Customer service is dead

Customer Service is Dead: Long Live the

Customer ExperienceAnthony Molaro, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, St Catherine University

Thursday, October 16, 14

@infoactivist #MNLib14

Customer Experience...

@infoactivistThursday, October 16, 14


Customer What?


@infoactivist #MNLib14Thursday, October 16, 14


Well We Do Know What it Means



Customer experience is the sum of all interactions a customer has with an

organization and its products over the duration of the relationship. It can also include the feelings that has a customer towards the organization based on their perceived beliefs about the organization.



It’s not transaction-based but experience-

based



A customer experience oriented organization appeals to every sense and emotion of the customer and it

does this by paying attention to every detail




Customer Service vs. Customer Experience

Customer Service Customer Experience

Who Department All

What Consume Participate

Where A point of contact Everywhere

When Single point in time Sum of all interactions

Why Problem oriented Feeling oriented

How Reactionary Proactive



History of Customer Expectation

Customer)Experience)

Customer)Service)

Friendly)Staff)

Easily)Locatable)

Dependable)Product)



Revenue & Profit


Customer)Service)

Friendly)Staff)

Easily)Locatable)

Dependable)Product)


Customer)Service)

Friendly)Staff)

Easily)Locatable)

Dependable)Product)



Customer Experience



Why Should I Care?

• Beyond profit and revenue

• Loyalty

• Forgiveness



The Words Customer Service Have Become

Cliche



What Does a Customer Experience

Organization Look Like?



If a customer service issue has arisen more than once or

twice in the last year, its no longer a customer service issue but an organizational

failure



Culture


• Deliver WOW Through Service

• Embrace and Drive Change

• Create Fun and a Little Weirdness

• Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded

• Pursue Growth and Learning

• Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication

• Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

• Do More with Less

• Be Passionate and Determined

• Be Humble



Anticipatory



The Engineer on a Ladder

• Suppose an engineer on a ladder at a hotel sees a women with her hands full enter the building...



\



Story





Humans naturally seek comfort and stability. Without an inciting incident that disrupts their comfort, they won’t enter into a story. They

have to get fired from their job or be forced to sign up for a marathon. A ring has to be purchased. A home has to be sold. The

character has to jump into the story, into the discomfort and the fear, otherwise the story

will never happen. -Robert McKee



You don’t know a story is happening to you when you’re in it. You slide into the flow of it

like a current in the ocean; you look back at the beach and can’t see the umbrella, and your

hotel is a quarter mile behind you.

-Donald Miller



• Story allows us to relate to patrons better

• Story pushes us to achieve important tasks

• Story provides meaning to our lives




Participatory Culture



Participatory Culture: Patron to Patron




Participatory Culture: Patron to Library

• Provide lots of feedback loops

• Create multiple advisory boards

• Develop avenues for your patrons to talk to you



Participatory Culture: Employee to Employee

• Don’t forget the staff

• Staff book club

• Staff potlucks

• Staff get togethers



Staff





Ordinary

• If you hire ordinary staff for ordinary work then you will have an ordinary organization with ordinary results



Nice & Passionate

• Interview questions

• Are you nice?

• What are you passionate about?



Fearless

• Apple hires:

• 10% for knowledge

• 90% personality

• 100% fearless



• Hire for core values

• Train for everything else



Rethink Roles and Duties

• What if circulation clerks’ primary job was not to check books in and out

• But was to greet everyone single patron that entered the building because being welcoming is part of your core values



Environment



Experience Audit

• IDEO and the hospital experience











Learning and Growth Occur in Circles not

Rows



The Apple Way



Simplicity


https://www.apple.com/retail/galleries/lincolnpark/images/lincolnpark_gallery_image8.jpg

Beautiful




@infoactivist #MNLib14http://librarygraphicdesign.blogspot.com/2012/05/library-helps-you-find-your-way.html


http://librarygraphicdesign.blogspot.com/2012/05/library-helps-you-find-your-way.html

http://librarygraphicdesign.blogspot.com/2012/05/library-helps-you-find-your-way.html


Radical Trust

• Apple has an app that allows you to self-checkout in their store

• 2% will steal, so why do we create a bad experience for 98% of our customers based on the 2%?



A.P.P.L.E.

• Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome

• Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs

• Present a solution for the customer to take home today

• Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns

• End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return


One of the best means of making a library popular is to mingle freely with its users, and help them in every way. When this policy is pursued for a series of years in any town, a very large portion of the citizens receive answers to questions, and the conviction spreads through the community that the library is an institution of such beneficent influences that it can not be dispensed with. -Samuel Swett Green (1876).



• We should design experiences and solve problems

• We often try to solve experiences and design problems



• If patrons wanted quiet they’d likely stay home

• But we also need to ensure that we have quiet spaces too



Lighting Round: Quick Tips for Today



Show Don’t Tell

• Never give verbal directions

• If you must give directions, write them down

• Never point to a location

• Per Se restaurant guideline #20 “When asked, guide guests to the bathroom instead of pointing”



Phones

• Every patron phone call is precious, never let an automated system upset your patron experience



• Hand written note for every new patron

• Follow up with a birthday card (at least for the kids)




Make Waiting Enjoyable



• Know your patron by name

• People want to be recognized



“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

~Dale Carnegie



• Patrons long for a positive and personal connection

• It may be the only time they experience a connection all day




Once upon a time...



Even now, as adults, there’s something in most of us that perks up and starts to listen when we hear those words. We love stories. And stories have always served important functions for us. They bring us together and reinforce our sense of community. They engage, amuse, enthrall, and titillate. And they teach: throughout history, before most people could read and write, stories, told by firesides and in village gatherings, were the mechanism by which we handed down laws and values, religions and taboos, knowledge and wisdom.

~Fast Company (November 15, 2012)



Thank YouQuestions?


Services

Customer service is dead