Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of May 13, 2024

Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comments about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

8 Keys to Making Customer Service a More Positive Experience by Martin Zwilling

(Inc. Magazine) With the advent of the internet, social media, and instant communication via texting, customer expectations for service, as part of their entire customer experience, have changed. They expect you to be there, to know their history as a customer, and to treat them with priority and respect. They tell their friends and the world everything, and a bad experience can kill your business.

My Comment: This article is about customer support. Our customer service and CX research found that 43% of US consumers would rather clean a toilet than contact customer support. (Really!) Something has to change, and the author has given companies and brands some ideas to think about. She summarizes some of the points from Blake Morgan’s book, More is More, emphasizing that customer service is “a key part of the overall experience.”

Life on the Digital Edge: Evolving Your Customer Experience by Ragy Thomas

(Fast Company) When communication was mostly one-way and brand experiences were driven by mass advertising, data was structured and mostly owned. The voice of the customer was more contained—people trusted brands, were accepting of generic attention, valued price, and were more forgiving.

My Comment: Ragy Thomas is the CEO/founder of Sprinkler and one very smart dude! When he talks or writes, I listen. There are several suggestions on how to be customer-obsessed, but I was especially happy to see one of his major points in all caps: EXPERIENCE IS THE NEW BRAND.

What Is Churn Rate? The Key Metric to Customer Retention by Jess Pingrey

Many metrics go into analyzing customer retention rates, and churn rate is crucial to understanding why customers stop using your product or service or stay with you long-term. In this article, we explain why businesses must understand, calculate, track, and decrease their churn rate to retain customers and grow revenue.

My Comment: I enjoy articles on customer service metrics. This article focuses on one metric: churn, an ugly word most marketing and salespeople dislike. The article shares a simple formula to measure churn and offers several suggestions on how to decrease it.

6 Must-Haves for Your Restaurant’s Loyalty Program by Cherryh Cansler

(Fast Casual) Noodles and Co, Mooyah, Clutch Coffee and Hyve execs discuss why successful loyalty platforms feature 1. Ease of use. 2. Engaging offers and new products. 3. Heavy adoption by customer base driven by employees actively promoting 4. Personalization. 5. Data analytics. 6. Seamless integration.

My Comment: You will want to read this article if you own a restaurant and have a loyalty program. And if you don’t own a restaurant, you should still read this article. Just substitute the word restaurant for your business or industry, and you’ll find most of the ideas cross over into most industries.

Former CEO Howard Schultz Says Starbucks Needs to Overhaul Its Customer Experience by Andrew Murfett

(LinkedIn News) Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has weighed in on the company’s current malaise via a lengthy LinkedIn post following underperforming quarterly earnings numbers last week. Schultz, a seminal figure in the coffee behemoth’s history, who was CEO for more than 20 years, said Starbucks’ fix “needs to begin at home,” noting that U.S. operations are the “primary reason for the company’s fall from grace.” He wrote that Starbucks’ stores, beset by labor challenges and declining sales, need a “maniacal focus on the customer experience, through the eyes of a merchant.” Schultz added, “The answer does not lie in data, but in the stores.”

My Comment: Howard Schultz is the former CEO of Starbucks. Under his leadership (three different times), the company grew and flourished as a brand known for its excellent customer experience. A week after Starbucks reported lower-than-expected earnings, Schultz had some less-than-positive comments. If you want to know what the CEO of one of the most recognized brands in the world has to say about his former company, read this article.

Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.