INTRODUCING: THE CUSTOMER BILL OF RIGHTS

Covered in this blog article:
A) The brand promise
B) Customer bill of rights definition
C) Why the customer bill of rights is needed and important
D) Company mantra, tagline, and brand promise examples
E) The hierarchy of company mantra, tagline, brand promise and customer bill of rights
F) Customer bill of rights company examples
G) Internal service organization customer bill of rights treatment standards
H) How to get started creating your own customer bill of rights

1. The Familiar Brand Promise:
   We have all heard of a brand promise and have an idea of what this is all about. Simply put, a brand promise is the definition of the high-level quality of experience a company’s customers can expect to receive during every interaction with the company and its customer facing employees. The brand promise speaks to the brand’s purpose and speaks to the value that the brand will deliver.

2. Customer Bill of Rights Why Needed & A Simple Definition:
   The downside of a brand promise is that it is short of specifics on what the customer can expect during their interactions with the company. To bridge the gap between the higher-level brand promise and to explain what the customers can specifically experience when interacting with the company, we introduce the relatively new customer bill of rights. Here is a simple definition of what a customer bill of rights is:

A customer bill of rights is a public statement designed to communicate to customers what specific service level standards and guarantees the company is going to provide to them.

3. Hierarchy: Company Mantra, Tagline, Brand Promise and Customer Bill of Rights:
   To first explain how a brand promise ties into the customer bill of rights I thought it important to review the hierarchy of company-customer experience value statements starting with the Company Mantra at the highest level. Simply put, a company mantra states what the company stands for and why they exist. Here are some examples of company mantras that demonstrates “their why”. (a great related read on this “Finding your Why” by Simon Sinek):

A) Company Mantra Examples:
Disney: “Fun, Family Entertainment.”
Nike: “Authentic Athletic Performance.”
McDonald’s: “Fun, Family, Food.”
Next down in the hierarchy of company-customer experience statements comes the company tagline that supports the company mantra. A tagline is a very short and memorable phrase used to convey the value of a brand experience or its products. Here are some examples of the same set of companies and their taglines that demonstrates their why:

B) Company Tagline Examples:
Disney: “The most magical place on Earth.”
Nike: “Just do It.”
McDonald’s: “I’m lovin’ it.”
Next down in the hierarchy of company-customer experience statements is the brand promise, that at a high level, clearly and concisely states the quality of experience a company’s customers can expect to receive during every interaction with the company and its customer facing employees.

C) Company Brand Promise Examples:
Disney: “to create happiness through magical experiences.”
Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
McDonald’s: “make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone.”

While the company mantra, the tagline and the brand promise all support alignment to the company/brand and its values, it does little to speak to the customer on what specifically they can expect while interacting with the company and its customer facing employees. Hence, last, in the hierarchy of company-customer experience statements we introduce a relatively new tool called the customer bill of rights that explicitly states the specifics the customer can expect when interacting with the company and its customer facing functions and employees.

Hierarchy of Customer Experience Statements: Company Mantra – Tagline – Brand Promise – Customer Bill of Rights

Since it is relatively new to the customer experience world, we are going to break from the 3 previous companies we illustrated (Disney, Nike, McDonalds) and instead highlight some innovative companies who have been bold enough to create and display their customer bill of rights.

4. Customer Bill of Right Examples:
   Here are some great small business examples that illustrate exactly what a customer bill of rights is all about:
   A) Herb’s Auto:

Herb’s Auto Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://herbsauto.biz/specials/details/herbs-auto-customer-bill-of-rights

Herb’s is a great example in that it combines their goals from a customer experience standpoint Delivering “fast, Courteous Service” along with specifics on what a customer is to expect “Lifetime Oil, Filter, Lube $12.99*”.

B) Here is another great example from Eden Prairie Painting Company:

Eden Prairie Painting Company Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://edenprairiepaintingcompany.com/about/customer-bill-rights/

I absolutely love this example as it combines a mantra/tagline along with attractive and high quality visuals of what customer can expect as well as some service level agreements and standards (e.g., “we will begin painting within 3 weeks”, “no less than 4 years experience before working in the field for our customers”) as well as a contact number clearly visible for customers to contact them (i.e. clear call to action). .

C) Here is a 3rd example from C&R Tire:

C&R Tire Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://www.candrtire.com/About/Customer-Bill-of-Rights

The C&R tire resonates with me personally due to the last item above. How many times have you gone into a tire or auto service establishment’s dirty/dingy waiting room waiting for service and feel like you are in the actual service bay with all the grease, oil, and grime. Some auto establishment’s waiting rooms are truly cringe worthy. That last item on their customer bill of rights is the masterful capitalization on other competitor’s weakness and making it differentiator for your own business by putting directly into in a customer bill of rights!

D) Next up, we have this small business example from a service organization, Chautauqua Opportunities:

Chautauqua Opportunities Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://www.chautauquaopportunities.com/customer-bill-of-rights/

“Chautauqua Opportunities is an organization established under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to fight America’s war on poverty.” This community service organization tailors their bill of rights around service standards that are appropriate for the constituencies they serve. I particularly like their statements on the delivery of their service in a way that is “non-discriminatory” and “without bias” and safeguards their constituency’s privacy, etc. which is highly applicable to their constituents.

E) Next up, we have this small business example from Capital Homes, Inc.:

Capital Homes, Inc. Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://capitolhomeideas.com/customer-bill-rights/

F) Leading the charge for larger businesses, we have the excellent and innovative customer bill of rights from Jet Blue:

Jet Blue Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://www.jetblue.com/magnoliapublic/dam/ui-assets/p/Bill_Of_Rights.pdf

Having consulted and worked for numerous Fortune 500 companies, this bill of rights from Jet Blue is absolutely my favorite. This combines the commitment on informing customers and under what circumstances, details different customer impacting events and what customers can expect for the occurrence of each event type, but most importantly details the exact specifics the customer can expect for each customer disrupting event. Behind the scenes, I can safely predict that their revenue/finance department pre-calculated the cost of the specific customer considerations (vouchers) by multiplying the cost of each consideration by the historical incident rates and customer volumes for each type of event (departure delays, cancellations, etc.). In essence, it is solidifying a predictable revenue model while communicating this to their customer base to gain competitive advantage which is brilliant.

G) My Customer Bill of Rights Examples:

Here are some sanitized (removed client identifiable information) examples from companies I have recently worked for:

Client Customer Bills of Rights – Company Commitment

H) Customer Service Organization (internal) Customer Bills of Rights Example:

At a customer service representative level, I have created the following in terms of what type of specific customer treatment we will uphold and what the customer can expect from each and every one of our customer facing people and functions:

Our Customer Service & Experience Experts Make the Following Promises to Our Customers

Customer Service Customer Treatment Bill of Rights

5. How to Get Started, Create Your Own Organization’s Customer Bill of Rights

Does your company (large or small) have a Customer Bill of Rights? This is not in a company mantra, tagline, or brand promise, but rather a simple set of rules, standards and guidelines that details the specifics of your customer service and customer experience delivery and helps set specific customer <–> customer-service expectations.

Start by discussing this possibility with your upper management and with your customer support organization. Challenge your organization to create 5-10 customer service expectations that your customers can specifically expect from your company and team. Then make sure that every employee knows and understands it is their obligation to deliver on those expectations. Key to this is aligning your internal standards, process, employee incentives and technology infrastructure to support the pledge, training your frontline employees, and recognizing customer service employee stars who are exceptional in upholding your customer service standards and pledges to your customer.

6. Summary

We have all heard of and mostly understand customer experience terms like the company mantra, tagline, and brand promise. These terms while effective in communicating the values of the company and the brand(s), these fail to communicate what the customer is to specifically expect when interacting with the company and their frontline employees for various customer needs. To address this gap in helping customers understand what specifics the company will deliver from a customer service perspective the increasing use of the customer bill of rights has been introduced by a growing number of companies. The many examples of a customer bill of rights presented in this article will give you food for thought in terms of what your own might look like. It is easy to get started to create your own and can start as simple as with a conversation with your customer facing team and upper management. If you do create a customer bill of rights, you must ensure all capabilities are in place to deliver on these customer promises, otherwise it will be judged as just a company marketing gimmick that nobody believes and you risk losing a great deal of marketplace credibility and customer faith.

7) Need help in creating your own customer bill of rights?

If your organization is seeking a proven resource in measuring and improving your customer service and experience via a customer bill of rights, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com.

Lastly, this is just one article nearly 60 articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 106,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/.

The IoT Revolution: Improving customer convenience & customer experience while reducing business cycle times and cost.

Topics covered in this blog:
1) The simple definitions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Telematics
2) Illustration of IoT personal and business devices, uses
3) IoT Trends
4) IoT Growth in Spend and Market Size
5) IoT enablers and why IoT has become so pervasive
6) How does IoT work
7) The benefits of IoT
8) The positives and negatives of IoT
9) The most Popular IoT Architecture Platforms in 2021
10) The 10 Hottest Industrial IoT Platforms Of 2020
11) The most Popular IoT Services Companies for 2021
12) Sample IoT Use Cases that illustrate the Customer Experience Benefits
• Customer, Personal IoT Digital Assistants Use Case Benefits
• Business, Fleet Management IoT Benefits Use Case:
• IoT Dashboard Example with Customer Experience Benefits:
13) How to get started in improving your IoT driven Customer Experience

A) Simple Definitions of IoT and Telematics:

One new term I keep hearing about over and over is the “Internet of Things”, known shorthand as IoT. I thought this was a strange term at first and was puzzled about what it stood for. As a result, I set forth to research the topic and create a simple definition for IoT as well as “Telematics” which is frequently mentioned in the context of IoT.

1) IoT Definition: IoT is short for the Internet of Things and describes physically connected objects, that contain embedded sensors, processors, software, and other technologies, and that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet or by other communications networks.

2) Telematics Definition: Telematics is the practice of sending, receiving, and storing information using telecommunication devices to control remote IoT objects.
In other words, and more put more simply, Telematics is the practice of managing information collected from an array of IoT devices (i.e., connected thermostats, GPS in an automobile, Alexa, Siri, etc.). For the rest of this article, IoT and supporting Telematics I will simply refer to as IoT.

Consumer & Business IoT

{click on image to expand}

B) IoT Trends and why IoT has become so significant:

1. With 1.3 billion projected subscriptions by 2023, IoT is about to experience another boost by the 5G technology.
2. By 2021, 35 billion IoT devices will be installed around the world.
3. The number of connected devices in 2021 will be 46 billion. (Juniper Research)
4. Households have ten connected (IoT) devices on average and will rise to 50 in 2021, (Economic Times)
5. Spending on IoT Endpoint Security solutions will reach $631M in 2021, (Gartner)
6. The Smart Home IoT market will grow to $53.45 billion by 2022, (Statista)
7. Worldwide IoT spending surpassed $1 trillion in 2020 alone, (Sdx central)
8. Companies could invest up to $15 trillion in IoT by 2025, (Gigabit)
9. The biggest reason for IoT investment is cost-reduction, (IoT Analytics)

1-4 above, source: https://techjury.net/blog/how-many-iot-devices-are-there/#gref
5-9 above, Source: https://findstack.com/internet-of-things-statistics/

 
C) What has made IoT possible:

The next set of questions you might have are:

1) What are the driving forces behind all this IoT growth?
2) Why has IoT usage grown so much now?
3) What has enabled IoTs to be integral in almost everything we do, touch, etc.?

The simple answer is that the rapid increase in technological capabilities, miniaturization of devices, increased computing capacity and 24x7x365 high bandwidth are the enablers. The real reason is that this drives multiple win-wins including the decreased business cost and cycle times coupled with increases in accuracy and customer experience delivery. The chart below sums up these trends very succinctly.

IoT Enablers, Why Now

D) How does IoT work

IoT systems consist of web-enabled smart devices that use embedded systems (that include processors, sensors, data storage/management hardware, and communication hardware, to collect, send and act on data they acquire from the surroundings where they are embedded. IoT devices either share the sensor data they collect to the cloud to be analyzed or the data is made available locally to be analyzed.

In certain instances, these IoT devices communicate with other related IoT devices and act on the information they compile and aggregate from each another. These IoT devices perform most of their own processing and decision making without the need for human intervention, although persons can interact with the devices to either install them, provide updated instructions, or access and monitor the data associated with the systems they are overseeing and/or controlling.

E) The benefits of IoT, the IoT Revolution

Never has there been such a win-win enabled by technology than with the explosion of the use of IoT. Businesses win by enabling greater efficiency and accuracy while driving costs and time to market simultaneously lower. At the same time, companies can increase the ease of doing business with them through increased customer convenience along with increased customer experiences (marketing, sales, customer service, products, services, etc.) by having greater IoT enabled insights into what customer really need and want. The following chart captures some of the IoT enabled win-wins both for business and customers.

Business and Consumer Benefits of IoT

F) The Balanced Positives and Negatives of IoT

To not just present benefits of implementing IoT in the above chart, I also developed the following chart to show additional IoT positives balanced with negatives. For example, for business the benefit is the decreased maintenance cost and equipment downtime, while a negative is the risk of hacking and hijacking of IoT devices connected data and systems, etc. for both customers and businesses.

Balanced Business and Customer Positives and Negatives of IoT

G) Most Popular IoT Architecture Platforms in 2021

Here is a list of the most popular IoT platforms In 2021 from SoftwareTestingHelp.

1. Google Cloud Platform
2. OpenRemote
3. IRI Voracity
4. Particle
5. ThingWorx
6. IBM Watson IoT
7. Amazon AWS IoT Core
8. Microsoft Azure IoT Suite
9. Oracle IoT
10. Cisco IoT Cloud Connect
11. Altair SmartWorks
12. Salesforce IoT Cloud

In the article from SoftwareTestingHelp, (source: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/best-iot-platforms/), there is a detailed description for each platform as well as high level pricing for each platform.

H) The 10 Hottest Industrial IoT Platforms Of 2020

If you’re a larger industrial company, you’ll also want to view this list of top enterprise level IoT platform providers listed below:

1. Altizon Datonis
2. Amazon Web Services IoT (also on the most popular list in G, 7) above
3. Flutura Cerebra
4. Hitachi Vantara Lumada (Listed in Gartner’s “Leader” Quadrant)
5. IBM Watson IoT (also on the most popular list in G, 6) above
6. Litmus Edge
7. Microsoft Azure IoT (Listed in Gartner’s “Leader” Quadrant)
8. Oracle IoT Cloud Service, (also on the most popular list in G, 9) above
9. PTC ThingWorx (Listed in Gartner’s “Leader” Quadrant), also on the most popular list in G, 5) above
10. Software AG Cumulocity

Source: https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/internet-of-things/the-10-hottest-industrial-iot-platforms-of-2020

I) Most Popular IoT Services Companies for 2021:

Enlisted below are some of the most popular IoT Software Solutions and Services Companies worldwide.

List of Best Internet of Things Companies

1. ScienceSoft (USA & Europe)
2. iTechArt (New York, US)
3. Oxagile (New York, US)
4. Indium Software (USA, UK, Singapore)
5. Softeq (Houston, Texas, USA)
6. Style Lab IoT Software Company (San Francisco, CA)
7. HQ Software Industrial IoT Company (USA & Europe)
8. PTC (Boston, Massachusetts)
9. Cisco (San Jose, CA)
10. ARM IoT Security Company (Cambridge, Cambs)
11. Hawei (Shenzhen, Guangdong)
12. GE Digital (San Ramon, California)
13. Bosch IoT Sensor Company (Farmington Hills, MI)
14. SAP (Walldorf, Germany)
15. Siemens IoT Analytics Company (Berlin and Munich, Germany)
16. IBM (New York, U.S.)
    Source: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/top-iot-companies/

I would also add to the top of the list Tata Consulting Services (TCS) as a company who excels in IoT strategy and integration consulting.

Tata Consulting Services (TCS)

J) Example Companies Going all In on IoT

While there are many companies embracing and adopting the concept of IoT, one stands out in particular. Honeywell has made IoT a centerpiece of their future company strategy and has developed a new IoT platform called Honeywell Forge. You may have seen some of the ads they are currently running online, on cable channels and in print. Honeywell plans to roll out versions of this IoT platform for the airline, industrials and buildings verticals.

I interviewed with Honeywell a while back for a Director of Customer Experience position and was impressed at how passionate they are was about IoT and how well they understood that it enabled much higher levels of customer experience. Other companies who have introduced IoT platforms include GE, Siemens and Johnson Controls (competitor to Honeywell).

K) Sample IoT Use Cases that illustrate the Customer Experience Benefits

1) Customer, Personal IoT Digital Assistants Use Case Benefits:

The user of at home personal digital IoT assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Samsung’s Bixby have exploded in the past 5+ years. They have enabled an entire new level of convenience for consumers. The increased customer intimacy and insights gathering comes with the potential balanced decrease in privacy. Users of digital personal assistants are generally aware and ok with this tradeoff due to the delivered convenience and enhanced customer experience. The chart below illustrates a sample of delivered customer experiences based on the potential to learn about users/customers and the enabled delivery of great customer experiences based on leveraging these enhanced insights.

Personal Customer Experience Benefits of IoT, Personal Assistant Example

2) Business, Fleet Management IoT Benefits Use Case:

The user of IoT in fleet management has also increased dramatically in the past several years. The use of these fleet management IoT solutions have enabled an entire new level of convenience for both their business users as well as the customers they serve. The chart below illustrates a sample of delivered customer experiences based on the potential to learn about users/customers and the enabled delivery of great customer experiences based on leveraging these enhanced insights.

Business Customer Experience Benefits of IoT, Fleet Management Example

3) IoT Dashboard Example with Customer Experience Benefits:

IoT Dashboard Example

Source: https://www.sisense.com/dashboard-examples/manufacturing/iot-live-energy/

Above is a superb example of an IoT insights power management dashboard created via Sisense, a company that “Builds custom analytic experiences” and “Embeds actionable intelligence anywhere.” to “Transform the way you work.”

In this power management example, the Sisense enabled dashboard displays all the performance measures associated with the IoT monitoring devices such as the following:

1) Device A, B, C Power usage, voltage, frequency, and current
2) Average Power by device (A, B, C)
3) Energy Consumption over time by device (A, B, C)
4) Current over time by device (A, B, C)
5) Voltage over time by device (A, B, C)

In this example above, a customer user can remotely monitor systems and proactively watch for performance measures that show power supply or regulation degradation. In times past, instead of the IoT performing the monitoring, the monitoring would instead have to be accomplished by sending a person to manually monitor 3 devices (Device A, B, C) on a periodic schedule to ensure they are operating correctly and to manually intercede if they are malfunctioning.

In the same manner that businesses have benefitted by an increase in convenience and business (B2B) customer experience, IoT has enabled the consuming public to be able to interact with their vehicles, home security systems, personal assistants, smart phones, etc. to also improve their lives through increased convenience and improved personal (B2C) customer experiences. Smarter IoT devices become smarter in automating tasks, maintaining our needs, preventing malfunctions and breakdowns, ensuring we get what we need when we need it, increasing our safety and security, while bring us life’s needs at the sound of our voices while going about our normal routines.

L) Summary

1. IoT stands for the “Internet Of Things” and is simply smart devices that monitor, control, and interact for a variety of functions that collect and transmit data from an array of IoT devices through telematics.
2. IoT has emerged as one of the fastest growing technology segments in the last several years and will continue this pace of massive growth for the next 5-10 years.
3. IoT rapid market diffusion has been enabled by even smaller and more powerful device level processing capacity, aided by IoT enabled cloud technology.
4. IoT has been embedded in almost every aspect of our day-to-day lives including cars, homes, critical infrastructure, personal wearables, etc.
5. IoT has delivered a tremendous amount of benefit to businesses in terms of reduced cycle times and costs.
6. While IoT has delivered many benefits, there are a set of downsides to IoT that must be considered and actively managed like the increased risk of hacking and hijacking.
7. While many businesses would point to the reduction in costs and cycle times as the major business case justification, the common denominator for both business and consumers is the increased convenience and improvement in customer experiences.

