Podcasts about service front lines

In this week's episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Adam Toporek, author of Be Your Customer's Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines.Adam's an internationally-recognized customer experience expert, keynote speaker, and customer service trainer who helps organizations transform their relationships with their customers through better strategy, training, and communication. He's the founder of Customers That Stick®, and the former co-host of the Crack the Customer Code podcast.Some of the topics we discuss include:It doesn't take grand, superhero actions to become your customer's heroThe need for focusing on peak emotions in the customer experienceConsistently focusing on positive “brand deposits” buys you goodwill with your customersThe service “triggers” that can set your customer offGet the biggest return on your customer experience efforts by identifying and removing your customer's biggest hasslesWhy you should regularly assess your policies and procedures and cut the ones that hinder your employeesHow curating and sharing success stories is one of the best ways to train employeesEmpowering your employees can deliver hassle-free experiencesAdam's 3S process for employees to follow when resolving customer issuesRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Adam's siteAdam's book - Be Your Customer's HeroSIMPLE brand episode 38 with Lisa Bodell - we talk about killing stupid rules and policies

In his book, Be Your Customer’s Hero: Real World Tips and Techniques for the Service Front Lines, Adam Toporek wanted to take a conversational approach to customer service that could be digested as a reference book, aimed at front line employees. Toporek states that front line employees – those who work directly with customers, whether via phone, email, or face-to-face, tend to skew younger and don’t have time for fluff, but still want to learn to be more effective when working directly with customers. Toporek helps clarify the distinction between customer service and customer experience. Customer service is just part of the one-on-one interaction with a customer; whereas customer experience refers to the entire journey a customer has with an organization, including marketing pieces or emails from the organization. Toporek’s book aims to motivate front line employees, making them more confident in using the necessary tools and techniques to provide excellent customer service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Need fixes for broken appliances? We've got you covered in today's #AskaHouseCleaner Vacation Rental Mailbag. #Airbnb hosts ask about a broken dishwasher and alternate solutions. Angela Brown, The House Cleaning Guru suggests a meal credit or paper plates. Prepare for the worst-case scenario and provide a list of What Ifs. What if we have a broken washing machine? And then provide the number for a laundry service. And if you have a broken oven, suggest a toaster oven in the bottom cupboard or the microwave. Make it clear you offer no refunds for broken appliances. And then prevent guest disappointment with backups for customer satisfaction. Today's sponsors are Savvy Cleaner (Training and certification for house cleaners and maids.) And the community at Turnover Cleaning Tips. #VacationRental *** COME JOIN THE COMMUNITY *** https://turnovercleaningtips.com/community   *** MORE VIDEOS ON THIS TOPIC *** Vacation Rental What's Under Your Kitchen Sink? - https://youtu.be/xA9Q9mwvl-Y How to Keep OUT Unwanted Airbnb Guests - https://youtu.be/hdUN2sBfuE4 Renting your place on Airbnb: a 15min how-to guide of expert rent tips and host tricks - https://youtu.be/ug_3xkzt98A The Ten Items You Should Absolutely Provide Airbnb Guests - https://youtu.be/mQYVJcqr9I0 5 Superhost Ways to Prepare for an Airbnb Guest - https://youtu.be/yHAWS2D2d1M *** RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE *** What Customers Crave: How to Create Relevant and Memorable Experiences at Every Touchpoint - https://amzn.to/2I6NYUV Be Your Customer's Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines - https://amzn.to/2E5TTWn Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization - https://amzn.to/2I7kXZa Delight Your Customers: 7 Simple Ways to Raise Your Customer Service from Ordinary to Extraordinary - https://amzn.to/2GCUqk9 The Customer Rules: The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Service - https://amzn.to/2ByXgmV We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.   *** OTHER WAYS TO ENJOY THIS SHOW *** ITUNES - http://apple.co/2xhxnoj STITCHER - http://bit.ly/2fcm5JM SOUNDCLOUD - http://bit.ly/2xpRgLH GOOGLE PLAY - http://bit.ly/2fdkQd7 YOUTUBE - https://goo.gl/UCs92v *** GOT A QUESTION FOR A SHOW? *** Email it to Angela[at]AskaHouseCleaner.com Voice Mail: Click on the blue button at https://askahousecleaner.com *** HOUSE CLEANING TIPS VAULT *** (DELIVERED VIA EMAIL) - https://savvycleaner.com/tips *** FREE EBOOK – HOW TO START YOUR OWN HOUSE CLEANING COMPANY *** http://amzn.to/2xUAF3Z *** PROFESSIONAL HOUSE CLEANERS PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP *** https://www.facebook.com/groups/ProfessionalHouseCleaners/ *** VRBO AIRBNB CLEANING FACEBOOK GROUP *** https://www.facebook.com/groups/VRBO.Airbnb.Cleaning/ *** LOOKING FOR WAY TO GET MORE CLEANING LEADS *** https://housecleaning360.com *** FOLLOW ANGELA BROWN ON SOCIAL MEDIA *** https://Facebook.com/SavvyCleaner https://Twitter.com/SavvyCleaner https://Instagram.com/SavvyCleaner https://Pinterest.com/SavvyCleaner https://Linkedin.com/in/SavvyCleaner *** WHAT IS ASK A HOUSE CLEANER? *** Ask a House Cleaner is a daily show where you get to ask your house cleaning questions and we provide answers. Learn how to clean. How to start a cleaning business. Marketing and Advertising tips for your cleaning service. How to find top quality house