Episode 085, The Story behind the Black Box!

Lisa Thal is an Author, Speaker, and Business Coach.  Simplify Your meetings. She wrote the book "Three Word Meetings."  Lisa coaches leaders on how to take their sales and business meetings to the next level with fun and interesting 3-word  topics to get your sales team motivated and inspired.  She has over 34 years of sales, marketing, and leadership experience.

 

In this episode, you will learn the difference between Customer Service and Experience.

 

What is customer service? 

Customer service is one part of a customer experience. Customer service refers to the customer support function of a business. It's the help and advice offered to customers when they have a question or an issue concerning a product or service. Most companies have a service department or are there to solve a customer's problem with their product.

 

What is the customer experience?

It's the entire customer journey a consumer takes with your business. It involves many different touchpoints. It starts with awareness of the company, research about the company, initial purchase, and post-purchase experience. The personal interaction you have with that business.

 

Customer experience is all about anticipating the needs of the customer. Great companies have a strategic customer journey map. They ask for customer feedback to continually improve the experience and avoid issues in the future. Pro-active vs. reactive. In doing so, they build brand ambassadors and lifetime customers. And with the right experience, price becomes less of a factor.

 

Customer service is nearly always initiated by the customer. The customer faces a problem, so they reach out to a business' support services via the phone, email, social media, or live chat. 

 

What can you do to improve your customer experience? 

 

In your next meeting, review your customer journey? Think about your best customers, not the customers that buy you off the price, although I know that may be a factor. Engage your team by asking them what companies they think of when it comes to outstanding customer experience. How does it make you feel to do business with those companies?  

 

What are your multiple touchpoints to your customer? You have an opportunity to impress those you do business with or get prospects started with your customer journey.

 

In the podcast I share several ideas you can implement today to creating a better Customer Experience.

 

Think about how your clients are greeted on the phone, through email, through your social channels. How can you stay connected with that consumer on a deeper level?

 

So back to the black box. My customer experience began when I was online looking for the perfect vehicle for me, followed by on-site experience at the dealership, the vehicle's purchase, the stress-free experience of maintaining my car, and the surprise-filled black box that I received. Because of all the touchpoints, I think it is safe to say I will be driving a Mercedes for a long time.

 

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Are you looking for a simple concept to engage your team during your next meeting?  The Three Word Meetings book can help.

Available at amazon.