Customer Service:
It's Not Just a Department, It's An Experience - September 2011
Welcome to the September 2011 issue of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience." If you are a regular reader of this newsletter, you've heard me mention on numerous occasions "If you don't take care of your customers, someone else will". This month we're going to explore who is leading the charge for taking care of your customers. I'll be sharing my latest restaurant experience that started bad but ended better. Remember, a complaint is a gift!
Welcome to our many new subscribers and new clients. Our goal is to help you improve the experience you are providing to your existing customers as well as prospective customers, increase customer retention and generate additional revenue through cross-selling, up-selling and referrals.
Enjoy this month's newsletter!
In This Issue:
Who Is Your CCO? | I Talked and They Listened | The Greatest Customer Service Story Ever Told
Who Is Your CCO?
CCO? Do you mean CEO? COO? CFO? CLO? CMO?
No, I mean CCO. Chief Customer Officer. You do have one, don't you?
A chief customer officer (CCO) is the executive responsible in customer-centric companies for the total relationship with an organization's customers. Your company is "customer-centric", isn't it? This position is a relatively new addition to the C-suite and was developed to provide a single vision across all methods of customer contact. The CCO is often responsible for influencing activities of customer relations throughout an organization, whether in the call center, sales, marketing, finance, fulfillment or post-sale support. The CCO typically reports to the Chief Executive Officer and is charged with improving the customer experience.
Chief Customer Officers may be known by many titles, however, according to the Chief Customer Officer Council, the CCO is properly defined as "an executive who provides the comprehensive and authoritative view of the customer and creates corporate and customer strategy at the highest levels of the company to maximize customer acquisition, retention, and profitability."
Over the past five years, Forrester Research has observed an increase in the number of companies with a single executive leading customer experience efforts across a business unit or an entire company. These individuals often serve as top executives, with the mandate and power to design, orchestrate and improve customer experiences across every customer interaction. And whether firms call them Chief Customer Officers (CCOs) or give them some other label, these leaders sit at high levels of power at companies as diverse as Allstate, Dunkin' Brands, Oracle and USAA.
When companies with CCOs made the decision to establish such a position, it often was because of a mass exodus of customers. However, other reasons included a change in leadership, a desire to accelerate growth, a reaction to a competitor's actions or a response brought about by rapid growth.
The key role for the Chief Customer Officer is to lead Customer Experience Management:
1. To learn what customers value and how they feel about your organization and the current experience you provide.
2. To interpret this feedback and prioritize the most important issues.
3. To enact change that closes the gap between customer expectations and the actual experience delivered.
4. Finally, to monitor key metrics to ensure that your organization continually improves the customer experience.
Despite the many successes resulting from the creation of a CCO role, it's also important to recognize that a chief customer officer is not a silver bullet for a company's customer experience problems.
A 2009 study of over 860 corporate executives revealed that companies that had increased their investment in customer experience management over the previous three years reported higher customer referral rates and customer satisfaction (Strativity Group, 2009).
Think your company is too small to have a CCO? Think again. Those big companies started small.
I Talked and They Listened
A friend recently raved about a new restaurant that she had visited. I decided to go check it out for myself. Unfortunately, I didn't have the same great experience that she did.
When I got home, I went on Facebook and posted this comment on their page:
First time visiting a Red Robin tonight in Carle Place. The food was good, however, the service wasn't. Not sure I'll be back.
The restaurant posted this just an hour later:
That's not what we like to hear. Please send us the details at guestrelations@redrobin.com. Thanks.
I guess this social media thing really does work!
So I sent them an e-mail with my contact information. I got an e-mail back from them the next day thanking me for my feedback and telling me that my information was forwarded to the general manager and the regional operations director. I happened to be out of town for a few days so I wasn't able to respond to the e-mail. Do you think the restaurant dropped the issue since they weren't able to reach me? Nope. They called me. Twice. And then sent me another e-mail.
Seems as if they actually did want my feedback! When I got back into town, I called the general manager of the restaurant. As soon as I gave him my name, he recognized it and said he was so glad I had called him back. He thanked me for reaching out to them and told me that they take feedback from their customers very seriously. I explained what had happened and the manager was genuinely apologetic. He told me that they are very focused on their customers having good experiences in their restaurants. He asked me if I would give them another try "on him". He told me he would be sending me a gift card for dinner for two. He specifically asked me to ask for him when I came back to the restaurant so that I could give him my feedback on this experience. He assured me it would be better this time.
Imagine my surprise when I received a package from FedEx the next day with an apology letter and the gift card. Talk about a company listening to their customers! I haven't been back there yet, but when I do go back, you can be sure I'll be telling you about it!
YOUR customers are talking too. Are YOU listening?
The Greatest Customer Service Story Ever Told Starring Morton's Steakhouse
If you haven't heard this story yet, you're in for a real treat. After you read the story, take some time to read some of the 352 comments that were posted in response to the story. I'd love to hear your thoughts on whether this really was the greatest customer service story ever told.
Link to story
Enjoy!
Where's Randi?
I have many speaking engagements scheduled over the next several weeks.
If you'd like to attend a presentation, send me an e-mail and I'll send you the details!
Thursday, 9/15
Fairchester Business Resource
Darien, CT
Friday, 9/16
Long Island Metro Business Action
Ronkonkoma, NY
Wednesday, 9/21
Nassau & Suffolk County Dental Societies Women's Dental Conference
Woodbury, NY
Monday, 9/26
North Fork Chamber of Commerce
Southhold, NY
Thursday, 9/29
National Association of the Remodeling Industry
Kansas City, MO
Wednesday, 10/12
NY Oil Heating Association
Queens, NY
In Conclusion...
Thanks for taking the time to read this edition of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience". It is our hope that you not only get the customer or client, but that you also hold onto them! If you have clients, colleagues or friends who wants to hold on to their customers too, do them a favor and forward them this newsletter.
Until next time, take good care of your customers, or someone else will! See you next month!
Sincerely,
Randi Busse
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