I recently exchanged Facebook messages with Deb Robison, a smart marketing and social media gal. She wanted to share a customer service story with me and get my take on it.  Here is her story:

I got a new computer recently and needed to order some accessories. Around this same time, I needed some shoes and books. I placed orders with Zappos, Amazon, Apple, and a designer’s shop, Jonathan Adler. Of course, the three big guys sent me order acknowledgment and tracking info all through the process. I got an order notification from (ordered a laptop sleeve) Jonathan Adler, then nothing, so a few days after I placed the order, I sent an email asking if my order had shipped. Later the next day I got an email from a customer service rep explaining that they did receive my order and that “my colleague is trying to find your bag at one of their stores.” Once it ships, I would get a shipping notification. That was two days ago. And, I noticed they have already charged my credit card.

So my question is this – are my customer service expectations skewed because I have dealt with some big companies that have solid customer service and shipping systems in place? (Note: Zappos had the best and most prompt services of the three big companies, of course.) Jonathan Adler is a smaller brand, but a high-end one and kind of trendy right now, so is it fair for me to set the same expectations on them?

My expectations have clearly been shaped by the immediacy which other retailers respond & deliver. Is that fair? As customers, we never had this kind of relationship before. We used to get out the catalog, fill out the form, put a check in the envelope and wait.

Yes, Deb, customer expectations are absolutely set based on our experiences with companies such as Zappos and Amazon. In fact, every interaction we have with a company sets our expectation for the next interaction, whether with that business or with another completely different organization. Additionally, the online experiences that customers have with companies, whether on the company website or via social media, are creating a higher degree of visibility. In social media, this becomes even more important as the social customer’s friends and followers are also watching, and sometimes sharing the experience with their network (unfortunately, this is more often the case when the experience has been poor).

Customer Expectations of Service

It is important to understand the needs of your customers, as well as their wants and desires. It is also critical to understand what they expect when they contact your company. Typically, customer expectations of service tend to fall into three areas:

- Customers want fast service: They want their problems solved or questions answered quickly. “Help me get back to what I need to do.”

- Customers want friendly service: They want to feel that the company appreciates their business. “Help me know that you care about me.”

- Customers want it to be easy: They want to be able to accomplish the task in the most efficient way possible. “Help make this simple for me.”

The three areas listed above may change in priority based on who your customer is, what kind of relationship they have had with your organization, and, as mentioned by Deb, what types of interactions they have had with your company and with others. Do you know what your customers want from you?

Taking Action

What can you do tomorrow to improve the experience your customers are having with your company?

1. Ask your customers. Really – go ask them! Find out what they expect from you, what you are doing well, and what you need to improve. Your customers will probably be happy to tell you, and they will also be glad you asked.

2. Look in the mirror. When is the last time you or someone from your organization called into your customer service line? Ordered something from your website? Tried to get help via your social media channels? Find out what it feels like to be your customer; I encourage you to look for both areas of improvement as well as your own best practices to share with your organization.

3. Look at the competition – from your customer’s perspective. Understand who is competing with you for the best customer experience, keeping in mind that it may not be anyone within your industry.

A world-class customer experience doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a plan that can be executed across all aspects of your organization. Your customer experience strategy should facilitate consistent treatment of customers, cultivate customer trust, and enable meaningful interactions at all points of customer contact. Most importantly, it should meet and exceed customer expectations. Now you have a customer experience that will ignite passion, inspire brand loyalty, and cement relationships.

This book has actually been a long time in the making – not so much from the perspective of how long it took to write it (see The Story below) but from the perspective that I have had this book in mind since before I began this blog in December of 2006. In fact, one of the reasons I started Customers Rock! blog was that I wanted to see 1) whether I enjoyed writing (I do) and 2) whether anyone else would enjoy reading what I wrote (you do!). So in a sense, this book has been over 4 years in the making!

This book is also one of the main reasons that I have been so quiet on my blog the past few months. I have definitely missed writing for all of you, and many of you have been encouraging me to get back out here and post. I am finally ready, and what better way to start back up than to introduce you to my book.

