What's up with Client Service this Week? Empathy

Ever try walking a mile wearing a 65 lb. backpack?

Ok, it isn't quite as dramatic as that but USAA's customer service training goes quite a way toward putting their customer representatives in the shoes of their clients (military families). In addition to wearing 65lb backpacks, training includes reviewing deployment instructions, eating MREs and reading letters from deployed soldiers to their families back home to better understand the unique challenges these families face.

USAA's number 1 finish on Nunwood's 2015 USA Customer Experience Excellence Report is one measure of the financial service company's success. You can read more about it in The Golden Rules to The Six Pillars: Empathy. Bonus: check out the Nunwood Customer Experience Excellence Centre which is a goldmine of case studies and research.

USAA is an exception to the financial customer service rule according to a new study reporting global customer satisfaction with banks is only 23%.

In other words, :( for banks: a Penn State study reveals that emoticons in text communication may improve customer satisfaction as they translate empathy. Speed of response also earned high marks.

Zendesk's Q1 2015 Benchmark Report reports that customer satisfaction for live chat is higher than any other channel including email, webform, Facebook and Twitter. But be careful not to discount the public pressure imposed by Twitter: “If you’re not listening in social, it’s like telling your call-center staff to take the next month off,” says Lucas Vandenberg, founder of Fifty & Five, a Redondo Beach, Calif.-based digital marketing agency."

Finally, an indication that customer satisfaction can be just as much art as science, Chili's is spending millions to visually enhance its food and make it more shareable online. The idea: inciting a virtual race to keep up with the Jones' will lead more hungry people to dine at Chili's. Let's just hope they put as much effort into cooking your meal.

Image Courtesy of "Jack purcell" by rando111us

This Week in Customer Service: robots rule

How do you handle an irate customer? Ask a robot, naturally. Touchpoint Group, a New Zealand-based technology firm, is working on a program that will devour several years-worth of actual customer interactions in order to generate "angry-customer" scenarios from which representatives can learn.

Taking the robot idea one step further, Toshiba Corp. unveiled Aiko Chihira at the reception desk of Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo. "Chihira" is a customer-service robot. On the challenge of creating a successful customer service robot, Hitoshi Tokuda, Toshiba's head of new business development said, "Eighty percent humanlike is very scary. So it has to be 90 percent or close, or very close to perfect".

Nordstrom is experimenting with ways to create a holistic customer experience across physical and digital domains. The retailer, traditionally known for exceptional in-person customer service, is diligently testing the line between knowing their customer and making customers feel invaded through the use of data and location services.

Forbes published an interview with Nate Rosenthal, Director of Customer Support at Square, on the six-year-old company's customer support transformation over the last few months (during which they've doubled their CSAT). In Rosenthal's words, "The key is finding the right balance between the support our customers want and the support they need. That’s why we’ve worked hard to pair phone support with predictive support. If we can push an answer to a customers before they reach out, that’s a win-win."

J.D. Power’s latest North America Airline Satisfaction Survey is out and the results aren't surprising: if airlines were students they wouldn't be making the honor roll. Charlie Leocha, president of Travelers United, an advocacy organization for air travelers says, "… investing in customer service doesn’t have to be expensive. A simple smile from flight attendants or gate agents, waiving a standby fee to get on an earlier flight with empty seats, allowing families to sit together without paying more, all make the travel experience far more pleasant."

Finally, here's a quick refresher on best practices for using social media to engage with customers. Quicker hint: just remember everyone is watching!

Image Courtesy of  D J Shin via Wikimedia Commons

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's content marketing.

"Think about who you want to reach. Now write to that person." While countless anecdotes of this content marketing mantra have come to life, it isn't often they fall out of the sky and hit you.

Walking along the ridge of my typical hike today, a sudden whirring shot up 20 yards ahead toward my left. I spotted the source: a drone just climbing to the peak. As I turned around and from side to side trying to spot the pilot, the drone lost control and took a steep, erratic dive crashing into a bush about 10 yards away.

My first thought? Man, if Six Feet Under was still in production….what an excellent opening sequence! Second thought: That's gotta be a green field for some personal injury firm.

Third thought (yes, I can think that high occasionally): Great example of content marketing in action. If that drone had knocked me for a loop, what query would I use upon regaining consciousness?

"Personal Injury Drone" was my first guess and sure enough of the first page search results:

                70% are U.S. personal injury law firms

                10% are Forensic Engineering & Investigations services

                20% are publications including Risk & Insurance

Sometimes you need the answers to fall from the sky. To be safe, however, try visualizing your best client, think of a search they might perform that connects directly with the services you provide and get to work.