Many self-help books drive positive changes and personal growth. My all-time favorite is The Four Agreementsby Don Miguel Ruiz. While listening to the audiobook, I had an epiphany as to why the book affects me more than any other. It reinforces how I live my life personally and correlates to my profession in the customer experience (CX) field.
From Ruiz’s four fundamental principles, I’ve drawn lessons on leadership, humanizing business, and creating satisfying experiences. I encourage you to read the agreements and apply the leadership principles to your life.
Agreement 1: Do Not Make Assumptions
We are all guilty of projecting what we think onto others. When we do not know all the facts, or when communication is unclear or nonexistent, it is human nature to make assumptions that are often wrong.
Misinterpretation is especially true when people email and text each other and inevitably insert their own beliefs about what the other person is thinking. Unfortunately, we tend to make assumptions that are negative and unsupportive.
From this first agreement, I believe we can apply three key lessons for improving customer experience:
• Pick up the phone. By doing so, you can avoid misinterpretation and useless arguments. Call your customers so they are not left guessing when there will be a resolution to their problems. Silence is not an option. Communication with your employees and customers helps avoid false assumptions and preserves relationships.
• Be transparent.People expect the facts even when the news is not what they want to hear. Communicate often and truthfully — it goes a long way.
• Ask customers what they need.There is no reason to guess. Interview and survey people, and incorporate their feedback into your product development process early on. Leverage voice of the customer (VoC) insights not only in go-to-market phases, but also in post-launch stages because customer expectations continue to change.
Agreement 2: Do Not Take Anything Personally
People often misinterpret stories and believe they have something to do with them when that is not the case. As Miguel explains, when you take something personally, you “take ownership” of that thought. Comments from the communicator are their own perceptions of reality, and we must acknowledge that it’s not because of us.
There are three things leaders can do to ensure this lesson takes hold:
• Spend one-to-one time with your staff every week.No excuses. Make the time so that individuals know that they matter and are understood. The more satisfied and engaged employees feel, the greater the chance they will deliver customer excellence, even when their boss is not looking.
• Facilitate employee communication training.Formal education is good, but I also recommend informal tactics too. Something I am doing with my team that is proving to be incredibly valuable is leading a book club. We first read Simon Sinek’sStart with Whyand thenThe Four Agreements. I encourage you to do the same with your teams and co-workers and hold each other accountable to follow the golden rules.
• Validate your beliefs.Ask people if you understand what they said correctly. You may be surprised how often you miss part of what others are saying. Many disagreements and misunderstandings are avoidable by communicating what one thinks they heard rather than making assumptions.
Agreement 3: Be Impeccable With Your Word
What you say and how you verbalize your thoughts matter. Ruiz explains that “impeccable with your word means you don’t use your words to speak ill of yourself or others.” The basic principle is to never spread bad gossip about others and stop entertaining negative thoughts, as your attitude is contagious.
The author provides an example of a “black magic box.” If you tell an employee that they are not smart enough to be a leader, the individual will often believe it to be true and have long-term deflated confidence.
To improve how we verbalize our thoughts as leaders, here are three steps to take:
• Use your words to build people up.Express appreciation to your teams and co-workers. Celebrate their successes, and when mistakes happen, use those situations as coaching opportunities. How well your message is received depends on how well you deliver it. The words matter.
• Be intentional with what you say.Perception is a reality. Be mindful of what you say to influence others.
• Know your audience.Some words will be misinterpreted depending on backgrounds, cultures and beliefs. Craft personalized messages — a fundamental practice for sales and marketing leaders.
Agreement 4: Always Do Your Best
I love this statement because we often try to deliver more than 100%. The fact is, there is no such thing. At some point, we experience diminishing returns. As Ruiz states, “Stick to doing your best and your personal improvements and transformations will become an obvious consequence.”
When doing our best, it’s important that leaders take two things into account:
• Support work-life balance.As company leaders,recognize people who are doing their best, and encourage them to stay motivated but not get burned out.
• Manage more than your time.I find that successful people tend to be organized and great at time management. Likewise, they excel at managing their energy. Know your limits. Run the marathon. Go after your dreams, but know what you can handle. Your best is often good enough, so give yourself a break.
In Summary:
I encourage you to read or listen toThe Four Agreementsand apply these leadership lessons daily. Being impeccable with your words, avoiding assumptions, not taking anything personally, and doing your best ultimately contribute to better leadership, especially in CX. You will attract the right people and relationships, which may include profitable customers, too.
Which is your favorite agreement? Please comment below as I’m interested to hear your views.
p.s. special thanks to CEU judges for choosing this article for MVP award.
What can energy suppliers and utilities learn from leading tech firms about driving customer happiness? Consumers are expecting the same speed and clarity of service and vendor responsiveness from their utility providers as they experience with their online shopping, taxi bookings, and fast food orders.
There are clear steps that Energy & Utility companies can take to improve customer happiness, which Sarah Nicastroand Stacy Sherman discuss on her Mindfuel podcast.
Even if you work in a different industry, the customer experience best practices and methodologies shared will benefit you. At the end of the day, people buy from people they like and trust. And, happiness comes from authentic brand experiences.
Learn how to increase customer happiness fueled by engaged employees.
Listen Now to Mindfuel Podcast Below.
What are your views about creating customer and employee happiness? I’d love to hear.
If you like this interview, watch another one I had with Sarah Nicastro about “IS NPS is a good measurement of customer satisfaction?” Listen to Podcast HEREand access the show transcript.
What role does the employee experience play in relation to fostering a great customer experience?
According to Stacy, it’s everything. Everything starts with the employees. Without motivated, engaged employees, there is no happy customer. At the end of the day, people buy from people, and people trust brands based on people.
She believes that we have to start from the inside. We have to provide our employees with the right training, the right coaching, and support. Only then will they service the customers and do the right thing.
What can a business do to make sure that their employees are more motivated and engaged?
There are a lot of different approaches so let’s start with the basics. As leaders, we have to take time and have a one-to-one with our employees. There shouldn’t ever be a reason why we can’t make time for our people. We really have to listen, empathize, and be there. We have to hear what they’re saying and what they’re not saying.
There’s no cookie cutter approach. We have to remember that celebrating successes is important. And it doesn’t have to be huge gigantic wins. These small acts add up. It’s important to recognize our employees and to say “thank you.”
It’s all about humanizing business, it really helps. Even though we have technology, we have to use it to enhance employee experience. After all, to deliver great customer experience, we can’t forget the human element of it all.
How crucial is it to build personas for the target audience? How can building personas lead to mass customization, increased sales, and better CX?
According to Stacy, it’s essential for customer experience, marketing, communications department, etc., Can’t create messages when we don’t know who we’re creating it for.
Persona development is the first step of the CX practice.
After that, we’re able to create journey maps of the ideal experience for specific segments. We can’t be everything for everyone so it’s crucial to identify personas.
We have to encourage our teams to learn how to do it. Developing personas helps in determining if a company’s profitable or not. It starts with going to the right people and understanding their needs.
And that’s the key.
We have to know who our audience is before we market and develop products. We have to know who they’re for, and what problems they face. Whether it’s selling, marketing, or communicating, we have to figure out the who, and that’s what humanizing business is really about. It’s about knowing people.
My passionate customer success friend, Cary Munk, asked to interview me for a special CX project he’s working on. Of course, when there’s an opportunity to talk about customer experience, employee engagement, and building a best-in-class company culture, I’m all in.
While this interview video is not available yet to view, I’m sharing some of our conversations as a preview of several CX talks to come. I am confident you’ll learn something from the series. If there’s a specific CX topic you want to hear more about, please let me know as the “voice of my readers” matters a lot.
Customer Experience (CX) Interview:
CARY: Today, I’m delighted to interview Stacy Sherman, who is the head of CX, Employee Engagement, and Culture Transformation at Schindler Elevator Corporation, USA division. (Formerly at Verizon.) Stacy’s is dedicated to HUMANIZING business and challenging the status quo to maximize satisfaction globally. Stacy is a featured guest on CX podcasts, contributing writer to Forbes and other publications, and also a writer of a popular blog, DoingCXRight®. Glad to have Stacy, who humanizes the workplace and believes that brands who create a memorable experience for customers are the ones that win in the long run. On a personal note, Stacy continues to amaze me with her thoughtfulness and knowledge and is someone who I continuously learn from. Stacy, thank you for joining us.
STACY: Thank you for the great introduction. I’m glad to be here.
CARY: Stacy, so who are you when you’re not at your day job? What are your personal interests?
STACY: My most favorite role in life is being a Mom of two kids. Other than that, I have a full-time job, and when I’m not at work, I’m still CX focused. It may sound cliché, but I really walk the talk as I’m Doing CX Right at night and weekends. In general, I am fascinated about the heart and science of CX and continue my studies to deliver great experiences in impactful ways. When I’m not at work, I love to travel the world, notice it, write about it, speak about it. It’s just part of me. You can read a great example of this from my vacation in Anguilla. I interviewed staff members who created Wow Moments for me and other customers. I was intrigued by how much they owned the customer experience even if it wasn’t their direct department. From the interviews, I noticed they all had one thing in common, which is a love of their job. It proves an important point that happy employees fuel happy customers all around the globe. Anyway, to the original question, I’m reading about CX, listening to podcasts, and Ted talks in my spare time. What I’m trying to say is that my hobbies all tie back to CX since it’s my passion.
CARY: That’s amazing. So, you’re the same person at work and at home.
STACY: Yes. You have to be because if you’re going to do what I call humanize business, you have to be human and real all the time. It’s not scripted.
CARY: That’s true. Not everyone can say that. It makes you unique. Let’s start from the beginning. What was your background and how did you pivot into CX?
STACY: It’s an interesting story and I imagine everybody you talk to will have some fascinating background. My career began in sales and marketing at AT&T after college. In a way you can say that is a CX job as it’s customer focused. Back then, the word CX didn’t exist but the basic principles of delighting customers did. I had to meet customer needs and expectations in those roles or I would never have made my sales objectives. The true practice of CX and methodologies came when I was at Verizon. I remember the day my boss threw me a ball. He said that my responsibilities are expanding and I’ll be leading Customer Experience (CX) and Voice of Customer (VOC) initiatives. I had no idea what that meant and later learned that he didn’t either. We both intuitively knew that customer experience would grow in importance and that my career depended on my figuring it out. That’s exactly what I did by learning all about getting customer feedback, measuring customer satisfaction, using insight to drive improvements and so much more. The long answer to your question, Cary, is I literally fell into the CX field, and never stopped since I “caught the ball.”
CARY: You really grabbed onto that ball.
STACY: Yes, I did. I had to run forward and sideways, and figure it out with minimal support. While I felt uncertain at the time, I’m grateful that my old boss trusted me to learn and excel as CX as it quickly became a booming field, and experts are in high demand. Every company needs to focus on customer experience to gain a competitive edge. My one advice is if you want to differentiate your brand, start with your employees first. They can make or break a company’s reputation.
CARY: I know that you have worked at companies that provide omnichannel experiences. How does CX apply?
STACY: Most of my jobs included omnichannel (online and offline) experience. It’s an important topic because for brands to succeed, they must make it really easy for customers to learn about products and services, buy without difficulties and get help when they need it. When working at Verizon, the team and I deployed “Buy Online, Pick Up At Store” on the eCommerce website. The launch was a success however, through listening to customer feedback, we learned that there were improvement opportunities. When customers went to their local retail store, they had to wait on a line to pick-up their purchased device and became increasingly frustrated about the wait time. By leveraging “voice of customer” (VOC) data, we were able to identify the challenges and improve the pickup experience. For example, we established separate lines for people visiting the store based on whether they already paid and picking up an order versus people coming to shop and purchase in person. We were also able to provide personalized service to those who already bought since we knew who they were in advance of arrival. My point is that buying online and picking up in-store became its own experience. Companies who operate and serve customers in digital and non-digital ways need to account for the entire customer journey. It must be a holistic approach and seamless to customers as that’s when they will likely purchase again and tell others to buy too.
CARY: Your story makes a lot of sense. You were listening to customers and getting their feedback to make positive changes to enhance customer experiences.
STACY: Correct. If we had not asked customers about their purchase and pick up experiences, we might not have known about their pain points to improve them. So, I can’t emphasize it enough. Ask customers about their level of satisfaction, sentiments, and level of effort when interacting with your brand. Get feedback and then do something with it. That’s when the magic happens.
CARY: So true. You have worked at a variety of companies and industries; from consumer brands to telecom and mobility, what would be one takeaway that CX practitioners can apply no matter where they work?
STACY: I have so much to say, but I’ll sum it up. Regardless of industry, start with your greatest assets which are your employees. Actively listen, empathize, and provide great experiences for them because the more employees are happy, the more your customers will be too. CX and EX go hand in hand.
CARY: Sounds like you are referring to creating a customer-centric culture.
STACY: Yes. The best leaders and brands focus on employee satisfaction AT ALL LEVELS of the organization so that everyone feels empowered and owns CX. Culture starts at the top with an executive champion, yet it also requires a bottoms up approach. I recommend deploying a formal education program within companies. The more that internal teams know about why and how to deliver customer excellence, the greater chance they will be change agents and transform the business. CX trained employees will more often do the right thing for customers, even when their boss isn’t looking. Choosing the right CX program is essential as there are a lot out there, but not all are reputable. Learn about my class experience and recommended universities. I’m happy to share details of the course and what I learned. Likewise, you’ll find valuable resources and articles on my blog to gain practical tips to apply now whereever you work.
CARY: You speak about having buy-in from the top, creating a culture with employee recognition and empathy, and differentiating brands through CX. I’ve been thinking about how CX has been around for many years. Why do you think it’s such a hot topic now more than ever?
STACY: In the past, companies could compete on price alone, but now, in a hyper-competitive environment, that’s changed. Think about Starbucks for example. There are many places to get a cup of coffee. I shop at Starbucks NOT because I enjoy paying triple the cost versus my local .99 cent coffee place. I am a loyal Starbucks customer because of the experience they provide. From the moment I walk into the store, people greet me by name. Employees intentionally make an effort to know their reoccurring customers. I also appreciate how they handle mistakes when they happen. Employees fix issues with no questions asked. They’ll even go up and beyond to ensure I like something I’m ordering for the first time by providing me a taste before purchasing it. I’m noticing more local cafes are doing this, and I love it. Brands are also getting more sophisticated with their apps and saving customers time before entering the store. That’s where user experience (UX) becomes an essential factor in choosing which brands to buy from. I can go on and on about this. I’ll sum up by saying experiences matter especially when competitive companies are relatively the same price. Read my Forbes article about what coffee shops can teach brands about customer experience.
CARY: I’ve had a similar Starbucks experience. From the moment I walk in and smell the aroma to when I walk out with a cup of cappuccino.
STACY: The physical experience is a part of the customer journey. People immediately judge brands from their first moment when walking into a Doctor’s office, restaurant, etc. We could talk for hours about first impressions and onboarding experiences. Perhaps in the future.
CARY: So true. Let’s end on inspiring our audience with something positive that we we’ll look back upon as we are going through an uncertain and unprecedented time. One of my takeaways is humorous. Yesterday, I opened the door to my bedroom and there’s a woman on the floor doing yoga… with a video screen of twenty other people doing yoga. It looked like a yoga studio with a mat, blocks, candles and it took me a few seconds to realize… oh, that’s my girlfriend. And on a personal note, we had planned on moving in together later this year when my daughter starts college. This experience has brought us closer and enhanced our relationship. Stacy, what’s your rainbow? What are you going to remember when you look back?
STACY: I love this question. I did something that I may never have done if it hadn’t been for Covid19. When the pandemic first started, I contacted about thirty people around the world to learn how they are staying content and productive while socially distancing. Every story I heard was better than the next. One guy in Italy was learning how to bake all kinds of homemade bread. Another guy was creating YouTube lessons with his son to teach children how to play basketball. I captured all the different stories and created an article from the lessons shared. It quickly went viral globally. It’s one of my most favorites because it inspired others at a time when people feel like they’re going against gravity. So to your question about “what’s my rainbow,” my answer is it is all the amazing connections and conversations from my article interviews. Their collective answers are what I’ll remember most.
CARY: That’s inspiring and a good place to wrap-up. Thank you for finding time to chat. For anyone reading this, where can they find you?
Stacy: My website is DOINGCXRIGHT. You’ll see my contact information,articles, podcasts, and customer experience best practices. Thank you for the time together today, Cary. Bottom line: I’m on a mission to help connect people and inspire great authentic experiences to increase satisfaction. I hope people will join me on the journey. Together, we can make a difference!
CARY: Thank you Stacy. Have a great day.
STACY: You too.
If you want to know more about Cary Munk, connect with him on LinkedIn. And, if you want more information or CX coaching from me, Stacy Sherman, please email me at Stacy@DoingCXRight.com. I’m happy to help the community because together, we can create better experiences for all.
Over the years, we often hear “the customer is always right.” While “always” may not really be the case, companies are going out of their way to please customers to fuel business growth. This is especially true during Covid19 where social distancing is required and creating customer happiness is harder. Many companies have recently paused their business or shut down because customers stopped buying. On the contrary, many other brands are thriving because they’ve pivoted their business to online, and leveraging data to better meet customer expectations. (Read more about companies who’ve transitioned their strategies and lessons learned.)
Using customer insights to drive business decisions gives companies a competitive edge. While I have my own views on how to collect customer data and use the information to influence product development, market messaging, website design, and more, I became interested to hear from a financial leader to gain additional perspective. I connected with Howie Bick, the Founder of the Analyst Handbook to discuss the financial value of investing in customer experience. The following is a summary of our conversations:
