Why customer success is the secret to revenue growth

"We had $1 million in preventable returns last year."

The executive who shared this shocking figure explained that his company had recently entered the consumer market for home improvement tools. The preventable returns were tools that worked perfectly well, but confused customers couldn't figure out how to use them.

The company had failed to anticipate that consumers wouldn’t be savvy users like the professionals who had used its tools for years. So it neglected to invest in customer success.

Here's a definition of customer success, why it's important, and how you can use it to win and retain more business.

What is customer success?

Customer success is a customer service function that helps customers achieve their goals using your product or service.

A retail sales associate who helps you pick out the perfect item is an example. They might advise you on the correct sizing, garment care, and the latest fashion trends.

Here are some more common examples:

• Chat agents who answer pre- and post-purchase product questions.

• Online instruction guides and how-to videos.

• “Quick Start” guides included with product packaging.

Warning: some software companies would have you believe that customer success is separate from customer service. That's only because these companies have organized customer success into a distinct department. In reality, customer success is by definition a subset of customer service.

Customer success is often a combination of multiple resources. Here's an example:

I wanted to buy a pair of lightweight camp sandals to take backpacking. A friend recommended Xero Shoes and I found a pair online that I liked.

My challenge is I wear an extra-wide shoe, so sizing can be tricky. Fortunately, each product page had a link to a sizing guide.

The sizing guide is an example of customer success. It helps me achieving my goals—getting shoes that fit.

The guide includes a helpful downloadable template you can use to measure you foot. It also explains how to adjust the size by cutting the sandals to fit your foot shape.

I measured my foot with the guide, bought the right size, and the sandals fit perfectly.

Why is customer success important?

Marketing might get customers interested in your product or service, but it's often customer success that gets customers to stay.

One reason marketing gets so much more attention than customer success is marketing generates a lot of data to prove its value.

Here's a typical email I get from New Balance, a shoe company I have been loyal to for many years. Try to imagine what sort of data the marketing team is tracking:

They likely have quite a bit of information they can use to measure the success of this email campaign:

• Email open rate

• Click-through rate

• Purchase rate

New Balance can also identify whether individuals like me clicked through and made a purchase. That's a treasure-trove of data that can signal whether email campaigns like this one are working.

Campaigns like this are primarily focused on incentives. The email is encouraging me to use my New Balance points for a discount and is offering an extra 25% off certain items. It also uses the headline “Don’t Miss It,” to encourage me to buy.

Despite all this data, New Balance missed a pretty big buying signal.

I recently planned a trip to Boston, where New Balance's flagship store is located. New Balance offers an in-store shoe fitting service, so I thought it would be fun to visit the store, get fitted, and buy some new shoes.

Here's what I found on the New Balance website:

There's not much information here and I still had questions.

• How does the fitting process work? (Ex: will I be running, walking, etc.?)

• Do I need an appointment or will there be a wait?

• Are stores still offering fittings given the pandemic?

So I emailed New Balance's customer service team to get more information. I shared my questions, explained I was planning a trip to Boston, and describe my intent to visit the flagship store.

This was a powerful buying signal: an inbound email with an intent to purchase.

My consumer study of over 3,200 customers shows that companies should respond to emails like mine within one hour. It took several days for New Balance to respond.

The eventual response was unhelpful:

Bailey failed to answer any of my questions or even acknowledge my comment that the website information was incomplete. The message essentially read: “That’s not my department.”

This poor experience made me decide not to visit the store.

New Balance lost an easy sale, but it lost more than it. It had an opportunity to create a memorable, in-person fitting experience that could have deepened my loyalty.

Instead, the brand seemed inept and uncaring.

What makes customer success great?

An effective customer success function is there for customers when they need help with your product or service. This could be pre-purchase, when they're trying to decide what to buy. It might also be post-purchase, when they're trying to use your product or service.

Keith Amaker, Director of Customer Success at ZenBusiness, described it this way:

If your customers trust and believe that you will be there for them when they need or want you, there is a high probability that they will look for your brand first and promote your brand given a chance.

So the starting point is to figure out when customers need you. Identify critical moments along the customer journey where a customer is easily confused or needs extra help.

Some companies slap a chatbot on their website and call it a day. That’s not a great idea:

• Research shows customers don't like chatbots.

• Self-service works better when a human is readily available.

The challenge is making sure those humans are responsive and helpful.

Living Spaces is a furniture brand that I've purchased from many times. I recently went to its website to select a rug.

I had some questions about how to care for the rug before I purchased it, so I decided to chat. The Living Spaces website promised an impressive 10 second response time.

In reality, it took more than 10 minutes to get connected with someone.

When I finally reached a live agent, it felt like Roxanna was shooting from the hip. The response felt like a guess and didn’t give me the confidence to make a purchase.

Osprey is brand that gets customer success right. It effectively helps convert prospective buyers into loyal customers.

I recently visited the Osprey site to find a new backpack for bicycling. My starting point was Osprey's super-helpful Packfinder tool.

The tools asks questions to help narrow down your choices:

I was able to find a few options that looked promising. Each backpack has a detailed description, multiple product images, and a helpful explainer video, like this one.

I still felt like I needed some help, so I clicked on the handy chat button:

It took less than 30 seconds to get connected to Jennifer who had ESP-like abilities to answer my questions and quickly suggest packs. Notice Jennifer sensed the first suggestion might be too large:

By the end of the brief chat, Jennifer had given me several great suggestions to explore. This helped me build a wish list for my inevitable trip to REI.

Osprey's focus on customer success doesn't end on its website. It works extensively with retail partners like REI to make sure retail associates can help customers select the correct pack and get it properly fitted.

My trip to REI convinced me to purchase the Raptor, Jennifer’s first suggestion. The ability to try it on in person, and compare it to other models, was extremely helpful.

You can learn more about Osprey's incredible retail support in chapter six of The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

Conclusion

Customer success fills an important role in helping customers use your products or services. It can mean the difference between winning and retaining new business—or losing out.

Never forget you are competing with other companies. When my current accounting software provider raised its prices, I found a competitor that was highly rated and cost 50 percent less.

It should have been an easy win for the new company, but it hadn't invested in customer success. 

• Instructions for migrating my data from the old platform were outdated.

• Contact information for support was hard to find.

• When I finally found a contact page, email was the only option.

• It took more than 15 hours to receive a response to my question.

• The response I received was unhelpful.

This experience gave me time to contact the old company.

A helpful rep helped me pick a new plan that was a better fit for my business and offered me a 50 percent discount on top of that. Now I was paying 82 percent less than before.

No need to keep trying to get help from the other company. I cancelled the new account.

How customer service employees can survive a bad boss

Advertising disclosure: This blog participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

"We have totally lost control."

A Customer Service Tip of the Week subscriber sent me that message. He explained that his new manager lacked leadership skills and played favorites. A once strong team was now struggling.

Customer complaints were rising and missed calls had increased ten-fold.

Surviving a bad customer service boss is never easy, but I had one suggestion. Here's the advice I shared and how you can use it, too.

But first, what exactly makes a boss a bad one?

What makes someone a bad boss?

There are a lot of things that can make a customer service leader a bad boss. They can be difficult and challenging. They might micromanage. Some give conflicting direction or no direction at all. Sometimes, they're unkind.

I’ve witnessed many treat employees as disposable commodities. They fail to provide any training or guidance and then fire employees the first time they do something wrong.

Bad bosses all have one thing in common: they don’t give employees what they need to do a good job.

Emily Guendelsberger wrote about the challenges of working with unsupportive bosses in the excellent book, On the Clock. It chronicles Guendelsberger's experience working at Amazon, Convergys (an outsourced contact center), and McDonald's.

There's one type of boss I'm leaving out: the illegal boss.

This is a person who breaks the law. They steal employee wages, harass, discriminate, and otherwise violate employees’ rights. This post isn't about that type of boss.

With an illegal boss, you’re options are limited: 

1. Report them.

2. Quit.

3. Remain silent.

It's a difficult, no-win situation. Reporting them can be a long process. It's not easy, and you might find yourself subjected to illegal retaliation. Quitting isn't easy, either.

And remaining silent and continue to be subjected to the bad boss’s poor treatment might be the worst option of all.

I really hope you don't have an illegal boss.

What do you need to know about your boss?

There's one thing you should know about your boss if you work in customer service. This applies whether they're a great boss, a mediocre one, and especially if they're terrible.

You need to discover their hot button.

A boss's hot button is the one thing they care about the most. They talk about it constantly and probably fear it. The hot button is often how their performance is evaluated by their boss.

The way to get through the experience is to make sure that your boss's hot button is always being addressed.

They're calm when their hot button is handled. They're bad behavior often gets better. Many stop micromanaging once their hot button is handled.

Bad bosses worry when when their hot button issue isn't going well. A bad boss will take out those worries on their employees.

Every boss has a different hot button. It's usually not something generic like make more money, cut costs, or keep customers happy.

Hot buttons are usually very specific. Here are a few I’ve experienced:

• One boss cared most about image because she had lost influence with the executive team.

• Another was hyper-focused on cashflow because a new investment went poorly.

• One boss worried about getting fired because revenue was down.

The way to survive a bad boss is to take care of their hot button.

For example, I learned to eliminate risk with the manager who was afraid of being fired. I found a way to shorten lead times for my biggest customer, which would increase our revenue. I made sure my manager’s boss got excited about the idea so my boss would be fully onboard.

Keep in mind that you work for your boss, not the other way around. You’re inviting trouble if you ignore your boss’s hot button issue or actively work against it.

Why do bosses go bad?

Let's take a moment to empathize, so we can better understand bad bosses. It's not easy being a customer service manager. Otherwise good people can suddenly find themselves becoming a bad boss and failing to give employees the support they need.

A study by West Monroe found that managers face several challenges:

• 44% feel overwhelmed

• 43% of new managers receive no training

• 23% spend 5+ hours per day on administrative tasks

Many face overwhelming pressure from their own bosses to get results. That pressure is often the source of their hot button issue.

Managers who have never received training don't know how to help their employees perform better. And far too many spend the majority of their time on administrative work, which means they aren't able to focus on their employees anyway.

You remove some of the burden when you address your boss’s hot button issue.

Conclusion

Find out your boss's hot button issue and then make sure you address it. Sometimes, your boss’s hot button is obvious. Other times, it helps to ask your boss to tell you directly what they care about most.

The subscriber who emailed me had that conversation with his boss.

He learned his new boss was overwhelmed and was looking for employees to step up and proactively take on new responsibilities. The boss wanted employees to operate with autonomy and not come to him with small issues.

The boss's hot button was time—he didn't think he had enough to get everything done.

And just in case you're a boss reading this, I've assembled a couple of resources just for you.

The first is Getting Service Right, a book that identifies the reasons why good customer service employees underperform and shares proven solutions to help them do better.

The second is my LinkedIn Learning course, How to Manage a Customer Service Team.

You'll need a LinkedIn Learning subscription to watch the entire course, but a 30-day trial is available. You can also watch a short preview.

Elevating a customer service team from Managing a Customer Service Team by Jeff Toister

How to win back your customer's heart with an apology

"You shouldn't have to experience this."

The words just blurted out of my mouth. A customer had called, upset about receiving the wrong item. I saw past their anger and empathized with the inconvenience it was causing them.

"I'm really sorry about the mistake. We need to do better. I'm going to make sure we send you the correct item."

Then, something mysterious happened.

The customer instantly went from red to green. Their frustration evaporated and suddenly they were trying to comfort me!

"It's okay," the customer said. "These things happen. I really appreciate your help."

I had just discovered the magic of a real, heartfelt apology. And this wasn't a one-time fluke. The technique worked again and again. Customers calmed down and became more cooperative nearly every time I sincerely apologized.

Here's the science behind a great apology and how you can offer a great one, too.

Why do we apologize to customers?

The ultimate goal of an apology is to earn your customer's forgiveness. It's best used in situations where you made a mistake or your company broke a promise and you’re apologizing on behalf of your organization.

What if you or your company is clearly not at fault?

In those cases, a healthy dose of empathy is warranted, but not an apology. (See my guide to building your empathy super powers.)

However, beware of the murky gray area where the customer holds you or your company responsible, even if you don't believe you caused the issue.

It might be wise to seek forgiveness in those situations, too.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines forgiveness as the act of forgiving, which is "to cease to feel resentment against (an offender)."

In a study on forgiveness, authors Michael E. McCullough, Steven J. Sandage, and Everett L. Worthington Jr. take this further by suggesting three specific goals when seeking forgiveness.

Forgiveness occurs when the injured party is:

1. Less motivated to retaliate.

2. Less motivated to remain estranged.

3. More motivated to reconcile.

All of these are incredibly important in customer service.

Angry customers find ways to retaliate against companies, even if they don't leave for a competitor. Here are a few examples:

• Negative online reviews (Yelp, Google, etc.)

• Negative social media posts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.)

• Sharing negative stories with family and friends.

• Spending less money.

• Stop buying certain products or services.

Estranged customers leave your company and don't come back, while customers who are motivated to reconcile are willing to give your business another chance.

How can an apology lead to forgiveness?

Service failures can cause customers to experience negative emotions. Apologies help soothe negative feelings and make customers more open to conciliatory gestures.

Small issues, such as a minor delay, might not cause any tangible damage, but they can still hurt a customer's pride. An apology can help restore a customer's self-esteem. Strangely, thanking the customer can work even better.

Larger issues or repeated service failures can lead to something psychologists call emotional hijacking. When this occurs, a customer's strong negative emotions make it difficult for them to think clearly.

Emotional hijacking can create several challenges.

• Customers can become more judgmental.

• They're less open to your ideas for resolving the issue.

• Sometimes, they just rage and trigger your fight or flight instinct.

Apologies do a number of things to help a customer feel better:

1. They convey empathy by validating the customer's negative emotions.

2. They restore a customer's self-esteem by signaling remorse.

3. They renew a customer's confidence when you take responsibility.

They also do one more thing that's essential to forgiveness.

In their forgiveness study, McCullough, Sandage, and Worthington Jr. found that apologies help the injured party feel empathy and compassion towards the person (or company) that wronged them.

That's exactly what happened when I apologized so profusely to a customer for the incorrect shipment. The apology caused them to empathize with me!

What makes a good apology?

Beverly Engel, author of The Power of Apology, suggests apologies contain three elements:

1. Regret

2. Responsibility

3. Remedy

I accidentally stumbled upon that model when I apologized to the customer over a shipping error.

• Regret: "You shouldn't have to experience this. I’m really sorry about the mistake."

• Responsibility: "We need to do better."

• Remedy: "I'm going to make sure we send you the correct item."

Apologies must also be sincere.

Customer service writing expert, Leslie O'Flahavan, cautions against making "nonpologies." These are insincere statements such as "We regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

O'Flahavan suggests being much more direct when apologizing. For example, you might tell a customer experiencing a billing issue, "I'm sorry you've had to spend time trying to resolve this problem."

Conclusion

Apologizing is an important skill for customer service professionals. We're there to help customers feel better when things go wrong and it's our job to seek forgiveness on behalf of the company we represent.

This short video shows you an example of what a good apology looks like in action.

Apologizing effectively from Working with Upset Customers by Jeff Toister and Madecraft

How to rapidly improve customer service by finding your Betty

Early in my career, I lucked into a solution to a challenging project.

My department was asked to create a training program to help contact center agents pitch the company credit card to customers who called in to place an order from our catalog.

A computer program ran in the background during each call to determine if the customer was eligible for the company credit card. When they were, a little box popped up on the agent's screen that prompted the agent to offer the card.

Our success rate averaged averaged five percent. It needed to be 20.

The instinctive move would be to gather the management team in a conference room and invent something. That's how the request came to me: "Let's call a meeting to talk about what needs to be in the agent sales training program."

I'm glad I didn't do that.

Something told me to look at the numbers. You see, 5 percent was just the average. That meant some agents did worse, but a few did better.

One agent, Betty, really stood out.

Betty successfully pitched the credit card 40 percent of the time. Even better, she did it consistently, shift after shift. Nobody else was even close.

So I spent some time with Betty.

That conversation forever changed how I solve customer service problems. From that point forward, I always tried to start by finding a Betty.

Here's all you need to know about finding Betty in your own organization.

Who is a Betty?

Betty is an employee who already knows a solution to the problem.

It could be how to solve a complicated technical issue, calm down an upset customer, or pitch a company credit card.

Their knowledge is often not contained in official policies, procedures, or training programs. In many cases, the solution runs counter to the established way of doing things.

Bettys are often eager to share what they know. They can also be frustrated if they don't get the opportunity to pass the solution along to the rest of the team.

My Betty certainly felt frustrated.

She enthusiastically shared her credit card pitching secrets with me, but she also expressed disappointment that nobody else had asked her about it. Her team never met as a group and her boss was always too busy.

Betty cared deeply about doing a great job, and wanted to help others succeed as well.

How can you find your Betty?

There are a few ways to find your Betty when trying to solve a customer service problem. The important thing is to look for an employee who consistently generates great results.

Performance reports will sometimes make it easy.

There were over a thousand contact center agents pitching the credit card, but I found my Betty on a report. She was easy to find because her credit card pitch success rate was tremendous.

There are other times when you have to work a little harder. Here are a few things that have worked for me:

• Visit employees on various shifts at various locations.

• Talk to employees who encounter the problem most often.

• Ask employees for input in team meetings.

When in doubt, I often start with the most experienced employees. Yes, some employees become set in their ways over time. Other employees, like Betty, use their experience to anticipate solutions to new problems.

What do you do once you find Betty?

Go spend time observing Betty doing the job. The goal is to discover their secrets so you can share them with the rest of the team.

Your role here is to observe and listen. A few things stood out as I watched Betty.

• She made each offer with enthusiasm.

• Every offer included a brief explanation of the credit card's benefits.

• Betty closed the offer by inviting the customer to use the card right away.

Another thing I noticed was that Betty got excited and said, "Congratulations!" when offering the card.

It's helpful to ask questions while doing an observation like this, so I asked Betty why she used the word, "Congratulations." She explained that she wanted the customer to feel special, like getting approved for the credit card was a big deal.

Some people worry that employees won't be honest or forthcoming when you observe them. That's not been my experience at all.

I've found that Bettys are usually eager to share what they know. They generally want other employees to benefit from their discovery and are willing to share if they believe you are there to help spread the word.

What do you do after spending time with Betty?

It's often helpful to find out what other employees are doing so you can compare their process to Betty's. This often makes the differences even clearer.

For the credit card project, I spent time with other agents who did well, some agents who were average, and a few agents who never got customers to accept the credit card.

This really crystalized what Betty did so well.

The agents who had a five percent success rate simply read the offer to the customer when it popped up on the screen. "You've been pre-approved for our credit card. Would you like to sign up?"

Most of them didn’t know the features and benefits that came with the card, so they weren’t sure why a customer would want it. That led to an unenthusiastic sales pitch.

By contrast, Betty used a slightly different approach.

"Congratulations! You've been pre-approved for our credit card! It's a great way to keep track of all your purchases with us. Would you like to use it on today's order?"

[Note: this was before online ordering, when it was much more difficult to keep track of the orders you placed with a company. Using a company credit card to track your purchases was a big benefit back then.]

The contrast between Betty's approach and the agents whose success rate was zero was even more clear. Those agents told me they felt uncomfortable pitching the card, so they didn't.

I asked them if their supervisor ever talked to them about it and they all said no. One agent pointed out that the credit card offer wasn't on their quality assurance scorecard, so they weren't held accountable for the results.

If you had been there, you would have seen a lightbulb appear above my head.

How can you share what you learned from Betty?

The final step in the process is to share Betty's solution with the rest of the team. This could be a short update to the team, a new process, or even a training program.

In my case, I compiled a list of solutions that went beyond just a training program.

• Add "Congratulations!" to the screen pop telling agents to make the offer.

• Give agents a job aid with the credit card's features and benefits.

• Add the credit card offer to the quality assurance form.

The training program I created lasted just 30 minutes.

Some agents were initially reluctant to try the techniques I shared with them, but almost all of them changed their tune when they learned the techniques came from Betty, not management. That’s another bonus that comes with finding your Betty: more credibility.

And the best part? Our average credit card success rate quickly climbed to 20 percent.

You can learn about using techniques like this from my LinkedIn Learning course, Quick Fixes to Attain Excellent Customer Service.

A LinkedIn Learning subscription is required to view the entire course, but you can watch a short preview here.

Welcome from Quick Fixes to Attain Excellent Customer Service by Jeff Toister

How customer experience promise audits can save customers

Updated: October 9, 2024

Boarded up windows were the first thing I saw when I arrived at the hotel.

I tried opening the lobby door. It wouldn’t budge. Confusion and concern set in. Is this the right hotel? Am I too weak from travel to open the door? Are they even open?

An employee saw me pulling on the door and let me in.

The hotel was open, but undergoing renovations. Ditto the hotel’s restaurant. The door was locked for security reasons because the hotel had recently experienced some vandalism.

None of this was disclosed on the website, where glossy photos painted the picture of a vibrant hotel. I would have stayed somewhere else if I had known ahead of time.

I hoped things would get better. They didn’t.

Three more promises were broken inside of the first 30 minutes on property. Each one negatively impacted my customer experience, and sowed distrust with the hotel:

1. Mobile check-in didn't work.

2. In-room wifi didn't work.

3. I didn't get an expected room upgrade.

That third promise comes with being a "Gold" member of the hotel chain's loyalty program. Gold members get various perks in exchange for staying 25-49 nights per year. An upgraded room, when available, is one of those perks.

Would you stay at this hotel again?

Bigger question: do customers ever have a similar experience with your business? The type of experience where promise after promise is broken, and they question whether to ever do business with you again.

You can avoid this scenario with a promise audit.

What is a customer experience promise audit?

Companies make a lot of promises to customers. A promise audit evaluates whether those promises are kept and identifies ones that are broken.

1. Identify promises made to customers.

2. Determine whether each promise is being kept.

3. Fix broken promises.

You can audit all the promises made along a customer's journey or focus on one specific area. For example, the hotel chain might audit how often Gold guests get the elite benefits they are promised in exchange for their loyalty.

The top three benefits are highlighted on the chain’s website:

Room upgrades are called out as a top benefit.

I go out of my way to stay with this hotel chain in part to get a nicer room. A promise audit would reveal that Gold members like me haven't been getting those upgrades.

Why should you do a promise audit?

A promise audit can help you identify opportunities to make the customer experience more consistent, avoid unpleasant surprises, and prevent chronic service failures.

This helps reduce customer churn, improve your product or service, and improve operational efficiency.

I'm searching for a new hotel chain despite achieving lifetime elite status with my current one. My guest experience is inconsistent because I don't regularly receive all the loyalty benefits I'm promised.

Many travelers have reported similar frustrations with the chain in online forums. It's costing the chain a lot:

• Loyal customers are switching to other brands.

• Service costs are going up (the labor cost of handling complaints).

• Goodwill costs are going up (extra points, comped meals, etc.)

• Word-of-mouth advertising has turned negative.

• Guests are reducing their overall spend with the chain.

Promise audits aren’t just about saving customers. They can also help you increase revenue.

I've seen the impact in my own business. My wife, Sally, and I once owned a vacation rental cabin called The Overlook in the Southern California mountain village of Idyllwild.

Revenue increased 145% in the five years we owned in. Part of our growth came from offering a consistently great guest experience. Promise audits helped us stay consistent:

• Monthly: maintenance inspections.

• Quarterly: review guests' journey (i.e. stay at the cabin).

How do you conduct a customer experience promise audit?

Most promise audits are quickly conducted by following a few steps.

1. Identify the scope of the audit

2. Identify where promises are made

3. Identify how often promises are kept

Step 1: Identify the scope of the audit.

Decide what particular set of promises you want to focus on. It could be a specific marketing campaign, an aspect of your operation, or the entire customer journey.

The hotel chain could audit the benefits that are promised to loyalty program members.

Step 2: Identify where these promises are made to customers.

Promises are communicated to customers in many ways. This includes advertising, from employees, and digitally. Try to identify all the places where promises are made and make sure they're consistent.

The hotel chain communicates it's loyalty benefits in a few places:

• Website

• App

• Hotel associates

• Mail (welcome and renewal letters mailed to members)

• Email

• Brochures

Part of the audit includes making sure these benefits are consistently described.

Step 3: Identify how often the promises are kept.

Gather data to determine how frequently promises are kept, and which promises are broken. There are a few ways to gather this data:

• Review reports if the data is already collected.

• Test the various systems in question to see if they're working.

• View customer complaint data to identify broken promises.

• Follow the customer journey by being your own customer.

The hotel chain tracks extensive data about its guests. It could easily access data to determine whether its guests are getting their benefits.

My last 10 stays with the hotel chain provide a snapshot of what the audit might reveal. Here’s a breakdown of the eight benefits I’m promised as a Gold member:

Promises Kept 100%:

1. Member rates

2. 25% bonus points

3. Welcome gift of points

4. Late checkout

Not applicable:

1. Ultimate reservation guarantee

Broken promises:

1. Complimentary in-room enhanced internet: 90% (10% not kept)

2. Mobile check-in: 0% (100% not kept)

3. Enhanced room upgrade: 0% (100% not kept)

In-room wifi works most of the team. Mobile check-in and room upgrades are a huge red flag.

Mobile check-in allows you to bypass the front desk and check-in via the hotel’s app. You can then use your phone to access your room. That feature never worked in the past 10 stays.

Enhanced room upgrades are clearly promised "based on availability." While it would be unfair to expect an upgrade on every visit, I haven't gotten upgraded on any of my last ten visits. I used to receive regular upgrades, so something has changed.

Promise audits can also uncover unexpected problems.

For instance, the hotel chain's loyalty members earn points that can be redeemed for free stays. Unfortunately, those points aren't redeemable at many hotels. I've only been able to use points to book the hotel I wanted 40% of the time over the past two years.

Broken promises cause customers to distrust a brand.

I once stayed at this brand automatically. Now, I’m shopping other hotels when I make a reservation. I’m also talking to other travelers about their experience with other chains in case I want to switch loyalty programs.

Conclusion

Promises help you attract customers. Keeping promises is where you earn their repeat business and positive word-of-mouth advertising.

Use a promise audit to help you retain more business.

1. Identify the scope of the audit

2. Identify where promises are made

3. Identify how often promises are kept

I’ve created a step-by-step system to win and retain customers by keeping your promises. It’s called The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

Get it here: The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

Why monitoring systems are essential to great customer experience

Note: The following is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

Daniel Pascoe has never owned a car.

That might seem inconceivable to many people, but a car isn't necessary if you live in a city that has reliable public transportation—like Portland, Oregon. Portland's transportation system is run by TriMet, which provides bus, light rail, and commuter rail service.

Pascoe uses the bus to get to work and visit other parts of town. He occasionally uses TriMet's MAX light rail.

A MAX light rail train arriving at the Portland International Airport.

"The MAX is really convenient when you're going to the airport," he explained. "It takes you right into the terminal."

It’s an easy walk into the terminal from the MAX light rail stop at Portland International Airport.

Customers like Pascoe are trying to solve a transportation problem. They need to get from one place to another, and TriMet makes two fundamental promises to help them. The first is the published routes, which assure passengers they can get from their starting point to their destination. The second is the schedule, which promises to get passengers there by a certain time.

For Pascoe, TriMet's ability to consistently keep those promises makes him a fan of the service. He knows he can depend on TriMet to get him to work, or wherever else he wants to go, on time. "Reliability is a positive that TriMet is known for."

Monitoring for Broken Promises

One of the most important aspects of a Guaranteed Customer Experience is a system to ensure promises are being kept.

TriMet has something called the Operations Command Center to monitor its transportation network and provide real-time information and updates to operators, passengers, and other critical stakeholders. Video screens line the walls. Some show live camera feeds from various points along bus routes and rail lines, while others are continuously updated with important data. Employees are in contact with bus and train operators, repair crews, and other relevant personnel.

The command center is staffed 24 hours per day, seven days a week, with as many as 30 employees at any given time. The center is divided into three teams, with each team monitoring their section of Portland's geographical region. Employees keep an eye on buses, light rail lines, and trains to ensure they're running on time and to detect problems as quickly as they happen.

A Portland Streetcar moves past Powell’s Books in downtown Portland.

Jon Bell is TriMet's senior manager of customer experience. He explained that the command center employees are charged with helping TriMet keep its brand promise: We connect people with their community.

"We're not buses and trains," said Bell. "We're connecting people to life. We are truly the thread of the community, connecting people to jobs, school, family, and friends."

Bell understands that thousands of passengers rely on TriMet to be on time. "The moment you break that promise, that is a moment of truth." People won't trust TriMet if it's not reliable.

Employees in the Operations Command Center spring into action when an issue is detected and there's a danger that a bus or train might be delayed. They share alerts about accidents, construction, traffic congestion, and other problems. Command center employees work with bus and train operations to coordinate a solution to keep passengers moving while providing updated information on the status.

Passengers have a wide range of options for staying updated on transit schedules. The TriMet website features trip-planning tools, real-time arrival information for each route and station, and service alerts.

TriMet’s online trip planning tool.

Passengers can sign up to get alerts via email or text. Route stops have a unique ID that passengers use to get arrival information via text.

Text alert from bus stop #782. There is a #20 bus 6 minutes away and another one 21 minutes away.

Busier stops also have electronic display boards listing the expected arrival time of incoming buses or trains.

A display board at a TriMet bus stop shows the expected arrival times for buses.

Critical updates are provided on social media, and passengers can call TriMet to get arrival times or assistance planning a trip. There are also third-party apps, like Moovit, that share updated information.

Customer-focused organizations like TriMet create robust systems to monitor customer experience and sound alarms when promises might be broken. While many of these systems might appear insanely complicated, they're based on two simple questions:

1. What promises are we making?

2. How do we know we're keeping our promises?

Responding to Broken Promises

Monitoring for broken promises allows you to identify problems and fix them quickly.

I experienced TriMet's responsiveness while riding the MAX light rail to the airport. The train had just pulled into a station when the operator announced a delay. Passengers exchanged worried looks as they wondered if they’d still be able to catch their flight. One family of four was already cutting it close to their flight’s departure time, and they grew increasingly agitated with each passing minute.

A few minutes later, the operator announced that the train would not continue due to a problem on the track, and buses would be provided to shuttle passengers to another station where they could rejoin the light rail. People became even more nervous about their flights, unsure of when the shuttle buses would arrive or how much longer it would take to get to the airport.

The buses arrived quickly despite everyone's fears. We were efficiently transported to another station where a train was waiting to take us the rest of the way to the airport. The total delay was only about 30 minutes, and even the panicked family made it in time to catch their flight.

TriMet wins fans by keeping its promises to get passengers to a particular place by a certain time. This is an incredibly difficult challenge with multiple bus routes and rail lines spanning a wide geographical region. What really helps TriMet stand out is its ability to constantly monitor the customer experience and make adjustments before small problems become broken promises.

Conclusion

You can design your own experience monitoring system by answering two questions:

1. What promises are we making?

2. How do we know we're keeping our promises?

You can find a worksheet to guide you through the rest of the process here.

Learn more about how TriMet and other customer-focused organizations keep their promises from The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

How to improve customer service training with the 70-20-10 rule

What is the right amount of time to spend on training?

That's the question a customer service leader recently asked me. He had contacted me with some questions about lesson plans for a training class he was running with his team.

The team had gathered to take my Customer Service Foundations course on LinkedIn Learning. It was taking the team 4.5 hours to watch the videos and complete the exercises as a group. The manager wondered if this was too much, or too little time.

My answer surprised him because I suggested he spend less time on training, not more.

Instead, I suggested he leverage a little-known concept called the 70-20-10 rule. It could easily cut the time spent on training by nearly 50 percent while generating better results.

Here's what it is and how you can use it.

What is the 70-20-10 rule?

The concept was first developed based on research from the Center for Creative Leadership that showed leaders developed their skills from a variety of sources:

• 70 percent of their skills came from challenging assignments.

• 20 percent were learned from a boss or mentor.

• 10 percent came from formal training.

Two big caveats here:

• The word "rule" implies it's hard and fast science, but it’s not. It's more of a guide.

• While originally derived from leadership training, it's a good model to follow for other training topics.

I've had tremendous success applying this concept to customer service training by acknowledging that we learn a lot more from our experiences and our boss than we do from a formal class.

The amount of time you spend training is a lot less relevant than whether you align all three parts of the 70-20-10 model so they send the same message.

"70 percent" = learning from daily work

Most of what we learn comes from experience. While the 70 percent in 70-20-10 is not a hard rule, it’s a good reminder that our experiences play an important role in the learning process.

Your smartphone is an example.

You figured out how to use it without ever attending a class. Perhaps you asked a friend for a quick tip or watched a YouTube video, but you directed all of your own learning.

That’s the power of experience.

One of my recommendations to the customer service leader was to break the formal class into small chunks so employees could spend more time practicing their skills.

For example, Customer Service Foundations contains a 3 minute and 17 second video that explains a technique to easily start conversations with customers. I suggested the manager follow this plan:

1. Have employees watch the video on their own.

2. Ask employees to practice the technique on the job for one day.

3. Gather the group for a team discussion about their experience.

That plan would dramatically re-allocate how training time was spent:

• Formal training: 3 minutes, 17 seconds to watch the training video

• Experience: One day of on-the-job practice and experimentation

• Boss or mentor: 10 minutes for a team discussion

"20 percent" = learning from a boss or mentor

A lot of what we learn comes from a boss, mentor, or some other influential person. They impart information, challenge us to grow, and in the case of a boss, hold us accountable.

A credit union sent all new tellers to the corporate office for the same formal training program. After attending the program, an audit revealed tellers in some branches were following the training while tellers in other branches had developed shortcuts that made their jobs easier, but resulted in poor customer service and less accuracy.

What caused the difference?

The tellers who excelled after training had managers who set clear expectations, gave regular feedback, and reinforced what was learned in the formal class. The tellers who struggled had managers who were more hands-off or actively coached the tellers to disregard what they learned in training.

One way to fix this is with a workshop planning tool.

It's a simple way to get training participants, their managers, and the trainer all on the same page before training ever happens. Here's a short video that explains how it works:

"10 percent" = formal training

Formal training includes classes, eLearning, and other highly structured learning events. It also includes training videos, such as the ones I've made with LinkedIn Learning.

This is often where new skills or concepts are introduced for the first time. For many organizations, formal training is a great way to ensure employees learn a consistent way of doing things.

That was the case at the credit union.

Every teller attended the same class, taught by the same trainer. The curriculum was standardized, so each subsequent class received the same information, completed the same activities, and had to demonstrate the same skills to pass.

Yet the performance of tellers attending the training was widely variable.

That's the lesson I shared with the customer service leader who contacted me. Formal training is important, but it's more important to align coaching and on-the-job experience with what people learning in training.

Conclusion

The best training aligns all three elements of the 70-20-10 rule.

1. Formal training: introduce a new concept

2. Manager/mentor: reinforce the concept

3. Experience: practice the concept

Here’s the overall plan I recommended to the manager:

1. Have employees watch the training videos on their own, assigning one ~five minute video at a time. (Total time = 1 hour, 22 minutes.)

2. Ask employees to practice the skills highlighted in each video on the job.

3. Gather the team to discuss their experiences (total time = 1 hour).

This would shave two hours from the original training plan. You can find a more detailed explanation of how to best use training videos here.

LinkedIn Learning subscribers can learn more about the 70-20-10 rule from this short video.

Incorporating the 70-20-10 rule into learning design from Instructional Design: Adult Learners by Jeff Toister

7 ways leaders can model great customer service

I recently worked with two clients in the same industry.

There were a lot of similarities between the organizations. The business models were similar, they were roughly the same size, and their products were essentially the same.

Both even professed to be fans of the principles outlined in The Service Culture Handbook.

Yet one company was growing while the other struggled.

The difference was leadership. The CEO of the growing company consistently modeled the service culture he was trying to create. The other did not.

You have to walk the talk if you want your employees to be customer-focused. Here are seven ways to do it.

#1 Clarify your vision

Give employees a customer service vision to follow. This is a shared definition of outstanding customer service that gets everyone on the same page.

A vision gives employees clarity. They know the direction the company is headed in and understand how they contribute. The customer-focused CEO used this step-by-step guide to engage the entire organization to quickly create a compelling vision.

The other leader talked a lot about vision, but did nothing to craft a concrete statement that could be shared by everyone.

#2 Share illustrative stories

Help employees understand the right types of customer-focused behaviors by sharing illustrative stories. These should serve as real examples that help clarify the vision and give it further meaning.

The model CEO consistently shared illustrative stories about individuals in the company providing great service, and encouraged his leadership team to do the same. This helped employees better grasp what they were supposed to do.

The other CEO also shared stories on occasion, but these were usually stories about admired companies from the latest book he was reading. They did nothing to give employees more clarity about their own roles.

#3 Make aligned decisions

Use the customer service vision as a guide for strategic decisions. This reinforces the service culture and gives employees a consistent example to follow.

The customer-focused CEO constantly referred to the vision when making decisions or discussing important issues with his team. The vision served as a compass that constantly pointed the company in the right direction.

The other CEO tended to fire from the hip. Without a vision to guide him, his decisions were often unpredictable and inconsistent. Employees were often confused as a result.

#4 Empower the team

Give employees the tools, resources, and authority needed to do their job. Trust that most people inherently want to do great work and will work hard to produce results if they are enabled.

The CEO of the growing company recognized the importance of empowerment. He carefully selected employees for key assignments, gave them the necessary resources, and let them decide the best way to get it done.

The other CEO tended to hoard information and power. He was reluctant to trust other employees because he felt it took too much time and effort to make sure they were doing things the way he wanted them done.

#5 Hold people accountable

Follow-up with employees to make sure they are on the right path. Recognize great performance when it happens and coach people to get them back on track when needed.

The customer-focused CEO was big on accountability. He regularly checked in with his team and was readily available if someone needed help. Employees didn't hesitate to go to the CEO for help because they knew he was supportive.

The other CEO had more of a fire-and-forget style. He'd fire off an email asking an employee to do something and then forget he sent it. People didn’t take new initiatives seriously because they knew the initiative wouldn’t last long.

#6 Be responsive

Respond to people with the same urgency you expect employees to demonstrate with customers.

The model CEO responded to emails the same day. He quickly returned phone calls and texts, too. Employees knew they didn't have to wait long if they needed something.

The other CEO took days to respond to anything.

#7 Keep commitments

Do what you say you are going to do.

The customer-focused CEO kept his commitments to employees and customers, and was always on time for meetings. If he said he was going to do something, you could count on it getting done.

The other CEO had a reputation for being someone you couldn't count on. He was late all the time. Late to meetings and late on projects. Many things he promised to do never got done.

Conclusion

Take a moment to do an honest assessment.

• How many of the actions above do you regularly model?

• What can you do better as a leader?

• How else can you model your service culture?

I’ll share one bonus way you can model great service: serve customers. Don’t be afraid to join the frontlines and show your team how it’s done.

When I managed a contact center, I regularly took calls at a workstation on the contact center floor. I wanted my team to see and hear me soothe an angry customer or put a nervous caller at ease. It also gave me empathy for my agents because I had put myself in their position.

Your employees are watching you and learning from your actions. Model a customer-focused culture and you'll likely see employees do the same.

The data doesn't lie: Texans like In-N-Out better than Whataburger

Which fast food burger chain is better: Whataburger or In-N-Out?

The debate rages. Texans loudly proclaim their allegiance to Whataburger. Californians quickly tell you that In-N-Out is the best. Other states might feel caught in the middle.

So just for fun, I devised an objective test.

Let's forget polls run by food magazines that are more about state pride than real quality. I compared Whataburger and In-N-Out head-to-head in by using Yelp reviews for comparable locations in Texas.

That's right, I gave Whataburger a huge home field advantage.

Home field advantage didn't matter. In-N-Out won by a landslide. It was absolute, total domination. Frankly, I was surprised that it wasn’t even close.

Before you send me an angry email, keep in mind this wasn't my subjective opinion. People in Texas consistently rate In-N-Out much higher than Whataburger on Yelp.

About the Whataburger vs. In-N-Out test

In-N-Out Burger is a relative newcomer to Texas. The fast food hamburger chain was founded in Southern California in 1948 by Harry Snyder. It wasn't until 2011 that In-N-Out opened it's first Texas location.

Today, there are 40 In-N-Out locations in Texas.

Whataburger, by contrast, has Texas roots. Harmon Dobson opened the first location in Corpus Cristi, Texas in 1950. There are 697 Whataburger locations in Texas today.

To make the test fair, I mapped out each In-N-Out location in Texas, identified the closest Whataburger, and then compared the Yelp reviews for the two locations.

This was fairly easy to do. In some cases, there’s a Whataburger in the same parking lot as an In-N-Out. In most other cases, the nearest Whataburger is just down the street.

Consumers craving a fast food burger in these markets could easily choose between the two chains. The Yelp reviews tell us which they like better.

How In-N-Out beat Whataburger in a landslide

The test used data from Yelp reviews to evaluate three key categories:

1. Overall rating

2. Enthusiasm (total number of reviews)

3. Consistency

In-N-Out won all three tests handily.

Overall Rating

I compared the Yelp reviews for each of the 40 In-N-Out locations in Texas to the nearest Whataburger. All 40 In-N-Out locations had a higher Yelp rating than it's closest Whataburger competitor.

Yep. In-N-Out pulled off a clean sweep of Whataburger in Texas.

There was a wide gap in average rating between the two chains when you compare In-N-Out with nearby Whataburger locations:

Enthusiasm

I used the total number of reviews for each location as a proxy for customer enthusiasm. The higher the number of reviews (regardless of rating), the more enthusiastic the customer the base.

It's not a perfect metric. For instance, it doesn't control for the length of time a location has been open. Since Whataburger has a 61 year head start on In-N-Out (1950 vs. 2011), Whataburger would seem to have the advantage here.

It didn't matter. A whopping 37 out of 40 In-N-Out locations had more Yelp reviews than the nearest Whataburger.

