• Making Customer Interactions Efficient, Consistent Through Process

    At RiverStar, we believe that every customer interaction is fundamentally a process with a very specific objective. Objectives may stem from customer requests — such as billing inquiries or troubleshooting — or company outreach — such as customer satisfaction surveys or upselling. By creating processes around these tasks, you are ensuring consistency and efficiency in your customer service operations, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.

    A process is nothing more than a sequence of logical steps that help you achieve an objective. It can be very simple or very complex, but regardless it should follow a structure, taking the customer from introduction to resolution. As the customer service provider, it’s up to you to make sure the results match the objectives as closely as possible.

    For example, Blue Casa Communications needed a more efficient process for addressing customer issues. While the information that agents needed was readily available, the multiple systems could be cumbersome to navigate. Blue Casa sought a process-based tool to ensure consistent customer treatment, triggered by rule-driven dialogs that guide agents through addressing customer needs. RiverStar worked with Blue Casa to develop a solution that helped the telecommunications company increase first-call resolution by 25 percent. By creating a process with consistent steps and an integrated system, Blue Casa was able to resolve more of its customers’ issues quickly and easily on the first try.

    RiverStar solutions make it easy for you to implement processes for your customer interactions that can evolve over time. We can help you integrate your systems so that they deliver the information your agents need when they need it. We can implement logic and rules that eliminate the need for agents to ask customers for background information on every call. As you gain a better understanding of how the process is impacting your customer service and identify new opportunities for efficiency, you’ll have the ability to enhance and customize the solution even more.

    Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you add consistency and efficiency into your customer interactions using a process-based approach.

    October 25, 2013 Blog Comments Off on Making Customer Interactions Efficient, Consistent Through Process

    Deal Signed with Thomas L. Cardena & Associates

    RiverStar signed a deal with Thomas L. Cardena & Associates (TLCA), a 400 seat Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

    TLCA needs to be able to support new campaigns launched by their clients quickly and effectively. Like many BPO providers, TLCA needs to launch new campaignsquickly and must minimize the amount of agent training required to support new clients and campaigns.

    Another key requirement for TLCA was to be self-sufficient with respect to how they engage and support their clients. TLCA relies ontheir employeesfor all development activities associated with creating solutionsthat serve as the foundation to their core business. They sought a solution that would allow them to add clients quickly and create campaigns without the need for highly-skilled programmers or other external resources.

    Finally, they needed a solution that provided improved visibility into business performance. Specifically, metrics and other details associated with individual calls, theentirecampaign, campaigns for specific clients and campaigns for all clients. This improved visibility is now being provided by the RiverStar Reporting Engine framework.

    RiverStar Studio is a rapid development platform used to create customweb applications. It contains a graphical user interface that does not require traditional programming skills. For TLCA, the RiverStar Agent Desktop framework, built using RiverStar Studio, provides a unified agent desktop for these key business activities, such as telephony, chat and inbound email.

    RiverStar supported these key business activities through:

    • Studio allowsTLCA rapidly create custom work flows needed to support clients and client campaigns
    • Embedded inContact call control in the desktop for telephony, chat and work items,
    • Process based workflows within the desktop,
    • Searchable, data-driven reference information, e.g., FAQs, Reference Documents, Reference Links, and
    • Rapid integration with enterprise systems embedded in the workflows

    In less than four months, the TLCA team used RiverStar Studio and the RiverStar Agent Desktop framework to introducea new contact center solution that resulted in these key business objectives:

    • Replaced anoutdated premise-based platform
    • Introduced a unified agent desktop
    • Enabled tight integration with inContact call center software
    • Provided the capability tocreate process-based workflowsin support of TLCA clients
    • Improved visibility to key metrics for all campaigns through improved reporting

    “Virtually allBPOs, and many other kinds of organizations, require a scripting or workflow solution to address core business needs. I have yet to see a solution that offers the richness, capabilities and ease of use that RiverStar Studio offers”, says Brian Theusch, Senior Director Information Technology, TLCA.

    October 20, 2013 News Comments Off on Deal Signed with Thomas L. Cardena & Associates

    Are Returns Bringing Down your Holiday Season?

    At RiverStar, we keep a keen eye on return patterns and how companies deal with these returns. Last year, we conducted a Return Management Study and were able to gather a great deal of data around company processes, customer behaviors and customer service activities related to online return management. The conclusion wasn’t pretty: most companies are still in the dark ages when it comes to handling online returns, with manual processes still prevailing. AND, it’s only going to get more complicated.

    Cyber Monday has taken hold and the trend of online purchasing is quickly on the rise. Just released 2010 Cyber Monday sales data shows that revenues have topped $1 Billion for the first time. This increase provides further evidence that consumers are more comfortable shopping online and trusting in the cyber experience and security. However, with multi-channel shopping, comes multi-channel returns. Web self service return management processes will need to be optimized in order to handle the return volume. The good news is that the RiverStar Return Management Study revealed that 2/3rds of the companies surveyed determined that Return Management is a key part of their customer service strategy; concluding that companies are realizing that this process is very important to future success. Not only are these processes key to customer service excellence, they can significantly effect product profitability if the company is not efficient in their workflow and is also absorbing the costs of return shipments.
    Fraud is an additional aspect to consider when it comes to the holiday return season. Fraud is always on the rise and will be again this year, creating an estimated $3.7 Billion in losses for retailers this season. Weighing the scales of customer service and fraud detection is a tricky balancing act. Pull the wrong lever and lose a customer for life.
    Finally, the impact of the return experience greatly affects consumer loyalty. The reference to Zappos is always in play when talk of loyalty appears. The Zappos return policy is so wide open, that the low risk purchase decisions give consumers a reason to premeditate future purchases. It has been clearly cited that great customer service practices can lead to marketing and branding opportunities for organizations. Return management is a huge part of the customer service experience.

    This year, the return window continues to widen, providing consumers an additional length of time to return products. Shopping for the holidays seems to start earlier and earlier, requiring many retailers to extend the return timeframe until January 31. Extending these timeframes requires companies to staff up and be on the ball with their return management practices in order to maintain top levels of customer service and seamless experiences across all channels. It will be interesting to see the satisfaction results for 2010 since the drop in return experience from 2008 to 2009 was so drastic. With customer service becoming a cornerstone competitive advantage, companies must find a way to turn their return processes into consistent and repeatable outstanding customer experiences.

    December 13, 2012 Blog Comments Off on Are Returns Bringing Down your Holiday Season?

    Does Black Friday and Door Buster Deals Influence Customer Loyalty?

    Black Friday is quickly becoming a national pastime; a shopping holiday tradition. In fact, over the past few years, Black Friday has become a major retail earnings indicator for the shopping season around the Holiday Season. In summing up the revenue share of the Black Friday weekend, Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at NPD Research Group, states that 25% of the total holiday spend will occur over the Black Friday weekend. But, the real question is whether the Black Friday activity is an indicator of sustainable shopping habits associated with particular brands. In the end, the retailers prefer loyalty and repeat business throughout the year, spending money on more profitable items.

    The “Black Friday” phrase originated in 1966 in Philadelphia, but was really coined as a mainstream term associated with the Christmas Holiday season in 2003 after it achieved the #1 ranking of the busiest shopping day of the year. More recently, the clear objective around black Friday is to start the day off by attracting customers with door buster deals at 5am (or earlier) in hopes of each person walking out of the store with more than just loss-leading products.

    Is there a loyalty factor amongst those that are lining up to barge through the doors at 5am in order to race their way to the best deals? I say maybe, but likely not. In order to understand whether a retailer is really capturing the long term earnings of these individuals, we need to make a few assumptions:

    1. It is likely that any individual waking up at 2, 3 or 4am to get in a line (sometimes in the bitter cold) in order to score deep discounts on products that are limited (sometimes only 2-3 per store), is clearly acting on the motivation of pure savings and nothing else. If savings weren’t the motivating factor, shopping during normal business hours would occur.
    2. It is physically impossible to be in more than one place at a time. People have decisions to make and those that are braving the crowds at 5am are choosing one destination over another driven primarily by total net savings. Highest priority location is based on the best deal, not necessarily the loyalty of the consumer to the retailer.
    3. Door buster patrons face the risk of being trampled and are doing so for the sake of getting a great discount on a particular item(s). Taking such a risk is usually not displayed by a person that is shopping purely for the sake of being loyal to a retail establishment.

    On the flipside, there is an argument that supports consumer behavior and activity related to Black Friday shopping. Many brand loyal customers will in fact make their shopping rounds to preferred locations during the course of Black Friday. It is not clear to me that this same loyalty motivates the brand loyal consumers toward the door buster savings activity

    Brand loyalty psychology is a vastly studied topic with numerous experts stating studies and research that support the reasons for brand loyalty. Bill Nissim, a brand management expert, cites research from Bloomer and Kasper that outlines the distinction between repeat purchases and brand loyalty. The clear distinction is based off of pre-meditated behavior prior to the action, which determines a loyal patron, versus a consumer that has repeat brand purchases. Of course, we aren’t certain without conducting the right studies, as to whether or not the door buster consumer experience is in fact one that will sustain premeditated future purchases relating to the brand in question.

    The consumer behavior black box model outlines buying patterns and breaks down the buying equation. However, I would jump out on a limb by stating that the key environmental factor in door buster deals is purely price motivation. Of course, with some consumers, it’s the thrill of the chase and the experience of the season.

    So, the original question “Do Black Friday and Door Buster Deals Influence Customer Loyalty?” still needs answering. In reviewing many of the consumer loyalty equations and models, there are very few pieces of evidence that support the activity in creating such an experience to obtain future brand loyalty. Taking the motivational factors of the consumer and placing them against the retailer promotions, I can’t see the mapping between the two activities. In fact, looking at the typical ratio of employees:consumers at any given door buster event, the consumer far outweighs the employee. One basic definition states that customer loyalty is achieved through satisfying, acknowledging, rewarding and following up with the customer. I find it hard to believe that any establishment can effectively and predictably map the long term benefit of customer loyalty to Black Friday. Of course, I’m willing to hear all arguments…

    November 30, 2012 Blog Comments Off on Does Black Friday and Door Buster Deals Influence Customer Loyalty?

    Top 5 Reasons Customers Dread the Contact Center

    Halloween is officially in season. We went to Target the other day to buy a beach umbrella and they told us that they took out the summer seasonal “stuff” to stack the shelves with Halloween gear and goodies… I thought summer ended on September 21st, oh well. It’s also hard to miss the slew of horror movie trailers plastered all over the television, among them are “Saw 3D”, “Paranormal Activity 2”, and “Let Me In”. I’m not a huge horror flick fan, but I am a huge fan of customer horror stories (try Googling “customer horror stories” for some entertainment).

    Many of your customers are afraid of calling customer service lines for fear of what might happen or what might NOT happen. The telephone channel is still the most used contact channel by customers, 69% according to Forrester’s North American Technographics Customer Experience Online Survey, Q4 2009. However, in that same study, it showed that 72% of US online consumers prefer to use a company’s web site to get answers to their questions rather than contact companies via telephone or email. We have a mystery to solve here, phone is the most used, but at the same time they prefer not to call the contact center. Is it because customers are growing tired of nightmarish contact center experiences? Let’s look at the villains.

    1. There is No Web Self Service Option. Forrester reports that 36 percent of online US customers crave (strongly prefer) self-reliance for service. This number jumps up to 46 percent for 18- to 29-year-olds. When there is no self service option, it forces customers to call you (and probably at a significantly higher cost to your business). Customers in the social age are looking for simple, fast resolutions to their problems. By not providing a self service option for your customers, you could be frightening web savvy consumers by requiring them to dial you for basic service requests.
    2. Customers Are Required to Navigate an IVR System. Often termed “IVR Hell” for semi-appropriate reasons. Gartner summed up in their 2010 “Key Issues for Customer Experience Management” Report that IVR implementations are usually poorly executed and ultimately lead to worse customer experiences rather than improved ones. The technology is not the primary culprit here; it’s the design and implementation. Companies that can’t mirror the customer processes with the customers’ needs through their IVR systems are setting the stage for a bloody customer encounter.
    3. Agents Can’t Solve Problems (fast enough). Let’s be clear that the number one goal is to actually solve the customer problem, secondary to that is how quickly and efficiently the agent can solve it. How many open windows and applications reside on the agent desktop for a customer interaction? According to Ventana Research, 44 percent of contact center agents need to access three or more applications to resolve a customer interaction, and 70 percent say they waste time switching between applications. A messy agent desktop is a recipe for delivering frightful customer experiences. From our experience, “Alt+Tabing” can add between 1 and 2 minutes to a typical customer call. This is an unnecessary evil that’s slowing your agents down and costing your customers time. Companies who can deliver a customer process driven workflow (based on what’s happening on the call) over a unified agent desktop with application data residing on one interface will eliminate unnecessarily lengthy calls.
    4. Customers Are Required to Repeat Information. Your customer has successfully or unsuccessfully navigated the IVR system, and now they are being asked to state the same information they provided to the IVR robot. Maybe the customer emailed the company already, and was following up only to find that the agent doesn’t have access to support emails. Perhaps the customer was routed to another agent who asks the customer to restate everything once again because they are on two different systems. Why all the “suspense” in trying to resolve a customer issue? Even in 2010, the reality is that only 15% of companies have multiple interaction channels synchronized according to Gartner. Leverage business process management and integration tools to deliver customer insights from any channel and/or application to the agent’s desktop. Many times this information can be embedded directly into the workflow/script that the agent is following. Rather than ask them to repeat, ask customers to confirm an email address or a phone number.
    5. U.S. Consumers Are Most Satisfied by U.S. Based Agents. In a recent blog post, we analyze this impasse between the largest consumer base (American consumption accounts for 70% of US GDP) in the world and the foreign agents who serve them. Additionally, a recent CFI Group report indicates that 79% of customers are satisfied by U.S. based agents versus a 58% satisfaction level from foreign based agents. We compared these results with the responses from various LinkedIn groups. We were able to determine that for reasons right or wrong, U.S. consumers are not be “scared” of foreign based agents, but have more satisfying experiences with American agents.