The bottom line for IoT is, as stated by the title of this article simultaneously improves customer convenience and customer experience while simultaneously decreasing business cycle times and overall cost. This statement clearly sums up why we are in the midst of an IoT revolution and why the market for IoT has and will continue to experience explosive growth.

M) Need help getting started in improving your IoT driven Customer Experience?

If your organization is seeking a proven resource in measuring and improving your customer service and experience via IoT, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com

Lastly, this is just one article of 50+ articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 106,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Powered Customer Service

Top 5 Topics Covered

1. Current trends in the adoption of AI as applied to customer service.
2. The business case for AI adoption in customer service.
3. Common use cases for AI powered customer service delivery.
4. Real companies that have implemented AI driven customer service.
5. How to get started implementing AI applications for customer service.

The application of AI for customer service has been traditionally viewed with skepticism and believed to be somewhat bleeding edge as a non-matured and risky investment prior to 2018. While this has been true up to that point in time, this reality is quickly changing for the following major reasons:

1. AI software applications now have proven the business case for implementation in that the business value delivered vastly exceeds the initial implementation investment costs.
2. AI application functionality has stabilized to the point of being highly reliable and mainstream.
3. There are now several common and proven use cases for the application of AI for customer service.
4. There are now numerous best-of-breed & enterprise-level AI customer service applications to choose from vs. just a very few.

Companies have now caught onto the fact that AI can help improve the delivery of customer service and exceptional customer experiences while simultaneously accomplishing the following wins (Quadruple win!):

1. Decreasing the overall cost to serve customers.
2. Decreasing the reliance on expensive human capital to deliver customer service.
3. Increasing the levels of customer insights and customer intimacy.
4. Changing the company’s customer service from a reactive model (i.e., upon customer request) to a predictive and proactive model (i.e., upon automation detection of latent customer need).

Accordingly, recent studies and statistics have pointed to the trend of AI adoption by companies accelerating per the following credible studies:
• “Eight out of ten companies have already implemented or are planning to adopt AI as a customer service solution by 2020.” Source, Oracle: https://www.oracle.com/webfolder/s/delivery_production/docs/FY16h1/doc35/CXResearchVirtualExperiences.pdf
• “AI chat and other bots will power 85% of customer service-related interactions by 2025.” Source, Gartner: https://research.aimultiple.com/ai-stats/#customer-service
• “AI will power 95% of all customer interactions by 2025, including live telephone and online conversations.” Source: https://servion.com/blog/what-emerging-technologies-future-customer-experience/

Here are some of (small sample) the more common use cases for the adoption of AI powered customer service:

1. AI Powered Social Listening to detect customer issues, trends, brand mentions, etc. and with proactive workflows to help the internal team resolve these issues.
   This capability allows AI to perform real times scans of 1,000’s of social media posts and media channels including mobile application data to spot social mentions, potential customer service issues, potential product/service defects, brand and/or company mentions, etc. that are trending. The more powerful tools also search and respond to specific customer service inquiries from a multitude of channel sources. Here is an example of a social brand listening dashboard from Brandwatch:

Brandwatch Social-Brand Listening Dashboard

Source: https://martech.org/6-of-the-best-social-listening-tools-for-2019

Several durable goods product/manufacturing companies use this function for listening to track trending potential product defect issues like “my front loading xyz brand washing machine keeps growing mold” or “my air bag caused extensive injuries during my crash”, etc. to get ahead of potential disastrous crisis’s and then manage them proactively.
Here are a few good articles that point to some of the leading social listening tools for the purpose of providing improved and more proactive customer experiences.

https://www.aitrends.com/ecommerce/social-listening-tools-powered-by-ai-going-for-deep-personalization/
https://martech.org/6-of-the-best-social-listening-tools-for-2019

2. AI powered customer account authentication & access via advanced number/voice recognition and biometrics. Instead of having to remember your password for each account, wouldn’t it be great to use your own unique physical identity to securely access your accounts? These physical identity attributes include your unique voice, eye attributes, and fingerprint to name a few. Many banks are quickly adopting this new capability by allowing people to access their accounts simply by speaking their voice into their phone. I first encountered this on my personal funds account and have since seen this at several banks. Here is a great example from HSBC bank as to how AI voice recognition is powering bank account authentication and access. Source: https://ciiom.hsbc.com/ways-to-bank/phone-banking/voice-id/#tab-2

HSBC Customer Voice Account Authentication and Access

3. AI powered customer personalization. There is a growing need to better develop and understand customer profiles and to develop personalized content based on this specific profile. With the help of AI, a deeper understanding of customer’s specific needs and unique profiles is now possible. Here is a great graphic depicting this capability from Unfold Labs:

Unfold Labs AI Driven Customer Personalization Solution

Source: https://unfoldlabs.medium.com/ai-driven-personalization-6dc9c47c1418

4. AI powered agent matching via AI call classification and intelligent call routing. Based on triaging the reason for the customer to contact the company in #3 above, AI then matches the customer-need to the best available customer service agent (i.e., those who specialize in resolving those specific customer needs). The call is then routed to the best CS agent with a pre-brief on why the customer is contacting them, their interaction and purchase history, any previous known attempts to resolve this or any other issue, etc. Here is a great pictorial of how Genesis Predictive routing accomplishes this along with a high-level explanation of how it works.

Genesis AI Predictive Routing Solution

Source: https://genesys.miratechgroup.com/genesys-predictive-routing-the-perfect-customer-agent-match/

Below is another great example of this from Affinity Intelligent AI Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

Affinity Intelligent AI Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

Source and details on the above graphic: https://www.nojitter.com/afiniti-taps-ai-optimize-customer-agent-pairing

5. AI powered customer service agent interaction response improvement suggestions.
   Bots will scan customer service agent’s sessions (calls, chat, text, etc.) and then suggest in real-time optimal answers to improve customer satisfaction and to standardize the customer experience. Here is an example of how Digital genius suggests who will respond (agent or Bot) and what the content of the reply should be:

Digital Genius AI Automated Customer Response Engine

Here is a great video from Digital Genius explaining how it works, what is does, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkvJ21aje84

6. AI powered customer service and ecommerce chatbots with advanced analytics. Chatbot are being used in increasing numbers by companies due to the simultaneous increase in chatbot customer service capabilities as well as decreased cost of these solutions. Here is a great example of Dom, the Dominos pizza chatbot located on messenger, Facebook, website, etc.

Dom, Domino’s Pizza AI Driven Automated Chatbot

Source: https://www.chatbotguide.org/dominospizza-bot

Chatbots are also increasingly being used to automate the ecommerce process for ordering, re-ordering, resupply, etc. Here is a great example from Hewlett Packard being used to service customers ordering or reordering toner cartridges, using the leading Netomi solution for their AI chatbot solution.

HP Netomi ecommerce Solution for Ink Reordering

Source: https://www.netomi.com/ecommerce-chatbot
Read other use cases in the above article on Sephora, Tommy Hilfiger, Harry Rosen, eBay, etc.

7. AI powered call mining & analysis with systemic improvement recommendations & workflows. These applications are designed to be the powerful engine that analyzes and recommends systemic improvements for agent customer interaction. Think of these applications as the 24×7 call center director’s expert analysis assistant that never sleeps and has the ability to monitor the equivalent of the combined workload of 100+ top expert analysts. Specifically, here is what these solutions like Call Miner from Eureka can accomplish:
   A) Analyze: Better understand conversations with root-cause analysis. Discover what matters most with omnichannel customer journey mapping that scores performance, tags transcriptions with sentiment and emotion, and delivers customer insights that drive business growth.
   B) Coach: Create cultures of improvement and persistent optimization. Improve customer experience and agent performance with automated scoring, data-based feedback, and progress monitoring.
   C) Alert: Real-time guidance. Gain immediate awareness of next-best actions to turn around a negative customer experience and reduce risk for fines or legal action – all driven by powerful AI and ML capabilities.
   D) Capture: Gather speaker-separated audio. Collect high-fidelity, dual-channel audio for the most accurate conversation analysis, with encryption to ensure the security and an always-open API to integrate easily across platforms.
   E) Visualize: Compel action with data. See and share the story your data tells with an interactive, easy-to-use interface that makes it easier to drill down into the detail of a single agent or customer, and visually connects the dots between insight and action.
   F) Redact: Accurately identify and remove sensitive numeric data. Extract the value of conversation analytics without exposing private customer information.

Eureka AI Call Miner Call Analysis and Recommendation Engine

Source: https://callminer.com/products/eureka

8. AI powered Intelligent Document Processing (IDP). Leveraging Natural Language Analysis and OCR of customer documents like surveys, invoices, orders, reviews, questionnaires, etc. AI is being adapted to analyze text fields in documents to uncover customer insights and trends in order to improve systemically and increase customer satisfaction (CSAT) and service efficiency while reducing costs. There are several tools available in the market as shown on the Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) chart for Infrrd.ai which is one of the leading IDP Software vendors. View this chart here: https://www.infrrd.ai/. Other IDP leaders include Workfusion, Automation Anywhere, IBM, etc. IDP tools enable the automatic scanning of millions of documents and hundreds of millions of lines of document text, characters, numbers, symbols to extract and record key information from these documents and then aggregates and reports on the important customer facts, figures, issues, etc.

Infrrd Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Solution

Source: https://www.infrrd.ai/product/intelligent-data-processing-platform

If your organization is seeking experienced assistance in lowering your overall cost to serve and increasing CSAT with automated and AI powered customer service, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com.

Lastly, this is just one article of over 50 articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, sales excellence, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for numerous Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 107,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/.

Leverage Customers as the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) While Increasing Customer Diversity and Inclusion

How & why top companies are inverting their organization charts and putting their own customers in charge of customer operations while increasing Customer Diversity & Inclusion (D&I).

How and why this practice also leads to the following ratings:

1) Higher NPS,
2) Increased customer loyalty,
3) Increased customer satisfaction levels & CSAT,
4) Growth in customer zealots that virally promote your brands and company,
5) Increased customer diversity and inclusion (D&I).

The top 10 things you will learn by reading this blog:
1) The spectrum of customer first cultures – find out where you stand on this spectrum.
2) The trends in developing customer insights and customer feedback via customer inclusionary programs and customer onramps.
3) How customer onramps support customer diversity and inclusion (i.e., customer D&I programs).
4) Customer Experience metrics from real companies who have developed and deployed these customer onramps.
5) Creative win-wins to make your customer experience more fun, engaging, educational, rewarding, and inclusive.
6) Innovations in creating customer communities that increase brand loyalty, customer referrals.
7) Market leading companies and their case studies in leveraging customers as the Chief Customer Officer (CCO).
8) The customer organization Inversion and customer empowerment of the future.
9) Quick & easy wins in getting started in the customer inversion that will create customer zealots and a customer experience 2nd to none.
10) The top 10 things you should immediately consider implementing to increase Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) levels, NPS and customer loyalty rates by double digits.

A) The Customer Organizational Inversion-Revolution:

There is an organizational customer inversion-revolution going on and it will only accelerate in the future. What this revolution entails is a complete inversion of the customer decision making structure for companies, one where the customers (vs. the company) are in charge, leading the design of customer strategy and future customer programs. I call it the customer inversion revolution. This inversion looks something like the chart below. We will detail this customer organization inversion-revolution in following sections of this blog.

FROM:

Traditional Customer Service Organization

TO:

Customer Service Organization Inversion-Revolution

Key to implementing this customer organizational inversion-revolution is the development of customer inclusionary “on ramps” (shown in the green symbol above) that allows customers to participate and join the company team as brand partners, advocates, insights experts, advisors, etc. We will cover this more in depth in following sections but hence forward, customer on ramps will be designated by this symbol below:

Customer Inclusionary Onramp

These onramps detailed in the following blog increase customer inclusion by their very nature of creating an array of customer chosen methods for these customers to contribute to and participate in the company’s success. The enhanced diversity is derived from tapping into and leveraging the diverse set of perspectives and needs from existing customers that represent a cross-section of different cultures, races, genders, ages, political views, national origins and religions, etc. so that the best product and/or services are engaged in the marketplace.

Many companies have omitted these onramps in the vetting of new products, services, marketing campaigns, etc. and have ended up offending and alienating their own customers and potential prospects. A great web article points to how companies have fielded expensive and disastrous marketing campaigns and ads in the past only to have to quickly pull them from the market. These campaigns/ads are often a result of corporate myopathy and not taking into account a multitude of diverse perspectives enabled by an array of customer D&I onramps: “7 of the most controversial ads of our time” https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/04/08/7-the-most-controversial-ads-our-time. A major West Coast bank vets all of it marketing concepts through a customer insights group (covered below) before ever releasing the ad and/or campaign into the market. Only after the CIG group (onramp) has weighed in and provided their approval and feedback will this bank to go market with their marketing concepts.

Bottom line, these onramps enable your customers to become brand and company partners/advocates who, through time and continued onramp participation, develop an ever increasing vested interest in the brand(s) and company success.

To be receptive to this change and to get onboard with customer leaders who are in the process of putting customers in charge and implementing the customer organizational inversion-revolution, you must first have a foundational customer centric culture. Companies that are implementing this customer centric change and building customer brand partners include Apple, Southwest Airlines, Ritz Carlton, Amazon, Marriott, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc. Let us first explore what a customer centric culture is and the spectrum of companies on the customer centric continuum.

B) The Customer First, Customer Centric Culture

To begin with, almost every company claims to be customer centric, that their customers are their most important asset, customer satisfaction is a priority, etc. In practice I have found that there is a spectrum of truth to these public statements ranging from treating customers as a necessary commodity to the other end of the spectrum and treating customers as equal and respected partners and treating customers as a true extension of the company-employee team.

Referring to the chart below, we can see that spectrum of company cultures and their treatment of customers based on these different company customer cultures. To simplify this illustration, I have only included 3 types of companies as follows (along top of chart):

Customer Centric Company Spectrum

1. “Customers are our most valuable asset”: Companies that truly value their customers and view them as an integral part of their team and company’s success. This type of company also maintains a true customer first culture, policies, standards, etc. (right side of chart, spectrum).
2. “We Value our Best Customers”: Companies that only strive to cater to their most valuable customers since these customers benefit the company the most (middle of chart, spectrum).
3. “Customers are a Necessary Commodity”: Companies that interact and ‘deal with’ customers when it benefits them (they pay lip service to slogan ‘customers are their most important asset’), left side of chart, spectrum.

On the left side of the above chart, we have a number of customer facing dimensions including the following:

1) “Customer Input”: How the company views and approaches soliciting customers for insights, input on new programs, detailed feedback (i.e., focus groups, crowdsourcing, etc.), etc.
2) “Customer Complaints”: How the company views and approaches the handling of customers complaints.
3) “Customer Inclusion, Partnership”: How the company approaches being customer inclusive by offering customers ways to partner with the company including online communities, customer co-blogging, customer spotlights, etc.
4) “Customer Engagement”: How the company approaches customer communication and creates a rewarding and engaging customer experience.

Companies located on the far-right side of the chart have the following belief that is not only a slogan, but embodied in the company culture, operations, practices, standards, rewards systems, etc.:

“Customers are our Most Valuable Asset”.

For the first customer dimension on the left side of the chart, “Customer Input”, a comment that I heard from a CEO with this type of culture is as follows:

“We make no (major) decisions (that will impact the customer) without the customer’s direct input”.

For the first customer dimension of “Customer Complaints”, a company CEO said the following,

“Customer complaints are a valuable insight and gift to help us improve, beat our competition”.

You can read the comments for each type of company aligned to each customer dimension. Bottom line, without a foundational customer first mindset, rewards and incentive system and culture, you will be impeded on implementing the effective customer inclusion program with many possible customer onramps detailed in the remainder of this blog.

C) Mainstream Customer Inclusionary Programs & Onramps:

As I mentioned before, once you have established a totally customer centric culture, the 2nd step is to build customer incremental onramps for the customer to become a brand partner and an integral part of the customer team. These onramps invite the customer to participate in a number of activities that will increase customer satisfaction (CSAT), loyalty, NPS, viral referrals, etc. Based on my experience, building these customer inclusionary onramps can net your company huge increases in key customer measures as follows:

1) NPS: +14 to 49
2) Customer Loyalty: + 4% to 36%
3) Customer Positive Sentiment: +12% to 71%
4) Customer Viral Referrals: +11% to 26%

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Advisory Board Program

1) Customer Advisory Board Program:

A Customer Advisory Board (CAB) is the composition of a group of trusted, and generally top customers, who meet on a regular basis (i.e., Quarterly) to advise the company on strategic direction such as the product and/or service roadmap and on upcoming major new programs. Customer advisory boards (a.k.a. trusted customer advisors) can also be a conduit to award top customers for their input, loyalty, spend, referrals, etc.

At a top US automotive company, we invited our top and most open/honest customers to these focus group and advisory events, paid their travel expenses, hosted a nice dinner reception and, at the end of the session, gave them an appreciation gift for their continued participation and loyalty. We also had Platinum private customer events for our top 1% spend customers which were meetings with the EVP and above for open-ended candid feedback & insights gathering discussions.

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Insights Group Program

2) Customer Insights Group Program:

A Customer Insights Group (CIG) is the composition of a wider cross-section of customers or specific customer segment(s) who meet on a regular basis (i.e., weekly, quarterly) to advise the company on new tactical programs, proposed sales campaigns, and marketing concepts, provide feedback on existing program effectiveness, provide customer experience insights based on their own actual experience, etc. Customer insights groups are usually on a voluntary enrollment basis and typically come with some sort of incentive to participate (i.e., participate and be entered in a drawing for a gift certificate).

A top 5 US bank uses these extensively and there is a directive from the CMO that no new marketing programs/materials/etc. will be fielded without first getting the input of this insights group. After implementing this program, marketing effectiveness increased by an overall 27% and the loyalty of the group increased by a whopping 38% as compared to non-CIG participants. When surveyed, 92% of CIG members indicated that they told 26+ about their positive perception of this bank CIG program (survey choices were 0-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-25 or 26+).

Amazingly enough, 5,000 participants volunteer up to 8 hours of their time per week to participate with another 5,000 eagerly waiting in the wings for their term to participate (participation is limited to a 2-year term).

In addition, by tapping into a diverse customer set, the bank was able to avoid potential marketing disasters by stopping the fielding of proposed marketing materials that were deemed offensive and culturally insensitive by members of the customer insights group.

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Co-blogging & Co-Authoring Program

3) Customer Co-Blogging & Co-Author Program:

Customers telling their story (the voice of the customer) about their success in using your product/service and their customer experiences are 5-7x more credible than coming from the company. In addition, customer authors bring with them an entirely new audience sphere (their friends, connection, relatives, etc.) which will result in a dramatically increasing your website traffic, SEO, referrals, etc. Customers love the opportunity to be spotlighted and write their own story (with helpful company editing of course) when it comes to their experience interacting with the company. Co-blogging can also be about customer stories with a human-interest side to it vs. always being business oriented. Customer co-authored articles can be about topics such as how to gain the most value from the product/service, tips/tricks they have learned, the value they have gained from using same, etc.

We recently used this for a struggling newsletter program that had only penetrated 27% of our customer base. Six months after I implemented the co-blogging program, the newsletter distribution grew to 56% of our customer base and we experienced a simultaneous increase of 17% in new visitor web traffic.