cleaners, housekeepers, and maids. Employee motivation tactics. Strategies to boost your cleaning clientele. Cleaning company expansion help. Time-saving Hacks for DIY cleaners and more. Hosted by Angela Brown, 25-year house cleaning expert and founder of Savvy Cleaner Training for House Cleaners and Maids. *** SPONSORSHIPS & BRANDS *** We do work with sponsors and brands. If you are interested in working with us and you have a product or service that is cohesive to the cleaning industry read this: https://savvycleaner.com/product-review *** THIS SHOW WAS SPONSORED BY *** SAVVY CLEANER - House Cleaner Training and Certification – https://savvycleaner.com MY CLEANING CONNECTION – Your hub for all things cleaning – https://mycleaningconnection.com HOUSECLEANING360.COM – Connecting House Cleaners with Homeowners – https://housecleaning360.com SAVVY PERKS – Employee Benefits for Small Business Owners – https://savvyperks.com VRBO AIRBNB CLEANING – Cleaning tips and strategies for your short-term rental https://TurnoverCleaningTips.com

Adam Toperek is an internationally recognized Customer Service Expert, Key Note Speaker, and Workshop Leader. He is the Author of “Be Your Customers’ Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines” as well as the founder of Customers that Stick Blog. When he is not speaking or delivering high energy Customer Service Key Notes or Workshops, he can be found co-hosting the “Crack the Customer Code Podcast” and writing extensively on customer experience. Adam has an MBA and a Certificate in Customer Experience; he is also a Net Promoter Certified Associate.   Questions What is your Zodiac Sign? Would you say being people oriented, outgoing and very sociable are true characteristics of your personality? Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey On a global level, do you think there has been any improvement in customer experience or do you think it is getting worse? How do you get people to develop a culture of service, a mindset where everything is in alignment with the customers in mind? Have you found that sometimes empathy is lacking in terms of the organizations’ connection with their customers and do you think it’s driven by how people are brought up so they are not able to connect with the customer when they are venting? In your book, you speak about 7 service triggers; can you share a little about that and explain what that means? Do you think it’s important for the entire organization to be exposed to emotional intelligence so that they can be better able to manage their own emotions? From a customer experience perspective, what are some considerations for entrepreneurs online to consider as it relates to customer experience and having a successful business? What are your thoughts on training and does it have a different connotation in the mind? How do you stay motivated everyday? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app you cannot live without in your business? Can you share what are some of that books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people? Where can our listeners find your information? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?   Highlights   Adam shared that his sign is Sagittarius which is the early part of December. One unique fact about a Sagittarius is that they are extremely out going, and they are very people oriented and very sociable. Adam stated that he was not sure of the characteristics of a Sagittarius but that he believes those are definitely true of a person who is very good at customer experience and customer service. Adam stated that he is a 3rd generation entrepreneur, so business is in his blood. His grandfather owned a main street shoe store, his father started a wholesale business in the back of his mother’s retail children’s clothing store, so he grew up around business and doing sale tags and that has always been a part of who he is. As he opened his own businesses and went further along in his career, he eventually owned his retail business and got involved in franchising, one of the things he found was that in your own business, you could be the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Plumbing Officer; you’re everything but the part he always gravitated towards was customer experience and customer interaction. And the more he interacted with his customers, he realized how important the idea of customer experience was. Over time he started talking about it and then writing about it publicly on blogs, it then developed a following, it developed into a book, then into speaking and into key notes. But what he finds fascinating is that the journey that lead him there comes from having to be face to face with customers and having to work with employees that are face to face with customers and seeing the challenges and the struggles they had to deliver good customer experiences even when they wanted to. Adam stated that globally, expectations have changed; they are different from what they use to be and customers understand what good customer service is supposed to look like and then he also thinks customers sometimes have unrealistic expectations based on viral stories of customer service and that the customer is always right. These days customer service is the biggest source of competitive advantage for almost any organization. If you are not competing on experience, and you are in a competitive industry, you are in trouble. Adam shared that to get business owners to focus on customer experience and develop their team members to translate that experience they deliver to the customers on a face to face basis, over the telephone or on social media, can only start with the numbers; there are many statistics that tends to open eyes. If you can use an organization’s own numbers that is helpful, you could use their survey data their ranking or their NPS. He stated 85% of customers are willing