This is the second part of the article: 57 Insights from leading brands and experts on what it takes to deliver a Wow customer experience.

As mentioned in Part 1, over the course of the last 18 months and since How to Wow came out I’ve being interviewing a range of leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, thinkers and academics about what it takes to deliver better outcomes for their customers and their people.

Moreover, towards the end of each of these interviews I have been asking them to share their perspective on what Wow service/experience means to them.

This is the second part of that list:

Susan Ganeshan, former Chief Marketing Officer of Clarabridge, a leading Saas platform analyses survey, social, voice and all other forms of customer feedback into actionable intelligence, says that Wow service/experience happens when an organisation handles you as a person rather than a number. The key to that seems to start with culture which, starting at the top, puts the customer at the heart of everything that the organisations does.

Jacob Morgan, a speaker, advisor, futurist and best-selling author on the future of work (His latest book: The Employee Experience Advantage), thinks that Wow service/experience is very simple and comes about when he gets what he is told he is going to get. If that can’t happen, then the organisation should solve the problem in an easy way. It’s all about meeting expectations.

Stan Phelps, founder of Purple Goldfish, a customer experience think tank, and author of a number of books including Red Goldfish: Motivating Sales and Loyalty Through Shared Passion and Purpose, says that, for him, Wow service or experience comes down to doing a little something extra. That doesn’t have to be something that delights, it could be something that just makes things easier for your customer. However, whatever you do needs to follow this acronym:

• RULES: where
  • R is for relevant,
  • U is for unexpected,
  • L is for limited (i.e. something that is unique),
  • E is for expression (i.e. something that is done with authenticity) and
  • S is for sticky.

Chase Clemons, a customer support team lead at Basecamp, a provider of project management and team communication software, said that a Wow experience for him is all about getting a human reply but getting it at the right time.

Mattijs ten Brink, Chairman & CEO of Transavia, a Dutch low-cost airline, believes that Wow service/experience is moving to a place where it will become transformational i.e. wow will come about when a company or brand enriches your own personal experience/story.

Tom Goodmanson, President and CEO of Calabrio, a call centre software provider, thinks that Wow service/experience is all about delivering a customised experience.

Tara Kelly, President & CEO of SPLICE Software, whose software helps retailers, insurance companies and banks optimize their customer communications via their human voice software and automated messaging systems, believes that Wow service/experience is all about being there when you need something but just before you ask for it.

Ed Ariel, VP of Customer Service at ezCater, the only US-wide marketplace for corporate catering, says that Wow service/experience for him and ezCater comes about when a customer’s order goes straight through and is delivered with very little effort or need for interaction. He and the team at ezCater understand that, for their customers, this sort of activity (ordering corporate catering) is one they want to spend as little time as possible on.

Bernadette Jiwa, founder of The Story of Telling and a best selling author (her new book is called Hunch), thinks that Wow service/experience is all about the tiny things and noticing and fixing the tiniest of details. It’s all about doing something small that you don’t have to do.

Bill Colleran, President and CEO of AnswerDash, a predictive and artificial intelligence (AI) powered Q&A Saas platform, says that Wow service/experience comes about when a company is actively engaged throughout their customer’s lifecycle.

Keith Leimbach, CEO of Liveops, a leading virtual contact center solutions company for the financial, health care, insurance and retail industries, says that Wow service/experience comes about when a firm focuses on making things easy for their customers. He adds that companies shouldn’t focus on things like satisfaction scores, just focus on making things easy.

Andrew Lawson, Chief Product Officer of Zopa.com, a UK online personal finance peer-to-peer lending company, believes that Wow service/experience starts with the customer and solving a problem they face. Too often customer service is a team that is set up to solve the problems that are inherent within the products/services that have been created.

Nick Francis, co-founder and CEO of Help Scout, a Saas software company that provides an email-based customer support platform and knowledge base tool, thinks that Wow service/experience is all about respecting peoples time, showing empathy, being thorough and solving their problem.

Ryan Hollenbeck and David Moody from Verint Systems, a global technology firm providing actionable intelligence solutions to both public and private sector organisations, with a focus on customer engagement optimization, security intelligence, and fraud, risk and compliance, say that Wow service experience is focused around delivering the unexpected but also around giving people control over their own experience, particularly when it comes to citizen experience.

Claire Lew, CEO of Know Your Company, a software tool that helps business owners get to know their employees better and overcome company growing pains, believes that Wow service/experience is comprised of three things:

1. Brutal honestly with employees and customers, particularly around mistakes,
2. Being personal, and
3. Doing something for a customer that they could do themselves.

Mark Wilson, senior director of customer transformation at Paycor, a cloud based provider of recruiting, human resources, and payroll solutions, says that Wow service comes about when they produce a product that is so good that it eliminates the need for person to person support and interaction because everything that the customer needs is already built in.

Chris Lisica, Director of customer success at Qumulo, a provider of simple, scalable, and efficient enterprise data storage systems, says that Wow service is created when you enable the customer to be the most successful they can be.

Eric Hansen, founder and Chief Technology Officer of SiteSpect, a leading software platform that offers optimization, testing, targeting, and personalization solutions that allows businesses to create superior customer experiences, says that Wow service/experience, whether it is reactive or proactive, should always be personal and personalised.

Mark Smith, President of Kitewheel, the provider of the world’s only cloud-based Customer Journey Hub designed for innovative agencies and brands, says that Wow service/experience for him is all about giving the customer what they want. But, you have to know what they want and be ready for it and that is where data, customer journeys and analytics have a large role to play.

Tom Fishburne, founder & CEO of Marketoonist, a cartoon studio focused on content marketing, a popular cartoon blogger and author of a book called: Your Ad Ignored Here, says that Wow service/experience for him involves combining elements such as high-touch and high scale with micro moments that matter. This was typified by a recent experience he had when he went with his family to Union Bank so that his kids could open up their first bank accounts. The branch experience was great but a few days later Tom’s kids received a hand written card from the branch manager that was also signed by all of the branch employees thanking them for coming in and opening up an account with them.

Tim Deeson, founder of the digital agency Deeson, a leading European multidisciplinary digital transformation agency, believes that Wow service/experience comes about when an organisation understands his needs in ways that even he didn’t understand and that Wow service is all about giving more than has asked for.

Rob Tarkoff, President and CEO of Lithium Technologies, a digital customer experience platform company, says that Wow service/experience is epitomised by brands like SouthWest Airlines and Hilton hotels which habitually look for moments to surprise and delight their customers and how that drives growth and advocacy. He believes that the brands that deliver on these type of strategies will be the ones who differentiate themselves from their competition and lead their markets.

Sam Johnson, VP of customer experience at Jamf, a provider of software for enterprises and smaller businesses that helps them manage their Apple devices, says that Wow service/experience comes about when you establish a human moment/connection that goes beyond expectations. That typically starts and happens when an agent or representative demonstrates that they want the success or solution just as much as the customer does.

Erica Volini, the US Human Capital leader for Deloitte Consulting, says that Wow service/experience for her is personalised, contextualised and truly integrated end-to-end.

Arnaud de Lacoste, Chief Marketing Officer of Sitel and Founding Partner of Group Acticall, a world leading provider of customer experience management & business process outsourcing solutions, say that for him Wow service/experience is all about proactivity. If you want to delight your customer, being reactive is no longer enough.

Pim de Morree, co-founder at Corporate Rebels, who are on a mission to make work more fun, believes that Wow service/experience comes about when employees are involved in running a business as he believes that if you do that the rest will follow.

Mikhail Naumov, co-founder & President of DigitalGenius, who focus on delivering practical applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for customer service, and author of the book: AI Is My Friend, believes that Wow service is epitomised by an experience he had with Zappos and why he considers them to be one of the best, if not the best, when it comes to delivering great service. When he called an agent answered his call very quickly and said with great enthusiasm “Good morning. It’s a wonderful day today here at Zappos. How may I help you?” That speed, efficiency, enthusiasm and obvious investment in people was the thing that wow’ed Mikhail.

Finally, Alicia Tillman, the global Chief Marketing Officer of SAP, the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software, believes that Wow service/experience is something that is simple yet sophisticated and memorable.

Again, if you have gotten this far. Well done.

Like in Part 1, I hope that you are able to see the breadth of perspectives and depth of insights on offer. I also hope that you can see how delivering a Wow service/experience is something that is very attainable with a clear strategy, focus and dedication and is something you will take forward into 2018.

Thanks to Pixabay for the image.