Multichannel and On-Line Retailers Top the Customer Experience Survey

The National Retail Federation (NRF) announced this week at the NRF convention in NYC the results of their 2008 NRF Customer Experience Survey. This year, on-Line retailers dominate the top spots with LL. Bean, Zappos.com, Amazon.com, and Overstock.com taking the top 4 spots respectively. Multi-channel retailers (those with both on-line and physical store locations) also did well, with Blair (#5), Lands’ End (#6), Coldwater Creek (#7), Nordstrom (#8), and Lane Bryant (#9) taking spots in the top 10.

L.L. Bean Number One in Customer Service, According to NRF Foundation /American Express Survey

Increasingly in a multichannel world, customer experience is the differentiator. The problem is, however, that operating across multiple channels is increasingly difficult to serve the customer in a consistent manner... Regardless, this year's survey results demonstrate that it IS possible and that leading companies are doing well in customer service despite the increased complexity of the evolving multichannel retail operating model.

Inside Jobs, January 10, 2008

Inside Jobs, December 14, 2007

Don't Improve Customer Service!

Don't improve your customer service. You'd be spending your precious time and resources in the wrong place. Now don't get me wrong, customer service is an important aspect of any business. Customer service, however, is only a minuscule piece of the bigger picture that you should be worrying about.

Let me explain. Would you focus on the front door while the rest of the house was falling down? Hopefully not. Customer service is only a component - a small component - of your company's overall customer experience lifecycle. This is an important distinction to understand when comparing customer service vs. customer experience. Often we see these two terms used synonymously which is a mistake.

Customer service may represent a subset of potential touch points: a receptionist, a call center representative, or a restaurant waiter or waitress. Each touch point does provide a significant contribution to how each customer is treated. However, even the best customer service won't rectify an otherwise flawed customer experience. The customer experience, however, encompasses all customer service touch points that can extend from the customer's first impression to their ultimate defection.

If, for example, you have attended a professional football game in a season when your home team is struggling, it can be painful to watch. The price of a ticket and a parking pass is expensive. The stadium can be crowded and cold and the fans can be in a foul mood. Although the person behind the concession counter delivers great customer service, the overall experience can be a disappointment.

Companies that are serious about being more customer-centric, or are determined to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, should instead focus their time and resources on the bigger picture; fix the customer experience. Granted, customer experience management is a much bigger issue. It requires a keen understanding of the customer, a maniacal focus on end-to-end process perfection, and an innate paranoia that will never let you rest on your laurels.

Customer experience management is not for the weak or faint of heart. It is not an improvement initiative that can be delegated to that other department. It requires the re-mapping of a company's DNA to be completely customer centric, to elevate the customer experience process to the same or higher levels than finance or operations, and to be willing to listen and respond to customer feedback.

Simply put, mastering the customer experience is not easy. But it is quickly becoming critically important in a business environment where price, product, and promotion just won't cut it anymore.

If you want your business to survive and grow, don't improve customer service. Improve your customer experience instead.

Customer Experience Kit Sneak Peek Part 3

What can the Customer Experience Solution Kit do for you?

In part 3 of our sneak peak series, we'll show you how to manage and implement your own customer experience improvement project.

Watch this exclusive sneak peak now!



See what else is inside the Customer Experience Solution Kit!

THE SNEAK PEEK SERIES:

1. Part 1: How Do I Analyze & Clearly Understand my Customer Experience Problem?
2. Part 2: How Do I Identify & Plan What Needs to Get Done?
3. Part 3: How Do I Implement a Customer Experience Solution for my Business?
   

Customer Experience Kit Sneak Peek Part 2

What can the Customer Experience Solution Kit do for you?

In part 2 of our sneak peak series, we answer the question "How do I identify and plan what needs to get done?"

Watch this exclusive sneak peak now!



See what else is inside the Customer Experience Solution Kit!

THE SNEAK PEEK SERIES:

1. Part 1: How Do I Analyze & Clearly Understand my Customer Experience Problem?
2. Part 2: How Do I Identify & Plan What Needs to Get Done?
3. Part 3: How Do I Implement a Customer Experience Solution for my Business?
   

Inside Jobs, October 10, 2007

"Hi, How May I Offend You Today?"

As an American consumer, chances are that you have been offended in some way by a company this year. It hasn’t always been that way. Before the current era of mass-everything, there was a real connection between proprietor and customer: a connection that continues to be the envy of most businesses today.

Let me take you back to a time when the customer and business had a real – not artificial - relationship.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS

“Jim was spending a typical fall Saturday working on a never-ending list of home repair projects. Ever since he bought the little two-story fixer-upper, he has been a regular down at the corner hardware store. Earl, the sole proprietor, was from the old school. He didn’t believe in fancy systems or gimmicks; he just liked helping his fellow neighbors. Earl knew everyone by name, and as any good businessperson should – he knew what one of his best customers, Jim, was up to today.

When Jim walked in the door, Earl recognized him like an old friend and immediately asked him about his latest project. Within minutes, Earl had found just the right product and tool that would help Jim get the job done. Earl made a sale as well as a very happy customer.”

That scenario just doesn’t happen often enough anymore does it? Perhaps it was easier back before quaint neighborhood stores were overrun by the big-box retailers and the mass-production of, well, everything. Neighborhood storeowners developed real relationships with their customers; not a relationship defined by a customer record stored in some computer database.

BAD SERVICE - MASS PRODUCED

Unfortunately, in today’s environment of mass-produced products and services, companies rely too heavily on a rapidly changing employee base, and a less than adequate customer database. As a result, it’s far too easy – and common – for companies to offend their customers.

If we were to replay Jim’s scenario in today’s environment, it might go something like this:

“Jim jumped in his car for the second time this Saturday to make the 20-minute drive to a strip mall where the big-box home improvement store was located. On his first trip, the young assistant didn’t really understand what Jim was trying to do and had sold him the wrong product. Now, Jim had to return to the store to exchange it for something else.

Upon arriving at the store, nobody greeted or recognized him, and when he finally tracked down a store employee, he had to re-explain his entire project and problem. After a long deliberation, Jim finally had a replacement product and was ready to check out. But without his receipt for the original product…”

You probably know how the story would go. Too many consumers have been treated just this way. It’s no wonder that many consumers say that customer service across the board is just plain bad.

THE REMEDY?

Unfortunately, we live in a time where mass-produced products and services are the norm. If you work for one of these organizations, you have to make the most of a difficult situation: multiple locations, multiple channels, changing employees, and rising customer expectations. Many companies turn to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions to bridge the gap on poor customer service.

Although CRM solutions can stem the tide of poor customer service, they often can’t achieve the level of customer intimacy that some customers require. CRM solutions do a great job of tracking customer information, transactions, and interactions, but I would argue that a CRM system is only as good as the customer-facing individuals using it.

Ideally, your CRM system should help your organization to keep track of all pertinent customer information:

• Customer Information: This should include all of the basic identifying information for your customer including name, address, email address, telephone number, sex, age, etc.
• Transaction History: This should include a record of all transactions associated with your customer including the transaction dates, amount, products or services purchased, payments, receivables, returns, refunds, etc.
• Interaction History: This should include a record of all contacts made with the customer including telephone calls, emails, newsletters, direct mail, invoices, service calls, etc.

Armed with all of this great information, customer-facing employees should be well prepared to provide excellent customer service, right? In a perfect world, they should. However, there are several factors that can hinder the best intentions of any CRM solution:

1. Employee Behavior & Discipline: Poor customer service can continue even with a CRM solution in place when employees don’t utilize it properly or consistently.
2. Data Quality & Accessibility: A customer database can help to collect and aggregate critical information, but it won’t help if the data is incorrect or inaccurate, or if your employees can’t access it when and where they need it most.
3. Single View of the Customer: CRM solutions in your company are like debt; more is not necessarily better. Too often, multiple CRM solutions arise in an organization, which creates silos of customer data. That can prevent your company from ever getting a single view of your customer – a scenario that can perpetuate poor customer service.

Bad customer service doesn’t need to become a habit. We may never return to the time of quant neighborhood stores, where intimate customer service just came naturally. However, companies can begin to improve their customer service by taking a more customer-centric view of their CRM systems. CRM should not be viewed as the end-all solution, but rather as a enabling tool that, if used properly by your employees, can help to develop a more meaningful relationship with your customers.

You can improve your own customer service by getting the Customer Experience Solution Kit; a complete collection of methods, tools, and advice used by some of the largest and most well known companies to improve their customer experience.

The next time I walk into a business that I frequent, I’d like them to remember me. I’d like them to recall that I just bought something from them last week, or that I’ve been a regular customer for more than a year. I’d like them to ask me how I’m doing, or how they can help me with my latest project – which they should know about. Nobody wants to be greeted with an all too common mantra: “Hi, How May I Offend You Today?”

Inside Jobs, September 11, 2007

Lead in Customer Satisfaction, and Lead the Market

Is your business stuck in neutral, or worse, drifting backwards? It doesn't have to be that way. Some companies have figured out the secret for achieving ultra high business performance, and it has nothing to do with anything you'll find on the balance sheet.

An elite set of companies have uncovered the secrets of customer experience to achieve ultra high business performance.

Customer satisfaction is one of those extremely valuable, yet sometimes elusive, business assets. Customer satisfaction won't show up on your balance sheet as an economic asset. However, get it right and your company can soar above all others in terms of profits, growth, and universal admiration.

Wouldn't you love to be part of a company like that? With the right tools and advice, you can.

A Journal of Marketing article published in 2006 demonstrated an amazing correlation between high levels of customer satisfaction and ultra high market performance. Using both back-tested and real-world portfolios, Claes Fornell, et al. proved that there was a significant relationship between customer satisfaction levels and market performance. Furthermore, their study demonstrated that between 1997 and 2003, a portfolio of companies with high levels of customer satisfaction

- outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJIA) by 93%,
- beat the S&P 500 (.SPX) by 201%, and
- schooled the NASDAQ by 335%!

Source: Claes Fornell et al., "Customer Satisfaction and Stock Prices," Journal of Marketing, January 2006.

It should be no surprise that leading customer satisfaction companies are also well represented in Fortune Magazine's list of Most Admired companies. In 2007, companies such as General Electric, FedEx, Toyota, Apple, Google, and Starbuck's were in the top echelon of both the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and the top 20 Most Admired companies according to Fortune Magazine. It seems obvious that companies with high levels of customer satisfaction are also universally admired by their peers.

Simply put, companies that are leaders in customer satisfaction can achieve not only good performance, but ultra high performance.


UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

So how did these companies unlock the secrets to ultra high performance? Customer satisfaction is obviously the key. But how did they learn to excel in customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction is not a single event or discrete attribute. Customer satisfaction is the resulting measure of how well the customer was treated throughout the entire customer experience.

Therefore, in order to unlock the secrets of customer satisfaction, you must first focus on delivering an outstanding customer experience.


CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT - THE NEW COMPETITIVE BATTLEGROUND

Customer experience management is not new. However, more and more companies are quickly realizing that customer experience is becoming the new competitive battleground in today's marketplace. And the stakes are high. Those companies that gain an early customer experience advantage build a strong bond between their business and their customers - a bond that is extremely difficult to break. When it comes to customer experience, the first mover advantage can be significant.


NEARLY EVERY COMPANY CAN IMPROVE THEIR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Perhaps no company will ever achieve a perfect customer satisfaction score. On one hand, you simply can’t please all of the people all of the time. On the other hand, however, this means that most companies have a lot of room for improvement.

But improving the customer experience is a serious endeavor. It requires executive commitment, patience, and a clear vision. Any company that is serious about customer experience should first begin to think about customer experience as a process. Like any process, the customer experience process can work perfectly (or go horribly wrong), may contain numerous scenarios, and can be analyzed, re-engineered, and optimized.

The customer experience process does not begin and end at your store, sales representative, web site, or call center. It extends from the moment the customer becomes aware of your company and may last until they die, move, or leave you for another company. In short, the customer experience process is broad, deep, iterative, and (hopefully) long running.

Mastering the customer experience process is no small task. Indeed, great customer experiences don’t happen by accident. They require a keen attention to detail, a focus on every touch point, and an orchestration of all customer encounters regardless of how each customer may navigate your company. Mastering your customer experience must begin with mastering the end-to-end customer experience process.


GET SMART ABOUT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

To get smart about customer experience, take advantage of the numerous resources available on the internet. Various online sources provide insights, tools, solutions, and advice on customer experience management. Utilize these resources to develop a strategy and perspective of customer experience that makes the most sense for you and your company.

I also recommend that you check out our Customer Experience Solution Kit. The Customer Experience Solution Kit provides you with strategies, methods, a roadmap, process maps, and advice so that you can conduct your own customer experience project.

Who knows, you just might unlock the secrets of customer experience that drive ultra high business performance.


DISCLAIMER

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Inside Jobs: Customer Experience

Most Don't Have a Customer Experience Solution

Most organizations I have worked with recognize the power of the customer experience, but the majority don't know how to affect it. Organizationally, the customer experience is 'owned' across functions and across department heads. Very rarely have I seen where any one executive 'owns' the entire customer experience.

As a result, organizations struggle to employ a customer experience solution to improve their customer experience. They fail to organize initiatives that are broad enough to effect the entire customer experience, and they lack a clear customer experience methodology or customer experience approach focused on improving the customer experience.

Most CEOs don't think about 'How to Improve the Customer Experience', they are more focused on revenue growth and cost avoidance - not recognizing a complete customer experience program - focused on the end-to-end customer experience as a critical factor in strategy execution. Step 1 - Make your Customers Sing.

Executives need to ask themselves 'Are you really customer centric?'

These reasons are why ClearBrick was founded, to help organizations solve their business problems on their own - and why the Customer Experience Solution was the first solution kit that we focused on. It is a complete customer experience methodology and customer experience roadmap to help your organization improve your customer experience.

Customer Experience is About the Process not the Shtick

As I interact with companies in my daily to-dos. I find myself amused at the different elements of my customer experience and the lengths that some company will go to in order to affect the wrong elements of my experience.

Companies seem very willing to invest heavily in what I call the shtick of the experience but ignore the true process that creates value. Whether it is hanging rock-n-roll memorabilia on the wall, hanging a row boat from the ceiling or having the customer experience staff wear the same goofy uniform - companies invest in the shtick. Very rarely have I seen companies focus on a complete customer experience solution.

In their article on the "Total Customer Experience", Berry, Carbone and Haeckel outline correctly that "Offering products and services alone is no longer enough: Organizations must provide their customers with satisfactory experiences. Competing on this dimension means orchestrating all the 'clues' that people detect in the buying process"

So, if the customer experience is about the buying process, and not the shtick, then organizations must determine what the buying process is. - So I wonder, how many organizations have even mapped out their buying process and understand where it begins, ends and more importantly where they fail to convert, or fail to satisfy their customer's demands?

My 'ahh haa' for the day... Companies need to focus on the process, not the shtick. As that is where companies create real value for their customers.

Customer Experience in the Air

Over my career, I've spent a significant amount of time in the air. In fact, I've probably averaged 2-3 flights per week around the country and internationally over the last 10 years. That's a lot of frequent flier miles!!

In an age where competition is continually moving away from production and toward the customer experience, I find it interesting that the airlines industry has moved the other way. Largely, I have found that the large carriers have moved away from elements of the experience that differentiate and have moved to commoditize themselves.

There are, of course, a few exceptions. I'd call out Midwest Airlines, Southwest, JetBlue and Virgin Airlines as providing unique and differentiating customer experiences. In fact, recently, these airlines have consistently outperformed other airlines. Interestingly though, they find unique and different ways to differentiate. Southwest is bare bones, but consistent. Midwest gives you supreme service, first class seats, and my favorite...chocolate chip cookies.

See the Airlines Customer Satisfaction Scores Here

I find that the airline industry is an ideal industry for evaluating the customer experience and how companies can use the customer's experience to create a competitive advantage. The big airlines are prime for ClearBrick's Customer Experience Solution.

Age of the Customer

I was thinking recently about the transformation of the retail market. It may be obvious to others, but isn't always apparent. Over time, the demands on the retail market have changed dramatically. In the 1950s, variety was the spice of things for retailers. Consumer products were being introduced to meet a wide variety of needs and retailers were growing by making more items available in more locations - offering variety.

In the 1970s, the age of the department store emerged, with single stores that would offer a very large variety of goods, taking advantage of the small mom and pop, narrowly focused competition.

Then in the 1980s and the 1990s, the age of supply chain. Wal-Mart emerged as the behemoth that drove prices down through scale and supply chain efficiency. Many in the press wrote about 'The Wal-Mart Effect' and that Wal-Mart would rule the world. However, now, there is something else emerging, and that is the age of the consumer.

You can see that the competitive landscape is shifting to focus more on the consumer and differentiation in their mind. Take Target for example. They were once thought of as an also-ran to Wal-Mart, yet today, they have a very vibrant business that is clearly differentiated from Wal-Mart on the point of Customer Experience.

I project that Customer Experience will continue to be the new battle field of retailers, small and large alike. And, further, I project that the lines between retailers and consumer products companies will continue to blur, making Customer Experience a topic that companies up and down the value chain will need to deal with.

If you are interested in more information, I'd recommend downloading Clearbrick's Customer Experience Quick Reference Guide. This is the initial component of Clearbrick's Customer Experience solution.