The Book

The Hidden Power of Your Customers is a book about how to focus on your current customers so that you can lengthen and strengthen your business relationship with them, thus bringing about increased customer loyalty, customer advocacy, and ultimately increased referrals. It is not a social media book (more on that in The Story below), but social media is woven throughout the book (as it should be woven throughout a company’s marketing and customer service strategies). It is also not a customer service book (but that is an important tenet). It is a book about growing your business through one of your company’s best assets – your existing customers.

Here is a short excerpt from the introduction:

It has been my experience that many companies spend most of their time and budget focusing on selling to new customers and end up neglecting their existing ones. This might work in the short term, but eventually these companies will find themselves losing more customers out the back door than they bring in through the front door. Additionally, the onset of social media is driving a major change in customer behaviors and habits, making it highly risky not to focus on existing customers. Social media has brought the customer experience to the forefront of discussions, so it is important for companies to be more vigilant than ever before.

As a result, some people will tell you that you need outstanding customer service. But customer service is not enough. You also need marketing that connects with your current customers. In fact, you need to consider the entire customer experience, and support it with a customer-centric culture, one that promotes an equally exceptional employee experience. And, of course, you do need outstanding customer service.

The Hidden Power of Your Customers is based around the principles of Customers Rock!, and the sections of the book follow the ROCK acronym:

R: Relevant marketing – Organizations need to market to their customers in a way that is relevant to them, including recognizing them as customers, using their language, and meeting their needs.

O: Orchestrated customer experience – Every place a customer interacts with a company needs to provide a consistent, planned experience for the customer that is beneficial to both parties. We can’t leave the customer experience to chance.

C: Customer-focused culture – We can’t just expect that a company will become customer-centric because it hires a few great customer service personnel or states that it cares about customers in its marketing. We need to ensure that customers are part of everything that our company does so that customer-focus becomes part of the company DNA.

K: Killer customer service – Companies need to take customer service to the next level, and it needs to be an integral part of the customer experience. Customer service is where the rubber meets the road, as many buying and renewal decisions are based upon this critical touch point. It has to ROCK.

The book is also supported with many case studies (based on personal interviews I conducted with company leaders), lots of practical tips, and fun personal stories – all written in the Customers Rock! style that you are familiar with here on this blog.

The Story

This past summer, at the end of my Marketing via New Media class which I teach at UC San Diego, my students were encouraging me to take what I know and write a book. I told them I had a book in mind already, I just hadn’t made any inquiries about it yet. I went home that evening and tweeted out that I was thinking about writing a book. Less than a week later, I received an email from an editor at John Wiley & Sons. In it, he said that he was interested in working with me on my book. He said he enjoyed this blog and felt that I had good material, and good credentials, to write a book. I actually had already written a book proposal the year before but hadn’t tried to do anything with it. I asked the Wiley editor whether this should be a social media book, and his recommendation was no, it should not be; he felt there were already quite a few of those out there (and I agree).

So, after giving Wiley’s offer some thought, I agreed and signed the contract. The book was off and running!

I then spent the next four months doing interviews, pulling together information, and writing the manuscript. It was completed on February 1 (I think I missed out on most of the family holiday activities this past season). Since then, I have been working with Wiley on a few rounds of edits, approving cover artwork, seeking “blurbs” (endorsements) for the book, and getting a top-notch thought leader to write the foreword (Thank You, Brian Solis – author of Engage! for being so gracious).

The book is now just about ready for prime time, so I felt it was high time to share about it with you all. The attendees of my recent session at SugarCon got a sneak preview of some of the concepts, and I will be giving more talks in the next few months before the release where I will have the opportunity to sign some pre-release booklets and get the word out about the book.

Will You Help Me Share About It?

I am thrilled that the book releases in just a few months (July 20), and I plan to continue blogging, speaking, and sharing about it on my social networks. Will you help me? Here are a few ways you can get involved in sharing the Customers Rock! philosophy that is in The Hidden Power of Your Customers:

• Share about the book on your own blog or social networks. Here is the link to the book on Amazon.
• Go to the Amazon page and click Like (right under my name, at the top of the listing)
• Pre-order the book
• If you are in San Diego, come to one of my Book Launch Parties (more info on these as it gets closer)
• If you are not in San Diego, you can help sponsor me for a Book Signing/Event in your city. I will gladly come to your city for a signing if you help arrange the event; please contact me for details.
• Submit to write a review of the book on your blog! I will be reaching out to bloggers for reviews to take place in early July; please leave me a comment or drop me a note at becky at petraconsultinggroup dot com if you are interested.

