customer support
Top Ten Customer Service and Customer Experience Predictions for 2023
Shep Hyken | January 5, 2023
By Shep Hyken Happy New Year! We have an exciting year ahead of us. So much has changed in just the past three years. And in the world of customer service and CX, there is much to be excited about. Last month I released my annual Top Ten Customer Experience Predictions in my weekly Forbes column. I don’t often repeat content, but I’m going to share those predictions and trends here, in a revised and shorter format. Here we go: 1. Customers Will Be Smarter and More Demanding Than Ever – I may sound like a broken record as I start each year with this prediction. Regardless of the type of business you’re in (B2B, B2C, B2B2C), eve...
Press One to Do This, Two to Do That … Phone Tree Abuse!
Shep Hyken | August 10, 2022
By Shep Hyken We’ve all experienced it. We’ve called the customer support line, and a pre-recorded message answers stating, “Press one for this, two for that, etc., etc. Well, it happened to me again – the third time this week – and this is how it went down. I listened to the prompts. I was at number four, thinking this one might be it, but I wasn’t 100% sure, so I kept listening. I got to number six when the recording said that I could listen to the options again. I did, and even then, I wasn’t sure which option to choose. I tried pushing “0,” and nothing happened, so I chose number four, thinking that it was th...
Seven Ways to Handle Abusive Customers (And One Way Not To)
SHEP HYKEN | August 3, 2022
No employee should be treated poorly by customers. I feel bad for the people who work at the airport luggage office. The office is usually next to the baggage carousel, and the airline employees who work there interact with one passenger after another, all with the same complaint: My luggage is lost! Nobody ever goes into that office to say, “Thank you, my luggage is here. You guys do a great job!” Recently, the Edinburgh Airport in Scotland came up with a solution to deal with the many calls from irate passengers verbally abusing its employees. According to a BBC News story, the Edinburgh Airport decided to simply disc...
Would You Rather Go to the Dentist or Call Customer Support?
Shep Hyken | August 9, 2021
By Shep Hyken Here is a stat that’s hard to believe: Forty-eight percent of Americans would rather go to the dentist than call customer support. OUCH! It seems that going to the dentist to get a filling or a root canal is preferred over having to call customer support. This statistic comes straight from the 2021 Achieving Customer Amazement Study we conducted this year. We surveyed more than 1,000 consumers to find out what they loved and hated about customer service. What would make them come back or terminate their relationship with the brand or company? But let’s get back to this stat for a momen...
IDeaS Achieves Global Customer Support Certification From Hotel Tech Report
IDeaS | November 21, 2019
IDeaS earns high scores across the GCSC Rubric for its pre-emptive support, reactive support, coaching and customer validation Tweet This: @IDeaS_RevOpt received the Global Customer Support Certification from @hoteltechreport. IDeaS earned high scores across all key pillars of the GCSC Rubric including: pre-emptive support, reactive support, coaching and customer validation. www.ideas.com/news MINNEAPOLIS—Nov. 21, 2019—IDeaS Revenue Solutions has received Hotel Tech Report’s Level III Global Customer Support Certification (GCSC). Awarded for its heavy investments into tools, processes and strategies to ensure the ongoing success o...
Proactive Customer Support
Shep Hyken | July 8, 2019
By Shep Hyken Just last week I wrote about the concept of predictive customer support. Now, we take a slightly different angle with the concept of proactive customer support. The concept is simple. The company reaches out to the customer before the customer has a chance to reach out to the company. More often than not, the customer may not even know they have a problem. As an example, when does a typical customer find out their cable TV is out? Usually when they turn the TV on. Then there’s frustration and even anger. Typically, the customer will pick up the phone to report the problem and hope the customer service agent can help them...
Predictive Customer Support
Shep Hyken | July 2, 2019
By Shep Hyken In the old days – and even in modern times – if a customer wanted help or support, they picked up the phone and called for help. A (hopefully) friendly and competent customer service professional, also known as an agent or representative, would answer the question or resolve the problem. Today there are many ways to connect with a company. There’s the traditional phone call, email, messaging, instant chat, social channels like Twitter and Facebook, and many more. But there’s one mode of communication and customer support that hasn’t been talked about much. My prediction is that it will not only become popular, bu...