Customer On-Ramp: Top Customer Appreciation & Recognition Program

4) Top Customer Appreciation & Recognition Program:

Remember the movie “Up in the Air” with George Clooney? He was a top traveler who strived to be in the 1% club in terms of air miles flown per year on a particular airline whereby, if he achieved this distinction, he would then be invited to an awards dinner with the CEO of the airline and be showered with a whole host of flying perks after achieving that level of spend/loyalty. Banks, hotels, brokerage firms, etc. all have an array of top customer loyalty rewards programs.

For the very top customers, there are more hands-on personal perks like a dedicated/private concierge assigned to customers like for the American Express Black credit card which can only be obtained by direct invite by American Express (i.e. not via request). A top US air conditioning company I used to work for had top distributorship recognition events for the distributors who sold the highest revenue generating air conditioning units. While focused internally for a company, many salespersons have benefitted from such top achievement loyalty programs by achieving the distinction as top salespersons for their companies and being rewarded with trips, cash, luxury items, cars, etc. as a thank you for their contributions.

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Product/Service Beta Group Program

5) Customer Product/Service Beta Group Program:

Before top companies like Microsoft and Apple ever release a new product into the market, they first try these new products with limited volunteer beta groups. They gather feedback from these beta test groups and then continuously improve the beta product before releasing the product to mitigate potentially disastrous consequences of releasing products with potential flaws that internal testing failed to consider via their test cases.

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Success Program

6) Customer Success (Spotlight) Program:

Does your company have successful customers using your product and/or service? Why not showcase or spotlight this success by detailing what they did, how they did it and the value they were able to derive from doing so? Challenge customers to submit their success stories for selection to spotlight in the newsletter, website, articles, FAQs, consideration for prizes for the top stories, etc. The more customers witness real customer successes, the more other customers will want to figure out how to acquire your product/service to emulate the success of other customers.

Customer On-Ramp: Ambassador Program

7) Customer Ambassador Program:

The Syracuse University (SU) admissions and student success programs received a big boost with the adoption of its Alumni ambassador program whereby successful alumni would volunteer to host regional recruiting events, student college send-off events, and answer questions from interested students in their area. Alumni ambassador groups increased the level of excitement and enthusiasm for new students and families while simultaneously decreasing the levels of anxiety and confusion among students and families.

The entire ecosystem of a customer first, customer inclusive company that has inverted the customer organizational structure and has built a comprehensive set of customer onramps to be able to put customers in charge of customer operations would look something like the following chart:

Customer Inclusionary & Participatory Programs, Onramps

D) Other Customer Inclusionary Programs & Onramps:

In addition to the more popular and mainstream customer inclusionary programs above, there are several other programs that I have encountered that were effective by increasing the levels or customer loyalty and creating many customer-brand zealots (those who actively and aggressively advocate for the brand/company).

Customer On-Ramp: Creative Council Program

1) Customer Creative Council Program:

Many customers have a wide range of creative talents outside of simply being a customer. A company with a large customer base tends to have customers who are very creative such as artists, craftspeople, etc. A large SaaS software firm I consulted for would solicit creative ideas for new campaign concepts from the creative group among their customer base (and sometimes from their employees) to get the best creative concepts as possible. Many times, customers would develop far more appealing creative concepts than their own dedicated creative talent working within the company. Why not source from the best of the best, including creative customers?! This would allow the company to harness this creativity while allowing creative customers to be spotlighted for their hidden talents and feel valued by the company.

Customer On-Ramp: Talent Showcase
Program

2) Customer Talent Showcase Program:

Beyond just being creative, a company with a large customer base typically includes customers who are also poets, book authors, those with interesting and varied professions such as paramedics, volunteer firefighters, food bank volunteers, world travelers, iron men or women, triathletes, extreme cyclists, paragliders, scuba divers, treasure hunters, etc. Many companies I have worked with have conducted customer showcases that highlight the interesting lives of their customer base beyond merely being a customer. These personal story showcases add a human-interest side to the customer base and tend to make customers feel more connected to and understood-appreciated by the company.

Customer Journey Customer Co-Mapping

3) Customer Involved Customer Journey Mapping & Continuous Improvement Program:

Are you planning on creating a customer journey map and want to know what the important steps and metrics are in that journey? Why not invite the customer to join in on these development sessions to provide the team with some insights, feedback, important items to consider? I have used this approach quite effectively and have developed far more qualitative customer journeys as a result. I used this approach to develop a brand new and innovative customer journey map I have labeled “The Quantifiable Customer Journey Map”. Refer to my previous blog article for insights here: https://bit.ly/3bvPRal

The Quantifiable Customer Journey Map

Bottom line, without the customer’s input, the high quality achieved in the final customer journey map would have been much more difficult and time consuming to achieve.

Customer Diversity & Inclusion Council

4) Customer Diversity & Inclusion Council:

A few companies I have worked with in the past have managed and conducted employee diversity councils whereby employees would provide their perspective on how the company can be more diverse, culturally sensitive, and overall inclusive.

A few companies have taken this further and included their own customers into the diversity council along with their employees. In this manner, the company ensures that it is considering the widest possible perspective on D&I and not falling victim to company group think.

Regardless of whether you include a formal customer diversity council, what all the above illustrated customer onramps do in essence is help build a company culture that supports customer diversity and inclusion (D&I) as follows:

1) Enables the assembling of a diverse set of perspectives, based on unique and diverse set of customer experiences, needs, etc.
2) Provides diverse feedback on potential new customer programs, marketing, etc. that might be perceived as offensive and discriminatory to certain customer groups.
3) Enables customers to showcase their diverse backgrounds, talents, interests, viewpoints.
4) Enables a voice of the customer cultivation that represents the full cross section of diverse customers.
5) Enables the delivery of the best of the best solutions by allowing feedback on proposed programs from a wide and diverse set of customers.

If your organization is seeking experienced assistance in creating these customer onramps and a more diverse and inclusive and customer first organization where customers are leveraged to assist the insights Chief Customer Officer (CCO) and are transitioned to full brand-partners/advocates/participants/etc., then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com. I am also a Certified CultureTalk (https://culturetalk.com/) consultant that can help you develop and/or improve a customer-oriented, customer first culture.

Steven Jeffes, Certified CultureTalk Consultant

Lastly, this is just one article of over 50 articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, sales excellence, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for numerous Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 107,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/ .

Introducing: The Quantifiable Customer Journey Map

The top 10 things you will learn by reading this blog article:
1) What a customer journey map is and what it is used for.
2) What a customer service map is and what it used for.
3) The business benefits of developing a best practice customer journey.
4) How a customer journey map and a customer service map relate and map to each other.
5) Best practices in the development of customer journey maps and customer service maps.
6) How to build a hierarchy of customer journey map levels such that a customer service map is a natural outcome of the customer journey mapping process.
7) What completed examples of customer journey maps and service maps look like.
8) What critical components are missing from many customer journey maps.
9) How the invention, development and rollout of the quantifiable customer journey map is the wave of the future adding tremendous new business and customer value to its usage.
10) How this new quantifiable customer journey map is the most comprehensive and quantifiable method to come along.

One of the relatively newer tools for larger companies and enterprises in the customer experience professional’s toolbox is the practice of customer journey mapping as well as customer service mapping. First, a complete and simple definition of both of these tools is as follows:

1) Customer journey map definition:

A customer journey map is the pictorial representation, from the customer’s viewpoint, of their experience of interacting with a company for various customer service needs.

2) Customer service map definition:

A customer service map is the pictorial representation, from the company’s (internal) viewpoint, of the capabilities and processes used to fulfill various customer service needs.

Difference Between the Two Definitions Above: The major difference between the two techniques above is the perspective as follows:

Journey mapping is from the customer’s external viewpoint (interacting with the company for various customer service needs), while the service map is an internal viewpoint (company provision of services for various customer needs).

One key point is that service mapping is much less valuable if constructed prior to building the customer journey map. A best practice customer journey map documents the major paths the customer uses to obtain service from the company, the various reasons customers interact with the company, gaps in the current delivery of customer service, best practices that should be kept and strengthened and most importantly, it should map and track customer health metrics that customers indicate are most important to them. Once this journey is documented and mapped, then the current state and future state service maps can be constructed to determine how and how well the company is serving the customer including any service gaps that need to be filled.

It is worthy to note that there are now a number of emerging tools that automate the development of a customer journey map. While these accelerate the timeline of the development of the customer journey map, the automation of this process can shortchange the most valuable parts of the team map development exercise which include the following (sample):

1. Team discussion & agreement on the overall current state of customer service and experience.
2. Team customer journey point of view discussion, socialization and consensus building.
3. Team prioritization of the top future state customer service programs and processes.
4. Developing team concurrence on the matrix of cost to serve vs. service quality delivery levels.

I have used these customer experience tools extensively in the past during numerous client consulting engagements and found them very useful. Some of the business benefits for utilizing these tools are as follows:

1) Provides a comprehensive pictorial of the various paths the customer transits through to obtain service from the company.
2) Provides a great assessment of the current state of customer practices and customer health.
3) Provides a great assessment of the future (needed) state of the optimal way to provide customer service that would enhance the service quality level vs. current state.
4) Provides a gateway to be able to map out internal service pathways as well as to document existing gaps and opportunities in those pathways.
5) (New) The “Quantifiable Customer Journey Map” now provides the best assessment of the current state of customer health across all major customer journey phases.
6) (New) The “Quantifiable Customer Journey Map” now provides the best snapshot of both the current state of customer health as well as needed future state program capabilities based directly on customer input and feedback.

One of the major historical gaps in producing customer journey maps was that many times the journey map merely documented the customer journey and experience without regard to the measurement of customer relevant metrics that can be leveraged to increase customer loyalty, spend, share of wallet, CSAT, NPS, etc. The exercise to measure customer health was often performed separately or in parallel to the customer journey mapping process. In order to bridge this gap in many existing customer journey maps, I have developed a new and innovative way to map a customer journey while simultaneous accomplishing the following:
1) Cultivating and documenting the customer metrics that matter most to the customer.
2) Delivering current state quantification of those top customer metrics.
3) Delivering feedback from the customer on what capabilities future state customer programs should contain.

Introducing: The NEW Quantifiable Customer Journey Map

The following graphic is the final version of a new quantifiable customer journey map I have developed which now includes the discrete measurement of customer health as part of the customer journey map development process. I will break down and detail each best practice component of this new customer journey map in later sections of this article.

The Quantifiable Customer Journey Map

Best Practice Customer Journey Detailed Components
Next we will detail each component of this new “quantifiable customer journey map”.

First let’s detail how the components of a customer journey map are determined. The structural framework components of a customer journey map exist along the x and y axis of the map. The components you will find in both the x-axis and y-axis of a customer journey map are actually highly variable based on the type of customer journey map being constructed. Below is a sample list of the most common types of customer journey maps.

Existing Types of Customer Journey Maps:

1) Current state map
2) Future state map
3) Macro map (strategic),
4) Micro-level map (tactical)
5) User experience maps
6) Customer emotion map
7) Day in the life map

This new and more effective quantifiable customer journey map I will cover takes into account many of the following from above (1-4) plus something new & innovative:

1) Current state map
2) Future state map
3) Macro-map (strategic)
4) Micro-level map (tactical)
5) New & Innovative: Quantifiable current state of customer health across all journey phases.

This last customer journey map component (5) is missing from many other customer journey maps but has been incorporated into this new quantifiable customer journey map. This new method in my opinion is by far the most comprehensive snapshot you can take of current customer health as well as simultaneously taking into account both macro and micro customer journey map components. This new method also integrates customer service mapping in a single synergistic exercise.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map Detail Components (x-axis)

The first component of the quantifiable customer journey map exists along the top (horizontal) portion of the map, representing the major stages the customer transits through in a common customer journey. Customer journey phases exist along the x-axis commonly for many, but not all, customer journey maps. Typically several major top-level (level 1.0) customer journeys exist to document critical and common customer paths such as new customer, renewing customer, customer obtaining customer service, etc. Depicted below are the major phases (level 1.0) for a new customer journey for a client who sells SaaS market analytics/AI software. Remember, a customer journey map is a structural framework that, no matter the type variation, should always be constructed from the customer’s (vs. the company’s) viewpoint.

Quantifiable Customer Map Journey Customer Stages (x-axis)

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map Detail Components (y-axis)
The y-axis of the quantifiable customer journey map contains the following components (developed from the customer’s perspective and via customer direct input):
1) Sub Level Customer Journeys – The level 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. sub-journeys that the customer experiences as they typically transit each phase of the top 1.0 level customer journey.
2) New! Top 2-3 Customer Needs and Drivers – Driven by direct customer input and feedback, the top 2-3 needs and drivers (i.e. what is most important) for each phase of the customer journey
3) New! Customer Ratings and Metrics (rating scale of 1.0 to 5.0) – Driven by direct customer input and feedback, the current (snapshot) quantification of the top 2-3 customer needs and drivers for each phase of the customer journey.
4) Current State Best Practices – Driven by direct customer input and feedback, the top best practices that are operating well within each phase of the customer journey. These best practices should be retained and continuously improved to maintain a competitive edge.
5) Suggested Future State Programs – A comprehensive review of the current state gaps for each customer journey phase such that future state customer experience programs can be implemented to improve customer satisfaction levels.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map Framework Components (y-axis)

Sub-Micro Customer Journeys
The first detail in the y-axis customer journey is the documentation of which customer sub-journeys can be broken down to the 1.1, 1.2, etc. level for each major (level 1.0) customer journey phase. For example, under the first customer journey stage of “Customer Purchases”, there exists the sub-phases (level 1.1) of the following:
1.1 Customer Discovery (we will show an example of this sublevel drill-down later in this article)
1.2 Customer Deep Dive Q&A
1.3 Customer Trial/Evaluation
1.4 Customer Explores Purchase Options
1.5 Customer Contract Evaluation, negotiation, closure
1.6 Customer On-Boarding Preparation
We detail how to drill down and further detail these customer journey sub-phases later in this article.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Customer Stage Sub-Journeys (y-axis, row 1)

The next two intricately tied y-axis components (rows 2 & 3) are the key components in this quantifiable customer journey:

1) The Top 2-3 Customer Needs and Drivers (Row 2) (for each 1.0 level customer journey phase):
These are determined by querying a cross segment of customers (via customer feedback-focus groups) about what is most important to them during that particular customer journey phase. These key customer needs and drivers then formulate the current state metrics that need to be, not only collected in an as-is current state assessment, but also collected systemically moving forward via automated customer health dashboards to determine ongoing and longitudinal customer health.
Continuing the drill down on the 1st phase, “Customer Purchases”, we find that customers are most concerned with, in order of importance:
a) How well the software covers their business requirements and business use cases (vs. price when against business requirements coverage %)
b) The Quality Perception of the Product/Brand/Company they are buying into for enterprise level software
c) Ease of Doing Business with the Company/Brand they are doing business with. Described another way in focus groups “we want to buy software from a company that values and respects our time and is easy (and a pleasure) to do business with”

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Top 2-3 Customer Needs and Drivers (y-axis, row 2)

2) The Current State Customer Ratings and Metrics (Row 3) (for each of the top customer phases needs and drivers):
This component is the current state quantification of the top 2-3 customer relevant measures from above as determined via direct customer measurement. In continuing with the previous example we find that the quantification of the top 3 measures for this particular client were as follows:
a) Price vs. functional fit index rating of 3.8 which indicates the company is meeting most of the needs of their customer’s use cases and needs. This client thought it important to gauge price along with functional fit rather than succumb to the ‘build it at any price’ product management quagmire.
b) Quality Perception index rating by customers of 1.9 is a low and concerning score that needs to be rectified
c) The ease of doing business CSAT score of 3.3 which, while slightly above average, still warrants some focus for improvement.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Customer Ratings and Metrics (y-axis, row 3)

As previously mentioned, once the current state snapshot is taken via the customer journey mapping process, the top 2-3 customer needs and drivers need to be incorporated into an overall automated “customer health metrics dashboard” that systemically and automatically tracks and monitors these metrics across all level 1.0 customer journey phases.

The quantification of customer health across all customer journey stages can quickly point to areas needing major improvements like the 2nd stage (“Customer On-boards”) highlighted in red below. Of particular concern is the very low metric of “Brand Support Education” at a rating of 1.7.

Next up are the yellow highlighted areas of 1 – “Customer Purchases” and 3 – “Customer Uses” and are the 2nd area where customer average phase ratings are less than superior (3.0 and 3.4 respectively). Of particular concern under the 1 -“Customer Purchases” stage is the low customer rating for the intra-phase detailed metric of “Quality Perception” with a score of 1.9.

Best Practice: Many companies often use the customer journey phase total metric as a measure of customer health (i.e. 1 -“Customer Purchases” and 3- “Customer Uses” ratings of 3.0 and 3.4 respectively), but a best practice is to also measure customer journey intra-phase sub-metrics like “Quality Perception” (rating of 1.9) under “Customer Purchases”. In this manner major specific and critically important customer service sub-processes can be measured and adjusted to ensure their continued effective operation.

Lastly, stages highlighted in green are 4 – “Customer Engages Brand”, 5 – “Customer Engages Support” and 6 – “Customer Renews “might be subject to ongoing continuous improvement since they are approaching superior ratings (3.8 averages for all 3 phases).

The sum totals of all level 1.0 ratings are as follows:
1 – Customer Purchases – 3.0
2 – Customer On-Boards – 1.7
3 – Customer Uses – 3.4
4 – Customer Engages Brand – 3.8
5 – Customer Engages Support – 3.8
6 – Customer Renews – 3.8
For an executive summary dashboard metric of 3.25 ((3.0+1.7+3.4+3.8+3.8+3.8)/6) for all level 1.0 customer journeys.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Highlighted Customer Ratings and Metrics (y-axis, row 3)

Full view of Customer Needs & Drivers with Ratings and Metrics (y-axis, row 3 & 4)

While the next two sections might appear to be constructed from the company’s point of view, these were carefully constructed via direct customer feedback and inquiry. By asking a cross section of customers a series of multi-dimensional questions (sample questions* below) these highly valuable insights were cultivated.

*Sample questions: “what is working well?”, “what were the top factors in your purchase (or renewal) decision?”, “what were the detractors in your decision to purchase (or renew)?”, “what else could we do to improve our functionality, processes, capabilities”, “what is missing vs. what you consider our competitor’s best practice?”, “what did you like most about the renewal process?”, etc..

While this inquiry results in additional cost and extends the timeline in the development of a customer journey map, the value of the insights generated are worth 2x-20x the investment.

