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Got 10 Minutes For Forrester's Q4 2010 Customer Experience Survey?

Posted by Kerry Bodine on December 21, 2010

  • 237 Recommendations

A few questions for you:

  • Do you know about your company's customer experience priorities and initiatives (or lack thereof)?
  • Do you know what your company's customer experience plans are for 2011?
  • Do you know how your company's customer experience resources are structured?

If you answered "yes" to these questions, please be a lamb and take 10 minutes to fill out Forrester's Q4 2010 Customer Experience Survey. The info you provide will help shape reports to be written in the new year by Megan Burns, Vidya Drego, Adele Sage, and yours truly.

We're closing the survey on January 10, 2011 — but I bet you made a New Year's resolution not to procrastinate.

Thanks so much!

(Agency folks and consultants, sorry — this survey isn't for you.)

“Twitter For Toddlers” Is Inspiration For Social Customer Experiences

Posted by Kerry Bodine on December 13, 2010

  • 261 Recommendations

Two Finnish service designers recently unveiled a prototype for a social media toy that’s constructed out of a classic Brio shape-sorting box outfitted with magnets and LEDs. Called the IOBR (the first few letters of its Iobridge tech backbone and an anagram of Brio), a small child can use the toy to let her friends know what she’s up to. Yup, it’s a toddler-sized status update.

Toddler places a square block into a square hole

From the designers’ Web site: “The actual status update is done by placing the appropriate block in its designated place on the box.  For example, an ‘eating’ update is sent by placing the square block with the ‘plate, spoon, fork’ icon in the square-shaped hole on top of the box. This results in the illumination of the corresponding status light on the friend’s device.”

The system has received press from major media outlets dubbing it “Twitter for toddlers.” CNN reported: “No word yet on . . . whether or not you're going to want your kid to learn about these status updates, so to speak, at such a young age.” But focusing just on the IOBR’s status update feature is really missing the point of this project. 

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Employee Authenticity (And The Cheese Guy At Whole Foods)

Posted by Kerry Bodine on December 7, 2010

I stopped by my local Whole Foods the day before Thanksgiving to pick up some appetizers. And as I deliberated at the cheese counter, I couldn’t help but overhear what one cheese monger said loudly to the other: “This lady came up to me complaining about the store. This store’s too small, you don’t carry the things I need. I told her she’d have to talk to customer service. I mean really, I just work here.”

I just work here??! Did I honestly hear someone say that? In Whole Foods? Not only did this guy undermine the Whole Foods brand with his interaction with the original customer, but he made a bad personal decision to relay his story in front of other customers!

As Steve Portigal mentioned in a comment on one of my previous posts, employee authenticity is key to great customer experiences. (To see just how bad an inauthentic customer experience can be, check out my last post, "Worst Online Chat Ever!") But employee authenticity is really only effective if it aligns with a company’s brand attributes. Being an authentic jerk isn’t going to cut it in customer experience land!

A lot of employee behavior comes down to corporate culture — and in his "How To Build A Customer-Centric Culture" report, Paul Hagen mentions two things in particular that I think directly influence employee authenticity. Companies need to:

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Worst Online Chat Ever!

Posted by Kerry Bodine on December 3, 2010

In October, Ron Rogowski provided a couple of excerpts from one of our colleague's online chat with her cable and Internet provider. But this chat session was so bad that I couldn't resist the urge to share it in its entirity. (Read to the end for a fantastic Yoda moment.) By the way, I made no edits to the transcript other than to change the names and obscure identifying information.

* * *

User Elizabeth has entered room.

Elizabeth (Sat Oct 2 11:36:45 EDT 2010) > I don't know my [company] ID or my password, so I can't log in to my account. I tried to set up a new account, but the site says my account already has an online account. Can you please reset my information (so I can create a new account) or help me log in?

Analyst Carol has entered room.

Carol (Sat Oct 2 11:36:50 EDT 2010)> Hello Elizabeth, Thank you for contacting [company] Chat Support. My name is Carol. Please give me one moment to review your information.

Carol (Sat Oct 2 11:37:05 EDT 2010)> My pleasure to have you on this chat, Elizabeth! Remaining committed and focused on my goal which is to provide quality customer service at my fullest effort will always be at the pinnacle. It is with utmost sincerity that I want to extend apologies for any trouble, inconvenience and frustration the log in issue has brought along your way. I simply hope you are doing fine.

Carol (Sat Oct 2 11:37:26 EDT 2010)> No worries. As your [company] service representative, I want you to know that issue resolution and your satisfaction are my top priorities for today. Together, we can work this out, Elizabeth.

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