Crack the Customer Code

Who doesn’t like playing games, and winning!? Companies across many industries are learning how to gamify the experience for their customers. How can gamification improve the experience for your customers?

Gamification: applying the principles of games like variable rewards and real-time engagement. Can you use this to improve the customer experience?

Gamifying your customer’s experience can be rewarding for both the customer and the company. Fitness wearables have helped gamify personal health data. Coca-cola recently rewarded customers for recycling and encouraged the behavior they wanted. MIT gamified the ice cube! It’s everywhere.

Reward the behavior you want to get from your customer, and they connect your brand with a sense of accomplishment and gratification. Win/win!

Can you gamify the experience in a meaningful way? Is it always the answer? Adam and Jeannie have a lively discussion about how gamification could be the answer to boring interactions.

360Connext—Customer Experience Mission Development

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 develop and internalize unique and scalable customer-focused missions. 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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Denise Lee Yohn, author of  Extraordinary Experiences: What Great Retail and Restaurant Brands Do, discusses the concepts of restaurant and retail stand-out experiences.

Denise has researched and made sense of what really makes an experience profitable, sustainable and special in retail and restaurant environments. 

The best brands stand for some people, but not for others. Shoring up emotional loyalty and advocacy is an important piece of the proactive experience, especially before a crisis happens.

Using examples from Red Bull, Chipotle and others, Denise discusses the best ways to provide something special for customers in these environments.

Denise is the author of the bestselling book What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles That Separate the Best from the Rest (Jossey-Bass). She frequently appears in national media including FOX Business TV and USA Today. She is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and Forbes and her talks have inspired and taught thousands of CEOs, CMOs, and entrepreneurs around the world. 

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.

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What if you don’t have a budget for lots of perks to create a positive workplace culture? Are there ways to hack culture to make the workplace positive and fun?

Money is often the fourth motivator for workers. The Workforce 2020 report shows how workers today want non-traditional benefits as well.

A great culture with happy employees is a key component of delivering the right experience for customers. So how can workplaces today compete with innovative employers like Zappos, when the budget is not necessarily at a Zappos-level?

Decide what is universal and what needs to be personalized for each employee.

Adam and Jeannie discuss the best ways to listen to employees and what they want and also how to deliver small but powerful perks to keep employees happy and excited to deliver a great experience.

360Connext—Customer Experience Mission Development

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 develop and internalize unique and scalable customer-focused missions. 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

Matt Phillips is the President of management consulting firm, Phillips and Company. Matt helps us all understand breakthrough innovations and experience.

What is expected in the experience offered to customers and what should be unexpected? These are some of the questions Matt poses when considering innovation.

Matt talks about luxury hotel experiences, futuristic customer service robots, and ice swimming in Finland. 

What are the best ways to innovate? Matt has been tackling this question for more than a decade, and he has great stories to share.

Listen in to hear how the future is changing, and how you can innovate for it.

Matt Phillips: Innovation Expert

Matt Phillips is president of management consulting firm Phillips & Co. Launched in 2003, their area of expertise is Breakthrough Strategy - the development of innovative new products, services and experiences. Their clients include Paramount Pictures, Dell, Hyatt, Bath & Body Works, SC Johnson, major ad agencies and innovation-driven mid-sized companies. Matt holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and is a graduate of The Second City’s advanced program in improvisation. In addition to consulting, he has given keynote addresses on the creation of breakthrough experiences around the world.

Connect with Matt

Related Content

Sponsor Message 

Want to bring “mind-blowing” 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

Seeing the game live used to be enough for sports fans. Now, stadiums are designed to be a multi-screen experience. How are experiences changing for sports fans, and how are the champions delivering victories?

What is the product of sporting events? With millennial fans desiring connectivity as a key part of the sports event, modern stadiums have to deliver an experience for those fans who are as interested in uploading selfies as connecting with their favorite team online.

Is this an indicator of what people want next for their experiences? 1 in 3 college students claims Internet connectivity is as important to them as air, food, or water!

Delivering a connected experience is critical to providing a superior customer experience. There is a 50/50 split on uploading and downloading, meaning it’s just as important to participate in the game in a different way, such as viewing instant replays on mobile devices, as it is to upload photos to social networks.

Are you delivering what your fans want? Adam and Jeannie discuss what this trend means for all businesses. 

360Connext—Customer Experience Webinar

Join us each month for an informative customer experience webinar. After hosting webinars and courses for PopExpert, Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Marketing Profs, and others, 360Connext is now offering webinars to our community. Sign up to explore different topics each month, like how to measure customer experience success, how to write your customer experience mission, and other important and actionable ideas. Register at www.cxwebinar.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

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In honor of Thanksgiving, we’d like to share what we’re thankful for in this episode of Crack the Customer Code! We hope we can inspire you with some great stories of how some unique companies have thanked their own customers. From bold and big acts of gratitude to simply saying the words “thank you,” expressing appreciation is always timely, no matter the season.

Giving your customers something unexpected is a wonderful way to say "thank you." Listen in to hear how organizations ranging from property managers to online auction sites have delighted customers simply by saying “thanks.”

And THANK YOU for listening, sharing, and being a part of our Crack The Customer Code community. We’re lucky to have you!

 Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

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One of the things customers hate about customer service is finding it. How can customer care be embedded into the entire customer journey? Adam and Jeannie discuss the innovations that are making this more of a reality for customers and companies alike.

Instead of forcing customers to hunt for the right phone number, the right support department or the right email address, what if the right customer support option was just waiting for the customer where and when they need it? Like Amazon’s pioneering Kindle Mayday video support, there are many ways to offer this type of embedded experience.

But what does that mean for customers and their feeling of control? Many won't want strangers popping up on video on their screen! Adam and Jeannie discuss the pros and cons of this type of innovative customer service.

Gartner reports 100 of the 500 largest global businesses will introduce video-based chat for customer-facing interactions by 2018. This is definitely the future, are you ready?

360Connext—Customer Experience Webinars

Join us each month for an informative customer experience webinar. After hosting webinars and courses for PopExpert, Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Marketing Profs, and others, 360Connext is now offering webinars to our community. Sign up to explore different topics each month, like how to measure customer experience success, how to write your customer experience mission, and other important and actionable ideas. Register at www.cxwebinar.com.

 Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

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

Annette Franz, creator of the CX Journey blog, gets into the nitty gritty of what makes a customer journey map a powerful tool for any organization.

Customer Journey Maps Get Real

“Do I need to track all thousand steps?” Different customers have different customer journeys, so what are the best ways to really map their journey?

Annette Franz tackles the complex process of customer journey mapping by simplifying it.

In this episode, Adam, Jeannie and Annette discuss the changing ways organizations can get the best information about their customers, so impactful changes can be made. There are quick wins to be had, but you have to know how to find them!

There are so many different frameworks for journey mapping, how do you know where to start? Annette dissects ways to explore the customer’s journey and to learn about who your customers really are. Are you ready to dive in?

Listen in to hear many great tips to start or continue your journey mapping.

Annette Franz: Customer Experience Expert

Annette Franz blogs at CX Journey, where she shares her passion for helping companies understand the importance of the employee experience and its role in delivering an exceptional customer experience, as well as how to transform their cultures to ensure the customer is at the center of every conversation. She was recently recognized as one of “The 100 Most Influential Tech Women on Twitter” by Business Insider and has been recognized by several organizations as a top influencer in Customer Experience. She is an active CXPA member, as a CX Expert, CX Mentor, and a SoCal Local Networking Team Lead; she also serves on the Board of Directors.

Connect with Annette

Related Content

 Sponsor Message 

Be Your Customer’s Hero: Real-World Tips and Techniques for the Service Front Lines is a one-stop training guide for anyone who works with customers. Be Your Customers Hero covers customer service from beginning to end. In HERO, you will learn some of Adam’s favorite tips and tricks for winning the mental game of service, for communicating in ways that set you up for success, and of course, for working with difficult customers. Get a copy for yourself or for your whole team. Bulk discounts are available. Learn more here.

               Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

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Providing a secure environment for customers is more than just protecting data. What can we do to help everybody feel secure with every transaction throughout the entire journey?

Security is often overlooked as part of the true customer experience, but it’s a critical part to consider.

Consider not just handling the minimum level of security to avoid liability. Consider how to help your customers feel reassured they are secure.

How can you provide more security and communication to your customers and employees around personal security? Listen in to hear more and then share your stories with us!

360 Connext—Emerging CX Leader Program

Maybe you’ve been told to become more “customer-centric” or to lead the charge on journey mapping for your organization. We know leaders (who don’t necessarily have customer experience in their titles) are being asked to develop customer experience programs. We can help. Join us for our Emerging CX Leader Program. We will walk you through how to make real change and take daily, weekly, monthly actions without breaking the bank. Register at http://www.cxcourse.com/

 Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

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Jill Salzman, creator of The Founding Moms, joins us to discuss global networking and the inception of the world's first and only online and offline meet-up and resource network for mothers.

When asked why membership community building is so important, Jill replies that it's a matter of identifying the need in a community and attempting to fill it.

While Founding Moms' meetings began in person with just a few participants, the demand was so great that Jill has expanded to both offline and online group meetings, providing the opportunity for participants to pool resources, network, and offer advice as they build their businesses.

As the creator of the only networking community that invites members to bring their children as they learn more about optimizing their business, Jill has built an accessible, loved, and trusted brand.

Tune in to hear her customer service advice, network design, brand story, and how to juggle life as an entrepreneur.

In addition to connecting mom entrepreneurs from all over the globe, Jill has also started a music management firm, founded a jewelry company, and authored a book titled, "Found It: A Field Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs."

Jill earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University and after that attended law school.

She co-hosts the podcast Breaking Down Your Business, and she hosts a video series called Tip Top Tips For Entrepreneurs.

Nicknamed "Mommy Mogul" by CNN Money, "One of Ten Cool Mom Entrepreneurs We Love" by MSN Live, and the creator of one of Forbes' "Top Ten Business Websites," Jill also has a TED Talk, loves to bake, and rocks out in a band. 

Be Your Customer’s Hero: Real-World Tips and Techniques for the Service Front Lines is a one-stop training guide for anyone who works with customers. Be Your Customers Hero covers customer service from beginning to end. In HERO, you will learn some of Adam’s favorite tips and tricks for winning the mental game of service, for communicating in ways that set you up for success, and of course, for working with difficult customers. Get a copy for yourself or for your whole team. Bulk discounts are available. Learn more here.

               Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

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