Why Companies Should Invest in the Customer Experience
Customer Experience Excellence Best Practices
RT @Zendesk: Bad news travels fast. Why providing great customer service is crucial for maintaining & building your customer base http://t.co/WkH9Jvy71s
I recommend reading this article. Great use of infographic to highlight key information.
See on www.zendesk.com
How to Develop a Social Media Strategy
Customer Experience Excellence Best Practices
Most social media posts focus on the tactics that support strategy. Let’s break with convention and examine how to develop a social media strategy itself.
I found this article differentiated social media strategies versus tactics very well. The author hit the nail on the head!
See on www.vocus.com
Wikinomics – Maslow’s Hierarchy of Customer Service
Customer Experience Excellence Best Practices
I’d like to share a graphic that I’ve been using a lot lately in my presentations about Wikinomics approaches to contact centers. The original source, I’ve learned, is from the book “Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow,” by Chip Conley. However, I originally came across it while looking at some presentations on SlideShare that were posted by the founders of the third-party customer relations portal Get Satisfaction.
Very well written article and summary of a basic customer service model.
See on www.wikinomics.com
Understanding the Difference in Customer Service and Customer Experience in Government
In the past few years, we have seen the terms “customer service” and “customer experience” used almost interchangeably. Recently, I have been asked about the difference between these terms and how each of them affects the public and private sectors. My answer to the second part of the question is this: these two terms do not affect the public sectors any differently than they do the private. Whether it’s a company, organization or government entity providing goods or services, the “customers”—whether they are internal or external—expect outstanding customer service and a positive customer experience; but let’s look at the difference between the two terms.
Stephanie Ami defines these two terms in herblog post “Customer Service v. Customer Experience“:
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase.
Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier including awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy.
As you can tell by the definitions, customer service is just one piece of the overall customer experience. As it is just a piece, changes within an organization’s customer service strategy are more finite and easier to implement than the broad-stroked coordination it takes to improve a customer’s overall experience with an organization.
Take the far-reaching organization of the Philadelphia City government for instance. It would be relatively easy for one department to make a few changes to improve their customer service; however, if every department does not make similar changes that yield similar outcomes, the customer experience for the entire city government will be inconsistent and arguably unaffected by the one department’s effort.
In my role as Chief Customer Service Officer, I have tried to incorporate improvements in both customer service and customer experience in the same strategic plan. This plan needs to include finite changes to customer service while, at the same time, incorporating these changes across the organization in a coordinated effort.
One example of how we have accomplished this is through the Customer Service Officer’s Program, which provides each department with a customer service officer who works with the program to develop customer service strategies for his or her department. As every department develops their strategies within the CSO program, the final product should see fairly consistent improvements to customer service, thus improving our overall customer experience.
What are you or peers doing to improve your customer experience and customer service within the organization?
Government Customer Service v. Customer Experience
In the past few years, we have seen the terms “customer service” and “customer experience” used almost interchangeably. Recently, I have been asked about the difference between these terms and how each of them affects the public and private sectors. My answer to the second part of the question is this: these two terms do not affect the public sectors any differently than they do the private. Whether it’s a company, organization or government entity providing goods or services, the “customers”—whether they are internal or external—expect outstanding customer service and a positive customer experience; but let’s look at the difference between the two terms.
Stephanie Ami defines these two terms in her blog post “Customer Service v. Customer Experience“:
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase.
Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier including awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation, and advocacy.
As you can tell by the definitions, customer service is just one piece of the overall customer experience. As it is just a piece, changes within an organization’s customer service strategy are more finite and easier to implement than the broad-stroked coordination it takes to improve a customer’s overall experience with an organization.
Take the far-reaching organization of the Philadelphia City government for instance. It would be relatively easy for one department to make a few changes to improve their customer service; however, if every department does not make similar changes that yield similar outcomes, the customer experience for the entire city government will be inconsistent and arguably unaffected by the one department’s effort.
In my role as Chief Customer Service Officer, I have tried to incorporate improvements in both customer service and the customer experience in the same strategic plan. This plan needs to include finite changes to customer service while, at the same time, incorporating these changes across the organization in a coordinated effort.
One example of how we have accomplished this is through the Customer Service Officer’s Program, which provides each department with a customer service officer who works with the program to develop customer service strategies for his or her department. As every department develops its strategies within the CSO program, the final product should see fairly consistent improvements to customer service, thus improving our overall customer experience.
What is everyone else trying to improve both customer service and customer experience? Help me out by leaving your suggestions in the comments below and the best answer will be rewarded with a $5 Starbucks gift card.
Rosetta Carrington Lue is the Chief Customer Service Officer and Senior Advisor to the City of Philadelphia’s Managing Director. Follow Rosetta on Twitter @Rosettalue.
Creating a Customer Service Officers Program
When trying to implement a customer service transformational strategy across an organization, you can expect a number of hurdles to arise which could slow down its implementation at various levels within the organization. Some examples of these hurdles are departmental processes, individual leaders or a change-adverse culture. Thus, in order for a strategy to be completely adopted, you need to elicit stakeholders to push it forward.
That is why I created the Customer Service Officers program within the City of Philadelphia’s customer service initiative. The primary responsibilities of the Customer Service Officer’s role are to:
- Support departments to achieve their respective customer goals and key performance objectives
- Implement appropriate actions towards improvement in their departments
Including departmental Customer Service Officers (CSO) within a strategic initiative not only offers a specified liaison between the Chief Customer Service Officer and the department but it also provides the initiative with an “expert” in specific departments. With this model, each CSO can bring insight and make recommendations that will help the initiative survive in individual departments.
In the City of Philadelphia Customer Service Officers Program, CSO’s create the following materials which are unique to their department:
- Vision and Mission Statements for Customer Service
- “Voice of the Customer Program” Process to Identify and Prioritize Customers’ Needs and Wants to Improve Service Quality
- Customer Service Training Program
- Customer Feedback and Engagement
While it might seem that this approach will create a fragmented customer service initiative across our organization, it is my responsibility as a Chief Customer Service Officer to make sure these deliverables are consistent with the higher-level plan. This approach, however, provides the overall effort with a department-level expert in the planning stage and a liaison throughout its implementation.
What programs do you currently have in place to ensure the organization is executing your customer service plans and initiatives? Help Rosetta out by leaving your suggestions in the comments below and the best answer will be rewarded with a $5 Starbucks gift card.
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Innovative Customer Service Leadership Strategies 