Why you need to see things from your customer's perspective

Was it one friction point or 18?

That's the question from a recent furniture buying experience. One seems minor, while 18 feels egregious. The answer depends on your perspective.

I don't want to name the company, so let's just call them "Ceramics Shed." From their perspective, there was one service failure. Ceramics Shed issued a partial refund on shipping due to a misunderstanding over the delivery process.

From my perspective, there were at least 18 noticeable friction points in the experience. Buying furniture from Ceramics Shed has been a painful process. It's unlikely I'll do business with this company again.

Here's an account of those friction from the customer's perspective (mine).

My intent is not to call out the company for a poor experience, which is why I cleverly changed the name to make it harder to identify. The goal is to illustrate the dangers of missing your customer's perspective.

Discussion question: How many of these issues would have been detected by your company?

The high-friction furniture buying experience

I ordered a pub table and four barstools for a room I'm updating in my home. The first friction point came when I tried to place the order online. It proceeded to get comically worse.

Friction #1: The Ceramics Shed website didn't offer precise delivery dates for the items. Here were the quoted delivery windows:

• Barstools: October 15-19

• Table: October 23-November 6

These are way too broad. Why not just put, “When we get to it” or “Soon” as the delivery window?! The vague delivery dates were a real problem because I knew I'd be home to receive the shipment on some of the dates, but not on others.

Friction #2: There was no obvious way to get a better shipping estimate from the website, so I called to place the order. Cue sad hold music. Nobody likes to call to finish an online order.

I was able to get a better shipping window from Samantha, the customer service rep I spoke with. Samantha promised all of the items would be delivered together on October 28 via "white glove" service.

Friction #3: The total delivery charge for the order was $288.60. This is incredibly expensive, especially when you consider that Ceramics Shed has local stores. Similar local competitors typically charge $99 for furniture delivery. I reluctantly agreed to the charge because the table and chairs were exactly what I wanted.

Friction #4: Ceramics Shed sent an email recapping my order. It gave the original shipping windows I had seen from the website, rather than confirming the October 28 delivery date I had agreed upon with Samantha.

Friction #5: Another email. This one told me the barstools had shipped and would be delivered on October 14. Did I mention Samantha told me the order would arrive on October 28? Avoiding this hassle was the whole reason I called in the first place (see Friction #2).

Friction #6: The barstools were delivered on October 13. Ceramics Shed clearly plays fast and loose with time. If you're keeping score, that didn't hit any of the three promised delivery windows:

• Website: October 15-19

• Samantha: October 28

• Email: October 14

Friction #7: The barstools were left outside my front door in large packages. Samantha had promised me "white glove" delivery when I placed the order and paid an exorbitant $288.60 for shipping. She had confirmed that white glove means the delivery team would place the items inside my home and haul away all the packaging.

Friction #8: The cardboard boxes the barstools came in were too large to fit inside my recycling bin, so I had to break them down and drive them to a recycling center. That chore took more than 30 minutes.

Friction #9: I called to follow up on the table delivery since I was no longer confident it would arrive on October 28 as promised. Just in case it’s not clear, I don’t enjoy repeatedly calling customer service lines.

Friction #10: I had to navigate through endless menu prompts, key in my order number, and then wait on hold for several minutes. Right about now was when I decided to write a post about my experience with “Ceramics Shed.” Fortunately, I had time to start outlining the key points.

Friction #11: An employee named Rebecca answered the phone. The first thing she asked me for was my order number, even though I had already entered it into the phone menu. Rebecca explained that the order numbers don't come through to her system. (Then why did I have to key it in, Ceramics Shed?!)

Friction #12: Rebecca checked the status of my order without asking the reason for my call. She told me the barstools would be delivered on either October 14 or 15. I heard this with my ears while I was staring at the barstools that had already been delivered. (Side note: I was proud of myself for not verbalizing the joke in my head about building a time machine.)

Friction #13: Rebecca couldn't help me with my actual problem, so she transferred me to another department. Ceramics Shed really needs to update its phone menu. If I have to navigate through several layers of options, it’s not unreasonable to expect to be connected with someone who is able to assist me.

Friction #14: I was put on hold again. For some reason, I started imagining an alternative version of Willie Nelson's song, "On the Road Again." "I'm on hold again. I'll just wait, 'cause I'm on hold again."

