customer satisfaction

On January 18th I participated with Matt Kresch (Microsoft) in the first of three video webinars (vidnars? webdeos?) that we are presenting on Customer Experience.

It was fantastic, seriously – here’s the link if you want to check it out (registration required), and we had a very engaging (that’s what the comments said) conversation about why #CX matters now, and how to get started with your customer experience initiative.

If I were to ask you to name a company that consistently excels at customer service, what company would come to mind? In you are part of a military family, you might say USAA. If you live in the Southeast, you might tell me about Publix Supermarkets. If you are a golf aficionado, you might share your Masters experience with me. And, if you are passionate about shoes, you might mention either Nordstrom or Zappos. No doubt, others among you would name companies such as Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Chik-fil-A, Apple Stores, Disney, and Mayo Clinic.

Now and then a question comes along that provokes my thinking. Here’s a question that I came across recently expressed in different ways:

You think your customers are happy. But have you ever taken a step back to evaluate (and quantify) what they aren’t telling you?

Alain Thys is the founder of Futurelab and author of So You Want to Be Customer Centric. Laurent Bouty is the CMO and partner at Futurelab. They were recent guests on the TechnologyAdvice Expert Interview Series. The series, which is hosted by TechnologyAdvice’s Josh Bland, explores a variety of business and technology landscapes through conversations with industry leaders.

As customers of the modern world we are used to the online shopping. It is an easy way to get what we want – easy, fast and even cheaper. But that don’t mean that we are not choosey and that we can be easily satisfied.

This report (The Power of Linguistics in Customer Service) from Eptica is worth reading if you are attempting to improve your customer experience.

This study is all about the digital channel although I doubt if it is much better in other channels.