Improving Customer Experience

By Lynn Hunsaker

What's Improving Customer Experience about?

ClearAction is a customer experience consulting firm specializing in mentoring executives for customer-focused innovation, business process improvement and customer relationship skill development. ClearAction emphasizes customer hassle prevention for greater results in customer retention and profitability. See www.ClearAction.biz

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Improving Customer Experience episodes:

07.22.2010
Employee Engagement in Balanced Scorecards
For senior executives the traditional balanced scorecard provides insights for steering the corporation or initiative in the right direction. However, these high level metrics may appear out of reach for most employees. Hear practical methods for engaging employees in balanced...
07.10.2010
Creativity for Customer Experience Improvement
Open your mind to new ideas for improving customer experience. It's a fast-paced highly competitive world, so continual improvement -- and occasional breakthroughs -- are imperatives for consistently delivering superior customer experience. From the blog Customer Experience Optimization: (4:10)
07.09.2010
Improve Customer Experience by Eliminating Customer Focus Boundaries
'Customer-focus is important for certain job roles, but for other roles, we rely on our own wisdom.’ This is poisonous thinking when some parts of your company are excused from customer-focus. From the blog Customer Experience Optimization: (2:47)
05.20.2010
Strengthen Customer Relationship Through Customer Engagement
Examples of customer engagement using Twitter, wikis, online communities, social network sites, and customer testimonials on flip phones. Examples from Comcast, Microsoft, Blackbaud, 3PAR, Intuit, Fox, Dell. From the blog Customer Experience Optimization: and the webcast Customer Retention Strategies (18:37).
05.20.2010
Improve Customer Experience by Reaching Out to At-Risk Customers
Over-focus on customer acquisition teaches customers to switch brands. For example, the brand switching rate, called customer churn, is 40% for the mobile phone industry, compared to a 7% customer churn rate for the insurance and financial services industries....
05.20.2010
Why Satisfaction Surveys Aren't Customer Centric
Customer Centricity by Discerning Satisfaction Outcomes vs Enablers. What’s the difference between the way customers volunteer feedback versus the way they’re requested to give feedback? One revolves around outcomes in the customer’s world, whereas the other revolves around customer satisfaction...
05.20.2010
Customer Experience Management by Walking the Talk
Beyond customer surveys and rhetoric, an organization has to do things uniquely to lead its industry peers in superior customer experience. Examples from IBM, Toyota, Intuit, JetBlue, Enterprise. From the blog Customer Experience Optimization: (3:48).
05.20.2010
Customer Experience is Well-Defined by Metaphors
Do you want to gain an in-depth understanding of customer experience? More information can be obtained from five customers than from 50 focus groups, according to Larry Huston, former Vice President of Knowledge and Innovation at Procter & Gamble:...
05.19.2010
Customer Survey Action Plans & Feedback to Customers
Anytime customers share feedback — whether solicited via survey or unsolicited via complaint or casual comments to front-line employees — it’s important to acknowledge the customers’ view and thank them, with assurance you’re working on solutions. Don’t let them feel...
05.19.2010
Customer Experience Data: Untapped Gold Mines
Go after the gold in your customer data, avoid fool’s gold, and refine your customer data gold to make a difference in your business growth and profitability. Untapped opportunities exist in: *Making use of unstructured data, such as customer inquiries....
05.19.2010
4 Customer Centric Culture Building Blocks
It’s popular to tout customer-centricity, yet it’s very difficult to consistently demonstrate. The word centric means having a specific thing as the focus of attention and efforts. Customer-centric means that concerns other than the customer’s well-being are in the background...
05.19.2010
Customer Experience Management Using Social Media
Social media introduces excellent tools and customer feedback data streams for companies to monitor perceptions and trends. Best practices in customer experience management: a) Use social media listening first to determine how best to interact with customers; b) Recognize the...
05.19.2010
Building a Customer-Centric Culture
What Does it Mean to be Customer-centric? To have the customer’s best interests as the focus of your attention — not to be pre-occupied in your own interests at the customer’s expense. To do this, you need to: 1) Really...
05.19.2010
Customer Experience is Decided by You
You probably want to feel great more often! How can that happen? It’s up to you as a supplier to create excellent customer experiences that result in enthusiastic positive word-of-mouth and great business results. It’s up to you in all...
05.19.2010
Customer Experience Improves Without TMI
'Too much information’ (TMI) can hurt customer experiences. It can be tempting to brag or complain about things as the customer waits for something. It can be easy to get long-winded telling a story to a customer. Be careful! Not...
05.15.2010
Customer Experience Social Media Conversations
Social media contains a wealth of information about the customer experience, and savvy managers are paying attention. the social Web is full of customer comments, and engaging customers in conversations enables opportunities for building brand reputation, customer service, competitor analysis,...
05.15.2010
Customer Data Integration for a 360-Degree View of Customer Experience
You’ve probably heard of the blind men who touched part of an elephant and were adamant about their interpretations. Businesses are in the same predicament without customer data integration for a panoramic viewpoint. Examples from Hewlett-Packard. From the blog Customer...
05.15.2010
Energize Your Customer Experience Strategy
For holistic customer experience management, the challenge is horizontal alignment to deliver intentional customer experiences. Keys to horizontal alignment, and what it takes to energize your customer experience strategy as a long-term journey enterprise-wide. Examples from Symantec. From the blog...
05.14.2010
Marketing Wins Strategic Clout by Driving Customer Experience Management
Traditionally, Marketing takes the organization’s message to the customer base, but now equally important is Marketing’s potential to take the customer base’s message back to the organization. Marketing sets up the value proposition that the brand represents, but ultimately customers define...
05.14.2010
New Rules of the Game for Innovation
A new understanding of innovation success factors is making traditional logic obsolete. Successful innovation has less to do with the best investment, technology, research and designers, according to Booz Allen Hamilton: “Unless their R&D efforts are driven by a thorough...
05.13.2010
Employee Engagement for Superior Customer Experience Management
The hardest thing for competitors to copy is the customer experience you create. And engaged employees are the most dynamic and influential force in creating superior customer experiences. While 80% of executives say they want to use customer experience management...
05.13.2010
Customer Experience Management Prevents Hassles
One out of two companies (44%) acknowledge that high-profile negative customer experiences have at some time compromised their brand, yet only 29% have high ability to handle and resolve customer complaints. Many customer satisfaction managers emphasize the positive and de-emphasize...
05.13.2010
Recognize Employees for Improving Customer Experience
Humans, as well as all living things, align their behaviors with the rewards in their environment. For example, only 42% of companies agree that they can do what is right for customers despite the pressure to make current-period financial numbers....
05.13.2010
Customer Satisfaction Bonus Traps
Please give us a 'highly satisfied' rating!?! Why do sales and service representatives feel compelled to tell customers how to answer a survey? Does the company want to know what the customers really think, or is the company trying...
05.13.2010
Customer Experience Research & Customer Outcomes
A better way to conduct customer satisfaction surveys. If the customers’ jobs-to-be-done” concept is becoming embraced as essential for successful innovation, why is it largely ignored for monitoring of customer experience and satisfaction? Customers’ jobs-to-be-done (desired outcomes) are the customer’s...
05.13.2010
Customer-Focused Culture by Living With Your Customers
You never know someone so well as when they live with you! What better way to transform your culture to truly customer-centric ways of thinking and doing, than to invite your customer to attend all your discussions? This has long...
05.13.2010
Improve Customer Experience by Borrowing Ideas
Creativity is essential in our highly competitive business environment. As technology and options expand, customers’ expectations for higher value are always rising. Avoid the temptation to simply charge them for things that used to be free. And avoid the temptation...
05.13.2010
Make Good Customer Experiences Easy
Upgrading to a new model of any kind of product can be an exciting customer experience … but not if you as a supplier don’t set it up for success. All too often, upgrades cause too many surprises, wasted time...
05.13.2010
Loyalty is Not Just for Customers
Companies do a lot to encourage customer behavior that favors their brand. Yet, like most things in life, loyalty is a two-way street. Who are you loyal to? Features the book, Why Loyalty Matters. For the blog Customer Experience...
05.13.2010
What's Your Customer Experience Value Quotient?
If value is defined as benefits versus costs, what’s your company’s customer experience value ratio? Superior value is the objective of customers and marketers alike. And since customers hold the purse strings, marketers are compelled to view value as customers...
05.13.2010
Double-Check Assumptions & Motives, to Improve Customer Experience
When a customer asks you a question, do you double-check your assumptions about their intended outcome? So often we take customer inquiries at face value, or simply assume we know what is meant. No matter what your job, you have...
05.13.2010
The Art of Listening, for Customer Experience Improvement
Curiosity is the key to great listening skills that improve customer experience. When you’re truly curious about your customer’s opinions, expectations and requests, you’ll find the customer to be more pleasant, interesting and fulfilling to you as well. 5...
05.13.2010
Internal Customer Satisfaction: Help Me Help You
Everything that external customers receive is the result of business processes. a business process involves a value chain of internal suppliers and internal customers. Help your internal suppliers help you deliver better customer experiences. From the blog Customer Experience...
05.13.2010
Inventing Great Customer Experiences: 10 Tips
Every person in an organization is needed for customer experience innovation. That’s because customer expectations and competitive offerings are always on the rise. Here are 10 tips ANY organization can benefit from. From the blog Customer Experience Optimization:, at http://customer.ology.com...
05.13.2010
Culture of Trust for Customer Experience Management
The absolute most important aspect of customer retention is culture. Culture is the way things are thought about, talked about, and done. If TRUST is the basis for any long-term relationship, then a culture of trust is essential...
05.13.2010
Empower Employees to Deliver Great Customer Experiences
Customer experience is the result of combined efforts from a vast array of people, from top management to front-line employees, to channel partners. When management creates and reinforces techniques to inspire outside-in thinking and behaviors, employees are likely to...
05.13.2010
Customer Centricity Means Customer Centric
Organizations that are centered around their customers know that it's not a part-time role. To truly be customer-centric, everyone company-wide needs to have a deep understanding of the customer's world. And beyond this sharp awareness, everyone needs to be...
05.13.2010
Customer Care Culture by Hiring Right
When customer experience requirements guide the hiring process, a company is practicing outside-in thinking. In fact, most companies that are consistently listed as top customer service providers have very deliberate methods for choosing the right people who will properly...
10.12.2009
Building a Customer-Centric Culture: Engaging Employees & Customers
See also Customer Experience Management webcast version. True customer focus is elusive, as internal realities often overshadow customer considerations in day-to-day decisions and behaviors. To get beyond lip-service, a major shift in company culture is necessary. Learn how to...
10.06.2009
Innovating the Superior Customer Experience
See also Customer Experience Innovation webcast version. Customers in the information age are savvy, discerning and demanding of solutions that address their full spectrum of needs. A key to cracking the code for superior market positioning is innovation of the...
07.31.2009
10 Tips for Customer Experience Innovation
Any innovation needs to be a winner in customer experience, or it will be short-lived. Here are 10 essential steps to hitting the mark. See Customer Experience Radio Show, Customer Experience Optimization:, and Customer.ology.com. (13:54)
06.16.2009
Proactive Customer Experience: Cisco's Anu Ranganath
Interview with Anu Ranganath, Cisco Systems Global Customer Engagement Program Manager for Quality Initiatives. Definitions and examples of Customer Experience, Brand Promise, Customer Touchpoints and Loyalty Value. From www.blogtalkradio.com/customerexperience. Related information at Customer Experience Optimization: Sign-up for ClearAction newsletter. (12:59)
06.06.2009
Customer Retention Begins With Trust
Trust is the foundation for long-term productive customer relationships. Customer involvement is essential, yet prevention of customer hassles is even more important. See presentation slides at http://www.slideshare.net/clearaction, and blog at Customer Experience Optimization: Customer Experience Optimization for related...
05.16.2009
Why Internal Branding is Central to Customer Experience Management
Why is it that only 12% of customers judge specific leading suppliers as extremely customer-centric? Internal branding is a multi-faceted cultural journey guiding everyone company-wide in managing their personal impact on customer experience. From the blog Customer Experience Optimization:...
05.16.2009
Do the Whole Job for Customer Experience Success
Whether you’ve got external or internal customers, they expect you to ‘do the whole job’! Do the whole job and you’ll enjoy more secure customer relationships. You’ll benefit not only in the short-run, but also in the long-run as you...
05.16.2009
What IS Customer Experience?!
You probably hear lots of “customer …” phrases that seem interchangeable. In reality, there are big differences in these terms, although they are related. Includes in-depth definition of CEM - customer experience management. From the blog Improve Customer Experience http://customer.ology.com....
04.23.2009
5 Keys to Employee Engagement for Customer Experience
If CEM execution is broken, examine the foundation rather than fill potholes. Gain company-wide cooperation for customer experience strategies. From the blog Customer Experience Optimization: Delivering Your Brand Promise at http://clearaction.biz/blog. (4:48) -- Sign-up for ClearAction Customer Experience Optimization:
04.23.2009
Everybody Has a Customer
"What everyone in a company does can be reduced to one of two functions: to serve the customer or serve someone who does." (Quote from Dr. W. Edwards Deming). From the blog Customer Experience Optimization: (2:56)-- Sign-up for ClearAction...
04.23.2009
Measure Customer Value the Customer's Way
Customers automatically use 50 or more metrics for any customer experience. We may be re-inventing the wheel as we strive to come up with customer metrics that spell success. From the blog Customer Experience Optimization: (3:14) - Sign-up for ClearAction...
04.23.2009
Customer Experience Metrics Tips: Part 2
2 essential tips for keeping any initiative on track: #3 Predictive, #4 Sustained. From the blog Customer Experience Optimization: (4:54) - Sign-up for ClearAction Newsletter.

What's Improving Customer Experience about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Improving Customer Experience episodes:

Employee Engagement in Balanced Scorecards

Creativity for Customer Experience Improvement

Improve Customer Experience by Eliminating Customer Focus Boundaries

Strengthen Customer Relationship Through Customer Engagement

Improve Customer Experience by Reaching Out to At-Risk Customers

Why Satisfaction Surveys Aren't Customer Centric

Customer Experience Management by Walking the Talk

Customer Experience is Well-Defined by Metaphors

Customer Survey Action Plans & Feedback to Customers

Customer Experience Data: Untapped Gold Mines

4 Customer Centric Culture Building Blocks

Customer Experience Management Using Social Media

Building a Customer-Centric Culture

Customer Experience is Decided by You

Customer Experience Improves Without TMI

Customer Experience Social Media Conversations

Customer Data Integration for a 360-Degree View of Customer Experience

Energize Your Customer Experience Strategy

Marketing Wins Strategic Clout by Driving Customer Experience Management

New Rules of the Game for Innovation

Employee Engagement for Superior Customer Experience Management

Customer Experience Management Prevents Hassles

Recognize Employees for Improving Customer Experience

Customer Satisfaction Bonus Traps

Customer Experience Research & Customer Outcomes

Customer-Focused Culture by Living With Your Customers

Improve Customer Experience by Borrowing Ideas

Make Good Customer Experiences Easy

Loyalty is Not Just for Customers

What's Your Customer Experience Value Quotient?

Double-Check Assumptions & Motives, to Improve Customer Experience

The Art of Listening, for Customer Experience Improvement

Internal Customer Satisfaction: Help Me Help You

Inventing Great Customer Experiences: 10 Tips

Culture of Trust for Customer Experience Management

Empower Employees to Deliver Great Customer Experiences

Customer Centricity Means Customer Centric

Customer Care Culture by Hiring Right

Building a Customer-Centric Culture: Engaging Employees & Customers

Innovating the Superior Customer Experience

10 Tips for Customer Experience Innovation

Proactive Customer Experience: Cisco's Anu Ranganath

Customer Retention Begins With Trust

Why Internal Branding is Central to Customer Experience Management

Do the Whole Job for Customer Experience Success

What IS Customer Experience?!

5 Keys to Employee Engagement for Customer Experience

Everybody Has a Customer

Measure Customer Value the Customer's Way

Customer Experience Metrics Tips: Part 2