Friction #15: I’m connected with Rashida. It was a cold transfer, meaning Rebecca didn't introduce me or my story to Rashida, so I had to repeat my order number and re-explain my problem. I find myself empathizing with Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day.

Friction #16: Rashida initially focused on contradicting Samantha, the person who took my order. “No! No! No!” she said. Her tone was very scold-y as she told me that the barstools and table could not have shipped together. By now, I'm getting weary of all the misinformation coming from Ceramics Shed and its employees. I don't even know who to believe.

Friction #17: Rashida tells me she can't give me a firm date when the table will be delivered. She explained the delivery team will call to schedule the delivery once the table is ready to be delivered. I do not trust this will happen. Rashida does agree to give me a partial shipping refund of $161.67.

Friction #18: I’m waiting to hear from the delivery team so I can get the table delivery scheduled. Something tells me this story isn’t over yet. Yay.

Conclusion

Now back to the discussion question. How many of these friction points would you have detected if this had been your company?

There's one simple way to detect most, if not all of these friction points: view the experience through the eyes of your customer.

• Follow the customer's journey placing an order with your company.

• Be a customer yourself, and experience the actual journey.

• Listen when customers share feedback.

That last one is key.

I called customer service twice and shared my feedback with three employees, but I haven’t completed a survey. CX expert, Nate Brown, has an amazingly easy way to collect and organize all the unstructured feedback customers share when they contact us.

Ceramics Shed has lost a long-time customer. It's not just due to a poor experience. It's their general corporate obliviousness to friction.

I suddenly recall my last order was painful, too.

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Jeanne Bliss: How to Get Your CEO to Care About Customer Experience

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It's probably the number one question I get in presentations.

Someone will invariably ask, "How do I get my CEO to care about customer experience?" The person will go on to explain their CEO, or other executives, just care about the numbers.

I've struggled to provide a good answer to help get buy-in for customer experience (CX) when it’s not already obvious.

So I turned to CX pioneer and bestselling author, Jeanne Bliss, for some advice. Bliss shared some wonderfully practical tips in our interview and I'm really fired up to share it!

CX Pioneer and bestselling author, Jeanne Bliss. (Photo courtesy of Customer Bliss.)

Here are just a few topics we covered:

• What metrics does your CEO truly care about?

• Why are we losing customers?

• What should be included in an executive dashboard?

• How can silos obscure CX problems?

• What is leadership bravery, and why do we need it?

You can watch the full, 22 minute interview or just skim the highlights below.

What metrics do executives care about?

You ultimately need to tie CX to the company's financials. Unfortunately, many common CX metrics fall short.

For example, a transactional survey score might tell you if customers were generally happy when they visited your store, called customer service, or tried out your latest product. But there's no direct connection to revenue.

Bliss recommends getting your CFO to help you answer the following questions:

• What's the volume and expected value of customers we gained?

• What’s the volume and expected value of customers we lost?

• What's the net change in customer value?

It's important to gain consensus from the rest of the executive team on how new and lost customer numbers are calculated, along with their relative value.

You can then boil down the numbers to a metric your CEO will likely care about: net customer growth. 

Bliss shared an example from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In the past, a St. Jude leader might organize a fun run event to raise money, and report the percentage increase in participants. Now the organization reports the net increase in number of donors, and tracks what activities brought more donors in.

Bliss recommends reporting customer growth data in numbers of customers and expected dollar value, rather than just percentages. She suggests that a percentage can be too abstract to demonstrate a clear financial impact.

Calculating this number is the first step. Attaching it to a clear story is step two.

Why are we losing customers?

There’s a great moment in our interview where Bliss describes the utopia of a CEO pounding on the boardroom table and demanding to know why the company is losing customers.

“Why?! Why?! Why are we losing customers?!”

Finding the answer to that question requires us to reframe the stories we share to focus on your customers' goals. Focusing on your customers' goals makes it easier to draw a line of sight between net customer growth and customer experience.

Bliss shared the example of Bombardier Aerospace, which sells planes to high net worth individuals. Those buyers don’t care a lot about internally-focused data such as the sales process or how many spare parts are in stock.

