[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/12\/the-best-customer-service-experience\/#Article","articleBody":"What\u2019s the best customer service experience you\u2019ve ever had? What\u2019s the worst? Chances are, you remember each of those moments quite easily, yet there\u2019s still tremendous confusion in the industry about what a great customer service experience entails, and how it ties to CX and customer loyalty.\u00a0\nLoose Threads, a retail industry analysis blog and newsletter, published a detailed piece about what it sees as the most misunderstood loyalty program in the world: Amazon Prime.\u00a0\n\u201cThe biggest lesson to take from Prime is that loyalty is about behavior. It is not about a point system, coupons, discounts, branded credit cards or any other oversimplified projection of loyalty. Instead, loyalty is about nurturing behavior that defaults in a business\u2019s direction.\u00a0\nBuilding the best customer experience is a guaranteed way to incite loyalty. With a true understanding of Prime, one can apply this mentality to other industries, including ones that don\u2019t rely on fast shipping. The key is to simply enable an experience that is so good it changes previous behavior. That\u2019s all loyalty is.\u201d\nBezos is a man dedicated to customer experience, if nothing else. And Prime is a prime example. Amazon was willing to lose money on the venture \u2013\u2013 just to encourage a behavior based on the best possible customer experience.\u00a0\nCompanies providing excellent customer service\u00a0\nAnother beloved company is the American arsenal did the same: Apple. Steve Jobs was also notoriously dedicated to the customer experience \u2013\u2013 often dismissing what potential customers said they wanted for what he knew they couldn\u2019t even dream of. It\u2019s where the invention of the iPod scroll button and smartphones came from. Once upon a time, there were hand movements that while natural outside of technology, we couldn\u2019t fathom within it.\u00a0\nEven in Jet Ski technology, this mentality holds true. Jet Skis were popularized by Kawasaki in 1973, when they released the first production stand-up Jet Ski. Jet Ski, in fact, is the branded name that Kawasaki gave to the Personal Watercraft (PWC) \u2013\u2013 similar to how the Kleenex brand became synonymous with tissue.\u00a0\nBut the Kawasaki Jet Ski was to be outdone in 1988 with the invention of the sit-down PWC by both Bombardier with their Sea-Doo and Yamaha with their Waverunner.\u00a0\nThe story goes that consumers complained about the stand-up Jet Skis style, suggesting that Kawasaki add padding to the base. They did \u2013\u2013 but never foresaw the increased benefits of the sit down model.\u00a0\nThe Sea-Doo and the Waverunner remain today the most popular jet ski models.\u00a0\nHow do I give the best customer service experience?\nCreating the best customer service experience possible isn\u2019t magic and unicorns. You dedicate yourself to improving the experience not just based on what the customer asks for or says they want.\u00a0\nThis is the age of data, after all.\u00a0\nCustomer input is vital and key, but it isn\u2019t the only input. Data from outside industries, up-and-coming technologies, and good old fashioned innovation is where true customer service outcompetes competitors to the point they can hardly even stay in the game.\nThe 3 key elements to great customer service\nThis means that your team needs to do three things:\nFirst, you must know your customer better than anyone. You need to find your tribe of the 100 customers who love your brand and their experience with it. And then you need to turn those 100 customers into a feedback community that you can share ideas with, have test new products, and so on. They are your test group \u2013\u2013 and your word of mouth promoters. The better you know your customers, the harder you are to compete with.\u00a0\nSecond, you have to realize that your customers only know so much about themselves. Use surveys, heat maps, and other forms of data collection to get to the bottom of what customers are really asking for. As with the Kawasaki example, customers weren\u2019t really asking for padded stand-up Jet Skis. They were asking for a most comfortable ride \u2013\u2013\u00a0which meant sitting. Knowing your customers is one thing. Knowing how to read between the lines of their requests is another thing entirely \u2013\u2013\u00a0and it\u2019s where innovation lives.\u00a0\nThird, you need to look outside your own industry, and trust that internal disapproval isn\u2019t a sign you\u2019re on the wrong path. In fact, Peter Thiel once said: \u201cThe wisdom of crowds tips into the madness of crowds \u2013 and you end up with a sort of conformity, lemming-like behavior. It actually becomes a somewhat less creative place.\u201d This is what writers like David Perell call the \u201cParadox of Consensus,\u201d writing: \u201cDissenting voices will improve the quality of your decisions, so welcome them with open arms.\u201d\nWhen it comes to service, how would you describe the optimal experience?\nExcellent customer service experiences are art as much as they are science. It\u2019s about reading between the lines of what your customers say they want, understanding human psychology in the way we ask for our needs or pet peeves to be solved, and focusing on creating a behavior \u2013\u2013 not just increasing revenue.\u00a0\nThe best customer service experiences out there are not just about solving problems reactively for our customers, they\u2019re about proactive innovation that surprises and delights consumers in ways they never thought possible.\u00a0\nIt\u2019s the driving force behind Amazon and Apple. It\u2019s why we sit down when we ride a jet ski. It\u2019s why we are all so enamoured with the brands providing experiences that enrich our lives: they\u2019ve changed our behavior, given us what we couldn\u2019t verbalize, but which we always wanted.\u00a0\nTo sum it up, good customer service experiences are innovations \u2013\u2013 ones that reveal back to us the ingenuity of humankind.\u00a0\nShine in the moments that matter. Real-time customer engagement starts HERE.","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/12\/the-best-customer-service-experience\/#Article_Person","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/12\/the-best-customer-service-experience\/#Article_Person_ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tracey-Wallace-150x150.jpg"},"name":"Tracey Wallace","sameAs":"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TraceWall","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/tracey-wallace\/"},"dateModified":"2021-08-04T22:22:04+00:00","datePublished":"2019-11-12T09:00:00+00:00","description":"Data from outside industries, up-and-coming technologies, and innovation are all elements necessary to create the best customer service experience.","headline":"The best customer service experience: 3 keys to CX that can\u2019t be copied","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/12\/the-best-customer-service-experience\/#Article_ImageObject","height":"630","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/thumbnail-4356e84b148eb7c93ac94c080a52dac4-1200x630.jpeg","width":"1200"},"mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/12\/the-best-customer-service-experience\/","name":"The best customer service experience: 3 keys to CX that can\u2019t be copied","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/","additionalType":"https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/wiki\/Q1193236","description":"Relevant, timely information & analysis on commerce trends, both consumer-facing and B2B.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/themes\/hybris_foc\/assets\/images\/layout\/logo-new-2x.png?_=1","height":"96","url":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/themes\/hybris_foc\/assets\/images\/layout\/logo-new-2x.png?_=1","width":"500"},"name":"The Future of Customer Engagement and Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/a-call-for-a-better-experience\/id1479742201","https:\/\/twitter.com\/FutureOfCEC","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/4844282","https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/feed\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/"},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/12\/the-best-customer-service-experience\/#Article"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2019","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"11","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/\/11\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"12","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/\/11\/\/12\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"The best customer service experience: 3 keys to CX that can\u2019t be copied","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/12\/the-best-customer-service-experience\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]