5 Things CEOs Regret Most

The 5 Things CEOs Regret Most On Their Deathbed About CX

1. Executive sponsorship – It is a proven fact that any big initiative, project, or revolution has to have the support of the senior leadership team; otherwise it will be considered “flavor of the month” or “management by bestseller.”
2. No one losing sleep at night over the CX – Over the last several years, one of the most often discussed topics continues to be, who is in charge of your brand’s customer? I am not talking about your call center, customer service reps, or customer support. Regardless of your company’s size, or business model, someone in your organization has to be in charge of the customer experience and all that goes with it. That someone should not be the President, CEO or owner, but someone who reports directly to them. We have heads of operations, marketing, accounting, sales, and human resources, but our second biggest asset (other than our employees) is our customer. How happy they are is determined by the customer experience we deliver. Until recently, the vast majority of companies did not have anyone in charge of the entire brand’s customer experience. If you are a mid-to-large company, then you may want to consider creating a position, i.e. Chief Xperience Officer (CXO) or Chief Customer Officer (CCO).

*Related – Register for Customer eXperience Executive ONLINE Academy 

3. More soft skill training – How many hours do you train new employees before they can start interacting with your Customer? It may be two days, two weeks, or one month. Whatever it is, now do the math. How many of those hours are technical training: product knowledge, processing orders, scheduling appointments, etc. versus Customer experience training: Customer service vision, non-negotiable standards, building Customer rapport, service recovery, etc.? The vast majority of businesses spend 98-100% of training on the technical part of the job and breeze over their Customer service philosophy because they think it is common sense.
4. Measuring Customer Experience – Companies need to see the impact that Customer satisfaction has on their key metric drivers (i.e., Customer retention, average ticket, re-sign rates, referrals, average contracts, frequency of visits). This demonstrates the ROI, as well as allows management teams to hold employees accountable for providing a great Customer experience at every level of the organization. Measurement tools can be anything from Customer surveys, third-party companies that measure Customer satisfaction, secret shoppers, to statistical benchmarks (such as the average ticket or the number of referrals). These provide a benchmark to measure the impact of the new systems and to determine whether they are being consistently executed.
5. Lack of the purpose motive – Too many companies underestimate the power a purpose provides to Customer facing employees, which is critical for having high morale and engaged employees in a workplace. The currency for Millennials is purpose.

Simon Sinek: How To Lead Millennials

Recently Simon Sinek did a great interview on Millennials in the workplace. Sinek stresses that the youth should reduce their exposure to technology, specifically cellphones. Many of the elite in tech such as Steve Jobs and Evan Williams never allowed their children to use iPads or cellphones knowing full well what the outcomes would be from constant usage. They were well aware of the correlation of addiction with technology and the dopamine cellphones release in our brains. That awareness was part of their climb to such global success. This is not only great advice for our leadership teams, but also for us as parents. We should limit technology with our children, and it is also great advice for ourselves. I strongly recommend showing this interview to every leader in your organization.

Ask John DiJulius?

John,

How do you do Secret Service in a business that has 20,000 customers a week? I run a grocery store and I’m looking for ideas for how to connect when there are thousands of people in the store daily. Any help is appreciated. Thank you for a great webinar,

Kevin M

 

Hello Kevin,

Secret Service is the hardest in retail businesses like grocery stores, fast food restaurants, etc. because the vast majority of your interactions are on the spot, your customers typically don’t have appointments and your employees can’t access software to look up their history. So the #1 thing is VIP/Regular customer recognition. For example, The Club 100. This is a contest where your employees have to prove they know 100 customers names, they then get a club 100 pin and get added to the plaque in the back. Now besides knowing regulars, there are still plenty of Secret Service opportunities, teaching your employees to recognize/comment on what someone is wearing, i.e. college sweatshirt, employee name tag, Bahamas t-shirt, which all can be conversation/rapport building opportunities. Recognizing what is in their cart, what they are purchasing says a lot about what they have going on today, this weekend, etc.  I also think we should change how employees greet/approach customers in the aisles. I hate the old, “Can I help you” or “Are you looking for something”. Change it up by asking, “What’s the occasion” or “What are you shopping for”. This gets customers to share more about their life, and typically once we know what they have going on, we can make additional recommendations, upsell, and best of all build stronger rapport by knowing more about the events in their life, i.e. party, graduation, funeral, birthday, etc. What if we called them a few days later to see how it went? Or sent a sympathy card? Your customers would be blown away.

 

And finally, the biggest and easiest place to personalize interactions is when we are checking out. I am always disappointed when I hand over my loyalty card, credit card, and don’t hear my name used. Every single cashier should have to say: Is there anything else I can do for you today, Mr. DiJulius? Thank you for being a VIP Mr. DiJulius, and have a great day, week, weekend, etc.” And finally, what if they code my grocery bags, put my name on it somewhere that I don’t see. The person loading my grocery bags in my car can say, “Is there anything else I can do for you today Mr. DiJulius? Thank you for being a VIP Mr. DiJulius and have a great day.”

Have a question for John? Ask him your question on twitter @johndijulius