Existing Best Practices (Row 4)
The next row (4) in the quantifiable customer journey map is the top best practices that are operating effectively and efficiently within each phase of the customer journey. These best practices should be maintained and continuously improved in order to maintain a competitive edge. Continuing with the drill-down on the 1st, “Customer Purchases” customer journey phase, we find the following best practices being employed that should be maintained and continuously improved:
1) Maintaining functionality considered within the top 5% of all competitors as rated by (name of rating company purposely omitted, client confidential).
2) Maintaining and continuously improving the flexible and highly optioned payment purchase plans.
3) Maintaining and strengthening the Gartner relationship such that we remain on their radar in a favorable way, get top recommendations for adoptions, market ratings.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Existing Best Practices to Maintain, Strengthen (y-axis, row 4)

Suggested Future Changes (Row 5)
The next row (5) in the quantifiable customer journey map is the top “Suggested Future Programs” that need to be implemented within each phase of the Level 1.0 customer journey map. Continuing with the drill-down on the 1st, “Customer Purchases” phase, we find the following improvement programs should be implemented:
1) In addition to the strong relationship we have with Gartner, maintaining and strengthening the relationship with several other top respected & independent software reviewer companies (names client confidential) such that we remain on their radars in a favorable way, get top recommendations for adoptions, market ratings.
2) Perform a multi-dimensional performance and “solution comprehensiveness” benchmark study vs. other top competitors and publish in a white paper and publish to 3rd party reviewers.
3) Continue to build out our product road map with the top rated desired customer functionality, taking into account the PY business case for the build-out of these functions.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Suggested Future Improvement Programs (y-axis, row 5)

Customer Journey Micro Stage Drill-Down (1.0 –> 1.1)
In order to fully document the customer journey process, it is important to drill down and document all major customer journey sub-levels where the customer receives a major different customer experience based on path chosen to fulfill their needs. The sections following demonstrate this technique and components but does not fully show all of the quantification components (y-axis) as shown in the above examples.

Below is the depiction of the mapping of the 1st customer journey phase of “Customer Purchases” under level 1.0 into the journey map that covers these sub-phases in customer journey map level 1.1

The sub-phases under this 1.1 level consist of the following:
1.1.1 Customer Discovery
1.1.2 Customer Deep Dive Q&A
1.1.3 Customer Trial/Evaluation
1.1.4 Customer Discusses Purchase Options
1.1.5 Customer Contract Evaluation, Negotiation, Closure
1.1.6 Customer On-boarding Preparation

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,”Customer Purchases”
Drill-Down to Level 1.1 Customer Journeys

Customer Journey Micro Sub-Stage Drill-Down (1.0 –> 1.1–> 1.2.1)
Here is the depiction of the drill down to the level 1.1 “Customer Discover” sub-phase under level 1.0 “Customer Purchases” that further details these sub-phases as follows:
Customer:
1.2.1 Visits Website
1.2.2 Calls Sales Team
1.2.3 Calls Account Team
1.2.4 Completes Web Query Form to Learn More
1.2.5 Requests 3rd party attestation information
1.2.6 Requests software demonstration (variants: scripted or unscripted)
These sublevels then can be further detailed and documented down to the 1.2.1.1 levels if necessary.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.1,”Customer Discovery”
Drill-Down to Level 1.2.x Customer Sub-Journeys

Hierarchy of Strategic Customer Journey Map to Tactical Map to Customer Service Map
Here is the full depiction of the hierarchy of the top level customer journey map major phases down to the sub-levels as well as to the service map we developed to document and diagnose how well the company was delivering upon their service level commitments and requirements (SLAs). Again, note that the customer journey map is typically and mostly from the customer’s viewpoint while the service map is constructed from an internal standpoint of HOW that service is provided to the customer.

One key take-away from this is that the service map documentation should align to the lowest logical level of customer journey map as to document all service map path permutations in order to ensure adequate customer service coverage as well as to document any gaps in the variants of service that are provided to the customer.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Relationship & Hierarchy from Level 1.0 to Level 1.1 to Level 1.2 to the Customer Service Map Detail

Best Practice Customer Service Map
Here is a depiction of a portion of the customer service map that aligns to the 1.2.x level of the customer journey map. While this graphic is not the full service map for “Customer Discovery”, it illustrates the major components of a service map. The service map is constructed from an internal standpoint of HOW that service is provided to the customer via the various methods and channels.

A future blog topic will cover more in-depth the best practices associated with the development of a customer service map, following on from this specific client example.

Best Practice Customer Service Map Example

Summary:

In summary, measuring your customer experience quality/effectiveness must be guided by a set of effective best practice tools, diagnostic techniques as well as a solid methodology. The use of customer service maps and customer journeys with embedded customer experience journey analytics is an emerging best practice to accomplish this goal. The new tool of a “Quantifiable Customer Journey Map” is being introduced as the latest tool in the toolkit for customer experience architects and professionals to address gaps in previous customer journey map’s framework designs (measurement of customer health). In the practice of developing a customer journey map, the customer’s viewpoint, input and feedback is critical to developing any credibility and value.

By utilizing this new quantifiable customer journey tool and methodology there are vast improvements to be uncovered and implemented that will enable your company to leapfrog the competition and to become the market leader in customer service delivery. Market leading companies like Apple, American Express, Costco, Zappos, Intuit, Southwest Airlines, Wegmans have all adopted this customer first viewpoint and company culture and have benefitted tremendously by doing so. With all of the benefit to be achieved by your company, there is no excuse to not actively work on creating a better customer experience and adopting this new & innovative tool and associated methodology by assessing your customer health via the quantifiable customer journey map.

If your organization is seeking experienced assistance in assessing the state of your customer health including best practices, gaps, top & relevant customer measures and future state program design then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com.

Lastly, this is just one article of over 50 articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for numerous Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 107,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/.

Company Market Leadership via ABC Alignment: Archetype, Brand, Customer

How a company’s primary Archetype drives an authentic brand and the delivery of exceptional customer service and customer experiences

After being hired as a consultant and researching numerous companies, I have discovered the following as to why some achieve market leadership while others do not. What I have discovered is that market leading companies like Amazon, Intuit, American Express, Apple, Southwest Airlines, Wegmans, Gartner, Nielsen, Lego, Hallmark, Disney, etc., have all achieved a high degree of alignment between their ABCs – their organizational Archetype, their corporate Brand and their Customer presence. They are all authentically aligned, in-synch and balanced both internally through the experienced corporate culture as well as externally through the brand and customer experience. Through my experience with many companies and brands I have also found that when these items are misaligned or not balanced, there is a negative reaction to company by the employees, customers and stakeholders.

To draw an analogy to people you meet, ask yourself, if you have ever meet or run into someone who meets the following characteristics:

1) Is a self-proclaimed advocate for protecting against sexual harassment and then makes inappropriate glances or comments as an attractive person passes by?
2) Describes themselves as a person of tolerance and acceptance but speaks in a manner that is condescending or hurtful to others, etc.?
3) Maintains they are for protecting the environment, global warming, etc. but in practice they throw litter onto the sidewalk or out of their car window and have a older automobile that pollutes a great deal?

If you have, you might walk away saying the following:

“That was totally unexpected!”
“They are a phony, fake”
“That person was totally disingenuous, not authentic!”

Not surprisingly, the same thing happens upon interacting with inauthentic companies as follows:

1 The company states that their customers are their #1 focus yet their delivered customer service is horrible and totally frustrates their customers.
2 The company indicates that they are for the environment from a corporate culture perspective, but print many of their marketing and other materials on physical paper stock and is not recycling on a systemic and/or widespread basis.
3 The company’s advertisements are very funny, engaging and/or professional, yet customers are offended and upset when they interact with the company’s rude and apathetic customer service representatives.
4 The company states that their culture promotes employee work life balance, but as an employee, you hardly ever see you family due to crushing workloads.

As a customer or as an employee, you’re likely to have the same reflex as when you encounter an inauthentic person. You would probably react by registering your displeasure with the company and avoid the next interaction or defect from the company as soon as possible.  

In stark contrast, companies who are market leaders achieve what I call authentic ABC alignment. In this, there is perfect alignment and synergy between their ABCs as follows:
1) Archetype (company’s main personality, attributes)
2) Brand (projected company image (external) and reflected culture (internal))
3) Customer service and experience delivery (company attitude, manners, empathy, etc.)

The following chart illustrated this perfect ABC alignment:

ABC Alignment, Balance, Authenticity

Organizational Archetypes represents a company’s dominant personality types, sometimes driven disproportionally by the CEO or CxO team in the case of smaller companies. The organization’s archetype is the true identity and personality of the company, who they truly are, what makes them go from a strengths perspective, what shadows hold them back, etc. These archetype traits are hidden to an organization until revealed through the lens of analysis tools like “CultureTalk” (https://culturetalk.com/). Performing a “CultureTalk” Analysis applies a set of lenses to be able to clearly reveal, in 20/20 clarity, a set of a company’s main personality types. Below is a chart that reveals the 12 Archetypes that a company can align to as well as examples of companies that align to each Archetype.

12 CultureTalk Archetypes, with Organizational Examples

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung used the word “archetype” to refer to the recurring patterns found in our universal stories. He identified the themes, symbols, and imagery as part of the human psyche. More recently, Dr. Carol Pearson built out Jung’s work with a body of research that examined archetypal attributes within organizations. CultureTalk, based on the work of Jung and Pearson, takes centuries of understanding and translates it for today’s business leaders. The result is a framework of 12 Archetypes that a company can align to in terms of its dominant personality type(s).

Organizationally, CultureTalk assessments answers the questions: What type of company are we, what do we stand for, what dominant traits represent the authentic company? There aren’t good or bad Organizational Archetypes, but each has a strength and shadow side that we need to understand in order to drive maximized organizational effectiveness.

12 CultureTalk Archetypes, Highlight: Lego Organizational Example

Lego Creator Archetype

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

As an illustration, the Creator Archetype above is described in the graphic below is focused on “the creation of things, ideas, approaches, experiences, art work and solutions” and is well represented by the very familiar and popular company Lego. Below is a more detailed description of the main characteristics (strengths) of this Creator Archetype.

The Creator Organizational Archetype

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

Lego is in perfect alignment and balance with this Archetype, driven by invention, creation, designing, dreaming, etc.

The shadows of a creator Archetype company like Lego are as follows:

Creator Organizational Archetype Shadows

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk.

The full list of strengths and shadows of a creator Archetype company like Lego are as follows:

Full List of Creator Archetype Strengths and Shadows

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

It is important that a company’s Brand image be in authentic alignment with their main Archetypes, otherwise they are striving to portray an image that is out of alignment with their main personality type – trying to portray as something they are inherently not, being inauthentic to the world. This brand image is manifested in two different dimensions as follows:

1) Outside the company: The image that is being presented to the world, it stakeholders, employees, customers, etc.
2) Inside the company: The image reflected via its experienced company culture

In order to be an authentic company, it is important for a company to have its brand in alignment with its dominant Archetypes, otherwise they are portraying themselves as something they are not truly comfortable with, something they are not, being inauthentic to their main personality types and strengths.
 

Continuing the Lego example, we see perfect and authentic alignment with their main archetype and their brand messaging.

About the Lego Brand

Source: https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/lego-group

The Lego Brand supports driving of innovation and creativity to their customer base which encourages the creator individual archetypes. For the public to be comfortable with the brand they have to be truly and heartfelt dedicated toward driving the creativity and the passions of their customer’s creator archetypes.

About the Lego Culture

Source: https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/lego-group/the-lego-brand

The C stands for the manner in which a company delivers its Customer service and Customer experiences. Continuing with the previous Lego Creator Archetype, here is a customer service example of how the Lego Customer Brand and Culture is driving an equally consistent and authentic creator customer experience.

Here is a letter sent to Lego by a 7 year old boy named Luka who is a Lego customer regarding him losing one of his Lego figures.

Letter to Lego Customer Service

Source: “https://beloved-brands.com/2016/06/18/lego-letter”

Here is the skillfully crafted reply to Luka, written in a manner that is completely in alignment with and, appealing to, Luka’s creator archetype.

Letter from Lego Customer Service

Source: “https://beloved-brands.com/2016/06/18/lego-letter”

The article from Beloved Brands, where this information was sourced from, notes:

“For Lego, in the world of social media, this type of story does wonders for continuing the magic of their brand. And it’s a great example of going above and beyond. What I like in the letter is how they please the boy, but also give a solid wink to the parent who is likely the bigger target of this letter. The dad ended up tweeting about the story, lots of viral hits and then picked up in the mainstream media including TV and newspapers in the UK, US, and Canada. And now millions are reading about this story (including you right now.)”

Equally important as the exceptional “surprise and delight” customer service going viral and generating a great deal of positive company and brand buzz, is that the tone and manner in which the customer service letter is written. The letter was masterfully crafted to be in perfect alignment with the organization’s primary Creator archetype, but simultaneously encourages and supports the customer’s (Luka’s) creator Archetype.

Here are additional examples of authentic alignment between an organization’s primary archetype and their brand and/or customer service and experience delivery;

1) When interacting with Disney, we expect authentic customer interactions to deliver magical and exciting customer experiences due to their primary organizational archetype being a Magician.

Source: The Disney Institute, Service Policy

The above service guidelines could have been written in the typical boring manner like many other company directives as follows:

1) We will make eye contact and smile when encountering any of our guests.
2) We will welcome each Disney guest with the following greeting “xxxx” upon meeting them.
3) Etc., etc.

Disney instead wrote these in a way to communicate the service standard, but did so in a way consistent with the Magician Archetype by illustrating the Magic of the Disney characters and how they bring magical experiences to the children who visit their venues.

The service guideline that illustrates the consistency with Magician Archetype the best above is #6. This service guideline specifically references the delivery a “magical guest experience” and reinforces the concept that Disney delivers magic (as you would expect from a Magician Archetype) via both their company brand and through their customer delivered experiences.

Magician Organizational Archetype Strengths

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

Wegmans Everyperson Archetype

2) When interacting with Wegmans food markets, we would expect all branding and employee/customer communications to be authentically in alignment with the Everyperson archetype. Indeed their values reflect this and even display the words in the values “every person”.

Wegmans Values

Source: “https://www.wegmans.com/about-us/company-overview”

Colleen Wegman, Wegmans Letter

Source: “https://thezebra.org/2020/06/01/wegmans-is-increasing-their-hours-of-operation-as-they-adapt-to-phase-i”

This employee communication from CEO Colleen Wegman is also in perfect alignment with the Everyperson archetype with the above telltale words “all of you”, “trying time for everyone”, “people – our suppliers, employees, customers, community partners -…”, “every one of you”. Again, Wegmans is a great example where they have perfect ABC alignment, authenticity.

Everyperson Organizational Archetype Strengths

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

3) When calling Nielsen or Gartner for B2B expert research or insights, we expect the brand and customer experience to be highly insightful, informed, based on analytical research – all characteristics of the Sage organizational Archetype.

Gartner Products

Source: https://www.gartner.com/en/products

About Gartner

https://www.gartner.com/en/products

About Nielsen 1

About Nielsen 2

https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/about-us/

Both Gartner and Nielsen also demonstrate that they are authentic to their archetype and maintain ABC alignment and authenticity.

Sage Organizational Archetype Strengths

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

4) When interacting with the Apple Brand, we would expect the customer interactions to be reflective of a culture that is about inventing new and radically different/innovative products and experiences by challenging the status quo. These innovative and inventive characteristics are all telltale signs of the Revolutionary organizational Archetype.

About Apple 1

Source: https://www.apple.com/jobs/us/about.html

About Apple 2

Source: https://www.apple.com/jobs/us/about.html

The way Apple has reflected the Revolutionary Archetype is via its release of new and innovative products we previously thought weren’t possible. It started with the Apple I and Apple II computers and went onto the LaserWriter, the iPod, the iTunes Store, iPhone, ipad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, etc. The release of these was accomplished with total alignment to their Brand and to the customer experience standards.  

Sample Apple New Product Innovations

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/apples-origins-an-oral-history-from-inside-the-loop/

Revolutionary Organizational Archetype Strengths

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

Hallmark Lover Archetype

5) Hallmark, per their culture statement, believes that “care” and creating an “emotionally connected world” are the driving forces behind their delivered customer experiences and are the passions of the Lover Archetype.

About the Hallmark Company

Source: “https://corporate.hallmark.com/about/hallmark-cards-company/”

About the Hallmark Culture

Source: “https://corporate.hallmark.com/culture/hallmark-family/”

Lover Organizational Archetype Strengths

Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

What all of this demonstrates is the rule of customer service cultural archetype delivery, stated as follows:

Top Customer Service Companies –> Culture Alignment

Once you have determined your corporate Archetype via a tool like CultureTalk, the best way to ensure that both your brand and customer experience is in alignment is by direct measurement. For this measurement, I recommend a solution category called “Experience Management Measurement”. This enables companies to measure the experience for brand-products as well as the customer. One market leading tool I have encountered and recommend highly is Qualtrics (https://www.qualtrics.com/). Qualtrics was Named #1 Leader in Experience Management Measurement in Industry-Leading Product Rankings*. Qualtrics can assist you in the measurement of both brand and customer alignment by simply querying both your market and customers on their perceptions on brand and customer authenticity, perceived consistency, etc.

*Source: https://www.qualtrics.com/news/qualtrics-named-1-leader-in-experience-management-in-industry-leading-product-ranking/

Summary/Conclusion:

Just like successful people who are inherently highly consistent and authentic: values, personality, interests, actions, manners, spoken language, etc., the same consistency-authenticity driven success applies to companies. Companies that drive a totally consistent and authentic market presence tend to achieve ABC alignment: Archetype, Brand messaging, and Customer presence.

Without ABC alignment, the company appears to be disingenuous to the public and to their customers – trying to be something they are not per their primary Archetype. Only those achieving perfect alignment become market leaders as in our examples of Lego, Gartner, Nielsen, Disney, Apple, Wegmans, Hallmark, etc.

If your organization is seeking experienced assistance in deploying legendary levels of culturally aligned customer service, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com. I have also recently become a certified CultureTalk consultant, ready to help your company transform into a high performing and market leading (legendary) customer focused culture http://www.legendarycx.com

Lastly, this is just one article of over 50 articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 107,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/

Create Elated Customers for Life by Delivering Surprise & Delight Customer Service

Surprise & Delight Customer Service

The following is what you will learn by reading this blog:

1. The main business capabilities for a company to possess to deliver superb and legendary customer service

2. The most critical capabilities to develop in order to enable your front-line employees to be able to deliver excellent customer service

3. The introduction of the concept and definition of Surprise & Delight Customer Service and how the world’s top customer service companies deliver this consistently

4. Examples of the best Surprise & Delight Customer Service that I have personally encountered and how they are linked to the critical components listed in #2 above

5. Top customer service companies considered to be world-class in delivering Surprise & Delight Customer Service

6. The programs you need to implement so that your company can deliver consistent Surprise & Delight Customer Service to your customers

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SECTION 1: Benefits of having elated, “surprised and delighted”, customers:

The research I have conducted indicates that truly elated customers, who are consistently surprised by the level of service they receive from your company, go on to tell multiple friends, relatives, acquaintances, co-workers about your company, products/services and stories of their great experiences interacting with your company. This grass roots customer advocacy transforms your customers from just your customers into infectious and 24×7 adjunct company sales and marketing agents, convincing people they interact with to buy from your company.

Additional research also shows that this customer transformation does not come when they rate your company and service as merely “Satisfied” but rather only when a customer is elated and rates your customer service with a 7 , or “Extremely satisfied”, rating as shown here:

Sample Customer Service Ratings

____

The following graph illustrates the correlation between the rating provided by a customer on their customer service and the strength of their company advocacy and likeliness to recommend a company.

Correlation between Customer Satisfaction Ratings and the Likeliness to Recommend/Advocate for a Company

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SECTION 2: Capabilities required to deliver exceptional “surprise and delight” customer service:

There are more than 10 dimensions in developing and delivering customer service excellence including the following:

1. Development of a customer-oriented vision and strategy.

2. Development of service excellence standards that are institutionalized across the enterprise.

3. Development and maintenance of a company culture that drives team unity and focus as well as customer service excellence and a mindset of customers first.

4. Implementation of a customer errors, omissions and anomaly recovery processes.

5. Implementation of a customer experience and customer service excellence measurement system.

6. Inclusion of customers in helping define and develop the final customer management capabilities, content, methods, etc.