to pay more for a superior customer experience, your retention equals profit. There are 3 different studies that show acquiring a new customer is anywhere from 5-10 times more expensive than retaining an existing one, yet most people put their time and energy into marketing instead of retention and customer experience efforts. Customer experience also affects moral and how their culture and employees feel and how they interact. Customer experience permeates the entire organization and you have to start with the numbers and the economic argument especially persons in the C-Suite, business owners or people higher up in their organization, they tend to be run by numbers. Adam shared that one of the things is that you’ve got to do is walk the talk as a leader. If you don’t have a customer centric culture, if you’re not leading from the top, if what they see from you as a leader is that customers are numbers and customers aren’t people then they are not going to treat them like people. There is nothing you can do for employees if you don’t first start doing yourself. You have to help people understand that they are dealing with human beings and that what they do matters. Adam stated that he has a chapter in his book, “Be Your Customers’ Hero” called “Everybody’s Rushed, Everybody’s Stressed”, because nowadays nobody has enough time and those are our customers, they don’t want to be hassled, they want to have easy experiences. A lot of the time employees will say this is just another retail job and this doesn’t mean anything and this doesn’t matter and the thing is to have a purpose and a mission to make them understand that purpose and mission centers around making peoples day better whether you are selling t-shirts, selling medicine or online software, whatever the services are around that, you are making a difference in peoples’ lives, you are impacting peoples’ lives. When you help them connect and if you help them understand the human on the other side of the phone, desk or email; that is one of the first steps in getting them to have a customer centric attitude and to act on it. Adam stated that there are a lot of factors at work like organizational and upbringing. He shared that one of the things he often teaches is that we are not biologically designed to be good at customer service. That is one of the reasons he focuses on training and why training is important. We have all of these things referred to as Cognitive Biases, there is negativity bias, human beings tend to look for negative information over positive information, we tend to give more weight and power to negative information instead of positive information and that makes sense, the brain’s job is to keep us alive. We have defense mechanisms, so when someone yells or screams at us, it is not natural for us to go, “Thank you for telling me sir, how can I help you better?” It is not a natural reaction, you have to train yourself to depersonalize, you have to train yourself to look at the other persons perspective not what they’re saying about you, not how you’re feeling. It is easy to empathize with somebody who is not being negative or who is not attacking you or your organization and it comes from caring and anybody that is built for caring or has been trained that the customer is important can find that empathy. It still is a trainable skill and it is still something you need to filter for because not every person should be in a customer facing role, there are some people that simply just should not have customer facing jobs but assuming that you have the right team, you have the right people on the bus, you can train empathy for easy situations but then you have to really train for them to not only empathize but depersonalize and to be able to be calm when the storm is coming and the communication skills and the techniques you need to help take that situation and move it down the road to a positive resolution. Adam stated that what is really interesting about the service triggers is that they are a preventative tool. When you talk about customer service, everybody wants to solve the problem that they already have, “How do I deal with a difficult customer? How do I this?” The service triggers are designed to create fewer problems to deal with, so the idea of the trigger is based on our psychological mechanism and we all have those triggers that could have been from when a song comes on the radio and you start to feel emotional, you look back and say that was the song your grandmother used to sing to you when you were little because that’s a trigger for you. We all have these personal triggers whether they be positive or negative and there are certain triggers throughout the population that are service triggers that are hot buttons for people in customer service situations where they tend to get really upset. Adam identified (7) triggers and not everybody has them equally and not everybody has them but when you’re looking at it at an organizational level, what you do, is try to approach it by “How could we prevent these from being pulled?” The first two triggers are “Being ignored” and “Being abandoned.” You’ve walked into a restaurant and watched the hostess walk back and forth and not even make eye contact. Being abandoned, they say they can’t handle that for you and will have the manager call you back tomorrow and what happens tomorrow? Nobody calls you, and what happens when you call them? You’ve been abandoned; you’ve been left on hold for 30 minutes. And these are triggers, so this happens at a restaurant and it’s your favorite restaurant, you might say it was a bad night, a new hostess and you’ll give them a break. But if you go in a second time and the hostess ignores you, you’re not going to wait 3 minutes, you’re going to wait 30 seconds and what happens is that we have these triggers that we carry from organization to organization cause once