Crack the Customer Code

Adam and Jeannie discuss the Equifax data breach and how to decide when it’s right to disclose issues to customers.

Not everything you need to tell customers is good news! Are you prepared to deliver the bad news when the time is right? Take the recent Equifax data breach, where it was months before customers became aware of the problem. As you may know, the news caused quite a panic! Why did Equifax withhold the information for so long, and why did they release it when they did?

“How will you deal with this proactively moving forward?” -Jeannie Walters

Delivering bad news is often a case of weighing your company’s best interests against your customers. So when you have bad news to disclose, are you protecting your customers, or covering your own butt?

“Maybe it’s better to control the crisis a little bit for the customer’s sake.” -Adam Toporek

Disclosure and transparency are not just buzz words! In fact, customers are demanding these virtues by name.

If you haven’t had to deliver bad news to your customers, your time is going to come. How can you minimize damage to your brand’s reputation? Adam and Jeannie are here to help you make this call. Listen in!

Content

• 360Connext® post, No Longer a Buzzword: Customers Redefine Transparency
• Customers That Stick® post, Turn Your Customer Experience Inside Out
• Episode 127: Is Transparency Effective?
• Episode 067: Customer Security – It’s More Than Digital
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeannie and Adam smash the myths about customer support software and remote collaboration with HelpScout CEO and Co-founder Nick Francis.

We’ve come a long way with the ways we offer customer support, but are we shooting ourselves in the foot with the tech we use? More specifically, with the rise of help desk software, customer support has grown cold and sterile - lacking the emotion and the personal touches we get from 1:1 communication. This is bad news for those of us who need to maintain meaning customer relationships. (Hello, everyone!?)

“Moving from email to a “help desk” was actually a big deterioration of the customer experience.” -Nick Francis

That’s why we’re delighted to welcome HelpScout CEO and Co-founder Nick Francis to the show. Because as a small business owner, Nick always saw help desk software as too robotic to meet his own standards for engaging customers in need. Therefore, he founded HelpScout to continue using his more human approach...but with tools to help deliver that quality, personalization and speed on a larger scale.

“I always saw customer support as a way to differentiate myself…" -Nick Francis

What’s more, how we measure success in our customer support efforts makes a huge difference too! Nick helps us understand how HelpShout balances and monitors both qualitative and quantitative metrics for a snapshot of real-time performance as well as long-term success. 

In this episode, we discuss not only what’s missing from most help desk software, but how to create a support team that delivers consistently. With Nick’s help, we’re smashing the myths about customer support, remote collaboration and more. 

Interview highlights

• HelpScout brands itself as a more human and personalized help desk platform. Why  is there need for this approach? [3:40]
• Nick shares expert recommendations for those hiring customer support staff. [5:50]
• How does HelpScout measure customer support beyond numeric metrics? [8:50]
• What is the  “happiness score, and how does HelpScout track it? [13:15]
• Remote support pros have highest salaries... What does it say about the preconceived notions many leaders have about hiring and collaboration? [14:20]

Nick Francis is Co-founder and CEO of Help Scout, where he is on a mission to make every customer service interaction a more human one.

His two passions — technology and entrepreneurship — led him to start a web consultancy soon after college. For several years, he learned how to craft user experiences with his partners, Denny Swindle and Jared McDaniel.

In 2010, the trio founded Help Scout and left their hometown of Nashville to join the TechStars accelerator program in Boston. That program, along with the Boston startup ecosystem, helped transform Help Scout into something real — a successful, remote company now serving more than 8,000 customer support teams around the globe.

Nick lives and breathes product design, customer experience, and building a thoughtful, thriving company. He feels lucky to wake up every day and work alongside people who challenge him to grow and do great work.

Connect with Nick

• Twitter
• HelpScout.com
• Email [email protected]
• Free resources at HelpU

• 360Connext® post, 5 Ways One-on-One Customer Communication Builds Loyalty
• Customers That Stick® post, 3 Areas to Focus your Customer Experience in 2017
• Episode 279: Is Efficient Customer Service Best?
• Episode 117: CXPA Live, The Voice of the Customer
• We’re on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam explores real-life situations that exemplify commonly wasted retail opportunities in brick-and-mortar customer service.

