Welcome to CX 102 or Advanced CX. This course is a prerequisite for business professionals in the B2C or hospitality industry. It’s an elective for the B2B or the online/digital industry.
English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” With that in mind, today’s lesson will be a future reminder for you. So let’s get started.
Customer loyalty is not one BIG WOW to a customer. It’s one little wow delivered consistently to every customer. And when you consistently deliver a little wow, you transform an average, satisfactory customer experience into a positively WOW Experience.
So, be Magnificently Boring! Consistently deliver a low-cost, no-cost “a little better than the average experience that customers expect” product or customer service so repetitively that you feel it is boring, but to the customer, at that moment, you are Magnificent! Your customers will return repeatedly, spend more money, and rave about you to others on social media. Consistency builds trust. Trust builds loyalty. Loyalty builds your business. Deliver consistency Magnificently!
Second, but as importantly, be Magnificently Boring to CARE for your customers. Remember this sentence from our first class:
Customers seek the best emotional value in their entire experience.
Now you know why customers don’t seek B2B or B2C businesses. They engage in businesses that are H2H. Human to Human. One to One. Heart to Heart. The value to your customers is in their personalized interactions, not your “cash or credit” business transactions. So, to earn customer loyalty, don’t get inside their heads. Get inside their hearts. Create an emotional connection. Be Magnificently Boring to CARE!
COMMUNICATE with every customer with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each customer transparently and interactively of the product’s or service’s function, liabilities, and advantages to them.
ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to you and your business.
RESPOND promptly and empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.
ENRICH the experiences and, ultimately, the lives of every customer.
Consistently CARE for your customers so repetitively that you feel it is boring, but to every customer, at that moment, you are Magnificent! Your customers will feel respected, appreciated, and valued. They have an emotional connection with you. The more emotional the connections, the more memorable the experiences, and the more loyal the customers are. When it comes to customers and customer service, don’t just serve to satisfy your customers. Serve to WOW them. Serve to be Magnificently Boring to CARE for them. Don’t just be good. Be GREAT out there!
Does anyone have any questions? Whether you agree or agree to disagree, discuss or not, I’m sure that we can interact with each other without being disagreeable. So, I invite you to share your questions and comments.
From me to you, from one customer service advocate to another, Happy Valentine’s Day. For having read my blog, I very much appreciate you. On this special day, I wish each of you the very best, but I already know you’re one of the very best. So, I wish you GREAT happiness, kindness, enthusiasm, and success.
Today, let’s appreciate each other and show our love for all business professionals. When we express our appreciation to each other and our fellow business professionals and customers, let’s not be just good. Let’s be GREAT out there!
English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed”. So, as you prepare yourself every morning to engage and WOW your colleagues and customers, I encourage you to look in the mirror and remind yourself, “Don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!
Welcome to CX 101. Today’s course is a prerequisite for business professionals in the B2C or hospitality industry. It’s an elective for the B2B or the online/digital industry.
This is not a customer service training class. Training is finite, usually one to three days. And training is top-down, one-way “I know everything, you know nothing” instruction. Training is to develop THE BUSINESS. Training is for a job. And the job of employees is to serve to satisfy the customer.
Instead, our education classes are interactive. With suggestions, recommendations, and encouragement, we empower you and your colleagues to develop YOURSELVES. Ideally, all of you will be enthused and energized to engage customers, not just to satisfy, but to WOW them.
So let’s get started.
Customer service is what you do for your customers. Customer experience is how your customers feel before, during, and after what you do. Customer experience management is what you do before, during, and after you find out how customers feel about what you did. Customer loyalty is how your customers feel about what you did repeatedly.
Customers pay for their experience, not your product or service. And it’s THEIR experience, not yours. They buy with emotion and justify their decision with reason. Customers seek the best emotional value in their entire experience, not the minutiae of your best price, product, or service, virtual or physical locations, AI, online, chatGPT, or face-to-face customer support, NPS, CSAT or other CX metric, or the many other details of your business experience.
You are happy because your customers are satisfied with their experience. You met their expectations. But that’s not good enough. Satisfied customers feel that their experience is good, not better, just average. Nobody raves about average. And satisfied customers will not return as soon as they find a better experience or a less expensive price. So you have to do more than satisfy your customers. Don’t just serve to sell to customers. And don’t serve to satisfy customers. Serve to WOW them.
Next week’s class is postponed until Valentine’s Day.
So the next class two weeks from now: How to serve to WOW your customers.
Before next week’s class, are there any questions? Whether you agree or agree to disagree, discuss or not, I’m sure that we can interact with each other without being disagreeable. So, I invite you to share your questions and comments.
English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” So as you prepare yourself every morning to engage to WOW your customers, I encourage you to remind yourself when you say, “Don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!
English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed”. So I encourage you to remind yourself and your colleagues every day about each one of these reminders I published in 2023:
25 QUI QUOTE Reminders about Customers and Customer Service.
You can either repeat these QUI QUOTES or remind yourself, your customer CARE team, or your leadership colleagues about these QUI QUOTES which are collectively published this month in 2024.
ASSETS
Your most important assets are not your customers and your people. It’s how your customers and your people feel about you and your company.
CEO OF THE MOMENT
To a complaining customer, you are not a representative of the company. You ARE the company. So, own it. Be the CEO of the moment. Take it personally. Take it professionally. Take it responsibly. Just don’t take it at home.
COMMON SENSE
Delivering GREAT customer service is business common sense. Your job is to make it common practice.
COMPLAINT
A customer complaint is a gift. Take the perspective that customers complain because they want to help your business. Otherwise, they would walk away, saying nothing, with no intention of ever returning.
CONDUIT
Your relationship with your customers, not their purchase of your product, is the conduit where true value flows.
CSAT CX METRICS
Your customers don’t care about your NPS, CSAT, or CX metrics. They only care about theirs: One to One. Human to Human. Heart to Heart. The value to your customers is in their personal interactions, not your “cash or credit” business transactions. To earn customer loyalty, don’t get inside their heads. Get inside their hearts. Create an emotional connection. Think RELATIONSHIPS or Go Broke. Literally.
CUSTOMER
A customer is a person. Not a dollar, Not a satisfaction score. Not an online review. Customers are people. CARE BIG for them.
CUSTOMERS BOUGHT
You know you have customer CARE right when your customers don’t tell others what they bought. They tell others who they bought it from.
DISSATISFY ME
No customer, intent on paying, has ever entered your store to loudly proclaim, “Here I am. Dissatisfy me now!”
No employee, intent on working, has ever started their first day by loudly proclaiming, “Here I am. Dissatisfy me now.” If all you do is lead with top-down, one-way, communication, your employees will soon be disillusioned and disengaged, only working because they HAVE TO. But if you have a servant leadership mindset to CARE for your employees, your people will feel respected, appreciated, and valued. They will loyally return, be more productive, and rave to others on social media.
EXPERIENCE TRUMPS
Your customer’s negative experience of your service trumps your advertising every time.
EXPLANATION EXCUSE
Listen to their complaints with the intent to take action, not to explain. To a customer, when something is wrong, your explanation is an excuse. Customers want action, not excuses.
FINE
When you ask customers “How is everything?” and they respond, “Fine,” just know you “Failed In Nailing Expectations.”
HABIT
If you want your people to make it a habit to deliver outstanding customer CARE, you have to make it a habit to recognize them when they do.
INNOVATION
We need to future-proof the customer experience. We analyze the journey to ask, “What are the potential dissatisfiers and how can we remove them?”, and when we ask and take action, a negative customer experience has turned into a neutral one. But that’s not good enough. Satisfied customers feel their experience is good, not better, just average. Nobody raves about average. And satisfied customers will leave when they find an experience that is better or a less expensive price.
So don’t serve to satisfy customers. Don’t treat customers as they would have expected. Don’t treat them as they want to be treated. And don’t treat them as YOU want to be treated. Instead, treat them a little better than they want to be treated. Serve to WOW them.
Future-proof the customer experience. In addition to asking “What happened?” to your people answering customer complaints, ask them “What if?” Exceeding the expectations of current customer needs and innovating future potential customer wants will maximize the ROI of CX. So, always be asking, “What happened?” and “What if?” Always be innovating. And always be GREAT out there!
KEEP FIND
Work as hard to keep customers as much as you do to find them.
MARKETING
Marketing is not your advertising online to customers. It’s your customers raving to others on social media about your customer CARE. To them, you’re not just good. You are GREAT out there!
METRICS
Your customers don’t care about your NPS, CSAT, or CX metrics. They only care about theirs: One to One. Human to Human. Heart to Heart.
NOBODY
Nobody raves about a company that meets customer expectations.
Nobody raves about average.
OVERPROMISE
Overpromise and underdeliver and you’re sure to lose a customer’s trust. Don’t make it right and you’re sure to lose a customer.
PERCEPTION
Your customer’s perception of your customer service trumps your advertising
PERFECT PRACTICE
The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake. But you CAN learn something by being perfect … for your customers. When it comes to business, the customer’s value in their experience is just “perfect.” Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect … for your customers.
PERSPECTIVE
Take the perspective that the customer complains because he wants to help your business. Otherwise, he simply would have left, saying nothing, intent on never coming back.
POLICY
If you’re making frequent policy exceptions, then customer perception does not match company promises. It’s poor policy. Fix it.
PRICE VALUE
When customers complain, they don’t complain about the price. They complain about the value of their experience for the price that you’re asking them to pay. On the flipside, customers will pay for their best experience, no matter the price.
RELATIONSHIP
The value to your customers is in their personal interactions, not your “cash or credit” business transactions.
Your relationship with your customers, not their purchase of your product, is the conduit where true customer experience value flows.
SERVE WOW CARE
Don’t serve to satisfy customers.
Don’t treat customers as they expect to be treated. And don’t treat them as you want to be treated. Instead, treat them a little better than they want to be treated. Serve to WOW them. Serve to CARE.
COMMUNICATE with each customer with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each customer transparently and interactively of the product’s or service’s function, liabilities, and advantages to them.
ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to you and your company.
RESPOND promptly and empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.
ENRICH the experiences and, ultimately, the lives of every customer.
When you CARE, each customer is WOWED and happy, intent on returning repeatedly, spending more money, and raving to others on social media.
VALUE
As their leader, the value to your people is in their personal interactions with you, not your business transactions with them.
VENT
Listen and allow complaining customers to vent. Angry or frustrated customers generally will not listen or accept your apology until they have an opportunity to voice their frustrations.
WORLD’S BEST
The “World’s Best” customer experience is not as the world sees it. The “World’s Best” Is how one customer FEELS it.
Every morning, when you prepare yourself or your customer CARE people to engage and WOW your customers, I encourage you to remind yourself or your customer CARE people during your daily briefing by reciting one of your favorite QUI QUOTES and, in the end, saying, “Don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!”
Three weeks ago, I introduced the Rule of Three QUI TAKEAWAYS which will be revolutionary now, but once discussed many times over, will be viewed as traditional by many business professionals. In the last two weeks, I explained the first and second QUI TAKEAWAYS: CX versus CXM, and customer service versus customer CARE. In the next week, join me as we revolutionize the CX experience. This week, I will explain the third QUI TAKEAWAY: customer service training versus customer CARE education.
QUI TAKEAWAY: Don’t offer customer service training. Training is finite, usually one to three days. And training is top-down, one-way “I know everything, you know nothing” instruction. Training is to develop THE BUSINESS. Training is for a job. And the job of employees is to serve to satisfy the customer. In the end, training instructs people on how to TAKE CARE of the customer.
Instead, have business people enroll in Customer CARE University. We don’t have trainers or instructors. We have mentors and coaches. Our education classes are interactive. As mentors, educate your people with customer CARE actions to practice their interpersonal skills. They will learn and appreciate the value of telephone etiquette, service recovery, and customer CARE. After graduation, as coaches, remind them of your customer CARE excellence strategies. With suggestions, recommendations, and encouragement, empower your people to develop THEMSELVES and engage customers. Your people will create an emotional connection with their customers. The more emotional the connections, the more memorable the experiences, the more loyal the customers. Loyal customers will repeatedly return, spend more money, and rave about their WOW experience to others on social media.
In Customer CARE 101, your passion is to CARE for your people.
COMMUNICATE openly, transparently, interactively, and frequently any customer CARE information your people need or want to know. Listen empathetically to their suggestions, concerns, and complaints.
APPRECIATE their roles, responsibilities, actions, suggestions, and recommendations.
RECOGNIZE, honor, and offer accolades for their role-playing acts of customer CARE.
EMPOWER your people to act on their own to do what is right for them, their colleagues, their customers, and your business.
In Customer CARE 102, educate your people on how to CARE for their customers:
COMMUNICATE with each customer with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each customer transparently and interactively of the product’s or service’s function, liabilities, and advantages to the customer.
ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to the customer CARE person and your business.
RESPOND promptly and empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.
ENRICH the experiences and, ultimately, the lives of every customer.
And, yes, educate everyone. Don’t just educate customer CARE representatives. Educate the people in the business who don’t need to CARE for their customers. When you create a GREAT experience for everyone as much as customer CARE representatives need to with their customers, you will earn the loyalty of both. Soon, without a focus on profits, profits will grow. Everyone, the people, their customers, the leaders and their businesses, and you and your business, will be enriched.
NEXT WEEK: Now is the time for a CX Revolution! Part Four.
For several weeks, starting last October, I offer each one of the Rule of Three QUI Takeaways to revolutionize CX. Why only three? Because nobody can remember Number Four. Who is the first President of the United States? Surely, George Washington. Who is Number Four? Who is the first person to walk on the moon? Neil Armstrong, of course. Who is Number Four? (By the way, the answers to who is Number Four are James Madison and Alan Bean.)
With the Rule of Three in mind, here is the second QUI TAKEAWAY: Customer service versus customer CARE.
Doctors and nurses don’t serve their ailing patients. They care. So shouldn’t customer service be customer care?
At the same time, customer service experts have advocated that the the people in customer service are the frontlines. Really? We may logically say that customer service representatives are the frontlines because they are front and center with customers. But customers emotionally feel they are doing battle with the customer service frontlines. So, no more saying that customer service representatives are the frontlines.
Business leaders are happy because their customer service people serve to satisfy their customers. But that’s not good enough. Satisfied customers feel that their experience is good, not better, just average. Nobody raves about average. And satisfied customers will not return as soon as they find an experience that is better or a price that is less expensive.
We have to do better than serve to sell to our customers. And we need to do better than to serve to satisfy our customers. Don’t treat customers as they expect to be treated. And don’t treat customers as YOU expect to be treated. Instead, treat your customers a little better than they expect to be treated. Serve to delight and WOW them. Serve to CARE for your customers.
COMMUNICATE with every customer with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each customer transparently and interactively of the product’s or service’s function, liabilities, and advantages to them.
ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to you and your business.
RESPOND promptly and empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.
ENRICH the experiences and, ultimately, the lives of every customer.
And be Magnificently Boring to CARE! Consistently CARE for your customers so repetitively that you feel it is boring, but to every customer, at that moment, you are Magnificent! Customers have an emotional connection with you. The more emotional the connections, the more memorable the experiences, and the more loyal the customers are. Loyal customers will return repeatedly, spend more money, and rave about you to others on social media. Consistency builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships build loyalty. Loyalty builds your business. CARE Magnificently!
Serving customers because you HAVE TO is your job. But giving GREAT customer CARE because you WANT TO is your passion. Customer CARE is having the liberty to determine one’s own actions, in this case, not to satisfy them, but to actualize their happiness. Service is satisfying your customers because you have to please them. Instead, make your customers happy because you want to please them. Emotionally bond with customers when you are interacting with them. Don’t take care of your customers because you have to. CARE for your customers because you want to.
Do more than satisfy your customers. Personalize your interaction to emotionally bond them to you. Then make them happy. Good customer service is having a smile on your face. GREAT customer CARE is having a smile on your customers’ faces.
When it comes to customers and customer CARE, don’t just be good. Be GREAT out there!
Next week: The third QUI TAKEAWAY: Customer service training versus customer CARE education.
Many CX professionals have advocated CX as strategies that explain customer journey mapping, the Peak End Rule, or innovative speed technologies among others. And they’ve done it so often for so long that “CX” has been the traditional term for many business leaders. But no more. This is our time for a CX Revolution!
To paraphrase John DiJulius’ battle cry, it’s time for a CX Revolution! Let’s be revolutionary to transform CX Into CXM, customer service to customer CARE, and customer service training to an education in customer CARE or customer CARE University.
Even though we want to revolutionize CX, we will still follow the Rule of Three. Why only three? Because nobody can remember Number Four. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the face of the moon. It was number four? George Washington was the first President of the United States. Who was number four? Who was the first president of the United States? Of course, George Washington. Who was Number Four? Who was the first person on the moon? Neil Armstrong. But who was Number Four?
Why do we have so much difficulty in remembering who is Number Four? It’s because most of us can only remember up to three things. In the very beginning, there were only three TV channels using only three letters: ABC, NBC, and CBS. We remember our favorite sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Aladdin’s genie had three wishes. The Werewolf confronted Three Little Pigs. And Goldilocks stumbled onto the home of the Three Bears. When you were in school, what did they teach you if you were ever to catch on fire? Stop, Drop, and Roll. If good things come in threes, what does that make Number Four?
With that in mind, here are three QUI TAKEAWAYS that will be revolutionary at first, but once discussed many times over, will be viewed as traditional by many business professionals.
QUI TAKEAWAY: CX versus CXM
QUI TAKEAWAY: Customer service versus customer CARE
QUI TAKEAWAY: Customer service training versus customer CARE education
I’ll explain the first QUI TAKEAWAY. The other two will come separately in the next two weeks.
First QUI TAKEAWAY: Customer service is what you do for your customers. Customer experience is how your customers feel about what you did. Customer experience management is what you do before, during, and after you find out how customers feel about what you did. Customer loyalty is how your customers feel about what you did again and again.
Customers pay for their experience, not your product or service. And they pay for THEIR experience, not yours. It’s all about them, never about you. Business management expert and author @Tom Peters said, “Customers perceive service in their own unique, idiosyncratic, emotional, irrational, end-of-the-day, and totally human terms. Perception is all there is!”
In other words, customers buy with emotion and justify their decision with reason. They seek the best emotional value in their entire experience, not the minutiae of your best price, product, or service, virtual or physical locations, AI, chatGPT, online, live chat, telephone, or face-to-face customer support, and the many other details of your business experience. In this their experience, not yours. So, it’s the best emotional value in their experience, not your best customer journey mapping, Peak End Rule, NPS, CSAT, CES or other CX metric strategy of your experience.
You may have been happy because your customers felt satisfied with their experience. But that’s not good enough. Satisfied customers feel that their experience is good, not better, just average. Nobody raves about average. And satisfied customers will leave as soon as they find an experience that is emotionally better or a price that is less expensive.
In the end, customer experience or CX is about the emotional value of the experience of customers. Customer experience management or CXM is how businesses prioritize the best emotional value for their customers over the best product, service, or technology, or CX strategy of your business experience.
QUI TAKEAWAY: If you advertise “Satisfaction Guaranteed”, what would you do differently? Do more. Do better. Do it now. When it comes to your customers and customer service, don’t just be good. Be GREAT out there!
You are happy because customers were satisfied with their purchase of your product or a resolution with your service. But that’s not good enough. Your satisfied customers feel that their experience is good, not better, just average. Nobody raves about average. And satisfied customers will not return as soon as they find an experience that is better or a price that is less expensive. On the flipside, with your GREAT customer CARE, your customers are willing to pay for their experience, no matter the price.
So, when it comes to customers and customer service, well, you get it. And if you don’t, you better.. Otherwise, you’d go broke. Literally. So …
Despite the business turmoil of the pandemic, Skimpflation, The Great Resignation, quiet quitting, and, now, the recession, envision a time when your business will, not only survive but, soon, thrive and succeed. Just exactly when is that time? Well …
Now is the time for a People First Revolution! One caveat is Employees First. Business leaders see themselves as bosses, hierarchical rungs well below their subservient “employees first” at the bottom of the ladder. With a “People First” culture, no longer are people taking second or third seats to profits or customers. Your people’s emotional well-being would take priority over your business’s financial health.
With that your People First in mind, whether your position or title, be a servant leader who will CARE for your people.
COMMUNICATE openly, transparently, interactively, frequently, and continuously any information that their people need and want to know. Listen empathetically to the people’s concerns, questions, and complaints. Express compassion with their recommendations and encouragement.
APPRECIATE the important roles and responsibilities of their people.
RECOGNIZE and offer accolades for your people’s individual and team accomplishments and acts of service to colleagues or customers.
EMPOWER people to make the right decisions for themselves, their colleagues, customers, and your business.
As a servant leader, ask your people two questions:
What do you think?
What can I do for you?
When you ask, promptly respond, and take action as appropriate, your people will feel valued and respected. They’ll be inspired, energized, and empowered to develop themselves. and engage their colleagues their customers and you and your business.
When you create a GREAT experience for your people, they will do the same for your customers, and you will earn the loyalty of both. Soon, without a focus on profits, your profits will grow. And everyone, your people, your customers, you and your business, will be enriched, literally and figuratively.
So what are you waiting for? Now is the time. It’s time for a People First Revolution! First, you will be best for your people, and then you will be first among your competitors.
The value to your customers is in their personal interactions, not your “cash or credit” business transactions.
Your relationship with your customers, not their purchase of your product or service, is where true value flows.
QUI QUOTE: Relationship capital is the only currency of value to grow your business. So, when it comes to customers and customer experience, think RELATIONSHIPS or go broke. Literally.
"People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed."
Samuel Johnson
This blog, along with my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, offer practical tips, insight and inspiration to serve as reminders on how to improve your personal delivery of customer service.
BILL QUISENG | Deliver the World's Best Customer Experience 