you’ve been sent from department to department, and wasted hours trying to get answers to your questions, you can get quick on the trigger. So if you ever experience this in your customer experience life, the customer gets an employee and they are saying “I have to send you to a different department or have my manager call you” and they say “What’s the manager’s name? What time will they call? Who do I call if I don’t hear from them?” and then they start going through a list of things. That’s a trigger, they know they have been burned before, they’ve been shuffled (another trigger), they’ve been abandoned. So what we do is look at the customer journey, we look at each touch point in the journey, particularly the major ones and say, “How could a customer feel ignored here? Are they not greeted in time? Is the phone not picked up fast enough? How could a customer feel abandoned?” And when you go through all seven (7) service triggers, if you can prevent these seven service triggers, you can revolutionize your customer experience by starting there. Adam shared that emotional intelligence has a frame work with it. It has to have the idea of being in touch with who you are and not only who you are but how you relate to customers. Adam Toporek in his book, stated that the first 3 sections are really about mindset because that’s how important it is. The first section is about the mindset of the customer service representative: how do we feel. Everybody not only needs to come to grips with themselves and their own triggers and their own cognitive biases and their own ways of approaching customers and customer experience but also how they interact with each other, with their team, all of that mixes together to kind of create the perfect culture. Those are the things you strive for in creating a culture that is mixed with empathy across and throughout the organization and by looking inside yourself. Adam shared that the first thing to do is to map your customer journey because small businesses never do that, solo entrepreneurs and consultants rarely ever sit down and say, “What is my customer’s journey?” “Where do people come in, what marketing are they seeing?” “Where are they finding me, my twitter, my blog, this podcast?” And then what happens “What expectations am I setting? What is my response time? What is the next thing that happens?” You then look at the journey and look at what you think it is now and what you want it to be, what do you want your customers to experience? What do you want your response time to be? And how often do you want to monitor your channels? How do you want to communicate with your customers? Where do you want your business to live, is it on Skype, on email? If you look at your journey and go through from beginning to end, every piece of your brand that a customer or prospective customer can touch and then you take the approach of looking at each touch point and saying, “How can I make this touch point great? How can I make sure I don’t mess it up?” Adam stated that one of the concepts he teaches is that he breaks up the touch points and pressure points because there is not enough time if you try to focus on everything, nothing is going to get done, he says we all say everything is important in customer experience and it is. You have to start with the big rocks, you look at the pressure points, what are the 3-5 big moments when you interact with the customer and it may be to close the sale, when they sign up for your programme, when they buy your speech, when they buy your product or when there is a customer service issue, look at those big pressure points first. Get those as tight and prefect and then work on as many touch points as you can. Adam stated that he agrees with the concept of development rather than training as there have been a lot of bad training and there have been a lot of training when people sit in a class for a day or a half day or 3 days and then everything went back to normal but what is particularly harmful is when you have training and you don’t have the culture to support what they learn in the training. He stated that if a company brings him in and he gets the team jazzed up and ready to help customers and they have the skills and they are feeling more confident now on how to handle difficult customers, providing them with communication tricks, helping them to work on their mindset and then they go back to a culture where there is nothing but just rules and policies and managers that are yelling about numbers and nobody seemingly cares about customers, then you wasted your money because it won’t be effective. Being customer centric and wanting to help the customers has to be in the DNA of the organization. And that resistance to training is because it is not part of the whole package, it’s just like “customer service is down, let’s get a trainer.” They are really not getting the whole suite and to fit a square peg into round hole – just will not work. When asked how he stays motivated every single day - Adam shared that he just does as he has always been doing….staying goal oriented; he looks at his goals regularly. One of the things he does is try to stay healthy and fit as it makes all the difference. He has a treadmill desk, so staying healthy helps the mechanics of the internal motivation and also he loves what he does, he trains and teaches and he has always enjoyed teaching and he likes helping people solve problems and teaching people new things. When he can teach somebody how to deal with customer service, it’s not easy but some of what they are dealing with is easy and he can help, so it is really rewarding and that’s the biggest thing to teach people and to help people make their lives better and be more successful in their jobs. One tool, website, resource or app that Adam shared he cannot live without because of all his travelling is TripIt. Trip It manages all