March 28, 2024

CX Master

Service Matters – Learn What Works!

Top Seven Great CX Blogs from May to July ‘18

In this post, we will be talking about some of the best CX blog posts written between May and July.

1.   The Importance of Customer Service

We’re going to start off by talking about serious topics before moving on to more entertaining one. Therefore, the first post we’ll be sharing is called Why Customer Success is the Future of Customer Service by author Michael Pace. 

In this post, the author tells us about how customer service is very important to companies how businesses should focus on this in order to come out on top and succeed. But that’s not all that he talked about. Pace gives us real, hard numbers to back his statements. He analyses the importance of churn and how it can help you with your next conversation both as a customer service representative to your next customer as well as the senior management.

We particularly liked this post as it does not simply state things but also backs them with statistics as well as showing how successful businesses like Microsoft and Amazon have used such method to their advantage to generate greater revenues. One particular piece of information that we would like to point out is the chart he made showing the critical customer success period that can render a purchase. This, he states, is only possible if customer service is able to convince the customer to, well, actually buy the product by overcoming any problems they’ve been trying to resolve.

2.   Dealing With Difficult Patients

Continuing our trend with customer service blog posts, next we will be discussing the question that a lot of customer service professionals would love to have an answer to how to deal with difficult customers. It is probably one of the worst experiences that anyone can have for a difficult customer not only makes their own life miserable but also the representatives. It can be particularly difficult to maintain control when the customer is yelling at you and not letting you help them.

However, in her piece on difficult customers, Elizabeth Wellington not only describes the situation we all know about but also talks about how customer service agents can get a hang of the situation and, well, turn it all around in their favor. This usually comes in various stages, but the first stage obviously is to control yourself and then do as Wellington suggestions. Primarily, her suggestions include the following stages:

1.    Preparation
2.    Recognizing the opportunity in failure
3.    Changing channels
4.    Adapting your approach to the customer’s personality
5.    A balance between empathy and boundaries
6.    Sincerely apologize
7.    Don’t lie to customers

Of course, she’s explained it all in great detail. You can read her post here.

3.   One for the Team
Like the previous post, this post by Steve DiGoia also focuses on customers that are upset and frustrated and how best one can deal with it. Like Wellington in the previous post, he talks about how customer service employees can use his acronym and can, therefore, remember the way to deal with the problem of difficult customers. 

What we really liked about this post was that it was very informative. The topics he talked about were very clear and the method he used is actually pretty simple and understandable. In fact, if you were to implement this method on your customer service team then we’re pretty sure that you wouldn’t have any problem with dealing with upset customers.

4.    Traits Successful Companies Share

Michael Pace makes it on our list once more with another fantastic post on his blog the Pace of Service. This time Michael informs of us some of the common things that most successful companies have in regards to their customer service. The companies mentioned in this post are specifically well known for their customer service. We won’t spoil any of it by mentioning them here (trust us, the post is worth a read on your own), here’s the link to his post.

A bit of warning though as Michael clarifies that while these characteristics are shared by the associations he’s evaluated, they are not the sure fire way to become a successful business- that’s all on you. You can, however, use this as a great reference point as you work on the customer care service of your company.

5.   On Airlines and The Blame, We Put On Them

Moving a little away from our central customer service theme, this post by Dan Gingiss is a particular favourite of ours as it not only does it talk about how Airlines use their customer support units but also how sometimes, it’s really not the airlines fault that there are delays in flights- this is due to the uncontrollable factors such as weather which airlines cannot control. 

What we like about this post is the fact that the writer actively mentions and recognizes the importance of customer service and how “every customer experience matters”. 

Immediately after that, he lists a whole bunch of scenarios where the airline is responsible, and this includes overbooking and maintenance and things like that. He also recognizes that it is the airline’s responsibility to make sure that customer service is excellent for things that it can control in order to establish customer loyalty. But then he starts to talk about the things most people are not fond of airlines (and air travel in general) for. This comes with weather and flight delays that come with it because these are simply something that an airline can’t control, and people often complain about this. 

By giving us this insight, the writer does a great job at showing both sides of the industry and we commend him for doing his research well.

6.   Of Heroes & Villains

Another one by Steve DiGioia is featured on our list and there’s a reason behind that. His interesting take on customer service agents and their behavior is an interesting read. Not only does it connect with just about anyone who has read a comic book (and in today’s time’s comic book movies) and has thus, categorized agents into three categories: the hero, the villain and the problem solver. 

By doing so, he presents the case of how companies can use these examples as a way of training their customer representative staff. No one wants to be a villain in the customer service business as that can lead to your client being driven away. What people want is a hero- but is that really all that people want? What about a problem solver? Someone who is, not just really nice to talk to, but also can actually solve a customer’s problem without delaying them for too long. These skills can be especially essential if you’re trying to enhance customer service experience for your clients and we definitely recommend you to give this a read.

7.   Stories of Ourselves

This final post is probably one of the greatest pieces of advice anyone can offer a company looking to make its customer service better. Kaye is a member of the CXAccelerator community and she’s written a blog post on how a company can use storytelling as a way to create “customer heroes”.

By using storytelling as a primary tool to gather information on your customers, you can make their experience a lot better than most would have thought. Storytelling is almost never used in call centers, so it will very smart business move on your part and we strongly suggest you go with it. Why? Because through this you’re essentially making both the customer and your agent feel better about themselves and by making your agents a customer’s superhero, you’re making their job more enjoyable as well. We strongly recommend that you give this one a read.

Conclusion

As you can see, these blog posts covered a wide range of variety. Some of them were merely informative, offering readers with an overview of many products; others were more specific, focusing on only one matter at hand. The most important thing about these blog posts was their ability to connect with their audience, causing readers to comment or share the blog posts with people they know. Indeed, a good blog post is one that connects with its audience on a personal level, causing them to be ‘touched’ by it. This, in turn, leads them to consider the opinions they read online as well as influencing their choices later on in real life. As said before, blogs can be powerful tools and these blog posts certainly do show that. Hope you liked this post, we’d love to hear your opinions on this one!

About Author

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I am an ITIL Expert and extremely passionate about customer service, customer experience, best practices and process improvement. I have led support, service, help desk and IT teams as well as quality and call center teams in Canada and the UK. I know how to motivate my teams to ensure that they are putting the customer first.

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