Customer Service & Customer Experience: The Difference You Should Probably Know About

Customer Service? Customer Experience? What are these two terms we talk about all the time?

On the phoneCustomer experience and customer service are two prominently used terms, but many of us don’t really differentiate between them. Probably best explained in this article by Elizabeth Clor, these two terms are not interchangeable, which is how they’ve often been used.

Customer service is just that: it deals with the service elements of the overall sales process: How friendly is the staff? How quickly do they see to a customer? What’s the procedure for processing customer complaints? Are they dealt with quickly?

Customer service involves the direct contact that customer-facing employees have with the customer. What type of contact is it? How good is that contact? How quickly are issues resolved? What options of service do customers have?

Customer experience is the experience that the service provides. What is it like for a customer to contact staff? How easy is it for them to give feedback or use the system? Is the store clean and easy to navigate?

If we were in a restaurant, for example, the customer service would revolve around the quality of service: does the waiter smile and answer questions cordially? How quickly does the food arrive? Whereas the experience can be defined by how pleasant the restaurant is: good atmosphere, good quality of food and beverages, prices appropriate for that quality.

Customer Service Experience

waiter
There’s a word in the Dutch language: gezelligheid. There’s no perfect translation into english, but Wikipedia offers this as an accurate:

“…depending on context, can be translated as convivial, cosy, fun, or nice atmosphere, but can also connote belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness that gives a warm feeling.” [Gezelligheid, Wikipedia]

Why this tangent?

Any other business can make the greatest attempts at good customer service, but without the gezelligheid the customer experience will be severely lacking. Vice versa, you can have the coziest most ‘gezellig’ business in the world, but if the service is awful no one will come back either.

Creative Customer Service

There’s a restaurant in Melbourne that we tried out a few times before giving up. The decor was wonderful, and the food fantastic, the trouble was that the service was terrible. The few times we went, we were always made to feel like we were inconveniencing the staff when we placed orders, they almost never raised their eyes to look at you and they smiled even more rarely.

A year after they’d opened, they were shut and there was a rumor floating around that the owner took the forced shutdown as a surprise, complaining that the neighborhood just didn’t support his efforts to provide great food.

“The food was really good,” my mother-in-law said, “if they’d just been nicer we’d have gone there more often!”

We’ve all experienced in some shape or form: where either the service was so bad that we didn’t go back, or, even though the service was great, the experience left something to be desired. As customers, we have the right to choose what we want; and we want good everything, both service and experience.

Secret Shopper Companies that have that figured out, are virtually unstoppable.

/by

Corporate Social Responsibility: Should we bother?

The quest for corporate social responsibility goes on. In a world where we are now combating more crisis and global issues than ever before, it has become imperative that companies lead the way towards a sustainable future for society and the environment.

Corporate Social Responsibility: what is it?

Corporate social responsibility – CSR for short, or “for pretty” as my aunts would say – is not just about lowering a company’s carbon footprint and saving the world from global warming – though that is certainly part of it! CSR also demands that companies no longer turn a blind eye to the social issues of the world such as poverty, unemployment, healthcare, and education.

The concept behind corporate social responsibility is fairly straightforward: everyone is part of the world, and everyone should be helping build its future. By ignoring issues, social, economical and/or environmental, individuals or companies are making those issues worse. The message is simple: take responsibility, and if you’ve got the power, it’s your responsibility to to help solve the world’s issues.

Also read this article for more information: How To Improve Customer Experience

How does Corporate Social Responsibility impact a company? aka. Why are we so focussed on Millennials?

Studies have shown that companies with a solid reputation as being a socially responsible business are more likely to attract Millennial customers. And believe us when we say you want to attract them; Millennials are today’s consumers and are rapidly becoming today’s leaders, if we don’t take steps to engage them our companies are bound to crumble and fall.

In a previous article, I’ve touched on their importance, but to summarize the ever-important subject, we should know that Millennials are the ‘always connected generation’ which is a nice way of saying that we – because I’m one of them – don’t have the excuse of shutting out the world’s problems thanks to the Internet and our inability to survive without social media.

Defining the Millennial generation is fairly straightforward, and so far the best definition I’ve come across came from LinkedIn’s Alex Rynne in the introduction for her Millennial Playbook:

  • You grew up with the Internet
  • You didn’t see any of the first three Star Wars movies in the theater
  • You were in elementary school (or kindergarten) when grunge was popular
  • You don’t remember leaded gasoline or smoking on airplanes

[…]Odds are you were born between 1980 and 2000.[…] According to Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, we’re lazy, entitled, thin-skinned, and always distracted. We require constant positive feedback. We can’t function without three screens in front of us at all times.

