Did you know that customer satisfaction scores are the lowest they have been in the past 15 years? It’s true, and you can’t blame it all on COVID, although there is some blame to be cast there. Per the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), only 30 percent of companies tracked by ASCI improved their score; that means 70 percent didn’t, and that’s alarming. It’s also one of seven significant lessons that 2021 taught us. 

This new year also coincides with the 20th anniversary of me founding my global Customer Experience Consultancy, Beyond Philosophy and publishing my first book on the subject, Building Great Customer Experiences (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). Things have changed since then, but one thing that hasn’t is that people want exceptional experiences that meet (or exceed) their expectations—and organizations need to deliver them.

In this episode, we explore the seven things we learned professionally and personally in 2021 and what they mean for your customer strategy in 2022. Spoiler alert: it means that everything is changing. Again.

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

Twenty years ago, all the signs around me pointed to the next big thing in business: Customer Experience. However, the influence of Customer Experience is waning now, making way for something new: Customer Science. Customer Science is the blend of Artificial Intelligence, customer data, and the behavioral sciences, and just like its predecessor Customer Experience, it has outstanding implications for your customer strategy. 

Here are a few key moments in the discussion:

• 04:52   Ryan kicks off the professional lessons learned this year with the realization that changing challenges is the reality of the business environment today and how to respond to it. 
• 06:43  Colin explains how uncertainty is something human beings do not process well, and it leads to customer behavior that reflects the behavioral science theory of Loss Aversion. 
• 10:26  Colin explains that Customer Experience is getting absorbed into a larger, more influential concept poised to change the business world, Customer Science.  
• 12:45  Colin shares shocking statistics from the American Customer Satisfaction Institute Index.    
• 15:06   Ryan and Colin discuss what is happening to Customer Experience and how it is the cycle of things in business. 
• 17:05  Colin explains how some companies succeeded in improving their customer satisfactions scores.
• 19:03  Ryan shares that his personal learning in 2021 was about work/life balance and that he thinks little improvements in areas of his life lead to more improvements down the road.   
• 22:10  Colin talks about his weight loss journey and how a jolt to his bad habits in his personal life demonstrates what often needs to happen in the business world.   

 

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Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.