Shep Hyken Interview

are we actually videotaping or just the
audio doesn't matter to me I just I have
to do my hair so it's great pleasure for
me to introduce you become who is like
one of the leading customer service
experts in the industry so shall we have
prepared a few questions for you
we will give you time for them to answer
so welcome again and I would like to
start with the first question you so
social are one of the leading customer
service experts how did you get into the
industry and what made you stick so I
actually didn't even know it was called
customer service back in the day and
what I'm talking about is how you treat
other people so twelve years old
I did a birthday party magic show and I
was paid $16 to do that show and when I
came home my mom said write a thank-you
note
my dad said call in a week and make sure
they were happy and asked them what
tricks they liked the best and whatever
tricks they don't talk about replace it
with tricks they will talk about now
that doesn't seem like you know much for
you know little kid you know I get it
right I think you know not a big deal
but what it really was was saying thank
you and showing appreciation following
up to get feedback asking specific
questions such as what tricks did you
like and then using that feedback to
make it even better isn't that what we
do day in and day out and virtually any
type of business in any industry today
so that's where my first lessons in
customer service came from and as I got
into regular jobs growing up in retail
and I had another job in an oil company
I graduated college and when I was
looking for what I really wanted to do I
happen to see a couple of professional
speakers kind of motivational type of
speakers and I thought well I could
probably do that I had that
entertainment background not just
birthday parties eventually I started
working in nightclubs and other types of
party events which allowed me to have
the experience on stage so I went to the
bookstore and I started looking for
books to buy and Reese
and I was drawn to the customer service
books and I believe it was because
that's kind of what my parents taught me
to do they they put this in me and I
love taking care of people I like making
them happy and really that's where it
started I've never gone off course over
over the years customer service started
to be called customer experience and
then customer experience morphed into
something much larger than just service
but I've stayed in those in that Lane if
you will ever since so for many many
years yeah so it's been a great ride
looking for experience it's been many
years so my second question is a little
bit connected to what you have said
right now and you kind of realized that
you had a special experience like 16
years ago as you mentioned okay okay
okay so it's a so it's even more you
know it's a great experience you have
and for me at least as I see it is that
the customer service is often very
underestimated in the eyes of an
audience maybe even in the eyes of
someone who is taking a college and who
would like to start a career in industry
maybe even online industry so do you
think that the customer service is
really an underestimated when you know
allocating time and budgets compared to
let's say doing sales or marketing
crafting campaigns and stuff like that
yes so this is a real simple question
and I believe that companies value the
idea of customer service but oftentimes
they're not investing enough into it
okay they believe that sales and
marketing and campaigns to get customers
to show up call in by whatever I think
they spend a lot of money there and they
should they shouldn't stop or maybe they
should recognize that spending a little
bit more money on the proper training of
the people on the goal of making the
process easier for the customer which
might mean managing the software
especially if you're doing any type of
digital campaign you must create ease
any friction and you start to lose your
customers and when companies recognize
that the investment is
is an investment and not an expense
that's important to realize because when
you start raising your customer
satisfaction scores whether you're using
C sad NPS or any other metric it doesn't
matter what it is when you start raising
that it's not just a customer might come
back and might buy more and there's all
kinds of stats to tell you that you know
it's much less expensive to get a
customer to come back customers that do
come back by more than first-time
customers customers that are loyal to
you buy even more but more importantly
another number to look at or just as
important
excuse me is what is the savings based
on giving a better experience and not
having people call in with the problem
or a complaint and when you can create a
better experience a better product that
has you know issues worked out when you
start to eliminate in maybe just
mitigate the tickets that you have
coming in the calls the request for
support you actually have a huge savings
and the cost to provide support which
sometimes could even be as large if not
larger then you know the benefit of
adding 1% or 2% to your customer loyalty
number if that makes sense so lots of
ways to look at this but at the end of
the day when companies and leaders in
those companies start to recognize the
benefit and the ROI on creating a better
service experience and a better overall
experience I think they'll be more than
happy to step up and start investing
more perfect this is perfect answer and
I have something prepared for you later
in other questions it's regarding the
KPIs and I feel they're actually
companies doesn't know how to correctly
measure customer experience and customer
satisfactions so we can go to another
question
I saw your presentations and I really
honestly think that you were amazing
speaker thank you and I saw that you
mentioned customer experience a lot in
your presentation and you've seen a lot
in your career did you actually have a
sort of special moment where you were
pleased by the customer seats service
you received all the time I mean this is
what I live for
I love when I get great experience I
love when the person in a restaurant
just seems to be doing an amazing job I
love when I call my software vendor and
they respond quickly and they're
knowledgeable and they recognize Who I
am not just another customer or an
account number there is a particular
experience that I love to share and
almost all of my speeches you can
actually see the live presentation on my
youtube channel which is a chef dot TV
and that is the story of a taxi cab
driver I don't know if you're referring
to that experience or not but you know
we all jump into a taxi cab or an uber
or a lyft or whatever the mode of
transportation is well this particular
day I would tell you the driver didn't
look I mean he he looked kind of grimy
and dirty but the inside of his cab was
spotless and by the way it was the
hottest day of the summer that
particular day and he'd been working
hard all day which is probably why he
looked a little bit like he looked but
the cab was spotlessly clean
he had soft drinks for me to drink no
extra charge he gave me a newspaper the
conversation was minimal but it was
great and the point is is this guy
delivered an above average experience
now there were other things about it
that made it a little over the top
but if everybody would think about just
consistently being above average and
this is what the guy did he got me there
in shape and he was so nice and friendly
I gave him a huge tip and he gave me his
card he said call me when you come back
and I thought great I will but to make
it even better I gave him my card cuz he
said can I have your card I collect the
cards of the people that I Drive and a
few days later I had a thank-you note
from this cab driver it's like who gets
a thank-you note from a taxi cab driver
but this guy did and I would call him up
and until he retired every time I was
back in Dallas Texas here in the United
States I would call him up and he would
pick me up and take me around and there
was a reason number one the experience
was better than I expected better than
average doesn't have to be over the top
but if you're consistently better than
average people will say wow you're
amazing and then he was reliable when I
did ask him to meet me at the airport
when I
in the next time he was waiting for me I
didn't have to wait for him
the next time I needed to go back to the
airport that same trip I called them and
I walked out of the hotel where I had my
meeting he was waiting for me I didn't
have to wait for him so I'm starting to
think it things like he's always on time
his cabs always clean is he always gives
me you know the little extra the soda or
water the word always followed by
something positive is what you're
looking for and that's what this guy
created and by the way every company has
the ability to create amazement because
amazement is not over-the-top you get
that opportunity when there's problems
or special circumstances but otherwise
if you're consistently above average
they always call back whenever I call
they're always friendly they're always
helpful they're always knowledgeable
again that we're always and then even
when there's a problem I know I can
always count on them that's that word
again always with something good behind
it you know so many great advice here it
was very easy for you to become a loyal
customer of the taxi driver right yes I
actually wrote a book titled check it
out I know you and the loyal customer
yeah I know we're on video but it says a
lesson from a cab driver and it's a thin
little book and it's the story and
anybody can do what that taxi cab driver
did and and if you think about you break
it down the different parts of the
process whether you're a manufacturer
selling business to business or whether
you're selling direct to consumers or
whether you're supporting them in a
contact center all of the principles
that that taxi cab driver did to get me
to want to come back can be done by any
company in the industry perfect okay so
let's go to the next question I saw that
the affirmation often ask extra
questions your advice is very concrete
yet in the 21st century there's a lot of
information everywhere there is
information overload so what are some
examples of asking the right extra
questions so and this is really a
person-to-person people the people
human-to-human if you will type of
experience when somebody says something
they don't necessarily you may
misunderstand
and I'm sure it's happening before
people say one thing you think it means
something else an example of the extra
question is somebody might say I need
this quickly don't say okay
ask them how quickly because if their
idea of quickly is faster than you're
actually able to do it even though your
best intention is to do something for
