Waiting for Service

Technology is changing the landscape of the customer experience. On today's show Jamie Ham discusses what the future might look like, why you should fire customers and how humans thrive in this equation.

I asked an executive if his son would be considering a job in his own call center and you would think I was suggesting his son take a job with ISIS! He was completely disgusted with the question. I don't blame him, the job sucks. It doesn't have to be this way. The thing is, it's not just because of screaming customers, it's largely because of the environment we have created for people in these jobs. For starters, many organizations treat the roles like prostitution with patronizing policies and utter disregard. You can read my post on that here and feel free to call or text me at 4059288185 if you disagree. It is hypocritical to continue talking about the customer experience without devoting the same energy to the Customer-Faacing employee experience. Executive after executive visits their call centers, sits with an agent and walks away with awe, and patronizing remarks like "I can't do that job, those people are heroes." The job doesn't have to be heroic, it only appears that way because most people in call centers do their job on 25 year old technology, that seemingly moves at the pace of a pregnant whale.

You are not supposed to be able to buy a house or a car without a middleman - whose value is dubious at best. The customer experience can definitely improve but what role will the actual dealers play?

Nowadays people need the middleman less each day. But what about if, instead just pushing for a sale, they delivered real expertise and provided a great Customer Experience to help you make the best choice for you.
Listen to our chat and the specific cases and topics we tackle. We also discuss the automation in Customer Experience and what's the best blend of human and automated experience.

Nick Jiwa joins us to talk about outsourcing, and why it needs to be fixed for the sake of the customer. What are the implications for the customer experience? Does outsourcing make sense for some or most? If so why are the relationships so toxic?

Asking customers for feedback is completely useless. Why then do most organizations continue to do it?

Will organization really use it...in a productive way?
Maybe they think that people feel flattered when asked for feedback and input. Is asking for feedback used as a therapy session to allow people to let off some steam?

Technology is wonderful until it is not, how does this impact customer experience, I think the next iteration of IVR will be a job killer. Mike Muson tells me to get off the ledge.

We enjoy speaking to people, but when we want to get something done, we're looking for a faster and simpler option. This is where automation and self-services come out.
But if presented with told IVR, we're out of there because we know that this won't get the job done.
Most companies are not invested in modern solutions. They haven't really understood how technology can be applied to their business.

Mike and I discuss helpful CX technologies that are available today and how they apply to different situations.

Let's get really intentional about the customer experience.

If you talk to organizations out there they will all tell you that they believe in the Customer Experience. So if everyone believes in the Customer Experience why, oh why, we're not seeing customer experience go up across the board?

Why do you want to deliver a good customer experience?

I think that your organization should exist to delight customers and revenue growth should come as a consequence of that delight. This might sound like semantics to you, but I think it's the critical distinction between good and great.

Let me dive deeper and give you a few examples.