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Should you build a large language model?
In the realm of generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs) have taken center stage. Their ability to generate humanlike text holds vast potential across industries. But should organizations invest their resources in creating and training their own LLMs, or would they be better off relying on a software as a service (SaaS) vendor like LIKE.TG?Challenges of building in-house LLMsWhen deciding whether to invest in in-house LLMs, it’s important to consider the possible challenges associated with that process. Let's explore the questions and concerns businesses frequently encounter when considering in-house LLMs.1. Responsible AI concernsOrganizations need to address critical questions regarding the responsible aspects of building LLMs, such as:
How is the training data sourced?
How do we mitigate bias?
How do we reduce the severity of hallucinations?
2. Resource allocationDeveloping state-of-the-art LLMs often demands extensive resources in terms of both infrastructure and human expertise. One challenge organizations face is whether they can secure and allocate these resources effectively enough to yield a cutting-edge AI solution.3. Training dataBeyond the technical aspects involved in generating LLMs, access to a substantial amount of high-quality training data is paramount. The breadth and depth of this data serves as the foundation of the models and significantly influences their quality and accuracy.In a typical scenario, organizations have access to only their own data. However, many businesses’ knowledge bases don’t offer sufficient training data.4. Maintenance and progressWith technology advancing at breakneck speed, an initial big push into creating an LLM is simply not enough. Even after investing heavily in development, organizations often find newer, better LLMs that supersede their efforts. Therefore, an investment in in-house LLMs is an ongoing commitment.5. Time to valueFostering LLMs in-house and then adding skills training on top of them can take substantial time. This prolongs the time before businesses can derive tangible value from their investment. In a competitive landscape, this delay can be a significant disadvantage.Alleviating key pain pointsGiven the complexities of building an in-house LLM, it may be wiser—and more cost-effective—to take advantage of an existing architecture. LIKE.TG offers a feasible way to help organizations drive productivity and address these concerns without overhead.1. Ensured AI responsibilityLIKE.TG is committed to continued investment in next-generation AI, building foundation models responsibly. Domain-specific LLMs ensure the training universe of these LLMs is much narrower, reducing hallucination range.Organizations can rely on LIKE.TG GenAI, knowing that its foundation models strike a balance between risk and domain-specific requirements, such as application development and customer service management.2. Comprehensive resource availabilityWith the acquisition of Element AI, LIKE.TG fortified its capabilities, joining an exclusive group of organizations that have professionals who can build state-of-the-art foundation models. Moreover, a strategic partnership with NVIDIA provides access to essential resources, such as high-demand graphics processing unit computing power and LLM training tools.3. Robust training data setLIKE.TG bolsters the foundation of the LLMs by training them on its own data, fostering a comprehensive, diverse data set that enhances the models’ quality and result relevancy.Importantly, LIKE.TG respects customer privacy and preferences. We use only anonymized customer data with customer permission. This amalgamation of wide-ranging data—not readily available in an in-house setup—can be a significant advantage.4. Ongoing maintenance and technological advancesLIKE.TG's commitment to innovation helps ensure businesses get access to cutting-edge AI solutions and receive ongoing maintenance and upgrades. This approach saves organizations from the painstaking process of trying to stay ahead in the rapidly advancing AI landscape.5. Accelerated time to valueOur Now Assist GenAI experiences allow organizations to see value rapidly. Businesses can access powerful GenAI capabilities just by turning on Now Assist, avoiding the lengthy process of building and training LLMs in-house.The bottom lineLIKE.TG’s emphasis on research, strategic partnerships, and a stable foundation of AI embedded in its platform makes it an ideal choice for organizations seeking a responsible and reliable LLM for LIKE.TG workflows.For most organizations, selecting a vendor-generated LLM like LIKE.TG's is the best approach to harness innovation, increase the speed of delivering value, and remain competitive in an ever-evolving marketplace.Find out more about how LIKE.TG helps accelerate productivity and time to value with GenAI.
Let Now Assist and Microsoft Copilot show you how to put AI to work
At LIKE.TG, we’re on a mission to put AI to work for people in every corner of the enterprise. To that end, LIKE.TG and Microsoft recently announced that we’re teaming up to launch generative AI (GenAI) solutions that will unlock AI capabilities, help boost employee productivity, and deliver value quickly.By integrating Microsoft Copilot with LIKE.TG® Now Assist, we’re making it easier for employees to get the help they need, when and where they need it.Industry-leading innovationLIKE.TG and Microsoft are laser-focused on collaborating on transformative AI solutions for the enterprise. As a result, customers can expect industry-leading innovation from two GenAI powerhouses.I recently sat down with Katharine Kennedy, general manager of the LIKE.TG business unit at Microsoft, to discuss the Now Assist-Teams integration in greater detail.“This announcement represents a significant milestone in our joint commitment to unleash innovation for customers with transformative technology to help revolutionize workplace productivity,” she said.“By seamlessly integrating advanced AI capabilities into existing workflows, we’re redefining how businesses operate in this new era of AI-driven automation and intelligence.”
4 ways AI-first organizations can become industry leaders
Generative AI (GenAI) can be divisive. While its potential to revolutionize industries is undeniable, ethical concerns, job displacement fears, and privacy concerns may make leaders hesitant to implement it. However, amid these debates, one thing has become increasingly clear: AI-first organizations are spearheading success in their industries.To prosper as an AI-first organization, AI needs to permeate daily work across the business. GenAI has the ability to help people work better, smarter, and faster. Let’s take a look at how industries can put AI to work for people.1. Take an AI-first approachWith the push to provide better care for more people at less cost, healthcare providers are struggling to meet expectations. GenAI can assist with and augment routine tasks such as documentation, transcription, and patient handoffs to give overworked staff more time for patient care.To gain insights into how GenAI can improve employee and patient experiences, Brian Solis, head of global innovation at LIKE.TG, led a panel discussion with leaders from Accenture, Babson College, and ServiceNow.2. Be future-readyFrom optimizing the supply chain to predicting customer needs, GenAI can help manufacturers improve operational processes. Many manufacturing companies have already begun experimenting with the technology.In Be the future-ready manufacturer, experts from Deloitte and the MIT Sloan School of Management explore the importance of a targeted and open-minded GenAI approach in gaining a competitive edge.
3. Focus on customersAs the financial sector continues to evolve, banks are increasingly turning to GenAI to enhance operations, improve customer experience, and drive innovation. Although some may believe GenAI is too unpredictable to be used in high-risk organizations, it can actually help banks increase transparency and mitigate risk.Taking a customer-centric approach to implementing GenAI can help banks improve both customer satisfaction and employee productivity. Find out how banks can deliver compliant and efficient experiences with GenAI in Customer-centric experiences in banking with AI.4. Deliver exceptional serviceAs the pioneers of the AI era, technology companies are at the forefront of using GenAI to improve their products and services. Now is the time for tech professionals to do what they do best: be innovative, experimental, and adaptable.GenAI has immense potential for technology companies. The key is to start small and build slowly. Join Adam Cheyer, co-creator of Siri, and other tech leaders as they discuss how to Deliver better experiences in the tech industry with AI.We’re on the cusp of an exciting time with GenAI. Put AI to work for your industry to unlock the exponential power of an AI-first enterprise.
Not a customer revolution, it’s customer evolution
The fourth industrial revolution is the crucible of customer evolution.As long as people have needs, perceptions and aspirations, change is inevitable. More so in business, where every idea is conceived and crafted to address people’s needs, and add value to their lives. Without this kernel of need, neither creativity nor innovation can exist.People’s needs fuel development.In the late 1700s, the need to make three square meals available and affordable to a growing population set the ball rolling on the agrarian revolution. Soon people were able to save more money, which was now available to purchase other things they needed, like clothing. This fuelledbreakthroughs in spinning and weaving, which made textile manufacturing more efficient and expedient. People believed in the viability of these changes and investors backed the setting up of huge factories. People who once farmed or worked in small trades at home or close to home, saw the opportunity for gainful employment and moved closer to these factories to work there.The first industrial revolution had begun.People’s perceptions drive purchases.Emboldened by benefitting from the industrial revolution, people had begun to address their perceived needs, and not just the basics of food and clothing. Consumerism was nascent. People put their faith in industrialization and factories mushroomed to produce more goods. These goods needed to reach people and here arose the need for efficient energy sources and transportation systems.Inventions like the steam engine and the discovery of electricityprovided solutions, and ushered the second industrial revolution. Though markets were stocked with consumables, people were largely unaware and marketing plugged this gap with simple advertising.The focus was to make people aware and keep them informed about consumables on offer and the needs they met.People’s aspirations inspire inventions.The social changes of the first two industrial revolutions raised the bar on people’s expectations. They were more secure and confident about meeting their basic and perceived needs. This level of well-being gave people the opportunity to address their aspirational needs. Primary among them was the need for a better quality life, one with more time on hand to enjoy it. People needed a way to speed up mundane and automate repetitive tasks. This inspired the invention of the computer and the emergence of computing, facilitating automation and data-driven processes. The third industrial revolution went on to change the way people worked and lived.Marketing and advertising too, had to evolve to keep pace with digitization and the changes it brought to the electronic media.We’re in the midst of Industry 4.0or the fourth industrial revolution, which began twenty years ago with a new idea called the Internet. The technology then was rudimentary. People relied on the dial-up modem that worked at a snail’s pace, and iffy connections that promised scant stability. Not surprisingly, the Internet was perceived as an ‘also ran’ or an add-on advertising medium that could at best offer more dynamic content than print. It was seen as less of a disruption and more as a medium of marketing.Customers are peoplewhose evolutionary journey as customers, has only recently gained momentum. For nearly 300 years customers were seen as people who would find businesses when they needed specific products and services.Until the end of the 1900s, customers were completely reliant on business to address their specific needs. The story of customer evolution began with the technological advances made in the last twenty years, like mobile telephony and the Internet. In retrospect, we knowthese advances and breakthroughs together with digital convergence was the driving force of the fourth industrial revolution. IT changed the face of communication and the way customers were perceived by industry.Customer 1.0 witnessed the birth of the dot.com.People were not tech savvy but they were curious and extremely patient. Whether it was for the dial-up connection or a webpage to load, people waited, willingly. So at first, businesses stuck to brochure-like websites to market and promote their goods and services. If there was a focus to this effort it was to get the customer to make a phone call or visit the store. Even the search engine was seen as a simple tool that could sift through piles of digital brochures and scanned images to help people find what they were looking for. Whether Web-crawler, Alta Vista, Lycos or Ask Jeeves, search engines could only help people when they knew exactly what they were looking for. Businesses continued to believe that people who felt a need for their products and services will move to find them. To this end, marketing and advertising had gone from informing people about products, to establish and reinforce to the people, their needs for these products.Customer 2.0 was empowered by the worldwide web.The web had become a communication channel that was quick and interactive. Businesses got creative about using the Internet as a pivot to increase sales and provide support. While in their new avatar, people turned to information for a better advantage.They explored their choices and looked for new options that had earlier been too unlikely. It wasn’t long before ‘internet-businesses’ like Lyft, Amazon, eBay or match.com mushroomed, challenging traditional business models and economics. All the same businesses still perceived their customer base as a multitude of faceless people, a one-size-fits-allbeing. Though challenged by change and the need to innovate, businesses still continued to believe that the people who needed their product or service would find them and reach out.Customer 3.0 plays hard to get.As an empowered being who has made the transition from acquiescing to companies, to being a harbinger of change in the consumer market, this customer can afford to play hard to get. They are widely connected, well-informed, and part of a generation that shares experiences about anything and everything. Businesses looking to stay relevant know how important this evolved customer is. Customer 3.0 loathes the idea that one-size-fits-all and gives mass marketing and mass media a wide berth. Free from the restriction of having companies deciding when, where and how they can make their purchases, they demand much more and better. This customer expects business to come find them and when they do, these customers expect to be engaged effectively and immediately. Customer 3.0 is in the driver’s seat and business is gearing up to keep pace.To find and engage Customer 3.0, businesses must:Acceptthat CX and purchase decisions are measured at all customer touch-pointsAdaptoperating models based on the standpoints of your customers.ActionCX with advances and trends in retail, gaming, search and mobile technology.Defining Customer 3.0as an individual would be both right and wrong. This customer is very individualistic. At the same time this customer is not of any specific age, social class or gender mix. However, they are similar in their ability to accept, adopt and apply new technologiesto satisfy individual needs.Recognising Customer 3.0is not difficult even with their diversity of personalities and profiles. These people share distinctive traits and display similar attributes that set them apart from previous generations.Well informed.They are comfortable with new technology and media and clued-in about the value and power of information. This customer is in the habit of gathering information thatranges from features, prices, testimonials and cx stories to help them be better informed about their choices before they make a purchase decision.Price savvy.These people know that price is not always about money. To them it’s more about better value for money. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with brand loyalty. The prize here is in getting more value for a better price. For this savvy customer that can be quite a rush and it can get addictive quite quickly. This leaves them in a state of perpetual yearning for the next good deal they can make.The loyalty marketing association, notes only 21% shop for brand overprice and 64% of people will go 5-10 minutes out of their way to secure a betterprice.Socially visible.No other generation of people has worked so hard at being socially visible or gone so far to present themselves as they’d like to be perceived by the world. Social media makes this possible. It is a behemoth that can decide the fate of people and business. Though there’s no telling what people will take to, it’s quite clear it needs to be something that grabs their attention and/or imagination. There’s seemingly little to explain why Orkut took a divewhile Facebook soared? Or who will come out on top of the online shopping business? This new media is a great leveler and on it bad news travels faster and makesits own rules.Social media accounts for 20% of PC time and 30% of mobile time.100 million+ people take a social action like, likes, shares,comments, on social media every week.Smartphone users spend 25% of their browsing time on social networking sites.Faith in the crowd.The opinion of others has become increasingly important to this new customer. Especially when it comes to purchase decisions and popular choices about anything that business or media propagates about goods and services. They’d much rather trust other customers than take the word of business. Ratings and likes can be the difference between choosing one business over the other. There are some who argue that this customer can be easily manipulated with the right triggers. The counterpoint is that this customer is media-literate and prefers the opinions of real people to avoid manipulation.According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report, which surveyed more than 28,000 internet respondents in 56 countries:70% of global consumerssurvey indicated they trust messaging online – an increase of 15% in fouryears.Shoppers prefer online ratings and reviews by a 4:1 margin to advice from store employees.80% of people participate in online communities to help others.Only 14% of customers trust advertisements but 78% of customers trust peer recommendations.Needs validation.The reason social media will remain relevant for a long while to come is because the new generation of customer likes to self promote. For them this is an almost primal instinct, to feel alive and relevant in the world they choose to be connected with. No matter if it’s not directly in person, but once removed across a tech platform. Facebook status updates, like Twitter and Instagram posts are testament to the fact that human beings crave acknowledgement, approval and appreciation. Social media taps into this need for self validation.Facebook has over one billion monthly active users and 2.5 billion contentshares per day.Wants it here and now.Obsessed with “being in the now” and driven by the fear of missing out, this customer cannot wait. With the Internet serving to save time and money and social media powering the voice of the customer worldwide, these customers want what they want and they want it now. They subscribe to the belief that it is the customer’s prerogative to decide on time and place of purchase or delivery. Plus with the convergence of tech they also expect round-the-clock support.Forrester (2010) has suggested up to 57% of US consumers are likely toabandon an online purchase if an answer to a question is not immediatelyforthcoming.No security concerns.Data security and privacy does not concern many young customers today. Born and raised in the era of rampant marketing, advertising and promotion, they have made their peace with it. Even in the face of potential threats likeviruses and phishing attacks, Customer 3.0 freely uploads large tracts of data about their personal lives. They feel no twinge of regret abouttheir personal and professional experiences in the public domain. This devil may care approach is not restricted to events but also includes payments and purchases. The converse of which was true in the last decade when customers werewary of internet payments.Once you’ve traced the evolutionary journey of Customer 3.0 it is not difficult to understand this diverse collective of individuals, unified by their willingness to accept change and adopt new ideas with elan. This can serve as a base framework for businesses looking to build viable customer personas to craft better customer experiences.
Making the most of generation Y
Life, after IT, has changed a few gears and people have adapted to the new pace. We live differently than we did a decade ago. We feel empowered with information and accept that technology is ubiquitous. The lion’s share of the credit goes to the real change-makers among us: themillennials, or Generation Y.Born between 1985 and 2000, the oldest millennial today is 34, while the youngest is just 19.Their parents—Generation X— sawcomputers for the first time, in their teens. While millennialswere born into a world increasingly reliant on computers. In fact,computer science was fast becoming a part of thecurriculum in many schools at the time.Millennialsgrew uplearning aboutcomputers,hadmoreaccess to them and spent a lot more time with technology. This makes them doubly vital to business. They’re not just present and potential consumers; they also present the talent pool business will hire from. Over the next two decades, theconsumer base and the workforce everywhere will be made up ofmillennials and their successors, Generation Z,who have only just turned 18,but are more immersed in technology than their predecessors.Are we geared for a millennial way of life?With this turn-of-the-millennium generation taking center stage,every aspect of life and business worldwide will feel their impact. In fact, analysts projected that by 2020, millennials will contributeto 30% of all consumption of goods and services.These projections had businesses galvanising to adaptto the challenges technology posed, even as it democratizedknowledge andinformation.At first they scaled to have a presence where consumers spent the most time.Then they reached out via media that consumers had more faith in.Nowthey’re gearing up to meet changing needs and perceptions, as well as new demands and expectations.The willingness to embrace new trends, understand them and learn to work with them is whathelpedthebusinessorganismbe the first toevolve.The First Respondents to change.Though marketing and sales are at the forefront of business, the first effects of changing trends and lifestyles are feltatcustomer service.This isn’t surprising, since customers tend to be more willing to engage when they reach out for help. Even when they are less than pleased with your product or service, they are likely to be forthcoming. Customer service is effective when it is driven by agents who are patient and take the time to understand the customer and find out what they need, want, and expect from you.This is why the willingness to learn and the ability to roll with the punches is central to thecustomer serviceskill set. An efficient customer service team:senses changes in customers’ needs and expectations,shares this information with the business through established channels,andworks toeffect relevant changes in their delivery processLet’s turn proclivity into a leading edge.Fingers do the talkingwhensmart phones and new media lets us be more hands-on with communication. The growing consensus is that it’s easier to type or text than talk. Especially in unpleasant circumstanceswhen text allows us to be once removed, or gives us a little breathing room and insulation from direct conflict. With text and email to the rescue, communication can be more efficient and less messy, to quote a millennial colleague.It’s easyfor someto believe allmillennials are uncomfortable with phonecalls, or that they consider them invasiveand awkward. Butmany millennials already workwithout issue,in roles that requirethem to attend tofrequent phone calls.Participation in the digital discoursemeansmillennials are nearly everywhere online. From Twitter toReddit and Skype, this new generation ishyper-connected, and communicate over multiple channelsanddevices simultaneously.Infact, millennials are already quite adept at being on many platforms at once. They know firsthand thatan online presence is a must and that a multi-channelapproach is paramount to success. They know howimportant it isto respond via the same channel the customer uses to reach you. Changing channels to respond is akin to speaking out of turn or context, and compromises content. They are also aware that though the digital domain is asynchronous, your digital presence must be seamless and provide the same experienceacross all your platforms.Encourage self-serviceto the generation that has a do-it-yourselfattitude and takes great pride in it.Millennials prefer to be independent andsolveproblemson their own, rather than being a bother to others.However, when it comes to service that they’ve paid for, millennials can beimpatient and demand immediate attention. This is why it makes practical sense to encourage the use ofself-service tools. This way the do-it-yourself attitude and the impatience can both be leveraged to increase efficiency and reduce complaints about time taken, in one fell swoop.Finding common groundis important for this generation that spends most of their time online. They have faith in numbers and rely on the crowd,which meansother people’s opinions and experiences have begun to take precedence. They believe there is more truth in the first person accounts of ordinary people than in the sweeping statements of media and business. The smart thing to do is to develop an online community thatnurtures ongoing conversations about your product or service. Nurture this community to be a space forcustomers to express their thoughts, share their experiences,and help each other and themselves. This way millennial customers can use community pages to solve their problems, and the millennial service agent has more time to respond to customer concerns that require personalized attention.Personalize to connectto millennials because they loathe the idea of a one-size-fits all service process. You need tomake the effort toremember their names, their product information, and their service history.They expect to be remembered as a basic courtesy anddemand effective service in a jiffy,especially when they’ve paid for your product or service.Millennials also like to engage with people and look forward to building rapports and relationships.Personalized interactions with millennials can range from referring to them by their first name, to tagging them in a post online about valuable customers.Let millennials know you genuinely care about them and they’ll be loyal customers whoinfluence others to become your customers. Show millennials you’re committed to their well being and you will have a loyal and committed workforce working with you.To set the detractors asideThere is some concern about how new tech and the smartphone have seemingly distanced people in real time. Yet millennials meet their social circle more frequently than Gen X did at the same age. The difference is millennials meet several times a day, but they do this online and via electronic devices. This is why businessmust be present in the online space, to connect with them. Only a skeptic would look askance at the opportunities that new technology presents. Especially since thiskind of tech immersion has been seen before. People have been just as enthralled when new inventions like the radio and television capturedpeople’s imagination and lives. As for those who find the millennials to be a little young or lacking in maturity; the elders among them will soon bridge this gap as every generation has done before them.When social media ingratiated itself into customerservice, CX suddenly became a social phenomenon. You don’t need to reinvent customer service to attract the youngest customers. You just need to shift gears to keep pace with themillennial mindset at customer service inthis age of customer 3.0.
6 techniques to collect customer feedback
Only oneout of 26 customers willfreely offer their opinions about a given product or service (Huffpost). So, when a customer’s complaint is ignored, remember that about 26 customers are potentially being lost at the same time, who simply choose to move on silently.One way to fix this is to assure your customers that they have a voice, and that their voice is being listened to.For your customers tospeak up, you will have to grab their attention at the right time using the right channel with the right questions.Acustomer feedback survey is a valuable tool that lets you gain a better understanding of your customers’ requirements,determine their level of satisfaction, and measure their loyalty.A survey allows customers to express their opinions and present their side of the story. However, when asking for feedback it is important that you choose the best way to approachyour customers.Below area fewdifferent touchpoints commonly usedin the SaaS industry to collect feedback:– Logout pages– Emailcampaigns– SMS surveys– In-product widgets– Socialmediacampaigns– Mobile app notificationFeedback through logout pages:Surveys displayed in logout pagesare a non-intrusive way of collecting feedback immediately aftera customer has engaged with the product. There are 2 ways in which a logout survey can be displayed:1.On-Click2. Post LogoutOn-click survey:In this method, the survey appears as a pop-up as soon as the user attempts to logout. A substantialnumber of responses can be collected with this method, and information about the user can be pushed fromwithin the product.There is no need to nudge the user to fill in personal information. However,some users might feelthat it’s a hindranceto the logout process.Post-logout survey:Onceusers logout of the product, they are directed to a survey landing page instead of the home page.There is nohindrance and noGDPR compliance issues. However, there may be fewer responses,as customersmay not waituntil the end of the logout process, andcustomer informationneeds to be collectedwithin the survey.Email campaigns:Email campaigns are a cost-effective method for streamlining your process of collecting customer feedback. They let you connect to your customers quickly and can provide relevant information for better analysis.Here are some ways toinclude your surveys in an email:1.Hyperlinked text or image2.CTAbutton3. Embed codeSMS survey:78% of US consumers say that receiving a text message is the fastest way to reach them.SMS surveys have 8% more response rate compared to email surveys.Surveys sent via text messages can be personalized and customized and sent to a targeted list of valued customers,butthey require access to personal information (phone numbers) as a barrier of use.In-product display:These surveys give you the chance to collect real-time customer feedback while allowing the customer to be more open about their feedback.They provide quick access and fast, guaranteed responses. Surveys inside your product can be displayed in any of these 3 ways:1.Pop-up survey2.Widget survey3. Collapsible surveyMobile applications:In-app notifications provide the same benefits of an SMS survey, and the user can be reached without contact information. One restriction is that it can only be used to collect feedback from customers who have installed mobile applications.Thetechniques mentioned above have both pros and cons, and should be chosen based on the profile of your customers and the type of survey you want to be displayed. Here are a few common things to remember:Always test the flow before pushing it liveDonot display the survey to customers who have already participatedKeep track of the responsesFollow up as soon as possibleGet consent from customers for follow-up
What makes CX hard to measure and what you can do to improve it
The discussion about the best way to evaluate and improve CX values has gained momentum, yet many businesses are still not sure if it is all justawell crafted spiel. This is not to say they don’t believe that customer experiences matter or have value. It just means they’re not sure how to measure it, or which team should be given the responsibility to evaluate and improve it.This blog aims toexamine the complexities in determining CX values and explores the various steps businesses can take to improvethem.What makes evaluating CX so complex?The very essence of CX makes it difficult to measureusing data from one single point ormetric. CX is the sum of all of a customer’s experiences with a business, and cannot be whittled down to the value of any one interaction that your customers have with your business. CX scores reflect the overarching value of your customers’ relationship with your business and all businesses are aware of how important customer relationships are.This is why every business, even within theSaaS fold, spends a good deal of time and money developing and shoring up their CRM applications. It’s no secret that effectively managing your customers’ relationship with your business translates to revenue and growth. So while businesses everywhere understand that CRM is critical for business, not all of them believe that CX is crucial for success.Assigning a value to CX is mystifyingbecause it involves attributing values tosubjective qualities, like how a customer feels about a business or their perceptions about thebusiness’sadvertising and marketing. It also has to do with their comfort levels in accessing or navigating through your website, the purchase process, and after-sales service, which is all relative.People are unique, and as such every customer feels differently about things.So what isexcellent in one customer’s opinion could be a totaldisappointment for another.Then comes the fact that CX issusceptible to moods, current events, locations, peers, and pure need—not to mention wants and expectations. In a phrase, CX is more about thewhole composition of the business, while CRM is the element that measures business operations and growth.Fixing responsibility for CX is difficultwhen marketing, sales, and support teams alltake credit and responsibility forthe customer. Ideally this should make for a moreunited front. But when people and teams work in dedicated silos and share data sparingly, every request and interaction can lead to a debate or worse, a critique of function, operations, and the business process. Though technology has made it possible to integrate relevant data from all teams withaffordabledata management tools, few businesses actually use the opportunity it presents.So how exactly can businesses improve their CX values?Understand the role of customer serviceCustomer service is ideally positioned to make customers happy. After all, they are the team that customers call when they are not happy with your product or service. Therefore, the savvy business will focus on listening to understand their customer service teams. This move will give your business a better understanding of your customers and what they need. It will also help you find out what your customer service team needs in terms of data to deliver better service to your customersand make their day.This means more happy customers and better CX in the same smile.As more and more customers leave delighted with your customer service, you will begin to see an increase in sales and better interactions that can help with valuable product development. It also means that endorsements become more forthcoming and marketing efforts gain better traction. Not to mention that customer service teams can forge ahead with better customer satisfaction scores.Invest in customers for brand loyalty.All business—despite the advancements in technology—is about people. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, it’s about people, or what some in the marketing world are beginning to call the fifth P.(Funnily enough, early day marketers always had people in their sights and knew people were the quintessential P in the marketing mix. But even as you read this piece, the marketing world is busy creating new Ps. Thereis payment, personalization, positioning and packaging, to namejust a few that are being touted. This list will quite likely keep growing until the marketing mix is a long list of Ps. But back to P for people.)On any given day, people have feelings that can be hurt or assuaged, and the effective communicator knows how important it is to reach out, respond, and address people so they feel acknowledged and appreciated.Once again, the savvy business follows a simple communication strategy of constant and cogent communication across all channels:social media, mass media, internal and external correspondence, advertising, and marketing collateral. Though the approach to communication via each channel may be different, the message needs to be consistent. It must also echo the culture of the business, be relevant, andbebelievable. There is also the benefit of being prompt with responses to discrepancies in service. Even the best business can have a bad day, and people, even more so. Address these adversities promptly and honestly, and it will pay back in brand loyalty that is more enduring than any campaign.Make all your teams responsible for growth.Rather than relegating your teams to work in their silos, create opportunities for them to work with each other and grow to be your agents or partners. Provide them with the time to learn more about your products and services so they can market and sell your brand whenever they can.Some business processes mandate service agents must up-sell or cross-sell to every customer that reaches out. Most customers calling for support would prefer to be helped thanbe marketed to. However, if your agents are made fully aware of what your business offers, and are equipped with the right skills and training, they could be effective at doing some relevant marketing or sales to customers who call in.If you can extend the opportunity for teams to interact and understand more about what they each do, soon every employeewill be a sales and marketing agent who can generate viable leads.Welcome the complaint as a learning opportunityMany businesses prefer to forget about bad customer reviews or misunderstandings by leads and customers, and put it down to it either being the customer’s fault, the vendor’s mistake, or even the competition’s smear campaign. The savvy business, on the other hand, knows that every complaint is a likely source of information about how to get better at our jobs. It could be as simple as the language we use, the process we follow, a fail-safe we could introduce, and yes, sometimes remembering to followup.With new technology and service automation, we rely on the data to inform us every step of the way. Yet data needs analysts to read and measure it so managers can understand these metrics. The prudent manager needs togo through the data each quarter to get to know their customers, seek out the highs and lows of every data point in the metrics, and match it to customer requests and calls. Analysts can interpret the data and identify trends about where business is falling short or doing well. But it is managers that decide what direction marketing, sales, and support needs to take to either correct or optimize CX based on this understanding.To improve your CX values, let customer service take the lead, but not before you set up a core group with representation from all teams, including office administration and facilities management. Be patient and practice empathy with teams and customers.Integrate customer data and make it accessible to teams via managers where necessary, especially at service where customers call in to you. Make sure your C-suite recognizes that it is your customer service team that can be the much-needed bridge between your product development, sales, and marketing teams. After all, when all is said and done, it is customer service that your customers are calling for help.If your customer service team is good enough to help your customer, they’re certainly good enough to help you improve your customers’ experience.
