13 Customer Experience Trends to Watch in 2013

Customer experience guru Bruce Temkin posted this prediction on Experience Matters. It is reflective of his knowledge, insights and research.

 

2012 was a very active year for customer experience management. I expect 2013 to be an even more robust year as we move deeper into the Era of CX Professionalism.

Here are 13 CX trends to keep an eye on this year as these efforts gain maturity:

1. Decline of surveys. As more companies thirst for customer feedback, the number of surveys has escalated. But there is a limit to customers’ willingness to complete surveys. As completion rates get more difficult to maintain, companies will become more efficient with the questions they ask, target questions at specific customers in specific situations, and stop relying as much on multiple-choice questions. Tidbit: When we asked large companies with VoC programs about the changing importance of eight listening posts, multiple choice survey questions were at the bottom of the list.                                                                                                     
2. Rise of text analytics.Companies are learning that some of the richest insights from customers come from unstructured content like comments on surveys, calls into the contact center, social media conversations, and chat sessions with agents. Companies will shift more of their focus towards collecting and analyzing these types of feedback. Tidbit: Nearly three-quarters of large companies with VoC programs are using or considering text analytics.
3. “Big data” predictive insights. It’s hard to talk about trends without discussing big data (in order to be fully buzz-word compliant). But what will this term mean for customer experience in 2013? Companies will blend together customer feedback data with troves of other data they have in CRM and other systems about customer transactions and value. Using this large dataset, they will predict customer satisfaction levels and Net Promoter Scores across their customer base. Since analytics requires more than just technology, we’ll see a surge of demand for data scientists. Tidbit: More than half of large companies with a VoC program are using or considering predictive analytics, but only one-third of large companies feel that they are effective at integrating CRM data in their VoC efforts.
4. Anticipatory service. As companies gain a deeper understanding of customers through research and analytics, they will use that information to develop more individualized customer experiences. Look for companies to route callers to phone agents most likely to help them based on anticipating why they are calling, train front line employees with different scripts based on anticipating a customers’ needs/interests/emotional styles, and proactively recover from service issues before customers even complain about them based on detecting potential changes to a customers’ loyalty. Tidbit: When companies responded very poorly after a bad experience, 47% of consumers stopped spending completely with the company. When they had a very good response, only 6% stopped spending and 37% increased their spending.
5. Experience-infused product development. We’ll see more companies create products with customer experience embedded throughout the entire development process. What will this look like? Product teams will define usability requirements, set minimum experience thresholds for product launch, and design the entire service lifecycle. Fidelity Investments evaluates all new product and experience efforts via a CX scorecard to determine the level of customer experience risk involved in a proposed project. Its “Customer Lens” process incorporates standards and checkpoints into business case and new product development methodologies to deliver more customer-centric experiences.
6. Design-based process improvement. As customer experience efforts highlight the need to redesign more operational processes, companies will combine customer experience efforts with other process improvement efforts such as lean sigma and design thinking. These combinations, such as GM’s bringing together of customer experience and product quality, will merge process-centric tools with the power of deep customer empathy. We’ll also see more companies follow firms such as Intuit that are embedding design thinking across their organizations (check out the Stanford d.school). Tidbit: 74% of CX professionals think that customer experience design is important for their company, but only 34% think that their firm is good at it.
7. Loyalty-focused contact centers. As companies more fully understand the link between customer experience and loyalty, especially with customer service, they will increasingly view contact centers as value-creators and not just cost centers. Some of the effects in 2013: less focus on average-handle-time and other productivity metrics, more focus on customer feedback and quality metrics, more on-shoring of previously off-shored interactions, and more investment in agent training and coaching. Tidbit: Consumers that are satisfied with customer service interactions are more than 4 times as likely to repurchase than those who are dissatisfied.
8. Appreciation of employee assets. Companies are beginning to see the deep connection between employee engagement and customer experience. So many firms will focus on their employees in 2013. We’ll see more CX programs develop internal ambassador programs and an initial wave of HR organizations leading employee engagement efforts across what we call Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent. Tidbit: Highly engaged employees are 5.8 times more committed to helping their companies succeed and 3.5 times more likely to do something good for their employers that is not expected of them.
9. Mobile, mobile, mobile. Consumers will have more smart phones, more mobile apps, more tablets for them to do even more things wherever they go. Companies will increasingly integrate mobile into their product offerings and service experiences while integrating mobile with other channels, especially when it comes to combining desktop applications with mobile apps being used in physical stores. Tidbit: 31% of U.S. consumers use apps on their mobile phones on a daily basis.
10. Software as an Experience. The initial rise of cloud-based software (a.k.a. SaaS, or software-as-a-service) focused on renting access to software instead of the historical approach of selling licenses. As cloud-based software expands, we’ll see these offerings cater more explicitly to the needs of customers. How? More simple, highly-focused, specialized applications (like smartphone apps), more focus on quick initial usability, more sharing of best practices (usage, not technical), and customization based on behavioral analysis of users. Tidbit: Net Promoter Scores for tech vendors are more correlated to customer experience than product performance.
11. Resurgence of values. As more companies push forward on their CX journeys, they’ll find that there’s nothing holding their efforts together. The desire to improve customer experience will fall victim to other priorities if the effort is not tied to the core values of the company. But many organizations are so heavily focused on their operations that they’ve lost sight of their raisons d’être. I expect more companies to articulate and recommit to a core set of values like those of Zappos and Whole Foods, customer promises like that of TNT Express, and mission statements like that of the Dallas Cowboys.
12. Rethinking risk-experience trade-offs. Customer experience is often constrained by rigid requirements imposed by legal, compliance and risk management teams. As a result, companies are forced to collect additional information from customers, add additional steps in processes, and eliminate valuable self-service options. In 2013, given the increased emphasis on customer experience, we’ll see companies push back on and successfully eliminate many of the most egregious experience roadblocks.
13. Continuing CX education. Some customer experience practices are becoming standardized enough to create educational curriculum. In 2013, we’ll see more corporate training departments rolling out CX training, MBA programs incorporating more CX content into service and marketing courses, and the creation of standalone CX academic courses. Tidbit: The percentage of CX professionals that see training as an important professionals development goal increased from 52% in 2011 to 57% in 2012.

