Millennials Don’t Wait for a Customer Experience Strategy

One of my favorite expressions is, “It’s amazing what you can see if you take the time to look.” The other evening, my millennial step-daughter reminded of just that. It was a customer experience strategy.

I’d just gotten home from work, and she was at the kitchen counter with her laptop going through a packet of paperwork and looking frustrated. I recognized the packet as “the stuff” she needed to get done prior to moving into her first apartment. You know, hooking up the electricity, gas, internet, etc.

I asked her if she’d been able to connect with our insurance agent to get her renter’s insurance set up. She gave me that millennial look that says, “You won’t believe this,” and replied, “I called this afternoon and got their voice mail. It said to leave a message, and someone would get back to me within 24 hours. I left them a message, but I haven’t heard anything from them yet.”

I told her, “They’ll get back with you tomorrow – just be patient.”

That’s when the, “It’s amazing what you can see if you take the time to look,” moment happened.

She shrugged her shoulders, rolled her eyes, and dispassionately said, “I don’t need to wait,” as she continued scrolling through an online insurance comparison site.

IWWIWWAHIWI

For those of you who don’t speak Millennial, IWWIWWAHIWI stands for “I want what I want, when and how I want it.” And therein lies my lesson from the other evening.

I “know” this is how Millennials think and feel from all of the stuff I’ve read over the years about them, but I guess I didn’t “really know” this until the other evening. That reality hit me when I saw how my step-daughter was dealing with not connecting with our insurance agent when SHE tried to connect with him.

With just a few taps on a keyboard, I watched our insurance agent lose business – just like that!

Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of brands and businesses still operating out there assuming that they are fine by just focusing on satisfying the needs and expectations of their current customers (Boomers and Gen-Xrs). And, they don’t have a clue about what’s going to happen to them in a few more years.

My insight from observing a Millennial in the household is this: If you have a business partially dependent upon millennial consumers – either today or tomorrow – and you’re not operating in “now time”, you need to re-tool… now! If you don’t change your customer experience strategy, it’ll be game over before you even know what hit you.

Just remember, not only do Millennials instinctually feel they don’t need to wait; they won’t.

And by the way, the insurance agent still has never called back.

Examples of Awesome Customer Service From Lowes

I’d like to introduce you to Kyle. Kyle is an example of the things that are right in Lowes customer service. It’s not that Kyle is the only example of great customer service. But I was so delighted with my new Samsung Galaxy S5 that I didn’t get a picture of Jeff, who signed me up. Suffice it to say he looked like he just started to shave. But the perfect customer-focused sales agent who knew all the lessons in customer service.

winning with customer experience — Winning with customer experience and service.

He was very aware of how much feelings impact the ways customers are influenced.

Here is how the story goes:

A customer walks into a store

A couple of weeks ago, I walked into my local Best Buy store to shop for a smartphone. What I wanted was to buy an Android phone that was not going to lock me into a particular service plan for two years and a plan that would give me unlimited phone minutes, data, and text for a price that I was happy with.

I certainly got that, but I also came out with an extraordinary impression of Best Buy. I’ve been thinking a lot about customer service myself as my agency works with its clients on this subject. Over the first two weeks or so I owned my new phone, Best Buy’s customer service did nothing but reinforce my initial impression.

This may surprise you, but receiving actual extraordinary customer service is rare enough in my life that I find it difficult to find examples to learn from. So I thought I’d deconstruct Kyle’s and Best Buy’s customer service for what I could learn.

Lessons I’ve Learned

Be patient

I gave every Android phone there a thorough working over and asked lots of questions, and Kyle never once treated me as if he was in a hurry to move to a new customer. Instead, he showed patience and understanding that this was a significant purchase that I’d be affected by for months, if not years, to come. My clients are spending a heck of a lot more money with me than I ever will with Best Buy, for a design that is far more business-critical than my cell phone is to me. No matter what other projects I have going, I need to constantly remind myself to take whatever time I need to take to ensure the clients’ designs are the correct ones for them.

Be classy

When someone is switching to your services from working with another company, often they’ll explain to you what their reasons are for switching. I was pretty clear about what my reasons for switching were when I was buying my phone from Kyle. While he was always helpful, he never once took my whining as an excuse to pile on the competitor. I’m not sure if this is something trained for Best Buy’s employees or if it is just how Kyle is, but I was impressed with the class he used in handling the situation.