Again, thank you all for your support, encouragement, and loyalty over the past 4 1/2 years of this blog. Customers DO rock, and I can’t wait to show you more about that in the book.

Let me know what you think!

I was recently contacted by the team running the Net Promoter Conference in Miami Beach, February 3 and 4, 2011. If you are a customer experience or other customer-centric professional, this is one event you should consider attending. I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Richard Owen, CEO of Satmetrix (who I have interviewed previously on Customers Rock! Radio), and John Abraham, General Manager of NetPromoter Programs, about the event, the speakers, and why a focus on customer experience is so important.  Take a few minutes to grab a cup of coffee and have a listen to our brief conversation. Sounds like a great event!

Here are some of the speakers:

• Andy Lark, Vice President, Large Enterprise, Dell
• Brian Scudamore, CEO, with Simon Lowe, Director of Operations, 1800-GOT-JUNK?
• Dan Cathy, President & COO, Chick-fil-A
• Lara Wise, Vice President, Customer Experience and Customer Care, tw telecom
• Mary Currier, Vice President, IT Relationship Management, Allianz Life Insurance NA
• Michael McOmber, Customer Experience Manager, Siemens IT Solutions and Services North America
• Richard Owen, CEO, Satmetrix and Author, Answering The Ultimate Question
• Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company Fellow and Author, The Ultimate Question

Have a listen to the interview, and for those of you who attend, come back here and share your key takeaways!

Satmetrix interview

Customers Contribute

Some companies have been engaging with their true fans for years. For example, at Jones Soda their bottle labels are actually photos submitted by their customers via the Jones Soda website. Customer photos appear on the Jones Soda gallery, and a lucky few get theirs put on a bottle. Even though there is no fame and fortune to be received from this activity, Jones Soda fans love to contribute to the Jones community in this fashion.

Spice it Up in B2B

Spiceworks is a great example of letting customers contribute in the B2B space.  Spiceworks is a free set of tools that helps over 1 million IT professionals manage their network, helpdesk, and “everything IT in small and medium businesses.” They have a very active online community which answers questions for each other and shares what they think on a variety of topics. Spiceworks put together a photo contest asking IT professionals to share some creative pics that contained the Spiceworks logo, brand name, or simply a red chili pepper. From that contest, a community mascot was born, SpiceRex. Submitted by one of the members, SpiceRex grabbed the attention of the Spiceworks team and the hearts of the community, and he travels the world to visit various members (he is made of paper, so he travels light). He has become so popular that Spiceworks will be featuring the red orange T-Rex in a series of ads, created by community members, to tell the IT world about their free software. Spiceworks recently won a Groundswell award for the way they have energized their customers and created tremendous word of mouth through them.

When you have information about your customers and their passions that your competitors don’t have, you have an advantage.  When you use what you know about your customers and let them play a role in the experience, such as featuring a community mascot in your ads, now you are building on the customer relationship and increasing the likelihood of loyalty.

(Credit: SpiceRex created by akp982 @UnofficialSpice)

Richard’s colleague, and CMO of Satmetrix is Deborah Eastman, and she is our guest blogger today. Deborah shares with us about considerations when listening to customers, whether online or offline, and how technology plays a part.

Delivering Voice of the Customer to Enable Customer Delight and Financial Gains

I hope we can all agree that delivering a positive customer experience is the key to building customer loyalty and achieving financial success. Countless reports and case studies have proven this linkage. A recent report that caught my attention is Watermark Consulting’s 2007-2009 performance analysis, which examines Forrester’s 2007 Customer Experience Index and shows how customer experience leaders outperform laggards in the stock market.

Now, it’s likely that the CEOs of customer experience laggards will tell you that their companies strive to deliver an outstanding customer experience. However, understanding the principles of customer experience and actually delivering them do not necessarily go hand in hand. In 2008 Bain & Company found that while 80 percent of companies believe they deliver a superior experience to their customers, only 8 percent of those companies’ customers report having such an experience. Similarly, a CMO Council study found that fifty-six percent of technology vendors perceive themselves as being extremely customer-centric, compared with only 12% of their customers.

There is a clear disconnect between the experience companies think they deliver and what customers experience, perceive and – more importantly – desire. It’s not about what you think… it’s about what your customers think.

In order to determine whether you are disappointing, meeting or exceeding your customers’ expectations, you need to continuously listen. And it’s not as easy as it sounds. It goes far beyond monitoring the chatter on Twitter and other social media platforms or performing your annual customer satisfaction survey. It requires soliciting customer feedback on a regular, ongoing basis at multiple touch points, and closing the loop to address issues and understand root cause.

You should know what your customers are experiencing every time they interact with your company. Take, for instance, a bank. You must consider your customers’ experience when they open an account, deposit or withdraw funds, overdraw their account, receive quarterly statements, use your online banking tools, request technical support, purchase savings bonds, apply for a mortgage, refinance a mortgage, and so on and so on….You get the picture.

My point is that your customers’ experience at each touch point will form their overall impression of your organization, resulting in a financial impact in terms of retention, repurchase and recommendations. In order to improve, you need to continuously listen and deliver real-time data to empower employees to take action. To gain sustainable competitive advantage, you need view data in a way that reveals trends and helps you to identify structural areas in need of improvement (i.e. policy, process, pricing, products, etc.).

So, as you can see, managing your customer experience means monitoring multiple customer interactions, aggregating and analyzing a plethora of data, and distributing role-based information across the enterprise in a timely manner.

It’s harder than it sounds. No matter how well you understand these concepts, you can’t make them work to your advantage without the help of technology.

And yet, a December 2008 study we sponsored with the CMO Council reveals that most organizations have not adopted the technology necessary to support their customer experience programs, and therefore have major deficiencies in the way they respond to customer feedback. In fact, only 23 percent of the senior marketers surveyed said they were using enterprise technology to engage, listen and respond to customers in real-time.

First-rate technology can and should:

• Bust organizational silos and provide an enterprise view of the customer experience.
• Capture information from multiple touch points and distribute it in real-time to initiate required action.
• Provide sophisticated, interactive analytics and role-based reporting that allow you to quickly identify and act on performance gaps.
• Allow you to segment data to identify trends and performance gaps across business units, customer segments and product lines.
• Incorporate your CRM and financial data to provide a big picture view of the direct correlation between customer experience and business performance.
• Be user-friendly. Employees will be more likely to embrace the system if it is intuitive and integrates seamlessly into their everyday tasks.

Developing and maintaining a customer experience platform demands time and resources, but there is little doubt that it will pay off. One example of this pay-off is Experian, a company we have worked with for several years. They successfully leveraged voice-of-the-customer technology and processes to identify key loyalty drivers and improve the customer experience resulting in increased wallet share in a highly competitive market. Experian’s customer experience efforts were so successful that they were awarded a Forrester Voice of the Customer Award in June of 2009. If you’re interested in other case studies of companies achieving business results by focusing on customer experience, visit satmetrix.com or netpromoter.com.

(Image credit: TommL)

Expectations

Before we can discuss Customer Obsessed Service, we need to make sure we understand customer expectations. Customers have changed, and customer expectations have greatly changed! Social media has put everything into a new light as empowered customers are taking up their mobile phones and tweeting their distress for all the world to see. Here is a typical customer service tweet:

Does anyone know if COMPANY X has a Twitter? I want to make sure everyone knows how POOR their customer service is!! I’m sooooo annoyed.

If nothing else, brands need to be using social media to listen to the customer conversation for concerns or issues. Sometimes customers may be whining, and sometimes customers may have a real problem that needs to be addressed. Customer Obsessed Service means a company is attentive to what their customers are saying via social media (and via other mechanisms as well, including surveys, comments to sales, feedback to customer service reps, etc.) and then takes action to make sure the customer’s issues are resolved to their satisfaction.

Action: Do you understand the expectations of your customers for your products, and for your customer service? If not, spend some time listening to customer conversations, talking to customers for clarification, and determining the top pain points.

Employees

Most employees in an organization don’t understand what it takes to provide great customer service, much less Customer Obsessed Service. Yet employees are a key factor in whether customer service sucks or rocks. This is true whether the employee actually works in customer service or whether they are not customer facing at all!

Customer Obsessed Service starts with hiring the right people – those who are naturally people-focused, have a passionate spirit, are empathetic, and like to think creatively to solve problems. Southwest Airlines calls this having “…a Warrior Spirit, a Servant’s Heart, and a Fun-LUVing Attitude.” I couldn’t agree more!

These employees also have to be empowered to do what is right for the customer. This doesn’t mean giving every customer a discount, or something for free when they complain. It DOES mean listening to the customer’s needs and doing what they can to make it right without always having to get a supervisor’s approval. Guidelines need to be clear, and when they are employees are freed up to get the help they need to turn around a bad situation with a customer.

Action: Start with an assessment in your organization. What do your employees think about your customer service? What would they do to make it better?

Customers as Assets

Customer Obsessed Service is also achieved based on how we measure it.

Incredibly, many companies today are still measuring their customer service based on how many calls they can process in an hour. Get the customer off the phone/chat as soon as possible in order to respond to more customers. The end result is usually customers that have to call again in order to finish getting their questions answered. These types of metrics are used when organizations look at the customer service department as something to be measured on a P&L statement. Customer service is viewed as a cost center.

Organizations espousing Customer Obsessed Service view customers as a valuable asset that belongs on a balance sheet. Each customer interaction is a golden opportunity to improve the relationship, and each customer touch could result in a customer who is so happy they become an evangelist for the brand.  Don Peppers and Martha Rogers talked about this in their book Return on Customer Companies that treat their customers as an asset create a very different approach to customer interaction; each customer contact is reviewed to see how it will add to or detract from the value of each customer.

Action: Review your customer service metrics to see how you view your customers.

What About You?

What else do companies need to get right operationally in order to create Customer Obsessed Service? Who is doing it well? Leave a comment with your thoughts, and let’s start a discussion on Customer Obsessed Service!

However, I believe that participation applies to much more than just social media!  If we get our customers to participate with us on an ongoing basis, we learn so much more about them than we could in any other arena.  This will lead to (on the customer’s part) trust, better engagement, preference, word of mouth, and ultimately brand loyalty. 

I also had the opportunity to talk about this subject to Chris Brogan at the MarketingProfs event. We discussed why those who want to build a relationship with their customers should consider using social media. And not using it just to talk; using it to finally, truly listen to customers. Chris recently wrote about the difference between having an audience and having a community on his blog. I think an audience is something that you talk at; a community is something that you talk with and participate in.  Chris was nice enough to put his thoughts on video for me as I asked him to talk about social media and customer loyalty. (Note: the conference was in Arizona, hence the cacti – and the slight wind noise)

Here at Customers Rock!, I endeavor to have a place where we talk together about taking care of customers. I realize I have not been carrying on my side of the conversation a lot lately as I have been heads-down working on my new book. I will hold up my side of the bargain and be here to talk with you more frequently – now it is your turn to join in! Thank you all so much for being part of this, and many thanks to you, Chris, for your valuable time. 

(Image credit: Paha_L)

How NOT to Reach Out to Prospects

This winery was slightly off the main thoroughfare at the end of a dusty road. The building looked quaint, and we were hopeful we would find something more down-to-earth (and reasonably priced). We walked around the building on the wooden porch and came to this sign: “START Your Tasting Adventure at The Register. Thank You!”

We almost turned around and left! We knew that we needed to pay for the tastings, but to have that sign as the first thing we saw was a little off-putting. How about “We are glad you are here; come on in!” Or “Start your tasting adventure through this door”. Hitting us over the head with a request for money was NOT welcoming.

Why would they use signage like this? Well, the winery also had a restaurant on the property, so perhaps they were trying to let foodies know they needed to go across the parking lot to eat. Or perhaps they have had prospective wine tasters skip the register and go straight to the tasting bar, only to have to send them back to the till to pay up. Either way, there are several other ways they could have handled this to leave a better first impression with visitors. (Ideas for improvement? Share them below in the comments.)

