Shep Hyken

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Name:	Shep Hyken
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Phone:	+1314-692-2200

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Meet Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE is the CAO (Chief Amazement Officer) of Shepard Presentations. As a customer service and experience expert and keynote speaker, Shep works with companies who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. His focus is on delivering amazing customer service, customer engagement, managing the customer experience and creating customer loyalty. He is a hall of fame speaker (National Speakers Association) and a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author.

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How to Maintain an Amazing Customer Experience

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The customer experience has become the focus of attention for most organizations around the world. Your customers no longer compare you to your direct competition. They compare you to the best service they have ever had. Customer service is not a department. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by everyone in an organization.

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5 Ways to Create an Amazing Customer Experience 5 Ways to Create an Amazing Customer Experience

Free Online Training Course offered by Shep Hyken

5 Ways to Create an Amazing Customer ExperienceFree Online Training Course offered by Shep HykenIn this short, 20-minute course, Shep ...

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0 Virtual-Swag-Virtual-Swag jplist-topic-shep-hyken jplist-topic-Customer-Experience jplist-topic-Online-Training 0 364307 364307 5 Ways to Create an Amazing Customer ExperienceFree Online Training Course offered by Shep HykenIn this short, 20-minute course, Shep explains five simple ways you can start creating the customer service culture you desire.Get My Free Online Course

5 Ways to Create an Amazing Customer Experience

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5 Ways to Create an Amazing Customer ExperienceFree Online Training Course offered by Shep HykenIn this short, 20-minute course, Shep explains five ...

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Customer Service Training is Not What You Think... Customer Service Training is Not What You Think...

Many companies have a great focus on providing an excellent or, as I like to call it, amazing customer service experience. They do ...

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1 Blog-Blog jplist-topic-Customer jplist-topic-Service 0 355452 355452 Many companies have a great focus on providing an excellent or, as I like to call it, amazing customer service experience. They do customer service training during the onboarding process. Once every year or so, they have some type of refresher. Good for them, but there’s more to it than just that and it’s easier than you think. Communication is a big part of keeping the “magic” going, and to do that you must consider ongoing training. By ongoing training—and this is important—I’m not referring to pulling everyone away from their normal responsibilities for a half-day or full-day (or more) once a month or once a quarter—although some companies do that. (Applause for those that do!) However, the key to sustaining this type of training can be as simple as constant reminders and reinforcement. That could mean a few minutes each week. Customer service training doesn’t have to be so formal. Consider a restaurant that has a short meeting with its staff just before the doors open. The manager can talk about what they noticed the night before—both good and bad. Just sharing those examples can get employees into the right mindset. If any accolades were passed on to the manager, those can be shared with the team. It takes just five or ten minutes. That doesn’t seem like much time, but don’t diminish the power of a few minutes. The repetition of the message—which can be as simple as customer service is important—is the key to sustain the power of their initial training. For many businesses, a weekly reminder similar to the example of the restaurant’s daily five- or ten-minute meeting is optimal. It doesn’t need to be its own meeting. Make it part of a larger weekly meeting. Many of my clients talk about their weekly “huddles,” which means the departments and teams are already meeting on a regular basis. I bring all this up because in times of crisis, such as the coronavirus pandemic, the need to deliver that great service experience becomes even more crucial. Customers of all types of businesses, B2C and B2B, are frustrated, have less patience, are angry and even scared. If you’re open for business, it should be as close to business-as-usual as it can be. That means delivering the customer service experience your customers expect. By the way, our employees may exhibit that same frustration, lack of patience, anger, and fear. That’s why it’s important to either train or sustain the right behaviors. Now, more than ever, we must remind our people of the importance of delivering the right customer service experience. Again, this isn’t formal training, but simply consistent reminders that keep the idea of delivering good customer service front-of-mind for everybody. If you are looking for topics to discuss in your meetings, look through past Shepard Letter articles or watch some of my weekly videos. I hope that when you’re reading this, the coronavirus crisis is diminishing or, even better, a distant memory. Either way, I wish you and your employees good health and a continued focus on delivering an amazing customer service experience. Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken (Copyright © MMXX, Shep Hyken)

Customer Service Training is Not What You Think It Is.

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Many companies have a great focus on providing an excellent or, as I like to call it, amazing customer service experience. They do customer service ...

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The Problem Didn't Start When Your Customer Told... The Problem Didn't Start When Your Customer Told...

The phone rings. A customer service representative answers the phone and hears about a problem a customer is having. It may be the first ...

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2 Blog-Blog jplist-topic-Customer jplist-topic-Service 0 355454 355454 The phone rings. A customer service representative answers the phone and hears about a problem a customer is having. It may be the first time the company hears about this particular problem, but it isn’t when the problem occurred. It occurred before the customer called. The big question is… how long before the customer called did the problem occur? Maybe it happened two minutes ago—or maybe it was two days ago. Regardless, the customer called at that moment and the customer service rep has no idea, unless they ask, when the problem occurred. This gap in time is out of the company’s control—it is the customer’s decision when to reach out. If a customer is upset about the problem, regardless of how recent it is, you must immediately eliminate the customer’s pain from the moment they attempt to make contact with you. That was a big point my friend, Ralph Dandrea of ITX, asked me to address in my recent speech at his companywide meeting. It’s not that he has a problem with customer service. On the contrary, ITX prides itself on its excellent service. He wanted to remind his team how important it is to recognize this customer pain point. By the way, that’s what great companies do. The reason they are great is because they work hard to stay great. It’s not a destination, it’s a journey. But I digress. So, what can cause additional friction and pain to the customer? Here are some examples: Difficult-to-find customer support contact info. Some customer support numbers appear buried to the point that customers wonder if the company really wants them to reach out.A laborious Interactive Voice Response system (IVR). Push one of these five options… then push one of these three… then push one of these six…. You get the idea.Long hold times. How long is too long? Even if you tell the customer how long the wait will be or offer to call the customer back (which does reduce friction—something customers appreciate), that’s still more time the customer has to deal with the problem.The transfer. How many people does the customer have to repeat their story to before they get the resolution they need? The idea of “first call resolution” with “one transfer” at most is not the norm. Not one customer that I’ve ever interviewed has said they like waiting on hold, getting transferred numerous times and repeating their story. There’s no reason to cause any more pain. On the contrary, the support call should go so well that you train your customers to want to call you when they have a problem—because they know they can count on you. It doesn’t matter whether your customer reaches out to a traditional contact center or to anyone else in the company. The customer’s pain from a problem started before they reached out to you! It is in your best interest to ease their pain as quickly and efficiently as you possibly can. Then your customers will have no doubts about whether or not they can count on you in a crisis. That is how you create customer amazement! Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken (Copyright © MMXX, Shep Hyken)

The Problem Didn't Start When Your Customer Told You About it

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The phone rings. A customer service representative answers the phone and hears about a problem a customer is having. It may be the first time the ...

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The Employee Experience Starts with the Hiring... The Employee Experience Starts with the Hiring...

Every company wants to have good employees. More importantly, they also want the right employees. There’s a difference. The smartest ...

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3 Blog-Blog jplist-topic-Customer jplist-topic-Service 0 355456 355456 Every company wants to have good employees. More importantly, they also want the right employees. There’s a difference. The smartest person in the world may not end up being a good cultural fit for a company. Every company has a personality, and the people they hire must possess the right skills, character and behaviors to fit in. This differs from company to company, so what works for one may not work for another. I recently interviewed Teri Yanovitch for Amazing Business Radio, and she talked about her job at Disney World. She had just finished high school and remembered walking up to the “Casting Center,” where she would go through her first interview. Her experience that day, from the moment she walked through the doors, set the tone for what she expected the job to be like. First, she noticed the door had the doorknobs from the animated Disney movie Alice in Wonderland. In case you don’t recall it, the doorknob has a face that talks to and smiles at you. By the way, this doorknob character originates with Disney; the original novel by Lewis Carroll didn’t feature a smiling, talking doorknob. The next step was a video orientation. This explained the company culture and expectations of Disney employees, also known as cast members. Only then was it time for the first interview. The point is that Disney establishes upfront that learning about the company culture is a priority for new applicants. In my book The Amazement Revolution, I wrote about Hy-Vee, the regional grocery store chain based in Des Moines, IA. Part of their hiring practice is to ask applicants to spend a few minutes in the store before the interview. This gives the applicant the opportunity to observe employees and customers. Meanwhile, the interviewer gets the opportunity to see if the applicant makes good observations, understands what’s working and what’s not and more. Ideally, the potential employee experiences the store through a different lens than a regular customer. Very few companies have a pre-application or pre-interview experience. Yet consider how much easier it would be for a potential employee to make a decision about applying for a position at a company if they could watch a video to help them understand the company’s culture—or perhaps the position itself. It could make interviews more effective and even allow potential applicants to determine whether or not the company and job are a good fit for them. I’m not a hiring expert, but I know this. The best customer-focused companies are also employee-focused. They recognize the need to hire the right people with the right personalities. That is what builds the foundation of a successful customer-focused culture. Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken (Copyright © MMXX, Shep Hyken)

The Employee Experience Starts with the Hiring Process

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Every company wants to have good employees. More importantly, they also want the right employees. There’s a difference. The smartest person in the ...

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Amazing Business Radio: Matthew Sweezey Amazing Business Radio: Matthew Sweezey

Marketing and the Customer Experience

How to Craft Your Marketing and Experience for Today’s Customer Shep Hyken interviews Mathew Sweezey. They discuss his new book, The ...

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4 Blog-Blog jplist-topic-Marketing jplist-topic-Customer jplist-topic-Service 0 355453 355453 How to Craft Your Marketing and Experience for Today’s Customer Shep Hyken interviews Mathew Sweezey. They discuss his new book, The Context Marketing Revolution: How to Motivate Buyers in the Age of Infinite Media, in addition to strategies for contextualizing marketing and how it affects the customer experience.

Amazing Business Radio: Matthew Sweezey

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How to Craft Your Marketing and Experience for Today’s Customer Shep Hyken interviews Mathew Sweezey. They discuss his new book, The Context ...

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Amazing Business Radio: Rob Markey Amazing Business Radio: Rob Markey

Customer Value is Company Value

How to Drive Value and Become Customer-FocusedShep Hyken interviews Rob Markey, a leader of Customer Strategy and Marketing at Bain & ...

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5 Blog-Blog jplist-topic-Customer jplist-topic-Service 0 355455 355455 How to Drive Value and Become Customer-FocusedShep Hyken interviews Rob Markey, a leader of Customer Strategy and Marketing at Bain & Company. They discuss four strategies companies can use to achieve consistent and sustained growth in customer value, NPS (Net Promoter Score), customer feedback and company culture.

Amazing Business Radio: Rob Markey

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How to Drive Value and Become Customer-FocusedShep Hyken interviews Rob Markey, a leader of Customer Strategy and Marketing at Bain & Company. ...

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