Customer Experience Articles & Blog - Heart of the Customer

Don’t Ask How to Get Executives to Care About Your CX Program; Ask Instead How You Can Support Your Executives

October 10, 2019/0 Comments/in Customer Experience, Customer Journey Map, CX Vision, Journey Mapping Resources & Tools, Minneapolis CX, Voice of the Customer /by Jim Tincher

I go to a lot of Customer Experience (CX) events. Although I learn a lot of new things, I also hear some common concerns throughout all of them. No matter the venue, you can be certain that somebody in the audience will ask a presenter, “How can I get executives to care about customers?”

That’s the wrong question. Believe it or not, your executives actually do care about your customers. These are smart people, and they know that pleasing customers is the secret to success.

They simply don’t care about your so-called “customer experience” program. Read more

No News is No Longer Good News

October 2, 2019/3 Comments/in Customer Centric Culture Change, Customer Experience, CX Vision, Employee and Customer Engagement /by Jim Tincher

Domino’s went and spoiled it. And then Amazon made it worse.

It used to be that customers were patient and okay with waiting on your processes. Whether shipping a product, going through underwriting, or applying for a loan, we were okay with waiting in the dark. We didn’t like it. But we accepted that companies put their information into our black box and the results would eventually come out.

And then Domino’s created their pizza tracker. Suddenly, we all had a view of the behind-the-scenes processes that we never knew we wanted. We could see when the sauce went on, when the ingredients were added, and when it came out of the oven. Who cares if the pizza’s mediocre? We just loved the experience! Read more

Fees = Lazy CX

September 26, 2019/0 Comments/in Customer Experience, CX Vision, Employee and Customer Engagement, Voice of the Customer /by Jim Tincher

I spoke in Austin last week and while there, I rented a car to visit my youngest in San Antonio. I stopped at Dollar’s counter and the agent told me that, if I wanted, I could skip refilling the gas for $27. I didn’t have to decide right then – I could just bring it back without refilling, and they’d fill it up and charge me the flat fee.

That may not sound like a big deal to you, but it blew me away. Most rental agencies require you to decide up front whether you’ll refill the car. I always say no.

What happens when you forget to refill? Last year I rented with Enterprise and rushed back to the airport, forgetting to refill. As I checked in, I was told it would be $9 a gallon – $36 for four gallons of gas! I told the attendant, “Forget it. I’ll just go refill it,” but the car was already checked in. Finally he gave me a $5 rate, but it certainly frustrated me.

Why do they do this? Clearly to change my behavior. “If you make us do extra work, we punish you.” It’s not that unusual – but it’s unnecessary. Dollar used choice architecture to accomplish the same outcome without the punitive nature. Read more

Make a Splash on CX Day

September 19, 2019/0 Comments/in Customer Experience, CX Vision, Employee and Customer Engagement, Minneapolis CX, Voice of the Customer /by Jim Tincher

CX Day is coming on October 1 – you can learn more at www.cxday.org. It’s your annual moment to make a splash. You’re always looking for ways to bring your customers to life for your employees – here’s a great opportunity.

CX Day, sponsored by the CXPA, gives you the excuse to get in front of employees to share the latest information on your customers – their needs, their desires, and how to be of help to them. As you get ready for the day, I’d like to suggest a few guidelines: Read more

Why Spirit Airlines’ and Ryan Air’s Customer Experience is Better than Yours

September 9, 2019/3 Comments/in Customer Experience, CX Vision, Employee and Customer Engagement /by Jim Tincher

I’m partway through a European holiday with my wife, celebrating 25 years of marriage. Okay, actually 26, but that’s a different story.

When a friend heard we were flying Ryan Air, she told me, “Uh oh. Pay attention to the experience you receive.” Interested, I did pay attention. And I realized that Ryan Air probably has one of the better CX programs out there.

Before you get ready with that hate email, first let me explain! Read more

The Bots are Coming!

August 22, 2019/0 Comments/in Customer Centric Culture Change, Customer Experience, CX Vision, Employee and Customer Engagement, Voice of the Customer /by Jim Tincher

Actually, they’re already here. But are you aware of them?

Today, I’m flying back from the CCW’s Executive Exchange. I not only enjoyed speaking at the event, but also the opportunity to attend its presentations. The audience was primarily made up of contact center leaders, each having a lot to say– and do –about the overall customer experience. Based on the silence at the CX conferences I attended, I’m not sure CX has a seat at the bot design table–and this is something you should be thinking about. Read more

Reduct: A Great Tool for Sharing Your Customers’ Videos

August 15, 2019/0 Comments/in Customer Experience, CX Vision, Employee and Customer Engagement, Interviews /by Jim Tincher

I wrote last week about the importance of video in sharing your customers’ experience (Video Interviews=CX Impact).

A major limitation of working with video is the task of managing all of that content. Historically, our process for working with video involved:

Video Interviews=CX Impact

August 8, 2019/0 Comments/in Customer Experience /by Jim Tincher

I’m returning from a two-day Action Workshop, wrapping up a four-month journey mapping project. In the first day, we shared the literal voice of the customer, collected through 46 video interviews with customers. These video interviews shared the power of when the customer experience goes right, as well as the ramifications of when it goes wrong. At one point, there were audible gasps from the attendees after one former customer shared his experience with our client. Read more

Google is Creepy

August 1, 2019/1 Comment/in Customer Centric Culture Change, Customer Experience /by Jim Tincher

My wife forwarded me an email from Google. It showed her everywhere she had visited in the last month, which creeped her out. So she removed all the tracking she could from her phone. It didn’t work – she received a similar email the following month.

I received a similar email (see a part of mine above, where they show two restaurants I visited). I agree it’s creepy. Why does Google go out of their way to remind customers they’re tracking their movements? It comes down to a core CX principle of understanding customer needs. Employees focus on what they think is cool, rather than what customers want. Read more

What Makes a Great Customer Experience Leader

July 25, 2019/2 Comments/in Customer Experience /by Jim Tincher

Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to interview dozens of CX leaders, and still more as we wrote our book. Combining that knowledge with some of the industry research, such as CustomerThink’s report on winning CX programs, we’ve identified three traits that separate the best customer experience leaders from the rest.

For too many, CX has fallen into a rhythm:

Conduct an NPS survey
Analyze the results
Share the results with anybody who will listen
Implement some quick wins
Repeat the NPS survey
Wonder why things haven’t changed