The bottom line: 2013 will be a busy year for CX professionals!

10 Questions frequently asked about Customer Experience Management

                                                     
1) How long will it take to develop a Customer Experience Strategy?
That will be dependent on:
The quality and consistency of your current customer experience performance
How much time you can commit to working through the process
How well you have explained the what ,why and how and the importance of the commitment from all those involved in the business

2) Why don’t we just provide customer service training for our front-line people?
Answer - We launched Customer Experiences after our research found that when customer service training is carried out without a proper Customer Experience foundation, the training itself has very little impact on changing employee behaviour and ultimately little impact on improving the customer experience.
Customer service is a vital part of any quality customer experience. A customer experience strategy however covers far more than just customer service in fact it covers every aspect of a business because every aspect will have some impact on the quality and consistency of the experience a business delivers.

3) How do we gain total commitment from our people to ensure the success of a Customer Experience Strategy?
Answer - Commitment comes from engagement. The Customer Experience approach involves everyone. The fact is that everyone plays a role in your Customer Experience, not just those people directly interacting with your customers. Our customer experience development program is based on the fact that your people support what they create. A successful customer experience strategy is the result of total involvement from everyone associated with the business.

4) Why is a Customer Experience strategy difficult for your competitors to copy?
Answer - Leadership, culture and your people are vital parts of your Customer Experience strategy and the great news is, they are all difficult to copy. Everything else you do is relevantly easy to copy.
A customer experience strategy can be a businesses sustainable competitive advantage in a world where sustainable competitive advantages are rare. You can be sure that once you start gaining market share as a result of your customer experience your competitors’ will be looking closely at what you are doing.

5) Why is creativity such an important part of a Customer Experience strategy.
Answer - Creativity is today’s great competitive advantages. The reason there is not more creative thinking in business is its not encouraged in most organisations. The key to on-going customer loyalty is the ability to continually "add value" to what you provide your customers. This requires a steady flow of ideas from your people, the more creative the ideas the greater the impact on your Customer Experience.

6) How does a Customer Experience strategy help us to attract the right people?
Answer - Great people want to work with organisations that are totally focused on their people and customers. They know that these businesses take time to build real relationships with their customers and it’s these relationships that lead to loyalty and advocacy. The fact is that your working life is so much more enjoyable when your customers are smiling and coming back because your people have taken the time to build relationships.

7) Why is a vision so important to a Customer Experience Strategy?
Answer - A good vision keeps everyone focused, on track, inspired and motivated and that’s vital to a long-term strategic business approach. You must be able to clearly show how your customer experience strategy will move your business towards its vision.

8) Why is word of mouth so much more powerful today? 
Answer - Word of mouth has always been powerful in fact it’s today’s most powerful form of advertising. When you recommend a business to someone you are putting your reputation on the line and we don’t do that lightly. Today individuals have the ability via social media to reach many more people and share both great and not so great experiences. Business is only started to understand the power shift that has taken place.

9) How does a Customer Experience strategy take away the focus on price?
Answer - We do business today in a world we call "the world of sameness" the only way most businesses can come up with to get customers in the door is to reduce prices. The result is reduced margins and a struggling business. Customer focused businesses look for ways to add value, this is why it’s so important to understand your business from the customer’s perspective and foster creative thinking that will result in added value other than a price reduction. Research clearly shows as customers we will pay more for a consistent, quality customer experience.

10) Why does business have difficulty relating to customers emotions
Answer - emotions drive our lives however when we are on the other side of the counter we only see business as a logical process. A large part of how customers measure a businesses customer experience performance is by the way they feel and feelings are emotions. Thankfully understanding customer’s emotions is a major part of a Customer Experience strategy.

Source: Chris Bell, Customer Experience on Voxy.co.nz

Six New Voice of the Customer Trends

Source: The Vovici blog "The Listening Post".

Andrew McInnes, Analyst with Forrester Research Inc., presented six new trends and framed them by discussing the value of customer experience and Voice of the Customer programs.

He is reminding us to evaluate these practices in light of their firm’s customer experience ecosystem. Not all companies will benefit by implementing every item on this list. Rather, when evaluating a new activity, make sure it links to an important customer interaction or moment of truth. Also consider how employees can be empowered and influenced with data and communication.

Why does customer experience matter?

Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart, said “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” Clearly, a company cannot succeed without customers.

Why is the Voice of the Customer important?

If the customer is your boss, the voice of the customer is your performance review. Neglect what he or she says and you are likely to be replaced – by your competition.

Why are VoC Programs important?

Focused VoC programs improve the customer experience by acting on feedback and making systemic improvements across the company. These programs help change company culture via the sharing of customer stories, providing recognition, and offering rewards around customer-centric behavior. Finally, successful VoC programs deliver business results by increasing loyalty and retention, lowering service costs, and increasing sales.

Andrew observed that many trends first seen in 2010 continued throughout 2011. In addition, following are six (6) new trends demonstrated by the finalists and winners of Forrester’s 2011 VoC Awards:

1. Tailoring VoC activities for specific customer segments. In 2011, many programs included the powerful element of tailored customer communication and activities. Activities were customized for frequency, content, and level of personalization. For example, a B2B company may identify their customer segments as Executives, Managers, and End-users. Executives may require more one-to-one communication (phone calls, site visits) at a lower frequency. In contrast, the end-user may receive more frequent communication requiring less personalization (surveys, newsletters).
   
   Adobe Systems invites customers to share product ideas via an online portal; product suggestions are then demoted and promoted by the votes of other customers. Feedback from the Adobe product teams is provided through the portal so customers know the status of their idea submissions.
   
   
2. Measuring the value of an improved customer experience in general. Good VoC programs regularly measure the overall value of customer experience efforts, most often linking customer feedback scores to loyalty and revenue. This measurement proves that customer experience and VoC are important – and relevant.
   
   Adobe Systems brought together customer feedback with customer lifetime value data to statistically demonstrate that the most loyal customers were also at the higher end of customer lifetime value.
   
   
3. Proving the value of the VoC program specifically. By linking interventions with cost, retention, and/or revenue, a VoC program proves that it directly drives value. Value can also be driven indirectly by linking the outcomes of VoC-initiated projects to business results.
   
   
4. Bringing the VoC to life for back office employees. It takes an entire company to serve customers well. In addition to front-line employees, back office teams – such as billing, legal, finance, IT, and marketing – make decisions that directly impact customer experience. VoC leaders can align employee behavior around VoC through a number of ways, including variable compensation and performance evaluations.
   
   Programs must bring VoC to life for all employees by creating a motivational, emotional connection to the VoC program. Intel gives every employee in the company two days off if they reach their “customer delight” goals. Adobe Systems built a customer listening post room; employees can visit and immerse themselves in customer feedback. Twitter comments, survey feedback, and call center data displays – in real-time – on television screens in what is, essentially, a customer NOC. Talk about being dedicated to the customer cause!
   
   
5. Building networks of VoC champions. VoC programs need four levels of ownership: Executive Sponsors, VoC teams, VoC Champions, and everyone else! As an example, Forrester’s award winners were very active in building VoC Champion teams in 2011. While the role and definition of “VoC Champions” varies from one company to the next, they are typically delegates from each business area who understand the operations of their team—and know what the VoC team is doing. They are able to articulate the importance of customer-centric behavior to other team members while bringing the voice of the customer into all business process improvement activities.
   
   
6. Aligning key functions around VoC insight and action. In 2011, VoC leaders engaged other business functions in VoC activities. They aligned closely with Business process (for organizational and procedure improvements), Market Insights (for survey design and analysis), and Customer Intelligence (for mining customer databases combining operational and behavioral data with feedback). This alignment demonstrates increased sophistication of VoC programs as they drive strategic initiatives and increase value for the organization.

Five steps to thriving in an experience economy

According to customer experience expert Shaun Smith these are the the five steps that are crucial for you to get in place if you are going to turn your customers into fans.

One of the most important trends that has been identified by experts is the shift from a product economy to service economy to experience economy, says Smith: "If you go to the early stages of any market, you can be pretty successful if you have a good product. If you can bring a product to market at the right price, at the right place, with the right functionality, it can be successful," he says. "What we know though is that it isn’t very long before you get competitors, with substitutes and alternatives coming into the market. All of a sudden, having a great product is no longer enough. And what happens then is that the default becomes service. The customer starts expecting not just a product but service on top of the product."

However, that is now no longer enough. With the web you can now buy whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. There are so many organisations out there offering very similar products, with value added services, meeting all the basic requirements, that actually the only thing that makes you a market leader is if you create a great experience.

Research from IBM found that companies that are successful in creating both an emotional and functional bond have much higher levels of retention and also cross sells. It found that retention rates were 84% compared to only 30% for those organisations that didn’t create a functional and emotional bond, and it found that cross-sell success was 82% compared to 16%.

As such, here are five steps that are crucial for you to get in place if you are going to turn your customers into fans.

1. Customer insight

The three things you want to know are:

Who are your profitable customers – you may serve many types of customers and can’t afford to just focus on a few profitable ones, but when you are designing how you are going to serve your customers, what channels you are going to use, and where you are going to invest your money, you absolutely need to know which are your most profitable ones because they are the ones you have to love to death, they are your potential fans.

What do they value – to make them fans you need to have level of insight around what your most profitable customers value so that you can make a proposition to meet their needs.

How are their needs changing – make sure you are ahead of the curve by knowing how their needs are changing.


2. Brand promise

Once you are clear about who your profitable customers are and what they value and what you can do differently, then you need to be really clear about what your stand for, what your propositions are and what your promise is. What does your brand stand for, what can you promise and how will this differentiate you?


3. Design the customer experience

You then have to deliver the promise. So how do you deliver the promise and where do you over-index? During the recessionary period executives all around the world were having the same conversation: "Revenues are down and sales are down so we need to cut costs, so let’s take 10% out of everybody’s budget." When execs say that, it demonstrates that they have no conception about where value is created for their customers, says Smith.

"The fact is there are certain touchpoints where you deliver maximum value to your customers, where they really derive value from you. And there are others where they don’t care. And you need to over-index to protect those areas that create the value and take away from those that don’t. "


4. Drive organizational behavior

Having identified the proposition, the promise, and having designed the experience, we then need to drive it through the organization. And that is the hard bit.

Getting your people and your processes and your technology to support and enable the experience is very difficult because all of these things just tend to get in the way and what we need to do is make them enablers. From Convergys research we know that when you call into the contact centre for instance that having knowledgeable and responsive employees is in the top three things that customers value. Your people are your brand.

The majority of contact centres are still run as cost centres instead of strategic business units. Traditionally call centres were cost-focused and providing customer support at low price points. For those organizations that are price leaders and are competing primarily on the basis of a low price model, having contact centres like that is fine because you need to strip the costs out of your business. But if your business model and the way you’re trying to compete is not on the basis of low price then this is a dumb way to run a contact centre because all you are doing is creating an experience which is more cost-driven and not customer-driven.


5. External communications

Customers are increasingly looking for us to interact over various channels. Recent Convergys research, for instance, demonstrates that text is emerging, with the millennials being very likely to use text – 55% would use it if it is reliable. There are also apps, and with the iPad this is an area that is really going to grow as apps become more important.

The younger generation are more likely to want to use channels such as text, SMS and apps so we are going to see that growth increasingly rising in subsequent years.

But the important thing to remember is that it is horses for courses, says Smith. "There are times when I want to be able to speak to someone in the call centres because she can help me. There are times when I want my bank balance and when all I want to do it text and get it right away. There are times when I want money and so I’ll go to the ATM machine. So the experience we have depends on the channel we want to use. So we shouldn’t stereotype and assume that all the boomers want to talk to people and all the millennials want apps. It depends on the purpose that you have. And if you have a problem there is no substitute to talking to a real purpose."

The question of credibility will also become more important than ever before when it comes to communications. What can your organisation claim credibly? “I think we’re going to see a shift from expectation marketing to experiential marketing. Expectation marketing is traditional above-the-line marketing – ‘use us’, ‘buy us’. What is the point of making claims in advertising which are clearly incredible. We are seeing a big backlash against marketing claims. We are seeing movement towards experience marketing.”

Experience marketing is when we believe other consumers - when people go onto TripAdvisor to check out a hotel for instance. Increasingly we pay more attention to what other consumers have to say that what marketers say.

Being a big company or being around a long time is no longer so important to customers. Yet much of traditional marketing still focuses on telling customers that the company is big, has been around a long time and is everywhere. But what the customers really want to know is why they should trust you. According to research by Grey Worldwide, millennials are 31% more likely than baby boomers to rank “is a company or brand I can trust” as a top five customer service attribute. Trust is becoming an increasingly big deal.

You need to be able to deliver on that trust by responding, Smith says. According to Convergys research, 85% of customers that have had a bad experience will tell friendly or colleagues. And when customers choose to use social media the damage can be far greater than simply a verbal conversation – as United Airlines found to its detriment when it damaged Dave Carroll’s guitar.

"Word of mouth is an incredibly powerful weapon – for you and against you. And unless you’re managing it you are going to have problems. That is why we are going to see a shift from traditional expectation marketing to experiential marketing," says Smith.


Ultimately, Smith believes these steps could prove crucial for organizations if they are to respond to the shift to the experience economy - and turn your customers into fans.

"In real terms, this would wipe out any of the impact of the recession, because this kind of shift is way bigger than any decline we’ve seen," he concludes. "Yes the size of the cake is smaller, but your slice of the cake can be a lot bigger, and the reason you get a bigger slice of the cake is by taking it from your competitors - and the way you do that is by creating an emotional bond with your customers."

Plain Talk About the State of Customer Service and Why the Voice of the Customer is Key

I read this interview on ContactCenterWorld.com with Sue Warner, Call Center Manager at Southampton Solent University. It is about the state of customer service in this day and age and who provides good and bad service in the different industry sectors. I liked it because here is one professional who expressess the state of the nation in a nicely succint fashion and touches on What Matters.


In your opinion, do you believe the customer service you get today from other companies is better or worse than it was say 5 years ago?
About the same and very variable. Some companies and organisations have realised the importance of Voice of The Customer and using customer focused measures such as First Time Resolution and SPOC, whilst others seem focused on cost savings and practices and applications which drive inflexibility and failure demand.

Do you believe there is a correlation between the service you receive as a consumer and your loyalty to the supplier?
Yes. Absolutely. If I feel that a business is focussed on my needs and is trying to improve I will stick with it, whereas those who pay lip service to customer focus and are driven purely by internal measures which compromise my experience will soon be ex-suppliers to me.

In your opinion, which industry sectors provide great service and which ones are poor?
Please do not name individual companies just sectors.I believe service is highly variable across most sectors and it is this variation which reflects most people's experiences.

Talking about bad experiences, where do companies go wrong with the service they provide?
There are too many reasons given to "justify" why call centre operatives can't deal with a particular query. Lack of interest in my needs is displayed in favour of internal "operational" considerations. Lack of customer focus. Inefficient transactions. Long transaction times, delays and inflexibility. In short, focussing on the WRONG things.

Have you noticed any differences in service from people from different cultures?
Indian call centre agents are extremely polite (sometimes phrases used are positively arcane). They do seem to want to do the right things even if this isnt always possible. Very deferential though.

If you had to give just 1 tip regarding the use of technology in relation to improving customer service, what would your tip be?
Build the technology around customer needs (current and anticipated) VOC comes BEFORE technological solutions. (Why should a customer care about technology unless it is delivering better service?)

If you had to give just 1 tip regarding staff in relation to improving customer service, what would your tip be?
People are generally more capable than managers give them credit for and enjoy being involved in solutions. Treat them as you would wish them to treat your customers and involve them in improvement. They usually know what needs fixing and just need the tools and methodologies to help them.

If you had to give just 1 tip regarding business processes in relation to improving customer service, what would your tip be?
People are only 4% of the solution. Before focusing on monitoring, training etc, do the real work of finding out "how the work works" Focus first on failure demand and the causes of it, then move on from there. Fixing highly inefficient service processes can be relatively simple and fun if approached in the right way.

In your opinion, how should contact centers measure the level of service they give?
Voice of the Customer is key. Identify those things which are CRITICAL TO QUALITY for your customers and build a "vital few" KPIs around those. Measures such as first time resolution and single point of contact may well be far more important than "Average Talk Time" etc. Align process performance to meet with key organisational goals and build rewards and recognition systems around these.

And the winners for customer experience driven loyalty are....

Satmetrix Releases 2010 Annual Net Promoter Benchmarks for Customer Loyalty

Reports Highlight Customer Experience Rankings in Insurance, Financial Services, Airlines, Telecommunications, Technology, Retail and Online Services


Mar 17, 2010 -- Satmetrix, the Net Promoter(R) company and leader in customer experience programs, today released its 2010 Net Promoter Industry Benchmarks for the insurance, financial services, airlines, telecommunications, technology, retail and online services industries.

Leaders included well-known brands such as USAA, Charles Schwab, JetBlue, Verizon Wireless, Apple, Trader Joe's, Costco and Amazon.com.

The rankings are based on survey responses from more than 19,500 U.S. consumers nationwide who had purchased products or services from each company within the previous 12 months.

A company's Net Promoter Score, or NPS(R), is based on customers' likelihood to recommend the company's product or service. NPS is calculated as the percentage of customers who are Promoters, rating the company 9 or 10 on a zero-to-ten point scale, minus the percentage who are Detractors, rating 6 or lower. Consumers also rated each company on various aspects of customer experience including product or service features, customer service and overall value, allowing Satmetrix to analyze drivers of loyalty and performance gaps for each company.

"A company's ability to deliver a superior customer experience relative to its industry peers is a critical indicator of customer retention and new customer acquisition through positive word of mouth," said John Abraham, general manager of Net Promoter programs at Satmetrix. "These benchmarks allow companies to see how consumers rate them relative to their competitors when it comes to customer loyalty."

The study encompassed 17 specific competitive sectors across seven industries. Highlights for each industry include:
Insurance: A significant contrast appeared between property and casualty insurers and companies offering life and health insurance. Scores in life and health were lower, particularly in the health insurance sector. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois was the only health insurance company profiled with a positive NPS, scoring 5% in a sector with an average of negative 13%. CIGNA ranked last among major health insurers with an NPS of negative 28%. State Farm led the life insurance category with an NPS of 34%, more than 22 points higher than runner up New York Life, while USAA dominated the auto insurance sector at 78%, more than 37 points ahead of runner-up GEICO. In homeowners insurance, USAA scored 69%, well above Travelers, which came up last at 3%.

Financial Services: Brokerage and investment institutions saw a significant increase in NPS over the previous year, signaling a recovery in customer trust since the 2008 market crisis. Overall, the sector achieved an average NPS of 29%, up more than 20 points since last year. Charles Schwab held its ground as the sector leader with an NPS of 46%. Although the credit card sector fared poorly overall, American Express and Discover maintained their strong performance year on year, outperforming sector laggard Bank of America by more than 36 points. USAA, a non-traditional player in the banking sector, stood out as the leader with an NPS of 81%, placing it 40 points ahead of runner-up BB&T. Citigroup was the only bank profiled with more Detractors than Promoters, earning an NPS of negative 9%.

Airlines: JetBlue and Southwest were clear frontrunners in the airline industry, scoring more than 40 points above the industry average. JetBlue Promoters referenced the in-flight experience, extra legroom, quality snacks and television, while Southwest Promoters praised the airline for its friendly service and for not charging baggage fees. U.S. Airways trailed the segment at negative 16%.

