Listen Up!

Foreword xiii

Chapter 1 The Breakdown Before the Breakthrough 1

How Do I Manage This Crisis? 2

Recovery and Resilience 3

Serving at a Higher Level 4

The Breakdown Leads to a Breakthrough 4

Chapter 2 Don’t Bet on Your Blind Spots 9

How “What If?” Became, “Why Not?” 9

Would you be willing to bet your business—or your career—on a single number? 10

The Challenge: We’re asking the wrong questions—and we’re asking the wrong questions of the wrong people 11

The Greatest Nightmare Any CEO Can Face 12

Never Again 14

Are you willing to do what it takes to retain 100 percent of your customers? 15

Decrease Distance Between Your Home Office and the C-Suite: First Steps 18

Be Selective 18

Why Stop at One? 18

Chapter 3 The Beginner’s Mindset 21

A False Sense of Security 23

Listening is the First Step in Decision Making 25

Chapter 4 Big Impact 27

Chapter 5 When Organizations are Out of Alignment 37

Action is Where Mantras and Missions Come to Life 39

How often does your customer feedback tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to know? 40

If you consistently achieve your customer experience improvement targets, are you measuring what matters to your customers? 40

Do perfect scores alert you to risks? Competitive threats? When a customer is about to leave you? New engagements or sales opportunities? 41

How often are you interested in your customers’ feedback, rather than invested? 43

Chapter 6 Defining the Digital Divide 47

You are Not Alone 49

People Before Process 50

How Big is Tourism in Amsterdam? 51

Transportation Considerations 52

Redefining Crowdsourcing 52

A Single Signal is Effectively False 53

Chapter 7 Better Questions, Better Answers 59

Out of the Mouths of Babes 62

Chapter 8 Got Genius? 71

Moving Day: Entering the Unknown 72

Finding Genius 74

Chapter 9 Genius, Revealed 83

Myth #1: Customers Demand Quick Answers and Short Call Duration Times 87

Myth #2: The Survey is the Solution 87

Myth #3: “Ease of Doing Business” is an Operations Play, so Attacking It Like a Project is Best 88

EODB is Not a Project, It’s a Purpose 88

Go Beyond the Survey 89

Myth #4: Customer Support is about Resolving Complaints 90

Exec Listening Creates New Results 90

From Black Hole to Above Goal in 88 Days 91

Myth #5: We don’t Have the Resources to Transform Our Customer Experience/Customer Support Right Now 93

Myth #6: Great Customer Support is about Agent Knowledge, Productivity, and Extensive Training 93

Make It Easier on Yourself 94

Myth #7: The Process is the Solution 96

Chapter 10 The Secret Sauce 97

What Happens When Ego Enters the Conversation 100

What’s Necessary Isn’t Always Easy 100

Chapter 11 Dealing with Disruption 111

A New Destination 115

The Right Players at the Right Time 117

Chapter is How to Win 121

The Customer Advisory Board 123

Press Pause on PowerPoint 124

Chapter 13 Moving at the Speed of the Customer 129

The Value in Bias 130

Lack of Knowledge 131

Misinformation Endorsement 131

Why You Have to Earn the Customer 135

Owning the Journey 135

New Value, New Solutions 136

Human-Centered Design 139

Chapter 14 Look Who’s Talking 141

Finding Value 143

A Match Made in Heaven 144

The Customer Experience Assessment 144

Building the Relationship 149

Community Kills Competition 153

Chapter 15 Moment of Signal 155

Restoring Hope 156

About the Author 161

Acknowledgments 163

Index 167