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Contact Vox to learn about how we can help you create a comprehensive Customer Experience that drives bottom-line results dramatically higher.

Let’s not whitewash it. It’s a scary world right now. Everyday, we’re absorbing news via all our devices and witnessing low quarterly earnings, uncertain futures, and friends and family being laid off. It’s easy to just keep going through the motions of cutting expenses, limiting focus to “critical” activities, and just making sure the boss is content.

And yet some companies are innovating right now. Here’s a sampling of how some of them are working on the customer experience (and action you can take) TODAY.

1. Take one small step. A client of ours is focusing on their e-commerce strategy. With limited resources, they are making small changes to their e-commerce process to ensure customers have a better, faster checkout process. This has led to improved conversion, cross-sell and up-sell numbers via the web site.

2. Unite! One organization asked us to come in and rally the troops around customer experience. Summer is their big season, so we are helping every person at the organization - from the CEO to the janitorial staff - understand their place within the customer experience. It’s helped them create a common language and improve their own service standards.

3. Focus on the future. One client in a very hard-hit industry is creating a 3-year plan to get ready for the future. Dabbling in new ways to connect with customers, testing theories, and gathering feedback, they’re able to set the stage for success instead of stagnate where they are.

4. Communicate. Many industries have been hit hard, resulting in difficult times for customers and employees. The focus right now for a client in such an industry is on engaging their employees to deliver a superior customer experience. How? By implementing ways to stay connected through dialogue and communication that’s honest, compelling and relevant. They’re asking employees to celebrate each other and their little victories in new ways.  Engagement is up and customers are remaining loyal, even through bad news cycles.

These aren’t costly, cumbersome projects. These are lean and flexible in response to the times we’re in. Anything you can take away here to get started? Let me know.

Vox just turned 12!!!  In honor of this momentous occasion, we have posted a new article by Bill:

12+ Tips to Improve Customer Experience and Profitability Right Now. 

Here’s just one of his tips:

1. Create a CE Process Map

In order to improve the CE, you first have to understand what it is. A quick but effective way to do that is to get all the people who touch the CE in any way in a room and walk through a typical customer experience. Try to keep it simple at first. Graphically represent each interaction and communication. I guarantee you will soon realize two things: 1) employees are making incorrect assumptions about what’s really happening for the customer, and 2) there are both challenges and opportunities that should be addressed that will significantly improve CE.

Also, in Honor of 12 fabulous years of Voxtopia, we built a sculpture of a Tyrannosaurus Rex… out of bacon.

I present to you: BACON-SAURUS VOX!

(Here he is, pre-cooked…)

(And here he is again in all of his crispy bacon glory…)

Happy Birthday, VOX!!

Follow Peggy on Twitter at  www.twitter.com/entrop

In response to my previous post, 3 Common Problems With Satisfaction Surveys, I received forwarded emails from Marriott Rewards and Hilton HHonors members. Both Marriott and Hilton are competing for the rank of Best Hotel Program in the Freddie Awards. So, each company sent emails in an attempt to convince customers to vote for them.  

Here’s a summary:

• Marriott says they have quick service, mobile access, better points redemption, and more flexibility
• Hilton offers free nights with no blackout dates, and claims to have more awards from J.D. Power and Associates
• I don’t care. Not even a little bit

The real question is: why should we, the customers, take the time to vote? Personally, I can’t think of a single reason. As a customer, I expect and tolerate marketing materials because that’s what companies do, and because it shows that they value my business. But these emails aren’t asking for my business, they’re asking for a favor.

Why should I rate you a 10?

• What do I get in return?
• How will your program improve if you win?
• Will prices go down?

Fun fact about the author:

I only give money to panhandlers who impress me with wit, talent, or ingenuity.

It’s obvious many large companies are clinging to solvency through this wide-scale financial crisis. Banks, car companies, retailers; everyone is struggling. You would think the declining revenues would lead to even fewer resources spent on customer-focused services.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests the opposite may be the case. With every dollar of income now precious, many businesses seem to be trying a little harder to keep the customers they have. More flexible return policies in some stores, a nicer tone when you call into the credit card call center indicate at least some companies are starting to “get it.”

One case in point: we just took our Trailblazer into the Chevy dealership for some work. I did so with trepidation, based on past horrible experiences. But, instead, we’ve been treated as (I hesitate to say this and jinx it): valued customers. The service employee has been friendly, accommodating, responsive and even empathetic. As you know, Chevrolet is the poster child for inflated, inflexible, even stubborn old-school business. Time will tell if this is an isolated incident or there is a cultural shift occurring.

I’ll choose to be very cautiously optimistic.

I was just reading this great article in the New York Times business section about how McDonald’s is making a big comeback.  What stood out to me is how they have shifted their focus from “being the world’s best quick-service restaurant” to being “our customers’ favorite place and way to eat.” 

