Shep Hyken’s · 2019-07-31 · chat bots. All part of the digital revolution, the modern customer expects a consistent experience regardless of communication method / social media

ShepHyken’sShepHyken’s

a special curation by Shepard Presentations

Tips to Create Effective Customer Service Communication

The Three C’s of Successful Communication

10 Reasons Why Your Customers Choose You Over a

Competitor

What Causes Friction

How to Deliver Bad News

The Power of a Smile

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What’s In This?What’s In This?

Copyright © MMXIX SHEP HYKEN

Moments of Magic® and Moments of Misery™ are trademarks of Shep Hyken, Shepard Presentations, LLC. All rights reserved.

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the 3 C’sthe 3 C’s2

of Successful Communication

An old saying in the real-estate industry goes, the three keys to success are location, location and location.

I have a similar take on the customer service and customer service world: the three keys to customer experience success are consistency, consistency and consistency.

A non-negotiable to creating customer loyalty is a consistent and predictable experience – one customers count on every time they do business with you. The entire experience must be consistent. You can’t be great one day and just okay the next.

1. Product / service quality

Whatever you sell, the product must meet theexpectations of the customer every time. It doesn’t matter how good your customer service is, if the product doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, the customer will find another company better at meeting their needs.

2. Social media presence

Today’s customers connect with companies in multiple ways. Traditionally, communication

in person or over the phone. Then along came emails, then direct messaging and then chat bots. All part of the digital revolution, the modern customer expects a consistent experience regardless of communication method / social media channel.

3. Work attitude

I’m not suggesting everyone becomes a clone of each other. The positive attitude and effort employees embody to take care of customers must be consistent. It shouldn’t matter if the customer talks to John one day and Jane the next, everyone comes to work with the same plan — to do their very best, every day. Regardless of who picks up the phone or responds to a message, the customer should always have a good experience.

When customers talk about a consistent company, they say things like, “They are always so helpful.” Or, “They are always so friendly and knowledgeable.” When they use the word always followed by something positive about the company, that’s consistency.

Delivering a consistent experience creates confidence. Confidence leads to trust. And, consistent trust leads to loyalty.

“The entire experience must be consistent. You

can’t be great one day and just okay the next.”

The Relationship Between Customer Loyalty & Consistency

Delivering a Consistent Experience:

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10 Reasons Why Your Customers Choose You Over a Competitor

10 Reasons Why Your Customers Choose You Over a CompetitorPeople don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. That quote comes from Simon Sinek, author of the book, Start with Why. You need to communicate your story, your why, behind every business transaction.

Consider these different reasons behind why a customer chooses a company, based on what kind of message the company sends:


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Let’s end where we started — with Simon Sinek’s quote. All of these reasons (and more) contribute to the decision of why a customer chooses one company over another. When you figure out a customer’s Why and scale it to meet the needs of a larger group, you connect on another level that brings customers back, again and again.

01. Price

02. Convenience

03. Customer service

04. Culture

05. A Cause

06. Trust

07. Reputation

08. Consistency

09. The Way

10. The Why

An obvious first reason. Some people choose price as the primary or sole reason. However, the companies keeping customers because of low price will lose them immediately once a com-petitor offers a lower price. The loyalty belongs to the price itself, not the actual company.

Who doesn’t want an easy and friction-less experience? People often willingly pay a higher price for a convenient experience.

You love the way a certain company treats you. Employees are friendly, knowledgeable, and quick to respond. They take care of the customer, and in turn, you take care of them… by doing business with them.

Your values are congruent with theirs – this is the kind of organization you want to be affiliated with.

You believe in what they believe in. At some level, this ties into culture and values, but this focuses on giving back and community involvement. Whether a charity or philanthropic cause, if it is important to you, it’s probably important to one of the companies you do business with: everything from saving elephants to curing world hunger.

You trust them. They do what they say, every time. If you don’t trust the organization, you probably wouldn’t be doing business with them anyways.

You’ve heard good things – maybe comments from friends or colleagues at work. Or, plenty of reviews online confirm this is a good company. Reputation is a big part of the decision.

This ties in with trust and reputation. Outside of lying, something that erodes trust quicker than anything is a lack of consistency. You want customers to use the word “always” to describe their experience with you. “They are always friendly, knowledgeable, helpful…” You get the idea.

The way they do business: their process, policies, business hours, location and more. It focuses on tangible operation functions, which initially may get a customer in the door.


Bad policies: I hate when someone does something that seems like a waste of time, and then blames it on a policy or gives me an excuse or negative response. Duplicate paperwork: Get organized. It may seem fine in the moment to refill something out, but an executive of a bank I recently talked to said duplicate paperwork was a big problem. Cumbersome technology: Hard-to-navigate websites or apps drive customers away. Anything broken: If something is broken, the moment you find out about it, start fixing it. I’m surprised at what isn’t fixed in a reasonable period of time. Making customers wait: Sometimes a wait is inevitable. However, if you make a customer wait, let them know how long. Then don’t be late!