someone quickly you're gonna miss the
expectation so let's say they're asking
you to get something where oh just the
other day I was talking to somebody in a
support center and they said thank you
so much for giving me this information
we need to listen to the recording of
the last call you had with us and I said
great you know I want to resolve this
quickly Oh we'll get it done as quickly
as we can and I said you didn't hear me
I need to get it done quickly how so I
asked the extra question as a customer
which I shouldn't have to do how soon
are you gonna get this information she
said it'll take three to four days I go
okay I can live with three or four days
and by the way she delivered in under
four days which meant she met the
expectation but we had to have a
communication about it when I said how
quickly we're gonna get this resolved
she should have asked me a question like
well how soon do we need to do this for
you because it does take time for us to
get the recording if Ida said can I get
it by tomorrow then she could have
realigned my expectation and said no we
have to go into our archives I have to
put submit a request for it I'll
expedite it it'll probably take three
days and I promise I'll call you back no
matter what if I have it or not just to
let you know what's going on I would
have been happier you know as happy as
can be with that response does that make
sense so that's the extra question I
joke about it when my wife one day said
to me honey would you like to stop and
get ice cream I said no but then I
realized later on she really wasn't
asking me if I wanted ice cream she was
saying I want it I should respond with
the extra question and that would have
been I don't want any would you with you
know two words with a question mark and
just think about what the person is
saying to you and then ask a question
back just to make sure you understand
sometimes it's
more than one question so that's my
concept of asking extra questions so my
another question is connected to the
kpi's yes what are some of your favorite
customer service KPIs like to implement
in businesses you are working with and
is revenue and growing or every one of
them sure well obviously you know
looking at revenue is a very important
number to most of the clients that I
talk to and looking at revenue reducing
costs of responding the service so how
can we reduce costs and sometimes that's
a software application we could do to
create a better self-service situation
to use artificial intelligence to deal
with what I would call lower level
questions or basic questions allowing
the support agent to deal with customers
who have higher level support issues so
I mean those are the benefits of
delivering in using technology the KPIs
really I mean I haven't found I'm pretty
open and agreeable to using any and all
of them there's opportunity within all
of the types of KPIs under standard I
mentioned earlier NPS Net Promoter Score
cset you know and you can have all types
of in a support center you've got your
average handle time you've got that you
know first call resolution all of these
are very very important and I think what
you need to do is a leader is look at
what most impacts your organization look
at the bottom line impact and look at
the the human capital impact what can
you do and what measurement will give
you the best information to optimize
what you're doing so getting the data is
nice not doing anything with it is a
complete waste of time knowing which
data to get is really important so if
you give me on MPs on a scale of zero to
ten what's the likelihood that you'd
recommend us and you give me a nine I'm
gonna say hey thanks so much but hey I
want to know why you didn't give me a 10
there needs to be a follow-up question
so what would it take for you to have
given me a 10 if you give me a four I
don't want to ask what it would take for
you to give me a 10 I want to know why
did you give me a four and what would it
take to get a five
five or a six from you because I need to
improve okay maybe even better so I'm
gonna ask I think the key is not to just
get information but dig down again with
an extra question or two to make sure
you understand so if we do in old
clients ask me what kind of survey
should we do I said whether it depends
what you're really looking for and if
you're looking for you know just a basic
benchmark well then just getting a
single question NPS is fine see
satisfying but if you want to get a
little bit more information to ask me
three questions and promised the
customer me if I'm the customer that
it's only going to take 60 seconds
number one on a scale of zero to ten
what's the likelihood you recommend
again I'm using NPS as an example it
could be anything
number two you know what would it take
and by the way there's lots of software
that once I give you the answer we'll
know one of several questions to ask
next I would ask what would it take an
open-ended question what would it take
to give me that score or why did you
give me that score and then depending
upon if I want to add a third question
unlike two questions a third question
that I like to use when I get a great
response and this is cool so I've got
somebody that loves me they've given me
that ten on a scale of zero to ten I
want to ask what's one thing you can
think of that would make it even better
the service experience the experience
why do I want one thing if I ask a
thousand people that same question and I
600 of the same answers I know Wow
there is an opportunity right it's a lot
of people but maybe even that outlier
might have one good suggestion and I'm
asking asking my happy customers because
I already love me what it would take to
be even better how do you improve on
greatness that's how you do it yeah so
many advice you companies can implement
straight away a lot of our clients are
not using this follow-up question on the
NPS core so this is a great thing to
implement right now so my last question
for you chef is if you could give us
free best tips for our audience to
implement into their business today it
doesn't break the bank or easy to
implement and have the potential best to
improve their customer service what they
would be
great questions and just so you know I
like looking at these questions and just
not thinking about them until you
actually ask me so I can be somewhat
extemporaneous the first I would do is
to recognize that you've got to create a
journey map recognize where the
customers experience is likely to be
wonderful and potentially fall apart so
sit in the room and if in by the way the
customer has many journeys with a
company the first-time buyer
dealing with salespeople if they're
calling in for support so let's just
talk about the support center because
that's so many of the people that are
listening today what's the journey the
customer takes to get their issue
resolved to get their question answered
number one they've got to find your
number how easy and by the way that's
one that they well first thing they do
is call us that's not where the journey
begins the journey begins when they're
looking on how to connect with you so
are they gonna find your number are they
gonna find your contact info easily the
best companies if you go to the website
it's real easy to find and it's on every
page so just think about that as a main
touch point and then they make let's use
just the phone as an example I realize
you can do a digital experience you can
do it via social media via email there's
gonna be a different journey for each of
these map them out but when they get and
they make that phone call what's the
first thing that happens are they put on
hold or they told their call is very
important but everybody's busy it'll be
thirty minutes before they get to you I
mean what is the experience they're
having so journey map that along the way
look at all of the touch points and
think what can I do with those touch
points to eliminate friction to mitigate
friction if it can't be eliminated to
make the experience better in any way
this is a low-cost no-cost research
project common sense and when I asked my
clients do you know about journey
mapping oh yeah well have you done it we
probably could do a better job of it or
no exactly so this is common sense so
that's number one let me give you some
easier ones
number two is and it's a simple thing
that I believe that if you can do it on
a daily basis great I have a short
little
at least once a week to remind people of
the importance of service share an
example from the week before that is a
great example of when somebody took care
of the customer and as a leader you can
get these stories and just say hey this
was great or here was a problem that
came in let's brainstorm how should we
solve this how should we resolve it by
the way Bob over here did a great job
but I want to know before I tell you
what he did I want to hear what you
would have done so you use some of the
examples from the week as and you're
spending ten minutes you know I love the
daily huddle but if you do it at least
weekly third is to ask everybody to take
a week and once a week submit an
experience that they created for one of
their customers and I'll add it can be
an internal customer somebody they work
with as well but what positive
experience did they create think of the
best one they had and this is what you
want people to do put it on an index
card a small card two or three sentences
we're not writing a novel the whole
exercise should take 60 seconds okay
they're gonna hand it to their manager
and the manager is going to give them a
little bit of feedback and then share
some of those examples maybe that's the
example they share is that weekly
example but the point is we want
everybody to do this because we stay in
and day out all day long we're giving
customer service experiences to people I
want people to recognize when they're
giving their best and when they start to
know when they give their best I call
that service awareness they'll start to
give their best more often that makes
sense
yeah and then the final tip I know you
only asked for three I'm gonna give you
a fourth one because it's quick make
sure everybody recognizes that they have
an awesome responsibility at any given
time that customer is gonna talk to one
person email with one person socialize
with one person and that one person
after they've created that great
experience the customer is gonna walk
away and say wow I love doing business
with them they are fantastic and it was
one person that made that experience
happen everybody needs to recognize that
at any given time they represent the
entire company and all of their
employees so there you go that's my
bonus one but given more than expected
yeah that's that's what a good customer
service is about
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