7. Implementation of a customer bill of rights and non-negotiable customer standards.

8. Development of customer emotional connection points based on customer journeys.

9. Development of a set of hiring criteria and standards to be able to identify and source employees who have a predisposition for delivering exceptional customer service (friendly, outgoing, personable, believes in helping others, rates high on empathy, etc.)

10. Deployment of training that ensures front-line employees are customer service excellence certified so that they can deliver world-class customer first service.

11. Delivery of surprise and delight (S&D) customer service & experience through the development of S&D customer processes.

While all of the above are important I feel that the last three are of critical importance in making customers consistently extremely satisfied.  In the next section we will cover the definition of surprise and delight customer service and share real examples of its delivery across many service-related industries.

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SECTION 3 – Surprise & Delight definition, examples:

Surprise and delight customer service is consistently going well above and beyond customer expectations such that customers feel both surprised and delighted by their treatment & level of service by your company.

Surprise & Delight Customer Service

Here are some examples of where I have personally encountered surprise & delight customer service:

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1) Hotels:

A) High Peaks Resort, Lake Placid, NY: I recently checked into the High Peaks Resort in the Adirondack Mountains during the time of my birthday.  The front desk has a champagne reception for all incoming guests. When we were offered champagne, my wife told them that we were celebrating my birthday.  The attendant responded by saying, “we will take care of it” and took the glasses away. I said to my wife, “that was confusing as they said we will take care of it” and then promptly took our glasses from us.   We got to our room shortly thereafter and heard a knock on the door. It was a service attendant with a bottle of champagne and a personalized birthday card signed by the front desk staff. Talk about surprise and delight customer service!! We were so impressed! Obviously, this resort embraces and understands the importance of S&DCS as described in #11 below.

11. Delivery of surprise and delight (S&D) customer service & experience through the development of S&D customer processes

Here are the thoughts and emotions I recorded just after this superb treatment by the High Peaks Resort:

1. They really care about their customers.

2. This hotel really goes out of their way to make their customer’s stay memorable.

3. They know how to make a customer smile.

4. That just made my day.

Bottom line, I felt emotionally connected to the hotel and its employees following this treatment and felt like it was in business to make their customers happy vs. merely making $$$.

High Peaks Resort, Lake Placid NY

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As a global consultant I have had my share of extended stays at Marriott hotels. Here are a couple of surprise and delight stories that I have always remembered:

B) Marriott Shelton, CT.   I stayed at the Shelton, CT Marriott for nearly 8 months, typically staying from Sunday to Friday. When the hotel wasn’t busy for the weekend, they blocked out my room for reservations and let me keep many of my belongings in my room so I didn’t have to pack & unpack each week and could feel at home upon returning.  While away, they would gather all my dirty clothes for dry cleaning and have them hanging in my room closet upon my return.  On my last evening at the hotel the hotel staff threw me a surprise farewell party! They paid for everything – dinner, drinks, etc.  Talk about taking care of the customer with true surprise and delight service! I am willing to bet this instance of the delivery of S&DCS came as a result of both 9 & 10 on our list of needed customer service excellence capabilities:

9. Development of a set of hiring criteria and standards to be able to identify and source employees who have a predisposition for delivering exceptional customer service (friendly, outgoing, personable, believes in helping others, rates high on empathy, etc.)

10. Deployment of training that ensures front-line employees are customer service excellence certified so that they can deliver world-class customer first service.

Here are the thoughts and emotions I recorded just after this superb treatment by the Shelton Marriott:

1. I’d recommend this hotel to anybody.

2. They really appreciate a customer’s business.

3. I have never been treated so well by a hotel.

4. What a welcoming place to stay – they made me feel at home!

C) Marriott Princeton, Princeton NJ: Another extended stay required me to stay at the Princeton, NJ Marriott for 7 months.  One evening I was entertaining clients at the bar after a day of numerous long meetings. One client was fond of Remy Martin King Louis XIII cognac which sold for about $145 per shot at the time. A tradition of Marriott was, that if you had the last shot from the bottle, they give you the bottle, made from Baccarat crystal.   My client ordered three shots over the course of several hours which emptied the bottle. The bartender, being new, said he never heard of giving such an expensive bottle away and refused to provide the bottle to my client. I complained to no avail as the bartender refused to budge. The next morning while dressing, I heard a knock at the door, and it was the hotel GM with the empty bottle of King Louis XIII as well an additional half full bottle. He asked me to accept his sincere apology for a relatively new and untrained bartender who was filling in the previous evening and promptly gave me the two bottles. Needless to say, my client was thrilled by this surprise and delight turn of customer service events!! I am willing to bet this instance of the delivery of S&DCS also came as a result of both 9 & 10 on our list of needed customer service excellence capabilities:

9. Development of a set of hiring criteria and standards to be able to identify and source employees who have a predisposition for delivering exceptional customer service (friendly, outgoing, personable, believes in helping others, rates high on empathy, etc.)

10. Deployment of training that ensures front-line employees are customer service excellence certified so that they can deliver world-class customer first service

Here are the thoughts and emotions I recorded just after this superb treatment by the Princeton Marriott at Forrestal Village:

1. That general manager is a class act and knows how to run a hotel.

2. I was shocked that my disappointment wasn’t the end of the story and it turned into a positive event I will talk about for years.

3. It was refreshing that they admitted a mistake and then went above and beyond to make it right.

4. Wow! Talk about doing a 360 and turning a disgruntled customer into a surprised and delighted one!

Marriott Hotel, Princeton, NJ

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C) Marriott Philadelphia West, Conshohocken, PA (Philadelphia suburb): I was a senior executive at a consulting company in Conshohocken and traveled into the area frequently. The first several times in the area I stayed in several different hotels trying to find one that I liked. Since I was previously a Marriott top tier rewards member, I decided to give the Marriott Philadelphia West in Conshohocken, PA a try. The first time I stayed, I didn’t use the concierge lounge.  On my second visit, I did use the lounge in the evening and I fell in love with the place because of one incredible (a 1 in 1,000,000 person) great human being and Marriott employee.

The person’s name is Luigi and he not only manages the concierge lounge, he IS the concierge lounge and is the epitome of what a customer should experience at every concierge lounge across the globe. Luigi has been the manager of the lounge for many years and when possible, I go out of my way to stay at this hotel due because of his level of exceptional service.  Luigi always remembers my name, my wife’s name (even though he never met her), my favorite drink, food likes, dislikes, etc. I could be away from the hotel for many months and yet he always provides a warm friendly welcome” “Hello Mr. Jeffes – so nice to see you again!!” as he gives me a hug. He will tell you about all the appetizers and desserts being served that evening and then suggests some favorites. He entertains his guests by playing movies during movie night in the lounge. When he first introduced movie nights, he used his own money to provide the DVDs. Luigi clearly goes above and beyond and I can recall many surprise and delight moments where Luigi delivered superb customer service to me and many other guests. When you’re a road warrior like I was at the time, it’s the little things that make all the difference.  Seeing Luigi who makes a Marriott feel like your home and provides a relaxing haven when traveling, always puts a smile on my face. Luigi has surprise and delight customer service ingrained in his DNA and I have lost count of the number of times I have encountered this from him. One occasion stands out more than others in that I had an unusually dreadful day with many things not going as planned. I started early this day and worked unusually longer into the evening. I hadn’t slept much the night before and I was tired, hungry and feeling the pressure of the awful day I just had. When I went into Luigi’s concierge lounge, Luigi immediately picked up on my unusually sour mood as I must not have greeted him in the usual upbeat manner. He immediately sprung into gear, taking the following actions:

1. Unsolicited, inquired of the front desk if there were any upgrades to a suite for me that evening.

2. Asked if he could order my dinner to have it sent right to the lounge or my room.

3. Handed me my favorite drink without asking.

4. Since the lounge was very empty that night, asked me what I wanted on the television so I could unwind.

5. Got me a hot towel to wipe my face and relax.

As a result, I started to immediately forget about the crappy day I had just had and started to feel myself relax. After about 30-45 minutes I was back to my old happy self with the experience of a bad day a distant memory.

What would happen to your service-oriented business if you had a Luigi? Your business volume and customer following would explode! Your customer loyalty would increase and customer service would become a distinct and immeasurable competitive advantage.

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Luigi is a natural at delivering exceptional customer service and this 1 in 1,000,000 person and service comes as a result of Marriott getting lucky enough to hire someone so exceptional. How do I know? I have stayed at Marriott properties and other hotels across the US and have not met anyone that even comes close to delivering the level of service that Luigi does.

By implementing #9 on our customer service excellence capability list, you will have much better odds of hiring someone comparable to Luigi:

9. Development of a set of hiring criteria and standards to be able to identify and source employees who have a predisposition for delivering exceptional customer service (friendly, outgoing, personable, believes in helping others, rates high on empathy, etc.)

Here are the thoughts and emotions I recorded when it comes to Luigi and his level of service:

1. I’d drive a long distance out of my way to spend a relaxing evening with Luigi.

2. Luigi is a 1 in a 1,000,000 in terms of delivering exceptional customer service.

3. Marriott is so lucky to have Luigi working for them.

4. If Luigi were to become the head of training for all Marriott service employees, Marriott would blow away their competition in terms of delivering exceptional S&D customer service.

I won’t list the thoughts and emotions for the remainder of my S&D examples, but the point is that delivering exceptional customer service delivers a lasting and positive emotional connection between the brand, product/service and with the customer.

Luigi, Concierge Manager at the Marriott Philadelphia West Hotel

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3. Ritz-Carlton, Battery Park, NYC. Ritz-Carlton is one of the top models for superior customer service world-wide and was a client in the past. Ritz-Carlton trains all of its employees to spot a customer opportunity in that they are trained to listen to and record each customer’s individual needs, issues, preferences, wants, wishes, etc. Employees are then empowered to deliver the type of service the customer wants without having to ask.

 

A great example is upon arriving at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park, NYC a number of years ago, I remember casually saying to the bellman, among other topics, that I loved the view of lower Manhattan and that I didn’t eat on the plane.  I had just flown in from San Francisco. Upon checking in, the woman at the front desk smiled and called me by name before I mentioned it, told me that she arranged a high room with a beautiful view of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty and said she arranged for a snack to be waiting for me free of charge when I arrived at my room.  She said, “I heard that you didn’t have a chance to eat on your way here”. All of this was noted by the bellman and passed onto the front desk without my knowledge to deliver Surprise and Delight Customer Service upon check-in, something Ritz-Carlton is legendary at providing. I would consider Ritz-Carlton the platinum standard for delivering S&DCS as they possess and effectively deploy all 11 of the customer service excellence capabilities listed above. Their excellent service is not by luck or chance; it is ingrained in their culture and at the center of Ritz-Carton’s core values, policies and processes.

 

2) Restaurants:

A) Water’ s Edge Lighthouse, Schenectady, NY:

Water’s Edge Light House on the Mohawk River, Schenectady NY

There are two local restaurants that my wife and I have frequented that have world-class professionals working at them. The first is the Water’s Edge Lighthouse in Schenectady, NY who employs a gentleman named Greg.  We had originally met Greg at another restaurant that sadly closed. Greg is the type of individual that remembers your name when you arrive, makes you feel at home when he is serving you, makes conversation about you and your family and takes every chance to ensure you are having a great experience. He gets to know his all of his many 100’s of customers by name and goes out of his way to anticipate and suggest my next need as I am in the process of thinking about it. My wife and I now call this level of customer service “the Greg standard”.  One time, we arrived on a Saturday night, having made a reservation earlier in the week.  Somehow the reservation had been misplaced and the restaurant was full.  When Greg learned of the situation, he said to me, “don’t worry we have you covered” and then made room for us in very short order when the place was absolutely packed. Talk about surprise and delight customer service. There was zero questioning of me about whether I had forgotten to make a reservation, which I hadn’t since I recorded the name of the person who confirmed and the time of day when I called).  Greg and the team just made it right.

Like Luigi, you would be lucky to hire someone like Greg, but you’ll need a lot of luck as he too, is one in a million.  By implementing #9 on our customer service excellence capability list, you will have much better odds of hiring someone comparable to Greg:

9. Development of a set of hiring criteria and standards to be able to identify and source employees who have a predisposition for delivering exceptional customer service (friendly, outgoing, personable, believes in helping others, rates high on empathy, etc.)

Greg (left) with the Manager of Waters Edge Lighthouse, Joey

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B) Mario’s New Lebanon, NY:

Mario’s Restaurant, New Lebanon, NY

Sarah from Mario’s in New Lebanon, NY is another person who stands out as meeting “the Greg Standard” with her warmth, professionalism and exceptional service.  Sarah gets to know each of her customer’s names, likes, food and drink preferences.  She remembers the new wine that you tasted the last time you were in and makes everyone feel special.  We sometimes don’t even have to look at the menu as she will recommend a special that she thinks we will like or asks if we are ordering one of our known favorites.  At peak hours, Sarah handles customer requests with a sense of calm and professionalism. When she is serving numerous drinks, dinners and taking orders in person and via phone, she always finds time to smile and accommodate requests, chat, ask questions, etc.

My surprise and delight example from Sarah came when I atypically came in without a reservation due to a change in schedule.  Sarah looked at me and said they were full and then said, if you can wait a minute, I’ll see what I can do. Sarah did her magic and creatively asked the customers if they could move down to accommodate another guest which they all surprisingly and enthusiastically did.  Sarah has a “following” that enjoy dining at the bar when she is working.  Due to her pleasant demeanor and professionalism, I was able to get a spot for dinner, and even though the bar had squeezed in one more person, Sarah handled everything without a hitch and made me feel welcome.  Over the years, customers have shared with me that one of the main reasons they go to Mario’s is because of Sarah and the great food. Just like Luigi does for the Marriott Philadelphia West and Greg does for the Water’s Edge Lighthouse, Sarah’s presence adds to the overall experience of enjoying a delicious meal in a great atmosphere at Mario’s. Luigi, Greg and Sarah are all 1 in a 1,000,000 service professionals who are naturals at surprise and delight customer service and you’d be extremely lucky to hire someone like them.

Sarah from Mario’s Restaurant

3)

3) Retail:

 A) Amazon:

Amazon

There is a now famous story brought to light by the New York Times titled “Put Buyers First? What a Concept”. It details how a customer, by no fault of their own, didn’t receive a shipment of a PlayStation for his son just before the holidays. Here is an excerpt from this article and a potentially disastrous situation was turned into a surprise and delight customer service moment: “It was early in the morning, and I had awoken with the sudden, sinking realization that a present I had bought for one of my sons hadn’t yet arrived. It wasn’t just any present either; it was a PlayStation 3, a $500 item, and a gift, I happened to know from my sources, that he was hoping for. Like most things I buy online, the PlayStation had come from Amazon.com. So I went to the site and tracked the package– something, thankfully, that is a snap to do on Amazon. What I saw made my heart sink: the package had not only been shipped, it had been delivered to my apartment building days earlier and signed for by one of my neighbors. I knocked on my neighbor’s door, and asked if she still had the PlayStation. No, she said; after signing for it, she had put it downstairs in the hallway.

Nonetheless, I got on the phone with an Amazon customer service representative, and explained what had happened: the PlayStation had been shipped, delivered and signed for. It just didn’t wind up in my hands. Would Amazon send me a replacement? In my heart of hearts, I knew I didn’t have a leg to stand on. I was pleading for mercy.

I shudder to think how this entreaty would have gone over at, say, Apple, where customer service is an oxymoron. But the Amazon customer service guy didn’t blink. After assuring himself that I had never actually touched or seen the PlayStation, he had a replacement on the way before the day was out. It arrived on Christmas Eve. Amazon didn’t even charge me for the shipping. My son was very happy. So, of course, was I.”  Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/technology/05nocera.html

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B) Zappos:

Zappos

 

Right in-line with this blog article, Zappos is an e-commerce company whose #1 core value is to “Deliver WOW Through Service”.  In addition, in keeping with a customer first mantra, CEO Tomy Hsich states that Zappos is “a service company that just happens to sell shoes.” Here is a story I read while researching this article that definitely applies to Surprise and Delight Customer Service.  “Recently, a newly-married couple were packing up their belongings in preparation for moving. The husband packed his wife’s jewelry inside one of her purses, and packed the purse inside what he thought was a spare Zappos box. The wife, it turns out, was intending to return that purse to Zappos using that very box. Which she then does, having no idea that inside the purse now were several thousand dollars of her jewelry!

When the couple arrives at their new home and starts to unpack, bedlam breaks out as the wife figures out what has happened and why her jewelry is missing. The rep she reaches at Zappos decides to reroute the box directly to his desk, but once it arrives, the rep fears for the safety of the valuables if he were to ship them, and purchases a plane ticket to hand-deliver the package himself.  When he arrives, the incredibly grateful couple invite him in for dinner. Now they’re customers for life, as you can imagine.” Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2017/08/01/three-wow-customer-service-stories-from-zappos-southwest-airlines-and-nordstrom/#77ad6ace2aba

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Section 4: Top Surprise & Delight Delivery Companies:

 

Here is a list of several larger companies I consider to be at the top of their game and world-class in delivering surprise and delight customer service:

1. Ritz-Carlton (consulting client)

2. Marriott (consulting client)

3. Zappos

4. Amazon

5. Southwest Airlines (consulting client)

6. American Express (consulting client, 4 different projects)

7. Costco

8. Chic-Fil-A

9. Wegmans Food Markets

10. Publix

11. Apple (consulting client)

12. USAA Insurance

 

Section 5: How to implement Surprise & Delight Customer Service for your company or organization

 

How do companies like Amazon Ritz-Carlton and Zappos consistently deliver exceptional or legendary levels of customer service?  Do they rely on being lucky enough to hire the 1 in 1,000,000’s like Luigi from Marriott Philadelphia West or Greg from the Waters Edge Lighthouse or Sarah from Mario’s above, or do they possess something else, like a secret sauce to deliver this type of amazing customer service? Having consulted for Ritz-Carlton in the past, I know that many follow a similar 5 step process detailed below.

Step 1:  Map your customer journeys:

 

Leveraging an integrated team of process experts, customer service and front line employees, map the various ways customers journey through an experience with your company. Examples include:

1. Customer prospect, exploring your potential services and/or products

2. First time website visitor, buyer.

3. Repeat or renewal website visits.

4. Existing customer, new product and/or service purchase.

5. Customer returns, complaints or warranty claims.

6. Service termination or account closure.

Here is a chart that illustrates examples of these various types of journeys:

 

Customer Experience Journey Sample, with Measurements

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Step 2:  LISTEN TO AND CULTIVATE meaningful and valuable customer needs, preferences, etc.:

 

In parallel with mapping you customer experience journeys, develop a program that continually gathers customer insights into what is most important and meaningful for each individual customer. A gift card could be given to any customer, but to know that customer A likes Starbucks, and customer B would love a Amazon Kindle gift card and customer C would value an ITunes gift card goes a long way to demonstrate that you are paying attention.  It also demonstrates that you are in tune with customer interests and care about them as individuals.  These 1-to-1, personalized surprise & delight moments build loyalty and  make a customer feel valued.

 

Step 3:  Map customer S&D opportunities along your customer journeys:

Once you have determined and documented the majority of your important customer journeys and determined what is meaningful and valuable to each of your customer’s preferences, start overlaying customer surprise & delight opportunities along these journeys. Here is a real example of how a client mapped a surprise a delight moment for high value customer issues. The key is to develop business rules that need to be satisfied in order for that surprise and delight moment to be fulfilled. In this case, a high value customer whose order was misplaced and later corrected once error was discovered, receives a gift as an apology for the error.

Customer Experience Journey with S&D Opportunity Process Example

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Example: Value of item lost $500. High value customer A would receive a $100 Starbucks gift card, customer B would receive a $100 Amazon gift card and customer C would receive a $100 ITunes gift card.

