Expert Advice for Medium and Midsize Businesses
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Customer Experience
September 13, 2017
Improve All Areas of Your Business Through Customer Service
Regardless of your company size or industry, your customers should always be the focal point of your business. To learn how to improve all areas of a business through customer service, we asked the Twitter community to share their insights and advice. Here’s what they had to say.
How can you set a high standard for customer service across all departments?
Customers service KPIs must be merchandised and circulated company-wide. Too often customer service metrics are kept hidden.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Leadership by example. Doing something concrete. Improve one area of customer service and start measuring. The best companies have customer service at their core. I worked at Apple in the post-Steve 1.0 and pre-Steve 2.0 era and customer centricity was embedded in the culture even without Steve’s presence.
– Des Cahill (@DesCahill), Oracle, Head Customer Experience Evangelist
It’s key to get buy-in from the leaders in your company. Everyone should care about delivering great customer service.
– Brian Moran (@BrianMoran), Award-winning Business Advisor
Is the approach to customer service different in B2B vs. B2C companies?
Standards for great customer service are increasingly same whether it’s B2B or B2C. Customer expectations are liquid now.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Historically, it’s been very different. Today, not so much. We carry our consumer CX expectations into work. I love saying that CX stands for “customer expectations” and Amazon experiences influence vendor expectations.
– Des Cahill (@DesCahill), Oracle, Head Customer Experience Evangelist
Let’s remember that B lives right next door to C in the alphabet!
– Ken Gordon (@QuickMuse)
We live in an “On-Demand” world where NOW is too late, and 10 minutes ago is the standard.
– Brian Moran (@BrianMoran), Award-winning Business Advisor
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What’s the difference between customer service and customer experience?
Customer experience is how we make our customers feel. Customer service is how we solve customer problems.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Customer service is interaction initiated by the customer who needs help. Customer experience is broader… All interactions with the company, product, packaging, service, retail, salesperson, website, app.
– Des Cahill (@DesCahill), Oracle, Head Customer Experience Evangelist
Customer service is a top-down term. Outdated. Customer experience, now we’re talking.
– Steve King (@TheSteveKing)
Customer experience is delivering product/services without any issues; customer service kicks in when things go wrong. Anyone handling customer service issues must be a good listener and a problem solver.
– Brian Moran (@BrianMoran), Award-winning Business Advisor
Customer service is tit for tat: I sell, you buy. Customer experience is the interaction before, during and after you buy.
– Sonia Harris (@Harrisonia)
What are some ways that business owners can upgrade their customer service strategy?
The best ways to get better at customer service are listen harder and answer every question, in every channel, every time. 1/3 of customer complaints are never answered. Yet, no response IS a response.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Upgrade customer service via culture, communication, people, then systems.
– Des Cahill (@DesCahill), Oracle, Head Customer Experience Evangelist
By asking customers (at least yearly) what improvements they’d like to see in the customer service they’re expecting.
– Maria Florio (@Luna12780)
Listening is important, but solving a customer service issue swiftly is the key.
– Marsha Collier (@MarshaCollier)
In what ways has customer service changed with social media and why is it important to be mindful of these changes?
Social has totally changed customer expectations around response time. 40% of social complainers expect replies in 60 minutes. Most importantly, social media has made customer service a spectator sport. That changed the ROI equation A LOT.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Social media has completely changed a company’s approach to customer service. Beware of your “weakest link.” Companies must remember “every customer has a camera and 3-5 places to post their pics.”
– Brian Moran (@BrianMoran), Award-winning Business Advisor
It’s more public. It can all be seen – the good, the bad and the ugly! And it’s there forever.
– Ed Davies (@EDaviesWork)
It’s about being where your customers are and going beyond real-time engagement to right-time engagement by listening first.
– Brian Fanzo (@ISocialFanz)
Social media improves customer service or does the opposite when companies ignore it as a means to listen and help customers.
– Maria Florio (@Luna12780)
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