his trips and he said it is insanely cool, so you get your email from your airline, you get your email from your hotel, just forward it to TripIt and it puts it in an itinerary with all of your codes and your confirmation numbers and the phone numbers and it puts everything in order, so it will do your flights, the hotel check in, then the flight and your hotel check out, it puts in the rental car. It also does alerts if your flights are running late, so instead of signing up with each different airline, you just send everything to TripIt and it alerts you. This app is available on App Store and Google Play Store. When asked what are some books that have had the greatest impact on him - Adam shared “How To Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie this book is about how you interact with people, how to treat people and how you communicate with people. Another book Adam shared that has had the greatest impact is called “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport and his thesis is essential. Today one of the greatest things you can do if you are in a knowledge field, is take time to do deep work, to really focus on getting rid of the noise. The author really dives deeply into the idea and shows people how they have done it and different modules for doing it, that idea of really having focus time to work on projects and to think and create great things. He stated that it is a valuable book for him because it is what he believes in intuitively. When asked what is one thing he is working on to develop himself or his people that he is really excited about - Adam shared that he is hitting a long-term goal as it is something that he always wanted to do but it never made the cut which is to create an online training because it is truly the future and it’s getting more virtual everyday and he is launching his first online customer service training course coming out the first week of September and he has a couple other concepts that he’s working on, so hopefully there will be 2 or 3 online training courses out by the end of 2016. The first one being released is based on the 7 service triggers. Link for Course Adam says listeners can find him online on any of the below links: Customers That Stick Website Adam Toporek Twitter Adam Toporek LinkedIn   Adam shared his quote that he refers to in times of adversity and challenges and really contributes to his very own success - “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”   The other is a poem called “If” by Rudyard Kipling.   Links   “Be Your Customers’ Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines” by Adam Toporek Crack the Customer Code Podcast TripIt “How To Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport Customers That Stick Website Adam Toporek Twitter Adam Toporek LinkedIn

Shep Hyken speaks with fellow customer service expert, keynote speaker, and author, Adam Toporek. They discuss Adam’s new book, “Be Your Customers Hero: Real World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines.” In addition, Adam shares seven service triggers that can ruin the customer’s experience and the importance of avoiding them. So, if you want to be your customer’s hero, don’t miss this episode of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam is an internationally recognized customer service expert, keynote speaker, and workshop leader. He is the author of Be Your Customer's Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines, as well as the founder of the popular Customers That Stick® blog. Inside this FREE “First Millionaire Manifesto”, J V reveals the seven steps to seven figures and how to put more money in the bank, enjoy a richly rewarding life, and make a big difference. Subscribe in ITunes Like this Podcast? Help spread the word. Subscribing and leaving a review helps other business owners and entrepreneurs find our podcast…and make their big difference. They will thank you for it.   Watch this FREE Video to discover the Secrets to getting in your zone, achieving fast results, and building a high-profit conscious business.  Conscious Millionaire Podcast: On his free podcast, Monday through Friday, J V interviews top successful entrepreneurs and business owners who reveal their business solutions and business opportunities on topics such as: conscious business, social entrepreneurship, business online marketing, internet business solutions, internet marketing, team building and culture, goal setting, how to become a wealthy entrepreneur, and developing a high-profit business plan that will change lives and the world.

Adam is an internationally recognized customer service expert, keynote speaker, and workshop leader. He is the author of Be Your Customer's Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines, as well as the founder of the popular Customers That Stick® blog. Inside this FREE “First Millionaire Manifesto”, J V reveals the seven steps to seven figures and how to put more money in the bank, enjoy a richly rewarding life, and make a big difference. Subscribe in ITunes Like this Podcast? Help spread the word. Subscribing and leaving a review helps other business owners and entrepreneurs find our podcast…and make their big difference. They will thank you for it.   Watch this FREE Video to discover the Secrets to getting in your zone, achieving fast results, and building a high-profit conscious business.  Conscious Millionaire Podcast: On his free podcast, Monday through Friday, J V interviews top successful entrepreneurs and business owners who reveal their business solutions and business opportunities on topics such as: conscious business, social entrepreneurship, business online marketing, internet business solutions, internet marketing, team building and culture, goal setting, how to become a wealthy entrepreneur, and developing a high-profit business plan that will change lives and the world.

