Here Are The Best CX and Customer Service Articles We’ve Read in 2019
Yes, it’s that time of year again, retrospective reflection as the end of the year approaches. We often say, “Customer Experience is everything, and everything is Customer Experience.” So it’s important to stay current with some of the best ideas, research, observations, and speculation from our industry’s brightest contributors. Of the hundreds of articles we’ve scanned, read, and saved, here are 17 we feel will also be of value to you.
Top 6 Customer Experience (CX) Strategy Best Practices for 2020
Raj Roy of Ziff Davis B2B first outlines why it’s essential to map out a CX strategy then covers six of the most important things to consider as we head into 2020. I like how he equates CX as not just an operational effort, but also as an organization-wide reward.
4 Proven Ways to Improve Customer Service Using Social Media
Larry Kim of MobileMonkey does a great job of reminding us of the importance of including social media in your organization’s CX strategy. He mention’s one of our favorite points of view, that negative reviews are opportunities. Sometimes we learn the most from unhappy customers.
11 Skills and Traits for Customer Experience Professionals in 2019
Dom Nicastro of CMS Wire does a great job of unpacking the seismic changes in customer service and customer expectations into the essential traits needed in today’s CX professionals. The most important, in our opinion, is the ability of CX professionals to breakdown the complex into simple. With today’s consumers and B2B customers increasing distracted and expecting immediate results, this trait is vital.
Why B2B Customer Experience Programs Fail
Sarah Frazier of CustomerGauge digs deep into the state of CX in the B2B space. She coined the term “B2B CX Gap” when referencing a study that shows 72% of B2B leaders said they have no control over the direction of their organization’s customer experience program. Sarah’s article is a vital read, especially for SaaS and tech companies.
What Businesses Need To Know About Customer Service in the On-Demand Economy
Brad Birnbaum, CEO of Kustomer and Forbes contributor, digs into the instant gratification culture made possible by Google, Amazon, and Netflix. We like how he reflects much of our thinking, that the expectations for on-demand gratification have extended beyond rapid delivery to all customer touchpoints, including support.
How to Find Your Way to the Customer Experience Promised Land
Janelle Estes of CMS Wire reminds us that customer experience has become more important that product. She helps you self-assess your customer experience maturity level, then provides five pillars of customer experience to consider.
8 Tips for Improving Social Media Customer Service
Social media is critical, that’s why we’ve included another great point of view. Fara Haron (CEO of North America, Ireland, and Southeast Asia and executive vice president of global clients at Majorel) offers some great perspective on CX strategies for social media. I like how here focus is to bring your agents into the social media strategy.
5 Tips For Turning Customers Into Brand Storytellers
Esther Choy, Forbes contributor, dives into some smart strategies for that ultimate CX goal, customers as promoters. Your customer’s positive experiences are the best marketing you’ll ever have. She helps you understand how to tap into, and use their stories.
4 Customer Experience Takeaways from Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report
I’ve been relentless consuming Mary Meeker’s reports every year. This year, Inge De Bleecker of CMS Wire spotted some important trends for CX professionals to consider. I like how she pulled out the report’s attention to Amazon’s Echo and how voice experiences are going to be more and more vital in 2020 and beyond.
Will Emotion Detection Change Customer Experience Forever?
Andrew Mort at Customer Think has an interesting perspective on using emotion detection (an offshoot of sentiment analysis) to drive emotion analytics as we gauge customer experiences.
7 Critical CRM Trends to Keep an Eye on For 2020
Zachary Totah, Market Research Associate at SelectHub, takes a look at the state of the CRM industry going into 2020. We like how he equates AI to a supportive tool, and not the “silver bullet” many try to position it as.
5 best practices for coaching frontline employees to deliver exceptional CX
Ross Lambert with our friends at Qualtrics shares some valuable insights on making sure your employees are invested in CX. We especially like how he urges companies to communicate their CX purpose with consistency and clarity, even during the recruitment stage of finding new team members.
37 Customer Experience Statistics You Need to Know for 2020
Sometimes, you just need the right stats to push a CX strategy through to total enterprise buy-in. Toma Kulbytė of SuperOffice has accumulated a great list of many compelling statistics.
Customer Service Challenges the Industry Will Face in 2020 and Beyond
Cory Hedgepeth of CustomerThink offers a breakdown of some of the new technologies available for customer experience management. But it’s tempered with solid advice on how to make sure you’re always still thinking of the human factor.
Debunking Automation Myths In Customer Support
Anand Janefalkar, founder and CEO of UJET has a great breakdown around the hype of myths of AI in CX. We like how she advises to start small with AI, and don’t try to overhaul your organization just yet.
3 in 10 Americans would rather watch paint dry than be put on hold
Zoya Gervis, of SWNS has an entertaining piece of how American consumers hate being put on hold. But despite hating to be put on hold, 49% prefer picking up the phone to deal with a customer service issue.
Live Up To A Higher Standard Of Service
And finally, Shep Hyken (one of our favorite CX gurus) has a short but valuable piece. He discusses how to make sure your standards are set higher than your customers. And in fact, Shep’s blog is always an excellent source for more articles like these.