To acquire new customers, listen to old customers
Everybusiness needs to increase its customer base to survive and grow—which is why customer acquisition isoftenthe focus of marketing strategies.Unfortunately,acquisition effortscanmake a dent inyourmarketing budgetswithout giving you anysignificantbumpinearnings. That's because customer acquisition needs to be bolstered by customer retention before it can translate into sustained growth.Take stock of the numbersMarketing and sales teams are under constant pressure to deliver bigger and better numbers in terms of new leads, customers, and revenue. Often, their sole goal isto optimize and expedite the customer journey from inquiry to sales, sign-up, or subscription.This is where senior management and the C-suite need to step in.It's important to setlong-term goalsfor your salesteams,drawing onrelevant data from other departments like customer service, tech support, billing,andcommunity building.Consideringpoints of interaction in the customer journey,and paying keen attention tomissteps,can provide theperspectivenecessaryto build better CXand attract loyal customers.Make sense of the numbersDatadoesn't show you everything.Toadd real value to the data,youneed to see thenumbers for the living, breathing people behind them.Only whenyouhumanize the datawill youunderstand the truth about customer needs and expectations.How can you be sure you understand what people want from their experience with your company? How can your business build rapport with potential customers?Look to your customersPast and current customers provide anessentialopportunity to learn.Your customers are diverse personalities,and getting to know themhelps youcraft more accurate customer personasto drive your marketing and CX strategy for the future.To get the most valuable information from these customers, be sure to:Find outas much as you can about your currentcustomers' journey from when they first noticed your business to the moment ofpurchase and beyond.Trackyour past and currentcustomers' journeysassessing every interaction and exchange across every channel, until the time theydrop out, renew, upgrade,or advocate purchases from your business.Follow upwith your past and current customers through carefully implemented personal feedback to understand and relate to the emotions and reasons that inspired their choices.Optimize feedbackEvery interaction your customer has with your business is feedback.Always be ready to listenandunderstand.Supportis a great opportunityto do this, becausethe customer initiates the interaction with the intention of conveyinghonestfeelings.No amount of brand-building and campaigns can build an emotional connection better than a well-managed support ticket—even if it does not end with an effective resolution. What really counts is how your customer feels before, during,and after the interaction. This is trueforbothB2B and B2C businesses.Past and present customers can tell you how they felt at various pointsduringtheircustomer journey.Their emotions and reactions toyourcontent and processesat each point of interaction with your businessprovidesvaluable insight. Correlate this with information gleaned from support and you will know what it takes totailor contentthatdeliversvalue and providesimpetus.Earning customer loyalty and brand equityis abonus.
What business mergers and acquisitions mean for customers
A new economic climate is emergingwith some businesses thriving, others going under, and a few getting acquired. Whether business acquisitions are actually good for a company is often debated. But the effects on the customers are rarely discussed.Mergers and acquisitions (MA) are not innately bad, but most acquired companies' goals are to deliver value to shareholders—not customers. Generally, after an acquisition, companies are not trying to improve their services or products to get more customers. As noted by theAmerican Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), they are simply buying a larger customer base. Larger does not always mean better. You can buy customers by going on an acquisition spree, but you cannot buy their loyalty.For most big players, it is not easy to focus on building new products from scratch all the time. Acquiring smaller players allows them to increase their business size. However, it is the customers who have to face the repercussions ofthese deals. According to ASCI, "on average, the acquiring company experiences a 3% drop in customer satisfaction over the initial two-year period post-merger."Classic MA stories that negatively impacted customersDozens of deals are a testament to the fact that acquisitions do not always mean better experiences for customers.Boeing's shift away from its engineer-led roots contributed to 346 fatalitiesBoeing was known for engineeringsupremacy and its devotion to building quality aircraft. They were a "customer-first" company and their philosophy was: You want it? We'll make it and we'll make it the best.Anticipating a commercial jet boom, Boeing merged with McDonnell-Douglas, which was a "money-first" company. It turned Boeing into a stock market trove. The top management was replaced and the company lost its culture of innovation, quality, and engineering excellence. Boeing was no longer led by a team of engineers, but by an investor who adopted cost reduction strategies. Without any aviation background, James McNerney held the reins of the company.The two recent crashes of Boeing's most trusted aircraft, the 737 Max, were a result of cost cutting in RD, engineering, and pilot training. When the 737 needed an upgrade to adapt to new infrastructure and fuel efficiency requirements, Boeing added to the outdated 737 designs instead of building new ones. This resulted in the production of a faulty plane that cost 346 lives.When private equity firms made matters worsefor a retail giantEvery American's inner child broke when Toys "R" Us closed over 800 stores during what was called a "retail apocalypse". After 60+ years in business, Toys "R" Us failed to innovate in the age of ecommerce and social media. Instead, itwent private to reimagine itself.Under the new management of private equity (PE) firms, the effects of cost reduction took a toll on the employees ofToys "R" Us—30,000 employees were laid off. A shortage of employees and under-investment in stores affected both operations and customer satisfaction levels. Employees manipulated customer surveys to protect themselves from being laid off for under-performance.Toys "R" Us suffered from management myopia, believing it was the center of the toy industry and nothing bad could happen to it. The PE investors mounted up billions in debt, sold off assets, cut costs in the wrong places, and drove the company into bankruptcy.The largest buyout in history was so bad, even Warren Buffet lost $870MTXU Corp., an energy firm, faced growing objections from officials and consumer groups to its spiking prices and investment in new coal power plants. It was sold to a consortium of PE firms for a $45B debt and was renamed Energy Future Holdings (EFH). The PE firms jumped in at once as they predicted gas prices would rise. The upshot? gas prices fell sharply.The management at TXU had projected that if the buyout went wrong, it could wreak havoc on the business,as well as its employees and customers, but they took the risk anyway.EFH was still generating electricity from coal-fired plants, while a new efficient method of mining technology was being adopted by its rivals. Electricity from natural gas plants became cheaper, making it difficult for EFH's coal plants to compete. EFH lost customers to cheaper rivals. Warren Buffet, who invested $2B in its bonds, called it "a big mistake." PE investors squeezed every dollar out of the company to finance the buyout and swaddled it with debt it couldn't repay, forcing it into bankruptcy.The acquisition of T-mobile US Inc. by Sprint Corp. was a monopoly in the makingAmericans have limited mobile phone service options. The Sprint and T-mobile merger meant a wireless monopoly that could potentially be horrible for consumers. Less competition and no market disrupting offers would mean stiff pricing. Analysts believed regulators would reject the deal.However, in 2020, a federal judge ruled in favor of the deal despite evidence that it would destroy competition, raise wireless data prices, and eliminate redundant jobs, resulting in layoffs. T-Mobile and Sprint made their case by arguing the merger would benefit consumers, but Sprint's customer satisfaction ratings have plummeted since the deal was first announced.As reported by ACSI, Sprint's customer satisfaction score fell to 65 in 2019, down from 70 a year earlier. T-Mobile, by contrast, had a score of 76 across both years—the highest among the top U.S. wireless operators. But in the wake of the 2020 merger, things started to change for T-mobile as well. T-Mobile seemed to be losing one of its major competitive edges: customer service. After years of higher ratings than all its major rivals, T-Mobile slipped from best to worst among the three major carriers.eBay's miscalculation of customer needs led to it selling off SkypeeBay bought Skype hoping the VoIP service would improve communication between its members. eBay's management intended to introduce video communication to its customers. The outcome? eBay users rejected Skype as a mode of communication and considered it unnecessary. People seemed to like the anonymity of eBay—for most users, email was good enough to organize their transactions.The eBay-Skype deal suffered from other problems too.eBay overestimated the value of Skype and acquired it for $2.6 Billion, but Skype generated only $7 million in revenue. Additionally, the cultural differences between the two companies were too significant to overcome. Ultimately, eBay's failure to integrate Skype into its operation properly, lack of managerial involvement, and misunderstanding of the target audience led to it divesting in Skype.The balance sheet is always seen as the ruler in the world of business, and the economic climate is forcing organizations to prioritize profits over customer needs. It's time peoplenoted the reality of businesses who choose to acquire, rather than innovate. It often comes at the cost of the customer.
Ingredients of customer loyalty: customer success, satisfaction, and happiness. But what matters the most?
Customer satisfaction and how sales plays a role in it.AWalker studyfound that by the end of 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.I moved to a new house recently and among other basic amenities I looked for an internet provider in the area. My existing service provider didn’t serve the new location. First scenario: I promptly applied for a new connection with a local vendor. They promised that their connection would be available everywhere within 24 hours.Strangely, I didn’t get the connection for the next 3 days. I received no calls and no follow-ups, and my calls were sent to customer support (who weren’t very supportive after all). When I called them, they couldn’t even track the status of my request and I ended up placing several calls, each one a new ticket.Second scenario: My search still on, I got approached by another local vendor who somehow found out that I could be a potential customer. They offer me a free and quick installation and got things running within 24 hours. I’m glad I found them and am quite happy with their service.Third scenario: Even after my initial happiness, I jumped at the chance of changing my service provider, after a few months of service. A new service provider was in town that made me offers related to the location. I swiftly changed over to them. A few months into the service they curated a personalized package with my data usage in mind.In the next few months I faced some connectivity issues which they solved promptly. Not only that, they gave me special privileges like an upgrade for being a loyal customer.I stayed with this provider for the rest of my stay in that house. When I move to a new location, the first thing I check is whether they are available in my new area.Now let’s analyze my customer journey:In the first scenario, it was just bad service. The company didn’t follow up on their word and ended up losing a potential customer.That relationship was pretty straightforward. It ended right where it started.The second scenario is a bit more complicated.I was happy with their service. It was prompt and gave me what I wanted. It made me happy, but I still wanted more value.So in the third scenario, as soon as the next vendor approached me with a relevant, value-added service, which they had anticipated and served at the right time, I took the plunge.Then they continued to keep me satisfied with their service, because as a customer I’ll always be looking for more value for my money.Customer satisfaction is when your customer’s needs are getting met every time. The offer has to fit the customer profile right. In my case, that meant adapting to geographical location, personalized data packs.Customer success is no guarantee of customer loyalty, because it’s a one-time thing. Even happy customers churn. On the other hand, satisfied customers complain, but they stay.Satisfaction in service is a continuous process, not an one-time thing. Every success adds up to satisfaction, long term satisfaction added with extra perks adds up to long term happiness.People who complain are the ones who still believe in your ability to make it right. That’s why they are not silently leaving.“91% of unhappy customers who are non-complainers simply leave.” (HuffingtonPost)Recipefor customer satisfaction:“Acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.”(HarvardBusinessReview)Customer satisfaction is what builds loyalty.Customer satisfaction is built upon a history of good service and successful transactions. So if there is a glitch in the service at any point, a satisfied customer would rather give you a chance to improve and correct the mistake than abandon you.Follow upRemember the first service provider I spoke about? If only they had come up with a valid reason for delay with a follow-up email or call. Communication like that would have motivated me to give them another chance rather than switching to the next vendor at the first chance.This is where a good CRM is essential. By keeping track of customer interactions andautomatingfollow-up communication, sales people can ensure that customers are always updated and that they stay with the brand.Even after the sales process is done, it is important to make customers feel like a part of the process. Sending outbirthday or anniversarymailers will make them feel more connected to your brand.ConsistencyWhen a potential client reaches out to you, you bend over backwards with claims of having their needs met. When the client bites the bait, whoosh! There’s nothing that you promised.In the case of the first service provider, it may be that their service really is available within a day in different areas, but not where I live. However, from my perspective their claims were clearly inconsistent with what actually happened. Even if a peer told me that their service is actually good, it might not convince me because I have witnessed their inconsistency firsthand. Customers remember your consistency. Brand image is built over time.Take the example of their customer service: when I called them up asking about an update, they couldn’t give me one.Even after I got a new connection I kept getting calls from the previous vendor insisting on their service. People who were calling me had no clue why I didn’t opt for them in the first place. At first I gave them feedback. From the second time onward it was just annoying to explain to them their mistake.With a CRM which allows salespeople to look at previouscustomer interactions, the scenario would have been different. From the very first time I called them about a connection, my interactions with them would have been recorded. So, no matter whom I spoke to afterwards (sales or customer service), they would have had a fair idea of what I was talking about. They would have been able to pick up from where they left off.What customers want from sales people:Be dependable:When you are convincing a prospect to buy your product, you are also taking on a huge responsibility to follow through. So, if you promise them something, make sure you can provide it. As a sales person you represent your brand. If a customer reaches out to you in a time of need, just showing them the way to customer service isn’t going to make you look dependable. Remember it was your words that they trusted when the purchase happened. Be empathetic, listen to what happened and what they need.Don’t be pushy:Since I had reached out to a few internet providers in my area, I keep getting these promotional mails from them all the time. Most of them are irrelevant to me. It almost seems like their motto is “let’s flood their inboxes!” Imagine what kind of reputation they are building here. Even without knowing their service, I perceive them as irritating. It’s best to do relevant research before reaching out. If the customer is not in need of your product, then don’t go around pestering them.Don’t go back on your word:You said you would give them free internet for a month, then you didn’t. You may come up with seven different reasons why, but in the end your brand image suffers. When you are not sure about deliverability, don’t promise. It’s crucial to stay updated about your products and services across the whole company. Using a CRM that established collaboration between teams and unifies enterprise-wide communication is the key to stay updated. The more you educate yourself about your product, the more you can tell your clients about it. Make sure you’re not making any claims that don’t align with your product features or company offers. This will not only make you a liar, it will also directly impact the company’s reputation.Curiosity:There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to customers. Generic thinking does not cultivate customer happiness or satisfaction. Working to understand the uniqueness of each customer and providing solutions will set you apart from the competition.Your customers are your cheerleaders, loyal customers are your biggest advertisement. Providing them with a seamless customer journey and keeping them satisfied with your product in the long run will insure uninterrupted revenue flow. Investing in a good CRM makes sales and marketing processes efficient, leading to better customer interactions and a satisfying customer journey. From following up with customers to sending the right promotional mail at the right time, sales andmarketing automationsaves time and manual effort. It decreases the number of missed opportunities by recording customer interactions and keeping track of your leads and potentials.How do you ensure customer satisfaction? Let us know in the comments.
When time is of the essence, customer service makes the difference
Digitization has kept its word about changing the world; it has made it a smaller place. In fact, we live in a global village now, which was the change that helped the new take root. It led to the moment when the new digitallyconnected world began to change our perceptions about many things, includingbusiness.No longer limited geographically, businesses entered new areas. Suddenly it was not only aboutvertical growth orincreasing the customer base and revenue. There was also the capacity forhorizontal growth ormakingacquirements in new fields and markets. With a vertical and horizontal perspective, people began to perceivegrowth in 2D.The advent of the smart phone added another dimension by opening uparelative space where business can represent itself even without an on-the-ground presence.It doubles asarelationship space for people to connect and relate, asocial dimension. Most brands use this space tolearn more about their customers, so they can appeal to their needs or leverage demand. However, progressive companies use it tounderstand the role that their products and services play in people’s lives. This relational perspective or social dimension helps us perceivegrowth in 3D.One thing is evident: businesses must innovate to meet the challenges posed by a well-informed customer base.Whencustomers know better, theydemand a better experiencewhile doing business with you. We know this because digitization has generatedextensive data about the customer experience and continues to do so. Probably why there isa new field of business centered around it, and it is no surpriseit’s called big data or that marketers everywhere are discussing it.Every business, regardless of size, is talking about data and there is no doubt that data is vital to creating viable strategies for business.However,data needs to be parsedbefore it can beshared as informationorunderstood as intelligence. This in-depth analyses of data is what equips businesses with the information and intelligence tocreate better customer experiences. As a result, dataanalytics is being linked to every business vertical to maximize its advantage and this integration has created opportunities for innovation.Metrics ordata isa perennial and multi-directionalflowof informationinward. There are a host of touchpoints along a customer’s purchase journey indicative of what drives people to buy.These customer touchpoints are ranged before, during, and after the purchase journey. This makes for gargantuan volumes of data, and a level of variance that is only to be expected in this age when customers pride themselves on being unique.There arethree dimensionsto data. The first two,volumeand variance,are inevitable and not difficult to manage. Allthey need is for you to employ robust ways to collect and store data. The third dimension,velocity, refers to the speed at which data is effectively parsed from the time it comes in. This is an important dimension becausehigher velocity means better information and timely intelligence,both vital to creating viable strategies.When it comes to information and intelligence,time is of the essence. This is wherecustomer service can make a difference. Efficient throughput times do not depend on any one act or individual, but every single one. Like any habit we want to acquire,good customer service must be cultivated. Just remember that like all habits,yourcustomer service culturereflects your attitudebecause it is the mindset that guides and decides the plans, products, teams, and processes your business adopts.First get into the right head space.Are you driven by the need to discover what customers think, feel, and know about their needs, your product, and/or the market? If your answer is no, then customer service or business is not the best fit for you. Good customer service can only be built around a business that isfocussed on knowing their customers. This is the very heart of customer service, because it is only when we need to know that we listen mindfully.Next, find the right tools and peopleto parse the deluge of data that digitization provides. The right tools are not hard to find with the rampant advances and innovations in IT. Choosing the right meld of people, however, needs more vetting. You will need a handpicked combination of professionals from marketing, sales, support, and advertising to curate the relevant data, and people with a numerical bent of mind to grasp what the numbers are saying to add value to the data. It is this combination of people and technology that efficiently analyzes information so it can be actionable intelligence.To survive and succeed in these changing times,robust businesses recalibrateto enrich the customer experience.
Challenges startups face delivering good customer service
It is gratifying to see your startup grow. But a thriving business can pull your attention in many different directions—and sometimes, that means customer service gets overlooked. Many business owners focus their attention on products and marketing plans, hoping to achieve success by attracting new customers. Less often do they consider how to retain customers once acquired.It has been established that it is more economical to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones. Statistics indicate that existing customers are more likely to try your new products and spend more money. Despite this, statistics also show that companies are more likely to invest in customer acquisition than retention.Here's why this might be the case:New customers look good on paperMany metrics tracked by companies are merely "vanity metrics." They create an illusion that marketing efforts are paying off so businesses can demonstrate their success to stakeholders. For example, a business may track the total number of customers acquired, when they should be tracking the cost of each acquisition. They may track monthly revenue per customer, when they should be looking at customer lifetime value. Too many companies sacrifice actionable metrics in favor of numbers that boost their self-image.New customers provide early gratificationNew companies often seek quick victories to stay relevant in the market, and they know acquiring customers boosts short term revenue. Unfortunately, sometimes it's too late before they realize the importance of customer lifetime value, which is relative to customer retention. For these companies, closing two new deals feels like an achievement—even if five customers drop.Over time, companies with this mindset will find it increasingly difficult to stay in business. Customer lifetime value plays a major role in long-term success, which means providing a high-quality customer experience is crucial.Now let this sink in, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. That shows how hard good customer service is to come by these days. Though an acquisition-driven growth strategy is not necessarily a bad thing, it's important to ensure that you're providing a top-notch experience to customers once they're acquired. This is how customers become your brand evangelists.It's important that you keep up with increasing customer requests as your business grows. Remember, it only takes one bad experience for a customer to turn to one of your rivals. But providing quality customer support can be challenging for small businesses, especially since the responsibility of handling customer requests usually falls on a small team, or even a single person. Even when the company has the means to hire more support agents, these teams often lack the right tools to succeed. There's only so much email can contribute to a good customer experience.Customer service cannot be provided exclusively by email.As a customer support tool, email can be slow, cluttered, and typically lacking in advanced features. Your customers are emotional beings, so to provide an excellent customer experience, you at least need to be able to understand their feelings. That's not something you can accomplish with email.Here are some telltale signs your business has outgrown email inbox as a tool for customer support:Your inbox is full of customer emails, and the backlog of requests is causing delayed response times.You struggle to identify urgent customer requests.You sometimes overlook requests that haven't been answered, or respond to those that have already been answered.You often lose track of email threads and find it difficult to follow case history.Your email inbox can't manage requests from other channels, such as social platforms or your business website.You find it difficult to derive insights or track important metrics from customer interactions.So what's the solution?Today, successful businesses are transitioning their support services from email to customer service software. Sophisticated customer service software is purpose-built, feature-rich, and geared at simplifying the support process for both agents and customers. With the right software, you can create tickets from requests received through any channel. A ticket is a complete record of a customer request that documents every interaction between the customer and agent. There are many customer service software options available, which should make it easy to find one that suits your company's needs.Sounds like a deal? Unfortunately, that's not always the case for small businesses.Why are most customer service solutions in the market today not ideal for small businesses?Many software solutions come with high price tags, and an abundance of advanced features that simply aren't useful to small businesses. The ones that open up their starting plans for small businesses, lure customers with seemingly low price but hide the most essential functionalities in higher plans. A growing business needs access to basic features, with the option to upgrade plans as its customer base expands. But the popularity of "bait and switch" subscription plans often makes this impossible. These plans require businesses to purchase additional functionalities as expensive add-ons, on top of already loft subscription prices.For a young business that has settled on an option after intense research, onboarding should not feel like a business challenge, but a solution. For vendors, emphasis should be on empathizing with every business size rather than chasing only the "big wins".Can LIKE.TG help?Absolutely! If email is your comfort zone, that's okay. Transitioning to ticketing software should not be stressful or painfully expensive.The Express edition of LIKE.TGDesk is easy to implement, simple to use, and affordable. That's why it's an ideal customer support platform for small businesses!Learn more about why LIKE.TG is the best help desk software for small businesses.
Recession-proof your business with customer service
The possibility of a recession is still hanging over the economy.In the present scenario, despite high inflation, consumers are spending well and employment rates are increasing, indicating a strong job market. However, some believe a recessioncould occur in the first quarter of 2024. The uncertainty surrounding the economy can be daunting, but preparing for a recession can help businesses avoid negative experiences such as losing out on customers and market share.Throughout history, businesses have experienced periods of economic growth and decline. Those that have survived and thrived have done so by adapting their strategies to the changing economic environment.For instance, Citigroup grew during times of recession by offering quality service, and focusing on its branding. Starbucks, despite the worsening economic condition and competition, focused on "Reigniting the emotional attachment with customers."Businesses choose to focus on customers because customers can protect a business from the harsh wind of a recession and prepare them to come out stronger after the economic slowdown. Here's how customer service can help businesses focus on customers and sail through a recession smoothly.Reduce customer churnDuring times of recession, as unemployment increases, economic conditions become unfavorable, and customers grow cautious of their spending. They are likely to stay with brands that have provided value and met their expectations in the past. Businesses, by being available for customers during tough times and resolving issues effectively, can build stronger relations and a loyal customer base. By increasing customer retention even by 5%, businesses can increase profits by 25%, as stated by Bain and Company. This further saves a business from incurring high costs on customer acquisition.Amplify market awarenessEvery customer interaction a business hascounts. Around 64% of customers are likely to switch to a competitor due to one negative experience. One cannot afford this in times of a recession. When customers have a positive experience with a brand, they are likely to share it with others.Customer testimonials can be a powerful way to showcase positive customer experiences and build trust and credibility with potential customers.Stabilize cash flowCustomer service can help businesses identify and resolve customer issues quickly and efficiently.This can increase customer satisfaction levels and help minimize the impact of customer churn on cash flow. Customers that are satisfied with a business' service and products engage in repeat purchases, which ensures continuous predictable cash flow. This helps a business examine its stability and future growth. The higher the customer lifetime value, the higher the business's standing in the market and the ability to get through uncertain times.Drive sales growthCustomers are more likely to try new products from a brand they trust. Moreover, as your customer service agents are already aware of the specific needs and behaviors of your customers owing to past interactions, they can offer personalizedrecommendations, increasing the chances of customers trying out new products and, in return, increasing sales.Foster innovationCustomer service helps identify customers' pain points of using a product, and in predicting their needs, and expectations. By taking into account this treasure of information, businesses can build products that resonate with customers' needs, and foster innovation, just like Starbucks did.Mitigate customer service operational costs with technologyThe complete potential of customer service can only be realized when businesses can manage their customer service operations in cost-effective ways. According to Gartner, 80% of business leaders consider automation an important contributor to cost optimization. Customer service software not only automates routine tasks, but also helps your business in the following ways.Improve productivityOften, customer service representatives find themselves juggling between applications, tracking tickets, prioritizing tasks, and losing customersin the process. Customer service platforms centralize customer information, unify interactions across channels, and streamline service operations with automation, offering greater insights, clarity, and knowledge about customers and customer service operations.Reduce operational costsValue-centric customer service software unifies communications coming across channels in one place, saving a business from spending on multiple platforms. Along with this, integrations with other business systems allow for better collaboration between teams and reduce miscommunication, further reducing customer service times to a great extent.Promote revenue growthInvesting in technology is all about strategizing. Customer service platforms offer great insight into an organization's complete customer service operation through metrics. These metrics, when used during the strategizing process, allow managers to identify strengths and weaknesses, and allocate resources costeffectively. Additionally, with complete insight into customers' interactions with a business, agents are in a better position to gauge the needs of customers and push products that align with their needs.In a predictable environment of decreased consumer spending, lower production, and declining revenue, businesses should hold on to their customers. By prioritizing customer needs, fostering strong relationships, and leveraging customer service software, businesses can not only survive but thrive even during challenging economic times.
10 best customer service software solutions
Modern businesses are constantly reminded that customer relationships are crucial for success. Now more than ever, customers are gravitating toward businesses that provide personalized and contextual service.As stated by Forrester, a willingness to prioritize long-term growth by building better customer relationshipswill be critical to business success in 2023.To asses and improve customer relations, you need a systematic way of managing customer requests and concerns. With the help of customer service software, you can unify, automate, and analyze customer service operations while keeping up with customers' demands.However, it can be challenging to determine what to look for in a software solution and to choose the right one for your business. To simplify the selection process for you, we've created a list of popular customer service software solutionsand analyzed their performance within the following parameters:Feature setLearning curveEase of useUser interfaceImplementationSupport offeredIntegrationsPricingContract termsAdaptabilityto different business models Based on our research,here's a summary of the top 10 customer service software solutions of 2023:LIKE.TG: Best overall customer service solutionZendesk: Best solution for integrating your help desk with other systemsSalesforce Service Cloud: Best customer service software for larger teamsHelp Scout: Best solution for email ticketing managementHappyFox: Best option for global knowledge base managementHiver: Best help desk for support via GmailFreshdesk: Best solution for small customer service teamsKayako: Best customer service software for live chat ticketingTeamSupport: Best support software for B2B needs10. Helpshift: Best solution for in-app customer supportHere's a look at our detailed analysis of each solution:LIKE.TGLIKE.TG helps you provide value-driven service by seamlessly connecting with customers across channels, like email, social media, messaging apps, telephony, and your help center. Thanks to an intuitive interface, it's easy to implement, and enhances the experience ofcustomer service representatives. Whether you are a small business or alargeenterprise, LIKE.TG equips your agents to offer personalized service at every step of the customer journey. Not only are your agents armed with customer context for each ticket but also always ready with a solution in hand to offer relevant and timely solutions.Decisionmakers can effortlessly tap into every minute detail of the ticketing journey, as well as agent performances and customer satisfaction levels, with visually appealing reports and dashboards.If you're looking for a system that is faster to implement with a minimal learning curve, won't diminish your budget, and is both flexible and scalable, LIKE.TG is the ideal choice for you.Pricing:You can explore the depth and functionality of LIKE.TG and its features with a 15-day free trial. There's also a Free plan available for basic ticketing needs. If you are a business with a small customer service team, Desk's $7Express planwill likely be the best fit. Other editions of Desk include Standard for $14, Professional for $23, and the Enterprise plan for $40 per user per month, billed annually.Integrations: With 300+ extensions and integrations available, you can seamlessly connect LIKE.TGwith other business apps.Security and compliance: LIKE.TG keeps your customers' data safe and secure by complying withISO 9001 requirements, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).Mobile applications: Togive agents more flexibility, LIKE.TG offers a mobile application. It also offers a separate app for managers, called Radar, so they can monitor service operations, even when they're on the go.Learn why LIKE.TG is a good fit for your customers, agents, and business. ZendeskZendesk Support is a great option for teams focused onone type of customer service operation, like ticket management. It offers live chat support, telephony, analytics, and a help center as separate applications that can be included as add-ons to build a complete customer service solution. Its feature set is robust and extensive,but the platform can be complex to set up and use. This affects the implementation process and increases the learning curve for agents. Additionally, many users consider Zendesk's UIto be a bit outdated, which canmake it difficult for your agents to provide contextual and personalized service.Zendesk offers a free trial for 14 days, but does not offer a free plan. If you find Zendesk to be the right fit for your business, you can subscribe to their Support Desk plans, which start at $19 andincrease up to $115. If you wish to make changes to your Zendesk subscription, you can do so by making a request in writing before 30 days of the end of your present subscription cycle.Learn more about Zendesk's feature capabilities from this comparisonSalesforce Service CloudSalesforce is popular for its extensive feature set. It is good for businesses managing high volumes of tickets and require multiple business apps to connect with. However, due to its complexity, it can be time-consuming and difficult to get started. Managing tickets is not very easy due to Salesforce's outdated UI.Taking a closer look at pricing, Salesforce offers a free trial but does not offer a free plan. If you are a small business, you can get started with theEssentials plan for $25. Their Enterprise plans costs $165, but does not include basic features, such as telephony, live chat, and self-service, and offers limited AI, and limited analytics. Pricing tends to snowball, making it inconvenient for businesses to continue using Salesforce, or switch to another software solution. This is why it's a good idea to explore the features, add-ons, implementation, and after-support costs associated with Salesforce before making a commitment.Find an in-depth Salesforce Service Cloud feature analysis in this comparisonHelpScoutHelpScout is easy to get accustomed to,as its interface largely resembles Gmail's. Its customer support resources can help you transition to the platform in no time. With email, live chat, a knowledge base, reports, and simple if-and-when workflows,Help Scout is suitable for businesses with minimal support requirements. In particular, Help Scout's customers are drawn to its mailbox feature.However, if you operatethrough other channels, like telephony, social media, and messaging apps, you'll have to depend on third-party integrations.Pricing starts at $20 per user, billed annually, and extends to $65 per user. Upgrading or downgrading your subscription is easier than it is with Zendesk. However, if you are looking for a solution that is customizable and scalable, you might want to reconsider HelpScout on these grounds.HappyFoxHappyFox is easy to use comparedtomany other customer service software solutions. Its feature set is best for businesses that deal with limited channels and have small customer service teams. HappyFox allows you to include live chat, chatbots, and workflows in your support operations by subscribing to add-ons.HappyFoxstarts at $29 annually and can cost as much as $89 per agent. A minimum of five agents are required to sign up for a plan. You can explore the product for 30 days, but might come across roadblocks that require support teamsintervention. HappyFox offers multiple contractoptions, and if you plan on downgrading your plan or reducing your agent count, changeswill go intoeffect in the next billing cycle after your request is made. Large and growing businesses using HappyFox have reported app slowdowns, and limited integration options, customizability, and reporting capabilities.HiverHiver is a Gmail-based customer service solution, ideal for businesses that use Google Workspace. The support team is attentive, but some issues and bugs in the system might affect your work for a day or two. With Hiver, you can support your customers through live chat, email, WhatsApp, and telephony. Other channels, like social media and messaging apps, can be accessed through third-party integrations.Hiver does not offer many integration options. This can make it difficult to bolster your customer service platform with additional functionalities, and can get in the way of easy information retrieval and collaborative efforts.With a 7-day free trial, you can try out Hiver's highest plan. Plans range from "Lite" for $15 to "Elite" for $59. Hiver also offers a custom plan for teams that have more than 50 users. Hiver offers a pay-as-you-go service, and in terms of making changes to the plan, you can cancel your plan at any time without afee, but "you will be billed for the current billing cycle."FreshdeskFreshdesk centralizes customer support interactions from multiple channels, like email, social media, and live chat. Its integration capabilities are similar to Zendesk's and LIKE.TG's. Its UI is refreshing, butcan be overwhelming for first-time users, and can be timeconsuming to learn. Although the feature set is good enough for small businesses,it's difficult to scale Freshdesk to meet more extensivebusiness needs.You can explore the productthrough a 21-day trial, or opt for the free plan forbasic support requirements. Freshdesk's Support Desk plansrange from $15 to $79. Its omnichannel supportedition does not include a free plan, but ranges from $29 to $99. Omnichannel support gives you access to all supportchannels, but lacksnative integrations with WeChat and Telegram.Analyze Freshdesk furtherwith this comparisonKayakoContextual experiences are facilitated smoothly by Kayako. It offers cloud and on-premise software. Basic functionalities, like email support, Facebook, Twitter, live chat, help center, and reporting capabilities are included. However, telephony and messaging apps, like WhatsApp and Instagram, can only be accessed through third-party integrations. Although live chat is a popular Kayako feature, the feature's customizability is limited compared to its competitors. Customers have been happy with the simplicity of Kayako's new UI, but have also complained of system slow downsand errors. Responses are not wellrecorded, and SLAs might be misseddue to errors in the system. Learning and implementingKayako will require assistance from the support team. Plus, It can be difficult to integrate Kayako with other software, due to its limited integration capabilities.For a small business, this option may be easy to adopt, but in terms of feature upgrades and scalability, Kayako is lacking. It offers a free trial for 14 days.TeamSupportTeamSupport is a multi-channel ticketing system that enables support via email, live chat, messaging, and remote desktop control. One of the most appreciated features of Team Support is the ability to convert commonly asked questions into knowledge base articles. However, telephony and web forms are not built-in options. According to users, TeamSupport's user interface is sluggish compared to the interfaces of other customer service software solutions. The configuration and setup can be confusing for first-time users. Plus, synchronization and system breakage issues can become a hindrance when you're connecting with customers.TeamSupport offers a 14-day free trial, but no free plan. Their plans start at $49 and extend to $119. If you wish to make changes to the number of licensed users on your TeamSupport plan, you can do so with a written request to TeamSupport at least 30 days before the next renewal term.HelpshiftHelpshift is a help desk solution mainly focused on in-app support. Its live chat, knowledge base, rule-based bot, and AI that pulls articles from the KBare geared towards enhancing the gaming experience with in-app support. Helpshift also serves the fin-techand commerce industries. It allows users to report bugs, suggest improvements, and offer feedback related to the product or service. However, the designof Helpshift's UI appears to be outdated. Connectivity issues, delays in responses, and a complex setup can drastically affect acustomer's experience with Helpshift.You can explore the product through its 30-day free trial, or through its free plan. Paid plans start at $150. To accessmore advanced features for your unique needs, you can select Helpshift's custom pricing plan. You can upgrade at any time, but cancel only at the end of your subscription period.ConclusionWhen you choose a software solution for your business, you are investing in better customer and employee experiences. Dynamic analysis will help you make the right choice. Get started by taking advantage of free trials, and decide for yourself which customer service software solution is the best fit for your business.Disclaimer: All prices shown here are in USD. The names and logos for LIKE.TG are trademarks of LIKE.TG Corp. All other trademarks, brand names, or product names belong to their respective holders. Comparison information as of 25.04.2023
Part 1 - Time when the car broke down!
A few months back,whiletravelling for avideoshoot, we met some captivating people who ran businesses in these areas. I could not help but share these experiences in this series while I did take the liberty of changing their names.Itis inspired by the values demonstrated by the people of rural India.Their approach got me thinking of the customer service values in small towns and villages.It was a long drive from the chaos of the urban set-up. We had been travelling for quite some time andhadno plansofstoppingon our way to thelocationof ourshoot. Unfortunately, a few hundredkilometres on, our car broke down,leaving usstranded.Just then,apack of bikes, each carrying two or threemen, stopped by. They were dressed in linen shirts and dhotis, with variouscoloured scarvestied aroundeithertheir headsor necks. They were quick to recognise our problem and offered to guide us to thehome of themechanicwho lived in the nearby village. We immediately hopped ontheir bikes.Two men offered to stay back near the car to keep an eyeon it.We reached a small asbestos-roofed house.Onone side of the house,a few cycle tubeshungalong with an air pressure machine.Somegreased cloth pieces were lying about,andwe noticedtubs filled withbothclean and muddy water. On a chair, there was a tool-kit.A middle-aged man walked out ofthehouse, dressed casually in his linen cloth shirtwitha white dhoti draped traditionally around his waist.Thevillagersaccompanyingusran him through what had happened.He greeted us with a gestureof a namaste and a big smile on his face, introducing himself as Tukaram,the mechanic.Soon after,his wifeappearedwith some water for us to drink.Theyquickly moved the grains on the porch outside next to the hanging tubes, making space for us to sit.Ashort while later, we started back towards our car.Itwasalreadyquite a sunny afternoon. We indulged in some casual banter along the way. Tukaram quickly assessed the status of ourcar and said it would require a minimum of two hours torepair.I asked," Is there any hotel nearby for us to have something to eat?"He shrugged his head and said,"Alas! there is no hotel in the vicinity.Butwhy worry when I am here?Please let me arrange for some hot, pipping pakoras for you all while I work on your car. My wife is an amazing cook and her pakoras are very famous inthePampri village."When wereturned toTukaram's house, his wife had already begun the preparation.Our stomachsgrowledin response to thesmell of the food. Tukaram's wife,Anita Devi,invited us inside. She had already set up a dining areafor us.Along with her two children, shequickly servedussome hot onion pakoras, a tangy tomato chutney,anda cup of chai.The pakoras wereas delicious as Tukaram had promised.Eventually, Tukaramreturned with the news thatourcar had been repaired andwasparked in front of the house.We made our payment to Tukaram for his service,though his kindnesswasmore than we could everrepay.We said ourgoodbyes to the family, and theytoldus to visit them again.As the faces of the villagersfaded inthe distance,Ibegan to ponder:Who was I to Tukaram?When was the last time abusinesswent out of its way to meet the needs of its customers?Tukaram'skindness gotmethinking about the bond between a business and a customer. He had attended to us whole-heartedly withoutany apprehensions.This wasmore thana transaction between a business andacustomer.We had formeda bond that my companions and I would long remember.
Part 2- The impromptu stay
A few months back,whiletravelling for avideoshoot, we met some captivating people who ran businesses in these areas. I could not help but share these experiences in this series while I did take the liberty of changing their names. Itis inspired by the values demonstrated by the people of rural India.Their approach got me thinking of the customer service values in small towns and villages.It was day two of ourjourney when we entered a smallvillage called Chitkuli. We had travelled quite a distance. The villagewassilent, as most people had retired to their houses for the night. Most houses had a veranda orfrontlawn,and a porch.A fewpeople in groups of five or sixgathered around amakeshift campfire.Wecould hearlaughter.We stoppedto ask if there were any lodging facilities nearby.Aboynomore than fourteen years oldeagerly responded, "Yes!You can stay over at Sarpanch Khaitan's residence."Justthen,an old man with a walking stick in his handand a saffron coloured turban walked up to our car. He leanedthrough the window and gazed at our faces,seeming to judgeour appearances.He then informed that there were no lodging as such nearby for another two-hundred kilo meters.Hethenintroduced himself as the Sarpanch of the village,and invited us to be his guests. The village wasapopular stopover for travellers,sohe had arrangeda few cottages at the heart of the villagefor their comfort. He got into the car to guide us.We entered through abluedoor,noting thefloral paintingnear the entrance.We removed our footwearand dropped our luggagein a dimly lit front room.The Sarpanch led us toacommon room witha veranda at its centre.There wasa sofaatoneend, and a swing at the other.Two rooms wereconnected,and oneboasted afully functional kitchen. We all made ourselves comfortable. Then Mr.Khaitanhanded over the keysand introduced us to Chinna, the caretaker. Once he departed,wewentto our bedson the terrace,which were outfitted withmosquito nets.The next morningwe woke tobirds chirping and the commotion ofvillagersbeginningtheir daily chores.We decided toexplore the village a bitbefore continuing our journey to the shoot.The breakfast spread was already arranged for us in the dining area next to the kitchen. The smell of hot dosas and gheetemptedour stomachs.Afterour breakfast, Chinnatook usfor aquickvillage tourin his tractor.Allaround the village,we were greetedwith big smiles andindulgentdelicacies.Hand looms were the primarybusiness, practised bymany in the village. The designs were so intricate and beautiful that we could not stop ourselves from purchasinga pair or two ofscarves. In the end, when it was time for us to leave, a few of the craftsmen gifted eachof uswitha scarfas a souvenir.As we had already purchased a few scarves from them, we questioned, "Why again?"To which they replied,"This is our way to thank you for appreciating our craftsmanship," they said. "You could gift these extra scarves as a souvenir to your loved ones and share our stories with them."When asked about the lodgingfee,weweretoldwe could give a donation of our choice,and all the money collected would go totheupkeep of the place andthewelfare ofthe village.As we departed, Ionce again considered myquestion from thePampri village, my previous encounter that I talked about in my other blog.Duringour stay,I had forgotten that I wasacustomer.Iwondered, what is quintessential for ensuring customer satisfaction?In this case, it was thehumilityof the villagers thathad touched our hearts.We would cherish the memories of our stay for a long time to come.
Dear Zendesk customers, should you be worried?
We understand that nothing touches a customer's life as much as customer service. Your agents put in efforts to turn every interaction into a memorable experience. And the support software you choose plays a crucial role in their success. This makes it necessary to evaluate your software vendorfor both stability and longevity. If you are here to stay for the long haul, shouldn't you expect the same from your vendor?Zendesk has long been an obvious choicefor many businesses.Itstarted its journey bybringing an idea discussed over coffee to life. Mikkel Svane, Alexander Aghassipour, and Morten Primdahl, the founders of Zendesk, noticed a changeneeded to be made to the help desk solutions of the time. And so they fixed the loopholes and introduced a simplified software solution in 2007. This caught the attention of customers and investors, paving the path for success. Zendesk was growing and so were the interests of the founders—so they decided to go public in 2014.After going public, Zendesk's responsibilities were not limited to catering to customers' demandsor developing products butalso meetingWall Street's expectations, investors' interests, and more. And that meant their responsibility towards investors might have exceeded their commitment to their customers. Why do we say that? Let's talk about what's transpired over the last few months.Many were surprised to hear about the acquisition of a company that once rejected offers because,"they feared joining a large enterprise giant and being unhappy or, worse, that their product — which they had spent so much time working on — would be shelved." What made a company that was adamant about staying independent change its decision?And how would this affect its customers? We decided to dig a little deeper to understand the possible changesthat could result from a change in ownership.In order to understand how Zendesk's operations are likely to change, let's first talk a little about private equity (PE) firms.PE firms are investment management firms that provide financial aid to companies through various investment strategies, either in the form of leveraged buyouts, venture capital, or growth capital.These firms raise private equityfunds through pension funds, university endowments, high net-worth individuals, family offices, and other sources. These sources are referred to as limited partners, and they hold 99% of shares in the funds raised. Meanwhile, the general partners, responsible for making investment decisions and managing the operations of the acquired company, hold 1%. In return for their investment in the company,PE firms charge an annual management fee of 2% on managed assets and20% on returns acquired after selling the company.Though they raise funds from limited partners, in the case of leveraged buyouts, PE firms borrow money from different sources to fund an acquisition. The assets of the acquired company, and some assets of the PE firm, are used as collateral to obtain debt. This further increases the risk borne by the acquired company. In the case of Zendesk, Blackstone, an investment management company,has provided a $5 billion debt to fund thisleveraged buy-out.The acquired company is loaded with debt after this type of acquisition, and must service their debt through profitable returns and cash flow. Considering the number of players involved in the investment, amount of debt borrowed, and funds raised, will Zendesk be able to meet these expectations, especially considering its history?As evident from the graph, Zendesk has failed to produce any profits over the last 10 years. But if you think they can pull a rabbit out of the hat, keep in mind that"rabbits" are usually born from years of RD. ButZendesk has invested twice the amount in sales and marketing as they have in research and development.Moreover, it's present state since the announcement of the acquisition speaks a different story.Source: Zendesk Investor presentationsWe are aware that PE firms usually adopt rigorous strategies to ensure cash flow to meet their management fees, re-pay debt, and provide profitable returns to their investors. With a decline in Annual revenue rate so far, will PE firms operate any differently for Zendesk?Source: Zendesk Investor presentationsLet's take a look at the strategies commonly adopted by PE firms in tough situations.1. Employee layoffsWhen a cost reduction strategy is adopted, employees are impacted significantly. As the workforce decreases, the responsibilities of retained employees increase, along with their mistrustand frustration. This tends to hamper their performance. Happy employees create happy customers, and layoffs simply don't breed positive working environments.We saw the effects of cost reduction on the employees ofToys R Us.When the businesswas acquired by PE firms, management laid off 30,000 employees. A shortage of employees and under-investment in stores affected their operations and customer satisfaction levels.Ultimately Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy.When employees are lost or shuffled around, the quality of the customer experience declines. How would you feel if your account manager was replaced by another? Would the new manager understand your business as well as the previous one? Even if they did, would you get their undivided attention and consistent service in the midst ofa lay off situation?As a customer, it's you, or your business, that faces the repercussions of investors' decisionsas employee layoffs affect all the spheres ofbusiness and not just employees.2.Shift in decision making powerWhen debt repayment and earning fees become of paramount importance, innovation becomes insignificant. This further changes the priorities of a business. Nick Egelanian, SiteWorks president, shares the following views on PE firms:“At the core of these things, they’re running an investment firm, not a retail business. The retailer becomes the collateral rather than the actual business you’re in.”Nick Egelanian,President at SiteWorksThis is usually the casefor businesses PE firms acquire.Here's an example that shows what happened when an engineering company was led by an investor with no engineering background.Boeing, an aircraft manufacturing company, was known for its craft in airplane making. The company's leaders developed an environment where everybody was treated like family. They fostered innovation, and employees poured their hearts into product development. As a result, the planes were trusted by customers, and Boeing was able to position itself as a leader of aircraft manufacturers successfully.With privatization came many challenges, but Boeing stood its ground. It was still one of the greatest competitors in their airplane manufacturing industry. In order to expand its operations, Boeing decided to merge with McDonnell Douglas Corp. But asMcDonnel Douglas Corp. employees held major senior positions and major stakes in the company, they brought a changeto the atmosphere and management at Boeing. Boeing was no longer led by a team of engineers, but by an investor who adopted cost reduction strategies. Without any aviation background, James McNerney held the reins of the company. He decided to upgrade the 737 to accommodate more passengers.The result—the 737 max—was unreliable. Negligence, and the cost reduction strategy employed by James McNerney,resulted in the production of a faulty plane that cost 346 lives. This stained the reputation of a company that was once lauded foraircraft manufacturing.Innovation comes at a cost—but the repercussions of cost reduction are greater than the innovation costs.Zendeskfaced a similar situation when the shareholders that held only a 2% stake in the company rejected the founders' proposal of buying Momentive, the parent company of Survey Monkey. When an investor with such meager amounts of investment could affect some major product development decisions, what willhappen when investors like PE firms takeover Zendesk?3.Focus on inorganic growth: The buy-build strategyWhen organic innovation is out of their strategy to boost returns the PE firms rely on inorganic growth. They usually adopt a buy-build strategy, whereby they acquire smaller companies to gain fast returns in a short time. Although this boosts revenue of PE firms, it barely adds any value to the portfolio company.According to leading financial services consulting firm,Bain and Company, "private equity funds have not only developed an outsize reliance on multiple expansion to generate returns, but they have also lost ground when it comes to adding organic value."Acquisitions createnumerous challenges that affect integration, security, company culture, management decisions, and most importantly, customer experience. Here are a few examples of acquisitions that left customers dissatisfied and the reasons behind them:The acquisition of Nextel by Sprint Communications was intended to increase the customer base of both companies and improve cross-sell efforts. The acquisition faced a number of issues, from integration difficulties to cultural clashes. Nextel had to dependon Sprint'sapproval to take certain actions, which was another reason the acquisition failed. In the midst of this, the company also "struggled tokeep its customers happy."Another example of an acquisition that resulted in customer dissatisfaction was E-bay's purchase ofSkype. When E-bay acquired Skype, E-bay's management intended to introducevideo communication to its customers—but its customers really just needed an email feature to organize their transactions. E-bay's failure to properly integrate Skype into its operation, and its miscalculation of customers' needs, caused the failure of this acquisition.A threat to PE firms and your operations: Changing market conditionsAnother point of concern is the stability of a company. No matter how strong PE firms have been in the past, market conditions play a crucial role in deciding their future—and the future of the portfolio company. TXU, the subject of the most expensive acquisition from 2005-2007, filed for bankruptcy shortly after its acquisition due to achange in market conditions.PE firms, which were onceaccustomed to cheap flow of capital, are currently facing a threat to their profitability amid poor market conditions, rising inflation, demographic trends, and a retreat from globalization. According to The Economist, PE firms might be "heading for a fall."Considering today's high inflation, a predicted recession,and slow economic growth, will PE firms generate the same amount of revenue that they did during times of cheap debt? How will PE firms manage to provide effective returns to their limited partners (LP) who've gotten used to enjoying profits?When the pressure of staying afloat increases, businesses are likely to increase their prices.Recent trends indicate that some businesses increased prices multiple times in a relatively short period due to the present market conditions. But will they stop there?Here are two likely outcomes for PE portfolio companies after purchase:1. They are either sold or listed as an IPO by the PE firm (Buy-sell strategy)When PE firms feel they've gained enough from the company, they head towards their strategy of selling or listing the company as an IPO. The holding power of a private equity firm is 6-7 years. But lately, the holding period has decreased from 5.8 years in 2014 to 4.4 years in 2021. With rising market concerns, will the holding power decrease further, leaving portfolio companies vulnerable to changes?2.Theyend up filing for bankruptcyWhen portfolio companies fail to service their debt, they file for bankruptcy. In the past, most portfolio companies, such as TXU and Toys R Us,filed for bankruptcy when debts were pushing down their operations. A leveraged buyout of Toys R Us affected the staff and the product growth. But as the portfolio companies filed for bankruptcy, the PE firms continued to stay strong.This greatly impacts the reputationsof portfolio companies, and the trust customers place in them. That's what happened with Toys R Us. Although they were saved by another company after they filed for bankruptcy, the customer experience felt by customers was no longer the same. A continuous change in operations affects the originality of a company. Will repairing a piece of broken glass ever bring it back to its original form?Will Zendesk end up in a similar situation? Only the future will tell.As a business, it is up to you to decide—can you depend on a vendor with an uncertain future, especially for an area as crucial as customer service?If you feel you deserve better, think about LIKE.TG. We've been private, profitable, and reliable for 26 years.
Part 3- Fruits Of Wisdom
A few months back,whiletravelling for avideoshoot, we met some captivating people who ran businesses in these areas. I could not help but share these experiences in this series while I did take the liberty of changing their names. Itis inspired by the values demonstrated by the people of rural India.Their approach got me thinking of the customer service values in small towns and villages.On our way, we passed through many small villages,wherewe purchasedfresh fruitsandlocal delicacies. Many a time during our tea breaks,we chanced uponfascinating people from these villages. They would share stories,andsometimes,offerto sharefood theyhadbrought along for lunch.Bythe last mile of our journey, we were all eager toreachour destinationand set upfor the shoot. We had collected many beautiful handicrafts that were given to us as souvenirs in the villages we visited. Our creative director hadalreadyplanned to add themtothe misc en scene of the shoot.The road ahead was blocked.Aherd of sheep was crossing the road,shepherded by a young boy. He made a strange clicking sound through the corner of his lips, swaying his thin cane,mimicking an action of slicing through air. He saw us waiting to pass by, and tried to hasten the herd. We had a few snacks with us and decided topull over andoffer them to him.He smiledandsaid, "The road ahead is jammed duetoa tree blocking the path." Headvisedus to follow him for another way out that went along the fields. There were paddy fields to one side, a house in the middle,andsugar cane fieldsatthe other end. There was a barn next to the house,but few other homesin the vicinity.The boy introduced himself as Babloo. He was in school,and helped out his mother in the evenings.His motherhad just returned from the market after selling the season'sharvest. Shestill had some oranges left in her basket, which we asked to purchase.She theninvited usto have some ofthe orange juice she had made for her children. She welcomed us into her house and brought us each a glass. While we drank, shetoldusofthe hardshipsher family facedin selling their produce, as the middle men chargedexorbitant prices for their services.They had placed cots outside, under a hay shed as a place to relax.We spent a while talking and laughingbeforedeciding it was timeto leave. We purchased orangesfor our journey ahead, and the boy ranto getussome extrabottles of orange juiceto carry. When we tried to pay for the bottles, the mother replied, "I don't need money in return. Please keep the juice for the long journey ahead.After all,it is so sunny during the day.I am more than happytosharewith you."We waved our goodbyesand left for our journey, with thefaces and smilesof the familydisappearing slowly in the distance.By six in the evening,we reached our location. We retired to our roomsat a nearbyinspectionbungalow.The caretakerinformed us that dinner would be readyin the dining areaby 8PM.We all had a good power nap and freshened up for dinner.When we arrived, the food was already served on the table, and theroom was filled with the aroma of home-cooked food.We all sat around the table,andbegan to discuss the journey so far. How adventurous was our beginning with ourcarbreaking down at the very start!But luckily the villagers of the neighbouring areahad beenquite a help. Tukuram, who had serviced our car,had gone out of his way by not only repairing the car,butarranging a meal ofpakorasfor us as well.Our next stayattheChitkuli villagehad been just aswelcoming.We noticeda man about the age of fifty washaving dinner at a table next to us.He seemed to have been staying in the same accommodation as us.He hada diarynext to him,wherehewas quicklyjotting down pointswhile we were describing our journey. We askedwhy he was carryingthediary,andhe replied that he was penning down his research.He introduced himself as a commerce professor who taught at a university nearby. He was currently writing a book on the behavioural traits of trade in rural India.Heaskedfordetails aboutourjourney,and we toldhim about how the hand loom weavers from the Chitkuli village gave us scarves authentic to the practice as souvenirs. Their this gesturehadmade us feel as though we werepart of their community,rather thanmere customers. Tothis,the professor replied,"In researching thebehavioursof rural folk inbusiness, I have noticed that the value of togethernessservesas a priority.The rural folk believe that abusiness flourishes when your customerisa part of your journey,rather thana one-time transaction."Heexplained,"Rural folks tend to share deeper bonds with the people around them. They value interdependency and believeeach person playsa priorityroleinthe welfare of the community.It is these feelings among the rural folk that binds them together."He said, "You were treated not like a customer, but as a part of their familyandcommunity.That is because of the deep-rooted value of Athithi Devo Bhava, whichshapesbusiness transactionsin rural communities.""In contrast,considermost modern businesses," he said."When was the last time any business made you feellikepart of their familyduringthe very firstencounter?You have cutting edge technology, artificial intelligence,andaugmented reality, blah blah....available with business tools like CRMsandhelpdesks. But why is the human touch missing? Perhaps it is because those who build all these fancy toolsnever tookatrip like youhave.He then emphasized us to think,"Imagine someone from one of thevillagesyou visited—for example,Babloo the shepherd—growing up to build a high-technologycustomer service solution. Won't he bring all his empathy and cultural valuesto it?"That's when I replied to him,"Yes! There is already one such business, and I work for it."It's called LIKE.TG Desk. It was built in the heart of rural India in the year 2016 by leaders who believe in the notion of Atithi Devo Bhava. It is a business that stems from these very ideals.In fact, it is more than a business;it is a familyanda community.
How to identify contemporary customer service software
Imaginewalkinginto astoreandstruggling to find assistance when you need it.Wouldyou walk out of that store immediately?Effectivecustomer support isessential. Itindicates thatyour business is a reliable place to be andensuresthat your customers feel acknowledged.Today,mostbusinessesmaintaina virtual presence to attend to a largercustomerbase.Butmany businesses fail toprioritize digital customer service the same way they prioritize in-person service. If you'd like to give your online help desk a stronger presence, and provide your customers withan ideal shopping experience, it's not too late.In this article, we'llhelp you findwaysto meet your ever-evolving customer supportneedsin contemporary times.Over the last two years, employershavehad toadjusttheir traditional work styles to accommodate the work-from-homemodel.Likewise, the customer care industry hasfelta major impact.Customer care is at an inflection point with an increase in call volumes (especially for complex questions), expectations of good customer experiences,and scarcity of customer support talent. According tothestate of customer care study,many companies are looking to improve the customer experience (CX) with a mix ofthe human touch and technology.Data credits: Mckinsey Company survey.5 Essentialsfor delivering top-notch customer servicetoday:1.Establish operations that are truly omnichannel:Loyal customers are the best allies in building a successful business. In order toearn loyalty, brands mustbe able to connectwith theircustomersand effectively caterto their needs.Nowadays, connecting with a customer is no longer restricted to your website and live conversations.With customer behaviour continually changing, it becomes even more challenging to determine one channel thatisbest for all customers.Modern support agents receive tickets from various channels, from email to chat, to calls, to social media platforms, and many more. This means active and efficient tracking of all communication platforms is essential.LIKE.TG helps your agents keep track of all their tickets in a single window. A wide range of ticket views and work modes, like status mode, priority modeand many other work modes by LIKE.TG help your agents to organize ticketsaccording to their preferences.2.Make the most of your social media accounts:According to arecent study, people age 25 and younger expect a brand to have a social media presenceand consider social accounts to be a reliable primary source of contact witha brand. This means a brand needs to be available on social media beyond its marketing/promotional activities.A rule of thumb of customer service is that a brand can provide better CX through quick and efficientresponses.Customersoftenexpresstheir grievances on social media platforms. According to a survey byConvince andConvert, 42% ofcustomers expect a response within 60 minutes ofraising a request.Thisexpectationhas made it necessary forsupport agents to be present on a wide range of platforms to provide their expertise.Many help desk solutions offer to help you aggregate all your tickets from different channels on one platform.Andwith LIKE.TG's Instant Messaging feature,you can respond to your customers on the same channel they used to approach you.3.Provide real-time assistance:Most businesses are investing in options for providing real time assistance to their customers. Around71% of companies agree that automationhas helped them stay strong during the pandemic. Withincreased investment in automation trending, chatbots have become extremely popular. The chatbot market has increased manifoldly over recent years.As artificial intelligence technology becomes more capable and accessible, it's becoming easier to provide timely and accurate customer service.With Zia, an AI. chatbot by LIKE.TG, you can provide support to your customers at the earliest.4.Invest in quality self-service options:To provide faster resolutions, customers areturningto self-service options. They prefer to find their answers through resources on a company's website, inthe company's knowledge base/community forums, or through automated chatbots rather than having to connect with an agent. Therising popularity ofgood self-service options hasnot eliminated the need foragents, buthas made iteasierfor customersto find answers tosimple questions, while saving their more complex concerns for live support.LIKE.TG has always aligned with self-service. With the latest addition to the self-service platform, Guided Conversations feature provides your customers with instant support and also empowers. It helps you build workflows to resolve simple and more frequent questions raised by a customer without involving a support agent in the process.5. Empowercustomer support agents:Itis now moreessentialthan evertoensure that your business is delivering prompt, effective customer service. While self-service has helpedtremendously in decreasing call volumes, agents continue to be responsible for addressing more complex questions. This requires companies toinvest inattracting and training talent that can handlein-depthquestions efficiently toimprovecustomer experience (CX) metrics. Withthe rise of features likeknowledge basesand automation enhancing self-service platforms,manysupport agents feel empowered and less burdened.Those in managerial roles also find their jobs simplified. Plus, support teams can beself-managedwhiledetailed analytics help facilitate a clear understanding of support team activities.Your customers are a part of your journey, and the customer experience plays an important role in determining the success of yourbusiness. LIKE.TG provides features,like multi-channel integration, the Radar app, custom functions, Guided Conversations,and Instant Messaging,that make it areliable, secure, and efficient solution for yourcustomer support desk.LIKE.TGDeskhelps you achieve betterrelationshipswith your customers bycatering to theirconstantly-evolvingneeds and demands.Tolearnmore aboutLIKE.TG'sfunctionalities,and howtheycan help you build a strongercustomerbase in thefast-paceddigital world,click here.
ChatGPT for customer service: Limitations and capabilities
ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence (AI) that can outline blog posts, provide research to bolster your content,generate images, and write codes. Many people are excited about all the possible applications of ChatGPT. ButwhenGPT-4 generated a list of jobs it can potentially replace,it raised some concerns.It might be alarming to see that customer service representative jobs are second on the list. But it's important to keep in mind that while ChatGPT can sound authoritative, it cannot truly differentiate between fact and fantasy, and it certainly cannot predict the future. The chat window page even alerts users that ChatGPT "may occasionally generate incorrect information," and "may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content."The hype around AI invokes images of robots bent on threatening humankind, blame Westworld, The Matrix, and I, Robot. However, The reality of AI is far less terrifying. It rather has a harmonious relationship with humans, empowering us to do our jobs better.But can ChatGPT be used in all customer service situations? Let's find out.What ChatGPT cannot do:Empathize with the customerGPT-4 claims it can take over the jobs of customer service reps because it "thinks" it can replace empathy. Many have declared thatChatGPT generates misinformation that sounds convincing, and this certainly seems like an example of that. Although it is programmed to recognize and understand certain phrases that indicate human emotions, it cannot experience emotions in the same way customer service reps (humans) do, so it cannot truly empathize with customers.Handle complex questionsChatGPT can provide relevant information from the data it is trained on. But it may not be able to provide comprehensive solutions to complex questions, especially those that require creative problem-solving. Moreover, it cannot understand the context of a conversation, so there always needs to be a human in the loop to handle exceptional customer support cases.Provide personalized supportEvery human should be treated equally but not the same. Humans differ in temperament and opinions, and an AI algorithm might fail to consider that.Although it is possible to integrate ChatGPT with business-specific systems like your help desk or CRM and train it on specific domain knowledge, it doesn't know your customer better than you do and falls short when answers need to be tailored to fit specific customer needs. Always provide the correct answerChatGPT uses a large language model that is continuously trained to improve response accuracy. However, like any artificial intelligence, ChatGPT's responses may contain biases or inaccuracies that may confuse customers. Although ChatGPT generates human-like responses, users must still edit, personalize, and fact-check them.ChatGPT is more of a companion than a full replacement for its human counterparts. Even with its shortcomings, it has the potential to improve customer service operations significantlywhen used appropriately.What ChatGPT can do:Summarize a thread or a knowledge base articleChatGPT has excellent summarization skills. It can quickly process lengthy articles or conversations and pull out the most relevant points. This is particularly helpful when an agent has to transfera ticket to another agent or department. ChatGPT can also help repurpose an existing knowledge base article into step-by-step instructions to sharewith a customer.Rephrase agent repliesChatGPT can generate multiple phrasings of the same text response in a few seconds while retaining the original meaning. Agents can ask ChatGPT to make a message more friendly or formal. It can generate multiple responses, so agents can choose the most desirable option. This helpsimprove the fluency and tone of the reply.Auto-completeticket replySimilar to predictive text on your smartphone, ChatGPT cansuggest possible phrases/sentences to complete your response. Support agents generally know the correct answer, so with minor tweaks to what ChatGPT suggests, they can createand type out responsesmore quickly.Analyze customer sentimentAs noted earlier, ChatGPT cannot empathize with humans, but it can recognize keywords and phrases that indicate human emotions such as happiness, sadness, and frustration. This skill can be used to sense the tone of an incoming thread and determine the customer's mood. Here's an example of one such use case implemented by LIKE.TG that allows the agents to view the Customer Mood Summary to understand and engage better with the customer.Provide multilingual supportThe exact number of languages that ChatGPT supports cannot be determined, as the GPT model continues to update and improve. However, at this time, it already knowsquite a few languages.It can translate messages from one language to another in a few seconds.With its multilingual capabilities, ChatGPT can help in providing support to a wider range of customers.Create templatesTell ChatGPT what you’re writing—a support email reply to a review, help article, return policy, or something else. ChatGPT can generate templates for all your common communication materials and questions. Then, you can customize the content with relevant product information and other details.Power business chatbotYou can use OpenAI's API to incorporate ChatGPT into your website or app and use it as a business chatbot to provide around-the-clock support. It can be trained to answer commonly asked questions by surfing the company's knowledge base and performing specific tasks such as booking appointments or placing orders.Wrapping up!The workplace is constantly evolving, just as it has been for centuries. People lost their jobs to machines during the Industrial Revolution. But those who embraced the changes became more relevant. Right now we are experiencing an AI revolution.Humans are — and always will be — fundamental to AI, because AI cannot interpret events, actions, or tones like humans can. A set of computer programs cannot feel like humans, so they don't consider feelings. They fail to understand situational nuances. But the only way to keep up in the modern workplaceis to embrace GPT and similar technologies.
Do price revisions correlate with innovation?
Today, most businesses rely on cloud-based solutions to operate smoothly and cost-efficiently. Dependence on the cloud is often based on the convenience of software maintenance, the flexibility to adjust licenses based on usage, and the reduced costs of use and operation it provides.However, not every software solution on the market offers these benefits. Take, for instance, Zendesk.When Zendesk introduced its customer service software solution, businesses were drawn to its simple and easy-to-use offerings. A short time later, in 2010, Zendesk announced a price increase, leading to a 300% increase in some users' monthly fees. In response to customer backlash, the CEO grandfathered pricing for existing customers and expressed a commitment to provide "the best product and the best value for all of the additional functionality we roll out in the future." However, the product that once enabled businesses to operate smoothly grew in complexity.Since 2010, Zendesk has undergone several changes, the most significant being its acquisition by an investor group led by Hellman and Friedman, and Permira. A few months after the announcement, there were speculations about employee layoffs, a change in CEO, and a price increase.One by one, these all came to fruition. Are there more changes ahead for Zendesk's customers? Once again, only time will tell.Recently, Zendesk announced a 15% price increase for its service software and a 20% price increase for its other add-on products, citing the same reason they did in 2010: product innovation.While many customers expressed unhappiness, others chose to opt in to multi-year contracts to temporarily save their businesses from increased costs. This workaround meant customers could no longer enjoy the pay-as-you-go subscription model, one of the reasons many opted for a cloud-based solutionin the first place.Now comes an important question: Is increasing prices wrong? Not as long as customers get the value the vendor claims to offer. This is why we decided to dissect Zendesk's current pricing structure against the value it offersto customers.As you may know, this pricing is only for one part of a more complete customer service solution. If you choose Zendesk as your customer service platform, you will need to piece together multiple applications to make it work for you. Essential features, like call, chat, messaging, analytics, and the help center are available as separate products for purchase, and have also seen a 20% price increase.Some basic features are either absent from the application or offered as extensions. Moreover, every time Zendesk acquires a new feature, customers have to pay for the acquired feature as an add-on or as part of a high-priced bundle edition.This means you will be paying for Zendesk's acquisitions, as well as Zendesk's acquisition of $10.2 billion.As a leveraged buyoutwith a history of 10 years of consistent losses,Zendesk and its investors are bound to look for better returns on their investment. With anexorbitantdebtto pay, a history of losses, and an uncertain economic situation at present, will Zendesk be able to continue to innovatethrough acquisitions? And will customers have to continue paying the price for it?At LIKE.TG, we believe that there is a better way. We built our products through years of sustainable research and development to deliver efficient software at the right price. We've been reliable, self-sufficient, and profitable for 26 years.Switch to our customer service software, LIKE.TG. Trusted by companies like Daimler, Godrej, and 100 thousand other businesses around the world to build lasting customer relationships.To learn more about how LIKE.TG's functionality stacks up against Zendesk's, head to this comparison page.Disclaimer: Facts cited are based on our internal research.
Customer service has to win every time
Imagine walking into a store to buy a pair of shoes. The salesperson is friendly and helps you find the perfect pair. You're happy with your purchase and you leave the store feeling great.But a few weeks later, the shoes start to fall apart. You return to the store for a refund, but the customer service representative is dismissive and unhelpful. You leave feeling disappointed.Even though the salesperson won you over initially, the bad customer service experience left a lasting impression. You're unlikely to shop at that store again.Now, imagine walking into a different store. The salesperson is friendly, but they don't have the right size or style of shoes for you. You're disappointed, but you understand.However, the customer service representative goes above and beyond to help you find the perfect pair of shoes. They check other stores in their chain and even order them from a different warehouse. You're so impressed with the customer service that you become loyal and enthusiastically recommend the store to everyone.The takeaway from the story? Sales has to win once, but customer service has to win every time. Credits: Shep HykenYou need to cross the finish line first to win the race, and that's similar to how sales need to close a deal to win a customer's business. However, customer service is more like a marathon. You need to keep running and providing excellent service to your customers, even if they don't make a purchase right away. That's because good customer service can turn a one-time sale into a lifelong customer.How can your customer service teams win every time?It’s all too easy to lose customers in a competitive consumer-driven marketplace. And providing poor customer service is one of the fastest ways for that to happen. Here's how you can set your customer service team up for winning.Be present on channels that matter to your customersTo connect with your customers, you must be available on the social media platforms they frequent, the communities they engage in, the forums they seek advice on or even the direct line of instant messaging apps they use. You have to do more than simply exist on these channels: Listen intently to their concerns, participate meaningfully in conversations, and be prepared to address issues publicly and transparently when necessary.Make the experience so smooth that customers won't need to reach outJeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, is quoted as having said: “The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.” This perfectly sums up the idea of empowering customers to take control of their own experiences. Today, customers, like you and I, expect a superior standard of self-service from all the brands we interact with. The integration of self-service portals, automation, and artificial intelligence is currently paving the way for continuous improvements in this domain, promising to democratize the self-service experience.Be fast, but uphold qualityIn customer service, you have to find the sweet spot where speed meets quality. Here's how:Prioritize and triage requests to address urgent needs quickly (think about a server outage) while dedicating focused time to complex problems (like refund disputes).Equip your customer support reps with the right tools and resources to solve problems independently. They need clear guidelines, readily accessible information, and the ability to make decisions without lengthy approval procedures.Automate repetitive tasks like password resets or basic order tracking, freeing up time for reps to focus on complex inquiries and personalized interactions.Monitor performance and act on itCustomer service, unlike sales, can be difficult to monitor because the results are not immediately credited to your account. Quantifying customer service can be tricky, but it's far from impossible! Here are a few ways to measure the impact of your customer service efforts:Quantitative metrics:Customer satisfaction (CSAT): Use surveys or post-interaction prompts to gauge immediate satisfaction with specific interactions.Net promoter score (NPS): Ask customers how likely they are to recommend your brand, providing a strong indicator of overall loyalty.Customer effort score (CES): Measure how easy it was for customers to resolve their issues, revealing potential friction points.First contact resolution rate (FCR): Track the percentage of issues resolved on the first interaction, signifying efficiency and reduced frustration.Average resolution time (ART): Monitor how long it takes to address issues, identifying areas for improvement in speed and efficiency.Customer churn rate (CCR): Calculate the percentage of customers who cease doing business with you, highlighting potential service flaws.Qualitative metrics:Social media sentiment: Gauge overall customer sentiment towards your brand and customer service by analyzing public online conversations.Customer reviews and feedback: Mine reviews and feedback for recurring themes, revealing positive and negative aspects of your service.You are ready to win!While sales seal the deal, it's exceptional customer service that makes customers stay. Sales aim for that one victorious moment, but customer service plays the long game,aiming to score a fresh win with every interaction.To win at customer service, choosing the right tool can make a significant difference. Consider giving LIKE.TG a try and experience how it can improve your customer service game!
The Empathetic Product Manager
Empathy. You’ve heard it’s an essential skill for product managers, marketing managers, and UX teams. But how can you put empathy into practice when engaging with customers and prospects?
Empathy is a way of understanding your customers’ underlying needs and motivations. I believe that empathy can lead you to build a better product and then explain to the world why you’re building it.
I think of empathy as listening closely but also as a way of asking better questions that matter.
Here are a few tips and examples you can use during your customer interviews to arrive at unique insights you wouldn’t have otherwise – and ultimately build great products.
Understand How Customers Define Success
A good place to start is by asking questions to help understand a customer’s motivation to solve a problem. If your product is B2B, you want to understand what they want to achieve with their business and the metrics they use to measure success. In B2B, it’s important to remember that “customers” are not businesses but people.
Here’s an example: When I was helping to validate the product that eventually became AppFolio, we scheduled several long conversations and in-person visits with our target business owners. We wanted to learn about the products they used but also to understand what they wanted to achieve with their business.
At first, we assumed that they wanted to make more money. That often was true, but frequently we heard something different. Many simply wanted to maintain the business but run it more efficiently so they could have more free time (we heard about golfing on Fridays more than once). Others wanted to build a sustainable business they could pass on to their son or daughter.
By understanding these motivations through empathetic questioning, we could build a product and compelling value proposition that resonated with our target customer.
For your customers, ask the basic questions that illuminate success metrics – for example:
“Why did you start this business?”
“How did you get into this job?”
“How do you know you have had a successful year?”
Understand How They are Solving Problems Today
When talking with prospects, ask for examples of how they solve their problems today. If they are currently your customer, they may be supplementing your solution with other solutions—this is essential to understand. You can discover great product opportunities when customers are cobbling together multiple solutions (including spreadsheets and paper) to solve the problem.
For B2B products, there is no better option than being in their office to see the systems, workflow (and problems) first-hand. You can also see nonverbal cues. Phone interviews are fine, but seeing stacks of paper, wall charts, sticky notes, and other workarounds can give your team inspiration for innovative ways to solve the problem.
Uncover the True Motivators
As a product manager, you already know it’s crucial to uncover pain. But sometimes, customers and prospects tell you what you want to hear. Or tell you something is important when it’s actually not very high on their priority list. Asking the right questions can help you get to the true motivators.
Here’s an example: When researching the concept that became LIKE.TG, we interviewed dozens of product managers to understand their product roadmapping process. As a result, we uncovered a lot of pain and motivation to change an ineffective process dominated by spreadsheets and presentation tools.
But we learned that the challenge for them wasn’t only about saving time and getting out from under the burden of Excel and PowerPoint. By asking the right questions and listening closely, we understood that it was also about creating a compelling vision and looking good in front of stakeholders and executives. As a result, our product roadmap software looks beautiful and delivers on speed and ease of use.
The best way to uncover true motivators is with open-ended questions. Using “why” and “how” are great tools to use often. Couple that with listening closely, and you are on the right track.
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A Few More Tips for Empathy
Listen to their language. Listen closely to the way that customers phrase their problems and their domain space. Then, use that language when talking with them. These descriptions and words can not only provide you with a way of discussing issues in a common language, but you can later use this language to describe your product and build out value propositions that resonate.
Debrief after each interview. If you can, interview in pairs or as part of a team. Take notes and have a follow-up discussion to document what each of you heard. I guarantee that you heard things differently.
Let customers answer questions themselves. Don’t prompt them with suggested answers. Instead, give them time to answer the question. Sometimes uncomfortable silence is good and will yield responses you might not have gotten otherwise.
I’ve seen first-hand how empathetic questioning and listening can help uncover true motivations and provide a path to better products. It’s also great to let customers know that we care enough to truly understand them.
Why Agile Teams Need a Product Roadmap
“We’re agile, so why do we need a long-term product roadmap?”I hear this question regularly. At first blush, the termsagileandproduct roadmap seem like a contradiction, but they’re not. In fact, you should have an agile product roadmap.
In most agile product development organizations, the backlog is used by the development team to track what’s coming next, at least for the next few sprints or iterations. Many agile teams rely heavily on the backlog, as it maps out short-term initiatives. But the backlog in itself is not the roadmap. This post explains why you need both.
Product Roadmap vs. Backlog
A product roadmap is different from a backlog. The product roadmap defines a strategic view of where the product is headed over the mid to long term, whereas the backlog defines the product features and initiatives for the near term. The roadmap is tied to the organization’s vision and long-term strategic goals, often for the next 12 or more months. In an agile organization, the roadmap provides guidance rather than a strict project plan.
It’s Hard to Communicate Strategy in a Backlog
An agile product roadmap communicates to the organization the big picture – the initiatives that move the needle, expand markets, address competition, and create customer value.That big-picture thinking can’t be distilled in the backlog. It’s challenging to communicate strategy in a list that’s 200 items long, especially to executives and other stakeholders who may not think in terms of iterations or sprints.
Even agile organizations need this strategic view. At LIKE.TG we’vediscovered our customers are sharing product roadmaps with the engineers to give perspective to the backlog. It helps the development organization understand how the next few sprints fit into the big picture.
An agile product roadmap speaks in terms ofepics and themes, while the backlog is the detailed features and other tasks that deliver the product.In a sense, the backlog is a translation of how your team will deliver the vision outlined on an agile product roadmap.
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Why an Agile Product Roadmap Makes Sense
A roadmap should be agile and thought of as a living document rather than a plan set in stone. Like the backlog, the product roadmap should be regularly discussed, prioritized, estimated, updated, and shared.
Because an agile product roadmap will inevitably change, it’s important to set expectations with your stakeholders that the roadmap is not a promise. Many of our customers keep the roadmap dates at a monthly or quarterly level, or leave the dates off altogether to avoid setting the impression that features will be delivered by a specific date.
Product owners need to regularly communicate where the product is heading so that everyone is on the same page, especially to stakeholders who make final decisions, control the budget, or influence the direction of the company.Your agile product roadmap, therefore, should be a visual, easy-to-digest document that your stakeholders can understand and that gives perspective to your backlog.
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Should You Flip Your Product Roadmap Process Around?
If your product team is like most, you have software for capturing issues, managing requirements, and tracking projects. After all, it’s essential to manage the details and deliver quality product releases.
But we hear regularly from product managers who tell us it’s too hard to use the information in these tools to plan and create a high-level product roadmap for communicating with executives and other stakeholders.
Here’s the problem: the current tools often develop the roadmap from the bottom-up details, not the top-down big picture.
Product managers are looking to flip their process around – they want an easy way to create a high-level product roadmap without first entering the low-level details. And those details are often not defined or fuzzy at best, especially if they’re more than a couple of quarters in the future.
Even though most product managers are using sophisticated product management software, the irony is that it simply takes too long to create a decent product roadmap that executives understand. As a result, far too many product managers turn to dated tools like PowerPoint and spreadsheets for planning and communicating their high-level strategy.
Just this week a VP of Product summarized it nicely for me. She said “I need to find something that my executive team likes. Every year we seem to argue over templates. I want to get out of the line of fire and get some part of my weekend back.”
What we’ve found through dozens of conversations with customers is that product managers and product executives want a simpler way to do top-down strategic planning and communication. They want to have productive discussions about future big initiatives, themes, or epics that move the needle for the company.
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Several product managers have told us their executive team simply doesn’t care much about the details—what they really care about is whether the proposed roadmap fits with the strategic direction of the company. Successful product managers tap into this by keeping the roadmapping process high-level and collaborative.
We found that by helping product managers easily create and then share their high-level product vision, they can get the executive team, marketing, engineering management and the rest of the organization on board with the strategy.
We built LIKE.TG as an elegant way to quickly create a beautiful top-down product roadmap and then present the strategy to the executive team and management. It provides product teams a way to do high-level strategic planning, entering details about business value, development effort, and other information only at the point when it’s better defined.
Through this process, the product team minimizes disconnects and gets everyone on the same page earlier in the process. Is it time to turn your product roadmap process upside down?
photo credit: Margaret Killjoy cc