Welcoming Customers

Many businesses have started to understand that the customer welcome is important. We had a favorite sushi place where we used to live, and as we would come in the door, the sushi chefs would shout out a welcome to us in Japanese. This was fun, as we were regulars and they knew us. I am also a regular at my local bank, and the entire branch, it seems, shouts out a hello when a customer comes in the door.  For some reason, this doesn’t feel as sincere; it feels like they are checking off a box on their list of “how to greet a customer.” Retail clothing stores such as Coldwater Creek and White House Black Market have someone near the door to welcome customers and help point them in the right direction (so does Walmart).

If at first you don’t succeed…

… you might not get a second chance. Customers ROCK! companies look closely at how prospects first see their business.

- For a retailer, the first impression might be as they walk by or in the door. Is the person there truly happy to see them? Or are they just checking off their tasks and biding their time until the lunch break?

- For an online business, the first impression is the website, which could also be a social media site or blog. Is it clear what a prospect should do first? Or does a first-timer have to slice through a jungle of words and pictures to make headway towards their task?

- For a commercial business, first impressions are often a rep making a sales call. Does the sales rep seem to understand the burning issues for their business? Or are they just interested in pushing their products and services?

(Although I like to be positive here on this blog, I just need to share a tiny rant about Twitter and first impressions. There is a feature where you can “follow”, or subscribe to someone, and they can decide whether to follow you back. Some people and businesses have set up an automatic reply to a new follower, and most times it is a sales message (try our mattresses, check out our store, please join my Facebook page, etc). I firmly believe this is the wrong approach! A new prospect/follower has not had the chance to get to know you yet; don’t try to go for the close. Allow a relationship to develop first. OK, end of rant.

Take the Customer’s Perspective

If you aren’t sure what your organizations “first impression” looks like, go get a mirror and find out. It is hard to do this when you see the front door everyday, so many companies use someone new to their organization, or hire an outside “mystery shopper” to review the customer experience for them. Here are the areas to review:

- Your “front door”, whether it be a physical door/entry or a website. What does it say to visitors? What does it say to those who have been there before?

- Your “greeter” (usually a physical person, although some web sites have these). 

- Your “action” – what do you want them to do next? Make it clear, and give guidance if needed.

Your Turn!

In addition to sharing ideas for the winery in the comments, please share either great or terrible “welcome” experiences with a business, B2B or B2C. I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Are Companies Looking for Customer Feedback?

One of the first blogs I read after starting my Customers Rock! blog was Church of the Customer. This easy-to-digest post from Jackie Huba shares the results of a recent survey by conducted by the CMO Council on whether companies are tracking customer conversations about their brand, along with whether they have employee incentives around customer satisfaction. Interesting that not many are focusing on these areas! Especially in this economy, Customers Rock! companies view customer feedback (including word of mouth) as a critical part of their business and create customer listening post in several venues (including but not limited to social media). What are you doing in regards to listening to your customers?

Kill ‘em With Kindness

Tom Vander Well of QA QnA writes an inspiring post on how to treat your customers, even if you think they are going to be somewhat nasty to you! It might sound easy, but this type of treatment strategy requires a plan as well as a certain fortitude to carry it out when a call center rep is “in the thick of it”. Check out the post for tips on “staying chill”.

Handling Negative Reviews

Linda Bustos at GetElastic has a thought-provoking post on how to handle negative reviews. Ignore them? No. Delete them? Definitely not! How about embrace them? Linda highlights one company that has embraced both the positive and the negative; check out her post to see how they do it.

Social Media: Music to my Ears

I met someone new this week (virtually, as many introductions are these days) who works for Heavybag Media. There was a fascinating post on their blog about the use of social media and web strategies in the musical instrument business. Contained in the post are lists of who is using what, as well as who is currently best-in-class using these new tools in the industry.

