How to Create the Ultimate Service Culture

Bite-Sized Delight From the Episode:

• When you create a new customer experience, somebody needs to try it out and see if it’s easy for your customers.
• Great customer service goes hand-in-hand with corporate culture.
• Experiential marketing helps customers understand your value by trying it for themselves.

THIS JUST HAPPENED: Gas Rewards [01:00-09:07]

Dan’s gas station has a partnership with his grocery store, Jewel, where for every $100 you spend at the grocery store you get 10 cents off at the pump. He registered for the program, but when he went to redeem it, he was presented with three multiple-choice screens. Which of these options would you choose (he has never received a rewards card)?

The correct answer was “Rewards.” Here’s the next screen:

Jewel is the name of the grocery store, but we have no idea what “ID/FR” means. Luckily, the correct answer is, again, “Rewards.” Here’s the last screen:

Again, Dan signed up for a rewards program but didn’t ever receive a card. It turns out the “Alt ID” means, in some other language, your phone number. A customer is much more likely to remember their phone number than they are to be carrying some random rewards card, so why isn’t this just an option on the first screen?

Tweetable Quotes

If you’ve never had the experience, how do you know how to do it? #CX Click To Tweet
When in doubt, make it easy for your customer. #CX Click To Tweet

Takeaways

• When you build a new experience, whether it’s digital or in the real world, you have to have someone try it out before you release it to the public.
• Rewards programs are meant to promote loyalty, but if you make the experience difficult it might create the opposite effect, so when in doubt make it easy for your customer.

BOOK REPORT: The Service Culture Handbook [09:08-20:46]

This week’s book is The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-to-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service by Jeff Toister. What does obsessed mean? For Jeff, it’s a sense of caring deeply about customers. How do you get employees willing to go the extra mile at scale? Where are three parts of the book that each ask a question:

• Why do you need a customer-focused culture?
• How do you build that culture?
• How do you change your organization to align everything with that customer-focused culture?

We talk to Jeff about his book, his favorite passages from it, and go over our takeaways as well.

Tweetable Quotes

People try to borrow from another company’s culture and it just doesn’t work. #CX Click To Tweet
It starts at the top— leadership can make or break the whole thing. #CX Click To Tweet
Companies that get really good at service will tell you they have to work at it every day. #CX Click To Tweet

Takeaways

• Great customer service has to be ingrained in the corporate culture.
• You need to take the time to define your culture and set specific goals around it.
• Hire and train to your service culture, and then empower people to deliver on it.

CX PRESS: Scotch and Experience [20:48-30:56]

In “What a Nice Scotch Can Teach You About Experiential Marketing” by John Hall of Influence and Co, he starts with this insight: “You can’t just tell customers how great your candles smell or how comfy your mattress pad feels. Customers need to be able to interact with them in person to feel compelled to buy.” He takes a look at how the alcohol industry is particularly strong at creating experiential marketing events that create experiences out of tastings and turn them into must-attend events. The more immersive that a brand can make a brand experience, the more likely a customer is to remember it and buy.

Tweetable Quotes

The best marketing is when consumers don’t know they’re being marketed to. #CX Click To Tweet
Some things must be seen, tasted, smelled, heard, or felt to be believed. #CX Click To Tweet

Takeaways

• The more immersive that a brand can make the marketing experience, the more likely a customer is to remember it and buy.
• The customer experience starts before someone actually becomes a customer.

CHECK OUT THIS NUMBER: 61% [30:57-33:14]

61% of employees would rather start their own business than work for someone else, according to Oracle’s “Sleepless Over Customer Experience” report. What this means is that companies need to spend time thinking about the employee experience, because ultimately if they’re happy they’ll make your customers happy, too.

Tweetable Quotes

Take care of your employees and they’ll take care of your customers. #CX Click To Tweet

Takeaways

• Happy employees are the easiest way to make sure you have happy customers.

Be a Part of the Show!

We’d love to hear about your great customer experiences, which segments you like, and your ideas for future episodes!

Are You Looking for Things We Referenced?

• Toister Performance Solutions
• The Service Culture Handbook
• Sleepless Over Customer Experience: Small Business Leaders Top Sales and Service Concerns and How to Fix Them
• What Can A Nice Scotch Teach You About Experiential Marketing?

See you next week!