    Let’s save the terror for the big screen, not the customer experience. Through a combination of leadership, strategy, process, and technology, you can make customers happy and fearless when they contact you. Once you achieve this, you will see your customer loyalty and advocacy grow.

    September 14, 2012 Blog Comments Off on Top 5 Reasons Customers Dread the Contact Center

    The Verdict is Out: Americans Prefer American Call Center Agents

    My first article on this topic seemed to bring about a good number of discussions in various LinkedIn groups. So, I aggregated all of the comments across multiple LinkedIn group discussions, our web site and a few other sites where we post. There were 41 total responses and here’s what I found:

    Of the people that made comment, it was clear that the overwhelming majority determined that Americans prefer to speak to American Call Center Agents. Nearly 64% felt this way, while 27% disagreed. While these results would not be considered conclusive evidence obtained from a wide spread study utilizing responses across various genders, age groups and nationalities, it is still a viable indication of opinion from people in our space. Ironically, the numbers seem to be in line with a recent (hot off the press) study conducted by CFI Group just a few days ago, citing the move of call center agents back to the United States for the second year running. In fact, CFI Group outlined that “The biggest argument for repatriating a call center is the almost unprecedented level of dissatisfaction associated with offshore agents. The study finds that call center satisfaction is only 58 out of 100 when the call is handled by an offshore agent, compared to 79 for U.S.-based agents.”  The Sample size from CFI Group is much larger, but the results are obviously in sync.
    Additionally, I broke down the responses by source and found some interesting data. I’m not certain that any conclusions can be made from it, but found it to be interesting that certain LinkedIn groups swayed in different directions. Here’s what I found:
    • The Customer Experience Management group comments clearly sided on there being a preference toward Americans: 67%,
    • In the Customer Service Professionals group, the split was 50/50,
    • And finally, in the Worldwide Contact Center Professionals group, 75% disagreed that American’s prefer American agents.
    In each of these cases, the response rate was at least 8 respondents. Again, not a large sample size by any means, but interesting data nonetheless.
    The second half of my analysis covers feedback from the population of responses. In addition to claiming yes or no on the preference, there were opinions as to why this is the case or what can be done to offer a better overall experience to the customer. It was apparent in all of the discussion threads that the following list of items would increase the probability of offshore agent acceptance:
    1. Better overall employment screening.
    2. More training to the agent on products, processes, language and culture.
    3. Hiring individuals without an accent, or at least one that matches the locality of the customer.
    Point #2 hits squarely to the findings by CFI Group which states that “U.S. agents are 34% more likely to resolve the problem on the first call than those handled offshore.”

    So, in conclusion, I’m not alone in my past experiences and opinion of the matter. I do want to make it clear that an outstanding customer experience can be achieved regardless of where the agent is located or what language they speak. However, it is a growing debate that is gaining press in all forms (fall TV series), attention by the masses, and a move back to the U.S. by major organizations looking to increase their overall customer experience.

    August 29, 2012 Blog Comments Off on The Verdict is Out: Americans Prefer American Call Center Agents

    6 Pieces of Research Every Customer Service Pro Should Know

    Looking to make your point in a presentation about customer service? Trying to sell the case to the boss about why he or she should really care about the customer experience? Considering a foray into social customer service? How about some facts and figures about Social CRM? Stats make a good argument, and help give you instant credibility. On top of that, they are interesting and fun to read. Here are a few that you may find valuable whether you are making the case to the executive team or simply writing a blog post.

    1. Good customer service = Bottom line results.

    • Stat(s): A majority (61%) of Americans report that quality customer service is more important to them in today’s economic environment and will spend an average of 9% more when they believe a company provides excellent service.
    • Source: American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, August 2010

    2. Poor customer service = Lost customers.

    • Stat(s): 17% will leave you after a single service mess up; 40% will leave you after two blunders and 28% will leave after the third mistake. That adds up to an overwhelming 85% of your business that could potentially be lost due to poor customer service.
    • Source: BIG Research, Jun 2010

    3. Declining consumer use of telephone as a support channel = increasing use of self service as a support channel.

    • Stat: 45% of consumers prefer to communicate with customer service over NON-telephone channels (i.e. web self service, social media, email, etc).
    • Source: Ovum, Genesys “Global Cross Channel Survey”, March 2010
    • Stat(s): 36% of online US customers crave self-reliance for service. That preference is even stronger among younger customers: 46% of 18- to 29-year-olds and 42% of 30- to 42-year-olds prefer to be self-reliant. Only 28% of respondents prefer to resolve a service issue by speaking to someone on the phone.
    • Source: Forrester Research
    4. Multi Channel Customer Interactions = Need for integration and process centric technology platforms
    • Stat: 85% of the contact centers observed by Gartner indicated that the multiple interaction channels are not synchronized.
    • Source: Gartner, February 2010

    5. Delivering integrated and actionable Insights to a Unified Agent Desktop = Reduced Agent Training Time.

    • Stat: The technology behind interaction guidance involves systems that extract data regarding the customer and the products owned by the customer, and suggest the best flow for the dialogue. Automating the assembly of actionable information on the Agent Desktop can result in agent training time dropping 25% to 40%.
    • Source: Gartner, February 2010
    6. Social Media Monitoring and Engagement = Mainstream consumer and enterprise adoption by 2014.
    • Stats: By the end of 2014, 45% of contact centers will have integrated some type of social media support – monitoring social networking sites for mentions of a company/product, responding to blog or Twitter posts with an invitation to participate in a survey, incorporating tweets as a means of communicating directly with the contact center (currently, between 6.5% of contact centers have a Social CRM Strategy in place).
    • Source: DMG Consulting, July 2010
    • Stat: 79% of the Fortune 100 are already present and listening (over social media platforms), using at least of one of the main social platforms to communicate with their customers.
    • Source: Burson-Marsteller Evidence-Based Communications Group

    These are just a few pieces of research that can help guide your customer initiatives. Making note of them may help you stay away from becoming a bad customer service viral phenomenon.

    August 23, 2012 Blog Comments Off on 6 Pieces of Research Every Customer Service Pro Should Know

    Do Americans Prefer American Call Center Agents?

    Yes, a touchy subject. I’ve seen some write ups on this topic, but always wondered about the PC factor and the risk of going live with such opinions. However, since we are in the business of creating outstanding customer experiences, I think this topic is one worth exploring further.

    Last evening, I called Capital One because I misplaced my credit card and was in a panic, wondering who has it and how many charges they tallied up on my behalf. With the rampant surge of identity theft, I didn’t want to take any chances. So, I dialed up the 800 number on my statement and after going through the prompts, I landed a live agent. At the point of hitting the last number on my phone’s dial pad, knowing I would be talking to someone live, a wave of anxiety passed over me. Wow, anxious about who I was about to interact with?!?!? What’s wrong with me?

    After assessing the experience once the call was over, I realized that this wave of anxiety was tied directly to my fear of having to talk to someone in another country. In a mere second, my subconscious had me thinking: will this person be able to handle my issue? will I have to explain myself twice? will I be put on hold again to talk a level 2 support person? will I get frustrated in this call? will I, will I, will I??? Wow, all this in split-second time? Is it me? Am I a freak?

    As my blood pressure jumped and my heart started racing all in that tiny window of time, it was diffused back to it’s normal biological state just as quickly. Yes, (what appeared to be a localized agent with a southern accent) picked up the line and said “Thank you for calling Capital One, how can I help you?” PHEW! A huge sense of relief passed over me and I felt that whatever issues I had would immediately get resolved. In fact, they did. My card was canceled, a new card was issued and I would have it in 5 business days.

    I thought about why this anxiety fell over me in this particular situation. I can likely contribute it to one of a few experiences I’ve had recently; namely with Intuit. About 6 months ago, I called Intuit and ended up being on the line with someone half way around the world (not that there is anything wrong with that…). Outside of the poor line quality, the communication barrier, lying to me about his real name (I’m pretty sure his name wasn’t Chuck) and his inability to answer my questions in a reasonable time frame (was searching the same knowledge base that I had already searched), the call was great! Right. What a horrible experience.

    So, do I associate the poor experience with the location of the agent, or the solution that they are using? Well, I’ve had multiple experiences like the one with Intuit and I think there is a conclusion to this trend. I’m sure that as the world becomes smaller and the English language continues to be a viable second language in other parts of the world, most of my anxiety will dissipate. Although, the cultural differences are a completely separate topic to be saved for another posting.

    I still have a way to go to rid myself of offshoreagentphobia. Maybe one day, I can be free of the fears that control me in those times of my customer experience needs. Oh by the way, I found my credit card in the side pocket of my racquetball bag. Too late though; another is already on its way.

    (There is great hope for the offshore contact center. Stay tuned for a follow up to this posting with a few suggestions.)

    July 20, 2012 Blog Comments Off on Do Americans Prefer American Call Center Agents?

    I’m a Contact Center, Not a Cost Center!

    Is it really possible to delineate between a pure cost center and a pure profit center at the contact center level?  For example, if I’m a contact center that is solely assisting customer problems with my product, it’s likely to show up on the balance sheet as an expense.  But what if that customer-to-agent interaction consistently delivers exceptional customer experiences?  That won’t show up on the balance sheet either, but it may eventually as future sales because those customers who have received stellar experiences from the contact center will remain a loyal customer and an advocate of your brand.  The data from analysts and consultants reinforces this line of thinking, have a look at Jon Picoult’s article on customer experience return and Bruce Temkin’s post regarding the correlation between customer experience practitioners and stock return.

    A rather mature trend in the contact center world is to have up sell and cross sell offers worked in to the customer interaction work flow. This is an obvious option to generating more revenue and a great opportunity for consumers to derive more value from your products or services over the course of the customer journey, thus enhancing their experience.  Revenue generation doesn’t end with programs for up sell and cross selling in the contact center.   Revenue generation in the contact center begins and ends with the customer centric strategy and tools you employ to support these initiatives. When all’s said and done, enhancing the experience creates more loyalty to your organization, which results increasing the life time value of that customer. The simplistic way of viewing this is to say “customers will buy more products and services from your business when you deliver better experiences than that of your competitors”.

    You may refer to your contact center as a cost center or profit center, but I encourage you to look at the contact center as the delivery mechanism for outstanding experiences which keep customers coming back.  Let the accountants and finance pros identify cost efficiencies and profit opportunities in the product or service.   The caveat is that no cost cutting should come at the expense of the customer. The tricky part is finding the mix of strategy, processes, technology, and people that create operational efficiencies that keep costs managed and the customer experience in an ideal state. In pulling it all together, start treating your contact center as a contact center, not a cost center.

    April 6, 2012 Blog Comments Off on I’m a Contact Center, Not a Cost Center!

    Humility Is a Great Customer Service Strategy

    How many times have you had to listen to explanation upon explanation as to why you received a poor customer experience?  My guess is more times than you have heard, “Sorry, we made a mistake”.  Until companies are run by robots, there will always be mistakes.  Simple mistakes can be costly to a business, but mistakes that cost you a customer can be a permanent loss of future revenue, let alone the damage to your reputation should the customer create a YouTube video or publish a tweet to their 20,000 followers.

    Social media has only enhanced the need for humility.   For example, look at the humility shown by Domino’s Pizza in their new ad campaign that uses traditional media, YouTube, and Twitter to win back customers. They have the CEO admitting that their pizza was not good, with screenshots of tweets that claim “Domino’s pizza tastes like cardboard”.  I have no empirical data as to the results of this “humility” campaign, but I can say that I have ordered a Domino’s pizza because of it. Let’s be honest, being from Chicago, Domino’s can’t compare to Lou Malnati’s and Gino’s East, but for $5.99 you’ll be happy with it.

    It would be interesting to see how Domino’s is leveraging technology to improve the customer experience and the role it played in admitting to their faults. Unfortunately we cannot program a “humility” module into our software. However, an effective customer experience platform can help you identify the customers that need to hear “sorry”.  With that first step, you have a great customer service strategy.

    January 21, 2012 Blog Comments Off on Humility Is a Great Customer Service Strategy
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