Minneapolis CX

Minneapolis Customer Experience

Learn more about customer experience best practices from expert consultants around the Twin Cities area. These leaders in customer experience consulting have a lot to offer, and can help get you started on your own journey to improving your customer experience.

Jim Tincher

Create an Engaging Customer Experience Workshop

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iStock_000019575299LargeAre you looking to improve your customer experience?  I will be hosting a full-day course on Creating an Engaging Customer Experience in partnership with the Performance Excellence Network.  You can learn more at http://performanceexcellencenetwork.org/events/minnesota-innovation-spark-2013/.

Creating an Engaging Customer Experience

October 2, 2013 | 8:30 am – 4:30 pm

A great customer experience begins with a solid understanding of your customers.  But it also requires that your employees use those insights to build programs that your competitors cannot duplicate.

The Performance Excellence Network (formerly the Minnesota Council for Quality) is pleased to welcome Jim Tincher, Senior Business Advisor with Satisfaction Management Systems, to a special full-day workshop September 10: “Creating a Great Customer-Inspired Experience.”

Jim will build off of the PEN breakfast earlier this summer, sharing the three keys to build a great customer-inspired experience for your business, and you will pick up actionable steps you can implement literally tomorrow!

Learning objectives for the workshop include: Read more

Jim Tincher

Minneapolis CXPA Event: Starting a Customer Experience Capability

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Join me at our CXPA Minneapolis Local Networking Event.  We’ll have a great discussion on how different organizations have started their journey, with lots of time for Q&A!

Event Details: “I think we need to be more of a customer centric organization” said the CEO. “I am concerned about price pressure and wonder if service could be a differentiator for us. I have been hearing about customer experience. I would like you to figure out what this is and what it could mean for our organization. Let me know what we need to do.” While not a real conversation, many customer experience practitioners have been faced with a charge about that vague. What is customer experience? How do you start when your organization is just beginning to think about a more disciplined approach? How do you build a sustainable approach that will be embraced across the organization? Come participate in an interactive discussion as we talk about customer experience maturity models and how to begin the journey. We will introduce a model that moves from early thinking to fully embedded in the organization, with a very focused discussion on the first stages. Come with your experiences, stories and questions as we learn from each other.

Speaker: Ingrid Lindberg, Chief Customer Experience Officer for Prime Therapeutics

When: Wednesday, July 17, 2013, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Register at http://cxpa.org/events/event_details.asp?id=332434&group=

Where: 900 2nd Ave S
Ninth Floor, Room 9014
Minneapolis, MN

Cost: CXPA Members – FREE; Non-members – $20

Sponsored by: Oracle

Jim Tincher

Please join me at the next Minneapolis CXPA Event

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CXPA logoWednesday, July 17, 2013, from 5-7.  Ingrid Lindberg, Chief Customer Experience Officer at Prime Therapeutics, will be speaking on how to get started on your customer experience journey.

Event Details: “I think we need to be more of a customer centric organization” said the CEO. “I am concerned about price pressure and wonder if service could be a differentiator for us. I have been hearing about customer experience. I would like you to figure out what this is and what it could mean for our organization. Let me know what we need to do.” While not a real conversation, many customer experience practitioners have been faced with a charge about that vague. What is customer experience? How do you start when your organization is just beginning to think about a more disciplined approach? How do you build a sustainable approach that will be embraced across the organization? Come participate in an interactive discussion as we talk about customer experience maturity models and how to begin the journey. We will introduce a model that moves from early thinking to fully embedded in the organization, with a very focused discussion on the first stages. Come with your experiences, stories and questions as we learn from each other.

More details are available at http://cxpa.org/events/event_details.asp?id=332434&group=.  I hope to see you there!

Jim Tincher

Event: June 6 – “Create a Great Customer-Inspired Experience”

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Join me at the upcoming Performance Excellence Network event.  Details:

Knowledge Forum: Create a Great Customer-Inspired Experience (Minneapolis)

June 6, 2013 | 7:30 am – 9:00 am
Jim Tincher, Senior Business Advisor with Satisfaction Management Systems
Create a Great Customer-Inspired Experience

A great customer experience begins with a solid understanding of your customers. But it also requires that your employees use those insights to build programs that your competitors cannot duplicate.

The Performance Excellence Network (formerly the Minnesota Council for Quality) is pleased to welcome Jim Tincher, Senior Business Advisor with Satisfaction Management Systems, to our June 6 PEN: “Create a Great Customer-Inspired Experience.”

Jim will share the three keys to build a great customer-inspired experience for your business, and you will pick up actionable steps you can implement literally tomorrow! A great customer experience leads to enhanced loyalty and significantly higher financial returns. Join this discussion to learn more!

The discussion is from 8:00-9:00 a.m. on June 6 (networking and continental breakfast begin at 7:30 a.m.) at MCTC, 1501 Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis (near the Basilica). Admission to PEN is FREE for Network members; $15 for partner organizations; $30 for the public. Space is limited so register today by emailing brian.lassiter@performanceexcellencenetwork.org.