Private jet customers have somewhere to go, and they need to get there fast. Bliss helped Bombardier reframe its customer stories to focus on how it would keep customers flying. That’s far more important to customers than a survey or the lead time on a needed part.

Bliss described how executive dashboards often contain red, yellow, and green dots to indicate key performance metrics that are doing well (green), in the danger zone (yellow), or failing (red). She said something that really stuck with me:

When you're measuring the wrong stuff, you're going to get a green dot for stuff that's a red dot for the customer.

Learn more from Jeanne Bliss

Did you skip all the way down here without watching the interview? Do yourself a favor and go watch the full interview here. Bliss is both insightful and entertaining.

You can see more videos from Bliss on her website, including her three principles for improving lives. I think you’ll also enjoy her description of the “find your three blocks long” concept.

Bliss has written a number of books, and I'm a big fan of Would You Do That to Your Mother? It describes how to navigate away from burning customers with "gotcha moments" to earning their loyalty through "we've got your back" moments.

Five Ways to Deliver a Better Experience on the Phone

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A recent blog post outlined the increasing demand for phone skills.

Automation and self-service have ensured that the calls agents get are more complicated than ever. Meanwhile, the phone is still the most popular channel for customers who wish to reach a live agent.

All this means the phone is definitely not dead.

So what are you going to do about it? Here are five steps you can take to improve the customer experience for people who call your company.

Solution #1: Reduce Wait Times

Customers hate to wait. Nothing makes our call feel less important than listening to a recorded voice on loop tell us that our call is important.

When customers call, it's likely because their issue is urgent, complex, or both.

The obvious solution is to add additional staffing, but companies worry about costs. Contact center expert, Brad Cleveland, has some great suggestions for making extra staff pay for themselves.

You can also add a callback option, where customers can opt to receive a callback when an agent is ready rather than waiting on hold.

Solution #2: Make the Wait Seem Shorter

There are times when you can't reduce the actual wait time. Perhaps it's an unexpected spike in calls, or a storm has prevented half your team from coming in.

You can still make the wait seem shorter. Here are a few ideas:

• Avoid looping hold messages.

• Let people know the approximate wait time.

• Make button pushing count.

That last one is critical. If your interactive voice response (IVR) system asks a customer to punch in information like an account number, they had better not have to repeat it when they get a live agent on the phone. 

Solution #3: Answer with a Live Person

Raise your hand if you've ever yelled, "Human! Human! Human!" into a phone. 

Customers find it extremely frustrating to have a clumsy IVR act as a roadblock between them and service. They're likely calling because they already tried self-service and it didn't work, or they feel their issue is so urgent or complicated that it needs a live agent.

Some companies have skipped the IVR altogether and have a live human answer their phones. It costs a little more on the front end, but it's a breath of fresh air for your customers.

Solution #4: Improve First Contact Resolution

Customers really get aggravated when they think their issue is resolved, only to realize they have to call back again a short while later.

This is where first contact resolution (FCR) comes in. Focusing your agents on FCR delivers two big wins:

• Customers don't have to call back.

• Reducing repeat contacts reduces your contact volume.

Don't get hung up on measurement. It’s very hard to come up with an accurate way to measure FCR. Frankly, it doesn’t matter that much. 

It's the idea of preventing the next call that counts. Work with your agents to identify the reasons customers might have to call a second time and brainstorm ways to prevent that from happening. If you want to measure something, including “call prevention” as an item in your monitoring process.

For example, let’s say a customer calls with a question about setting up the voicemail on her new phone. Is there a reason that the customer might have to call back? Perhaps the follow-up is the show the customer how to set an out of office message.

Ready for the really good news? Average handle time tends to stay the same when you focus on FCR.

Solution #5: Reduce Transfers

It can be frustrating to call a company, tell the agent your story, and then get transferred to another agent where you have to tell your story all over again.

Some transfers are necessary, but many can be prevented.

Identify the top reasons calls must be transferred to another department, team, or tier level. See if there are ways the initial agent can handle more of those issues with just a little more training, resources, or authority.

This empowers your frontline agents to provide better service, and frees up your experienced agents to spend more time on the really complicated stuff.

Take Action

The phone is not new or exciting, so it might be tempting to short-change this channel. Yet the phone is still the most critical channel for most contact centers.

Customers don't want to call you. They feel they have to because:

• Their issue is urgent.

• The problem seems complex.

• Another channel didn't work.

This makes the case for providing the very best experience over the phone.

For even more ways to improve the phone experience, I recommend The Effortless Experience by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi. It's chock-full of activities you can use to engage your agents and make things easier for your customers.

How to Improve Customer Experience by Reducing Friction

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There are a lot of product returns on December 26.

In the past, this was a laborious process. Go to a store and you'd wait in a long line, get grilled by the associate, and then be asked to fill out a stack of paperwork. Try to return something by mail and prepare to spend half a day at the post office.

Fast forward to today and things are much easer.

I recently needed to return a camp chair to REI, one of my favorite retailers. The wait in line was less than a minute, and the only information I needed was my phone number. Two minutes later and my money was refunded. (Which I promptly spent in the store.)

This is an example of how smart retailers are improving the customer experience by removing friction from once-tired processes.

Cutting out friction not only makes customers happier, it cuts costs and often increases revenue. Here's how you can do it, too.

What is customer friction?

Friction is any obstacle that gets in the way of a customer's journey. It can be something that slows them down, aggravates them, or prevents them from accomplishing their goal altogether. This includes out-of-stock products, service interruptions, and rude employees.

My business insurance policy came up for renewal a few years ago. Absolutely nothing had changed in my business's circumstances (line of business, number of employees, address, etc.), yet I was required to fill out a lengthy questionnaire just to process the renewal.

Did I mention the questionnaire wasn't digital?!

I had to dig out one of those writing implements people used to use in the old days before computers and the internet. What were they called again? Oh yeah, a "pen." I needed a pen to renew my insurance policy. To add insult to injury, I had to mail my renewal forms.

This process took me from not thinking about my insurance company to actively disliking my insurance company.

Customer experience expert Shep Hyken, in his book The Convenience Revolution, wrote that "friction is what kills the customer experience."

That's exactly what happened with the insurance company. 

Why does friction hurt customer experience?

Friction creates three issues for businesses. It unnecessarily annoys customers, it increases costs, and it reduces revenue over the long run.

Let's look at my insurance policy as an example.

It annoyed me because completing the paperwork was unnecessary, and it took extra time because the forms weren’t digitized.

The insurance company's costs went up because of this process:

• The form had to be printed and mailed.

• Someone had to take time to listen to my feedback.

• An employee had to manually enter what I wrote into the computer system.

The insurance company lost my business as a result. If it was this difficult to renew my policy, I could only imagine the hoops I’d have to jump through if I actually had to file a claim.

I moved my policies to Hiscox after getting a recommendation from a friend.

Wow, what a different experience! Enrollment was easy and the price was much lower, presumably because Hiscox doesn't waste money pushing pointless paperwork.

My Hiscox policy recently came up for renewal. The process? I received an email with my updated documents. No work required on my part.

How can you identify customer friction points?

The best way I know to identify where your customers are experiencing friction is to understand their journey and listen to their feedback along the way.

A university I worked with had a lot of faculty and staff upset about parking. We analyzed the parking department's voice of customer data and found the number one complaint was about annual passes.

At the time, issuing annual parking passes was a manual process. Customers had to visit the campus parking office, where ironically there was no parking. Once there, they had to fill out a lot of paperwork and wait in a long line to get it processed.

We re-imagined the journey from the customer's perspective and quickly saw multiple friction points:

• Completing extra paperwork

• Traveling to the parking office

• Waiting in line

The parking department removed this friction by emailing the necessary paperwork to customers so they could complete it ahead of time. Temporary distribution stations were set up at multiple points on campus during the renewal period, so faculty and staff could hand in their paperwork and quickly get their pass at a place convenient to where they worked.

Customers were suddenly raving about annual pass renewals.

The key is understanding the customer journey, and collecting customer feedback. Here's an interview with customer experience expert, Annette Franz, where she explains how journey mapping is the backbone of customer experience management.

You can get step-by-step guidance for starting your journey mapping from Franz's book, Customer Understanding.

Take action to reduce customer friction

Reducing friction results in happier customers, reduced costs, and increased revenue.

There's another unexpected benefit: your employees will appreciate it. My book, Getting Service Right, devotes an entire chapter to exploring how broken systems frustrate and discourage employees.

You can take a big step forward by starting with your top complaint.

1. Ask your employees to share the most common customer complaints.

2. Identify the root cause of each one.

3. Find solutions that reduce friction.

How the Best Retailers Rely on Smart Employees

"Thanks for coming in today and checking us out!"

This was my first introduction to an Amazon bookstore. It was a very un-Amazon experience. The idea of being in a physical bookstore owned by Amazon was a bit strange. Interacting with a real Amazon employee was even more unusual. 

We talked for a moment, and she explained the store had re-opened earlier that day after being remodeled. She seemed genuinely excited to be there.

There were a few more unusual aspects about this store.

The displays were highly curated, and the shelves were lightly stocked to showcase each individual book. Helpful employees could be found around every corner.

The store is an example of how successful retailers understand the connection between experience and helpful, skilled, and smart employees.

Why traditional retailers are struggling

Things seem gloomy for brick and mortar retailers.

Once popular chains like Sears, Toys R Us, and Forever 21 have gone bankrupt. Other chains such as Walgreens, Gap, and Macy's are closing hundreds of stores. 

Some blame the Internet, but that's just an excuse. The real issue is many retailers have long neglected their frontline employees.

They hire too few and train too little. The employees they do have are often stuck doing transactional tasks like cashiering that wastes their talent and adds little human value. Cashiers are rapidly being replaced by automation, where you pay for your purchases at a kiosk or via an app.

Plenty of other retailers are growing. Look carefully, and you'll see them staffing physical stores in a much different way.

How employees can make a difference in retail

I recently traveled to Seattle to explore the future of customer service. My journey took me to three stores that exemplify the modern retail experience.

The first store I visited was the original Amazon Books, in Seattle's University Village mall. The store opened in 2015 with a long line of customers waiting at the door.

Things were quieter during my visit, which meant it was easy to get attention from employees like the one who greeted me. I quickly noticed several ways that Amazon put its staff in a position to succeed.

• Staffing levels were at least double what you'd expect in a traditional bookstore.

• Product selection was lean, making it easier to keep items in stock.

• Fewer products made it easier for employees to know what they were selling.

This is the Trader Joe's formula for success. The grocer has become famous for its tightly curated product selection and smaller stores filled with helpful, knowledgeable employees.

I wound up buying two books that day that weren't on my radar. And I bought them both on Amazon's website because I prefer ebooks. The physical store was a showcase.

My next stop was a Bonobos Guideshop.

These stores take showcasing to a completely different level. You go to the store to find the perfect size, fit, and fabric, and then your order is shipped to you.

Guideshop employees are called Guides, and that's exactly what they do.

A helpful Guide greeted me as soon as I walked in. He asked a few questions about what I was looking for, pulled up my account to confirm my sizing, and got me started in a dressing room with a few options. Throughout the process, he used his product knowledge to make suggestions about different cuts and styles.

The impressive part of the Bonobos experience is how Guides are able to give you personal attention. Guideshop employees are primarily there to help customers, which is refreshing in retail where most clothing store employees are either focused on laying out stock or working the register.

My final stop was REI's flagship store.

I'm an unabashed REI fan, so this was a pretty big deal for me. Please excuse me for going a little fanboy here. From a retailing perspective, REI absolutely nails it. 

The experience starts with the entrance. There's no doubt this store is all about the outdoors.

You walk down a winding, tree-lined concrete path, crossing over the mountain bike test trail. Climb a short flight of stairs and then head inside the store where you’re greeted by Ernie, the VW camper.

Stroll past Ernie, and you'll see the first of two fireplaces inside. Flannel-covered pillows are strewn about the rocks, just begging you to take a seat and rest a moment.

There's another fireplace upstairs.

And a fire pit outside the front entrance. Get me some marshmallows!

Aside from the impressive layout, employees are what really makes REI stand out as an amazing retailer.

There was an associate giving a snowboarding class in the middle of the store. A small group of customers gathered around a snowboard display as the associate used a whiteboard to discuss various techniques.

Another associate gave a detailed explanation on the various types of headlamps available to a customer who was planning a nighttime hike. I now know headlamps are not all the same!

Everywhere I turned, there was an employee available to answer a question or help me out. The beauty of shopping at REI is employees don't just work there. They love the outdoors and are eager to share their knowledge.

I eventually made a few selections and headed towards the cash registers. 

David, my cashier, used his knowledge and passion to make the experience more than a transaction. He gave me a quick history lesson about the store and shared some tips for getting the most out of my REI membership. 

Our conversation was way more interesting than the typical "Find everything alright?" or "How's your day going?" that you get from most cashiers.

Take Action

The future of retail is based on experience, and employees are at the center.

Think about what your physical location can offer that's unique and can't easily be offered online. Find ways to leverage smart, talented employees to make the experience better.

The low hanging fruit is on the sales floor. You can increase sales, improve customer service, and decrease theft by having helpful employees readily available like Amazon Books, Bonobos, and REI.

Leading retailers also create unique experiences or offer services that bring more customers in. Here are a few examples:

• CVS has Minute Clinics that offer in-store health care.

• Petsmart is adding doggy day camps to select stores.

• Sur la Table offers in-store cooking classes.

These experiences are all powered by employees who have specialized knowledge and skills, and offer value beyond the typical transaction. Find a way to help your employees do the same, and you’ll go far.

Interview with Annette Franz: Why Journey Mapping is the Backbone of Customer Experience Management

Annette Franz, Author of Customer Understanding

Advertising disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Many things impact your customers, but are outside of your control.

Let's say you run a coffee shop in a strip mall. You do your best to offer great coffee, friendly service, and a welcoming environment. Yet you don't control:

• Traffic

• Parking

• Weather

All of these things can impact your customers' experience. Your customers will be far happier on a sunny day with no traffic and ample parking than they will on a rainy day with traffic congestion and a snarled parking lot.

Annette Franz has some great advice for handling this challenge. She's a customer experience expert who writes the popular CX Journey blog. Her new book, Customer Understanding, provides a great overview of ways companies can put customers at the heart of their business.

Franz recently joined me to discuss how journey mapping is essential to elevating the customer experience. Here are some of our conversation topics:

• What is the difference between customer experience and customer service?

• What exactly is customer journey mapping?

• How can journey mapping break down silos?

• What can you do to mitigate problems outside of your control?

• How do you get started with journey mapping?

You can watch the full interview here.

How to Gain Executive Buy-In for CX Initiatives

Shaun Belding, author of The Journey to WOW

Advertising disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

"Our executives aren't committed."

That's the biggest gripe I hear about customer experience, or CX. Companies are launching new initiatives, but executives aren't making CX a true priority.

Here are some statements I've heard from frustrated leaders:

• "We just report our Net Promoter Score results, but don't do anything."

• "All we've done is have endless committee meetings."

• "My VP doesn't want to hear customer feedback."

• "I don't think our CEO actually knows what CX means."

• "We were in the process of implementing the CX vision, when marketing surprised us with a new one."

One factor is the confusion between customer experience and customer service. 

Customer service teams are re-naming themselves the "customer experience" team, but customer experience is much broader than just service. (If you aren't sure about the difference, you can check out this handy explainer.)

There are other barriers to gaining executive buy-in.

CX expert Shaun Belding highlights a number of them in his book, The Journey to WOW: The Path to Outstanding Customer Experience and Loyalty. It's a story about a company embarking on a CX initiative and the difficulty the CEO faces when trying to get everyone on board.

The book is available on Amazon and I highly recommend it. 

Belding and I recently had a conversation about getting the c-suite to buy-in to CX initiatives. He provided insightful responses to a wide range of questions:

• Why is it difficult to get buy-in for CX initiatives?

• Should there be someone in the c-suite with CX in the title?

• What does the CEO need to do to get the rest of the team to buy-in?

• How do you prevent CX from becoming just a "flavor of the month" program?

• Why is it challenging for leaders to embrace a CX vision?

You'll gain a ton of practical ideas by watching the 21 minute interview.

You can learn more about Belding by visiting his website or following him on Twitter.

I encourage you to pick up a copy of Belding's book, The Journey to WOW, and learn how to get your own CX journey back on track! 

Customer Experience vs. Customer Service: What's the Difference?

My beloved iPad is dying a slow death.

It's several years old and I use it daily. The memory is nearly full. I've dropped it a few times. The lightening connector is getting finicky.

So I'll soon be making a trip to the Apple Store to buy a new one. This process provides a nice overview of the differences between customer experience, customer service, and even customer success.

What is Customer Experience?

Here's a definition from customer experience expert, Annette Franz:

The sum of all the interactions that a customer has with an organization over the life of the “relationship” with that company… and, especially, the feelings, emotions, and perceptions the customer has about those interactions.

The elements of customer experience go well beyond just customer service. To illustrate this, I've listed some of the steps in my customer journey with the customer service elements in bold.

• My experience with my current iPad (I love it, so I want another)

• Visiting the Apple website to research new options

• Driving to the Apple Store and parking (gotta avoid the crowds!)

• A person greets me as I walk in the door and offers assistance

• The Apple Store layout

• I'm introduced to another employee who assists me with my selection

• The employee shows me some of the new iPad's features

• The look, feel, and function of the new iPads

• The employee rings up my purchase on a mobile device

• Another employee retrieves my new iPad from the stockroom

• Unboxing my new iPad at home after I buy it

• I follow guided instructions to configure my new iPad

• A support article helps me transfer my content from the old iPad

• Using the new iPad every day

What is Customer Service?

This is a helpful definition from the Oxford English Dictionary:

The assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services.

Customer service also includes something called customer success, which I'll define in just a moment. Here is a summary of the customer service I can expect to receive from Apple, with the customer success elements in italics.

• A person greets me as I walk in the door and offers assistance

• I'm introduced to another employee who assists me with my selection

• The employee shows me some of the new iPad's features

• The employee rings up my purchase on a mobile device

• Another employee retrieves my new iPad from the stockroom

• I follow guided instructions to configure my new iPad

• A support article helps me transfer my content from the old iPad

This short video provides more detail.

Defining customer service from Customer Service Foundations by Madecraft and Jeff Toister

What is Customer Success?

Here's a straightforward definition from Hubspot:

An organizational function that helps customers get maximum value out of a product or service.

Buying a new iPad would be a frustrating experience if I couldn't figure out how to use it. There are a few particular functions, such as configuring the new device or transferring content from my old device that can either create a moment of delight or a moment of misery.

Here are some examples of how Apple focuses on customer success:

• The Apple Store employee shows me some of the new iPad's features

• I follow guided instructions to configure my new iPad

• A support article helps me transfer my content from the old iPad

The Total Customer Experience

One of Apple's secrets is the organization's understanding of all three elements and how they work together.

The overall experience is customer-focused. Apple's products work seamlessly together, which is why I own a MacBook, an iPad, and an iPhone. 

The customer service function is designed to quickly get me the help I need. When there's a human involved, I've consistently been served by someone who was friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. 

The customer success function is dialed in to make using Apple products easy and intuitive. There are gentle nudges, such as on-screen prompts, in just the right places along with deeper assistance and even in-store classes if I need them.

So yes, I'm a huge fan.

Customer Experience vs. Customer Service Infographic

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<p><strong>This graphic courtesy of toistersolutions.com/blog</strong><br /><br /><a href='https://www.toistersolutions.com/blog/customer-experience-vs-customer-service'><img src='https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51a615dbe4b0643b1caad822/1563203994790-S6XEA4GEEZG7P1JRW94T/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kF3Nq5Vh0E6btzUhEfxenawUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8PaoYXhp6HxIwZIk7-Mi3Tsic-L2IOPH3Dwrhl-Ne3Z2X7xmk6LHg8rv0Y7Y5lYZVRH8P98fxlwmdp9hhh-n1DAKMshLAGzx4R3EDFOm1kBS/CX+vs+Customer+Service.png?format=1000w' alt='CX+vs+Customer+Service' width='800px' border='0' /></a></p>

How to Get Massive Customer Feedback Without a Survey

Nate Brown, Co-Founder, CX Accelerator

It's no secret that customers are tired of surveys.

We get too many, they take too long to complete, and many fail to adequately capture how we really feel about our experience. There has to be a better way.

Conversations are an untapped resource. We talk to customers face-to-face and over the phone. We have written conversations via email, chat, sms, and social media. This conversational data, often referred to as "unstructured" data, represents a treasure trove of customer insight, but customer experience leaders struggle to capture and organize it all.

