In some organizations, the Customer Service function is largely viewed as a cost center, draining resources of the firm. I maintain that this viewpoint is one that less mature companies support. In what follows, I’ll take a hypothetical iPhone defect case and show how customer service in this example plays a pivotal role in the […]
These articles highlight strategies in Customer Experience Management: from examples of current leading practices in customer experience to everyday stories of how customer experience can help organizations gain a competitive advantage, greater customer retention, and growth.
Featuritis and the Customer Experience
The more I learn and practice ethnography and design-thinking, the more I notice subtle but incredibly frustrating experiences. For example, I had a frustrating experience with a faucet that was in the hospital room where our adopted baby girl, Mylie, was born. This faucet is an automated one — with a sensor. So, whenever an […]
The Basics Perfect or Engendering Loyalty? or Both?
Bijan shared this great, real-world experience of how getting the basics perfect is, in fact, a loyalty driver: his experience? — with Amazon.com Customer Service. > In his words, Two weeks ago I bought an item on Amazon. It was a toaster oven. In my haste I shipped it to my brother instead of my […]
Perceived Value versus Actual Value
Later this week I’ll be traveling to Berlin, Germany and then to Dublin, Ireland. I used to travel a lot, so that’s not the exciting part — in addition to being excited about meeting co-workers and being together to work as a team, I’m also looking forward to racking up points on my Marriott Card […]
Complexity Creep will Ruin Your Business
Complexity Creep will Ruin Your Business. Yes, bold statement. Read on. What if your company only had one product? One feature in a product? What would life in that world be like? Then, as an excercise, slowly add one feature and one product at a time, and see how that world changes, which processes are […]
Unarticulated Customer Needs
I’d venture to say that most products and services are bloated with features that customers most likely don’t care for; I’ve been part of product development teams where the focus is on features, with an implicit goal to stuffing as many features as possible — in consumer packaged goods and in software. This is the […]
The Interface is the Product
User Interfaces and — any product Interface — is very difficult to build. How do you design eating utensils for people with arthritic hands? Answering that question is not easy — the physiology of arthritic hands is complex; designing objects that hands with arthritis can grasp, hold, and use is a difficult problem. That’s just […]
Start with the Customer, and Work Backwards
This article is about the Amazon Product Development Process: Start with the Customer, and Work Backwards. Amazon is a company that is absolutely customer obsessed — from the top-down. It’s been able to build a culture with the customer at the center, because its processes, technology, and the general worldview of its employees are centered […]
Comment on Qwest Customer Service
My internet connection broke this weekend. I called Qwest customer service and was connected to a customer service representative in the Philippines. He was very nice, cordial, and really wanted to help. But, a few things were broken in the communication: It is fine to source offshore services to places like the Philippines, India, and […]
Targus – Excellent Customer Service
I bought a Targus TR601 15 Elite Notebook Backpack about 1 year ago. Right before Christmas, the zipper on it broke. I called Targus customer service and had a very good customer experience. The Customer Service Representative did several things that were right: Make it Personal The Customer Service Representative called me by name and […]