus on the customer service experience, and engage the customer online and on a personal level.

Regardless of our structure, our goal is to position Zappos.com as the online service leader.

If we can get customers to associate the Zappos.com brand with the absolute best service, then we can expand into other product categories beyond shoes. And, we’re doing just that.

It’s customers who grow companies. Not shareholders.

The stock market over the years of 2000-2010 demonstrates how effective business has been done without great customer service focus. This is a sample of a company’s stock value over the last decade. It’s a snapshot of the stock value of many companies.

The old method of doing business is dead. Long live the customer.

Customer is King

I see 12 customer service trends for 2012 that will continue to contribute to this customer-is-king phenomenon in business as more customer-centric organizations continue to outperform those that remain committed to the “our way or the highway” business mentality. Social media, online communities, on-demand cloud computing services all contribute to a new model of customer service where the customer is in control of the overall experience.

Rob Findlay, with TheBankChannel.com suggested that “the Customer is King” can be also said as “the Community is in Charge”. It’s customers who lead business to what is right, to what is fair. It’s customers who determine the right direction of products and services. Why? Because in the end it’s not the CEO or the shareholders that are buying the service or product. It’s not the CEO or the shareholders who buy from the company, it’s the customer. Success in 2012 and beyond, will require the fundamental change in the way business is done.

From matching customers to products, we need to match products to customers.

-Seth Godin

My 12 Customer Service Trends in 2012 - I’m hoping I see more of these come true in 2012.

1. Customer is King in Customer Service

2. Hyper Responsive Customer Service

3. Customer Experts as Part of the Community

4. An Answering Machine is NOT 24/7

5. Flexible & Generous Return & Exchange Policies

6. Empowered Customer Service Teams

7. Bigger and Better Word of Mouth Promotions

8. More Emphasis on Community Reviews

9. Company-wide Customer Service Focus

10. Personal Touch Service

11. Purchasing Products or Services Seen as a Journey

12. Do Good, Be GREAT.

The key trends in customer service in 2012 can be summarized in 3 words: Instant. WOW. Value. 

in Customer Experience, Customer Service, Excellence

Customer Service is Not Like Star Trek

I admit it, I like Star Trek and hopefully you’ll continue reading this. Customer Service is not like Star Trek! In Star Trek, battles in outer space are centered on space ships’s shields. The first one to lose their shields is destroyed.

Keeping your shields up in customer service is the destroyer. Shielding yourself and your organization from customer interaction is destructive to the customer experience. Lower your protective shield and win the great customer service battle.

Top Sources of Customer Satisfaction Are Related to Customer Experience

Creating positive customer experiences is the key in great customer service. In a recent study, Press Ganey Associates polled nearly 140,000 customers in roughly 230 different establishments in a specific field of service providers. The results were very interesting.

The top 15 sources of customer satisfaction were related to customer interactions with staff members and employee satisfaction among staff members.

It’s almost to say that it doesn’t matter wether the answer for your customer is yes or no, but it’s how you work with and treat the customer that matters. Ok, maybe the answer does matter, but it’s not the only factor. Or at least, not as an important factor as we make it out to be.

Every extra layer between your customers and you is an extra layer to the customer service shield preventing great customer service experiences from happening. Each additional hoop customers have to jump through before getting service adds to the customer service shield keeping your customers from having meaningful, personal, loyalty creating experiences.

Each layer added to the customer service shield saves a little money by reducing the number of customer service issues you have to handle. But in the end, customers are so frustrated by the massive shield keeping them from being able contact you and get things done that they just give up and leave.

Lower your shields! They block good customer service experiences from happening.

We spent thousands and thousands of dollars in marketing and advertising trying to get customers to come to us and give our organization a chance. Once we have them, we then create hassles for the customer at every turn, as if we we’re bothered that the customer is contacting us. Too often, it’s written in some company policy manual that this is the way we have to do things.

Give your front-line employees as much authority as possible. They’re the ones who know best what the customer needs are right then and there.

May your great customer service make you live long and prosper.

Learn from the Nordstrom customer service school and re-write the policies that are keeping up the barriers between your customers, you, and the great customer service experience.

Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.