Shep Hyken Shares Key Insights from the Latest Achieving Customer Amazement Study

Transcription:

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Shep, thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule there to join us on the show.

Shep Hyken:
Oh man, it’s great to be back. I always love being on the show.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. So thank you for joining us. So one of the questions, I thought this was interesting that one of the questions in the survey was, would you rather call customer support or just go to the dentist? What did you find on that answer?

Shep Hyken:
Well, this is the second year we’ve asked that question, and the numbers came out pretty close the same. And it’s a fun question to ask. There’s no doubt about that. But 46% of the customers said they would rather go to the dentist than call customer support, and what that means-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That would be me. That would be me.

Shep Hyken:
Yeah. And what they mean, that means if you think about it, it’s like when… And the squeaky wheel always gets the oil because not all customer support calls go this way, but you call, you’re put on hold for God knows how long, because they don’t tell you how long it’s going to be and they don’t give you the option for you to call back. You finally get to somebody. They ask you 17 questions to understand it’s really you. They want your mother’s maiden name, your firstborn child’s name, the birthdays of everyone you ever met. Anyway, then you get to talking to somebody that you may not understand, or maybe they don’t understand what your question is. They end up transferring you to somebody else. You got to start over the same question. It goes on and on.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
It really does. It’s incredible.

Shep Hyken:
And that’s what people can’t stand. By the way, another question we asked was, would you rather clean a toilet than call customer support? And 42% of the people responded and they said, “I’d rather clean the toilet.”

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I would rather other cleaned my dentist’s toilet than to be on customer service. I mean, it is just incredible that we are here, we are in 2022 with just incredible technology, and to your point, they don’t tell you how long it’s going to be, they don’t give you the option to give you a call back. When you go on, you’ve given all that information, to your point, and then they transfer you, and you got to give all the information again. When in reality, they should have it right on the screen in front of them.

Shep Hyken:
Exactly. And-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
As soon as that call was transferred, “Oh, Mr. Fitzpatrick. Yeah. I’ve got your whole file right here. It was transferred over from Susie, that department, and I can pick it up right here.” But they don’t do that. What is the deal with that?

Shep Hyken:
I don’t know, but I can do an entire workshop just on the answer to this one question, too, hopefully, not be the one that does it. But here’s the thing, it’s so inexpensive today to have the technology that says, “You are on hold. Your wait time is seven minutes. If you’d rather have a call back, we can do that.” It’s so inexpensive. And finally, more and more companies are starting to do that.

Shep Hyken:
And by the way, this is the extreme. This is not the norm. We don’t… Obviously, if you were to make 50 calls, maybe you might have a half a dozen that are really, really, really bad.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Shep Hyken:
Some that are just okay. And then you have a few outside-the-box incredible experiences.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Shep Hyken:
One of my favorite companies is GoDaddy, but GoDaddy, what I love about them is I’ve been using them for years for my website, hosting and my domain, my email addresses. I’ve never had to wait more than 60 seconds when I call for help.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That is nice.

Shep Hyken:
And every one of those people are amazing.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That is nice. You’re talking to a lot of business owners right now. That was a nice little plug for them. But that’s good information to know, because that would steer me to a retailer, for sure, to say, wow, if that’s the case, I’ll forgive other areas, if their customer service is about it. You know what I mean? So-

Shep Hyken:
Yeah. One of the biggest thing, it’s that they don’t respect time. Companies don’t respect time. Customers want you to respect their time.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Shep Hyken:
And the biggest friction that you have when you call customer support is the length of time it takes to get your answer.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I know, I know. And it could be a simple answer that you’re looking for. It’s like, wow, this just so wasn’t worth it for me to spend 30 minutes of my time just asking for one little morsel of information to let me move on with my life. And it’s not a complaint or anything else. You just want to know how to do this on the website or how to fill out this form or that form or whatever the case might be.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I will tell you, and this is just a little side note, but Delta… I love Delta. I think they… Well, obviously, we’re in Atlanta and we love Delta. They do a great job. However, they change their customer service online where they typically, you’d call in and they’d say, “Hey, it’s going to be about 25 minutes. Would you like us to give you a call back at this number? Just hit 1 for yes or 2 for no,” whatever the case might be. And then they do, they call you back. Well, that option has not been on there for quite some time now, and now, you’re just in the hold mode without any options at all. And I’ve thought to myself, why would they have ever done, why would they take that technology away? But I’ve called a number of times now over the course of the last three or four months. I don’t know if you knew anything about that, but that’s interesting.

Shep Hyken:
No. That’s strange because I know… And now, if you don’t have any status on the airline, but I know you have status because that’s your airline of choice.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I do, but then you think to yourself even for the people that don’t have status, is that any way to treat them? It seems like such an easy thing for them to say, “Hey, we’ll give you a call back as soon as there’s a operator free.” Great. I can move on with my life and take the call.

Shep Hyken:
I’m going to make an assumption, and I can’t verify, but I’m going to say that there’s a glitch in their system that caused that, that if you were to call today, you’d probably have that experience of being told how long the whole time it is in the option of calling back.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Well, I hope so. I hope that’s a big… It’s interesting. You should say that, because it just brings out the importance of checking your own technology and that there may be a glitch on there you don’t even know about. Right? We just had a-

Shep Hyken:
Well, it shouldn’t be three months before they find out. That’s for sure.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s exactly right. That’s right. That’s crazy. But so let me ask you this question. What is the most important stat that we should remember from the entire survey? What jumps out at you?

Shep Hyken:
Well, I’ll give you… There’s several really important stats that kind of make the compelling argument to make sure your technology’s working and that all the things we just talked about, and that is 78% of customers go out of their way to do business with a company that has better customer service, which means it gives you the competitive edge. I’ve got a couple others, but I think just to start there. If you’re not delivering the level of service that your customers expect and want, you know what, your competitors might be able to do that. And guess what happens long term, you say, “What happened to my customer? They’re gone.” And that’s because they went to the competition. So you need to be one of those companies that set the bar high in the industry that you’re in.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And interestingly enough, not overpriced. We, as business owners, think all the time, it’s price, it’s price, it’s price, when in reality, it’s not price, stupid. It’s about the customer service that you’re giving, and people are willing to pay a little bit more even for good customer service, right?

Shep Hyken:
Which is the second… I’ve got three really important compelling stats, and that is 58% of customers say good service is more important than price.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
There you go. Yeah.

Shep Hyken:
And I’ll throw something else out, and this is surprising. A certain generation is willing to pay more than another generation. Can you guess which generation is willing to pay more for that customer service?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I would say that it’s going to be the Millennials.

Shep Hyken:
Very good. Ding, ding, ding. That is the correct answer.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I would think that, yep.

Shep Hyken:
Most people say it’s boomers, but this is what’s interesting. 62% of Millennials and 60% of Gen Z, the youngest generation out there that’s buying habits, above 18, they are willing to pay more versus just 46% of boomers. That’s a pretty big discrepancy. And I always thought that the older we got, the more discriminating our tastes are, we’d be willing to pay more for the luxury of having a better experience, but no, apparently not. But I think that’s important. And finally, this is another one that ties into service and price. 70% overall are willing to pay more if they knew that they would receive a convenient experience.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Interesting.

Shep Hyken:
Convenience. And you and I have talked about the whole concept of convenience and less friction. I wrote that book The Convenience Revolution—

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right. And you’re right, and it is amazing how much convenience really means. Look at every single delivery program out there, whether it be DoorDash or Uber Eats or whatever, we’re all paying more for that convenience to pick up the phone and have it delivered right to you. The same holds true even with Uber. I mean, I’m an Uber junkie. My wife and I, whenever we go to dinner or whatever, we’re taking Uber.

Shep Hyken:
So much easier, isn’t it? Yeah.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
It’s so much easier, and we’re willing to pay for that convenience.

Shep Hyken:
Yeah. And if you think about, you mentioned the delivery of food. A few years ago, prior to the pandemic, if I wanted to order from a restaurant that had delivery, it was free delivery. Okay? Today, those same restaurants tell us they’re using DoorDash, Uber, or even their own, and there’s a $3 delivery charge or whatever. Nobody complains about it. They’re happy for it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right. And it got us all through the pandemic when we were locked down in 2020 and early 2021, and we were just utilizing all of those services, and we never blinked at the cost, the extra 10 bucks or 15 bucks to have groceries delivered or whatever the case might be. You just went with it. And now, at the price of gas, now, it’s our true convenience, because you’re like, “Well, if it’s going to take me a couple of gallons to run to the mall and back, there’s 80 bucks.” Right?

Shep Hyken:
But I hope the gas prices aren’t quite that high yet. Right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, right. Is the ACA 2022 applicable to all industries or business sizes? Who is it really for?

Shep Hyken:
Sure. So it’s a consumer report. However, the big question I get from a lot of my clients is how does this apply to B2B, business to business? Or is this just a business-to-consumer type of survey? So while we surveyed consumers, this is really important, B2B numbers are a little bit different, but the concepts are exactly the same. Even the government would like to do business with vendors that aren’t necessarily the lowest price, but create the greatest value, and a lot of that value is in convenience and service that they deliver.

Shep Hyken:
But here’s the point I love to make is that your B2B customer is still a consumer. And this is, by the way, totally applicable to the retail world, hospitality world, again, B2C, business to consumer. But when you get to that business to business, you wonder, your buyers in the B2B world are consumers, and what they’re doing is they’re comparing whatever experience they have in any type of business, whether it be retail or manufacturing, doesn’t make any difference. They’re comparing to the best experiences they’ve ever had. And typically, that experience is a consumer experience.

Shep Hyken:
So believe it or not, Amazon sets the bar high for everyone, including their fees. So we’ve got to take a look at that. Here’s the example I love to use. One of my clients is in the healthcare industry, and they ordered a major piece of X-ray or imaging equipment, as they call it. Probably, over a half a million dollars for this particular machine. And they had to build a special room to accommodate it, make sure that the electric was right, the heating, the cooling, whatever, the sterilization.

Shep Hyken:
Here’s what happened. The machine shows up two weeks early. I’m there, and this is what the executive had hired me said. “I ordered toilet paper from Amazon. They emailed me to tell me it’s on its way. This showed up early, and it’s not ready to be installed. I wish they would’ve let us know.” And I realized he just compared a half a million dollar piece of X-ray equipment to toilet paper.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
From Amazon.

Shep Hyken:
From Amazon.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s-

Shep Hyken:
So guess what the benchmark is for this major imaging equipment. I don’t know what the brand name was, but it’s probably one of the big, like a major medical company you’ve probably heard of.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Shep Hyken:
And they are being compared to toilet paper being delivered at Amazon.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Listen, I agree with that guy. I think it’s a shame, but it’s out there. And you’re right. Amazon has been the gold standard now for customer deli… And now, we don’t even want to wait overnight. Now, it’s like, “You can get it to us today, right?” Oh my gosh. It’s incredible. And more times than not, they are able to do that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So listen, my next question, you wrote an entire book about this called I’ll Be Back. We’re showing it right now on the screen. For those of you that have-

Shep Hyken:
I’ll Be Back.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
For those of you that have not gotten this book, get this book. It’s only going to increase your bottom line and make your life a lot happier in business, because it’s just full of great content that’s going to get your customer to say just that, “I’ll be back.” And to kind of sum it up little bit for me, only because of time, but from your perspective, what gets customers to come back? And I know I just asked you to take a whole book and give it to me in a sentence here, but-

Shep Hyken:
We specifically ask this question, which of the following customer service experiences are most likely to cause you to come back? And the top three answers, are you ready for this? It’s not rocket science. Customers want people they deal with to be helpful. They want them to be friendly, and they want them to be knowledgeable.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Shep Hyken:
And what’s really interesting is we asked the same question last year, and in every category we offered, customers want more than they did last year. So service and experience is becoming even more important than never. But helpfulness and friendliness, how hard is that?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. How hard is that? It didn’t even have anything to do with the product. It just has to do with your customer service reps. And I know that right now, everybody’s stretched a little bit thin because of COVID and not being able to get the type of worker that you want in. I mean, it’s such a tight workforce, but even still, even still, this is an area that we can do better at and not accept the status quo.

Shep Hyken:
Yeah. So helpful, friendly, but knowledgeable, by the way.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Shep Hyken:
You don’t have to have the answers. Not everybody needs to know what the answers are in their head. They need to know where to go to get the answers.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Good point. That’s a good point.

Shep Hyken:
And it can be on, they can know a knowledge base that the agent that you’re talking to or the salesperson knows where to go. Or maybe you just honestly say, “That is a great question, and my friend Jim Fitzpatrick, he knows the answer. Can I get that and call you right back?” And customers love it. Yes. Yes.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
They love it. I’ve recently had a-

Shep Hyken:
And then you just tell them, “I’ll call you back in one hour or less,” and you do and they think you’re the greatest.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I could not agree more with that. I just called the company last week, and the young lady on the phone said, “I’ve never been asked that question before, and I’m relatively new with the company, but if you’re willing to hang with me, let’s find this out together.” I’m saying to myself, “Wow, that is great.” Right? So I’m like, “I’m willing to hang in with you.” It took 20 minutes, but then she came back and she said, “Here’s where we’re at, but I think there’s even a little bit more to it that I’m not really sure of. So hang in there with me.” And I kind of felt like I was on her team to get this answer.

Shep Hyken:
There was empathy. There was understanding. There was a commitment to taking care of you. You felt good about it. You reciprocated. Even though it took a little bit of time, she wasn’t disrespecting your time. She was trying to get you what you wanted, and you were willing to hang in there with her to do it. I think that’s a win-win for everybody.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Do you know she was so nice and so helpful and so courteous on the phone. I ended up apologizing to her to ask this question that she didn’t happen to… I said, “I feel so bad. I’m so sorry to put you through all of this.” I’m apologizing to her, and meanwhile, I’m the customer, but that’s how good a job she did. So it was great, really was.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So when it comes to customer experience, companies that are listening to us and customer service, there’s nobody better, I don’t think, out there in the industry than Shep Hyken. That’s why we-

Shep Hyken:
Oh, thank you.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
… love bringing him in because just, he’s the bomb in this area. And we love when you come in and share the content and share findings like this from the survey. So Shep Hyken, customer service expert, best selling author, keynote speaker. Man, you want to get an audience going and get them thinking about the customer experience that they offer at their company, bring this guy in to have him talk to your audience. So thanks so much, Shep, for taking the time out of your busy schedule. You charge big money for this amount of time, so we really appreciate it.

Shep Hyken:
Well, you know what? And you do, too. So it’s reciprocal. It’s love going both directions. So thanks for having me back, and I can’t wait to… As I say in my book, I’ll be back.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I’ll be back. That’s right. Well, we want you to. We want you to come back. All right. Thanks so much.