Smart Customers, Stupid Companies?

In pursuit of improving customer experience for our clients, we've "listened" to thousands of customers over the years. Today, these customers are less patient, less loyal, better connected and savvier about their options (and your competition) than ever before.

They really are "smarter."

At the same time, many of these customers believe the companies they deal with are 'stupid.' Their word, not ours. And they won't hesitate to walk after a single poor experience.

The question I'd pose to you is this: Do your customers think that your company acts smart, or stupid? Whether or not you chose to ask it of your firm, know that your customers already are.

The answers will almost certainly surprise you.

In this environment, any commitment to a better experience starts by understanding what the 'digital revolution' (which frankly is now just a way of life) means to your industry, your company and your customers.

If you're wondering what the answers are, and how they can help you get closer to your customers, then drop me a note. The answers (and what you can do with them) may be closer than you think…

Best,

Michael Hinshaw
Managing Director
MCorp Consulting

In brief, this is (and will
continue to be) an
evolutionary process.
For now, we're looking at
a combination of:

- Clicks
- Mentions
- RTs (retweets)
- Reach (of a tweet)

Our baseline (0) is a
Tweet that has reached
only my approximately
3000 followers, and
opened (read) only an
average number of
times.

Insights and Influence in 140 Characters or Less…

All you have to do is look in your pocket to know where the world of customer experience is heading. In a word: smarter.

Smarter as in touchpoints that are shifting (at an exponential rate) from static and human towards digital and interactive. Smarter as in customers having access through their digital devices to more information, more quickly and from more places than most companies can get in front of their own CSR’s through their CRM systems. Smarter as in corporate executives that need to be at least as smart as their customers, or risk losing them forever.

Clearly you’re interested in learning more about Smart Customers as well: four of this month’s Top Tweets have smart customer experiences at their heart. If you’d like to learn more, join us in the conversation at Smart Customers, Stupid Companies. Including case studies and intelligent discussion of the trends and innovations driving smarter customers, you’ll also find a path towards driving smarter customer experiences in your organization.

After all, in a connected world where we all have the ability to get "smarter" by the day, no company can afford to be seen as "stupid" by its customers…

1.) The Customer Experience Ecosystem [Visualized] http://ow.ly/5s81M
If touchpoints can engage customers' eyes and ears, why not engage the eyes and ears of an internal team, when learning about touchpoints and their customers' experiences? For those of you charged with spreading the CEX word throughout an organization, take a page out of Forrester's book. Using words and visuals, right brain and left, can help make your message stick. (Tweet Score: 87)

2.) An advancement in "self-checkout" technology... A rather nice idea, actually. http://ow.ly/5eVkO
A great proponent of self-check (I'm not good about standing quietly and awaiting my turn in line, especially when the five carts ahead seem to be shopping for a weeklong Boy Scout troop getaway), any technology that puts the power into my own hands has my vote. Scan, price, done? Excellent. And from the store's perspective, 10% more in sales and a tool that makes customers feel empowered? Oh heck yeah. (Tweet Score: 71)

3.) Some customer experience innovations can bring a tear to my eye... http://ow.ly/5oXqC
Upon reading this short post I went straight to www.hipmunk.com. Now that's what I call a much-needed, easy-to-grasp innovation. Just like standing in line at a grocery store (see above) neither does anyone want to endure an extra layover in Podunk to save $30 off an airfare. So adding a "pain"; quotient into the flight finding algorithm? Brilliant. Now if only they could get Southwest to be part of their flight-finding mix... (Tweet Score: 65)

4.) Reading: "Customer Advocacy and the Branded Experience" http://ow.ly/5oUkZ
A terrific, detailed primer on the importance of retail brands competing on more than the transaction. If you can deliver on the service and you fill a niche, don't be afraid to have a personality. If I'm your right kind of person, I'll not only go on the journey but I'll write postcards to my buddies about it afterwards. Just don't forget (and this is to you IKEA and Umpqua), that you still have to deliver on the basics, or your beautifully cultivated brand won't be worth the paper it's printed on. (Talk about a 20th century saying.) (Tweet Score: 64)

5.) Careful shaping of behaviors helps you deliver good (and consistent) customer experience. http://ow.ly/5ncKc
If ten commandments, the Sunnah and Principal Skinner can't get us to fall in line, don't be too hard on yourself if you can't do it in your organization either. Creating a culture is about research, preparation and leading by example and influence, rather than by a mandate from on high. Oh, and actually believing in it is important too. So articulate, connect the dots from the soft to the payoff, and put some processes into place to actually back your words. Now I'm off to go git me some of that there cultchah. (Tweet Score: 57)

6.) Reading: "How The 'Most Improved' Companies Raised Their Customer Experience Game Last Year" http://ow.ly/54wYC
Think you can raise your CxPi (customer experience index) score with a memo or plaque with your mission statement? Think again. It took some major re-engineering for companies to inch up their CxPi scores up even just five points in this Forrester study. Lessons for the rest of us? Assemble and centralize an enterprise-level customer experience team, listen to customers, and then actually address their pain points. Ow. (Tweet Score: 55)

7.) Smarter customers demand smarter customer experiences. Digital touchpoints cannot be ignored any longer. http://ow.ly/5eTWs
Okay first of all, it still freaks me out that "turn-of-the-century" technology means laptops and cordless phones rather than Zeppelins and the safety razor. But I digress. The real point is that far from isolating us, pdas/tablets/notebooks have created the global village Marshall McLuhan heralded back in the 60s. And as he predicted, involvement has replaced acquisition. It's not just the tangible commodity we're shopping for / buying / reviewing...the concept is now part of the sale. Companies that are still relying on brochure-ware websites, take heed. (Tweet Score: 54)

8.) "If you really cannot see beyond a VoC program, please don't do it." http://ow.ly/5eUgu
Yes, Strativity should proof their posts. But that aside, they make a great point that we tell our clients all the time. We applaud your commitment to customer listening tools, but don't bother even going there if you don't have the ability (or guts...or C-suite backing) to follow up with some sort of action. It's a closed-loop system, and some of those middle points? They can be huge. Entailing little things like busting down silos, changing compensation structures and firing well-performing managers who think it's all really just a bunch of new-age hooey. (Tweet Score: 49)

9.) Do you represent a commodity or a value-adding service to your customers? http://ow.ly/5eUWm
Break out of the commodity trap (as author Shep Hyken so eloquently puts it) and your customers may be happy to pay 10%...even 25% more. So you're a widget-sourcing firm, not the Ritz. But what would it take to be the Ritz of widget sourcers? What's your version of thicker towels and better room service? From low-cost to luxury, nearly every provider can attract higher paying customers with a better customer experience. (Tweet Score: 47)

10.) All businesses should have this posted... at the register, the break-room, heck, post it in the bathroom! http://ow.ly/5oUUB
So after years of saying, "putting it on a plaque or mousepad doesn't make it so, here I am retweeting a list of platitudes. But they're great ones, and like a great cliché, you know they're rooted in truth. So rounding out our June customer-service-centric issue, I give you some corporate raison d'être. Everyone together now: "Because the customer is..." (Tweet Score: 47)