Estimates for the buying power of the Millennial generation sits around $1 Trillion – yes, that’s trillion with a ‘t’. For marketers and salespeople, Millennials don’t buy into the ‘traditional’ tactics we were taught in school. On the contrary, according to many studies – like this one – they’re not swayed by advertising and they’re likely to research a product or survey before they buy it. More than that, they are more likely to trust a brand they know has a solid socially responsible reputation than one they know nothing about.

In other words, we’re not very far off from having only Millennial customers, and those Millennials take CSR very seriously; so seriously, in fact, the 2013 Cone Communications Social Impact Study shows that when companies support social and environmental issues, Millennial consumers respond with 91% increased brand trust, 89% increase in brand loyalty, and an 89% increase in the likelihood to buy companies’ products and services.

Corporate Social Responsibility isn’t just about the PR

Let’s be really honest for a moment: humanity and the planet could use the help. If all companies did what they could, even on a small scale, the world would be a better place.

If we’re extra honest, however, I think we can all look at our feet a little and shuffle around the fact that a lot of us actually don’t really care about the issues, and we’re actually chasing the PR behind corporate social responsibility. Let’s face it, it looks really good when you can say “We fund research to cure cancer!”.

Actually supporting that research is great, but shouldn’t this be about actually finding the cure for cancer rather than just the warm and fuzzy feeling we get from knowing that we’re actually being responsible?

Technically, motives shouldn’t make a difference: after all, as long as the research (for cancer, or to combat global warming, or eliminate starvation in Africa) gets done, should it matter why donate or drive that research? 10% of PR-motivated research funding is still more than 60% of nothing. Should it matter what motivates a company to do the right thing and take responsibility?

Maybe not.

But think about it for a minute. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from popular television drama: the truth always gets out. Perception of the truth is a great thing, but all it takes is a whiff of hypocrisy and the brand is instantly damaged.
Take the Volkswagen carbon emissions scandal for example. They may not have been lying outright about the numbers, but now that The Truth™ – and its many versions – has come out, there’s no denying that their reputation – and their sales! – have taken a hit. How long before they make a full recovery? Can they?

Corporate Social Responsibility + Sustainability = Happy Planet, Happy Society, Unbreakable Company

Which leads directly into the big issues of sustainability.

A sustainable company will outlast all the other companies out there (because it’s self-sustaining! Obviously.). A company with solid CSR policies will naturally develop a better level of sustainability. We’ve established that Millennials will buy from a company with a strong CSR reputation; those same Millennials prefer to work for the same types of companies, and given that they make up the largest percentage of the workforce already, this is not something to sneeze at.

Recruiting, managing and retaining Millennial talent is a subject worthwhile of its own exploration!

To be responsible, or not to be responsible…

We might sit here, behind our desks, twiddling our thumbs about the whole thing. Why bother? If we can’t decide on a cause we actually believe in, should we still chase this down just because of the PR?

My argument would be: yes. Even if your company doesn’t actually believe in a cause, there are plenty of things in the world that need fixing, and every bit help. But I’m a pragmatist and I believe that money’s money, as long as what needs doing is getting done then what’s the problem?

There are plenty of people who would disagree with me, and being a Libra, I understand where they’re coming from.

The point is: human nature dictates that if we truly believe in a cause, then we’re not just tipping our hats, but we’re feeling the need that drives us to support it. That awareness, that motivation, is the essence of what will really change the world.

For a company to be truly responsible on a corporate level, the people behind that company have to be aware of the world’s issues.

And any problem can be fixed as long as people realize it’s a problem first.

/by

What we need to know about Negative Experiences

,

More often than not, we hear about bad customer service experiences. It makes you wonder if the world revolves around negative experiences. Apparently, people are far more likely to share their grievances publicly than they are to share compliments. According to ClickFox’s second annual benchmarking survey, Consumer Tipping Points, only 8% of customers are likely to make public posts or share a positive experience, whereas this percentage doubles in the case of a bad experience.

Think about that for a moment:

One of your customers has a great time, and they don’t tell anyone about it, but a bad time and suddenly their entire world knows about it.

Forget that it’s completely unfair; human nature isn’t about fair, unfortunately.

What do we do about it?

If you’re dealing with a specific negative review, make sure you reach out to that customer straight away. You’ve let them down somehow, best to dive straight in and apologize, perhaps offer them something to express your regret for the bad service they received; while you’re at it, why not ask for their input? If you can figure out what it was exactly that frustrated them, you can better address the problem. Maybe it was something that was said, not done — get the details so you can avoid the same issue in the future!

1. Identify the problem. There’s no point in plunging headlong in trying to solve your issues if you don’t know exactly what they are.

  • What section of your customer-facing department is letting the customer down? Are your customers complaining about something specific?
  • Is your sales team doing something ‘wrong’/not doing something ‘right’?
  • Are you meeting customer expectations in general?

Questions like this need to be answered before you ca begin to isolate the issues and deal with them. This can be tricky if you don’t have checklists in place, and some businesses find they need external help from customer improvement companies or other consultancies.

2. Isolate the problem. Don’t try and tackle everything at once. Which problem is the most pressing? Is it the way your staff greets customers, or is the long waiting periods that are creating negative feedback?

3. Fix the problem. You know what the problem is, you can take steps to make sure it never happens again. Are your customers waiting for half an hour before they’re served? Perhaps you need more staff. Did one of your sales consultants say something that generated the negative feedback? Time to discuss this with that consultant and have a general discussion with the entire team.

The goal here is to learn from the mistakes you’ve made. Don’t think of a customer’s negative review/complaints as a setback, think of it as an opportunity to do better.

/by

The Importance of an Evolving HR Policy

An HR Policy exists to address the needs of people working in a company while also providing a set of rules and guidelines to maintain fair practices throughout the workplace. Think of it like a bill of rights for a company.

The truth of the world is that employers often take their employees for granted. This isn’t done deliberately, it just happens, particularly with bigger companies with a large workforce. It isn’t always easy to keep track of employee engagement and happiness and make sure that everyone’s needs are being met. That’s also not the point.

Years ago, many HR policies were written to support companies, the foundation being ‘you have a job, be grateful’, rather than actually offering strategies to help companies and employees manage their relationship. They used to be a ‘set and forget’ policy, often referred to only when strictly necessary. Luckily, this is no longer the case — or at least, not generally! As the workplace has evolved, company policies have changed as well, particularly HR policies, which impact directly on the element that makes a company function: its people.

Getting honest feedback from those directly affected helps ferret out any real world issues in the HR policy. This is particularly the case if the the policy has been designed in isolation. Questions can come up that weren’t even considered during the creation of the policy.

For example:

  • Are there different interpretations to a rule?
  • Does the policy not reflect the true needs of employees?
  • Has something been completely missed?
  • Is there something in the policy that isn’t necessary at all?

Even policies written after extensive research and polling can benefit from a regular check up by those under its purview. The big picture can get lost if people are focused purely on the details of how a company should run its employees.

Opening a dialogue about an HR policy can open undiscovered doors. It allows employees to engage with a company on a very basic level, providing insight into day-to-day aspects that might not have been considered when the policy was written. Further, it allows for policy makers to get a better understanding of the work-life balance that staff needs. A company that invests in its employees in this fashion also has a better chance of holding onto those employees in the long run, raising talent retention rates. To quote at length from Talent Culture:

“People stay with companies they value. The more an employee is allowed and encouraged to engage in job, team, and company efforts, the more she sees the value. People stay with managers they trust. The more managers and employees engage in continuous communication about expectation, the more trust develops in their relationship. People stay with companies that offer opportunities for personal, even professional growth.” —  5 Links Between Talent Management and Employee Engagement, TalentCulture

Giving employees a chance to discuss the policies that directly affect their lives is a sure fire way to get them engaged with the company, but more than that it provides some key aspects that any HR policy should have:

  1. Clarity — making sure that everyone really understands the policy; its rules, consequences, the purpose, and the rights listed in it.
  2. Work-Life Balancing — ensuring that the policy is actually meeting the needs of both the company and its employees.
  3. Evolution & Adaptation — allowing that the policy reflects changes in the workplace and workforce as those changes come about.
  4. Talent Management — allows management take the overall pulse of employee engagement and thus head off recruitment or retention issues in the long run.

To quote a colleague:

“A company should create a safe and open space for their employees to make mistakes, discuss policies and feel significant within the company in order for the business to strive to its full potential. Treat your employees well and it will echo in service towards your clients.”

Recently, AQ Services had an HR day to discuss the latest HR policies and get a better understanding of whether it was meeting the needs of our people. Questions like “What does human resource excellence mean to you?” and “Describe what you consider key to a healthy work-life balance for yourself” allowed teams to discuss whether they thought the policy was addressing the vital issues that it sought to.

It was more than that, however, this was our first step in the right direction. In 2014, AQ had a complete structural overhaul, and as a result things are now done vastly differently to what they were before. This required a new policy, and because we are who we are, that policy was open for discussion. After some initial confusion and doubt about what it is that we were meant to be discussing, we realised that this was a great opportunity for us to air our opinions about the policy. To quote one of our team:

“It is great to see that employees have a voice over HR policies. This gets us engaged, and is a good way for management to discover what we feel important.”

It wasn’t just the negatives that were discussed, although several pointed concerns were raised, but also the strengths of the policy. Implemented in January 2016, this new policy was based on experiences of the past and addresses some of the issues that came up. As a result, the new policy has made big — positive — changes to its parental leave scheme as well as bringing on board new options such a work-from-home option and other things.

There is a downside to making an HR policy subject to conversation and feedback, of course. It’s always possible that as a result of a dialogue no actual decisions or rules are ever implemented, making it a useless document that hinders more than helps. ‘Too many chefs in the kitchen will ruin the soup’ and all that.

I still maintain, however, that with the correct approach, having a system for feedback on company policies — particularly an HR policy — can be a great thing, especially in this modern day and age where the workplace is a fluctuating thing and we are no longer defined simply by the location we work, or the people we work with.

/by

Mystery Shopping: how it really works.

Mystery shopping is, ironically, a bit of a mystery to many people.

It’s called a variety of things: secret shopping, research shopping, mystery consumer, and several others depending on where abouts in the world you find yourself.

The Short Version

But what is mystery shopping really?

Mystery shopping is a valuable market research a tool where people observe the quality of products and/or services while acting like a regular customer. This information is then collated and analysed to create actionable insights.

Is mystery shopping the right tool for your business?

Mystery shopping can be adapted to most industries that have offer a service or a product. Mystery shopper services are performed all the time for hotels, airlines, restaurants, and retail shops. The only time when it might not be a good approach is for professional services like those of a lawyer or accountant. If you’re a law firm or a doctor you might be able to adapt it to mystery calling to check on the performance of your reception, for example, but obviously that’s as far as you can go. Still, it’s not like it hasn’t been done.

 

The Long Version

And does how mystery shopping really work?

The ‘regular customer’ bit often leads to confusion. Understandably, because there’s a little bit more to it than that.

A mystery shopper is charged with discovering how specific elements of your business work.

Say, for example, that you run a bath and shower soap store. You want to know whether your customers are happy with your staff’s level of service. Of course, you could ask them yourself, but you might not get a realistic response: people are easily influenced by different thing, after all. Instead, let’s say you hire a market research company or a mystery shopping specialist to check into this for you.

You and your new specialist will sit down and discuss the possible options to get to the bottom of what you’re after. For something arguably as straightforward as checking on how your staff is treating customers, a fairly simple scenario can be developed.

The company will select appropriate people and set them up with a visit to your shop. When we say ‘appropriate’ we mean that you and the company can specify the sort of person you need. If, for instance, you only want to know what your middle-aged female customers think of your staff, then you’ll only need women aged between 40-55. Depending on the industry you’re in, or the specificity of the data you’re after, you can narrow it down even further. The goal is to get specific information that will address whatever question you have about your product or service.

So a little bit about terminology before we move on so we’re all on the same page:

Mystery Shop or Mystery Visit: the act during which the research is gathered. Now if we’re going to pick over the semantics, I suppose we could argue that a ‘mystery shop’ is on in which the shopper actually buys something, and a ‘mystery visit’ more closely resembles a simple look around.

Mystery shopper: the individual who conducts the shop/visit.

Shop/Visit Scenario: the steps shoppers must take during their shop/visit.

After having isolated your shopper profile you’ll have to decide on your scenario. Do you want to know how your staff react to a particular customer complaint? Or do you want to make sure your staff is following the correct procedures in closing a sale? The scenario is designed to isolate those specific issues.

Let’s say you want to see how your staff deal with a customer returning an item because they bought it by mistake. You might have a system in place to deal with this, but is your staff following that system? Alternatively, you might just want to see how your people deal with this without any previous training or system.

Either way, your scenario could run something like this:

  1. Shopper browses wares.
  2. Shopper purchases a packet of soaps.
  3. Shopper leaves
  4. Shopper comes back ‘realizing’ they’ve accidentally bought the wrong brand of soap and would like to return the items.

During this scenario, the shopper is assessing the reaction of your front line staff, remembering what they say, how they say it, whether they wore their uniform. All the things you’ve requested the company to analyze.

When the shop is finished, the shopper will fill in the questionnaire.

This questionnaire will be something that you and the company have finalized together after deciding on the scenario. It will run through all the things you’re looking to check.

These finished questionnaires are where the valuable data comes from: they’re checked for quality and consistency and then analyzed. The data that is gathered from this is then presented to you in a report, allowing you to see the answer to your question clearly and quickly.

Obviously this is a general overview of how mystery shopping is conducted; and I haven’t even touched on how mystery shoppers are recruited – that’s something for a completely different entry, and possibly a different department.

/by