Annette Franz, creator of the CX Journey blog, gets into the nitty gritty of what makes a customer journey map a powerful tool for any organization. Customer Journey Maps Get Real “Do I need to track all thousand steps?” Different customers have different customer journeys, so what are the best ways to really map their journey? Annette Franz tackles the complex process of customer journey mapping by simplifying it. In this episode, Adam, Jeannie and Annette discuss the changing ways organizations can get the best information about their customers, so impactful changes can be made. There are quick wins to be had, but you have to know how to find them! There are so many different frameworks for journey mapping, how do you know where to start? Annette dissects ways to explore the customer’s journey and to learn about who your customers really are. Are you ready to dive in? Listen in to hear many great tips to start or continue your journey mapping. Annette Franz: Customer Experience Expert Annette Franz blogs at CX Journey, where she shares her passion for helping companies understand the importance of the employee experience and its role in delivering an exceptional customer experience, as well as how to transform their cultures to ensure the customer is at the center of every conversation. She was recently recognized as one of “The 100 Most Influential Tech Women on Twitter” by Business Insider and has been recognized by several organizations as a top influencer in Customer Experience. She is an active CXPA member, as a CX Expert, CX Mentor, and a SoCal Local Networking Team Lead; she also serves on the Board of Directors. Connect with Annette @annettefranz   @cxjourney  LinkedIn  Facebook Related Content Annette’s blog post, Journey Maps: Not an Exercise in Futility Annette’s blog post, 5 Basic Journey Mapping Principles Jeannie’s blog post, 5 Customer Journey Mapping Mistakes Adam’s blog post on Convince and Convert, 7 Tips to Get Started with Customer Journey Mapping  Sponsor Message  Be Your Customer’s Hero: Real-World Tips and Techniques for the Service Front Lines is a one-stop training guide for anyone who works with customers. Be Your Customers Hero covers customer service from beginning to end. In HERO, you will learn some of Adam’s favorite tips and tricks for winning the mental game of service, for communicating in ways that set you up for success, and of course, for working with difficult customers. Get a copy for yourself or for your whole team. Bulk discounts are available. Learn more here.                  Take care of yourself and take care of your customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jill Salzman, creator of The Founding Moms, joins us to discuss global networking and the inception of the world's first and only online and offline meet-up and resource network for mothers. Real Women Making a Difference When asked why membership community building is so important, Jill replies that it's a matter of identifying the need in a community and attempting to fill it. While Founding Moms' meetings began in person with just a few participants, the demand was so great that Jill has expanded to both offline and online group meetings, providing the opportunity for participants to pool resources, network, and offer advice as they build their businesses. As the creator of the only networking community that invites members to bring their children as they learn more about optimizing their business, Jill has built an accessible, loved, and trusted brand. Tune in to hear her customer service advice, network design, brand story, and how to juggle life as an entrepreneur. Jill Salzman: "Helping Moms Get Down to Business" In addition to connecting mom entrepreneurs from all over the globe, Jill has also started a music management firm, founded a jewelry company, and authored a book titled, "Found It: A Field Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs." Jill earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University and after that attended law school. She co-hosts the podcast Breaking Down Your Business, and she hosts a video series called Tip Top Tips For Entrepreneurs. Nicknamed "Mommy Mogul" by CNN Money, "One of Ten Cool Mom Entrepreneurs We Love" by MSN Live, and the creator of one of Forbes' "Top Ten Business Websites," Jill also has a TED Talk, loves to bake, and rocks out in a band.  Connect with Jill LinkedIn Twitter www.foundingmoms.com www.foundingmoms.com/fmc Related Content "Found It: A Field Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs" Breaking Down Your Business Tip Top Tips For Entrepreneurs Jill's TED Talk www.foundingmoms.com/fmc Sponsor Message  Be Your Customer’s Hero: Real-World Tips and Techniques for the Service Front Lines is a one-stop training guide for anyone who works with customers. Be Your Customers Hero covers customer service from beginning to end. In HERO, you will learn some of Adam’s favorite tips and tricks for winning the mental game of service, for communicating in ways that set you up for success, and of course, for working with difficult customers. Get a copy for yourself or for your whole team. Bulk discounts are available. Learn more here.                  Take care of yourself and take care of your customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shep Hyken, the Customer Experience Expert and Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations, joins the podcast to talk about fusing disparate elements of customer service into one holistic whole. Realistic Customer Amazement Shep’s advice for a stellar customer experience? Foster moments of customer amazement grounded in realism. Any company can do this, Shep says, and you don’t have to create clever, fantastic, or over the top productions. “The amazing companies are just a little above average—all of the time.” In his book The Amazement Revolution, Shep outlines some of his favorite strategies to create those ‘wow’ moments. Want a taste? Shep’s favorite strategy is to foster a membership mentality, like a gym or country club membership. Create loyalty, Shep says. Create that VIP experience for your customers. Know who they are. Call them by name. Add personalization and connection. This will bond your customers to your brand and create loyalty. How can you shift the culture of your company to a customer-centric model? Want more strategies, case studies, and tools to create a dynamic customer experience? Tune in! Shep Hyken: The Man, The Myth, The Legend of Customer Experience Experts Not only is Shep the Customer Experience Expert and Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations— he's also New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, and an inducted member of the National Speakers Association’s Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement in the Speaking Profession. Shep works with companies and organizations of all sizes who want to build loyal relationships with customers and employees. His books include Moments of Magic, The Loyal Customer, The Cult of the Customer, The Amazement Revolution, and Amaze Every Customer Every Time. He founded Shepard Presentations in 1983 and since then has been known for his high energy presentations that always include humor and a little bit of magic. Connect with ShepLinkedInTwitterwww.shepondemand.comwww.hyken.com Related Content Shep's books:Amaze Every Customer, Every TimeThe Amazement RevolutionThe Cult of the CustomerThe Loyal CustomerMoments of Magic Be Your Customer’s Hero: Real-World Tips and Techniques for the Service Front Lines is a one-stop training guide for anyone who works with customers. Be Your Customers Hero covers customer service from beginning to end. In HERO, you will learn some of Adam’s favorite tips and tricks for winning the mental game of service, for communicating in ways that set you up for success, and of course, for working with difficult customers. Get a copy for yourself or for your whole team. Bulk discounts are available. Learn more here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Superstorm of Change Shel’s latest book, Lethal Generosity, borrows its name from the concept that when a company is incredibly generous to their customers, competitors’ efforts to hijack the customer are preempted. Customers have more power than ever. Technology has put customers “in their rightful place at the heart of an organization, rather than on the outside”, and has created, as Shel puts it, a “superstorm of change”. Social media has empowered consumers to demand the experiences they desire. What does this mean for the future—of companies, communication, and the world? The future belongs to millennials, says Shel, and it is in their hands to make reparations and "fix the world." They are the first generation of ‘digital natives’ coming of age to a planet that has a lot of problems, and the technology at their fingertips will be the tool they use to network and solve problems. Shifting Business Models This limitless power of connectivity and communication offers millennials seemingly infinite resources for collaboration. Shel introduces the topic of Keiretsu, a Japanese practice of forming and sharing networks and resources to gather power and problem-solve. Many companies around the world are now building keiretsus, and these teams are going on to shift the traditional business model to a newer, more sustainable format. This phenomenon is evident in cause-marketing efforts from brands like TOMs, Warby Parker, and more. Shel Israel, Cross-Disciplinary Communicator Shel Israel is a best-selling author concerned with technology and the impact it has on business and life. He has been a keynote speaker “on all continents not covered by ice” and a contributor to Forbes, Fast Company, Business Weekly, and Business Insider. He began his extensive career as a newspaper reporter, then moved on to become a PR executive in Silicon Valley; he rounded out his career by working as a publicist. He currently writes and speaks full time. He brings his cross-disciplinary viewpoint to the podcast today to discuss the future of company identity and branding. Connect with ShelLinkedInTwitterwww.shelisrael.comRelated ContentAdam's blog post, Age of Context, Future of ExperienceLethal GenerosityAge of Context Naked ConversationsKeiretsuBe Your Customer’s Hero: Real-World Tips and Techniques for the Service Front Lines is a one-stop training guide for anyone who works with customers. Be Your Customers Hero covers customer service from beginning to end. In HERO, you will learn some of Adam’s favorite tips and tricks for winning the mental game of service, for communicating in ways that set you up for success, and of course, for working with difficult customers. Get a copy for yourself or for your whole team. Bulk discounts are available. Learn more here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keurig brews social backlash, recent innovation goes back in the grinder Ramon DeLeon, Global Business and Social Media Keynote Speaker Customer Hero: Disney Cruise Line’s unbelievable dedication to details     SPONSOR MESSAGE   Confident, in control, successful... Is this how you feel when you work with customers? If you answered "no" you're not alone. Customer service can be incredibly difficult. Adam’s new book, Be Your Customer's Hero: Real World Tips and Techniques for the Service Front Lines is here to help. Be Your Customer's Hero is designed to help you and your teams gain the mindset and skills needed to create hero class customer experiences. Go to beyourcustomershero.com to get your copy today.     Keurig’s attempt to box in customers backfires     Jeannie and Adam discuss how Keurig’s customers react to a recent innovation designed to force the use of proprietary supplies.     Customers have spoken up, and Keurig has listened! But is it too late? How will they address customers who can no longer use the product their own way?     Discussion begins at 01:23     Ramon DeLeon, Global Business and Social Media Keynote Speaker, Word of Mouth Supergenius     Ramon explains the fundamental principles of connecting with customers, and how his mother’s marketing finesse, coupled with what he learned from delivering pizza, helped prime him to become the globally recognized marketing consultant he is today.     Ramon flashes back to the 90’s and how he helped Domino’s leverage the power of connecting with customers digitally before most of us even knew that was “a thing.” (Can you remember when ICQ was the way to stay connected online?)     To create loyalty, as Ramon explains, it’s important to get customers to know you, to like you, and to trust you. Whatever industry you’re in, take a page from Ramon’s book and find ways to use whatever tools you have at hand to create strong impressions and lasting connections.     Discussion begins at 05:10       Customer Hero, Customer Zero: How Disney Cruise Line Stays Anchored in our Favorite Memories     It’s no secret that Disney is legendary for creating magical customer experiences, but did you know they actually have a customer experience institute?     Adam explains how Disney worked with the US Coast Guard just to get one minor, but nonetheless delightful detail, just right for Disney Cruise Line travelers.     Both of our hosts agree, it’s just one of the countless ways Disney pays scrupulous attention to the little things that touch our hearts and live on in the memories guests will share for years.     (Plus, Jeannie gets some trivia points for knowing her Disney characters!)     Discussion begins at 17:51         People, Places, and Things of the Podcast:     Guest Speaker / People   Ramon Deleon is a global keynote speaker who started with Domino's pizza in Chicago as a delivery driver in 1986. 27 years later, Ramon ended his tenure with the brand as the marketing mind of a six-store Domino's Pizza franchise in Chicago. His career has given him the opportunity to work in Mexico as a Business Development consultant for Domino's Pizza, and speak all over the world. He's been using social media for his business since before the word existed, and is now known as a Word of Mouth Supergenius, Social Strategist, and Customer Evangelist. More about Ramon | LinkedIn | LinkedIn | Twitter | Tumblr | YouTube | Instagram         Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we have a special episode. Adam’s new book Be Your Customer’s Hero launched this week, and Jeannie turns the table on Adam and places him in the interview hot seat for the entire episode! Be Your Customer's Hero Interview Here are some of the highlights from the interview: Why did Adam write Be Your Customer’s Hero? Adam shares a story about watching an employee mistreat a customer and how his passion to change that eventually grew into the book. Why mindset is so fundamental to customer service, why ex-Disney employees have a leg up interviewing with him, and how even good people can deliver bad service when they haven’t been given a customer-centric mindset. Why the right customer service language must be coupled with a genuine effort to serve. Why astronauts have competence and confidence and how frontline employees can get it, too. How to handle challenging customers, emotional reactions in difficult service situations, and why picturing your customer running down the street being chased by a bat can be effective. What is “Smart Empowerment,” why it’s important, and how Adam empowered his employees and changed his service delivery significantly. What it means to be your customer’s hero and how it’s not about creating viral-worthy experiences. Interview begins at 1:15. Bonus Section Also, as a special bonus, Adam shares the results from CTS Service Solutions’ recent survey of 425 retail workers and some of the crazy answers to the question, “what is the meanest thing a customer’s ever said to you?” Also, find out what Patrick Swayze has to do with customer service. Bonus begins at 14:33. OUR SPONSORS 13th Annual SCORE Conference: The Industry Forum on CEM Best Practices in Creating Customer Loyalty and Retention Strategies. If you are a CEM professional, you need to attend the SCORE Conference, the 13th customer service industry annual event taking place on May 20-22, 2015 at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. For more information, check out www.omegascoreboard.com CXWebinar.com Each month Jeannie explores a new concept like creating a customer experience mission or journey mapping. Go to http://cxwebinar.com. Also, interested in having Jeannie speak at your organization? Go to http://360connext.com/speaking/.     How to Sponsor www.crackthecustomercode.com/sponsor     People, Places, and Things from the Podcast: Adam Toporek is the author of Be Your Customer's Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines (2015), as well as the founder of the popular Customers That StickTM blog and co-host of the Crack the Customer Code podcast. He is the owner of CTS Service Solutions, a consultancy specializing in high-energy customer service workshops that teach organizations and frontline teams how to deliver Hero-ClassTM customer service. Adam has an MBA from UNC Charlotte and a Certificate in Customer Experience from the Center for Services Leadership at Arizona State University. Connect with him on Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube. Be Your Customer’s Hero Book Trailer How Do You Handle Angry Customers? Patrick Swayze Style!   Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices