Three Critical Moments in Every Customer's Experience

There are three moments in every service experience that matter most.

They have an outsized impact on what your customers will remember. Get them right and you’re on way to establishing a loyal customer relationship. Fail in any of these moments and your service will quickly go from bad to worse.

These touch points are the Moments of Truth for your customer. As you read about each one, think about what your customers experience at each step along the way.

The Welcome

It’s probably not a surprise that first impressions are important, but why? 

One explanation is something called confirmation bias. A strong first impression, whether good or bad, can influence how a customer perceives the rest of their experience. 

Confirmation bias causes people to selectively filter information based on whether or not it fits with their beliefs. A customer might ignore a sub-par experience if they think you're great. On the other hand, the slightest misstep might be amplified in the eyes of a customer who is already angry.

You can read an example of how confirmation bias impacted two hotel stays here.

One challenge is the first impression doesn’t always occur at initial contact.

• A hotel guest may be arrive exhausted after a long day of travel.
• A customer calling a contact center may be annoyed by the time they reach a customer service rep because they had to navigate endless voice menu prompts and wait on hold for fifteen minutes.
• A customer visiting a retail store may be in a sour mood if they had to drive around for ten minutes to find a parking space.

There are only two ways to win in these situations.

The first is to turn the customer around with an outstanding first impression. Good just won’t cut it when the customer is already upset.

The second is to try to influence a better first impression. This involves identifying additional factors that can be controlled. Here are some examples:

• A hotel could offer an airport shuttle service to make arrivals easier.
• A contact center could use a friendly person instead of IVR.
• A retail store could negotiate designated parking spaces with their landlord.

These solutions aren't always possible, but top companies are always pushing to create a better customer experience.

The Peak

This Moment of Truth is the part of the experience that represents the greatest difference from the norm. It might be the very best thing that happened or the very worst. 

As I wrote in an article on the salesforce.com blog, we don’t notice good service. We only notice service that’s different than what we expect. And, it’s the point in the experience that represents the biggest difference that we remember.

It’s easy to win this Moment of Truth when we are presented with a hero opportunity. One of my favorite examples is this story where Morton’s Steakhouse surprised a customer at the Newark airport with a steak after the customer had jokingly tweeted to Morton’s that he was craving one.

But, what about service failures? Unless you overcorrect the problem, the service failure itself will be the peak experience.

Too often, the focus is on returning customers to normal. If you go out to eat with a friend and your steak isn't prepared properly, most restaurants will bring you a new one. Does that really fix things? Your dinner companion either has to eat their meal while you wait for yours or let their food get cold. 

Overcorrecting the problem would be finding a way to ensure you and your friend have a great dining experience, not just fixing the steak.

The Farewell

The last impression may also be the one that lasts the longest.

Think of it as the final chapter in a book. It’s not just the last step in the customer’s journey. It’s the experience that ties everything together and brings the experience to a close.

Consider what customers do after a service experience:

• Decide whether or not they’re likely to return
• Tell friends or family members
• Take a survey
• Write an online review
• Share their experience on social media

If the lasting impression was favorable, all of those activities can reinforce the customer’s positive impression. The opposite is also true. An unresolved problem can fester and grow the more the customer thinks about it.

What Can You Do?

There are a few things you can do to identify and win these critical moments of truth.

First, experience your company’s first impression through your customers’ eyes. Are there opportunities to make it better? Easier? More welcoming?

Next, get obsessive about preventing service failures. A service failure will automatically become the peak experience if you can’t quickly resolve it.

Finally, try to end every experience on a good note. This means actively discovering and resolving problems before the experience is done.

Simplistic advice? Perhaps. But, it’s also easier said than done.

Comcast Botches Service Failure Apology

Comcast issued an apology last week for a service failure that went viral.

The apology stressed that the employee’s actions were not consistent with how Comcast does business. They promised an investigation and swift action. The statement declared Comcast’s commitment to always treat customers with the utmost respect.

They got it all wrong.

This service failure wasn’t the employee’s fault. He was doing his job exactly the way Comcast designed it. Heck, he should probably win employee of the month. 

Background

Comcast subscriber Ryan Block called to cancel his service. By Block’s estimate, he was ten minutes into the call and getting nowhere, so he decided to record it. 

In the recorded portion, you can hear the Comcast employee repeatedly badgering Block about his decision to cancel. It goes on for over eight painful minutes. 

The story went viral when Block posted the recording online and has since received national media attention.

Failure By Design

Contrary to Comcast’s apology, this situation was failure by design.

Imagine you are a Comcast customer like Block and want to cancel your account. Chances are, you go to the Comcast website to find out how to do it.

The account cancellation instructions are intentionally buried on the website. There's plenty of information about adding services or even troubleshooting a problem. Canceling your account is a different story. Entering “cancel account” into their website search box yields all sorts of results except for how to cancel your account. 

I finally found the directions after doing a Google search. Comcast offers multiple options for contacting them about most issues. However, if you want to cancel, you have to call:

Notice this description.

The instructions make it clear that Comcast wants you to call so they can try to persuade you not to cancel your account:

We want to make sure we’ve done everything we can to give you the best experience, price and package.

That’s exactly what the Comcast employee did on the call with Block. He repeatedly asked Block why he didn’t want the best experience or the fastest internet. He questioned Block for walking away from the best price and the best available channels. 

Early in the recording, the employee made a very telling statement that described how he viewed his role:

My job is to have a conversation with you about keeping your service.

The employee didn’t see his job as canceling accounts or making customers happy. He clearly understood that his job was preventing accounts from being cancelled.

It’s hard to blame the employee for thinking this way if you understood how Comcast has designed this particular job.

Here’s an overview from a former Comcast employee:

• These customer service reps are called Retention Specialists. As the job title implies, their role is to convince customers not to cancel their accounts.

• Retention Specialists receive incentive pay based on the amount of business they save by preventing customers from canceling.

• If a certain percentage of customers still decide to cancel their service, a Retention Specialist’s bonus will go to zero.

Executive Disconnect

Comcast’s apology was issued by Tom Karinshak, the Senior Vice President of Customer Experience.

Karinshak is the executive responsible for this whole mess.

He's not just responsible for the behavior of his employees who handle account cancellations. He’s responsible for the entire system. This includes the way cancellation information is posted on the Comcast website, the requirement that customers have to call to cancel their service, and the Retention Specialist job description and incentive plan.

From Karinshak’s statement, it’s apparent there’s a severe disconnect from reality. Here’s his official statement, posted on the Comcast website:

We are very embarrassed by the way our employee spoke with Mr. Block and are contacting him to personally apologize. The way in which our representative communicated with him is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives. We are investigating this situation and will take quick action. While the overwhelming majority of our employees work very hard to do the right thing every day, we are using this very unfortunate experience to reinforce how important it is to always treat our customers with the utmost respect.

Now, let’s look at reality:

• The entire cancellation process is intentionally difficult.

• The employee Karinshak is referring to is incentivized to avoid canceling accounts.

• Comcast routinely provides horrible service.

It’s this last point that should really capture Karinshak’s attention. In the past year, Comcast’s already dismal customer satisfaction ratings have been dropping like a stone.

Here are their latest satisfaction ratings on the American Customer Satisfaction Index:

• Internet: 57% (second worst, -8.1% from 2013)

• Cable: 60% (second worst, -4.8% from 2013)

• Phone: 67% (second worst, -5.6% from 2013)

This isn’t event Comcast’s first viral service failure. Do you remember the video of a Comcast technician who fell asleep on a customer’s couch while on hold with his own company? You can revisit it here. 

Karinshak shouldn’t blame the employee. He should blame himself.

Why We Need Customer Service Reminders

Updated: June 30, 2023

You probably had a combination locker in high school.

Back then, you could open the locker in a matter of seconds. You dialed that combination so often that it was practically burned into your muscle memory.

Imagine standing in front of your old locker right now. You probably couldn’t open it, even if the combination hasn’t changed. It has long since been forgotten.

That’s because you store most information on a use it or lose it basis. Frequent use and repetition makes that knowledge easily accessible. Infrequent use causes the information to slip farther and farther back in our memories.

Customer service skills are a lot like your old locker combination. Using them often keeps them top of mind and makes them easier to remember.

Regular reminders can help.

How weekly tips can help you stay sharp

The Customer Service Tip of the Week email is a simple reminder system. Each week, you receive an email with one tip that reminds you to apply a specific customer service skill.

Focusing on just one tip at a time keeps it manageable. Making a habit of practicing one skill per week ensures you always stay sharp. Over the course of 52 weeks, you’ll have practiced 52 different customer service skills.

Here’s how to use the weekly tips:

1. Read the the tip of the week.

2. Reflect on the tip.

3. Create an intention to use the tip with your customers.

4. Practice using the tip for one week.

5. Evaluate your progress at the end of the week.

You can subscribe for free if you don’t already receive them.

What if I’m already an expert?

True experts gain their status, and keep it, by constantly practicing. Think about your favorite athlete or musician. They keep their skills sharp through constant practice.

You should, too.

In 1999, researchers Justin Kruger and David Dunning published some fascinating research on expertise. Kruger and Dunning discovered that unskilled people consistently overrate their ability. Even average performers think they’re smarter than they really are.

Top performers are the only group who consistently underrates their ability. That’s because they know how difficult it is to achieve their level of expertise, and they worry about maintaining their skills.

How to use the weekly tips with your team

The Customer Service Tip of the Week after a brainstorming session with a client. Her team had just taken my Customer Service Foundations course and wanted a way to remind her team about the concepts they had learned. 

This conversation spurred the creation of my Customer Service Tip of the Week email. Each weekly email contains a single customer service tip that’s based on my training class. 

Since then, customer service leaders around the world have used the tips to supplement their training. Here are a few examples:

Gina, a Customer Care Director, uses the tips to generate discussion topics for her daily team huddle meetings. She often forwards the tips to her team when sharing reminders about a particular topic.

Mark Berlin, Guest Services Director at the USS Midway Museum, connects the tips to specific customer service challenges. This reminds employees about ways they can use them to resolve problems.

Lupe Zepeda, Customer Service Manager at CSA Travel Protection, uses the tips for ideas that can improve customer satisfaction. For example, her team stocked up on branded note cards after reading this tip on the power of handwritten notes. 

Jeremy Watkin, Director of Customer Service at Phone.com, forwards tips to his team when they address a specific issue or concept he wants to reinforce. 

Subscribe to the weekly tips

Join thousands of customer service around the world who use these weekly tips to stay sharp —-> Click here to subscribe

Five Intriguing Summer Reads to Feed Your Brain

Summer is a time for reading the kind of books you can get lost in.

They must be intriguing without being heavy. Your brain doesn’t want to work too hard while you laze on the beach in the park.

A good mystery novel (Michael Connelly is my favorite) or a trashy romance novel often fits the bill. Sometimes, though, we still want to learn. It gives us a guilt-free excuse to read even when we’re not taking some time off.

Here are five intriguing books that will satisfy your brain’s intellectual curiosity.

They all contain valuable lessons that can be applied to business, particularly customer service, but they rely on good stories to tell their tale.

Your Brain at Work

This book offers a fascinating look at how we can improve our success by having a better understanding of how our brains work. It follows a typical workday for Emily and Paul, who are both overwhelmed with constant emails, meetings, and distractions. The author, David Rock, rewinds the scenes that unfold throughout their day to show us how small changes can lead to big improvements.

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The Invisible Gorilla 

This book starts out with a high speed pursuit of a murder suspect. When the police finally catch up, they nab the wrong guy. Sounds like a classic mystery novel? The book is really about how we often miss what should be obvious. If you've ever wondered how a customer service rep could miss an opportunity right in front of them, this book will explain how. The book gets its name from a popular experiment that you can see on video. 

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Predictably Irrational

You may have heard about Facebook’s now infamous experiment where they showed how user’s updates were influenced by their friends. You’d like to believe that you wouldn’t be so easily manipulated, but Dan Ariely’s fascinating book reveals how we’re not nearly as rational as we think we are.

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Freakonomics

If your a fan of Breaking Bad, you'll appreciate the chapter called "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms?” This book uncovers the hidden truth behind a variety of topics by effortlessly blending hard data with captivating storytelling. Even more important than the stores themselves, Freakonomics causes us to challenge our assumptions.

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In-N-Out Burger

Did you know that In-N-Out and McDonald’s share a lot of history? They were both founded in 1948, started in Southern California, and brought us many innovations that are common in the fast food industry today. From there, the two companies’ paths diverged as McDonald’s became a global titan and In-N-Out established a cult-like following. This exceptionally well-researched story gives readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of In-N-Out Burger’s rich history.

What's on your summer reading list?

How Clio Took Service to the Next Level

In late 2013, Clio was growing at a rapid pace. They were one of the first companies to offer cloud-based legal practice management software, but it was only a matter of time before competition increased.

Catherine Hillier, Clio’s Director of Customer Support, said:

"We are always racing to be the best. While there are a limited number of ways products can differentiate themselves through features, there’s an unlimited number of opportunities to differentiate ourselves through exceptional support, so we have put an emphasis on Customer Support to make us stand apart from the competition."

Their support team was good already, but they wanted to be great. 

The big question was how to do it. This is a daunting challenging for many companies who are trying to elevate their service. The steps to improvement aren’t always obvious when you are already working at a high level.

Companies can sometimes benefit from a fresh perspective, so Clio teamed up with Toister Performance Solutions to create their next level customer service plan.

Our plan focused on the three fundamental steps:

1. Define great service.
2. Measure progress.
3. Align the team.

Clio's support team enjoying a team dinner.

Define Great Service

Hillier and her team had created a customer service vision before our project started, so they were off to a great start.

A customer service vision is a definition of outstanding customer service that’s shared by the team. It acts as a compass that gives employees clear direction when trying to find the best way to serve their customers.

A good vision has three qualities:

1. The definition is simple and easily understood
2. It describes the type of service we want to achieve for our customers
3. It reflects both who we are now and who we aspire to be in the future

Clio’s customer service vision fit these three qualities nicely:

Our mission is to WOW our customers with outstanding service that results in loyalty and evangelism.

They went further to define four specific principles to guide employees:

Cater to each user as a VIP

Listen actively without interrupting/assuming

Investigate issues and provide solutions/workarounds

Optimize each interaction by being efficient

The next level opportunity was to find ways to remind the team about the vision more often. We worked on a few steps to accomplish this:

• The customer service vision was incorporated into new hire training
• Current employees received training to help them better understand the vision
• The vision was added as a discussion topic for all team meetings

Measure Progress

Clio had an 85% customer satisfaction rating at the start of the project. This number was well ahead of the 79% average for the software industry, but they wanted to elevate service even higher.

We focused on two areas to improve Clio’s ability to measure customer satisfaction.

First, we identified ways to leverage their Zendesk customer service software to capture more voice of customer feedback. Zendesk has a nifty feature that allows companies to automatically send customers surveys when a support ticket is completed. Clio enabled this feature for customers contacting them via email. They also created a few rules within Zendesk to avoid inundating customers with duplicate surveys.

The result was Clio increased their survey responses by over 600% in just two months.

The second focus area was using the survey data to create actionable insight. One of the steps Clio implemented was a customer follow-up program. Anytime a customer gave an unsatisfactory rating on a survey, someone from Clio’s support team would make a follow-up contact to try to resolve the problem.

In one situation, a Clio customer was frustrated that the software didn’t contain a particular feature. A Support Specialist researched the issue and responded to the customer with a detailed explanation about why the feature hadn’t been implemented. The customer responded positively and pledged to continue using Clio because he felt the company was really listening to his survey feedback.

Align the Team

The third step in the process was conducting an assessment of how various processes such as hiring, training, and performance management are aligned with the customer service vision.

The assessment revealed that Clio was already doing a lot of things well, such as hiring great employees and creating customer-focused policies and procedures. It also identified a few opportunities for continued growth.

One example was introducing the customer service vision in new hire training. This helped new hires quickly understand Clio’s specific brand of service and how they could help deliver it.

Hillier has been careful to gradually implement new initiatives identified by the assessment so her busy team wouldn’t be overwhelmed. This approach has also created opportunities for ongoing dialogue about service.

She is now developing a quality monitoring process to give employees ongoing performance feedback. Rather than rushing something through, Hillier solicited employee input on the process and is testing it on a limited basis before a planned roll-out later this month.

Training

Hillier wanted to give her support team some additional skills by putting them through the Delivering Next Level Service training program.

The team works multiple shifts in multiple locations, so we decided to facilitate the training via webinar. Most people think of webinars as a monotonous voice droning on over a PowerPoint presentation, but these sessions were interactive. 

According to Hillier, the reception was very positive:

"The support team was surprised at how engaging the training was and how much fun it was on their end."

The webinars were delivered in six modules that were one-hour each. The sessions were held every two weeks to give participants an opportunity to apply new skills before working on something new. Employees were split into two groups to maintain operational coverage.

Results

Clio was truly able to elevate their service to the next level by the end of the project. 

Their customer satisfaction rating increased from 85 to 93 percent. Meanwhile, they were collecting more voice of customer data than ever before and had succeeded in engaging the support team with the customer service vision. 

Hillier summed up her thoughts on the project:

"What puts a smile on my face? When I walk by support staff talking and they are referencing “What Jeff said” or how they were implementing what they learned. This process has allowed us to clearly define what Great Customer Service is to us and how to live it every day."

Customer Service Lessons from The Karate Kid

I love The Karate Kid and all it’s cheesy awesomeness.

In the movie, the main character Daniel-san learns karate from his mysterious mentor, Mr. Miyagi. Thirty years after the movie’s release, I now realize how Mr. Miyagi’s lessons are equally applicable to customer service.

Lesson #1: Learn the Right Way

The movie’s plot centers around Daniel-san’s efforts to defend himself against a bully. He initially tries to learn karate from a book but it doesn’t go well.

Daniel-san’s fortunes improve markedly when Mr. Miyagi agrees to teach him karate. Mr. Miyagi imposes structure and discipline. He focuses Daniel-san on a specific objective, winning the All Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament and helps Daniel-san hone the skills he needs to win.

Businesses must learn to improve customer service the right way too.

Many executives think they can learn all they need to know about customer service by reading about it. In my book, Service Failure, I refer to this as Harvard Business Review Management. An executive distributes an article from the Harvard Business Review and tells the team "let's do this."  

The concept makes sense at a high level but fails spectacularly in its execution.

A better approach is to impose structure and discipline while guiding the business to a specific customer service improvement goal. In a recent post, I laid out a step-by-step guide you can follow to take your company’s customer service to the next level.

Lesson #2: Master the Basics

The impatient Daniel-san couldn’t wait to learn high-flying karate kicks and punches. 

Mr. Miyagi had a different plan in mind. He made Daniel-san complete an endless series of back-breaking chores such detailing a fleet of cars, sanding an endless deck, and painting a huge fence (on both sides!).

Daniel-san grudgingly followed Mr. Miyagi’s orders until he hit a breaking point and challenged the wisdom of Mr. Miyagi’s training. That’s when Mr. Miyagi showed Daniel-san that the chores had actually been teaching him the basics of defense.

Like Daniel-san, companies should focus on mastering the basics before getting enthralled with flashy new technology or the latest marketing trend. 

Keynote speaker Matt Dixon shared a startling statistic at the 2014 Contact Center Expo and Conference: 

Negative service is nearly 4 times more impactful on loyalty than outstanding service.

For example, your hotel might have a great location, great rates, and an unbeatable rewards program. None of that matters if your guest rooms are in this condition. 

Lesson #3: Win the Moments of Truth

The crane technique is one of the more iconic images from the Karate Kid. Mr. Miyagi tells Daniel-san the technique is indefensible if done correctly, and the movie devotes a montage sequence to show Daniel-san learning it.

It’s important to note that Daniel-san uses this technique only once. He saves it for the movie’s climatic fight scene when he’s badly injured and must summon every last ounce of strength for one final move.

It’s important for companies to win their moments of truth too. 

Perhaps it’s a challenging problem, an unusual situation, or just a golden opportunity to go the extra mile. Winning that moment can earn a customer’s loyalty while losing it may cause the customer to flee to a competitor.

The crane technique is iconic to The Karate Kid because it was used at a pivotal moment. The same effect holds true when outstanding service is delivered at just the right moment. Most service is satisfactory, but it's the truly great or truly bad service that stands out.

The real secret here is that companies must pick their moments to both satisfy and delight their customers.

Note: Al Hopper often blogs about inspirational customer service lessons from popular movies. When I got the idea for this post, I wondered if Al had already done something about The Karate Kid. He had, but fortunately it was a different lesson. It just goes to show that The Karate Kid worked on many levels.

Using Yelp Reviews to Improve Your Business

Your business’s Yelp rating is a beacon that signals to potential customers.

A four or five star rating will encourage new customers to give your business a try. A three star or lower rating might send people to one of your competitors instead.

If you want that coveted Yelp rating, you’ve gotta earn it.

This post is the third in a three part series. The first covered five Yelp trends every business owner needs to know. (Hint: Yelp can be very good for business.) The second post laid out three steps for responding to negative reviews.

This post will show you how to use Yelp reviews to improve your business and ultimately earn higher ratings.

This post is intended to be educational rather than a critique of a particular business, so I decided to use San Diego’s Cucina Urbana restaurant as an example. They’ve earned an impressive 4.5 star rating on Yelp and are also one of my favorite restaurants. 

Their Yelp reviews are also proof that even the best businesses get an occasional customer critique.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to using Yelp reviews to improve your business.

Step 1: Sort Reviews by Date

Yelp uses an algorithm to sort reviews, but you want to look at the most recent feedback. You can click on the “Date” link to sort reviews of your business from newest to oldest.

Step 2: Start a Check Sheet

The next step is to dig into your reviews to search for themes. I like to use a check sheet because it’s fast, easy, and visual.

1. Take a blank piece of paper and create five columns along the top.
   
2. Label each column 1 through 5 to correspond with the Yelp rating options.
3. Read through each review and write down key themes

Put a check next to each theme you encounter in subsequent reviews. For example, if one five-star review mentioned “friendly service” and another five-star review mentions “our server was really friendly,” I’d write “friendly” under the five column and put a check next to the word to indicate it’s been mentioned two times.

Here’s my check sheet for Cucina Urbana’s Yelp reviews post in June 2014:

Step 3: Look For Themes

Your check sheet should reveal a few themes that separate positive reviews from negative ones.

For example, Cucina Urbana’s check sheet immediately told me that people love this restaurant because they nail three important categories:

• Food
• Atmosphere
• Service

There’s also a potential danger from their popularity. Many reviews, including positive ones, mention the need for reservations because the restaurant is so popular.

In fact, where things do occasionally go wrong, the problems are often connected to the restaurant being busy.

Step 4: Investigate

Once you’ve identified some themes, it’s helpful to investigate to get to the heart of the matter. Your biggest challenge is to separate outliers from icebergs.

Outliers are opinions that don’t match the norm. For example, a couple of three-star reviewers mentioned prices were too high. Does this mean Cucina Urbana should lower its prices?

Probably not. 

Very few reviews mention that prices are too high. Other reviews mention that the prices are very reasonable. They also have consistently large crowds, which would indicate that they offer good value. And, the people who complained about price tended to be very price-sensitive in their reviews of other restaurants. 

On the other hand, the way they handle crowds might reveal a few icebergs. An iceberg is a problem that’s much bigger and dangerous below the surface. 

For example, a closer look at the reviews reveal that a couple of people complained of poor communication and rude treatment from the hostess. In both cases, the guests had reservations but didn't arrive at their designated time. (One arrived early, the other late.) 

The 1 in 5 rule may apply here. This rule suggests that for every one complaint you receive, five people actually had the experience. It's a short-hand way of suggesting that the majority of customers don't complain about minor issues.

Using the 1 in 5 rule, it might be reasonable to assume that 10 or more guests in June were upset due to confusion over their reservation. 

Step 5: Take Action

Now comes the most important part - doing something to improve your business.

The whole point of this exercise is to generate actionable insight. You want to be able to identify specific actions you can take to improve service and ultimately earn better Yelp reviews.

Here, I won’t try to offer any specific advice for Cucina Urbana because I’d only be guessing. Without the benefit of doing an investigation myself (Step 4), I might not land upon the right solution.

However, it may help them discover how to make guests feel more welcome when there's confusion over their reservation. The customers often bear some responsibility in these situations, but that won't prevent an upset and unreasonable customer from writing a negative Yelp review.

There are two important caveats here for all business owners.

First, resist the urge to jump to step five before you find out what’s really going on. Otherwise, your solution may be off the mark. 

Second, getting angry at negative reviewers won't improve your business. Your goal should be to use their feedback to improve the experience for future customers.

A Last Word

I will offer one last piece of advice: don’t ever get complacent!

Your journey isn’t over even if you’re lucky enough to earn a four or five star Yelp rating. Just as ratings can increase, they can decrease too.

You and your employees have to earn your customers’ praise each and every day.

How to Respond to Negative Yelp Reviews

A negative Yelp review can feel like a punch in the gut.

You work hard, train your staff, and pour your heart into providing great customer service. Then some bozo comes along and shreds it all to pieces with a scathing write-up.

Ouch.

It may seem counterintuitive, but these complaints represent an opportunity. The key is to handle them correctly. 

This post covers proven steps for responding to negative Yelp reviews. It’s the second post in a three part series. Last week’s post covered five Yelp trends every business owner should know. Next week’s post will focus on ways you can use Yelp to grow your business.

Here are three steps to responding to negative Yelp reviews. (Note: this post borrows heavily from another post I wrote two years ago on responding to online complaints.)

Step 1: Stay Calm

Your mom probably told you that two wrongs don’t make a right.

This sage advice holds true on Yelp. Nobody wins an online argument, so fighting a vitriolic review with your own incendiary rant will only make you and your business look bad.

It might even bring you and your business more negative publicity. 

In one extreme example, a small business owner was arrested and sent to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. The whole story was chronicled by Inc. Magazine.

That type of coverage is a lot worse than one bad Yelp review.

Step 2: Respond Strategically

There should be two goals whenever responding to a negative Yelp review. First, fix the problem. Second, maintain a positive public image.

Yelp provides tools to help you do both.

One option is to respond privately to a reviewer. To do this, you first must set up a free business owner account. 

You can approach this option just like you would a customer email. Use this connection to try to get to the bottom of the issue and, if possible, make the customer feel better.

The second option is to respond publicly. 

Your goal here is to signal to other potential customers that you care about their experience and will work hard to make things right. This makes the tone of your response very important.

Here’s an example of a terrible public response to a one-star review (full review):

It has been said , "An educated consumer is our best customer", clearly you do not fall into this category. You are an idiot.

That response probably won't win the business any future customers. It might even be picked up by a blogger who uses it as a "how not to" example. You don't want that.

Here’s an example of a terrific response to a one-star review (full review):

[W]e don't like to turn away business and we are sorry we can't work with everyone in every situation. We wish you well in your search for a company that is better matched for your contracting needs.

In this case, the person writing the review wasn't even a customer! The business owner used the opportunity to politely clarify the company’s position so other potential customers know what they can and cannot expect. (Full disclosure: I’ve used Ideal for years, in large part due to their awesome service. If you're in the San Diego area, they are the company for plumbing, heating, hvac, electrical, and kitchen or bath remodels.)

There's a third potential benefit to responding to customers who write negative reviews.

While you should never solicit this directly, some customers will increase their rating if a business resolves the problem to their satisfaction. 

Step 3: Look for the Kernel of Truth

Inside all be the most clueless of reviews is a kernel of truth. This is a signal that can be used to improve your business.

Let’s say you run a restaurant and someone writes a one-star Yelp review because there was a two hour wait to get seated. You look closely and notice they didn’t even dine in your restaurant.

Is that fair?

Maybe not, but this reviewer may also be doing you a favor by pointing out an iceberg. An iceberg is a seemingly small problem that is much larger and more dangerous below the surface.

Here are just a few reviews this iceberg might signal:

• Wait times might not be communicated with empathy

• Table turnover is taking too long

• Your reservation process is inadequate

If any of these issues are real, you can make a lot of customers a whole lot happier by fixing them.

Yes, the reviewer might just be a clueless jerk. They may also be one of the 16 percent of reviews that are fake.

Smart business owners will take a deep breath and investigate before dismissing the complaint outright. They might even use it as an opportunity to signal other customers by posting a good response. For example, they could thank the customer for their feedback and suggest some times of the week when they are much less busy while also providing a gentle reminder about their online reservation system.

Will that customer come back? Maybe not. But other customers might see the response and appreciate the thoughtfulness that the owner put into it.

How Negative Reviews Are Good For Business

There are at least three ways that negative reviews can be good for business.

First, customers mistrust businesses with 100 percent positive reviews. They know that a lot of fake reviews are actually written to support a business rather than tarnish a competitor. The occasional negative review makes all the other positive reviews appear more authentic. 

Second, many customers look specifically for negative reviews. Most reviews are positive (67 percent are 4 or 5 stars), so customers want to see what problems people are noting. A business that responds quickly and positively to reviewers instills confidence that problems are being addressed.

Finally, the content of negative reviews can help you improve service. (See Step 3: Look for the Kernel of Truth) Stay tuned for next week’s post, the third in a three-part series, where I’ll break down the steps to using Yelp reviews to improve your business.

Three Social Customer Care Trends You Can't Ignore

Note: This post was originally posted on LinkedIn. You can find more of my LinkedIn posts here.

Social customer service was a big topic at last week’s Contact Center Expo and Conference. (You can read my re-cap here.)

At the conference, Susan McDaniel from Execs in the Know participated in a panel on social customer care where she shared some interesting statistics that really captured the audience's attention. Afterwards, she was kind enough to give me a copy of the 2013 Customer Experience Management Benchmark Study that’s co-produced by her firm and Digital Roots.

Here’s a breakdown of three big trends revealed in the report. If your company serves its customers through social media, you'll want to know about these.

Customer Care Involvement

One of the most promising trends is that customer service teams are getting increasingly involved with social channels.

The numbers looked bleak a year ago.

The Execs in the Know benchmark found only 10 percent of customer service departments owned social customer care. A Ragan study reported this number at 19 percent. Regardless of whose study you follow, the number was ridiculously low.

That number has jumped to 36 percent in the latest report.

It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s also a clear sign that many companies still don’t get it. The majority of corporate social media is still controlled by marketing (42 percent).

Two things happen when marketing dominates social media and doesn't coordinate with customer care.

1. Customer support issues go unanswered.
2. Service channels offer an inconsistent experience.

Social media is social + media. It’s not just for marketing.

Impactful Customer Communities

Remember when everyone was talking about Web 2.0 being the next big thing? We envisioned a world of social interaction where communities of customers could help each other.

That was in 2004.

Ten years later, we may finally be getting serious, with 41 percent of companies hosting a community forum.

Customer service software providers like Zendesk are making it easier than ever to set up communities that put FAQs and customer-driven forums side-by-side. These communities can help customers get the answers they need quickly while reducing service costs.

The online student community at Penn Foster was recognized at the Contact Center Expo and Conference with an award for Best Use of an Emerging Channel. Two stats from their success story really jumped out:

• Emails were reduced by more than 40 percent
• Their cost per interaction has dropped an average of $1.06 per year since 2010

Reduced cost is enticing, but it's important to remember that costs were reduced by making a community that people actually found useful and engaging.

Companies Slowly Getting Serious

This last trend is really a collection of metrics that suggest companies are starting to take social customer service more seriously.

• 82 percent of social media engagements are made by employees (vs vendors)
• 80 percent have policies about what conversations to engage in
• 66 percent provide social media agents with training

All of these represent significant increases over last year’s benchmark.

Of course, the one that really jumped out was ONLY 66 percent provide social media agents with training. Apparently, the remaining 34 percent are left to their own devices. Perhaps figuratively and literally.

If you’re not training your social agents, you’re asking for trouble.

What’s Next?

Social customer service finally seems to be maturing, but it still has a ways to go.

Facebook is 10 years old. Twitter is 8 years old. More than 90 percent of companies use these channels to engage customers.

It’s about time more companies figure it out. Key areas for improvement include:

• Faster response times
• Fewer ignored questions
• Consistent service quality across all channels

The few companies that get it right can really stand out from the rest that don’t.

Five Yelp Trends Business Owners Need to Know

If you’re a business owner who dislikes Yelp, you’re not alone.

Business owners worry that unflattering reviews might scare away potential customers. They’re suspicious that negative reviews might be fake, perhaps planted by an unscrupulous competitor. These reviews of your business can sometimes feel like a personal attack.

Yelp has even been accused of extorting businesses who don’t advertise with them by suppressing positive reviews. (A claim Yelp denies is true.)

The catch is that Yelp impacts your business whether you like it or not. Think of Yelp as a wave in the ocean. You can’t change or stop it. But you can learn to ride it gracefully.

This post is the first in a three part series about the review website Yelp. 

1. Today, we’ll take a look at five big picture trends. 
2. The next post will offer suggestions for responding to negative reviews.
3. The final post  will focus on ways Yelp reviews can help grow your business. 

For now, here are five Yelp trends you need to know.

16% of Yelp Reviews Are Fake

It turns out there really are a lot of unscrupulous people and businesses writing phony reviews.

A recent study by Georgios Zervas and Michael Luca determined that 16 percent of Yelp reviews are fake. They’re either written to boost a business’s online reputation or to unfairly tarnish a competitor’s.

Yelp acknowledged the study on their blog. They also added that 25 percent of reviews posted on the site are weeded out by their filtering software. 

What can you do about it?

It may be easier to describe what you shouldn’t do.

• Legal action probably isn’t worth the time and expense.
• A profane counterattack can backfire and make your business look bad.
• Ignoring the issue won’t help much either.

Many experts suggest a polite, professional response. 

Keep in mind that you aren’t just responding to the person who wrote the review. You’re responding to people who might read the review. Customers are much more understanding of a negative review if the business owner provides a good response.

Groupon Deals Lower Ratings by 12%

Georgios Zervas and Michael Luca, authored another study (this one with John Byers) that coined the “Groupon effect.” Their data revealed that Yelp reviews that mentioned the word “Groupon” averaged a 12% lower rating. 

The study also determined that businesses received a 60 percent increase in reviews after offering a Groupon promotion.

In other words, a Groupon promotion can hurt your Yelp rating by leading to a flood of below average reviews.

The lure of additional business can make services like Groupon and LivingSocial quite tempting. It’s important to realize that might be substantial hidden costs to acquiring new customers this way.

A Free Yelp Account is Worth $8,000

The Boston Consulting Group did a study on the impact of advertising through Yelp. They discovered that just opening a free Yelp account boosts revenue by an average of $8,000.

Here’s what business owners get with that account:

• Communicate with your customers, both privately and publicly
• Track the User Views on your business page
• Add photos, a detailed business description, up-to-date information, history, and specialties
• Recommend other businesses

Customers will talk about your business whether you like it or not. Grabbing your free business account will allow you to actively participate in that conversation on Yelp.

High Ratings Boost Revenue

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but it’s nice to know there’s data to back it up.

Another study from Michael Luca found that restaurants increased revenue by 5 - 9 percent when their Yelp rating improved by one star. 

This impact isn’t just confined to restaurants. A fascinating case study on the Pipeline Marketing Blog illustrated how a painting contractor’s Yelp page delivered $123,040 in revenue one year - nearly a third of the company’s total sales.

And, it seems that people generally like to give positive reviews. People give businesses a four or five star rating 67 percent of the time.

Source: http://www.yelp.com/faq#rating_distribution

How can you raise your Yelp rating? 

I’ll answer that question in the next post in this series. However, I can give you a big hint. It involves listing to and acting on customer feedback.

82% of Yelp Users Are Ready to Buy

A Nielson study found that four out of five Yelp users visit the site looking for information to help them make a purchase.

This makes Yelp an important source of advertising.

Customers visit Yelp much like people used to reference the phone book. They search for a specific business category and then decide which businesses to contact.

Surprisingly, 44 percent of Yelp users say it’s the text of the reviews that matter most when making a decision. They look to the specific pros and cons and how the business owner responds to complaints. 

It’s also important that customers can easily find you once they decide to give your business a try. Make sure your contact information is up to date and your hours of operation are correct. Restaurants can post their menu on Yelp and even offer a link to make reservations.

You can learn even more by visiting Yelp's Business Support Center.

Stay tuned for my next post on Yelp. In the meantime, here are even more interesting statistics, courtesy of Nielson and Yelp: