Thought Leadership

It is one of the oldest adages in business — “the customer is always right.” While this is true in most circumstances, there is also the missing other side of that statement that holds true too — “customers want to be heard.”

This is supported by the consumer insights research that we do here at Empathica. Interestingly we have found that most customers are willing to provide feedback to the brands they frequent in some manner. In fact, a recent consumer insights study we ran showed that up to 85% of consumers are willing to provide feedback to the restaurants and retailers they frequent.

That same research also uncovered an interesting disconnect however. Of those same consumers polled, only 46% believe their feedback is used to improve the customer experience.

This shows on one hand a real desire from customers to become a more active part of the brands where they shop and dine. On the other hand, the current perception consumers have is that brands do not share a desire to listen to the feedback being provided.

Brands can do a lot to change this perception by adopting some simple habits in how they build dialogue and connect with their customers. Here are some of our tips that may be helpful to you and your business, gleamed from Empathica working with leading brands for over a decade:

Creating a dialogue is not only asking for feedback but also acknowledging that you’re listening and using your customers’ voices to improve.

Everyone can relate to the frustration of feeling as though you’re not being heard. CEM programs at their core are all about using customer feedback to improve your business. Make sure you’re using the most of your customer feedback and actually making improvements with it and not just allowing it to collect dust.

Upset or at risk customers can be acknowledged and helped, and delighted customers should get a chance to tell the world through social media.

Acknowledging customers directly who have either very good or very poor experiences can be a powerful way to build loyalty through direct interactions. Well thought-out CEM programs should have the ability to allow managers to intervene when a customer has a very poor experience, as well as allowing very positive experiences to be shared with staff as a motivational tool.

Feedback can also be shared in a more public manner.

Some brands have even gone so far as to publicly share their feedback scores on corporate websites and other assets. For brands that are successfully running advocacy programs, why not embed those messages directly into your website or other only marketing activities to truly turn the voice of your customers into your marketing message.

It doesn’t need to be said but customers really are the lifeblood of any business. For brands to acknowledge this fact and make them feel a part of your growth and success requires that businesses of all shapes and sizes do a better job of listening to them. That’s where a well thought out customer experience management program can play a role. After all, customer feedback is all about better listening.

It’s been said before but it’s worth saying again. The Internet has changed the way consumers make purchasing decisions. The vast quantity of information online has shifted power into the hands of consumers when it comes to how educated they can be before making a purchase.

In no industry is this more apparent than in the automotive sector.

In my own recent experience, I spent many hours researching before making a new car purchase. Not only did I go through traditional sources like magazine and newspaper reviews, I also joined a few Facebook fan pages and online forums. It was from the owner fan pages in social media where I was able to get some very direct pro and con advice from a large pool of owners of the cars I was most interested in. Many owners were also quite open about sharing pricing information and negotiation advice.

Best of all was all the research that I was able to conduct entirely on my own without the influence of the manufacturers.

By the time I got around to test driving a few cars I knew exactly what I wanted and the price I was willing to pay. On top of that I also knew, from all the owner advice I got, what to expect and what to look out for once the test drive began. I was a buyer with a much higher level of education and comfort in the product – that would have been unheard of only a few years ago!

In this new world it’s clear that car manufacturers face a huge challenge when it comes to attracting customers to physically come visit their dealer lots. There is a huge opportunity however in online channels where dealers can leverage owners to provide user testimonies to encourage others like myself to visit the dealers who provided them with a great product surrounded by great experiences. Message to dealers: turn happy customers into active advocates.

This is an organic marketing process that some dealers are beginning to explore with impressive results.

In just 90 days one American dealer who kicked off an advocacy initiative engaged with over 726 customers who visited their website, service department, and sales department. Their effort uncovered 126 advocates that communicated their personal and authentic dealer recommendations to over 16,377 people in just 3 months.

Rather than relying exclusively on traditional advertising channels to attract new customers it’s clear that it can be equally, if not more, effective to use today’s social channels to build a base of new customers by leveraging your best asset…the customers you already have.

I came across a Twitter post recently from one of my most trusted customer experience management resources, Bruce Temkin, which I found to be especially impactful. Bruce was relaying a comment made by Scott Hudgins, VP of Global Customer Managed Relationships at Disney about moments in a customer journey.

“No one owns the guest but someone always owns the moment.”

Scott couldn’t be more correct and the idea of owning the moment is critical to the success of any retailer. Now more than ever, retailers need to understand which moments within their customers’ journeys are those that can create the most delight and opportunity for competitive differentiation. If a retailer is able to correctly identify, own and act upon those moments then chances are good that a great customer experience will be the result. I think we all have had the pleasure of a great shopping experience where everything seems to magically come together and it sticks with us as a benchmark that we compare all others to. Did that experience happen by chance? Of course not and most likely it was the result of a well thought out CEM strategy that began with looking at the multiple points of interaction between consumers and the retailer, or put in a different way the customer journey.

In order to identify the most actionable moments in a shopping experience it’s critical for a retailer to engage in this exercise. It is a process that allows retailers to walk in their customer’s shoes and understand the way points along the journey that may be encountered. In addition to location visits, the journey mapping process should include more in-depth research such as sitting down with groups of front line stakeholders, including store/restaurant/branch owners, managers, and front line staff, to facilitate an understanding of the various “moments of truth” that are encountered by customers in their journey through a transaction with the brand. To do this, it’s important to follow the chronology of a customer experience:

• What is observed through the customers’ eyes (and nose, touch and ears)?
• What emotive senses become involved at each functional stage of the visit, be they pleasure, expectation or impatience?

From the very beginning of the exercise, starting from the outside looking in (the view from a parking lot, the street, or mall) all the way through to what is experienced as a customer leaves, you can deepen your understanding of the important moments in the environment that build (or detract) from a great customer experience. The facility’s visual layout, the product and its positioning, the communication boards (be they aisle signs in grocery and shops, posters in a branch, or menu boards in a restaurant) and the experience touch points with people – all these are examined as potential key moments to own for imposing brand standards and consistency in operations to ensure every visit is a perfect one.

As a retailer, make sure owning the moment is part of your CEM strategy and start with journey mapping. If done correctly you’ll determine the magic moments that need to be built, managed and monitored to ensure a differentiated and compelling shopping experience.

Food services and social media are a natural fit. Going out to a restaurant or bar has always been a social activity, even if it’s a quick lunch with co-workers. And diners have taken to social media enthusiastically, taking pictures of their meals before they dig in, racing to check each other into Facebook places, and competing for the position of Mayor of their favorite restaurants on Foursquare.  Savvy restaurateurs have made social media part of their marketing plans as well, taking advantage of Facebook and Twitter to promote their brands and keep in touch with their customers.

There is a down side to the rapid adoption of social media and mobile technology, of course. It’s just as easy for a dissatisfied customer to broadcast a negative experience to their peers as it is for them to praise you for a positive one. Consumers are dining out less, yet their expectations remain high. A negative post or tweet may persist and remain searchable for some time, influencing the decisions of others who are researching where to dine this evening.

Customer rescue strategies and experience management

Social media platforms are more than merely broadcast channels, of course; they are places where conversations and discussions happen. The same tools that allow consumers to research brands can also help business owners to find out what is being said about them and act on those reviews. A negative “tweet,” for example, is an opportunity to initiate a dialogue and, ideally, a customer rescue – by letting a customer know you are listening, and have a sincere interest in improving their experience.

The next logical step is to develop a proactive, rather than reactive, approach. It’s important to act quickly, and on a personal level, to win back a negative reviewer. But is there a way to close the barn door before the horse escapes? Can a restaurant owner do anything to help ensure that the messages that get posted online are positive, rather than negative? The goal of Customer Experience Management (CEM) is precisely that – to use customer feedback in a measured and strategic fashion to fine-tune business practices and generate increased customer loyalty.

Successfully applied, a CEM program can help you to:

• Capture customer feedback in a timely fashion and identify rescue candidates early in the process
• Analyze and quantify feedback so that it can inform adjustments to your operations
• Improve your customers’ brand experiences to encourage repeat business and advocacy
• Motivate brand advocates to recommend your restaurant to their peers through social media

In a sense, a CEM program takes what the social media-aware business owner does on a one-to-one basis with a single negative Twitter review and applies it at the brand level. Inviting feedback at point of sale can help diffuse and reverse the effects of a negative brand experience, while at the same time providing you with an opportunity to turn negative feedback into constructive criticism – which then can be leveraged to improve the brand experience for all your customers tomorrow.

Learn more about Customer Experience Management solutions for the Food Services industry.

Gather More Feedback by Offering Both Phone & Web Surveys

I was at the drive-thru of a national burger chain last week, craving that juicy super-burger that melts as it slides down my throat and becomes 800 calories of fat that I’ll probably never work off. As I grab my bag of food at the pick-up window, the employee informs me that if I call the number on the back of the receipt and take the survey, I’ll get a free burger next time I visit.

The quickest way to a man’s heart is up his wallet pocket and through his stomach, so the words “free burger” sold me. Plus, I had a bone to pick – they forgot my ketchup and a straw. As I pulled out of the drive-thru, I was already dialing the survey number with my cell. After all, texting is illegal in most states, but hands-free talking isn’t. So I can provide feedback, eat, and drive all at one time!

The easiest and most effective surveying method for the customer is over-the-phone responses to an automated survey. Automated phone surveys allow you to rant and rave to a company without an awkward exchange between you and another person. You can let it fly! Plus, neither your hands nor your eyes are busy while responding to a phone survey. In fact, I JUST took a phone survey while I wrote that last sentence! That’s how simple they are!

Ease of Method Trumps Technology

According to our research at Mindshare Technologies, when customers are given the option to take either a phone survey or an online survey, they choose to use their phone approximately 60% of the time — no matter the size of the company or its industry.

Though web surveys still take almost half the cake, they’re not as hot as everyone expected. When the internet became a regular household appliance nationwide about 10 years ago, customer feedback experts expected it to overtake phone surveying methods.

Web surveys never made phone surveys obsolete because technology doesn’t dictate your customers’ surveying preference; ease of method does. And for most, automated phone surveys are the simplest, quickest, most comfortable feedback method for customers.

Regardless, both web and phone surveys are here to stay. To collect the most surveys, your customer feedback program should offer customers the option to provide feedback via phone, web, text message, kiosk, iPad, social media, or whatever method they choose. After all, the more feedback you collect, the more usable information you receive. And with proper analysis for all that info, you’ll find more specific, actionable insights from your feedback to improve operations and increase revenue.

With customers taking as many or more phone surveys as web surveys, you need an analytics engine that digests both audible and textual comments equally well, combining all comments into one platform along with all of your Voice of Customer data.

We all like positive feedback. It’s natural to feel good when someone gives you a pat on the back.

In business, that feeling is extrapolated ten times. There’s nothing quite like the thrill of a satisfied customer telling you how perfect their experience was and that they want to come back. And for good reason – the more positive feedback you get, the more customers you’ll keep for life, and the more revenue they’ll bring.

But there are, in fact, no businesses anywhere that receive exclusively positive feedback.  Of the six billion people living on earth right now, there are about… six billion different attitudes, tastes and preferences. No one could ever expect to please each one of them.

As much as we all like positive feedback, a negative comment tends to create the opposite reaction. It cuts us personally when a departing guest tells us that they had a bad visit.

How you choose to react to that negative feedback is the key. Do you shrug it off and chalk it up to “just one customer” who won’t come back? Or do you see an opportunity?

People love attention, and they especially love it when a business makes them feel important. With so few businesses actually paying attention to their customers, you can really stand out by treating everyone like a VIP. In turn, they’ll come back over and over again, as well as sing your praises to anyone interested.

Unfortunately, when something goes wrong, most guests are reluctant to have a confrontation, even when they’re in the right. If a hotel concierge is rude, most people will choose to keep quiet about it and simply avoid that hotel (and probably tell their friends, or blog about it). So there is a strong need for anonymity, a place they can air their gripes without confrontation or fear of retribution.

Are you giving your customers a place to freely voice their opinions?

Let’s face it: your guests are going to talk about you, especially the frequent guests. They’ll let their peers know what they experienced, good or bad. Those conversations will have a ripple effect.  Here are two scenarios using a hotel example:

Scenario one: A guest had a bad experience and tells his coworkers. The next time they travel, they look for anywhere to stay but your hotel.

Scenario two: Another customer also had a bad experience, but the hotel staff responded to his feedback, explained the changes that they would be making, and offered to make restitution. The customer feels important and tells his friends, who then seek out your hotel the next time they travel. After similar experiences, they all become lifetime guests, who trust your brand every time they need a place to stay.

If you’re truly committed to customer happiness, you’ll take note of every negative guest comment that comes through, and treat it like a valuable asset. Instead of moping about it, you need to jump on the chance to make things right.

What’s keeping you from listening to your customers? Let Mindshare help!

Is customer service becoming extinct? Have we “hunted” it to extinction? Will an economic downturn be the last straw? Can it recover from the endangered species list? Who or what will make that decision?

All good questions – but maybe not the right questions.

As consumers, rather than spend our time bemoaning the loss of terms like “southern hospitality” or “western warmth,” we should each look in the mirror and question the level of service we are willing to accept. I believe the perceived drop in customer service that many consumers are feeling is a direct result of two simultaneous forces: (1) an increase in the comparable services against which we now judge any service, and (2) a decrease in our willingness to speak up, grab the pulpit, and let the service purveyor know how we feel. Let me address these two forces.

The increase in comparable services

It used to be that, as consumers, we pretty well knew the territory of comparison. We compared the service at our local banks. We knew the three closest pizza parlors and the local hair salons. When we called an airline to make a reservation, our point of comparison was “Airline X” versus “Airline Y.” This has all changed. Our point of reference has expanded.

Now, when we call an airline to make a reservation, we are consciously or subconsciously comparing our phone experience, not only against all other airlines, but we are evaluating that phone call with other phone experiences we have with companies like the Lands’ End catalog department and/or The Home Depot consumer affairs line. When I call my bank, and they ask me for my address three different times, I am no longer judging how my bank measures up against other banks, I am wondering how American Express seems to be able to transfer my personal information between agents, but my bank can’t.

In the age of the worldwide Internet, we are now faced with global service expectations. The acceptable standard is continuously being raised – cross culturally and across industries. What is most interesting to me, is that as our required minimum standard for service has continued to rise, our willingness to complain about poor service appears to have fallen somewhat. Which leads to the second force…

A decrease in our willingness to speak up and give companies our feedback

In a world of loosening values, declining courtesy, and speak-your-mind media, somehow the fear and avoidance of personal conflict remains mostly intact. Generally, all other things being equal, most people are “chicken.” They are conflict avoiders! Most folks would rather stick a fork in their head than tell you bad news to your face, particularly if they don’t know you. We may be willing to criticize a restaurant’s food in private, but when the meal arrives in front of us in poor condition, we often lower our eyes, and say nothing directly to the server or the manager.

Why is this? Could it be a result of the social interaction we’ve lost due to the Internet and computer gaming age? I’m not qualified to say. But it wouldn’t seem far fetched, that in a world where neighborhood kick-the-can and street-corner conversations have been replaced with texting, instant messaging, video gaming, and sterile social websites, that a culture’s comfort level with complaining directly about undercooked food would be diminished. It is one thing for a movie actor to say the words, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” It is quite another task to have the strength to provide that kind of personal feedback directly to a service provider.

The convergence of forces

So, here’s the situation: consumers with higher expectations and a wider definition of what constitutes “comparable service” are losing the courage to speak their mind directly and get things off their chest. But hey, everybody needs an outlet, right? So, where does a consumer go to vent their frustration over poor service? They tell 10 friends. They tell 10 neighbors. Heck, with the Internet and social media, they can tell 10 million strangers! Simple word-of-mouth broadcasting has exploded to become the global “bully pulpit.” Is good customer service extinct? Nah, we’re just hearing about the poor experiences more.

How can superior service companies lessen the drama?

Best practice service companies have quickly come to understand that when they do “drop the ball” with a customer, they can either hear about it directly, or they can read about it on the Internet. Even worse, they will assuredly notice it through declining customer counts. So, wise service companies are making it easy for their guests to provide anonymous, risk-free feedback to them in as many ways as possible, and at every potential touch-point. Through these different channels, companies can capture real-time, actionable information that they can use to immediately improve their operations and, over time, create even more loyal customers.

Mindshare can help

The Mindshare feedback system can lessen the impact of both forces described above, and help you close the gap. Because Mindshare collects over 25 million surveys a year, across multiple industries, our clients immediately see not only how they are performing within their company but also across their competitive set, and even more widely, across the general services landscape. They quickly see how their service compares, so that they can adjust their operations to be not only best in class, but best across all services. Also, by using automated customer feedback surveys, companies are providing their customers the ability to provide honest and direct feedback without experiencing the conflict of a face-to-face confrontation. For these astute companies, superior customer service is not extinct; it is alive, well, and flourishing.