Jim Tincher

Does your satisfaction survey show disrespect for customers

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Note: This article was originally posted in 2012. Best Buy no longer uses this survey, but this poor design is still used by companies who insist on extra-long surveys.

How do you know when a company’s on the ropes?  Some observers watch cash flow.  Others look at turnover.  Me?  I look at how a company treats its customers.  When a company’s customer experience starts to drop, it’s time to sell the stock. I’m afraid that may have happened at Best Buy, especially when I look at their new customer satisfaction survey.

Customer satisfaction surveys are critical for creating your customer experience.  A great survey puts your customer at the center of your customer experience design, allowing you to learn and improve as you go.  But this only works when you design the survey from a perspective of customer respect.  When your customer satisfaction survey design assumes your customers aren’t paying attention to the survey, then why bother?  In the past, Best Buy’s culture was centered on the customer experience. But their recent update to their customer satisfaction survey shows that at least one group thinks their customers are unworthy of respect. Read more

Jim Tincher

Excerpts from “From People to Profits: The Business Case for Employee Engagement”

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Last month I had the opportunity to give the keynote speech at MindSurf, From People to Profits: The Business Case for Employee Engagement.  This 4-minute video gives some of the highlights.  Read below for more information.

httpv://youtu.be/f6i7ky0mWNM

The description:  Employee Engagement is not just a feel-good program. Companies are seeing significant productivity and profitability gains through building a culture of engaged employees, as reported by Gallup, Towers-Perrin, Hay Group and others. The worst economic downturn in decades left many employees afraid to leave their jobs. Now that the economy is loosening up, experts warn we may see increasing turnover as employees leave for greener pastures. How will you keep your best people? This session will focus on best practices to engage employees, including the ROI of engagement and how you can get started at your company tomorrow.

The Three Keys to Great Employee Engagement:

  1. Point to a clear direction
  2. Develop your coaches
  3. Let your employees find the way

Learn more in, “From People to Profits: The Business Case for Employee Engagement!”  Contact Jim at Heart of the Customer to learn more about how he can help you improve your employee engagement.  Or visit here to see another sample video and more speaker information.

Jim Tincher

Join Jim at Mindsurf!

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I’m pleased to announce that I will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Mindsurf conference.  Join me as we discuss From People to Profits: The Business Case for Employee Engagement.

We will walk through not only the business case, but also three very concrete steps that you can take to improve employee engagement at your organization.  The official description:

Employee Engagement is not just a feel-good program. Companies are seeing significant productivity and profitability gains through building a culture of engaged employees, as reported by Gallup, Towers-Perrin, Hay Group and others. The worst economic downturn in decades left many employees afraid to leave their jobs. Now that the economy is loosening up, experts warn we may see increasing turnover as employees leave for greener pastures. How will you keep your best people? This session will focus on best practices to engage employees, including the ROI of engagement and how you can get started at your company tomorrow.

I hope to see you there!

Jim Tincher

Case Study: Personal Customer Connections + Employee Empowerment = a Great Customer-Inspired Experience at Davanni’s

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“We pretty much let our employees and customers decide what’s on our menu.”

That’s a great example of the philosophy that has led to long-term success at Davanni’s, a Twin Cities pizza and hoagy restaurant. While their local focus and fun atmosphere are definitely part of the mix, it is the extreme efforts to keep fresh with customers and employees that really drive their results.

Davanni’s has 21 locations throughout the Twin Cities. They have been in business for 37 years, featuring family-friendly food on the lower end of the cost spectrum. I originally asked to interview them about their experience with Coke’s new soda machine. But I ended up discovering the best example I’ve found of a company trusting their strategies to their customers and front-line employees. This story is a great example for any industry. Read more

Jim Tincher

Best Buy’s New Store Format: Beautiful Design Limited by Store Execution Issues

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Best Buy unveiled a new store format last week at its flagship location a few blocks from their corporate headquarters. I visited the store twice last week. You can find more general review at The Mama Report, including photos, as well as at the Star-Tribune. The store has opened to rave reviews, and understandably so. The new format is beautiful, and greatly increases the opportunity to play with and learn technology.

The company traditionally introduces new store concepts in 1-3 stores, evaluates them, and determines which parts (if any) to scale. There are too many changes to include in one post, including such additions as a “Solutions Central” to ask questions, educational “digital displays” teaching about products, and vignettes that allow you to see how appliances might fit into your home. I will focus on the overall look and feel, and three specific areas: Tablet Central, the 3DTV Experience, and the Magnolia Design Center. This post reviews the format, and gives advice as to which parts should be scaled.

Full Disclosure

I worked for Best Buy for six years through 2008, and still love the brand. My last three years I designed interactive experiences such as those featured in this store. Several are clearly descendants of projects I led. This makes me more familiar with the issues than most. Read more