Expert Advice: Adrian Swinscoe- “Customer Experience & Service Advisor”
“The little things matter as much, if not more, than the bigger things.”
–Adrian Swinscoe
Being agile and innovative is the key factor in business process improvement. Whether you are doing a small or big change, each change has its impact. Some people might think little changes can be ignored while creating business improvement strategies, but it shouldn’t.
Everything carries its value that can’t be ignored. Each of us may have some experiences where small small things made our experience memorable. So, it is not compulsory that you should only make bigger changes in improving customer service.
You should analyze all aspects of improvement from a user perspective and do required changes without thinking about that it will leave a higher impact or not. Because good customer service is the core of business growth, also its’ impact reflects on the entire business.
Good customer service makes everyone’s life easier as customers don’t have to switch between multiple businesses, and you will have your loyal fan base that will help to gain more loyal customers.
Adrian Swinscoe, who is a great CX consultant and a known customer service advisor, shared his thoughts on improving the customer experience. He is working in this field for the last 25+ years and helped various organizations in developing customer-focused business strategies.
We are fortunate to have such a good CX speaker who will share his journey and thoughts on customer service with us. Kindly read below to know his amazing journey and thoughts.
1. When did you decide to take a step into the customer experience field?
I’ve been growing and helping develop customer-focused large and small businesses for over 25 years now. However, in late 2008 I started to think more deeply about what it takes to deliver great service and experience. As a result, in 2009 I started to write and conduct my own research on that subject and them started sharing those ideas on my blog. I added a podcast in Jan 2011 and my writing and research has continued on the same site to this day.
2. Please elaborate, what good customer service mean to you?
Good customer service should strive to reach a point where customers feel like they are not receiving service at all. That means delivering what they want, when and how they want it. It also means anticipating any problems they might have have and either pre-emptively solving these problems or proactively providing information and potential solutions to these problems before a customers has to come looking for help/answers.
3. What are the three main points in customer service that can differentiate a business from its competitors?
To successfully deliver service that will differentiate you from your competitors it needs to be appropriate, empathetic and executed.
4. In your opinion, how important customer service is for business growth?
If great service and experience can differentiate a business from its competitors then it is absolutely essential to business growth.
5. What is the biggest change you felt before & now, in approaching or serving the customers?
Some firms have always cared about their customers and the service that they delivered to them. Now, almost all say that they care about their customers. But, not all are delivering the sort of service that their customers want. Talking and saying that you care is one thing. Doing and taking the right level of action is another.
6. A single piece of advice that will work for every type of business.
Get to know your both your customers and your employees with the aim of being able to see the world through their eyes.
7. How can businesses serve their customers efficiently?
As the phrase “Put yourself into customers shoes” says think according to what customers want regardless of what businesses are providing for better experience.
8. Is self-service the right way to ensure good customer service? Tell us about its impact?”
Yes. Nobody wants to phone or email or chat their way to a simple answer to a routine question. Think about the number of calls, emails, chat sessions you would eliminate if you helped your customers to self serve.
9. What are the missing elements that you find, businesses are not able to deliver while serving the customers?
They are no common elements. Different businesses miss different things all of the time. There is no one piece that they all miss.
10. Please share some tips from your book titled, “How to Wow: 68 Effortless Ways to Make Every Customer Experience Amazing.”
Here’s a few ideas from the book:
- Customer behaviour is always changing and evolving. So, check your assumptions
- Understand but don’t over-estimate the relationship you have with your customers
- Empathy is the key to engagement
- People will pay more for better service
- Simplicity is everything pays
- Most loyalty schemes don’t create loyalty, service and experience do though
- Be honest about your surveys and keep them short
- Design the employee experience too
- Remember, when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
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