In changing the food they serve and they way they serve it, they have won back millions of “McDonald’s Converts.”  And, as I read the article, I realized… I’M A MCDONALD’S CONVERT! 

I hadn’t set foot in a McDonald’s in probably 10 years until they started offering iced coffee for a fraction of the price of Starbucks.  One day, I tried it, and it was really good. 

Also, the store itself seemed less, how do I put this, disgusting than I remember it being.  It was clean and colorful, and the staff was friendly.  Overall, a not-too-shabby experience.  That, plus the cost difference, was enough to change my ritual from grabbing-a-quick-Starbucks to grabbing-a-quick-McDonalds.

I guess the lesson is: never stop trying to reach your customers.  If the way you are reaching them isn’t working, try shifting your focus.  McDonalds found out what was missing from their experience, then they adapted to fit that need.  Any question about whether it worked?  Check out their profits!

In the midst of the economic crisis, while most banks are trying to keep attracting customers by offering higher interest savings and money market accounts, one bank (PNC) is thriving by focusing on delivering a unique online customer experience, specifically designed to target the generation Y (people aged 18 to 34, according to PNC demographics).

PNC created a product called Virtual Wallet that boldly discards all usual conventions from the banking industry, such as checking or savings accounts, and offers 3 types of accounts (dubbed “Spend,” “Reserve” and “Growth”) combined in a single solution.  They focused on two simple concepts:

• Twentysomethings consider bank sites clunky, and they typically don’t know how to manage their money (’We need help helping ourselves’)
• The Gen Y really understands how to take advantage of online resources.

The solution takes advantage of concepts borrowed from other online services, games, social networks and even e-Commerce sites with features like Wish-List, Financial Calendar, Money Bar, Danger Days and “Punch the Pig.”   That strategy is luring 130 new customers a day (20,000+ Virtual Wallet customers since July) to an account that otherwise could hardly compete with more aggressive banks in terms of paid returns. 

Defying conventions and betting on exceptional experience can cost a lot initially (PNC expects the project to cost about 15 Million overall), but the ROI is unquestionable: PNC estimates to break even 1 year faster than a similar investment on a new brick-and-mortar branch would have.

From that example (plus everything that we preach here at Vox), I can get 3 great lessons to any company in any industry:

1.  Don’t be afraid to defy conventions!  Know your customers, understand what they what and what they need and create NEW experiences that fit their expectations
2.  Test your concepts with real customers, watch how they react and behave and adjust your solutions accordingly
3. The best strategy in times of crisis is still to offer a truly great customer experience.  Marketing gimmicks and discounts can only go so far as… well, superficial wins…

 So… What strategy will your company follow to get over this crisis?

 See more about it in this article from BusinessWeek

Most major auto insurance companies profess a desire to improve customer experience over all channels, and there’s plenty of evidence they’re sincere in that intent. At the same time, good intentions and four bits will buy you a cup of coffee (ok, maybe four bucks at Starbucks, for a non-fat half-caf latte). What the recently completed Vox Mind-Model Study shows is – although there have been real improvements overall in the design, usability and functionality of many auto insurance websites – there’s still lots of room for improvement. Register here for the full Mind-Model study: http://www.voxinc.com/insurance-mind-model.htm.

So, if you’re a customer like me, feel free to be encouraged, and disappointed.

In this, the third iteration of this comprehensive study of online auto insurance environments we were impressed by some of the improvements we observed. These include:

• More emphasis on cross-cultural awareness (makes sense since Hispanics, for example, are the fastest growing minority in the United States);

• Moderate improvement in both the number of sites offering online insurance quotes, and new options to help someone get a quote quickly, like anonymous quotes and Live Chat; and

• The availability of search functions on almost all the sites we studied – a necessary feature these days.

At the same time, we were disappointed in the lack of progress on several fronts, such as:

• Search tools (I know, I just said search was good) that, while they exist on the site don’t perform the way a user would like, which means the value for this “added feature” is less than zero;

• Standard quote processes that are still too lengthy and convoluted for most users to find the will to complete;

• Typical browser settings for sites that seem to belong back in 2003 – most users now have monitors set to at least 1024 x 768, yet many sites are still at the almost-obsolete 800 x 600 setting, resulting in most companies cheating themselves out of valuable screen real estate.

If the online channel was an important part of the overall customer experience when we conducted the last study, it’s now essential – and in many customers’ minds the most important or only channel – for communicating, researching, and transacting the relationship. Companies that don’t realize this will proceed at their own peril.

The comprehensive study examines 14 of the major auto insurance company sites in depth, utilizing several methodologies and analysis techniques, which revealed some bright spots but also some surprising inconsistencies and flaws. Go here to register for the full Mind-Model study http://www.voxinc.com/insurance-mind-model.htm.

I just returned from San Francisco where I attended what I’ve been calling the Lalapalooza of the internet, aka Web 2.0 Expo 2007, where industry leaders mixed with rising stars of the wide web world to discuss and discover emerging trends and technologies, show off, promote new ideas, connect and to some extent try to figure out what it all means and where it’s going.

