Tag Archives: Sean McDade

Top 5 CX Blog Posts in June 2020

Let’s continue where we left off from the last time; appraising the best customer service posts available on the web. In this series, I will share with you my Top 5 CX Blog Posts which include all the best customer service, customer success, and customer experiences stories I can find. I will not be following a particular theme so the focal topic of discussion will be reviews of the revamping of customer experiences online.

Like the previous session of the blog post series, I will provide an abridged edition and analysis of the articles that I uncovered in the previous month, June 2020. The following articles are those which I deemed the best for further exploration. If you want to assess these articles in detail, I will be adding their link and you can go check them out. So, let’s begin!

Which Customer Advocacy Type Suits You the Best?

Forrester conducted research that proved that 92% of the marketers claimed that when they interacted with customers after the sale, this improved marketing’s cachet and displayed marketer’s integrity to the customer. 79% of the customers, who were transformed into the marketer’s exponent showed a boost in upselling, cross-sell and it enhanced the value of the product. 

We must develop a credible relationship with the customers to make them feel valued. Laura emphasized on how beneficial it is for us to engage with customers and reciprocate well. It was fascinating how she also identified the perspective of customers and how they perceive the value granted to them. They may become advocates for the marketers but in their specific way.

In her blog post, Laura Ramos classifies the four different types of customer advocates and attributes them based on what they value:

  • Educators: These are the type of customers that tell about their personal experiences and share the best practices that they believe markets should adopt. Marketers usually tend to exploit this trait as they can extract some useful tips from and then turn them into an audience-appealing educational content.
  • Validators:  These customers are engaging, and they provide helpful input in terms of suggestions and feedbacks. They enjoy being included in your customer advisory group and would even publish reviews applauding your work.
  • Status Seekers: This group tends to be aspiring and determined to brand the companies. They thrive under the limelight provide by marketers.
  • Collaborators: This is a popular type. This type looks at those rare opportunities around them and takes joy in experimenting and unraveling new ideas. They might be inclined to invest their resources, but it is not recommended to attain their feedback on your future ventures.

You must define the customer’s advocacy that will optimize your marketing strategy and then you shall determine which type is best suited for you. The more interesting advice from Forrester’s study was “deliver value first and trust that customer references, referrals and other benefits will follow”. Make this your motto and you will succeed undoubtedly.

Is your Business Practice Ideal in the Time of Coronavirus?

Shervin Talieh’s blog post was so emotionally appealing and it highlighted the lack of empathy prevailing in these difficult times. He made compelling points through his post on this amazing site, Help Scout, and convinced people how we need to alter our motives from monetary gains to benefitting humanity. He even added these cogent examples that were desensitized acts of companies that made a solid case for his topic.

As customers, we may often feel that the ‘helpful’ customer service is condescending and offensive and this would be infuriating. For those incorporated in CX, the customer service usually appears to be an obvious aspect. So, as a customer, I can profoundly relate to all of the parts of the post.

For example, Ticketmaster’s response to Covid-19 was so disturbing and inhuman. How they refused to refund the tickets people spent hefty amounts on and revert this decision only after massive scrutiny. He emphasized frequently the significance of prioritizing small acts of humanity in this time of global pandemic and even illustrated many ways that people could easily follow.

I liked how Shervin connected with the human side of individuals through his post and educated us about how we can salvage our business by being honest with customers and sharing the state of business with them. Also, we should make our customers feel valued, appreciated, heard, and respected. Along with these, he shared some of his wonderful insights that will help you to maintain a healthy relationship with the customer.

I completely agree with Shervin and his understanding of acquired business practices in these tough times. He advised all of us to re-examine our KPIs and the metrics we value along with much other rightful guidance to be followed.

Tough Times for Tough Measures!

 spoke the heart out of customers when he said, “Nothing else will matter to your customers if their basic need to feel safe is not fulfilled by the experience you are delivering”. He is correct! In this global crisis, we can only gain the trust of customers if we make them feel safe and protected. So, in this post on People Metrics, Sean condensed his knowledge into five effective recommendations will you to re-establish your VoC program.

You have to make sure that you prioritize customer’s safety and you show them that you have taken all the essential precautions. Before everything, YOU MUST mention the safety question. Ask the customer if they felt safe during this visit and this will show your utmost concern. It was a brilliant suggestion to add an open-ended question after it. I mean the customer would fall in love with how much concerned you are for their safety and well-being. If someone replies that they did not feel safe, you must confide in them and ask how you could have improved. Investigate the root cause; this will be gold. Customers will see how devoted you are to make everything safe.

For any customer experience expert or VoC professional out there, make it your utmost priority to respond to the feedback and act on it. Credit the customers’ remarks as a holy mantra that you shall abide by as these tough times call for tough measures too!

Employees are the new priority!

I agree with Anette that no one was prepared for the imposed adversities of Covid-19 and it has been challenging for the employees to adjust with the temporarily altered work laws. As a worker, imagine no 100% motivation or encouragement for you as you won’t be physically present in the workplace.

This set of ways that Anette drafted and publicized through her blog post on CX Journey helps us to engage the workforce from home and create a virtual work environment that is closely related to the actual setting.

  • Maintain the organization’s culture and operate with correspondence to core values
  • Effective communication to share updates and keep the employees’ morale high
  • Providing feedback to improve the productivity of workers
  • Correct allocation of tools and resources
  • Rightful autonomy and empowerment as you have to trust the employees; you cannot monitor all their actions

Do not be discouraged by the setbacks as it is a difficult time for everyone so not all things will go according to your plan. I know up until now we have focused greatly on how important it is to establish a healthy relationship with the customer but think how can you create an effective relationship if your own company is broken? So, make sure your employees are satisfied and you have a good connection with them. Anette’s long-term customer experiences make her words credible and influential.

The Digital Takeover in Covid-19

Covid-19 crisis has taken a massive hit on the retail market and companies have suffered significant losses due to it. Jonathan Wharrad, through his blog post on Essential Retail, shared his insights about the incorporation of digital facilities in the businesses. He explained how companies all over are recovering by revamping their business models and adapting to modern techniques.

As you know in these challenging times, customers require assurance that all health and safety regulations are being followed. So, the companies are utilizing devices like cameras to monitor crowds and robots to kill the germs on food packaging and other surfaces. I mean how cool is that!

The popularity that contactless has garnered is amazing and its use is so beneficial for people. The most important constant through all of this hassle has been a connection with customers. Customers are prudent that the brands will engage with them and maintain their utility by developing a digital relationship with them and keeping track of their needs and suggestions.

Interestingly, this will redefine personalized marketing on a greater scale. But Jonathan has rightfully predicted that our reliance on technology will grow and he has warned the retailers to boost digital marketing so that brands can keep up will the shopping patterns of the customers and not lose them!

Conclusion

So, this is a wrap for my favorite Customer Experience and Customer Services blog posts for June 2020. To be honest, these articles were quite fascinating, and it is amazing how all companies are dealing with this massive global crisis for the first time and still managing to win customers’ hearts and validations. Comment below and share your thoughts and reviews. Also, if want to share your post with our audience then feel free to share the link in the comments and we will feature it in the next session! We will be back with the next batch of articles soon!