Crack the Customer Code

Jeannie shares expert tips and guidelines for building a customer experience team that scales efficiently and aligns with organizational goals.

When it comes to building customer experience teams, leaders often struggle to decide what is needed from those new roles and when. What do those jobs entail? When is best to hire, and how?

“Not one person can do the heavy lifting for an entire customer experience team.” - Jeannie Walters

A lot goes into building a solid team! And with so many questions unanswered, it’s easy to jump into reassigning employees or posting a series of job opportunities to cover all the bases. But starting out right is crucial in building a team efficiently.

You need a team that brings positive change today and aligns with bigger goals for the future.  

Don’t waste precious time and resources building a team that grows into something that doesn’t make it happen. Jeannie has some tips to help you identify the capabilities needed the most now, while creating a solid team-building strategy for the long term.

• 360Connext® post, 3 Ways to Lead Your Team to Customer Experience Victory
• Customers That Stick® post, 9 Customer Experience Statistics to Refocus Your Team
• Episode 176: (Tip) Hiring a Customer-Centric Employee
• Episode 193: Amy Downs, Customer Success
• 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.

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Adam and Jeannie share quick tips and a little neuroscience to keep negative interactions from causing poor service and employee burnout.

From dealing bad tempers to outbursts and emotional meltdowns, our customer-facing employees see the worst in people – sometimes daily.

It’s a natural human reaction to take on some of the negative emotions we’re exposed to. For employees, that could lead to lashing out at customers, taking it out on co-workers, and general burnout. And many other issues can stem from employees just being unhappy at work.

"The key is not to not have a reaction, but to remember how to control the reaction." -Adam Toporek

How can we stop our agents from taking these interactions too personally?

To stay focused, employees need to understand what’s actually happening in their brains when exposed to these emotions. They need to know how they can keep their emotions under control despite the negative emotions swirling around them like demons looking for a way in.

"Give them the tools they need in training so they feel like they’ve been there before..." -Jeannie Walters

Today, Adam and Jeannie are sharing a little neuroscience along with tips to help your agents take control and stay focused on the service. They cover some ways to not only recover from emotional distress, but to proactively prepare for these situations or prevent them from happening again.

Would you like to prevent burnout, ensure a consistent service experience, and keep a healthy atmosphere at your workplace healthy? Listen in!

• 360Connext® post, Workplace Psychology and the Curse of The Cursed
• Customers That Stick® post, Save Your Customer Service Team from Vampire Customers
• Episode 173: (Tip) Resolving Customer Service Issues
• Episode 161: How to Approach Customer Threats
• 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

Chief Customer Success and Happiness officer Amy Downs of Lifesize outlines her strategic path to a 79-point increase in Net Promoter Score.

Customer experience is gaining traction! But when we think about how the slightest increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a cause for celebration in most organizations, we realize there’s still a long way to go.

Thankfully, we have inspiring leaders like today’s guest who have proven that success is within reach, even for those of us who’ve fallen way behind.

With their NPS looming at -4 and customers already “screaming,” making necessary changes to the service model at Lifesize was creating even more tension. But as the Chief Customer Success and Happiness Officer at Lifesize, Amy Downs quickly turned these challenges into opportunities. While the company was on its head, she brought customer obsession into their culture, core values, functional processes, and communications.

And now? Their NPS currently shines at 75.

You can do this! Amy’s story is more like a mini case study, where she outlines all the crucial steps behind Lifesize’s transformation. 

“If you don’t have that level of engagement from your employees, your customers will never feel it, says Amy. And with a 79% increase in NPS, you know everyone feels it! Listen in to make this your story too.

Highlights from the interview:

• How Amy’s title of Chief Customer Success and Happiness Officer speaks of her day-to-day work  [2:50]
• Quick customer experience wins make room for more ambitious goals! Here’s what Amy tackled first [5:50]
• The key traits of a customer-obsessed company are… [9:40]
• Embedding customer-obsessed cultural values across functional leadership and down into everyday processes [12:40]
• The impact of communicating progress and insight organization-wide, and great tools that help make it happen [18:10]
• How is internal customer service affected by customer-obsession? [21:10]

Amy Downs is the Chief Customer Success and Happiness Officer at Lifesize, the connected video conferencing company, and is responsible for ensuring that customers are at the epicenter of everything the company does.

From support, service and training, Amy drives the strategy and execution of programs that help Lifesize customers and partners bring successful video collaboration to their companies. Prior to joining Lifesize, Amy spearheaded Voxeo’s industry-leading customer support and service organization and oversaw all post-sales interaction with customers.

Connect with Amy

• LinkedIn
• Amy on Lifesize.com
• Email [email protected]

• 360Connext® post, 4 Ways to Change Organizational Perspective on Customer Experience
• Customers That Stick® post, Turning a Customer Service Culture
• Episode 094: Joseph Michelli, Becoming Customer-Obsessed
• Episode Episode 014: Handling Pressure, Jeff Toister, and The Customer as Hero

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 shares tips and best practices for understanding and providing great customer service through a focus on internal customer service.

Be they co-workers, vendors or partners, others are depending on you to execute their own responsibilities. Do you know who your internal customers are? Have you ever considered the importance of delivering great customer service?

Just because they are not buying your product or service doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice good customer service skills with internal customers. Poor internal service can breed frustration within your organization, and that frustration will ripple out to your external customers.

"Good internal customer service is an important component of good external customer service, " says Adam Toporek. “Poor internal service is a poison to any organization!”

If you want to provide consistently excellent customer service, then it’s important to turn some of your focus inward. Make sure those internal transactions are as smooth and pleasant as those you deliver to paying customers.

What are some great ways to do this?  In this episode, Adam is sharing expert tips you can use today!

• Customers That Stick® post, What Is an Internal Customer?
• Episode Episode 007: Communicating Internally, Stan Phelps, and The Audience Experience
• Episode 180: John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution
• 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 and Jeannie share tips for outsourcing customer service without outsourcing your integrity and values.

Outsourcing has an ambiguous reputation, often being mentioned in negative context. But whether your company needs to scale quickly or has cost restrictions, sometimes outsourcing customer service just makes sense.

How do you connect with an outsourcing partner that delivers the right experience to your customers? Can you make sure your customers are receiving the level of service and care you envision?

Putting customer service in someone else’s hands is one thing, but making sure they are the right hands is another! With the tips and suggestions Adam and Jeannie are sharing today, you can find an outsourcing partner that works for you and your customers. Listen in!

• Customers That Stick® post, 5 Millennial Traits to Improve Customer Service
• 360Connext® post, Are you SURE you’re Hiring the Right person?
• Episode 168: Nate Brown, Service Center Engagement
• Episode 179: (Tip) Staffing Automated Customer Service
• Episode 050: 50 Pieces of Customer Service Advice
• 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 and Jeannie share facts and stories to help you decide how and when to engage on social media with colleagues and customers.

Are you Facebook friends with co-workers? What about clients, or your boss? Should you be? Some companies have rules against it, while others encourage or expect it. But in many cases, it’s left up to the individual to decide.

So, what is your policy for social media with colleagues?

Whether you’re trying to develop a policy for yourself or for your employees, there are many factors to consider. We wish there could be one simple, flat rule! But there isn't... and how you decide could impact the relationship either way.

On one hand, engaging on social can help strengthen customer relationships and workplace culture. On the other hand, colleagues can use social media to get information to use against you. Then on the other hand, you don’t want to offend anyone. Wait, that’s too many hands! (See, I told you this could get confusing!)

This subject is getting trickier every day, so Adam and Jeannie are dedicating this episode to helping you sort it out. They share enlightening research and true stories to help you weigh the pros and cons, make the right choices, and enjoy it!

• 360Connext® post, 5 Ways Everyone Wins with Proactive Social Media Engagement
• Customers That Stick® post, Social Media Customer Service with Jay Baer (Video)
• Episode 150: Phil Gerbyshak, Social Connections
• Episode 122: Tema Frank, People Shock
• 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 shares quick tips for gathering intelligence to better understand your competitor's customer experience and how yours measures up.

Customers are certainly judging your customer experience. But did you know they’re also judging the experience your competitors provide? Never assume your customers will always be satisfied with the experience you provide. You need to gather some competitive intel!

So how do you know if your customer experience is keeping up with competitors? It’s easier than you think, and Jeannie is here to make it even easier for you with some tips you can use today.

Not only will you find things your competitors are doing better, but you will also uncover hidden differentiators you can use to beef up your marketing.

Ready to find some quick wins? Your customers WANT you to gather competitive intel. Listen in!

• 360Connext® post, Your Journey Map is Incomplete without Competitors
• Customers That Stick® post, How to Build Customer Loyalty through Consistency
• Episode 088: Richard Shapiro, The Endangered Customer
• Episode 180: John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution
• 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

In this special Valentine's Day edition, Adam and Jeannie share simple ways you can show your customers the love!

If you’re listening today, that must mean you love your customers. Where would you be without them!? A great experience may be baked into your processes, but how about going beyond the usual routine to show your customers the love?

Today, Adam and Jeannie have some great tips for surprising customers with a little extra something to show your appreciation. Don’t underestimate the power of these little things you can do today! They can go a long way towards forging solid relationships, loyalty, and even brand advocacy.

• 360Connext® post, Why New Customer Rewards Stink For The Rest Of Us
• Customers That Stick® post, Infographic: What Your Customers Wish You Knew About Them
• Episode 070: Giving Thanks to Your Customers
• Episode 090: How Can You Show Customers Love?
• More to love: 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 Jacqueline Jasionowski about how improving customer experience at BMW is breaking the car-buying mold and differentiating the brand.

BMW has a long record of success as “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” But even they recognize that we’re in a paradigm shift when just having a great product isn’t enough to stay on top. “…everybody sees that the customer experience landscape is the battleground for customer loyalty,” says today’s guest, Jacqueline Jasionowski. And she has played a huge role in helping BMW differentiate their brand by improving customer experience.

Focused more on sales that customer experience, the car-buying experience is typically very stressful and time-consuming. By focusing on the customer experience and weaving it into their culture and training, BMW has climbed the ranks as customer-focused automakers. They have brought relationship-building experience strategies down to the store level where it makes the most impact.

With Jacqueline’s help, BMW has broken the car-buying experience mold. That comes with great risks for any industry, but BMW has already taken a great deal of these risks for the sake of creating a scalable customer-centric experience. Today, Jacqueline shares great tips and insights for what has worked and what hasn’t so you can break your own industry’s experience mold with less risk.

Whether you’re a high-end brand, a budget brand, or something in between… Improving customer experience on an ongoing basis is critical to surviving this paradigm shift. Listen in to hear how BMW is rocking it and how you can apply that to your business!

Highlights from the interview:

• How does BMW discover what matters most to their customers? [3:30]
• Learn how BMW achieved a 24 point increase in satisfaction with the sales experience. [6:20]
• Jacqueline weighs training on product against training on soft skills. [10:10]
• Hear how BMW measures customer experience standards against existing standards around the products [13:20]
• What’s wrong with the typical car-buying experience from the customer’s perspective, and how is BMW changing that? [17:00]
• How does BMW sales staff let customers know right away they’re in for a different kind of experience? [19:50]

Jacqueline Jasionowski brings creativity, passion and enthusiasm into every day as she continues her 15+ year career in Automotive.

Responsible for driving programs to achieve a 24-point upward movement in Sales Satisfaction, as measured by JD Power in 2014, she combines storytelling and analytics to convey to her audience that embracing change is required to move forward. Jacqueline’s program development and main focus is to connect the mind and hearts of her dealers to create real and sustainable transformation for the benefit of the customer.

Jacqueline led the all-new 2016 7 Series BMW Ultimate Benefits team to create program recognition around dealer implementation and customer benefits.

Connect with Jacquelyn

• LinkedIn

• 360Connext® post, Six Ways to Improve Customer Experience Now
• Customers That Stick® post, Turn Your Customer Experience Inside Out
• Episode 094: Joseph Michelli, Becoming Customer-Obsessed
• Episode 177: The ROI of Customer Experience

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

Today we discuss building culture that drives both revenue and a great working environment with author Bobby Albert, author of Principled Profits—Outward Success Is an Inside Job.

Bobby Albert, who led a small, local family business to a nationally recognized leader in its industry, explains how it happened in Principled Profit—Outward Success Is an Inside Job. In this inaugural book, an in-demand speaker/consultant pinpoints specific principles that, in practice, can supercharge any enterprise. The book hits the shelves in 2017, but Bobby is here today to explain how he went from a humble start to good to great in his business - and how any leader can leverage the same principles and practices in his or her own organization.

Connect with Bobby

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• BobbyAlbert.com

We talk a lot about what’s in it for the customer when we create experiences, but it is certainly important to raise the question: “What’s in it for my company?”

Culture isn’t just about having a fun, friendly work environment where everyone communicates well. A strong, profitable culture accomplishes this while focusing on the true customer experience. Bobby explains how these connect directly to profitability by sharing true stories about how his own small company grew big and strong with an inspiring culture at its core.

So what makes a strong culture, anyway? It’s a tough question! Bobby has made some daring moves to make his company’s great culture better and more profitable. Today he’s sharing what works and how you can get started strengthening your own culture. Listen in!

Episode highlights

• Bobby explains how “Outside Success is an Inside Job.” [2:15]
• What are the two Super Objectives? [3:45]
• Learn Bobby’s “Triple E” for driving a profitable culture. [6:20]
• How does a strong culture come to the rescue when things go wrong? [10:10]
• Hear tips for connecting different departments by communicating a common cultural thread. [13:00]

• Customers That Stick® video, What Is an Internal Customer?
• 360Connext® post, Common Mistakes in Organizational Culture
• Episode 137: Culture and Customer Service
• Episode 073: Hacking Your Workplace Culture

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