I think we’ve reached the point where we know what Web 2.0 is (user/community driven sites and products, widgets, wikis, blogs, mashups, tagging…phew) and now we can move on to figuring out what we’re going to do with it. And I think that was a refreshing theme throughout the Expo.

The general buzz is there is a Web 2.0 wave to be ridden and there is no shortage of tech companies eager to ride that wave. There was a lot of talk about technology at the Expo, which is certainly a crucial factor, but I think the larger message of Web 2.0 is something that we here at Vox have been talking about for a long time: listen to your customers, build a community and engage them in a meaningful way. Don’t just attack them with features and marketing programs.

Oh, and I saw a really cool video by Michael Wesch, “Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us”

I’ve been reflecting on Luis’ blog entry about Information Overload. I concur that it is a complex and ever-expanding phenomenon. We at Vox encounter Information Overload in our own lives as well as that of the Customers for which we advocate.

However, I controversially postulate that the real problem isn’t actually too much information. There is really no such thing as too much information. The problem is one of organization. It takes too much time and effort to get to the information we want and need, whether it’s to get a 1-800 number, to find out how much our insurance will cost, or to find out when our favorite movie comes out on DVD.

Therefore, we realize that from the Customer’s perspective, it’s imperative for us to accomplish two objectives: one, to create a clear path to their goal and two, to set expectations of time and effort.

Creating a clear path to Customer goals involves building experiences based on what the Customer wants to do versus what the company wants the Customer to do. It is about–to give just a few touchpoint examples–automated phone systems that tell the holding Customer where they are in the que, websites that always let Customers know when they have received or are sending out an item and written customer communications that speak to the customer instead of at them.

Setting Customer expectations involves answering the questions they ask themselves when trying to access information. Customers want to know "How long will this take?" "What steps will I need to complete to accomplish this?" "Will I need to process a ton of information and make a complex decision, or will this be straightforward?" The more accurately we answer these internal questions of Customers, the less "Info-intensive" we will make their experience.

What else can we do to help Customers accomplish their goals?

Everyone around me is overwhelmed by information and I am no exception.

My desk is overflowing with invoices, statements, memos, meeting minutes, reports, articles and books. Post-its® decorate my computer at work and at home. Somewhere in there, I have a paper calendar that I stopped updating long ago. I try to concentrate on the electronic part of my life, hoping that my computer’s processor will magically sort out this mess for me…

Not a chance! My desktop background is hidden behind an army of icons, shortcuts, gadgets, widgets, and, of course, digital Post-its®. Microsoft Outlook practically attacks me with meeting alarms every time I open it; my inbox now has 86 new emails (not counting the already filtered spam and junk mail) and at least the same amount of old emails that I should answer, but I know I am not. On top of that, I’m stacking up more than a thousand unread feeds from my favorite news websites and blogs.

All my potentially good ideas seem to be adrift in this vast virtual pool of information. They are just there, below the surface, waiting for some essential fact to jumpstart my brain into a feverish state of creativity.

Just within my sight, but still beyond my grasp, I can identify a few good candidates for inspiration:

• Jacob Nielsen’s "Seniors Usability Study" stares at me everyday when I come to the office. Unlike the half-read and overlooked "Intranet Design Annual Report" from 2006, this one still acts as if it could draw me to it by sheer force. 
• Tom Vander Wells post from last week has some compelling links and examples that I believe relate to one of my previous blog posts.
• I am still hoping to read the report "Mouse Rage," released last month by the Social Issues Research Centre and available at Rackspace.com.
• I definitely need to know more about Illinois’ teen-driving reform act, since it may affect some of my client projects.
• And of course, Seth Godin and Scott Adams are still there, sending their everyday drop of wisdom, wit or contradiction to feed my hungry mind.

After all, if I don’t read other people’s works and opinions, how can I write my own?

If a solution for my problem is available anywhere out there, I haven’t found it yet. It is probably in article number 875 in the list of blog posts I will never read, or chapter 11 in the 100th book from my Amazon wish list.

The real problem is that I am already so numb from information overload that I don’t realize I have a problem (and I am supposed to evaluate processes and usability in my job!). I have some vague notion that I need to do something about it some day, but the endless list of tight deadlines keeps pushing it down the priority list.

And it all gets worse. One issue of the New York Times now contains more information than a 17th century man or woman would have encountered in a lifetime. In the last 30 years, humanity has produced more information than in the previous 5,000. The world’s produced information is increasing at a rate of 30% per year, and it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.

Now you would say, "Yeah, that’s pretty interesting, but what does it have to do with customer experience?"

Well, imagine that your customer is most probably suffering from the same predicament. What can you do to make your products or services stand out and emerge above all others?

You will find at least 6,020,000 "answers" to that question in Google.

Now, if you excuse me, my brain just froze and I need to reboot.