In-N-Out averaged more than twice as many Yelp reviews per location:

Consistency

This last measure is about the entire chain, rather than just one location. The hallmark of a great business is you can rely upon a consistently good experience no matter where you go.

This is where In-N-Out really crushed it.

Every In-N-Out in Texas enjoys either a 3.5 or 4.0 average Yelp rating. Meanwhile, the nearest Whataburger locations ranged from 1.5 to 3.0.

Why are Whataburger's reviews worse than In-N-Out?

A lot goes into a Yelp review. Food taste and quality are important factors, but those aren’t the only things that customers care about.

Negative reviews for both chains tend to focus on three issues:

1. Wait time

2. Order accuracy

3. Friendliness

Wait time is particularly interesting.

Both Whataburger and In-N-Out prepare your meal to order, so the wait will always be longer than if you go to a chain that sells pre-made burgers stored under a heat lamp.

Strangely, the average wait at an In-N-Out is typically much longer because In-N-Out is usually a lot more crowded. (At least according to my anecdotal observations and personal experience as a fan of both chains.)

So why does Whataburger get dinged more than In-N-Out?

Because wait time is just as much about perception as it is actual elapsed time. Given the right set of circumstances, wait time can feel dramatically longer.

Negative Whataburger reviews that mentioned wait time often called out that the restaurant didn't seem very crowded. This caused customers to wonder why they were waiting so long.

In-N-Out customers, on the other hand, can see the long line of customers in front of them. They expect to wait because the chain is so popular.

Part of Whataburger's challenge is consistency. Wait time, accuracy, and even friendliness seem to be highly variable at locations with low Yelp ratings.

One explanation might be that Whataburger is no longer a family-owned company like In-N-Out. It’s not even a Texas company anymore. In 2019, the company was purchased by BDT Capital Partners, a company based in Chicago.

Meanwhile, In-N-Out is built on consistency. I profiled the company in my book, Getting Service Right, and found it has stayed focused on its core mission of offering quality, cleanliness, and courtesy throughout its entire history. It's still family run, doesn't franchise, and exclusive sells burgers, fries, and drinks.

What is the difference between a mission, vision, and values?

Updated: June 20, 2023

Employees are often confused about mission, vision, and value statements. Here are just a few of the questions I'm frequently asked:

• What's the difference?

• What are they for?

• Do we even need them all?

These questions came up a lot while I was doing research for The Service Culture Handbook. They’ve also come up while training thousands of employees on mission, vision, and values.

Here's an explanation of the three concepts along how other statements fit in.

What are a company’s mission, vision, and values?

An organization's mission, vision, and values help communicate something about the culture to employees. They should help guide each employees’ daily work and decision-making.

You can understand the difference by thinking what, why, and how.

• Mission: What the company does.

• Vision: Why the company does it.

• Values: How the companies does it.

Here’s a video explainer:

What is a mission statement?

A mission statement broadly describes what the organization does. They can range from specific to broad. Some are only truly understood by employees.

Clio, a company that makes legal practice management software, has a fairly descriptive mission statement:

Osprey, a company that makes backpacks and other equipment to help people enjoy the outdoors, has a more abstract mission:

Despite taking different approaches, both mission statements succinctly tell employees what the organization does. These short, simple statements make it easier for employees to use the mission to guide their daily work.

What is a vision statement?

A vision statement describes why an organization exists. It often refers to a larger goal the company is relentlessly pursuing.

TriMet operates the public transportation system in Portland, Oregon. It's vision statement reads:

Compared to mission statements and values, fewer organizations have a vision statement. That’s because the mission statement often speaks to the company's reason for existing.

For instance, the JetBlue Airways mission statement is "Inspire Humanity." The company describes this mission as the reason the airline was founded:

What is a purpose statement?

A purpose statement combines elements of a mission and vision into one single statement that broadly describe what the company does and why.

Purpose statements give employees one fewer statement to memorize. That can simplify things a bit and make the purpose easier to follow.

Target’s purpose statement abstractly describes what it does (sells goods for everyday life) and how it tries to do it (helping families discover joy).

Value Statements

An organization’s values describe how its employees do business. They serve as guidelines for the types of behaviors that should be promoted and encouraged.

Rackspace, a company that provides cloud-based computer networks, shares explanations for each of its five core values to provide more context:

• Excellence. We are an accountable, disciplined, high-performing company with proven results.

• Customer-driven. We are proactive, collaborative and committed to success for our customers.

• Expertise. Rackers are passionate learners who are embedded in our customers’ businesses to provide unbiased solutions.

• Agility. We adopt new technologies and evolve services to meet customers where they are in their journey.

• Compassion. We’re one team doing the right thing for our customers, communities and each other.

Some companies, like Squarespace, put their values in priority order:

1. Be the customer.

2. Design is not a luxury.

3. Build the ideal.

4. Learn fast, act fast.

5. Protect creativity.

6. Simplify.

Where do other statements fit in?

Companies often have a myriad of other statements on top of their mission, vision, and values. These include mottos, slogans, and brand promises.

An informal LinkedIn poll revealed that nearly half of organizations have four or more statements that are used to guide employee behavior. Having too many statements for employees to remember can get confusing.

Whenever possible, it helps to simplify.

Regular readers know I often refer to a company's customer service vision statement, which is a shared definition of outstanding service that gets everyone on the same page.

In customer-focused organizations, the mission does double duty as the customer service vision, eliminating the need for a separate statement.

For example, JetBlue's Inspire Humanity mission tells employees what the company does (albeit very abstractly) and how they should treat customers.

Many companies have a separate brand promise or marketing slogan. That's okay, as long as the external statements are still aligned with the company's mission, vision, or values.

The Armstrong Garden Centers brand promise is "Gardening without Guesswork." This is a succinct and very natural external version of the company's mission statement:

We strive to take the guesswork out of gardening by providing horticultural expertise, exceptional service, and the best quality plants and products. We are passionate gardeners cultivating a welcoming environment for all to learn and be inspired.

Conclusion

Fewer statements are better than more statements. Simplify whenever possible. You want to provide clarity, not confusion.

Do you need help writing a mission, vision, or values? Here are some resources to help:

1. Write your mission: My free step-by-step guide

2. Build a service culture: The Service Culture Handbook