 

Step 4:  Develop & deploy customer S&D policies & procedures:

 

The next step is to distill all of the surprise & delight opportunities mapped along customer journeys into a set of front-line employee policies and procedures. Here are a couple of examples of each:

Policies:

• We will compensate high value (high value is client specific) customers for errors and anomalies that are of no fault of their own.

• Front-line employees shall be responsible and rewarded for turning satisfied customers into delighted, loyal customers by empowering them to easily and quickly deliver surprise & delight moments.

• Each front-line employee shall undergo front-line customer service certification training to ensure they are prepared and equipped to delivery legendary customer service via surprise and delight moments, customer needs cultivation, etc.

• Cultivate and reward the best employee surprise & delight customer stories from each quarter and showcase and provide rewards for ‘the best of the best’ at the end of the year.

Procedures:

• If a high value customer is calling to complain about a missing shipment of high value that was lost of no fault of their own, we will compensate with an item of meaningful value to that customer worth 20-25% of the missing item.

• Prior to checking into the hotel, we will check the customer preference and need profile on record to ensure all needs are met during the upcoming stay.

• Employees are to document all cultivated customer preference insights during their current visit in the global customer preference database in order better serve the customer’s individual likes, preferences, needs, etc. Details on how to do this are documented in the global customer preference database procedures manual and trained on during front-line employee customer service certification.

Step 5:  Develop a set of S&D hiring standards & train on S&D policies, procedures, etc.

The last step is to ensure you are hiring the best employees that they have the highest Exceptional Customer Service Aptitude (ECSA). In addition, you need to continually train and certify your employees on customer service policies, procedures, processes and how to consistently deliver exceptional, surprise & delight customer service.

1) Screen for the Best:

To hire those with the highest ECSA, you need to develop a customer service screening questionnaire as I have done for many clients to be able to consistently hire those who are predisposed at delivering great customer service and screen out those who are not. By doing this, you are screening employee candidates to find and hire only those who posses the characteristics that are most like Luigi, Greg and Sarah who are naturals at delivering exceptional S&D service.

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2) Train to be the Best, Continually Improve:

The next sub-step is to develop a set of high quality customer service training materials and processes to certify your front-line employees on exceptional customer service delivery policies and procedures. All new employees should be certified via the training and all existing employees should have to re-certify to ensure adherence to the latest exceptional customer service policies and procedures. Ongoing training for all employees will help ensure a high level of customer service is being consistently delivered.

 

Summary:

You can either hope for good luck in the hiring of natural and exceptional customer service employees that are 1 in 1,000,000 or you can develop a holistic Customer Service Excellence program with multiple dimensions and capabilities such that all employees perform to the level of a Sarah, Greg and Luigi. By hiring, training and enabling your front-line employees to consistently deliver surprise and delight moments for your customers, your company will develop a cult-like customer following similar to Zappos, Amazon and Ritz-Carlton.  Your customers will remain fiercely loyal and will actively advocate to increase your revenue, margins and brand reputation. With all this being true, there is no excuse to not actively work on creating the best surprise & delight customer program possible?!

If your organization is seeking experienced assistance in deploying legendary levels of “surprise and delight” customer service, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com

Lastly, this is just one article of over 50 articles I have written on Customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for Fortune 500 companies.  In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 121,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/

Best Practices in Customer Experience (CX) Measurement and Analytics

The following are the top 10 concepts you will learn in this blog article:

1. What are the most common set of metrics used to measure customer experience quality and effectiveness.

2. What these common customer experience metrics are used for

3. When are these best practice customer experience metrics best measured

4. What a customer journey (a.k.a. customer life-cycle) is and how it related to customer experience metrics

5. Why a balanced scorecard is better than any one single customer experience metric

6. Why NPS is not sufficient to provide a comprehensive picture of your customer experience quality and effectiveness

7. The top 10 best practices in developing a world-class customer experience measurement program and balanced scorecard

8. Sample of what a customer journey looks like as well the customer experience analytics collected at each journey phase

9. Examples of embedded detailed customer journey phase analytics paired with summary & executive level customer experience analytics

10. How to develop customer experience analytics that also drive the development and support of a customer first, surprise and delight culture.

Peter Drucker once said “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. This ageless and famous quote applies to almost all situations and customer experience is no exception. There is virtually no way to determine how effectively your customers are being treated without a robust set of measures to gauge how well you are fulfilling their needs, wants, desires, etc. In this blog article, we will cover the specific metrics that best practice companies use to measure their customer experience delivery along with it is done.

 

Peter Drucker’s Famous Measurement Quote

The Chart below illustrates some of the more commonly used customer experience (CX) metrics and how/where they are used in the customer journey continuum.

Commonly Used Best Practice Customer Experience (CX) Metrics

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT) – one of the most common uses of customer satisfaction ratings is on ratings websites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Google, etc. using the now famous five star rating system seen below. Other customer satisfaction feedback mechanisms are more sophisticated, querying customers on an array of customer experience topics that are multi-dimensional in nature.

Customer Satisfaction Score Example

• Customer Churn Rate: Customer churn rate is almost always expressed in terms of a percentage and is a product of the number of lost customers divided by the number of retained customers for any given period (day, week, month, Quarter, Year).

Customer Churn Rate Example Calculation

• Customer Effort Score: Customer Effort Score is recorded to keep a pulse on how easy it is for a customer to accomplish certain transactions with your company (e.g. return a product, handle an issue, inquire about upgrades, etc.). It is obtained via surveying customers following a major interaction and is expressed in terms of a numeric, typically on a 1-10 or 1 to 7 scale. Here is a sample I developed for a client where the score is translated into a 1 to 7 scale (from “Strongly Disagree”=1 to “Strongly Agree”=7).

Customer Effort Score Quantification Example 

• Customer Average Time to Resolution (CATTR): This metric is a measure the average time it takes to resolve categories of customer interactions (inquiry, product issue, service issue, contract renewal, return, etc.). This is expressed in average time per interaction category as shown in this example

Customer Average Time to Resolution (CATTR) Example Calculation

• First Contact Resolution (FCR): All companies should strive for what is called “one and done” customer service, enabling the customer to handle any need with one short effort. The benefits of achieving this are endless including the following: Research I have read has indicated that a 1% increase in FCR rates translate into decreasing operating costs by 1%, increases of both customer satisfaction and employee scores by 1-3% as well as increasing customer loyalty (up to 20%). How companies measure FCR vastly differs including surveying customers, tracking it in a CRM system, tracking it in a contact center database or querying the customer at the end of a call. Many companies sadly do not track this metric and lose out on the visibility and resulting benefits this provides.

One & Done Customer Service Creates Elated Customers

• Contract Renewal Rates: This metric is more company specific but, when applicable and used in conjunction with the other metrics, provides a great barometer on the health of the contract oriented business. For example, you might be experiencing great FCR and customer average time to resolution, but contract renewal rates might be lagging due to a perceived lack of value by the customer for the price paid. By using this metric in a balanced scorecard along with CSAT, FCR, CATTR you have a much more comprehensive view of total customer satisfaction than with just a few measures, allowing you to reduce business risk and potential revenue surprises.

High Contract Renewals = High Customer Satisfaction

• Net Promoter Score (NPS): Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the most commonly used and simplest customer experience metric that exists.  NPS is typically measured by asking the following question:

How likely are you to recommend [business, service, product] to a friend or colleague?

Customers rate your company, service, product, etc. on a scale of 0 to 10. Respondents are grouped in the following categories:

• • Customer Promoters (Score 9-10)

  • Customer Passives (Score 7-8)

  • Customer Detractors (Score 0-6)

Calculate Net Promoter Score is typically calculated by subtracting the percentage of net detractors from net promoters. Here is a great illustration on how this is determined, calculated:

Net Promoter Score Example Calculation

It has been found that only those customers who provide a rating of a 9 or 10 on the NPS scale are those who will truly become adjunct volunteer company sales and marketing agents and are a result of experiencing surprise and delight levels of customer service. These same elated customers are the ones who tell everyone they meet about your exceptional company and your amazing, services, products, customer service, etc. More on this in a future blog that will address the topic of “Delivering Consistent Surprise and Delight Customer Service”.

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On this last point of NPS, there exist many misnomers about what to measure for customer experience effectiveness. Many professionals I have met in my consulting travels have the misconception that measuring one metric like Net Promoter Score (NPS) is sufficient to measure the quality of the customer experience you are delivering to their customers.  This is equivalent to believing that taking your body temperature is sufficient to determine your overall health when in actuality there are many measures taken together that help make this healthy/not healthy determination. The same is true for measuring the quality of your customer experience. While NPS is a good measure for helping to determine the quality of your customer experience effectiveness when used correctly, similar to body temperature, it must be augmented with many other measures to determine its overall effectiveness.

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Other customer experience metrics include employee turnover (a leading indicator of customer satisfaction), year-over-year same customer spend, customer loyalty and average longevity, customer acquisition rates over time, etc. I will go more into this when I cover the topic of customer journeys.

Customer Experience, Satisfaction Humor

First, let’s examine my recommended top 10 best practices for measuring your customer experience delivery effectiveness.

1. Monitor Customer Experience Metrics in Real Time and continuously improve customer experience programs based on actual CX metrics/program performance.

2. Track top level Customer Experience (CX) Metrics for all customers (i.e. average customer satisfaction) and for individual customer segments (i.e. price sensitive customers or high value customers).

3. Request both customer qualitative and quantitative ratings throughout the Customer Life-cycle during critical customer interactions. Accomplish this my providing a conduit for your customers to become brand partners who are invited to participate in providing program feedback prior to full launch, provide detailed focus group feedback on selected topics and for most valuable customers to participate in exclusive customer advisory boards.

4. Ensure group appropriate customer experience metrics are being delivered to each layer of the organization (highest importance summary level for CEO – Chief Customer Experience officer, more granular metrics for tactical managers and line staff).

5. Cultivate and measure your own internal customer metrics and calibrate against externally measured CX like the American Customer Satisfaction index or metrics collected by firms like the Service Management Group (Kansas City), Direct Opinions (Beachwood Ohio), C-Space (Boston), Engine Group (NYC), etc.

6. Track customer experience effectiveness via a balanced scorecard of Customer Experience Metrics including customer satisfaction, NPS, Customer Churn and renewal rates, customer spend per year and employee turnover (a proven leading indicator of customer satisfaction).

7. Ensure the collection and dissemination of Customer Experience metrics meet the golden rules of being seamless to your customers, easy to obtain and are ingrained as part of normal business operations.

8. Review customer experience metrics during key management reviews like operational reviews, leadership team reviews and financial reviews. Ensure action plans are developed for metrics above and below expected performance levels.

9. Ensure that the company culture and training is supported and in-line with customer experience metrics by making everyone’s KPIs metrics align to the performance of key customer metrics.

10. Develop customer journeys (a.k.a. customer life-cycles) and develop customer experience metrics for each major step in the customer journey.

The last best practice is to identify key end-to-end customer journeys or paths of customer progression when engaging your company and then attach appropriate customer experience journey analytics along those customer paths. Once you understand the different touch-points and how they impact the overall customer journey, you will be in a far better position to pick the most appropriate metric to use at each touch-point. The best metric is company determined based on a developed set of customer experience standards and goals.

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In my example in the introduction, Net Promoter Score (NPS – which answers the question, “How likely are you to recommend [business, service, product] to a friend or colleague?” and is rated on a 0 to 10 score), is not a total customer experience solution metric. The reason is that NPS works best when measured at the end of a customer journey (a.k.a. customer life-cycle), such as at contract renewal time. For example, if a customer is getting frustrated returning a product or trying to resolve a service issue, then they will likely defect long before they are queried on NPS. It is better to measure customer satisfaction right after an interaction to have real-time insights into a customer’s experience satisfaction and not wait until NPS query time.

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Here is a sample customer journey I developed from a recent client consulting engagement along with the metrics they decided to collect at an aggregate level as well as along this customer journey. Some of the metrics and customer journey names have been changed to protect my client’s identity. In addition, this client wanted to err on the side of measuring many metric points frequently and not all clients are this exhaustive in measuring their program. Some of these metrics were already in place before we added many others.

Customer Journey Analytics Illustration

The above illustrates one of the main customer journeys (discover to renewal) in the life of a customer along with the Macro customer phases in that journey (i.e. 1-customer discovery, 2-customer sales & on-boarding, 3-customer support, 4-customer renewals) as well as the micro phases in that journey (product, service credibility evaluation).

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The above chart also illustrates the fact that it is important to track global/summary metrics at the top of the organization (i.e. total customer satisfaction) in order to gauge overall customer experience health and to balance these with more granular measures along the customer journey phases (i.e. First Contact Resolution in the on-boarding and support phases). While there is a recommended set of best practice metrics to collect for standard customer journeys, each company will make a different selection of the mix of metrics. For example, if a company’s life blood is contract renewals then the metrics will be more geared toward gauging the customer’s satisfaction for the existing contract experience (value for contract price, value of contract to client’s business, contract terms & ease of doing business vs. perhaps product return rates).

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One best practice embedded in the above is to report on the number of customer stars (in the 1st and 3rd phases above) per period whereby employees who have delivered exceptional “surprise and delight customer service” are recognized and rewarded. Customers of this company as well as executives from the company are provided incentives to recognize employees who went above and beyond in delivering exceptional customer service. This company tracks this via reports and recognizes top employee customer stars quarterly and annually with top company customer stars getting recognized, rewarded, etc. This helps build a culture of support for being customer exceptional with top stories being told over and over to teach employees what it means to be customer exceptional  and encourage others to emulate this valued behavior.

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Summary:

In summary, measuring your customer experience quality/effectiveness must be guided by a set of best practices to be effective and comprehensive. The use of customer journeys as well as customer experience journey analytics, balanced by summary customer experience metrics comprises a customer experience balanced scorecard.  By not measuring or under-measuring your customer experience delivery effectiveness, you are flying blind and having to take guesses as to whether your program is delivering exceptional customer service to your customers or not. Only when you reach the level of consistently delivering exceptional “surprise and delight” customer service will you reap bottom line benefits of accelerated customer acquisition, reduced sales and marketing costs, increased customer loyalty and increased employee and customer satisfaction.

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With all this being true, there is no excuse to not actively work on creating the best customer experience program possible!!

If your organization is seeking experienced assistance in measuring and improving your customer service and customer experience, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com

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Lastly, this is just one article of nearly 50 articles I have written on Customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for Fortune 500 companies.  In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 121,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/

The Corporate Culture Top 5: Benefits, CxO Roadblocks, Myths, Trends, Best Practice Companies, Measurement Tools/Vendors, Best Approaches to start Improving

What you will learn in this blog article:

1. What exactly is corporate culture – simple definition?

2. The top 5 benefits of having an optimal corporate culture.

3. The top 5 reasons CxOs put up roadblocks toward improving company culture.

4. The top 5 myths associated with improving a company’s culture.

5. The top 5 trends in corporate culture – a true (corporate) cultural revolution.

6. Five (5) familiar sample companies that have great company cultures & why.

7. The top 5 vendors & technologies to support corporate cultural measurement & improvement.

8. Five (5) ways to get started, pilot some smaller and cost effective culture improvement programs.

Top Company Cultures

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1. What exactly is corporate culture – simple definition?

Corporate culture simply put is a company’s beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management treat and interact with each other and all of their stakeholders – employees, customers, suppliers, regulators, influencers, etc.  A corporate culture is implied, not usually expressly defined, and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of, and interactions with, company employees and stakeholders.  A company’s culture is reflected in, but not defined by, its dress code, quality of work-life, quality of office accommodations, employee perks and benefits, turnover rate, hiring, treatment of customers/employees, customers/employee satisfaction and every other aspect of company operations.  It not about any one specific corporate program like longevity awards, benefit packages, etc., but a totality of all programs and actual treatment (not words or slogans).

2. The top 5 benefits of having a optimal company culture

A. Provides the ability to attract & retain the top talent in the marketplace. Google is legendary in terms of culture and the number of people that line up who want to work there. For example, Google receives over 3 million high quality applicants each year! Only 7,000 of the 3 million are hired which gives candidates only a 0.2% chance of getting hired. Obtaining a job at Google is reportedly 10x-15x more difficult than being admitted to an institution of higher learning like Harvard, Yale, MIT and Wharton.

B. You create 24/7 advocates worth millions (or billions) in equivalent marketing spend: With a great company culture, everybody transitions from an employee, stakeholder and observer into a 24/7 advocate, igniting a marketing buzz worth 10’s of millions, if not billions of dollars. From the 30’s to the 80’s everyone I knew spoke glowing reviews of IBM, GE, AT&T, etc. and how great it was to work there, their products, their culture, management’s prowess, etc. They would have had to spend billions in marketing to replicate the free market buzz they received simply as a result of having a great company culture.

C. Sales and Marketing Improves dramatically: Sales prospects, marketing acquisition targets, and existing clients are all easier to sell and acquire since, due to the positive brand buzz, they feel more comfortable buying, buying more, spending more, referring associates, etc. since the company is perceived as a solid company, “doing the right thing”. These sales benefits are also worth their weight in gold vs. the paid branding and PR that would have to be done to try to replicate it (paid PR and marketing are not as trusted nearly as much as word-of-mouth, genuine advocacy by customers, employees, etc.).

D. You are perceived as great company leaders who truly care, inspiring employees to go the extra mile: You create an environment where employees can spend more time with the family, sleep well at night, are not stressed to the max as a result of working in a toxic work environment. They also just feel good about the company and its leaders to reach out to offer help to their co-workers unsolicited (vs. undermining them in toxic cultures), spend time on company improvements that weren’t asked for (vs. counting the hours where it is acceptable to leave for the day in toxic cultures), etc.  I once worked for an amazing boss who maintained a great company culture and everyone in the company would do anything for this boss and his company (stay very late, work most weekends, etc.) without giving it a thought. Contrast this to clock watching until quitting time in toxic work cultures.

E. Improves quality standards, customer service and ethical standards. It teaches the most valuable lesson of doing the right thing, doing right by people, employees and most importantly – customers. With a great company culture, you create an environment whereby employees feel that they are cared for and work for a company with high ethical standards and ideals. This translates into higher quality standards, greater regard for customers, vendors, alliance partners, suppliers and doing the right thing by all of them (employees feel this is fair reciprocation since you are doing the right thing by them as employees).

3. The top 5 myths associated with improving a company’s culture:

A. Myth #1 – Improving the company culture is going to cost a great deal. False. Simple and low cost things can be done like initiating participation contests to name campaigns, logos, newsletters, etc. as well as performing team member spotlights that showcase their abilities and interests outside of work.

B. Myth #2 – Improving the company culture is a futile exercise since we can’t really measure it. False. New quantitative tools in the marketplace now make this possible. Refer to section 7 below.

C. Myth #3 – It is the job of HR and organizational development to improve the company culture. False. Without the support and sponsorship of the CEO, leadership team and mid-level managers, any attempts to improve the company are likely to fail.

D. Myth #4 – Improving the company culture is a pure cost exercise and will likely only make our management jobs more difficult. False. Improved company cultures usually pays back the initial improvement investment in multiples of anywhere between 2x and up to 10x, depending on numerous factors like program cost and implementation effectiveness.

E. Myth #5 – Great company cultures are only for the ‘neuvo’ high tech companies full of Millennials. False. Even some of the traditionally stodgy organizations like accounting and tax firms have made their cultures so unique, fun and rewarding to work for, they are breaking the stereotypes of their industries and are becoming ‘the place to work’ for top talent and the place to bring your business to for customers.

4. The top 5 reasons some executives (CxO’s) put up roadblocks and push-back at the idea of improving their company culture:

A. The company’s existing leadership is dominated by left side brain thinkers who are good in math, science, logic, accounting, science, etc. and cringe at the thought of how employees feel, the corporate atmosphere and the “touchy feely side of the business” (actual CEO quote). These leaders would rather leave this to their HR staff if they are also not left brain thinkers, otherwise culture improvement is likely doomed at those ‘group think’ left brain companies.

B. They are extremely bottom line oriented and frugal; hence, any talk of improving the company culture is viewed as a potential expense and an attack on the bottom line (i.e. the owner’s profits). The truth is that culture can be improved with zero expense (if needed) and impact on the bottom line. Culture is just seen “as a way for employees to get more benefits” (yet another CEO quote).

C. The executives feel that the existing culture is immeasurable and “hard to wrap your arms around” (another CEO quote), so they don’t know where to start. This was a valid objection until recently with the advent of new cultural measurement tools (refer to section 7 below).

D. Following on C above, since there are few ways to determine how good or bad the current culture is, there is no burning platform or business case to improve. In this case, if the culture isn’t (confirmed) broken, there is no need to fix culture.

E. The leaders are arrogant, myopic or clueless in that, while there are glaring gaps in customer service & satisfaction, employee satisfaction (i.e. Glassdoor employee reviews), product and/or service quality, etc, they continue to delude themselves into believing their company and its operations are excellent or world-class, customers are elated, etc. without any empirical evidence to support these beliefs and claims.

5. The Top 5 Trends in culture, how the corporate culture revolution is upon us

A. The new workforce is much more geared toward and attracted to a positive work experience and the quality of work-life vs. being more compensation driven as were the baby boomers and before.

B. Learning, personal development and working in a healthy environment (mentally and physically) are keys to making the overall employee experience more fulfilling and rewarding. It is as simple as, if employees have a pathway to learn and grow with a company, the more likely they are going to find the overall experience, per #1 above, more engaging, enjoyable, etc.

C. The new workforce of today wants to connect and build relationships with their co-workers. If the proper environment is prevalent, this will happen. Otherwise, a toxic and back-stabbing culture is one where co-workers are forced to distrust, despise and grow a disdain for fellow team mates. People tend to stay longer and remain company loyal within company environments where they have friends as co-workers vs. fakes and backstabbers.

D. Employees of today want to work for an organization that has a deep and significant purpose they can connect with such that their contributions are more meaningful than just collecting a paycheck. Today’s employees want their work to mean something significant to society, their country, the world and their families.

E. Employees more and more require and even demand company and leadership ‘genuineness’. This means that the rhetoric of company slogans need to match up with company and leader actions and follow-through. For example, if a company lauds its treatment of employees and work-life balance, there better be that feeling that this is genuine with a vast majority of employees. If not, it would be like marrying someone (employee-company) that you can’t trust. After a while, the relationship is guaranteed to sour.

6. Top 5 Companies that have superb corporate cultures:

A. Intuit (previous consulting client)- Intuit recently ended up on “People’s 50 Companies That Care” list. People highlighted our 32 hours of paid time off to volunteer, as well as pet insurance and paid time off whenever a beloved furry friend passes away. In addition, they embrace diversity more than many companies; help support the community, the environment, veterans, etc. When I consulted with Inuit, many employees shared with me that they really enjoy working for Intuit and you could feel the positive vibe in meetings, speaking to executives, etc. Intuit also recently earned a 4.2 on Glassdoor from their employee reviews at the time of this blog development. Check out their blog on “People and culture”: https://www.intuit.com/blog/category/intuitlife/people-culture/

B. American Express (previous consulting client)– I have consulted with American Express for many years, helping to provide expertise and insights that would help take their marketing, sales and customer service to the next level. Everyone I interacted with at American Express was truly professional, a cut above talent that I typically encounter at other companies and people seemed to really enjoy their work experience. American Express also earned a 4.0 on Glassdoor from their employee reviews at the time of this blog development. Check out their blog on “Company Culture”: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/topics/company-culture/

C. Southwest Airlines (previous consulting client)– The culture at Southwest Airlines is more than legendary. They recently earned a very high 4.3 on Glassdoor for employee reviews about “working at Southwest”. They have been written up for Culture by numerous publications like “Company Culture Soars At Southwest Airlines” by Forbes. In addition, when I was on a consulting project there, you could tell that employees genuinely enjoy working for the company and many told me they had fun.  Ironically enough, their CEO has a Jester Archetype which means he likes to joke, have fun, encourage a light and fun company culture (as you can tell when on many Southwest flights (attendants making jokes, signing songs, tricking out passengers – all in an attempt to get the passengers feel more at ease, laugh, etc.. Read more here: https://careers.southwestair.com/culture

D. Adobe (previous consulting client)– Adobe recently earned a high 4.1 on Glassdoor for employee reviews about “working at Adobe”. From what I have seen and heard from those working there in the past, the culture is “electrifying”, “motivating”, “exciting”, etc. Don’t take my word for it, read here what actual employees have said in Adobe blog #AdobeLife (http://blogs.adobe.com/adobelife/) – small sample of many:

• “I have never worked for a company who has such a strong brand for which many customers are so passionate. The brand and our commitment to maintaining that brand contribute greatly to the pride I feel when saying I work at Adobe.”

• “The culture here is real. This is the most professional and positive company I have ever worked for. Nearly every single person treats, and communicates with each other, with respect. This is unusual because we are a fast growing, high tech company. Even with our exponential growth, respect remains.”

• “The largest trait that makes Adobe unique is that you get a genuine feel that the company cares about you as an employee. The amount of effort that Adobe takes to make sure employees have a safe and comfortable working environment as well as the large amount of great benefits is astounding.”

E. Wegmans Food Markets (not a previous consulting client, but rather I am a huge Wegmans brand advocate/zealot) – First Danny and now Colleen Wegman have done a wonderful job in shaping a market that not only provides exceptional service to its customers, but also delivers a world-class internal corporate culture. I have shopped and continue to shop at Wegmans and find it an experience to look forward to. As opposed to some of my local grocery markets where I have to deal with grumpy and gruff store associates and even managers, Wegmans employees appear to really enjoy their working experience. Consistently Wegmans has be written up as one of the top workplaces in America. In addition, Wegmans recently earned a very high 4.2 on Glassdoor for working there, a great and a consistent score for companies that have an excellent corporate culture. Read more here on CBS News – https://www.cbsnews.com/news/could-this-be-the-best-company-in-the-world/

7. The top 5 technologies & vendors to support corporate cultural measurement & improvement

Refer to “Vendor Ratings Disclaimer” below*. 

CultureIQ, CultureTalk  and Denison (listed alphabetically) are the cultural improvement pure plays leading the charge:

Until recently, CEOs could use the excuse and easily erect the all too common roadblock of “how do we get our arms around culture”, “it is hard to measure”, “that is so ambiguous, how do even know what our culture is, let alone improve it?” per section 3 of this article .  These would all be quasi-valid excuses today if it were not for the advent of a new category of cultural measurement software tools that make this excuse obsolete. While there are not many “cultural accelerator tools” on the market as of yet,  these tools/vendors enable a quantum leap in the measurement and quantification of corporate cultures (if you dare to ask).  As I have explored several of these new cultural measurement and improvement tools, three in particular have really caught my attention as a high potentials to become a market leaders.  These new culture improvement pure play* tools I will specifically focus in on is CultureIQ (https://cultureiq.com/), CultureTalk (https://culturetalk.com/) and Denison (https://www.denisonconsulting.com/)  for the reasons you will learn below.

*Culture improvement pure play tools/vendors are defined as those companies that were founded on and primarily focused on improving company cultures (vs. being part of a larger mix of tools/services).

1. CultureIQ:

A. CultureIQ background – CultureIQ started by providing culture improvement consulting services about 40 years ago qualifying the company to be an early pioneer in this space along with Global consultancies like Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG, etc. The technology to support their consulting arm is a relatively recent development since this part of their business was founded in 2013 and launched formally in 2014. The launch of the technology platform is backed by a venture capital firm and has helped fund a jump start of this platform into the marketplace in a major way.

B. CultureIQ Key Differentiator: CultureIQ’s key differentiator is that they provide the consulting expertise from within their own company vs. leveraging 3^rd party consultants to drive their technology platform, making a great choice for one-stop shopping of a comprehensive vendor – technology with consulting.

C. CultureIQ Approach:  The most positive impact and yet another key differentiator of this vendor is that they lead with consulting services first to determine the business requirements for culture improvement. Only then do they configure the technology solution that addresses these specific needs. CultureIQ addresses many aspects of cultural improvement, with the only difference being that they do not assess and profile and individual’s culture type and fit like CultureTalk below. If you are not seeking this aspect of insights, CultureIQ is also a good choice.

CultureIQ Approach Overview

D. CultureIQ Platform – CultureIQ’s diagnostic solution set is specifically configured to address individual business needs as determined by the lead-in consulting discovery phase. CultureIQs platform holistically aggregates insights from an array of heterogeneous sources. Per their website -“consolidates all types of feedback from annual, pulse, and employee life-cycle surveys (e.g., on-boarding and exit surveys) — across the enterprise.” In essence, CultureIQ aggregates an an array of culture insights and then drives an actionable improvement plan based on these continuous insights.

E. CultureIQ Consulting Services: CultureIQs consulting services is delivered via their own consultancy which has had over 40 years of experience helping improve company cultures. Their consulting services are very holistic and comprehensive per the CultureIQ website: “Our data scientists, organizational psychologists and business strategists become an integral part of your team.”  This consulting model is an ongoing presence of their consultants to help you improve your company’s culture.  For example, CultureIQ provides the following type of consulting services :

1. Designing a Global Listening Program

2. Conducting Executive Briefings (culture readouts)

3. Providing Total Rewards Optimization

4. Conducting Culture Focus Groups

5. Culture Design and Evaluation

6. Key Sales audience for CultureIQ: The primary audience for CultureIQ’s platform, as evidenced by their website, is HR professionals.

7. CultureIQ’s Key competitors: Perceptyx, CultureAmp and Glint.

At the time of this writing, CultureIQ was launching “an updated culture model called “CultureAdvantage”. Check it out here: CultureAdvantage Model.  Due to the velocity in updating their solution as well as their longevity in providing consulting services as well as M&A culture analysis, CultureIQ is definitely a vendor/tool to keep watch on and consider.

A special thank you to Sheridan Orr from CultureIQ for assisting me and pointing me to Brady Loeck, a CultureIQ Account Director who I interviewed for this article!

2. CultureTalk:

A. CultureTalk Background:

First, some background on how CultureTalk was formulated. CultureTalk, is based on the work of Swiss psychotherapist Carl G. Jung and Dr. Carol Pearson who believe that human behaviors are guided by the same inner road-map and by a set number of (12) common Archetype patterns.  CultureTalk answers the questions Who am I? and Who are we? in terms of which specific Archetype (1 of 12) each of our organization’s team members associate most with as well as which specific Archetype best defines our overall organization.

There aren’t good or bad Archetypes, but each has a strength and shadow side that we need to understand in order to drive maximized organizational effectiveness and this is especially true when merging two different Archetypal cultures.

Here is an overview of each of the 12 types of Archetypes:

The 12 Cultural Archetypes of CultureTalk

*Above Graphic courtesy of CultureTalk

Each of the 12 Archetypes above comes with a set of predominant traits (shown above) and shadows that need to be understood and managed.

B. CultureTalk’s Key Differentiator:

The most important  and differentiating feature of CultureTalk’s is that it addresses both the culture type of the individual as well as the overall organization simultaneously which is critical in a holistic cultural assessment initiative.  Here is the holistic and 360° corporate eco-system CultureTalk covers:

CultureTalk’s Culture Focus Areas

C. CultureTalk’s focus areas:

1. Individual (left above, from top to bottom):

• Establishes an Individual Archetype Profile – helps employees understand their most optimal roles and assignments

• Enables Hiring for Cultural Fit – Enables both the company and the candidate to make an optimal choice when selecting an employee to hire and company to work for

• Articulate personal brand – makes it easier for team members and management to understand and manage to key strengths and motivations

• Develop coaches, career plans, success and performance – Enables employees and manager to migrate to the right roles based on their specific archetype(s).

• Enables enhanced collaboration and minimizes conflicts – By enhancing understanding of personal brands, archetypes and key motivators, it allows for team members to better communicate and empathize with fellow team members

2. Organization (right above, from top to bottom):

• Establishes an Organizational Archetype Profile – helps the organization understand their key strengths, characteristics, blind spots, development needs, etc.

• Mergers, Acquisitions, Partnerships, Alliances – Enables the company to understand key differences, risks, potential contention points and synergies for each of these potential partners, acquisitions.

• Evolve based on Market Changes – enables better and more effective organizational changes based on changing market demands by knowing what the organization is (where we are) and where they need to go (quantifiable).

• Company and Organization Brand – Allows the company to better define and articulate the brand to all external and internal stakeholders so that people ‘get the company’.

• Team and Sub-Team Collaboration Improvement – This allows the company to understand the inner and sub-dynamics that exist within the realm of the company to enable more effective inter-team cooperation and communications.

D. CultureTalk Platform: The CultureTalk platform consists of two different culture surveys, one for the individual and one for the organization. The insights from these culture platform surveys then drive the holistic cultural improvement plan that is developed by their network of independent 3^rd party consultants. While the leader survey is not specifically geared toward individual cultural analysis as is CultureTalk, the results of the leadership development 360 survey is used to drive leadership improvement in helping shape a more improved culture.

E. CultureTalk Consulting Services: Unique to CultureTalk is that the network of independent 3^rd party culture improvement consultants from across the globe buy their surveys from CultureTalk and then deliver the culture assessment (via the individual and organizational CultureTalk surveys). They then add their own consultant’s expertise, using the cultural assessment results to start to improve the culture. CultureTalk does occasionally take on a consulting role and assists their consultants delivering consulting services, but the majority of services are delivered via a network of independent consultants that have been certified as CultureTalk capable consultants.

F. Key Sales audience for CultureTalk: CultureTalk is sold to a network of Independent 3^rd party consultants who buy survey packages in varying numbers from CultureTalk as the licensing survey vendor (similar to DISC and MBTI).

G. CultureTalk’s Competitors: CultureTalk considers its competitors to be Strength Finder, MBTI, Insights, Kolbe Index, OCAI, Denison, DISC and Culture AMP.

Due to their unique capability to analyze both the individual and organization as well as M&A situations in the cultural analysis phases, CulureTalk is a vendor to consider and watch.

A special thank you to Theresa Agresta, a Founder at CultureTalk, for supplying the above charts and for speaking with me for this article!

3. Denison:

A. Background – Denison, led by Daniel Denison, got its start nearly 30 years ago, born out of Corporate Culture research driven by several universities like University of Michigan in determining the effect of corporate culture on corporate performance. Denison determined via this research that a company’s culture quality rating was a leading indicator of future performance in that the culture quality today will determine how well a company will perform in the future; say 1-3 years from now. The survey and technology/system developed in the 1990’s by Denison to support their consulting arm was influenced by early pioneers in survey design and theory including Rensis Likert. Denison has grown steadily to now having nearly 40 cultural improvement professionals on staff in the US and Europe.

B. Denison’s Key Differentiator:

Denison ‘s key differentiators are that it has several Fortune 500 global cultural improvement clients including a large multi-national energy client and a Japanese manufacturing and technology giant.  Dension also has a unique mix whereby half of their clients are in the US and the other half outside the US (Europe, Asia, etc.). Denison also teams holistically with other firms (Tier 1 consulting firms, research firms, etc.) across the globe to deliver the best client experience possible based on client needs. Denison also helps assess two cultures when facing an M&A situation, the only leading tool in addition to CultureTalk, that performs this analysis function.

C. Denison’s focus areas: Denison’s model of organization culture focuses on taking a balanced scorecard approach to measuring culture along four major dimensions: Adaptability, Mission, Consistency and Involvement as shown by this graphic that explains their measurement rubric.

Denison Model Overview

E. Denison platform: The Denison platform consists of two different surveys, one for the organization and one for company’s leaders which is called the leadership development 360 survey. The insights from these culture platform surveys then drive the holistic culture and leadership improvement plans that are developed by Denison consultants, in conjunction with the client.

F. Denison Consulting Services: Denison, while providing the preponderance of consulting services via their own team of cultural improvement consultants, also teams when client appropriate, with other consulting firms like KPMG, Deliotte, RHR company, etc. Denison leads the client engagement to determine client needs and then develops a custom and client tailored approach and set of services (similar to CultureIQ). This initial analysis includes a set of key client questions that help determine the client’s specific needs and requirements.

G. Key Sales audience for Denison: Denison is sold to any array of stakeholders seeking to improve their corporate culture including HR professionals, learning & development professionals, communications professionals, strategy/operations professionals, c-suite executives, etc.

H. Denison’s Competitors (non pure plays): While the focus of this article is on cultural improvement pure play vendors (those firms that were founded upon and primarily focused on, corporate cultural improvement) Denison considers it closest competitors to be McKinsey, Gallup, Glint.

Lastly, Dension has a really interesting book out titled “Leading Culture Change in Global Organizations” written by Daniel Denison, Robert Hooijberg, Nancy Lane and Colleen Lief.

Denison’s Cultural Change Book

Due to their longevity in the market with both the consulting and technology solutions, combined with their proven ability to service large/multinational corporations, Denison is a vendor to definitely consider and watch.

A special thank you to Dan Denison, Chairman and Founding Partner of Denison and Nabil Sousou, VP of Global Business Development at Denison, for supplying the above chart and for agreeing to be interviewed for this article!

On a side note, some consultants have noted that CultureTalk and Denison can actually be used together and are complimentary to each other, but I have not validated this claim.

Two Other non-pure play Culture Accelerator tools to consider beyond CultureIQ, CultureTalk and Denison are DISC and MBTI (also listed alphabetically):

4. DISC:

DISC started out as a tool to help define communication types within an organization and how to best communicate with different communication styles.  During a recent partner conference, DISC announced they are now applicable for assessing culture and more in-line with the trend of helping organizations figure out and improve their culture. At the time of writing this blog, the DISC website is proportionally under-representing cultural assessment and improvement vs. CultureTalk, CultureIQ, Denison as these are solely focused on corporate culture, what I call “Culture Pure Play Companies”. Just a mismatch of capabilities and website? Not sure, you decide. I would say if you already use DISC as a tool for communication type assessment, I could see using it as an extension for cultural analysis, improvement, etc.

Advantages of DISC: Clear definition of communication styles and how best to foster cultural communication improvement.

Disadvantages of DISC: Lack of overall organizational assessment out of the box that is driven by an organizational assessment, survey, etc. as is the case with CultureTalk, CultureIQ and Denison.

5. MBTI – Myers-Briggs®:

Myers-Briggs® is a survey based system that defines individual types of team members and leaders as well as defining what they call function pairs. The cultural discovery comes when Myers-Briggs® function pairs are then mapped to cultural patterns within an organization and common organization cultural practices. Here are the 4 cultural pairs as shown from the Myers-Briggs website (https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/understanding-mbti-type-dynamics/function-pairs.htm?bhcp=1)

• Sensing plus Thinking (ST) – STs tend to approach life and work in an objective and analytical manner, and like to focus on realities and practical applications in their work. They are often found in careers that require a technical approach to things, ideas, or people, and tend to be less interested in careers that require nurturing of others or attending to their growth and development. STs are often found in business, management, banking, applied sciences, construction, production, police, and the military.