While online retailers like Amazon continue to grow, those who maintain physical locations have a tall order! They need to give customers a real reason to visit, instead of shopping a competitor online. Many customers still prefer to speak to a sales associate, examine the merchandise, and browse the aisles.

Real-life visitors give retailers an amazing opportunity - not just to upsell, but to offer experiences customers simply cannot have digitally. But many are wasting these opportunities! Flailing processes and inattentive staff don’t balance the equation when customers can shop nearby competition from their smartphones in the meantime.

“Many retail workers are adept at studiously avoiding eye contact…” -Adam Toporek

Sadly, these situations are quite common! Customers using in-store pickup or seeking knowledge from a professional are mission out on the benefits of leaving their comfy chairs to seek these real-life experiences. Meanwhile, retailers are losing sales and earning bad customer service reputations.

Today, Adam shares real-life stories of brick-and-mortar shopping experiences gone awry, along with great tips for making these experiences worth the extra effort from customers. Don’t lose another customer to unprepared or misguided staff and disconnected processes!

• 360Connext® post, How to Unlock Your Outstanding Service Culture for Good
• Customers That Stick® post, Communication: The Most Important Skill in Customer Service
• Episode 254: Rocky Romanella, Tighten the Lug Nuts
• Episode 249: How Customer Service Training Goes Wrong
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Do you know how to deliver the superior customer experience you visualize? We can help your team become a force for positive change, starting with a customer-centric mission. The Customer Experience Investigators™ at 360Connext specialize in helping companies across industries and around the globe. Developing and internalizing unique and scalable customer-focused missions has been crucial to their success.

Want to compete with the other 89% of companies staying afloat by providing better experiences? You need a compass for making astounding changes in the customer experience while breaking down the silos that are holding you back. We offer evaluations, workshops, and roadmaps to keep your wheels firmly planted on the road to a customer-centric future. Join us on our mission To Create Fewer Ruined Days for Customers™ today. Visit us at 360Connext.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam and Jeannie interview Master of Innovation Stephen Shapiro for a better approach to innovating customer experience and more.

Customer needs and expectations change, so it stands to reason that we must continue innovating customer experience. However, too many companies have the wrong idea about what innovation is and how to get game-changing ideas!

“People have a confused notion of what innovation is…” -Stephen Shapiro

The best innovations solve a problem, and we get there by asking the right questions. But it’s not just what you ask but how. Stephen shows us some simple but critical ways to reframe the questions we ask – not only to drive more innovative thinking, but to get more positive results.

Even the most successful companies can miss the mark when the next big innovation is needed. Stephen explains what they typically do wrong, and more importantly, how to not follow in their footsteps.

“Their past success led to their future failure.” -Stephen Shapiro

We love to talk innovation here, so we’re very proud to have the Master of Innovation on our show today! Tying together many of the themes we’ve touched on in previous episodes and more, Stephen connects the dots between innovation, culture, the rehiring process, and how we communicate.

Adam and Jeannie took notes themselves, so you won’t want to miss this amazing interview. Listen in!

• How can leaders frame questions differently to get more innovative responses, and what is the “one-word switch?” [2:30]
• AS Stephen explains, asking for ideas is weak! So how can leaders inspire their teams to solve problems more efficiently? [10:30]
• Many companies aim to “innovate everywhere” while those with hyper-focused innovation efforts get greater value! Stephen explains. [13:25]
• Stephen breaks down the three main types of company activity and how to prime them for innovation. [15:00]
• How does Stephen convince leaders to give up a little control and innovate to differentiate? [16:35]
• What are some keys to staffing for innovation, and what are the best traits to look for? [17:45]
• What exactly is innovation? Many companies get this wrong on a fundamental level! [20:40]
• Stephen outlines the three main mistakes companies make when approaching the idea of innovation. [22:00]
• Stephen tells us what it’s like to offer his expertise in a business-focused reality TV show. [23:30]

For over 20 years, Stephen Shapiro has presented his provocative strategies on innovation to audiences in 50 countries. During his 15-year tenure with the consulting firm Accenture, he led a 20,000-person innovation practice. He is the author of five books, including “Best Practices Are Stupid," which was named the best innovation book of 2011. His Personality Poker® system has been used around the world to create high-performing innovation teams. In 2015 he was inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame.

