5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of September 17, 2012

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various  online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

How To Make Your Employees Feel Like Superheroes by Patty Azzarello

(Fast Company) Here’s how you can tackle each step to foster employee satisfaction and a memorable culture.

My Comment: Great article about creating a fulfilling employee culture. And when you have happy employees, they are more engaged, which is good for everyone – especially the customer. Before you can have a great company that is known for its great customer service, you must have great employees that are willing and able to take care of the customer. This article has several important strategies to consider.

The Customer’s Not Always Right by Evanne Schmarder

(Huffington Post) If you are very lucky, a customer that has a problem or issue at or with your business will ask to speak to a decision maker — be it the owner, director, or manager — directly. Advise your employees that this is an acceptable request so they don’t take it upon themselves to be your ‘gatekeeper.’

My Comment: The customer is NOT always right. So, let them be wrong with dignity. They have to feel as if they have “won,” for lack of a better term. Maybe a better way of putting it might be that you don’t have to let the customer win, but you do have to win over the customer. This article has some simple strategies that will help you win over that customer when there is a confrontation.

The Peak-End Rule: A way to improve every customer experience by William Cusick

(RetailCustomerExperience.com) One approach you can use to analyze and improve each customer experience is to apply the “Peak-End Rule.” The Peak-End Rule is a principal from psychology that describes how we all perceive and remember experiences. It states that a person will remember and gauge any experience by the “peak” of the experience, and the end.

My Comment: The “Peak-End” strategy: This one is great. It makes complete sense. Two of the most important points in an interaction is the highest emotional point and the very end of the interaction. We would all do well to study and analyze these two important touch points that we have with own customer interactions.

3 Case Studies of Social Media Customer Service Done Right by Ann Smarty

(Jeffbullas’s Blog) The bursting of social media upon the internet scene is providing people with all new ways to share, collaborate and communicate. This is making it easier to connect one-on-one with anyone, anywhere in the world, and businesses are no exception.

My Comment: Great article on the importance of social media in customer service. It’s still in its infancy. Not every company is embracing it, but more and more customers are. The three case studies in the article will hopefully persuade those companies who haven’t quite found out about the importance of having a strong social media customer service strategy.

The culture of CX (Customer Experience) by Interatct RDT

(Bizcommunity.com) Instilling a Company Culture that values customers and delivers worthwhile experiences to them must not exclude employees and their experience.

My Comment: The company culture is paramount to creating a great customer experience. I recently had the opportunity to be in a discussion with 20 top execs of Fortune 500 companies. We were tasked with talking about the customer experience. The majority of the conversation focused on the employees and the company culture. Ultimately, that is what drives the customer experience. This article has several very valid points and strategies.