Inconsistent information: When a customer gets different answers to the same question, they’ll probably become confused. And confusion is friction.

What Causes Friction?What Causes Friction?5

& Other Roadblocks for Clear CommunicationIn my new book The Convenience Revolution, I focus on ways to be more convenient for customers. I share six Convenience Principles and numerous examples and case studies. The goal is to eliminate friction. I haven’t talked to you about what causes friction, however. Ask yourself, what don’t you like about some of the companies you do business with? These “convenience infractions” potentially drive customers away.

Poorly trained employees: It can tie into inconsistent information, but it’s more than that. Employees who demonstrate a lack of knowledge or competency frustrates customers. Frustration is friction.

Unavailable personnel: This is also frustrating. Some companies make it hard to get to a person. If a customer is on a website and needs help, make sure to have human fallback. Poor customer experience design: The concept of CX design is a hot topic. Companies assign executive titles to the person in charge of “design.” It encompasses more than designing labels and packaging — it orchestrates the total end-to-end experience the customer has with your company. This person is in charge of eliminating friction!


6It’s never fun to share bad news with a customer. Maybe an order didn’t ship, something was damaged, a deadline is not going to be met, etc. However, it doesn’t really matter what the bad news is. The key to managing the customer experience is how you deliver the bad news. This brings me to Dollar Shave Club, who shared the news of a price increase. While the price didn’t go up much – just an additional dollar a month – it was still necessary to tell the customers why it was happening. Dollar Shave started out by sending a letter to its members (customers). After all, it is the Dollar Shave Club. Not the Dollar Shave Store. Clubs have members. The first couple of paragraphs sum it up:

Hey Shep, We’re emailing to let you know that as of May 13, 2019, we will be increasing the price of each Ex-ecutive cassette by $1. You are currently receiving these cassettes on a 1-month basis. We believe in being totally transparent with our Members, even if it means delivering some tough news. We know. It’s a bummer. We don’t want to do it.

The letter then delivers the why behind their motives. It explains they haven’t raised prices since 2012, and they want to continue to deliver a quality product. Sure, it’s only a dollar increase, but nobody likes to pay more for something.

Some important points to notice:First, they used my name. Second, the tone was casual, which is in alignment with their brand.

Steps for Delivering Bad NewsWhether in person or through writing, consider the following steps: 1. Be personal. 2. Be direct. (Put the most important information in the first sentence). 3. Apologize – not because you’re at fault, but to empathize with the customer. 4. Give an explanation, not an excuse. 5. Thank the customer for past business and for continued business in the future. 6. Be available if the customer has questions. No matter how careful we are, life isn’t perfect. Bad news is unavoidable. Deliver it tactfully. Dollar Shave Club did just that.

A Must-HaveManagement Skill

How to deliver

Bad News

How to deliver

Bad News

Third, they communicated clearly and concisely. All in the first sentence.


While on a New York subway with my daughter, Alex, I noticed her smile at someone who, in turn, smiled back. I complimented her on the small but kind gesture, and it started a great conversation about life and customer service. Now, some of you may be thinking, “Big deal. It was just a smile.” But it is a big deal. Back when Alex was a teenager, she attended an annual convention of the National Speakers Asso-ciation. The youth program featured top motiva-tional speakers in the world. My friend W Mitchell, spoke. In his life, he over-came incredible adversity: a motorcycle accident burned his face and a good percentage of his body, and a plane crash put him a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The way Alex remembers it, Mitchell talked about low self-esteem after the motorcycle accident. He didn’t want to go outside because he didn’t want to see how people might react to his face. When he finally mustered up the courage to walk outside, he saw a little girl and was terrified he might scare her. The little girl instead looked at him and smiled. He smiled back. That little girl’s smile meant the world to him.

Alex said, “After hearing his story, I started smiling and saying good morning or hello to everyone.” Every day when she takes the train home from work, a homeless man asks for money. Hardly anyone looks at him as they walk by. When Alex initially walked by, wearing a leopard patterned coat, she said she smiled at him and said, “Hi.” The man responded, “Hello girl in the leopard coat.” Thus began a daily ritual.

She mentioned she does the same thing at work. As she walks by a colleague, she always smiles, and almost always gets a friendly smile back. That day, as we were shopping, I noticed salespeople didn’t smile or make eye contact with customers when they walked into their stores. I couldn’t help but think of the missed opportunity to set a more positive tone and create a better human-to-human connection. The point is that a smile is a small gesture, but a powerful one. It takes little effort and doesn’t cost anything. You just have to get in the habit of doing it. It’s powerful at work and in your personal life. When you get into the habit of smiling at others, you’ll start to notice how many people smile back at you.

“Smile and the world smiles at you.”

— Stanley Gorden West

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The Power of aThe Power of a 7

Improving CX with a smile



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Shep Hyken’s · 2019-07-31 · chat bots. All part of the digital revolution, the modern customer expects a consistent experience regardless of communication method / social media