A convenient, frictionless experience is something that consumers want and need, and are willing to pay for.

Shep Hyken interviews noted business writer and sought-after speaker, Matt Dixon, to define the effortless experience.

First Up:

Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how important it is to create an easy experience for your customers. Delivering convenience is going to be the battleground for what future customer service is all about.
Shep talks about a list of the top retailers who create the best customer service list, provided by Bruce Temkin, co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. Ace Hardware, which tops the list, also understands the importance of creating customer convenience. For example, one of the ways they deliver this convenience is through “rock star” parking. Parking spaces just steps from the store’s door can help make shopping effortless. Having smaller stores that are easier for customers to navigate is also a way Ace delivers a convenient experience.

Featured Interview:

Shep begins his interview by asking Matt Dixon how can we build a differentiating, loyalty-building service experience? Dixon says that in this market where so many consumers look at products as commodities, there are four steps you can take:
1. Next issue avoidance – How can we resolve the issue the customer is calling about, but also resolve the next issue that they don’t even know they may be calling back about.
2. Too many choices lead to confusion – Too many choices overwhelm the customer, so they fall back to asking for help to solve the problem by calling support, which leads to increased call volumes. Instead, develop a clean and intuitive web experience, which may also result in spending less on technology.
3. Train your people to use language in a much more principled way – By using words and language properly, your reps can get people to do things they wouldn’t do naturally.
4. To get control of the customer service experience, give more control to the frontline customer service reps- This comes down to who you hire, how you equip those people (with the proper training and tools), and allowing them to use their own judgement to best serve the customer.

Top Takeaways:

• Most service interactions actually drive disloyalty. On average, any service interaction is about four times more likely to make a customer disloyal. The things that can make a customer disloyal – callbacks, transfers, repeating information, and treating customers in a generic, robotic kind of way – are sources of low customer service effort.
• The real way to delight your customer is to deliver an effortless experience. If you can create an effortless, no friction, easy-to-do-business-with, convenient experience, you are on track to meeting or exceeding expectations.
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