Nate Brown, Co-founder of CX Accelerator, has discovered a novel way to solve the problem. He's designed a simple process that allows frontline representatives to quickly and easily capture data from customer conversations.

Brown shares his simple process in this 20 minute interview. We cover:

• Why capturing data from customer conversations is so important

• How to turn a simple USB webkey into a “CX Magic Button”

• Where in the customer journey to look for data

• How to encourage employees to capture and share customer feedback

• Simple ways to quickly analyze and act on the data

You can get step-by-step instructions from this post or follow him on Twitter at @CustomerIsFirst. You’ll also get more customer feedback help on this survey resource page.

You can get low-cost USB webkeys with your company’s logo from Lev Promotions.

New Report: What Customers Value Most in Their Experience

Customer service employees may be more important than ever.

A 2018 report from the consulting firm PwC surveyed 15,000 customers from 12 countries, including 4,000 from the U.S, to identify the qualities that customers value most in their experience. The results clearly indicate that having friendly, helpful employees available is critical—even as service interactions are increasingly automated.

There are major implications here as 43 percent of customers said they would pay a premium for a better experience. 

You can find proof of this in many places. Coffee is cheap, yet coffee shops are packed with customers willing to pay a premium each weekday morning. Airlines now bring in an estimated $47.2 billion in fees annually for upgrades such as extra legroom or earlier boarding. And movie theaters everywhere are upping prices in exchange for reclining seats that can be reserved in advance.

Here are some insights than can help you leverage your customer service team to get an edge on the competition. You can also read the full report here.

Top Experience Drivers

There's a clear cluster of customer experience drivers that customers feel are worth paying a premium for:

Image source: PwC

The top five are:

1. Efficiency

2. Convenience

3. Friendly Service

4. Knowledgeable Service

5. Easy Payment

Notice these all seem pretty basic. There's nothing about the latest technology, hyper-personalization, or even socially-consciousness branding in the top five. Customers are telling us they value companies that are easy and enjoyable to do business with.

Better Access to Humans Is Needed

Despite the rise of automation and self-service, customers still crave a human connection:

• 71 percent said employees have a significant impact on their experience.

• 59 percent feel companies have lost touch with the human element.

• 71 percent of Americans would rather interact with a human than a chatbot.

One challenge is it's often difficult to connect with a live person, as anyone who has found themselves repeatedly yelling "Human! Human!" into a phone can attest to. Self-service is often welcome, but it's a best practice to make a live person easily accessible.

Service Quality Trumps Advertising

In the U.S., 65 percent of survey respondents said their experience was more important than advertising when it comes to influencing their purchasing decision.

Three of the top four experience elements that send customers to the competition are directly related to interactions with employees:

1. Bad employee attitudes

2. Unfriendly service

3. Untrusted company

4. Unknowledgeable employees

Keep in mind your customers are increasingly likely to go online and rate your company's service—good or bad. Customer-centric businesses are able to leverage positive reputations on rating platforms such as Google My Business to drive even more customers to their doors.

Bonus Insight: Physical Locations Are Rising in Popularity

A separate PwC survey found a 22 percent increase from 2014 to 2018 in the percentage of customers who shop in physical stores at least weekly for items other than groceries. 

Online retailers such as Amazon, Bonobos, and Warby Parker have successfully opened brick and mortar locations in recent years to capitalize on this trend. CapitalOne is adding coffee shops to its bank branches. And this may be anecdotal, but that line at Costco doesn't seem to be getting any shorter!

Once again, experience is key.

I recently did a comparison of three drugstore chains near my home. The stores were all on different corners of the same intersection, carried many of the same products, and had similar prices.

Yet the experience at CVS was significantly better. Friendly employees were more readily available and visible signage along with an intuitive store layout made items easier to find. 

Take Action

Small details can make all the difference in a crowded market. 

This makes it critical to capture and analyze customer feedback. Customer-focused companies relentlessly identify and resolve pain points that aggravate customers. You can use this resource page to find help with your feedback program.

We also need our employees to create positive connections with customers. I know many customers service leaders who are struggling with consistency in this area, however, there are several solutions within easy reach:

• Improve consistency with a shared customer service vision.

• Provide employees with customer service training.

• Reinforce great service with regular reminders.