Pay attention and be friendly

Kyle took a few moments out whenever a new customer came into the department to greet him or her. And it was a genuine, friendly greeting. I had the feeling that Kyle knew exactly how each person’s kids were doing in little league. I really appreciated knowing that existing customers were treated so well. And, of course, the implication was not lost on me that if I became a Best Buy customer, this is how I’d be treated.

Avoid paranoia

One of the things that Kyle said to me as he closed the sale was, “We want you to be with Best Buy because you want to be with Best Buy.” This was in stark contrast to my previous experience. Even though I’d been with them for eight years, they refused to sell me a phone I’d be happy with at a reasonable price without locking me into a 2-year contract.

That particular company exacerbated the problem by associating themselves closely with the manufacturer of their most over-hyped phone, one that claims to deliver wonderful experiences by forcing you to have exactly the experience they want.

Shortly after I went into business, I had several clients not pay me, to the tune of enough money that it pretty well fouled up my credit. So for a while, I was all about ensuring that my clients were locked down about as tight as I could get them. But you know what? If you do that for long enough and don’t ever extend any trust to your clients, sooner or later they’ll start not trusting you. And start counting the days until they are allowed to leave.

I don’t want my clients to think about me like that.

Don’t make clients feel bad

As I mentioned before, between having a couple of clients not pay early on and having my property hit by a major hurricane, my credit is not perfect. When Kyle ran my credit, Best Buy already had a plan in place that was perfect for where I am in the credit repair process. Everything went smoothly, and I didn’t have to stammer out any explanations about hurricanes and bad clients.

Once I had my phone, I had an issue where the flash would go on and off while I was trying to use the camera for QR code scanning. I called up the store with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. I was afraid I’d allowed myself to get stuck with a bum device, despite the fact that they’d explained I could return the phone within 14 days for a full refund.

“If I can’t get this resolved, I’m going to have to return it,” I proclaimed.

“OK,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.

Completely took the wind out of my sails. And when I took the phone into the shop, Kyle competently verified the problem, not remotely implying that I was stupid or insane to even have a problem. Amazingly, she even knew what to do to fix it, though we were both surprised that it worked.

How many times do we as designers feel the need to “prove” that a problem that the customer is having is because they’re doing something wrong? Even if they are, a better way to handle all around is just to tell them what the right procedure is, going to screen sharing if necessary.

If it really is your problem, you haven’t said something nasty to someone you then need to apologize for.

When I left with my new Behold II, I had something else as well–a business card from Best Buy with Kyle’s personal phone number on it, in case I had questions. I strongly doubt that Best Buy insists its employees do this, but it’s hard to beat having motivated employees who will take it upon themselves to extend this kind of personal touch.

What Have You Learned?

How about you? Do you have stories of people or companies that have completely “wowed” you with their customer service? Please share.

Do you have a lesson about making your customer service better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.

It’s up to you to keep improving your customer attention and focus. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.

Best Buy Lessons in Customer Service

I’d like to introduce you to Kyle. Kyle is an example of the things that are right at Best Buy’s customer service. It’s not that Kyle is the only example of great customer service at Best Buy, but I was so delighted with my new Samsung Galaxy S5 that I didn’t get a picture of Jeff, who signed me up. Suffice it to say he looked like he just started to shave. But he was the perfect customer-focused sales agent who knew all the Best Buy lessons in customer service.

He was very aware of how much feelings impact the ways customers are influenced.

Here is how the story goes:

A customer walks into a store

A couple of weeks ago, I walked into my local Best Buy store to shop for a smartphone. What I wanted was to buy an Android phone that was not going to lock me into a particular service plan for two years and a plan that would give me unlimited phone minutes, data, and text for a price that I was happy with.

I certainly got that, but I also came out with an extraordinary impression of Best Buy. I’d been thinking a lot about customer service myself as my agency works with its clients on this subject. Over the first two weeks or so I owned my new phone, Best Buy’s customer service did nothing but reinforce my initial impression.

This may surprise you, but receiving actual extraordinary customer service is rare enough in my life that I find it difficult to find examples to learn from. So I thought I’d deconstruct Kyle’s and Best Buy’s customer service for what I could learn.

