Customer Experience Articles

Contact Vox to discuss how we can help you create a comprehensive Customer Experience that drives bottom-line results dramatically higher.

12+ Tips to Improve Customer Experience and Profitability Right Now

By Bill Cusick
© March 3, 2009

A baker's dozen tips for you to better understand, attract and retain your customers.

At Vox, we’re celebrating 12 years of helping companies measurably improve their customer experience (CE) for a healthier bottom line. So in honor of our birthday, here are – in no particular order – a baker’s dozen tips for you to better understand, attract and retain your customers:

1. Create a CE Process Map

In order to improve the CE, you first have to understand what it is. A quick but effective way to do that is to get all the people who touch the CE in any way in a room and walk through a typical customer experience. Try to keep it simple at first. Graphically represent each interaction and communication. I guarantee you will soon realize two things: 1) employees are making incorrect assumptions about what’s really happening for the customer, and 2) there are both challenges and opportunities that should be addressed that will significantly improve CE.

2. Purge Company-Centric Language from Your Customer Communications

Perform a quick review of communications that go to customers. Are they written in an active or passive voice? Passive means you’re relinquishing responsibility. Do you refer to the company in the third person or as “we?” Change your tone; the more “person-to-person” the better. It’s easy to sound “human” in your communications if you start with a simple, empathetic perspective.

3. Leverage Technology for a More Human CE

It might sound counterintuitive, but technology can create a more personal CE. Many smaller companies make the mistake of counting on their employees’ good intentions to deliver a superior experience. Inevitably things fall through the cracks. Tools like CRM systems won’t replace your employees’ “human” connection with customers, but it will bolster it, making the employees heroes and the customers happy.

4. Unpack One Moment of Truth (MOT)

When laying out the customer experience, there are certain communications or interactions that may be more critical to overall customer perception. Take one of these (say “opening an account,” or “in-bound customer-service call”) and break it out into its basic elements. Is it designed for the company or the customer? What could you do to make it a better customer experience?

5. Talk to 12 Customers

Ok, the number 12 might be a little arbitrary, but the idea is to take the time to talk, individually, with a small number of your customers at regular intervals. No, it’s not statistically significant research, but it’s a fantastic way to raise issues that are invisible to the company but obvious to your customers.

6. Look in the Dirty Corners

The ugly truth is that it’s often not the major stuff that causes customers to defect. Rather, it’s the little irritants that add up until the customer says “enough,” and heads out the door. Things like response time for customer requests, the easy-to-read layout of your bills, or the tone of customer letters are what really matter. Find problem areas. Fix them. Watch customer retention go up.

7. Engage Your Employees to Improve Customer Retention

Study after study shows that companies that strive to engage their employees consistently outperform others in terms of customer retention and profitability. They also show that the #1 reason customers leave is “employee indifference.” Employing lackadaisical people is a ticket to failure. Look to the companies that succeed (Southwest, Zappos) for hiring and culture tips.

8. Create an On-Boarding Process

New customers are most likely to be happy with your company. They’re also most likely to defect. That’s why developing a process that welcomes the customer into the fold is so important. Without an on-boarding process – no matter your product or service offering – you risk wasting all that money you spent on customer acquisition.

9. Throw Out Satisfaction Surveys

Sure, you’re being told that satisfaction is the goal. It’s not. Studies show that most customers who defect were “satisfied” with the company they left. It’s a low bar, and satisfaction surveys show trends but don’t point at actionable improvements. Better to focus on customer behavior. Past behavior indicates what’s working and what’s not in your products and services. Behavior is truth, and it’s observable. Use it.

10. Embrace Social Media

Yeah, you’ve heard about Facebook and Twitter, but might think they aren’t relevant for your business. You’re wrong. Just because you are not out in the social media space doesn’t mean your customers aren’t. Don’t be intimidated by the new technologies. Web 2.0 is evolving with sites and tools that are so easy your grandma is using them. Get out there!

11. Empower Frontline Employees

Do your frontline employees have the authority to fix customer problems, or even to “wow” customers? Allowing your employees the discretion to spend money to correct a wrong, or to lose money on a transaction in order to keep a customer coming back pays huge dividends. The great companies know that. Do you?

12. For Product/Service Design, Don’t Trust Your Customers

I know, it defies common logic, but listen: the companies who excel at this, like Apple and Bang & Olufsen, don’t ask their customers about product design. Steve Jobs knew that people weren’t screaming for an iPod. He went ahead of the curve. It can be risky, but the rewards are huge.

13. Walk in Customer’s Shoes

For any of these tips, there is one cardinal rule: look at the experience not as an employee of the company, but as a customer. Only by walking through your processes and services as a customer will you be able to honestly gauge how good or bad you’re doing.

Time’s a wasting. Get started!

Bill Cusick is CEO of Vox, Inc., a customer experience research and consulting firm. Contact him through the feedback form on our Contact Us page.

Copyright 2009 Vox, Inc. All rights reserved.

‹ ‹ Previous Article

Article Index

Next Article › ›