Winter is coming (or, it’s actually here,) and even though it is snowy and cold (to those of you outside LA,) I’m sure you’re still up for some good read, for there’s nothing like a good read while sitting by the fireplace, or at your office desk.
All 5 articles I gathered this week are must-reads. Two articles here, both deal with the philosophical questions of the true meaning of CX. Another article digs into the CX at Google – how can you deliver good experience to the whole world without panicking? I also incorporated a special article with a few CX “gems” that will help you improve your customers’ experiences. Lastly, you’ll find my own special project – the best CX articles of the year. You’re going to love this one.
1. Why Customer Experience is Literally Everything
In her interview with Brian Solis on B2C (Business 2 community), Alexandra Levit dug some interesting information about his new book. In the article, Solis offers a clever insight: “In general, customer experience is misunderstood and underappreciated. My feeling is that customer experience is the sum of all engagements”. I truly agree with that saying, and I believe seeing customer experience as a wide variety of engagements is the first step in becoming CX experts. A great interview, indeed.
2. Global Customer Experience At Google
In her exquisite episode of her show on Forbes Magazine, Blake Morgan went for the big ones: “What do you do when everyone in the world is your customer? This is precisely the challenge Google aims to solve every day”. Morgan shows us the way Google views customer experience. Apparently, small businesses use Google in order to promote themselves, and spread themselves on to new customers. This one is an eye opener, letting the reader in the world of a tech giant.
3. Finding Meaning in Global Customer Experience
Sometimes we think we know everything, don’t we? The meaning of life, the meaning of death and even of the meaning of the term “customer experience”, all seems clear to us. Well, that is exactly what Mary Laplante from Econtent firmly opposes. She claims we misunderstand the term of “customer experience,” and that we use it too often in many irrelevant situations.
Still, she noted the fact that customer experience is holistic. A customer is more than a “customer”, but also a student, a citizen, etc., and the service he or she receives in all of those “roles” he plays –matter.. Laplante’s article is very philosophic, and may not be for everyone, but it is important. It forces us to deal with the most important and basic question of CX – what does it even mean?
4. Five customer experience gems
Innovation in customer experience writing is rare nowadays, but some writers still manage to surprise me. . Here, Debbie Mayo-Smith from the New Zealand Herald, found 5 undiscovered (or at least, mostly undiscovered,) customer experience gems.
Many influencers shared ideas with her, and now she’s sharing them with us. Her first suggestion is thanking our customers sophisticatedly (she gives the example of giving coffee vouchers after a meeting, as a way of thanking those who met us). Second, she suggests categorizing our customers (in order to target specific customers). Then, she offers personalizing the experience for specific customers. The fourth step is greeting the customer by their first name, and not with Mr. or Mrs. (it makes them feel we don’t really care who they are when we do that). Finally, she offers to look at customer service mistakes (since the service we give is a part of the experience – if there are flaws in our services, it fills the experience with flaws as well).
5. 20 Most Interesting Articles and Interviews of 2015
This is a special project I’ve been working on for a while – I Googled, Youtubed, and basically went through every corner of the internet, to make sure I found the best articles written this year in the CX field. So what have I dig up? – the use of a wine bar to explain CX concepts, governmental CX, the future of CX, the implications of CX use in the worldwide arena, and much more. As they say – read, and you shall be amazed.