Category: Insights

Many companies fail to take the time to understand the true needs and feelings of their customers, especially during periods of major upheaval. Before investing in product development or altering services in a way that could completely change the customer experience, it’s important for innovators to ensure any adjustments they make accurately reflect the voice of the customer (VOC).
The VOC process is a form of marketing research that aims to understand customer expectations as well as their likes and dislikes. This process offers insight into customers’ needs and desires—both the ones they consciously speak about and those they’ve yet to even identify themselves.
The VOC technique also makes it possible for brands to learn how customers make decisions and the specific “pain points” that may stop them from making a purchase. In addition, it offers information about how customer preferences change over time.

Changing Approaches to VOC During the Pandemic

In 2020, companies have seen customer preferences change drastically. From a sudden decline in income to new regulations that dictate their daily interactions, there have been a number of influential factors causing the pendulum of customer preferences to swing wildly.
Some of the changes have been lasting, while others haven’t. Keeping up with these shifts has given many businesses whiplash. But others have proven to be stronger than ever. The key to success in this situation is knowing exactly what customers are thinking and feeling and using that information to dictate key decisions for your company.

While many VOC collection techniques have typically been conducted in person, such as interviews, focus groups, and observations, this is no longer a safe option in the wake of COVID-19. Thus, having an effective digital feedback collection method has become more crucial than ever.
At Listen360, we’ve seen many of our brands succeed in implementing changes to how they gather and analyze customer feedback during the pandemic. Below, we’ve listed a few of the different ways they’ve adjusted their digital feedback collection strategies to understand customers’ changing preferences and respond in a way that strengthens customer relations and promotes brand loyalty.

Keeping an Ear to the Ground

With customer engagement software that allows you to analyze customer feedback in real time, you can quickly get a handle on your customers’ current needs and frame of mind. While in the past you may have only checked customer feedback on a casual basis, now is the time to increase the frequency with which you gather, monitor, and respond to customer opinions and reviews.
Not only will doing so ensure you keep your finger on the pulse of a changing situation, but it will also enable you to make quick changes based on customer reactions. For example, if you receive a comment expressing disappointment about your company’s approach to COVID-19 safety measures, you can immediately look into the problem and resolve it so no other customers have the same negative experience. The most dynamic software packages alert you of such feedback right away, giving you the chance to quickly fix the problem and retain customers you may otherwise have lost.

Adjusting Text Analytics

Once upon a time, your text analytics may have been tuned to identify issues regarding customer service or specific aspects of your products. Now, depending on the types of services you offer, you should most likely be tuning your analytics to seek out words such as “PPE,” “COVID,” “masks,” “social distancing,” “pandemic,” and any other phrases that customers may be using to express their feelings and observations about the current situation.
With the right customer engagement software, you can easily adjust your text analytics at any time to include these words. With this proactive approach, you can find and address COVID-related feedback as quickly as possible. Remember, this feedback won’t always be negative. You’re also looking out for positive customer experiences that show you’re on the right track to providing customers with a purchase process that helps them feel safe.

Assessing the Needs of Different Demographics

At this point in time, customer sentiment may vary drastically depending on where they live. Rather than looking at your customer base as a whole, you’ll likely get a better understanding of what’s going on by segmenting feedback data to pinpoint certain states, regions, or demographics.
Using a customer listening solution, like Listen360, brands can take a detailed look at how different segments feel about their products and services as well as their approach to health and safety. Region, location, customer age, and customer tenure are some of the categories that can be used to filter data and highlight important patterns. Thanks to this tool, segments of your customer base that require extra attention won’t go overlooked.
During volatile times, your customers’ voices should lead the way. When you realize your customers only want to be heard and feel safe, you can work to meet these needs in real-time and build relationships that endure beyond this challenging era.

When your business is based on entering people’s homes, you know they’ll be paying as much attention to your people skills (uniform, kindness, greeting, small talk, etc.) as your work. Even tiny missteps or mistakes can feel amplified when you’re working in someone’s most personal space—their home.

And if those mistakes end up on reviews sites or spread by word of mouth, it can have big consequences for your bottom line…

The Keys to Creating a Great Customer Experience for Home Services

Sometimes—even if you do everything by the book and provide great service—you might still get a bad review. These are the ones that sting the most because you may be doing or missing something you didn’t even know your customers cared about.

When negative reviews show up online, it seems like people want you to read their minds. How many times have you thought, “Why didn’t they just call me?”

The truth is that you’ll never satisfy everyone all of the time. And you’ll never read minds. But you can get a little help in understanding what makes customers in your industry tick.

We analyzed surveys from 1,500 customers in the home services industry to see what makes them tick. And what ticks them off.

Retaining a new client is entirely dependent on creating an exceptional customer experience. In fact, companies that make customer experience a priority generate 60% greater profits than competitors. On that note, you may want to take a look at what we found.

8 Most Common Home Services Pain Points

We looked at each stage of the service process to find out what drove customers away during those periods. Here’s what they said.

Notice how many problems have nothing to do with the actual performance of the service itself. It’s the little details on the front and back ends that cause the most trouble. Varying forms of “communication” shows up in almost every category.

Unless it’s an experience problem among your team—ones you’re likely aware of anyway—customers don’t complain about the service.

Superior customer experience is how you win the game today. That superior experience starts the second a customer sees your brand and it continues long after a service provider leaves their home.

The good news? You can increase customer retention by improving all the instances surrounding the actual date of service.

The Keys to Creating a Delightful Customer Experience

Preparing for the worst will only take your business so far. But you don’t have to focus on “fixing” mistakes to be more successful. Knowing what wows your customers will help you stand out against the competition. Here’s what their surveys told us about making a delightful, exceptional experience.

Once again, communication, honesty, and helpfulness emerged as the biggest opportunities for delight throughout the process.

When you can anticipate and build processes around what matters most to your customers, you can exceed their expectations easily, making them loyal fans of your business.

It’s possible to perfect the way you interact with customers. It’s important to have clear and open communication before and after service, but it’s also just as important to collect feedback from your customers consistently. How else will you know what they’re thinking or feeling? The more you’ll check in with happy (and dissatisfied) customers, the better able you’ll be to provide an experience that will delight them.

How Home Services Can Keep Up With Customer Expectations

Increasing retention by even 5% has been shown to increase profits anywhere from 25-95%.

The numbers don’t lie; acting on feedback pays off.

If you’d like to see how customer feedback impacts businesses large and small—and pick up some best practices in the process—we’ve got you covered.

Our comprehensive customer loyalty benchmark shows you what top-performing brands are doing to keep more customers, which parts of customer experience are their biggest priorities, and how to apply these lessons to your own home services business to improve reviews and increase revenue.

Get your FREE copy of the Listen360 Customer Loyalty Benchmark Report and start creating a customer experience that earns you more repeat customers. (No opt-in required )

If you haven’t seen our 2019 Customer Loyalty Benchmark yet, here’s a highlight that might pique your interest. We wanted to share a piece of our report to get you as excited about Customer Experience as we are. So, here is a snapshot of what we’ve found out about the surprising state of CX in modern business.

If you’ve read even a shred of a business publication in the past year, you’ve seen headlines pointing towards CX being the trendiest commitment of businesses everywhere. Many studies indicate that more spending and data projects should be focused on CX in 2019 and 2020 than ever before. That’s all well and good, but are companies actually putting their money where their proverbial mouth is?

It turns out, the answer is: not exactly…

Let’s clarify this a little. Very expectedly, almost every company out there is “dedicated” to a superior CX. And with that in mind, most probably think that their spending is going into CX. We drilled into that question a bit more in our benchmark.

Yes, 92% of companies who responded reported being “highly” or “extremely” dedicated to CX, as expected. However, only 62% of companies agreed that they had a customer-centric culture, and a whopping 40% admitted that they had no formal CX strategy whatsoever.

If we’re talking dedication versus execution, that’s a 52% delivery gap in CX aspirations to CX actuality. Why is there such a disparity? “Dedication” and “mission” seem like a ubiquitous sentiment in business these days. But that emotionally appealing language is just ad copy, right?

Wrong. It’s real, and it’s quantifiable. Every other aspect of your business is data and strategy-driven, so CX should be as well. Consider gathering customer feedback (a lot of it) and analyzing your customers’ responses to find trends to help you strategize. Research what your competitors are doing by using resources like, say, our 2019 Customer Loyalty Benchmark! Almost every company will say, “we know our customers.” But the best brands understand that a gut feeling is never a substitute for actionable data.

Click HERE to read the report.

The fitness industry has a very unique relationship with customers as compared to any other industry. Even within the industry as a whole, there are many different expectations from customers based on the type of studio, gym, or class they’re choosing in an increasingly diverse market. In the spirit of our upcoming best practices benchmark and finding out what makes customers tick, we put together some valuable industry-specific data to get you thinking about retention and customer experience. 

We analyzed 9,900 member responses to NPS® surveys at 66 randomly selected fitness brands over a 6 month period. Our goal was to find out what sorts of things were dissatisfying members as well as those that would increase customer retention. We broke the findings down into 3 categories: barriers, delighters, and drivers.

1. Barriers

These are the minimum expectations of members. Barriers will irritate members if they are performed poorly, but they don’t have any positive effects if performed well. For example, members expect bathrooms to be clean, but they’ll only notice when the facilities are dirty. Basically, you’d better get these right no matter what.

Notice that barriers vary based on the type of business, but similar themes run throughout the industry. For the more intimate fitness experiences, space seems to be a big issue, so it pays to monitor class size and equipment availability. Price is obviously an issue to every customer, but you can mitigate that by adding value to your service or location. Pay attention to our next two categories for ideas on how to increase value.

2. Delighters

These are the “wow” factors that your members didn’t expect. These show your members you’ve gone above and beyond. Delighters improve retention when performed well, but there is no negative impact if they’re absent or performed poorly. For example, if you do something like a special member appreciation event with a free class, members will be very impressed. If you don’t, they won’t notice; they weren’t expecting it anyway.

A friendly attitude seems to go a long way here, so collecting feedback and training employees on interactions could be a booster. Cultivating an inviting space with helpful, happy employees will be most important when it comes to surprising your members with excellence.

3. Drivers

These factors go both ways. If you miss the mark with drivers, customers will notice in a negative way. If you perform drivers well, retention increases. For example, if the staff is rude or inattentive, members may not return. If your staff provides exceptional service, they will notice and retention will increase.

Instructors, coaches, and staff are big factors in this category. Getting feedback from your members can help improve training and reveal which sorts of workouts and classes are most effective at increasing retention and member engagement.

If you found this helpful and want to learn more about improving your CX and retention, check out our 2019 Customer Loyalty Benchmark on best practices from top brands in your industry.

CLICK HERE to read the report.

A customer feedback system is an important tool to have for any growing business, but the search for the right one can be difficult. There are many bells and whistles as far as software features go, but when it comes down to it, you just need to remember the 5 A’s.

Automation
It’s difficult to listen and respond to all of your customers while you’re focused on growing your business. Less-sophisticated applications might work for a while, but the task becomes a bit overwhelming as you start to scale. Automating feedback requests and collection will ensure consistency across your network and allow you to get responses in real-time. Following up with customers quickly and efficiently is paramount.

Aggregation
Compiling the data from your feedback efforts will allow you to see how your customer base as a whole feels about your brand. This is the premise of the Net Promoter System, a research-driven invention of Bain & Company that has become the golden standard of customer engagement. Distilling your feedback into a score for one and all locations helps set benchmarks, goals, and action plans.

Amplification
These days, online presence is everything. If a customer feedback system isn’t rolling up to your online reviews, it isn’t worth considering. You want to be able to share the good things customers are saying with your employees and prospective customers. Studies show that internally sharing the praise from your customers will improve morale and productivity of your employees. This boosts their interactions with customers and contributes to better company culture. Amplifying great feedback forms a cycle of positivity that generates better online reviews, more referrals, and attracts better talent during your hiring process.

Analytics
Data is undeniably a driving force behind many markets. Tracking and understanding the data behind your business gives you a significant leg up on your competition. A customer feedback system that uses features like text analysis to establish patterns in customers’ responses can help pinpoint best practices and areas for improvement. Brands like Orangetheory Fitness and Sport Clips incorporate these findings into their operations at a managerial level and have improved training and customer-facing behaviors as a result. From personal training software to retail boutique shops, analytics is critical in improving your customer experience.

Accessibility
One of the most important things about capitalizing on customer feedback is making sure it’s distributed throughout your entire network. Owners, managers, or team members at different locations should be able to access dashboards so they can monitor their specific customer bases. Having access to this vital information creates a sense of accountability and empowerment on the front lines. Those who interact with customers have all the power to shape the relationship your brand has with those customers, so they should be armed with this powerful resource.

If you stick with this list and check all the boxes, you can’t go wrong. If you’re interested in learning more about customer feedback systems and how they can help your business, click here.

The way we think customers want to be treated affects how we do business, but sometimes, our assumptions are a little off. Here are 5 myths about customer service–and why they’re busted–that can help reveal the best customer experience possible.

1. A satisfied customer is a loyal customer.

Studies show that if customers are “satisfied” with a product or service, they are still likely to leave for a better price from a similar business. If you want customers to stake their reputations on referring your business and stick with you through pricing changes, you’ll have to far exceed their expectations.

2. The fewer the complaints, the better.

Anywhere from 70-90% of dissatisfied customers don’t voice complaints before leaving a business. If you aren’t actively monitoring how customers are feeling, you may just be turning a blind eye. Complaints can reveal behavioral problems that would otherwise go unnoticed at the front line. Recognizing and changing specific habits can help retain current customers and create more loyal ones in the future.

3. A company’s commitment to service will get the attention of customers.

Actually, there’s a huge gap here. While 80% of business leaders say they’re providing superior customer service, only 8% of their customers agree. It’s crucial to monitor customer feedback to see how customers really feel about your efforts.

4. New sales are more important than customer service.

This is where we get into the idea of “good profits” vs. “bad profits.” A dollar from an angry customer is just as green as a dollar from a happy customer, but that first dollar represents poor reviews and a bad reputation. Studies show that a customer who had a poor experience will tell 17 people about it while a customer who had a good experience only tells 11. Profits from unhappy customers may look good in the short term, but eventually, that negativity will poison growth and overtake positive reviews and referrals.

5. Invest more in marketing and advertising than in training or customer service.

According to various studies, it can cost anywhere from 5 to 25 times more to win a new customer from ads and marketing efforts than it does to retain an existing one. Customer retention is vital to growth, and the proper training and customer service measures will go a long way. Tracking those efforts and their effects on your business is the best way to move forward.

Facebook has retired the star rating system. Rather than giving users a 1-5 scale to leave a review, Facebook is now simply asking whether or not users would recommend a business.

Facebook hopes this change will push people to write more extensively about their experiences and leave authentic feedback; they believe these richer reviews are designed to help businesses be more visible in their local communities and attract more customers.

With over 1.6 billion people connected to small businesses on the platform, it’s no surprise that Facebook is testing out new ideas and working to make strides in the world of local business marketing.

So, what exactly has changed? Here’s the skinny:

• Facebook users can easily indicate if they recommend your business with a simple “yes” or “no” (in place of the 1-5 star rating)
• Users can explain why they would or would not recommend your business with tags, text, and photos. The minimum character count for the text is 25 characters.
• Previous review data will still appear on local business pages. The reviews section, however, now features a numeric rating that is a combination of old star ratings and new yes/no recommendations.
• It’s easier for your business to report fraudulent reviews, spam, or paid content in recommendations.
• Unlike Facebook reviews, recommendations are not limited to a business’s page. Recommendations appear on user profiles and are discoverable across Facebook when people search or talk about your business, making it easier for people to find you.
• Facebook realizes that people trust recommendations from their network of friends; recommendations from the people closest to a user will display more prominently.

As Facebook continues to help people connect with local businesses, it’s important to build internal processes that adapt and capitalize on these changes. If you are currently leveraging the Net Promoter System to determine how likely your customers are to recommend your business, you’re in great shape. By proactively asking your customers how likely they are to recommend your business, you will end up with more and better recommendations on Facebook and other platforms. NPS® gives you a chance to identify detractors (those who score 0-6) and follow up with them before they go to Facebook to drive your recommendation rating down with a simple “no”. It also affords you the opportunity to turn passives (those who score 7-8) into promoters, and give your 9s and 10s the ability to share their wonderful experiences with their social network.

Two-thirds of all users visit the page of a local business at least once a week and Facebook expects to increase as they continue to identify new ways to connect users to local businesses within their communities.

Local business marketing is ever evolving, but customer referrals and recommendations remain at the heart of winning business strategies. Check out how brands like Orangetheory fitness, Orkin, and Fastsigns leverage NPS® to win and retain customers, here.