The Perfect Customer Experience

Seeing the True Nature of American Freedom

Louis Columbus
Cincom Systems

The 4th of July's many festivities from parades, to fireworks displays, from entire blocks getting together to decorate in red, white and blue to even one story I heard of a daughters' friend painting the family beagle red, white and blue while he slept on the back porch this afternoon all make this such a genuine American experience.

Over the last several years I've taught more students in international business and strategy courses than any other time.  Like anyone, they love a good party that is nationwide, and the 4th is a reason from them to celebrate their freedoms here in America too. 

I am Learning From My Students What The Reality of Freedom Is

It is quite moving to be running a class in international business and have a young student under 30 tell you about how there were wars raging in her home nation of Bosnia and one wrong street selection on the way home from school could have gotten her killed. She is Serbian. 

There are students from China, some from Hong Kong, others from Beijing, who are remarkable in their writing abilities yet still afraid to speak.  Their tales of harmonization in Beijing and the tight lid the government has on businesses there, many of which are run by their parents and families, are moving. 

Or the students from the Middle East who faced persecution because of their religion and their families' beliefs and businesses.

I've had more than a dozen Vietnamese students, who as toddlers and even infants, escaped that nation on boats, drifting in the South China Sea waiting for the U.S. Navy to show up and rescue them.  Clearly, the Navy did a great job, they saved tens of thousands of lives in that region and I am sure they still do.

There are those students from Russia too. Some from parents who were members of the party and others barely scraping enough together to get out. Talk of how even party members must abide by rationing is fascinating.

Seeing Freedom In A New Way

Just out of curiosity, I took each significant speech in America in the last 217 years and quickly ran them through Wordle this morning.

Here's what I found out.  In the most troubling and most difficult of times in this nations' history, freedom is the catalyst so many of our leaders have turned to as our core strength, our catalyst.  It is what many have come back to as the reverberating strength of America.

From Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech The Four Freedoms given on January 6, 1941 to the many speeches that John Fitzgerald Kennedy gave, including Ich bin ein Berliner ("I am a 'Berliner'") delivered on June 26, 1963 in West Berlin, freedom reverberates through these speeches.  Faced with an increasingly aggressive Russia who appears intent on war, President Kennedy chooses this speech to come back to America's greatest strength and contribution to the world, freedom.  Below is the Wordle of this speech.

 

 

The speech with the greatest mention of freedom in the history of the United States from this analysis isn't an elected politician, President, military leader, or a powerful cabinet member.  It is a southern minister who in 1954, became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Far from the media centers of the time, Dr. Martin Luther King showed in his life just how truly different this American brand of freedom is.  Below is Wordle from his I Have A Dream Speech. 

 

In the story of a minister from Montgomery, Alabama whose impact in America is still being felt today is the story of what American freedom is really all about.  Reaching out, inclusive, celebrating diversity and looking to strengthen others by building bridges out to them, this is America at its best.

Bottom line: No nation is without fault, but if you want to see the true nature of American freedom, meet eyes with someone today who had to fight to get here, or who is putting their life on hold to serve, or who has served earlier.  In that moment, you will know the true nature of American freedom.

Customer Service Secrets from Zappos

By Randy Saunders

In the latest Customer Creation podcast, Blake Landau interviews Maura Sullivan and Rob Siefker from the Zappos call center management team.

Maura and Rob have both worked for Zappos since the early days when there were only a few dozen people in the call center.  Due to the company’s phenomenal growth, today Zappos has more than 350 people in the department.

"Zappos is all about service," says Siefker. "Everything we do is based upon customer experience."

The company and its call center operate differently than most — they ignore traditional call center measurements.  Customer service representatives don’t use scripts, have quotas, or try to get customers off the phone.  In fact, Zappos actually encourages customers to call the contact center.

The formula seems to work.  While many retailers have struggled this year, Zappos continues to grow in 2009.

When asked about the secret ingredient behind Zappos’ success, Sullivan replies, "I don’t think there are many secrets to it — it’s about empowerment and being friendly and helpful."

"At Zappos we really want everyone to be themselves and be able to put their personality into their work," Sullivan continues. "We don’t think that can be achieved if we give them a script to read or if we told them they can only have two minutes with each customer.  If we really want to provide the best service, then we need to allow people to be helpful and friendly over the phone, email or chat."

That’s just a few of the many Zappos lessons you’ll hear in this podcast.  So make sure you listen to this fascinating interview at http://www.customermanagementiq.com/podcenter.cfm?externalid=136.

New Customer Experience Management Benchmark Study Finds Leading Companies Increase Customer Experience Investment in Tough Economic Times

By Randy Saunders

Strativity Group has published their 2009 Global Customer Experience Management Benchmark Study that finds savvy companies increase investment in customer strategies during tough economic times to build competitive advantage.

In an economic downturn, the first thing companies are conditioned to do is cut costs. But this new study indicates that they should be doing just the opposite.

“The biggest surprise in the study was that certain companies decided to INCREASE their investment in customer relationships rather than decrease it as the majority do. These companies reap the rewards already through more profitable business with their customers," offered Strativity CEO Lior Arussy.

Despite the uncertain economy, 80% of executives surveyed said that customer experience strategies continue to be a more important part of their organizations’ agendas than in the past three years.  In fact, over this time period:

• 48% report that their companies have increased investments in customer experience by 10% or more
• 17% reported increasing investments by 20% or more

The dividends for companies that have invested in customer experience are significant.  The study finds in contrast with organizations that invest less than 2% of revenues on customer experience, companies that invest 10% or more:

• Have significantly lower customer attrition rates
• Enjoy referral rates that are twice as high
• Are twice as likely to have customer satisfaction scores of 81% or more

When comparing companies that increased customer experience investment over the last three years with those that decreased spending, the former:

• Report satisfaction scores that are 60% higher
• Are 30% more likely to have attrition rates of 5% or less

You can download the complimentary executive summary of this report at:
http://www.strativity.com/products/2009-experience-management-benchmark-study.aspx.

Customer Experience Expert Shaun Smith to Speak in Chicago

Shaun Smith, one of the founders of the Customer Experience movement, a respected author and foremost expert in CEM and brand loyalty, will speak at the IBM Innovation Center in Chicago on June 30.

Shaun has achieved international recognition as one of the leading experts in CEM. Over the last decade, he has been a key catalyst in expanding management focus from the tactical issues of customer service to the much wider and strategic issue of customer experience.

Of course in today's global economic downturn, the natural response is to cut spending. But by taking a longer-term view and making shrewd investments, organizations can save money and improve the customer experience.

The half-day executive seminar, Customer Experience Happens in the Contact Center — achieving a realistic and sustainable return on your customer experience investment, offers timely insights on how to:

• Recession-proof your business through a Customer Experience Management strategy
• Focus your efforts on the right customers to increase revenue and profit
• Understand which proven best practices can quickly generate significant returns
• Move from strategy to implementation faster
• Create a compelling business case for CEM

For more information or to register for this event, go to www.cincom.com/cem-event.