• Sensing plus Feeling (SF) – SFs tend to approach life and work in a warm people-oriented manner, liking to focus on realities and hands-on careers. They are often found in human services and in careers that require a sympathetic approach to people. They tend to be less interested in careers that require an analytical and impersonal approach to information and ideas. SFs are often found in the clergy, teaching, health care, child care, sales and office work, and personal services.

• Intuition plus Feeling (NF) – NFs tend to approach life and work in a warm and enthusiastic manner, and like to focus on ideas and possibilities, particularly “possibilities for people.” They are often found in careers that require communication skills, a focus on the abstract, and an understanding of others. They tend to be less interested in careers that require an impersonal or technical approach to things and factual data. NFs are often found in the arts, the clergy, counseling and psychology, writing, education, research, and health care.

• Intuition plus Thinking (NT) – NTs tend to approach life and work in a logical and objective manner, and like to make use of their ingenuity to focus on possibilities, particularly possibilities that have a technical application. They are often found in careers that require an impersonal and analytical approach to ideas, information and people, and they tend to be less interested in careers that require a warm, sympathetic, and hands-on approach to helping people. NTs are often found in the sciences, law, computers, the arts, engineering, management, and technical work.

Advantages of Myers-Briggs: Detailed profiling of individual traits which can be mapped to organizational cultural patterns.

Disadvantages of Myers-Briggs: Lack of overall organizational assessment out of the box that is driven by an organizational assessment, survey, etc. as is the case with CultureTalk, CultureIQ and Denison .

Below is a grid that summarizes the information I was able to learn about each of the above five (5) vendors:

Culture Top 5 Tool/Vendor Capability Chart

…

8. Five (5) ways to get started, pilot some smaller and cost effective programs

As with any quick-wins program, I always advocate letting the cultural analysis and identification of high priority needs drive which program you decide to use as a cultural improvement jump-start. The five suggestions below should only be selected based on company cultural analysis to determine which of the five are appropriate (or not). These example simply illustrate that getting started can be easy, inexpensive and designed to drive early company/employee excitement. Once this excitement and enthusiasm for cultural improvement is secured, a  larger cultural improvement program becomes easier to implement due to having some excited cultural change advocates on-board.

• Conduct round-table meetings with employees, customers, suppliers, etc. to determine where quick-hit and east fix cultural improvements can be made. Surveys also work and are cost effective.

• Complimentary to #1 above, take a pulse on, and measure, the company culture via some of the new tools that are available in the marketplace (per section 7 above) – you can’t fix what you haven’t quantified.

• Implement some simple recognition programs that reward employees for going the extra mile. At GE under Jack Welch, I was part of a “tiger team” that developed and implemented a program called RAVE which stood for Recognition Award for Valued Employees. We would recognize people and teams for contributions above and beyond their normal duties.

• Implement on-ramp participation programs that enable employees, customers, stakeholders excited and feeling more like their opinions and thoughts count. One recent example I recall was when we developed a new product and, instead of keeping the decision with the branding team, we turned into a contest for all employees to name the new product. The top 3 would be recognized with an award and a photo in the company news letter.  Another way to do this is developing customer feedback and idea programs to enable your customers to have a voice in the company, brand, marketing, etc. For example, Wells Fargo and many other banks now vets many of its product and marketing concepts through a customer feedback group prior to launch in order to increase market acceptance. These are all great examples of relatively low cost, high impact programs that can be developed to help start improving the company’s culture.

• There are a number of other programs that can be implemented that are also low cost, but mean a great deal to employees. Here are some simple suggestions:

• Invite a dry cleaner to come on-site one day a week so that employees can bring their dry cleaning to work to save time

• Conduct periodic “bring your (child, dog, relative, significant other, etc.) to work” days

• Hold contests that allow employees to showcase their talents outside of work (art day, sports accomplishment day, writers spotlight, etc.)

• Hold vendor showcase days, allowing employees to buy from vendors onsite or nearby (craft vendor days, tool days, artisan days, gourmet food vendor days, food truck days, sporting equipment days, etc.)

Summary:

In summary, corporate culture improvement doesn’t have to cost a great deal, can start slowly, can now be measured and the return on investment is generally in multiples (2-10x+) of the cost. Without a great company culture you will be unable to acquire and retain great employees, will have more costly sales and marketing efforts, have distrusting and unenthusiastic employees and you will experience a great deal of dissatisfied customer churn due to constantly eroding customer loyalty. With all this being true, there is no excuse to not actively work on creating the best company culture possible?!

Lastly, if your organization is seeking experienced assistance in measuring and improving your corporate culture, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com

Lastly, this is just one article of 40+ total I have written on Customer strategy, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for Fortune 500 companies.  In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 121,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/

*Vendor Ratings Disclaimer

Mr. Jeffes does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this blog article, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Mr. Jeffes’ research based blogs consist of the opinions of Mr. Jeffes’ research to the best of his ability and time constraints and should not be construed as statements of fact. Mr. Jeffes disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Mr. Jeffes’ research and brand may not be used to endorse a vendor, product or service, or to criticize another company. Forbidden use includes recopying text, graphs or reports in their entirety, or excepted without express written permission. All excerpts must be lifted verbatim, in their entirety, and appear accurately with all relevant context. Paraphrasing is not allowed. This article represents Mr. Jeffes’ viewpoint only and is open to listening to other viewpoints and research based input. Mr. Jeffes is not responsible for oversights, omissions, inadvertent typos and other mistakes that might have occurred in the development of this article.

World-Class Sales Processes & Methodologies – Insights into How to Achieve Sales Process Excellence

World-Class Sales Process

What you will quickly learn in this blog article:

• The value and ROI of having a world-class sales process.

• The top 10 benefits to having a clearly articulated sales process and associated methodology.

• The specific components & elements within each detailed sales process that enables the sales team to maximize their effectiveness.

• Sample sales metrics that should be collected as part of an overall sales process.

• How a sales process helps align corporate communications and actions toward winning each and every sale.

• How to infuse sales best practices right into your sales process at every stage of the sales cycle.

• How to ensure all levels of the sales teams actions are coordinated in terms of communications, hand-offs, approvals, sales readiness, etc.

• How a leading practices sales process will actually ensure that you deliver an optimum customer experience where customers will buy more and become loyal.

• How a best practice based sales methodology will ensure your sales team is fully accountable for results and for the sales funnel.

• Why a sales process can make it easier to on-board, train and retain a high performing sales team.

• What critical sales process steps you can be automated once the sales process is fully developed and why sales automation alone (out of the box) won’t deliver sales process excellence.

• How you can leverage artificial intelligence and robotic process automation (RPA) to offload mundane, lower value tasks from the sales team.

• Proven and effective sales best practices I have diffused at various Fortune 500 company clients.

B) The Top 10 Reasons Developing & Maintaining a World-Class Sales Process is valuable for you and your company:

1. Holds Sales Team Staff and Management Accountable

By having performance measures and toll gates baked right into the overall sales process, you can hold team members accountable for reaching select performance levels at each phase of the sales process

 

2. Provides a clear & proven path for sales reps to close deals.

By having clearly defined best practice based steps and milestones that guide sales team members, from prospecting to proposal presentation, your company can avoid losing sales deals due to disorganization.

3. Increases sales organization collaboration & synergy

World-class sales processes contain within them the definition of your entire sales communication process including the roles of each department supporting the sales process. This feature of the sales process definition ensures everyone is on the same page and collaborating and communicating at each critical juncture of the sales process to ensure the sale is won.

4. Enables more efficient and effective on-boarding of new sales members

A standardized sales process makes training sales reps fast, simple, and nearly foolproof, by showing salespeople what they need to do in various sales situations without having to tie up the sales manager in the (re) training process. In addition, when the entire sales team is following the same road-map, any member of the existing sales team can pass on their knowledge and guidance to new hires.

 

5. Provides the ability to constantly improve sales processes and methods.

Successful sales teams continuously refine their sales processes based on the collection of measurable data and constant feedback that will be built right into any world-class sales process. For example, understanding where most of your sales deals are getting bogged down or lost can help you identify the root cause of why those deals were stalled or lost and take steps to re-engineer the sales process. Without a process in place, deals are simply won or lost, and it’s hard to know which specific actions are succeeding or failing.

6. Delivers better forecasting with higher predictability of sales and revenue.

A repeatable sales process provides sales teams with greater consistency in winning deals. Having a more accurate sense of your overall sales win rate enables your company to dependably forecast how many sales you’ll close from a given number of leads, and helps sales managers set realistic team member sales quotas.

7. Drives more qualified leads, increased lifetime value, revenue and profitability

A well honed sales process also enables your sales team to be more effective at filtering out low-potential leads and identifying prospects that are most likely to purchase your product. Generating greater volumes of higher-quality leads shortens your sales cycle and reduces the effort wasted on lower probability sales deals.  This also ensures that your sales team focuses its efforts on the activities that deliver the most revenue and the highest levels of profitability.

8. Enables improved communication between sales and supporting teams.

By having your sales team speaking a common company language (vs. sales specific) it can enable better collaboration among sales team members and with supporting company departments. A standardized best practice sales process contains common steps and common language that delivers simplified inter-company communication, reduces inter-departmental confusion, and enables your accounting, customer service, fulfillment, and marketing teams to provide the right sales actions and content at the right time. The following chart is an example of developing a framework for how various sales team members communicate, share and update information, etc.

Sales Organization Roles, Responsibilities, Communications

         9. Provides greater measurement of sales team performance

When a sales team has no standardized sales process to follow, it is difficult to measure anything except for wins and losses. A standardized sales process has built into it more data measurement points at each phase of the sales process, allowing for deeper analysis of key sales performance metrics and targets.

        10. Delivers a better overall customer experience.

When a sales representative pressures a prospect into a sales stage they are not comfortable with, it can create mistrust, which can negate the sale and damage the relationship with the buyer. A standardized sales process ensures that sales team members and managers do not advance the sale until the prospect is ready to move forward.  A best practice sales process also is designed to reflect how each prospect (customized via prospect analytics and profiling) would want to move through the buying process, and making sure each step is designed (customized) to generate maximum trust and value. In this manner the sales process enables sales teams to deliver an optimum and positive customer experience during each sales phase.

C) Global Sales Major Process Definition

World-Class Sales Process Framework

The above is a sanitized version of the highest level sales process architecture I developed for a global consumer products company. This “level 1” foundation sales process architecture depicts the major processes and supporting processes for the overall company sales process. Each of these major process modules will each be further broken down in detail until the actual process steps, procedures and policies are of sufficient detail that they can be clearly followed by all sales stakeholders (sales manages, sales team members, departments supporting the sales team, senior management, etc.).

Level 2 Process Flow, Sales Planning & Forecasting

D) Sales Process Detailed Definition – Responsibilities and Major Processes

Breaking down the major 1.0 level sales process, we flow into the next level of detail for the S.1.0 process which is “Planning and Forecasting” for sales.

Level 2 / 3 Sales Process, Update Sales Forecast

Within the “Planning and Forecasting” module we depicted the major coordination and communications that occur with this Level 2 process. The horizontal subdivisions (a.k.a. swim lanes) shows a high level breakdown of responsibilities within the sales organization and between the various functions, regions, etc.   This was important for this client since it mapped out who did what and at what level to end up with either a new or revised sales forecast.

Level 3 Sales Process, Update Sales Forecast

E) Sales Process Detailed Definition – Steps, Decision Support, KPIs, Best Practices, Key Metrics

Using the “Updated Forecast” process as an example, we then show the level 3 detail of this sales process.

Level 3 Sales Process, Update Sales Forecast

As shown above, typically a level 3 or 4 process flow contains the sales process detail for it to be actionable by the sales team and supporting team (accounting, IT, fulfillment, product management, customer service, etc.).

Level 3 Sales Process, Update Sales Forecast : Specific Elements Detailed

F) Detailed Sales Process – Definition of each step & components:

Let’s examine each of the 4 major elements of this level 3.0 process flow titled “Update Forecast”.

The first element we examine is the flow from another detailed process step,  “Review Period to Date Results”,  that has a number of inputs that into this process step “Update Forecast” at the Division level that include (sample) the following sales period to date information:

• Projected sales volume vs. actual results

• Sales representatives goals vs. actual results

• # of closed sales deals and at risk-deals vs. planned

• Profitability per deal vs. target

• Total revenue and profit for all cumulative sales deals vs. target

Sales Process Step 1 Detailed, Update Sales Forecast

The 1st process element we examine is the examination and decision based on actual vs. planned period to date sales KPIs as follows:

• Are we maintaining an upward linear growth rate as planned

• Previous year same month sales vs. current month

• Overall sales generated sales velocity ($$ per day, week, month) deltas

Sales Process Step 2 Detailed, Update Sales Forecast

If key sales planned period to date KPIs are at risk based on a certain threshold, we move to the 2^nd element where we update a number of pre-determined KPIs that are critical to ensuring we have an accurate sales forecast. In this sample, my client decided that these are as follows (sample):

• Sales targets

• Key sales assumptions (totals and per deal)

• Sales benchmarks (top performance vs. average vs. lagging)

• Sales process (i.e. adjust at-risk deal processes to match on the ground situations for each deal)

• Sales team accountability plans (adjust according to 1-4 above).

Sales Process Step 2A Detailed, Update Sales Forecast

If they are not at major risk, we might update a few smaller parameters and then move onto process step 2A.

Sales Process Step 3 Detailed, Update Sales Forecast

The 3rd process element we examine is the examination and decision based on sales project results for period end KPIs as follows (sample):

• Are lead flow projected rates at previously forecast levels?

• Are the numbers of late stage sales deals on track to close in the period end (monthly for my client)?

• Based on the deals closing in #2 above, does the aggregate revenue for those deals match the projected forecast for period end?

• Specific to this process step, we have an embedded best practice “BP”. This best practice details that if pipeline coverage of sales representatives drops below 85%, an automated process (with its own set of best practice procedures), kicks off titled “Recovery Plan S.1.0” that will return coverage of pipeline to 100%.

Sales Process Step 4 Detailed, Update Sales Forecast

If key sales project results for period end KPIs are at risk based on a certain threshold, we move to the 4^th element where we simply update the key sales projections and KPIs based on investigating and validating actual sales actions, feedback, roadblocks, prospect and customer actions, etc. These include (small sample of actual client metrics) the following:

1. At-risk deals (#’s, specific names, assigned representatives, etc.)

2. Top deal watch list (revenue and margin #’s, names/clients, roadblocks, action plan status, etc.)

3. Low sales performer watch list (names, action plans, mentor-ships, etc.)

Sales Process Step 4A Detailed, Update Sales Forecast

If there are no major risks, we might update a few smaller parameters and then move onto process step 4A where we simply exit this process and enter another downstream process. 

Sales Process Step G (Global Process Best Practices) Detailed, Update Sales Forecast

A global element in this update forecast process is the embedded best practices that have been developed as a result of evolving the sales process continuously. These include (small sample):

• Flagging the top 5 (based on revenue, important to company) at-risk sales deals.

• Performing a weekly review of at-risk sales deals and coming up with an action plan for each, taking into account any sales process changes made above in element 3, step 4).

• Updating the following metrics, key for sales management visibility:

1. Number of at-risk deals weekly, monthly, YOY, etc.

2. The success ratio of closed top deals vs. top deals lost.

3. Average sales cycle duration & actual sales representative time spent selling.

Other Key sales metrics for the overall sales process to consider:

1. Overall sales win rate.

2. Average deal size.

3. Lead average follow-up time. (The time a lead is received until a sale representative follows-up)

4. Sales by lead source (important marketing to sales metric).

5. Quota achievement % total and by sales representative.

6. Based on a-c (and more) above, what are the action plans and automated workflows that need to be created to enact updated performance plan metrics?

 G) Sales Process Automation:

There is a huge difference between sales automation and sales process automation. Just because you purchased leading tools like Salesforce, Microsoft, Oracle, Zoho, etc. does not mean it will conform or deliver a highly automated sales process right out of the box. These tools can be customized to accommodate the automation of your sales process, but will take additional $$, effort and potentially additional licenses that you may not have accounted for in the initial expenditure of funds and resources. This step is as important as purchasing the package since without easy to use functionality and processes that aid the sales effort, the tool will be considered more of a hindrance that a help.

You will also need to automate your sales process via a number of other supporting tools that salesforce automation software packages are not optimized for out of the box such as the following:

• E-mail process automation like triggered responses to new lead inquiries or automated bots on the website to interact and respond to simple initial inquiries.

• Report generation being triggered based on system parameters, timing and critical thresholds being reached. Add on packages like Adobe, Tableau, Microstrategy, Oracle BI, SAS, Sisense, etc. all are great packages that can be added to bring additional horsepower to your sales analytics and reporting capabilities.

• Artificial intelligence and robotic process automation (RPA) can aid in the performance of sales tasks such as lead distribution, auto-populating CRM systems via intelligent voice capture and data mining following a phone sales call.

• Pipeline & Order Management – tools like Vendasta can help automate the management of your pipeline and order management.

H) Other Sales Best Practices to Kick Your Sales Volume & Success into Overdrive:

While these are not related to the above sales process per say, I have included these as they are sales related and **some** clients choose to implement these practices, processes:

• Analyze sales rainmaker activities & behavior and then replicate their best practices back into the overall sales process, training, activities, sales approaches. In this manner good sales reps move up to rainmaker performance, average sales reps move up to good performance, etc. I did this for a major U.S. insurance company a few years ago and it improved their overall sales performance by 32%!

• Develop a referral incentive system with your existing customers as existing customer referrals are likely to close 50+% of the time, with strong personal referrals with testimonials likely to close at 80+%. Compare this to warm leads at <30% and cool leads at <15%. I did this as the SVP of Operations at a startup and it catapulted our sales from <$1m to over $3m in just 8 months.

• Develop a network of complimentary re-sellers (a.k.a. channel sellers) of your services where the products and/or services you sell are complimentary to the re-sellers normal line business. For example, a firm that sells cultural improvement and/or leadership development services should be seeking out an HR consulting firm to resell their services since the HR firm is uncovering these needs on a regular basis with generally nowhere to turn for servicing unearthed client needs. The HR consulting firm would then net a commission (5-10%) for merely opening the door to the new sales opportunity for the leadership development firm. Analogous to this on the web is affiliate sales and marketing. 

• Invite satisfied customers to participate in the brand: guest blogger, posting testimonials, reviewing new concepts, products and/or services, participating on a Customer Advisory Board (e.g. top customers), etc. Studies have shown that the more they are invited to participate in the brand’s success, the more likely they are to share your brand’s success.

• Let your existing customers know about your sales wins: The more your customers see you succeed and the strides your are making in the marketplace, the more likely they are to share these positive news stories. Examples: xyz company is winning contracts left and right, they must be doing something right, xyz is on fire, xyz services are selling like hotcakes, etc.

Related to the above topic, does your organization need consulting assistance developing and implementing a world-class sales process or any of the following: associated services?

• Replicating the processes and behavior of your sales rainmakers to the rest of the sales team?

• Infusing a set of sales cross-industry leading practices in your existing sales process?

• Developing a best practice sales measurement and metric system?

• Automating the sales process to offload the non-value sales tasks from your sales team so they can focus on meeting with prospects/customers and closing deals?

• Investigate how to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to sharpen your sales insights, targeting, lead generation flow, etc.?

If so, give me a call, I call help you implement sales process excellence that will  enable you to surpass your competition and bring your organization to the next level of sales performance and revenue.

Lastly, this is just one article of nearly 50 total I have written on Customer strategy, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for Fortune 500 companies.  In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 120,000+ world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/