Category: Customer Experience

We’re often reminded that the best way to get what we want is to help other people get what they want.

That opening the door for others makes it more likely that others will open the door for us.

What makes it odd is the implication that if we don’t get, it’s hardly worth giving.

But what if we separated the two and simply chose generosity because we could?

It turns out that happy people are more likely to be generous. (Which implies that generous people are more likely to be happy). Not because they get something measurable in return, but simply because abundance is a choice. And making choices celebrates our agency and potential.

What an opportunity to bring justice and care and dignity to the people around us.

Happy birthday.

Perhaps it’s a proprietary manufacturing technique, or the fact that you add a little chickpea flour to your dosa batter.

Professionals often develop secret approaches and recipes that they use in their work.

It doesn’t matter. Even famous ones.

If it really matters to your competition, they’re going to figure it out.

And if they figure it out, you’ll succeed based on all the things that aren’t a secret–your care, effort and empathy. Time spent securing the secret in a vault is time wasted.

They’re easy to confuse.

An event happens at date certain, then it’s over, nothing more to be done.

A journey might include an event, but it’s bigger than that, and ongoing.

A wedding is an event, a marriage is a journey.

The week a book is published is an event, while the creation, publication and lifespan of the ideas in the book are a journey.

The focus and energy we lavish on events can easily distract us from the journeys we care about.

Let me start by saying my husband and I are in complete repugnance with the way the second-largest hardware retailer in the U.S., this “Fortune 500” company, LOWE’S has handled their business and customer relations/support. We have used Lowe’s for many different projects, on many different occasions. Around August of 2022, we purchased carpet from Lowe’s and paid to have it installed. To make a long story short, my husband took the day off of work when the carpet was to be installed, however the installers never showed. After reaching out to installation support, we were informed that the installers were double booked and they would be here the following week. There was no compensation for this error of Lowe’s, although we were told that we would be compensated all of the labor costs back. With much hesitation, we decided to give Lowe’s another chance. We had a sales representative come from the Paducah, Kentucky store to give us an estimate on replacing the vinyl, facia, trim, and gutters on our home. Meanwhile, we were in the process of having a garage built in the back and our goal was to have the garage and house match. We signed the contract and choose our color (Spruce by Royal), and we were told our installation would start May 4th, 2022. We were told our materials were ordered and would be delivered prior to the installation date. On April 1st, 2022, Lowe’s charged our credit card for the full amount of the job, that hadn’t even began. $16K+ Then, May 4th came and went, and we didn’t have any materials, nor did anyone show up to start the installation. We called installation support again…..This was drug out for months, with many calls to installation support, trips to the local store to speak with the manager, as the sales rep would not return our calls. If he did, it was via text, and there was always an excuse as to why he was unable to keep his appointment. Through installation support, we were informed that the wrong color and brand of vinyl was ordered. We went back and forth with Lowe’s for so long, that our garage was built and it was time for them to vinyl it. We wanted to be absolutely 100% sure that they vinyl in the house and garage matched, so my husband once again reached out to the rep. (via text).He took the product numbers for the vinyl we ordered for the garage and said it would be no problem, he would order from the same supplier we used for the garage (though that conversation we found out our materials had never been ordered). Our garage was completed, meanwhile, our house hadn’t been touched, we had exposed wood and no deck off the back door (we could not use this door since removing the old deck for them to install the new vinyl), since May 2022, when they were supposed to complete the installation. We made sure our windows were replaced and all metal was bent around the frames, prior to our installation date,so we wouldn’t encounter any delays. Numerous phone calls to installation support, and numerous pages of notes in their system, we finally were told another installation date for the end of September 2022. That day came and went, and no one showed. The contractors finally showed up the first week of October, but there was one big problem! Lowe’s never delivered the materials! Many, many phone calls later, doing our own researching and digging, we found out that the sales rep did place an order for our materials back in September of 2022, but Lowes never paid for it! The supplier had tried to contact the sales rep many times via e-mail and phone calls to let him know they needed an itemized P.O. in order for the materials to be paid for. He never got back with them and the contractor could not start with out materials. As homeowners, we were concerned about the wood that had been replaced on the house and had been exposed since May 2022 (5 months), to all weather conditions. The installers told us they could start as soon as the materials were here, but the supplier was not going to release them until they were paid for….I could write a novel about this horrid experience, but to try to wrap this post up, I’ll tell you, we took our truck and trailer, went and wrote a check for $5,300+ and paid for the materials (a second time as they had charged our credit card a little over 16K on April 1st, 2022) and brought them home. Installation support customer service assistant manager “Monette” had us scan in and email all our documents and informed us we would receive a check in the mail to reimburse us for the materials and the compensation would be handled once the job was complete. Folks……it is January 13, 2023, and yesterday when we called installation support, because corporate never called us like we were told they would, nor did we ever get reimbursed for the materials. We were told from an installation support rep, that corporate sent them an e-mail stating there would be no reimbursement for the materials, nor would there be any compensation. She stated that it was sent to district, to regional, and then to corporate. Lowe’s broke their contract, they were deceitful, they flat out lied to us, and no one from corporate ever contacted us, not via e-mail nor a phone call! So Lowe’s, this “Fortune 500” company, who is supposed to be ranked as one of the most admired companies, expects us to just sit back and eat this $22K!! Expects us to except their lies and the worst customer service I have ever experienced in my life (and I have been in customer service for over 20 years). So here we are, with our hands thrown in the air, unsure what step we should take next. Do we hire a lawyer, and potentially end up losing more money to try to get this straightened out!?! One would think, that a corporation like Lowe’s would stand behind their word, have dignity, and customer service. One would think they would have corporate employees who take pride in their company and customer relations. Do their best to uphold their company name, but that clearly isn’t the case with Lowe’s. Keyboard warriors, if you will. Above dealing with the public. However, if it wasn’t for us, the public, I don’t believe they would hold the position they do….I’ll wrap this by by asking for your thoughts on what you think should be our next approach. Or maybe you have experienced this with Lowe’s, please share what happened and how it turned out. Or maybe you’re a Lowe’s team member and you or someone you know, can pass this on to an individual that does have dignity for their company. All comments and ideas are welcome. I didn’t put every detail into this post to try to prevent it from being so long. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your replies! ~One very disgruntled customer submitted by /u/Appalled2SayTheLeast [link] [comments]

Employee satisfaction is one of the most important factors in managing a successful, profitable organisation. Employees that are happy and engaged are more likely to be productive, have fewer sick days, and promote business innovation. When employees are happy, committed, and engaged, employee turnover is greatly reduced, and corporate earnings are significantly higher. Finding ways…
The post 4 ways to boost productivity & employee happiness at work appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Who has their hand on the dial?

Talk with someone who works at Apple, Amazon, Google, Linkedin, Facebook, etc, and they’ll be happy to give you tips on how to work the platform to your advantage. How to get a bit more attention for your podcast or your website or your photos…

Unstated in this helpful posture is an unseen bias: They have a platform mindset.

This is the opposite of the thinking at a record label or a book publisher or a newspaper. They understand that their most important job is curation–choosing what goes on the front page.

Of course, platforms have long been curators, but they embraced the role instead of denying it. Radio station program directors decided what would be in heavy rotation and bookstore owners figured out what to put in the window or by the cash register. These platform leaders understood that their decision to promote something instead of everything was a key part of their job.

The platform mindset is sort of helpless. The algorithm is in charge, they aren’t. The data decides, they don’t.

In the short run, this bias feels helpful in a lot of ways. It eliminates gatekeeper errors. Since everything has a chance, being alert as a gatekeeper feels less important. When Decca famously turned down the Beatles, it was a mistake that cost them for decades. A platform executive doesn’t have to worry about this, since they can carry everyone and let the market sort itself out.

But there are two problems with this chosen, learned helplessness:

The first is that it’s simply not true. The algorithm doesn’t write itself. The rise in hate speech on platforms like Twitter is possible because the algorithm rewards it. The vapid recipes that people build on websites are there because Google’s algorithm rewards them. And yes, the noxious additional fees that airlines charge are there because the travel websites rank flights with hidden charges higher in the results than those that are honest about what it really costs.

When platforms grow in scale, they often add hardworking, well-meaning people to engage the public, sort of a buffer between creators and the algorithm, but they’re instructed that the algorithm itself is sacrosanct and off limits. We sell everything, we don’t know how to sell any (particular) thing.

Go to some meetings with Apple’s podcast team (the ones who apparently can make or break a podcast by promoting it) and you’ll soon realize that Apple isn’t really in the business of helping its many users find podcasts that will elevate, inspire and educate them. Instead, they’re simply feeding the platform.

Netflix, in its best moments, succeeds because they break the platform paradigm and shift into curation.

The second is that this platform-first agnostic non-curation ultimately leads to the demise of the platform. The aphorism is: Enough A/B testing will turn any website into a porn site. That’s because the short-term waves of data-driven, algorithmic feedback loops inevitably make platforms banal, then trashy. This is happening to Amazon–their Amazon Go stores in New York are dull. The search result spam on their site is worse. Inevitably, the people they most want to serve get frustrated, bored or bummed out and go somewhere else.

What to do about it? Well, if you’re a creator, it helps to realize that you’re probably not going to be treated in a special way by any platform that has a platform mindset. There isn’t a shortcut, there are simply lots of dreary steps and then maybe some luck.

And if you’re part of a platform that has scale (or hope to build one), this is the perfect moment to learn from the curation that came before. When we talk about the folks that built the parts of our culture that we’re proud of, we almost never talk about the platforms. We talk about people who had the guts and the taste and the energy to help others discover things that made a difference, all while winnowing out the cruft and the junk.

We shouldn’t be here to feed the platform. The platform needs to be here for us.

Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news. This week, we’re looking at the latest research out there. This includes insights into how UK retail figures have declined, Sigma Connected have found that organisations are still not meeting customer needs to communicate with them, and Genesys’ brilliant ESG recognition.  Key…
The post This week in CX: UK retail has surged by 57%; plus news from Genesys & Sigma Connected appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

I(25f)work in a grocery store and have had many odd customer experiences. Some were better than others. Some were just straight up odd. A mom and her three kids came through the express lane the other day since that’s the register I’ve been assigned lately. Two of the kids were quiet and being good, but the third one kept screaming and crying. I could tell the mom was annoyed, but was managing to keep herself together. I felt sorry for her and tried to keep a straight face as I rang up her order. When everything was done, I gave her the receipt with a kind smile. She smiled back and headed out of the store, the crying child still screaming on the way out. I took a breath as the next customer came up. He was laughing about what just happened and said, ” I bet you’re planning on getting your tubes tied after that.” It was awkward. The only thing I could think of was to smile and say, “I just hope my niece doesn’t turn out that way.” submitted by /u/AngelofRed00 [link] [comments]

Change seems to happen slowly and then all at once. The same holds when considering how artificial intelligence is changing the contact center.  
You probably know at least a bit about AI and automation. Tools like interactive voice response (IVR) and smart call routing are tried and true ways to save time and money – and offer better service. They are also popular advancements in automation that employ varying degrees of AI. Most managers also rely on an analytics package (or several, depending on how integrated your software is) to monitor KPIs. Again: these tools employ automation and at least a bit of artificial intelligence.  
But suddenly, there’s so much more. As data centers scale up to provide accessible and more affordable computing power, they also usher in a range of new capabilities. All at once, the future is here. 
But what does this flood of possibilities mean for you? For your agents? And your operation? Here are four main areas where we expect to see advancements in artificial intelligence change – and improve – the contact center. 

More personalization and better customer experience 
Improved agent experience 
Access to next-level analytics 
Improved contact center operations 

How to Buy Contact Center Software
AI is Personalizing the Customer Experience 
Today’s customers expect personalization. A 2022 Shopify report found that 73 % of customers expect brands to understand their unique needs and expectations. And McKinsey and Company say that 76% of customers feel disappointed when they don’t receive it.  
Remember, too, that customers love self-service as much as they love personalization. AI-powered chatbots informed with a customer’s purchase history, browsing patterns, and service tickets can go a long way to answering both requirements. IBM says that smart chatbots can answer 80% of customer queries.   
With an AI boost, predictive call routing can help personalize a customer’s experience by considering the customer’s call history, communication style, and even personality and matching them with an agent best suited to their needs. 
When customers do connect with an agent, in-call sentiment analysis can decode customers’ emotions and offer in-call prompts, supporting agents, and improving metrics like first call resolution. It also provides a personalized experience to the customer, whose order history, needs, preferences, and even emotions are clearly understood.  
Tools that personalize CX

Conversational AI (Chatbots)
Predictive Call Routing
Sentiment Analysis

AI is Improving the Agent Experience and Increasing Agent Efficiency 
Another place to feel the impact of AI is one of the most important: the agent experience. Contact centers are notoriously challenging places to work. Agent turnover is high, and the jobs are stressful. So it’s excellent news that agents feel overwhelmingly positive about the AI tools available to support them at work.  

FACT:
A 2022 study says that call center agents reported a 69% improvement in job satisfaction after using AI tools to support their jobs.

Tools like interactive voice response already lower stress in the call center. During call spikes, some advanced IVR products like Fonolo’s Voice Call-Backs can allow callers to schedule a call for a quieter time.  
IVR can:  

Connect customers to the right agent through call routing. 
Allow callers to schedule a call-back instead of waiting on hold. 
Communicate essential updates to customers navigating the system. 

AI-powered software can also perform sentiment analysis to track your customer’s reactions and emotions in real time during a phone call. For example, a frustrated customer might pause more often, and their tone of voice may go up. AI can pick up on these signals by analyzing the tone and cadence of a phone call. The software offers live agent feedback via pop-up messages so that the agent can respond appropriately to their customer’s needs.  
Tools that improve agent experience and efficiency 

IVR
Sentiment Analysis

AI is Providing Next-Level Analytics 
Analytics are the backbone of tracking efficiencies in the contact center. Key performance indicators like first call resolution and average handle time help managers keep track of customer satisfaction and agent performance and engagement. Ultimately, these numbers tell you whether your call center is healthy and on-target to meet your business goals. 
AI can take your analytics to the next level, or even the level beyond that! The magic comes from machine learning algorithms that sift through millions of data points, spotting trends and monitoring customer sentiment and agent performance. The data offers a much more detailed insight into customer interactions and can dramatically improve CX, agent experience, and customer satisfaction.  
What does this all really look like? In practice, you’ll probably interact with AI powered analytics as part of your contact center software package. Your analytics software should have pre-built reports that align with your business goals. And agents should have access to real-time performance analytics, too. You’ll need to plan ahead to get the most out of your software. 
3 Ways to Use Artificial Intelligence in Your Call Center
Put your data to work 

Create a vision: Decide what data is important to you and why. You’ll be overwhelmed with too much information if you don’t start with a plan.  
Choose your software: Make sure your analytics package has the resources you need and an intuitive presentation style that makes sense for you and your team. 
Prepare your team: Don’t bombard them with irrelevant numbers. Deliver actionable insights in a simple, compelling way.  
Trust the data: Consider gamifying performance results to reward performance. Offer rewards that matter to your agents and engage your team in pursuing a higher level of achievement.  

Tools that provide detailed analytics 

Interactive Dashboards like Fonolo Portal

AI Makes Call Center Operations More Efficient  
In addition to improving customer satisfaction rates and first call resolution, IBM says AI tools lower operating costs. By letting smart chatbots respond to 80% of calls, IBM says the per-call cost shrinks by an incredible 80%.  
A sidebar effect of this increase in efficiency and rapid growth of AI, is that contact centers are even more relevant – and more interesting – to businesses. Call centers are the beating heart of customer interactions, with direct access to customers and (now) millions of data points. These days that means contact centers are viewed with increasing interest in business boardrooms. Some say contact centers are the next big tech frontier!  
 The post How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Contact Center first appeared on Fonolo.

Pronouncements are more common than ever.

It might be an insurgent announcing a way to change the government, a CEO with a bold new plan or an entrepreneur seeking funds. Or perhaps it’s a pundit or a critic, hard at work. Pronouncements are bold, definitive and dramatic, but they also seem to defy common sense.

If you’re actually proposing something thoughtful and practical, perhaps you could answer three questions:

And then what happens? After we take this action, after you shut down that agency, eliminate that division or launch this new project, what will happen after that?

How will that work? What are the mechanics involved, the ones that don’t suspend the laws of physics or organizational behavior that will support this new way forward?

Why? Can you explain, beyond your reality-suspending confidence, why the system will respond to your approach?

It’s entirely possible that this is precisely the change we need and the change that will work. But when the pronouncer refuses to answer the questions, it should give the rest of us pause.