Connect with Stephen

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Website
• Play Personality Poker!
• Girl Starter (reality TV show)

• 360Connext® post, 3 Ways to Let Customers Guide Your Greatest Innovation
• Customers That Stick® post, Innovation Is No Longer Optional
• Episode 133: Tesla and the Infrastructure of Innovation
• Episode 101: How the Innovation Process Fails Us
• We’re on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Are you ready to build a customer experience strategy on a solid foundation for the long term? We’re shattering the top 5 CX strategy myths in our latest evergreen webinar.

• How to avoid the 5 so-called “Customer Experience Strategies” that aren’t strategies at all
• What drives a winning customer experience strategy and examples of companies that “get it”
• How to create a foundation for a customer experience strategy that works for the long term

Join Jeannie at a time that works for you for some serious mythbusting and a head start on creating a customer experience strategy that works! 

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeannie and Adam break down some common CX clichés and unoriginal thoughts that stifle truly customer-centric thinking and doing.

For those situations when you couldn’t have said it better yourself, we have clichés. And while they sometimes represent "a fundamental truth” as Adam says, but sometimes these clichés are used as an excuse not to think deeply say what really matters. Sadly, in the customer experience space, we hear a lot of them.

“It can become a form of generalization that doesn’t apply, that actually can mislead you…” -Adam Toporek

Many of these unoriginal thoughts have invaded the customer experience space, and it’s preventing some of us from facing critical truths in how to interpret and approach customer experiences.

It’s not just about words! In fact, core customer experience practices and popular examples of the companies that implement them have been grossly misrepresented or used to death. While these examples roll nicely off the tongue, they often fail to represent what’s possible in most businesses. And sometimes, we have trouble verifying the information that’s been copied, pasted, and presented over and over.

“You need to back it up with actual process…accountability…metrics…” -Jeannie Walters

Today, Adam and Jeannie are breaking down some of the worst clichés, overused examples and platitudes commonly used in the context of customer experience. So how can you stop meaningless generalizations from glazing over what’s really important? Listen in to find out! (I get to keep saying that, because it never loses its meaning here!)

Content

• 360Connext® post, Challenges of Understanding the Customer Journey End-to-End
• Customers That Stick® post, Turn Your Customer Experience Inside Out
• Episode 264: (Tip) Mobile Potential
• Episode 227: (Tip) Majoring In the CX Minors
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special edition CX Day episode, Adam and Jeannie interview Lesley Lykins, Executive Director of the Customer Experience Professionals Association.

Customer experience has come a long way, and the whole world is celebrating on this 5th annual CX Day.

Celebrating along with us today is Lesley Lykins, Director of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.) Lesley in particular is very excited to celebrate CX Day this year, and we’re delighted to have her on the show!

First, Lesley talks about how widespread the global CX Day celebration is, giving us a little history and a rundown of the many ways to celebrate. A lot goes into it!

“It feels like a New Year’s celebration for customer experience!” -Lesley Lykins

But we’re not just talking about events here. Why celebrate?

Lesley tells us how much customer experience has grown and spread throughout the world, as companies continue to create more and more customer-focused roles. She shares some amazing stories of what it’s like for a company to be on the road to CX maturity and succeed.

Expert Tip:

“You can’t just throw out a journey map and think that all of a sudden overnight you’re going to change your company’s culture.” - Lesley Lykins

For those of us who work in customer experience, it has been an amazing journey. Years ago, it was something nobody heard of. And now, we live in an age when we can call it a true discipline. With more than 600 Certified Customer Experience Professionals (CCXPs)  and growing, Lesley is proud to be a part of what makes this possible.