A Little Self-Promotion (sort-of)

As many of you know, I teach a class at University of California San Diego called Marketing via New Media. One of my long-time blogging friends, Tim Jackson, was kind enough to come and be a guest speaker. Tim shared about his MasiGuy blog and how it has really helped re-invigorate the brand. His stories were riveting, and the students really enjoyed his talk. Here is the post where Tim shares his experience talking to my class, along with some photos, so if you ever wanted to see what my class looks like, here it is! Thanks again, Tim, for sharing your knowledge and passion about Masi Bikes. You rock!

Liked Five in the Morning? Get more where this came from at Steve Woodruff’s Sticky Figure blog, subscribe to Steve’s blog, or follow him on Twitter. Like Customers Rock!? Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this blog.

(Photo credit: bberry)

Inspiring Employees
The theme across all of the keynotes today was one of community, relationship building, and emotions.  (Customers Rock! note – many of these themes work very well with the social media tools that are available to connect with customers, and with each other.)

JoAnna Brandi kicked off the day with an energetic discussion of being leaders that inspire customers to be more engaged at work, which, in turn, leads to better customer engagement. As leaders, we need to use more positive emotion; this will affect our employees and our customers. Keep your employees out of the fear we are seeing, and start focusing on the positive. What is right? What is possible? What is the next solution we can find?

She also challenged attendees to stop focusing exclusively on customer satisfaction, as customers don’t want things that are just “satisfactory”. They want something better than that! While important, satisfaction is not the end game. The pot of gold at the other side of the rainbow is joy, happiness, Wow, and Magic.  We have to start creating emotional relationships with our customers. This is done by showing up at work with emotion, not checking it at the door!  It is the leader’s job to make sure everyone around them uses Magic – Make a Great Impression on the Customer.

Never Eat Alone

The first keynote was Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone.He turned this into a working session to give people a personal relationship action plan for the upcoming year. Who do you need to work with to get you where you want to go?  People are critical to your success, and relationships are the core. We discussed which words describe business relationships: Trust, human, feedback, fun, candor, collaborative. Which words add for most personal relationships? Laughter, love, listening, intimacy, reliable, trust, passion.

The shift – a business relationship is a personal relationship in a business environment.  Make it purposeful; strategically guide your relationships. It is not about waiting for someone else to start the relationship; it is about you being proactive with others.

If you have strong personal relationships, you will be more easily forgiven when you mess it up!

Video of Keith: you can’t get there alone.

Keith had the group go through a series of exercises to help crystallize thinking around this. Our job in this world is to create an environment around ourselves that invites people in to have a better relationship with us. It is all about what we do – it is our responsibility. Lower our guard, invite people in. As we talk to people, we ought to be having the following internal conversation:

-    Is there something I can care about with this person? A way to connect and remember?
-    Is there a way I can help? “How can I help you? Who can I introduce you to?” How powerful is that?!

Keith also discussed the “Fluffy” factor. This was referring to a phone conversation where the service rep could hear a dog barking in the background – ‘Fluffy’. “What is the name of your dog,” this rep might ask, as a way to connect with the other person and see them as a human being (not just an irritating caller). We need to show up as the human and empathetic individual they want to see. If all call center folks projected a wonderful positive outcome, in their own minds, it would begin to manifest itself.

How are your customer service people seeing your customers? As a pain, or as a real person with real issues?

Keith also shared about the importance of being real, authentic, and human to others. He stated that others can tell right away if we are not being truthful or transparent with them, even over the phone!  We need to have the following mindset, with customers or with those we want to build relationships with: We really care. We want to hear you (people need to be heard).  When we have this mindset, we begin to empathize.

I will wrap up this section on Keith with a video of him telling the story about someone who cared about another human being and how it changed lives.

Teamwork

We then had the pleasure of listening to Joe Torre, manager of the LA Dodgers, share nuggets from his many years in baseball. Here are some highlights:

• You only get better (at whatever you do) when you have to deal with setbacks. Tough times don’t last; tough people do.
• It’s the little things in a game that help you win. Concentrate on the little things; big things will happen.
• Be loyal to each other on the team, and have respect for that other guy who is out there, perhaps where you want to be.
• You can’t assume your customers are yours forever.
• What can I help us do to win today?
• Whatever line of work you are in, it is all about the people.

Making Connections Through Storytelling

The morning ended with a fascinating speech by Peter Guber, Chairman and Founder, Mandalay Entertainment. Peter has quite a line of Hollywood successes, including his role as producer for such films as Gorillas in the Mist, The Deep, The Color Purple, and Rain Man, to name a few.
Per Peter:

“Coping with failure in uncertain times is a necessity; it has always been a partner in my journey.”

He shared three navigational states for these times and how to get through them – fear, uncertainty, and change. Peter also shared that the game changer, the secret sauce, is the story we tell ourselves and the story we tell our customers and clients.

Oral storytelling. It is in all of us. We need to connect our story to the emotions of our customers and employees to help them propel themselves through all of this. We are all wired to do oral storytelling.  When we do it, it changes the word from “customer/client/patron” to “audience”. One thing to keep in mind about an audience: they expect experiences and to be engaged emotionally. They want to be moved.

Here is a video of Peter talking about how human beings are “wired” to tell oral stories.

Peter encouraged us to unleash our story for our benefit, and do it by MAGIC.

MAGIC – like a hand, each of the following concepts works independently, but they work better together.

Motivating your Audience to your Goal Interactively with great Content

Are you motivated about your story? Yes – you can craft a powerful story. You can tell, before someone says a word, whether they are authentic. Be calm; be coherent with it. Then tell it. Demonstrate you are authentic with your story. This engages people.

Audience – everybody you talk with (not to) is an audience. How do I get their attention? If it’s not a good time to do it, don’t tell your story! Know what is interesting. Try to be interested in them, create an emotional connection. The context makes the story different for everyone. What are they interested in? Find out then connect it to that. Aim for the heart, not the head. Feelings.  Often times a story, elegantly presented, can change the results.

Here is another video of Peter discussing how he convinced the head of the studio to let him make the film Gorillas in the Mist. In this video, Peter was just talking about how he had come to realize that he was not connecting with his audience (the studio head). So, he became a wounded gorilla in order to help explain why it was important to tell the story of saving gorillas:

Goal – specifically direct someone to a call to action.  We have to have authentic goals that are generous; then, we both win. Virally-advocated stories are authentic; they have to be real.

Interactively – it has to be a conversation. The more senses you engage in your story, the more likely you are to own it. They feel they are participating in the story – let your audience own it so they can tell it for you. It’s the way we are wired. Interactivity – think about it before you start. You have to surrender control. Why do you think you control the customer or your brand? When you relinquish control, it allows them to come forward and own the information in a unique way.

Content – The actual story is the Holy Grail. Look to your own experience – true story, inspired by story. Use observation – retell other people’s stories. Use them for emotional transportation. Look at history and use artifacts; make emotional connections today from it. Use metaphor and analogy; he became a gorilla for the studio head to get him to connect with the story and make the movie.

Think of your customers as an audience, interact with them with really great content, and enjoy the front row seat to your success.

Other Goodies

The afternoon consisted of 4 main tracks of sessions. I attended the session on Disney presented by Maritz and The Disney Institute. Bruce Kimbrell was again the presenter, along with Kathy Oughton from Maritz.

Bruce told a great story about how serious Disney is about surveying customers in the theme park. He shared that some days, the survey at the entrance gate to the park might only ask for your zip code. On other days, the conversation might go like this:

Disney: “Hi, do you have a some time to take our guest survey? We would need about 2 hours of your time.”

Guest: “Uh, no, that would take up a big chunk of my time here.”

Disney: “Well, how about if we take care of you for tomorrow?”

Guest: “No, I would have to change my flights, my hotel…”

Disney: “What if we took care of that? Would you be willing to give us your time?”

Now that is serious focus on getting the voice of the customer!

I also had the opportunity to sit in on JoAnna Brandi‘s session/discussion about what makes people feel good at work. Here were some of the attendee responses -

- Liking the people I work with

- Harmony

- Making a difference

- Being recognized by others, especially when you find out about it later

JoAnna is trying to understand these motivators so she can help coach others on how to improve employee retention and loyalty.

There’s More!

Go check out the conference blog, flickr group, and my Tweets to see/hear more about the day. Last day – tomorrow!