Lessons I’ve Learned

Be patient

I gave every Android phone there a thorough working over, asked lots of questions, and Kyle never once treated me as if he was in a hurry to move to a new customer. Instead, he showed patience and understanding that this was a significant purchase that I’d be affected by for months, if not years, to come.

My clients are spending a heck of a lot more money with me than I ever will with Best Buy, for the design that is far more business-critical than my cell phone is to me.

No matter what other projects I have going, I need to constantly remind myself to take whatever time I need to take to ensure the clients’ designs are the correct ones for them.

Be classy

When someone is switching to your services from working with another company, often they’ll explain to you what their reasons are for switching. I was pretty clear about what my reasons for switching were when I was buying my phone from Kyle. While he was always helpful, he never once took my whining as an excuse to pile on the competitor.

I’m not sure if this is something trained to Best Buy’s employees or if it is just how Kyle is, but I was impressed with the class he used in handling the situation.

Pay attention and be friendly

Kyle took a few moments out whenever a new customer came into the department to greet him or her. And it was a genuine, friendly greeting. I had the feeling that Kyle knew exactly how each person’s kids were doing in little league. I really appreciated knowing that existing customers were treated so well.

And, of course, the implication was not lost on me that if I became a Best Buy customer, that this is how I’d be treated.

Avoid paranoia

One of the things that Kyle said to me as he closed the sale was, “We want you to be with Best Buy because you want to be with Best Buy.” This was in stark contrast to my previous experience. Even though I’d been with them for eight years, they refused to sell me a phone I’d be happy with at a reasonable price without locking me into a 2-year contract.

That particular company exacerbated the problem by associating themselves closely with the manufacturer of their most over-hyped phone, one that claims to deliver wonderful experiences by forcing you to have exactly the experience they want.

Shortly after I went into business, I had several clients not pay me, to the tune of enough money that it pretty well fouled up my credit. So for a while, I was all about ensuring that my clients were locked down about as tight as I could get them.

But you know what? If you do that for long enough and don’t ever extend any trust to your clients, sooner or later they’ll start not trusting you. And start counting the days until they are allowed to leave.

I don’t want my clients thinking about me like that.

Don’t make clients feel bad

As I mentioned before, between having a couple of clients not pay early on and having my property hit by a major hurricane, my credit is not perfect. When Kyle ran my credit, Best Buy already had a plan in place that was perfect for where I am in the credit repair process. Everything went smoothly, and I didn’t have to stammer out any explanations about hurricanes and bad clients.

Once I had my phone, I had an issue where the flash would go on and off while I was trying to use the camera for QR code scanning. I called up the store with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. I was afraid I’d allowed myself to get stuck with a bum device, despite the fact that they’d explained I could return the phone within 14 days for a full refund.

“If I can’t get this resolved, I’m going to have to return it,” I proclaimed.

“OK,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.

Completely took the wind out of my sails. And when I took the phone into the shop, Kyle competently verified the problem, not remotely implying that I was stupid or insane to even have a problem. Amazingly, she even knew what to do to fix it, though we were both surprised that it worked.

How many times do we as designers feel the need to “prove” that a problem that the customer is having is because they’re doing something wrong? Even if they are, a better way to handle all around is just to tell them what the right procedure is, going to screen sharing if necessary.

If it really is your problem, you haven’t said something nasty to someone you then need to apologize for.

When I left with my new Behold II, I had something else as well–a business card from Best Buy with Kyle’s personal phone number on it, in case I had questions. I strongly doubt that Best Buy insists its employees do this, but it’s hard to beat having motivated employees who will take it upon themselves to extend this kind of personal touch.

What Have You Learned?

How about you? Do you have stories of people or companies that have completely “wowed” you with their customer service? Please share.

Do you have a lesson about making your customer service better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.

It’s up to you to keep improving your customer attention and focus. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

9 Ways to Build Positive Social Media Community Engagement

Social media community engagement? What does it mean to your business? Dialog with customers for sure. What about reading your content and remembering? Appreciating your help? We believe it is all of these things.

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.

– Edwin Schlosberg

In the ever-changing landscape of social networking, you might be wondering if you are getting the most out of your business’s social media community engagement? Here we define social media community engagement as the process of gaining website customer traffic, attention, and interaction from customers through social media sites.

Social media, like most marketing, is emotion-driven. People’s behavior (e.g., sharing your content or buying your product) is based on emotional responses. Your social media content should appeal to their hearts–not their heads. (You can—and should—appeal to their heads through quality content on your website or blog)

Have you ever thought about how to build positive social media community engagement?

This task starts with what customers want and need. Most people want to: feel needed, be valued, be appreciated, be fulfilled, share emotions, laugh and be happy, succeed, and be inspired. Make them feel something that feels unique to what other brands are blasting at them. To do this you must know who your community is. You must know how to catch and hold their attention.

So let’s examine our recommended game plan to build a positive social media community engagement:

Win the first impression battle

What are you doing to make their first 30 seconds on your platform useful and worth their attention? If you can’t answer this question, you need to start here. First impressions are everything.

Be human

Humanize your brand. Realize that your brand is everything about you from what you tweet to how you respond to comments on Facebook. Don’t hide your employees. Let them shine and be a living, breathing representation of your brand.

Be patient yet persistent

You aren’t going to capture your community overnight or on the first day you launch any social media site. Building and launching an integrated online community takes time. Give yourself and your team the time to do it right. Have patience and persistence. Slow down and do it right and at the end of the game, you’ll be the winner, guaranteed.

Social media community … connect emotionally

Make them feel. If you want to grab my attention on G+, make me laugh. Make me cry. Make me feel something, anything. When I have a super busy day and I am replying to posts I have no choice due to the amount of them and time constraints but to choose where and when I am going to respond. It is an easy choice for me. I respond to the people who grab my attention. The people who are nice, who make me feel good. The people who are genuine. The people who make me laugh, playing the emotional card.

Focus on relationships

The life of social media is people. People like you and me. People who laugh, cry, get mad, go crazy, get married, divorced, have kids, lose family members, win jobs, lose jobs, get promotions, win new clients, get new opportunities, have fun, play hard and work hard. Offer value to the people in your community with the goal of building real relationships. Offer value and knowledge.

Lots to learn from Brian Carter and The Carter Group.

Inspire them

Inspire your communities to connect with you with a foundational goal of achieving their objectives. Inspire … Connect …Achieve. To do this you must know their objectives and goals. You must know them. When you know your audience then you can know how you can help them be better. How can you help them learn? How can you help them go faster? Work smarter? Be smarter? Share more valuable information with their colleagues, clients, partners and friends? Figure these answers out and use them to help.

Teach them

What knowledge can you share with them that will make them smarter? How can your knowledge drive real efficiency in their life or business? Share your best stuff, not just the same old, same old you wrote two years ago that is overused and oversold, by everyone everywhere.

Make it easy

People want to connect. They don’t want to be spammed at every opportunity. Give them an opportunity to engage with you, your brand, and your team. Be available. Open up your comment stream on your blog. Listen and be relevant and responsive.

Listen well

The most important thing you can do to create a positive engagement is to listen carefully. Listen with a goal to understand. Bottom line, listen more than you talk. You’ll be amazed how much you can learn about your audience when you shut up and listen.

What’s next? How to Frame Marketing Messages for Optimum Engagement

In summary, building a positive social media community engagement is very similar to making friends. Keep it simple and be genuine.

Being social with a great positive engagement isn’t a new way of marketing; it’s a way of doing business. Follow these simple tips and you will be leading the way.

Do you have an experience on your team’s positive engagement to share with this community?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

Case Studies to Evaluate New World Marketing Concepts

Some Great Story and Storytelling Examples to Study

Jaw-Dropping Guerrilla Marketing Lessons and Examples

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small businesses. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

He was very aware of how much feelings impact the ways customers are influenced.

Here is how the story goes:

A customer walks into a store

This may surprise you, but receiving actual extraordinary customer service is rare enough in my life that I find it difficult to find examples to learn from. So I thought I’d deconstruct Kyle’s and Best Buy’s customer service for what I could learn.

Lessons I’ve Learned

Be patient

Be classy

Pay attention and be friendly

Avoid paranoia

That particular company exacerbated the problem by associating themselves closely with the manufacturer of their most over-hyped phone, one that claims to deliver wonderful experiences by forcing you to have exactly the experience they want.

I don’t want my clients to think about me like that.

Don’t make clients feel bad

“If I can’t get this resolved, I’m going to have to return it,” I proclaimed.

“OK,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.

Completely took the wind out of my sails. And when I took the phone into the shop, Kyle competently verified the problem, not remotely implying that I was stupid or insane to even have a problem. Amazingly, she even knew what to do to fix it, though we were both surprised that it worked.

How many times do we as designers feel the need to “prove” that a problem that the customer is having is because they’re doing something wrong? Even if they are, a better way to handle all around is just to tell them what the right procedure is, going to screen sharing if necessary.

If it really is your problem, you haven’t said something nasty to someone you then need to apologize for.

What Have You Learned?

How about you? Do you have stories of people or companies that have completely “wowed” you with their customer service? Please share.

Do you have a lesson about making your customer service better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.

It’s up to you to keep improving your customer attention and focus. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.

More reading on customer experience from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Is Walmart Customer Experience Failing Improvement Efforts?

Credit Union Lowered the Bar on Bad Customer Experience

He was very aware of how much feelings impact the ways customers are influenced.

Here is how the story goes:

A customer walks into a store

This may surprise you, but receiving actual extraordinary customer service is rare enough in my life that I find it difficult to find examples to learn from. So I thought I’d deconstruct Kyle’s and Best Buy’s customer service for what I could learn.

Lessons I’ve Learned

Be patient

My clients are spending a heck of a lot more money with me than I ever will with Best Buy, for the design that is far more business-critical than my cell phone is to me.

No matter what other projects I have going, I need to constantly remind myself to take whatever time I need to take to ensure the clients’ designs are the correct ones for them.

Be classy

I’m not sure if this is something trained to Best Buy’s employees or if it is just how Kyle is, but I was impressed with the class he used in handling the situation.

Pay attention and be friendly

And, of course, the implication was not lost on me that if I became a Best Buy customer, that this is how I’d be treated.

Avoid paranoia

That particular company exacerbated the problem by associating themselves closely with the manufacturer of their most over-hyped phone, one that claims to deliver wonderful experiences by forcing you to have exactly the experience they want.

Shortly after I went into business, I had several clients not pay me, to the tune of enough money that it pretty well fouled up my credit. So for a while, I was all about ensuring that my clients were locked down about as tight as I could get them.

But you know what? If you do that for long enough and don’t ever extend any trust to your clients, sooner or later they’ll start not trusting you. And start counting the days until they are allowed to leave.

I don’t want my clients thinking about me like that.

Don’t make clients feel bad

“If I can’t get this resolved, I’m going to have to return it,” I proclaimed.

“OK,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.

Completely took the wind out of my sails. And when I took the phone into the shop, Kyle competently verified the problem, not remotely implying that I was stupid or insane to even have a problem. Amazingly, she even knew what to do to fix it, though we were both surprised that it worked.

How many times do we as designers feel the need to “prove” that a problem that the customer is having is because they’re doing something wrong? Even if they are, a better way to handle all around is just to tell them what the right procedure is, going to screen sharing if necessary.

If it really is your problem, you haven’t said something nasty to someone you then need to apologize for.

What Have You Learned?

How about you? Do you have stories of people or companies that have completely “wowed” you with their customer service? Please share.

Do you have a lesson about making your customer service better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.

It’s up to you to keep improving your customer attention and focus. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

More reading on customer experience from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Is Walmart Customer Experience Failing Improvement Efforts?

Credit Union Lowered the Bar on Bad Customer Experience

Do Patients Expect Great Customer Experience from Doctors?

Social media community engagement? What does it mean to your business? Dialog with customers for sure. What about reading your content and remembering? Appreciating your help? We believe it is all of these things.

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.

– Edwin Schlosberg

Have you ever thought about how to build positive social media community engagement?

So let’s examine our recommended game plan to build a positive social media community engagement:

Win the first impression battle

What are you doing to make their first 30 seconds on your platform useful and worth their attention? If you can’t answer this question, you need to start here. First impressions are everything.

Be human

Humanize your brand. Realize that your brand is everything about you from what you tweet to how you respond to comments on Facebook. Don’t hide your employees. Let them shine and be a living, breathing representation of your brand.

Related post: Some Great Story and Storytelling Examples to Study

Be patient yet persistent