What does it take to be a CCXP? Lesley outlines the 6 core competencies for being certified. It’s serious business, but you can do it!

We’re delighted to celebrate success in business through creating better experiences. And thanks to Lesley and the CXPA, we have much more to celebrate about and so many great people to celebrate with. Listen in and celebrate along with us!

Interview highlights

• What is CX Day, and why do we have it? [2:25]
• Lesley shares exciting examples of how organizations are transforming their experiences, and as a result, achieving CX maturity. [4:30]
• Turning CX into a discipline: What are the 6 Competencies of a CCXP? [9:30]
• How will CX grow in the coming years, and how will CX professionals need to adapt? [14:00]
• How can we keep Customer Experience from losing its meaning among tangential business practices? [16:15]

Lesley has been with CXPA for the past six years and has been instrumental in building both the community and member programming available to CX Professionals. Prior to joining CXPA, she served as an officer in the U.S. Navy doing a variety of things from driving warships to standing up the Navy’s social media.  She remains in the Navy Reserve. She and her husband live in Ohio with their four children. Lesley will be the first to tell you there is no better community in the world than that of CX professionals – people naturally inclined to help others in a positive and practical way.

Connect with Lesley

• Website: Cxday.org
• Email: [email protected]

• 360Connext® post, 5 Top CX Trends For Survival in the Age of the Customer
• Customers That Stick® post, 3 Areas to Focus your Customer Experience in 2017
• Episode 274: Nienke Bloem, Gamifying Customer Experience
• Episode 117: CXPA Live, The Voice of the Customer
• We’re on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeannie and Adam question the meaning of efficiency and uncover hidden and unnecessary challenges to providing efficient customer service.

When we think of efficient customer service, the emphasis is typically on what’s happening at the front lines. Then we look at things like “time on call” and other specific metrics to gauge efficiency.

However, there are many other factors that play into front-line efficiency, and how they affect the actual experience is not always straightforward. So what we see as efficient from our perspective may not be delivering the experiences that are needed most from customers in the moment.

“What is the relative output to the inputs you put in?” -Adam Toporek

In this episode, Adam and Jeannie explore the concept of efficiency and how it is perceived through different lenses. From internal processes to equipment and software put in place with the purpose of making things efficient, they uncover hidden challenges that inadvertently create terrible customer experiences or lousy customer service.

“No matter how much you smile…it’s hard to overcome these inefficiencies.” -Jeannie Walters

Is your customer service as efficient as you think? You may already know it needs some work… but before you blame your staff, listen in for clues to help you get to the heart of the problem.

• 360Connext® post, How to Unlock Your Outstanding Service Culture for Good
• Customers That Stick® post, Communication: The Most Important Skill in Customer Service
• Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
• Episode 249: How Customer Service Training Goes Wrong
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Do you know how to deliver the superior customer experience you visualize? We can help your team become a force for positive change, starting with a customer-centric mission. The Customer Experience Investigators™ at 360Connext specialize in helping companies across industries and around the globe. Developing and internalizing unique and scalable customer-focused missions has been crucial to their success.

Want to compete with the other 89% of companies staying afloat by providing better experiences? You need a compass for making astounding changes in the customer experience while breaking down the silos that are holding you back. We offer evaluations, workshops, and roadmaps to keep your wheels firmly planted on the road to a customer-centric future. Join us on our mission To Create Fewer Ruined Days for Customers™ today. Visit us at 360Connext.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam and Jeannie interview Stacey Hanke, influence expert and author of Influence Redefined…Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be.

The ability to influence others is critical to the success of any business or entrepreneur, and there’s a lot of content out there about becoming an influencer. However, many leaders don’t truly understand the chemistry that turns communication into true influence.

We often equate our titles, as well as proven success in our fields with influence… but this is where we go wrong. And we often think social networking and technology can fill in the gaps, but unfortunately, depending on these things too much actually widens them!

“Sometimes, the technical gadget is not going to be the best medium.” -Stacey Hanke

Today’s guest, communications and influence expert Stacey Henke, says influence is not something you can turn on and off like the gadgets we now use to get our messages across! She’s worked with thousands of leaders to help them walk the talk of being true influencers.  

“When I talk about influence, I mean it’s Monday to Monday.” -Stacey Hanke

In this episode, we discover not just what it takes to be an influencer today, but how to keep our one-on-one communication skills sharp while relying on tech more and more for communication.

Stacey shares lots of great tips and inspiring stories to help you make your message stand out above the noise. Listen in!

Interview Highlights

• Stacey talks about her background in communications, and what changes she’s passionate about making for organizations. [3:25]
• How has influence changed in recent years, and what old practices still work? [5:55]
• Stacey shares great advice for balancing technology with face-to-face communication, and how that relates to generational gaps. [9:20]
• What cultural impact will the decline of face-to-face communication skills have on the future? [14:30]
• Do you take way too long to write emails? Well, you’re not alone! Stacey has tips for putting better messages together. [16:46]
• Stacey calls out some of the big lies leaders tell themselves about their own influence. [19:45]
• How can you tell when you’re communicating with someone who will never be receptive? [21:35]
• Stacey shares tips for accepting feedback that’s hard to hear, but necessary to consider. [22:50]
• How does weak communication hold back an otherwise strong business? [24:35]

Stacey Hanke is author of the book; Influence Redefined…Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be, Monday to Monday®. She is also co-author of the book; Yes You Can! Everything You Need From A To Z To Influence Others To Take Action. 

She has trained and presented to thousands to rid business leaders of bad body language habits and to choose words wisely in the financial industry to the healthcare industry to government and everyone in between. The Stacey Hanke, Inc. client list is vast from Coca-Cola, FedEx, Kohl’s, United States Army, Navy and Air Force, Nationwide, Pfizer, GE, and General Mills. Her team works with Directors up to the C-Suite. She has inspired thousands as a featured guest on media outlets including; The New York Times, Forbes, Entrepreneur, SmartMoney magazine, and even the Lifetime Network! She is a Certified Speaking Professional—a valuable accreditation earned by less than 10% of speakers worldwide.

Connect with Stacey

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Website

• 360Connext® post, How to Start Improving CX in the Real World
• Customers That Stick® post, Turn Your Customer Experience Inside Out
• Episode 075: Can You Gamify Customer Experience?
• Episode 094: Joseph Michelli, Becoming Customer-Obsessed
• We’re on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Are you ready to build a customer experience strategy on a solid foundation for the long term? We’re shattering the top 5 CX strategy myths in our latest evergreen webinar.

• How to avoid the 5 so-called “Customer Experience Strategies” that aren’t strategies at all
• What drives a winning customer experience strategy and examples of companies that “get it”
• How to create a foundation for a customer experience strategy that works for the long term

Join Jeannie at a time that works for you for some serious mythbusting and a head start on creating a customer experience strategy that works! 

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeannie shares her expertise in digital experience evaluation with 5 sales-killing offenses even the best of us should look out for and tips to make good on them.

Umm… probably. It’s easy to say what you don’t like about another company’s digital experience, but what about your own? Because you know where everything is and how it’s all supposed to work, finding pain points in your own digital experience is not as straightforward as you may think.

So when customers are so close to making a purchase, your polished-up website or mobile app may be letting them down in those critical moments. Those would-be customers are dropping out over things that cause confusion, frustration, mistrust…even to the point of publicly hating on your brand!

Jeannie Walters has been conducting qualitative analyses on digital experiences since before they really became a “thing,” and now, she sees digital experiences make and break once-successful brands every day.

Jeannie's top 5 offenses are causing widespread cart abandonment and tossing qualified leads right out of sales funnels everywhere. However, you can find those pain points and turn them into opportunities.

Customers want to buy from you, but your digital experience may be giving up on them! Listen in for tips to save them from giving up on you.

• 360Connext® post, Challenges of Understanding the Customer Journey End-to-End
• Customers That Stick® post, Turn Your Customer Experience Inside Out
• Episode 264: (Tip) Mobile Potential
• Episode 227: (Tip) Majoring In the CX Minors
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeannie and Adam explore hiring and new employee processes from the candidate's perspective with Undercover Candidate™ Nora Burns. 

A good team is critical to the success of any business, so why is it so hard to attract and keep good talent? It seems most organizational leaders think their hiring processes are solid - while most job candidates have horror stories about their experience. 

You’ve heard the horror stories from friends and colleagues... In fact, you probably have horror stories of your own. So what's really happening during your own hiring and new employee experience processes? And more importantly, how does it affect your ability to hire right for the experiences you want to deliver? Because how you hire, not just whom you hire, can have a big impact on your brand.

“You’ve not only lost me as potential talent, but you’ve also lost me as a consumer…” -Nora Burns

That's what today’s guest Nora Burns wanted to find out, so she invested years in finding out! Nora is with us to day to share some of her insights from 200+ job interviews as The Undercover Candidate™, and 15 months working on the front lines of 5 Fortune 500 companies as The Undercover Employee™. 

Nora shares unbelievable stories about how easy it was to land interviews and even job offers based on fictitious qualifications! What’s more, you’ll be shocked to hear how very common inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and wasted opportunities loom around the typical hiring process.

“I was offered jobs you should NEVER EVER offer me…” -Nora Burns

So what are we doing wrong, and how can we do better? How can we stop shooting ourselves in the foot with inadequate (and sometimes destructive!) hiring processes? Nora has collected amazing insights and tips for you in based on real-world experiences. She’s so good at going undercover, we had to verify that we have the REAL Nora Burns!

“Your employment brand is your bread and butter when it comes to recruiting and retention. If you’re destroying that little by little, nick by nick, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.” -Nora Burns

Interview highlights:

• How did Nora come up with the idea of going undercover as job candidates? [2:30]
• What are the most common issues with how organizations handle the hiring process, and how can they do better? [6:50]
• Nora and our hosts discuss different ways internal processes and timelines disrupt access to great talent. [10:20]
• Interviewers are NOT paying attention. You won’t believe these inconsistencies that were overlooked! [14:00]
• Nora went undercover as a hired employee, and you won’t believe how these employers handled it! [16:55]
• What can we all do to improve the hiring process, and how can we hire best to serve our customers? [20:35]

Since stepping into the world of human resources more than two decades ago, Nora A Burns, SPHR has interviewed and on-boarded thousands of candidates and new hires for positions ranging from file clerk to executive vice president. Along the way, she decided to study and evaluate the hiring process from a different perspective, by participating in job interviews across the country. She did this not in her usual role of interviewer or hiring consultant, but as a candidate for administrative, supervisory and managerial roles.

As The Undercover Candidate™, Nora has participated in over a hundred interviews to gain insight into the hiring process from the candidate’s perspective. Professional curiosity then took her a step further as she recognizes that effective hiring is only the first step toward building a great workforce, Phase two of her research involved spending a year working “undercover” for a variety of large, well-known organizations as a customer-facing employee in entry-level positions. 

Nora shares insights learned through speaking engagements while continuing to experience and oversee interviews and on-boarding processes of client organizations who looks to HR-Undercover, LLC to “mystery shop” their employee experience. Nora is passionate about helping associations and corporations hire and develop top talent to advance their overall mission and strategy. Her engaging, no-nonsense style and sense of humor has captivated retreat, workshop and conference audiences across North America. She tailors every keynote, workshop and session to her client’s specific needs. 

A strong believer in community involvement, Nora is an active volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and The Gathering Place.  Originally from the Midwest, she lives in Denver, CO with her exceptionally cute labradoodle, Bella.

Connect with Nora

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Website

• 360Connext® post, 3 Ways to Add Magic to your Customer Service Training
• Customers That Stick® post, The Importance of Onboarding Employees
• Episode 176: (Tip) Hiring a Customer-Centric Employee
• Episode 249: How Customer Service Training Goes Wrong
• We’re on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices