Episode 031: Adrian Swinscoe - How COVID19 Exposes What Excellent CX is and The Impact on Sales

Adrian Swinscoe is a best-selling author, Forbes, contributor, speaker, advisor, aspirin, customer experience punk; we are going to find out about that CX Punk. His driving passion is helping to create and develop and grow businesses that take care of their customers in the best way possible and building great teams that require to do this. So, it is a focus on excellent customer service and experience.   The key to understanding and dealing with COVID19 area is being mindful of what our people are going through as they transition to remote working and how we can help them do the best job that we can. But also, how can we communicate with our customers to help manage and set expectations at this incredibly challenging time, of business as unusual. The idea that you could take service as usual and turn up the volume is just not going to cut it right now, says Adrian. We must think about it as service as unusual.   You do not necessarily have to ask for Customers help specifically. You must tell the customer what is going on and that you are working hard to resume service, but right now this is services unusual. Adrian gives an excellent example of how a bank frustrated their customer by not communicating effectively.   COVID19 has shined a light on what good CX can and should look like. What we are seeing is the best just know this and get this, and everybody else is way far behind. The exciting thing about it is that empathy does not exist at an organisational level. Empathy is a human and individual thing and unless you are predisposed towards it, or you have had an experience of developing it. Empathy is a habit and behaviour that we can learn, but it takes effort, time, discipline, and commitment. If we all try and do it, we will all get better at it.   Adrian recounts a story from Zappos in the US, that delivered exemplary customer service in unusual quarters. He references new research from Edelman that says over 90% of customers are reporting that they are paying close attention to how brands look after both their employees and suppliers in this time. They want them to do the right thing by these groups, even if that costs them in the short run. The follow-up piece on the research was that over 70% of those customers reported that if they saw those brands not looking after their people and suppliers, they believed that the brand would lose their trust forever, and they would never do business with them again. We will find out over time, said Adrian, but what it provides is evidence for is this idea that what you do right now matters, and it will have a lasting consequence. So, pay attention! People think that sales and customer experiences separate, but they are not. They are entirely and directly linked says, Adrian. What’s the difference between customer experience and the customers' experience? Actual, says Adrian, the difference can be a country mile. Customer experience could be a thing that gets done in organisations, whether it is a service department or marketing and then sales are separate from that. The customers' experience has got nothing to do with the organisation, it is about what the customer experiences when we deal with a brand.  Sales is an intrinsic part of the whole customer journey with a particular brand. Therefore, it is a massive part of what happens that makes your customer experience.   Other research that says that 90% of all loyalty is driven by two points on a customer's journey with a brand. Firstly, over 45% of all loyalty, is what happens around the customers buying experience that includes complaints, sales, and everything else that their experience and their memories help driver loyalty. Secondly, what happens when something goes wrong. Sales play a role in both of those things; from a direct sale, account management and managing the relationship. To say sales and customer experience are separate is looking at it from a traditional organisational perspective, but in the mind of your customer, they are just the same thing. Ultimately, says Adrian, it is not about you, it is about them. https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianswinscoe https://www.adrianswinscoe.com Books by Adrian Swinscoe: How to Wow: 68 Effortless Ways to Make Every Customer Experience Amazing Punk CX