customer experience
Shep’s 2021 Top 10 Business Predictions
Shep Hyken | January 7, 2021
By Shep Hyken Every year I write my customer service and customer experience (CX) predictions in my Forbes.com column. This year, I thought I would share a brief version of them with our Shepard Letter subscribers. So, here are my Top 10 Predictions for 2021: 1. Customers continue to get smarter. This has led to my list of predictions for several years. Our customers keep getting smarter about customer service and experience. They tolerate fewer customer service failures and demand better because they know it’s possible. 2. Customers are becoming impatient. They want what they want NOW. Consider the result of the more than 1,00...
Technology at the Service of the Customer
Rémi Walbaum | January 5, 2021
By Rémi Walbaum Although fears that technology will wipe out jobs and human relationships in its wake, market trends show that as the world becomes more digitalized, consumers are looking for a real, concrete and personalized service. The hospitality industry has always been committed to putting people at the center of its concerns, and this is not about to change. However, it is clear that new technologies can help to further improve the customer experience. Artificial intelligence (AI) at the service of the customer Artificial intelligence (AI) unveils new data that can be analyzed to personalize the experience, predict behavior, ...
Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!
Shep Hyken | November 4, 2020
By Shep Hyken This is a crazy idea, but hear me out. When I was a kid, we had home-cooked meals almost every night. I thought my mom was the greatest cook in the world. She could make the best chicken. As a matter of fact, she made chicken almost every night. It turns out she could follow a recipe and had bought a book that had 365 chicken recipes—one for each day of the year. I remember the day she came home with the cookbook. As a kid, I never tired of the taste of chicken. Can’t say my adult pallet would enjoy such monotony, but I digress. I started thinking about all those chicken recipes. There were so many: fried chicken,...
Ritualizing The Customer Experience
Shep Hyken | October 15, 2020
By Shep Hyken I love hanging around smart people, and my friend Todd Hartley is one of the very smartest. He runs WireBuzz, an agency that uses videos to help their clients sell and service their customers, clients, guests, etc. He was interviewing me for his podcast and used the phrase, “ritualize the experience.” He used it in passing, but I realized this is a rock-solid concept that is appropriate for everyone in any company and any industry. I wrote those three words down so I wouldn’t forget them and then thought about them for the next few hours. Ritualizing the experience starts by understanding the process around y...
These Times, More Than Ever, Call for Heartfelt Hospitality
Doug Kennedy | August 20, 2020
By Doug Kennedy Based on what I hear, working in the lodging industry during the current COVID-19 pandemic can be especially stressful. Not that it has ever been an easy profession. While today’s guests threaten to write a bad review, guests of yesteryear similarly threatened to write a letter to J.W. Marriott or Conrad Hilton. Admittedly though, the current pandemic has created unique stressors for those on both sides of the guest / employee relationship. Hospitality workers may be finding themselves short staffed and/or working outside of their usual job descriptions. Our frontline associates are having to explain why there are no m...
5 Reasons Guests Matter More Than Ever
David Berger | July 30, 2020
Hotels hamstrung by operational limitations, dizzied by government mandates, and sensitive to traveler anxiety are challenged, but will rise again through continued focus on the guest experience By David Berger Providing a quality guest experience is more important than ever for hoteliers seeking to compete in the post-COVID-19 world. Much has been said over the past six months about social distancing, mask etiquette, and the need for greater vigilance in protecting public health. No question this is table stakes, but the goal of hospitality—providing a positive guest experience—is more paramount than ever. Here are ...
A Boring Customer Service Experience—That’s What Our Customers Want
Shep Hyken | July 29, 2020
Call me boring, but I want the same thing every time—at least when it comes to customer experience. I want it to be good. I want it to be consistent. I want to predict the experience I’m going to have with the people and places I do business with. If you ask the CEO of a big company or the owner of a small business, I bet they would say the same. We want our customers to always have a good experience with us—one they can count on always happening every time they do business with us. We want them to find that our people are always knowledgeable, always helpful, always friendly and always respond quickly. We want our products to alw...
Would You Fight to Make Your Customers Happy?
Shep Hyken | July 23, 2020
By Shep Hyken These are the kind of people—and the kind of company—you want to do business with. First, a little background. I was having a conversation with a colleague and came up with the idea that you shouldn’t have to fight with a company to get your problem resolved or for them to make you happy. They should want to make you happy. Just a couple days later I saw this idea in action, but with a twist. I was on a customer support call with a software company and their rep said, “I’ll need to talk to my manager. I’m on your side, and I’ll fight to make you happy.” Did he just say he would fight his manager to ma...
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