Telecommunications: Verizon Wireless led the cellular phone service sector again this year with a score of 41%, while AT&T dropped to the bottom of the sector with a score of 9%, in a statistical dead heat with last year's laggard, Sprint (10%). Time Warner Cable's Road Runner High Speed Online led the Internet service provider category with a score of 21% in an industry whose average NPS was a mere 4%. DIRECTV led in the satellite and cable TV category with an NPS of 27%.

Technology: Apple, with an NPS of 78%, continues to be the top performer in the computer hardware sector. In the consumer software sector, Adobe Systems (37%), Intuit (36%), and Symantec (36%) were the frontrunners, with security software provider Symantec recording the most significant increase between 2007 and 2009.

Retail: The grocery/supermarket retail sector achieved the second highest average NPS of all industries examined in the reports, with Trader Joe's and Wegmans leading the way at 69% and 67%, respectively. Big box membership clubs Costco (66%) and Sam's Club (61%) led the department/ wholesale/specialty sector, followed by Target and Lowe's.

Online Services: Amazon.com and eBay led the online shopping sector with NPS of 71% and 65%, respectively, followed by Barnes & Noble's bn.com at 59%. In the online search and information category, Facebook scored 65%, moving into a leading position alongside Google at 63%.

"We continue to see the impact that the customer experience has on loyalty and business growth," said Deborah Eastman, CMO at Satmetrix. "Best-in-class companies are those that put in the processes to continuously listen to, learn from, and take immediate action on what their customers tell them about their performance."

Managers essential to excellent customer service and experience management

Reference is often made to the People – Service – Profit chain, to point out that success in achieving excellence in customer service and customer experience management begins and ends with People management.

Middle managers are an essential organization ingredient to make this happen. Yet, so many companies, especially the (often technology based) fast growing ones frequently promote relatively young people based on technical competence. The balance between the competence to "managing things" and "lead people" is often uneven.

Leadership expert Jim Clemmer in a recent Leadership Letter (worth subscribing to) points out these key challenges facing newly appointed managers:

Knowing Thyself - It's natural for new managers' egos to become a bit inflated. After all, it's a big deal to get promoted. But it's important after coming down from that "high" to ask yourself "is this what I really want and does it fit my strengths and passions?" Too many managers accept a promotion because there may be more money, or they covet more power. Taking a hard look in the managerial mirror would result in many more happy offices.

Servant Leadership - Highly effective managers serve and support the people on their team. Too many new managers see their role as command and control.

Navigating Change - It's easy to be pulled "below the line" and feel victimized by major changes in an organization. Strong leaders make people hopeful. They help their teams navigate through tough times. It is the leader's mood that most impacts the team.

Coaching and Developing - I agree with Peter Drucker; the central role of a manager is developing people. This is where a new manager may have a real challenge because his or her natural strengths may be to do work and handle problems. Making the transition from solving problems to making sure people have the skills to solve problems is a big change.

Tame the E-mail Beast - Technical tools are great for informing, staying in touch, and operational management. But we don't lead through e-mail. Most people are overwhelmed with data, analysis, and the sheer volume of daily e-mails. New managers must counterbalance IT tools with verbal communications.

Deal with the Moose-on-the-Table - It's often easier to avoid tough conversations or touchy topics. That's like ignoring a moose standing in the middle of the meeting room table. Everyone knows it's there and is annoyed by it. It takes courageous leadership to initiate those difficult conversations or to hear the team point out that leadership behaviors are doing more harm than good.

Upward Leadership - Many new managers think their main role is leading people on their team and perhaps influencing peers. But strong managers also work hard to lead their own boss or influence the bigger organization. They refuse to be victims of weak direction from above.

A Best Practices Driven New Customer Bill Of Rights

Organizations striving for excellence in customer satisfaction and loyalty now have a template to follow with today’s announcement by Omega Management Group Corp. of a groundbreaking new Customer Bill of Rights -- the first benchmark standard for the global services industry. Omega is a recognized expert in customer experience management strategies.

The new Customer Bill of Rights comprises 10 articles that define best practices for organizations to use when interacting with customers and employees:

1. Deliver Quality Products and Services
2. Provide a Supportive Workplace Environment
3. Reward Employees for Customer Service Excellence
4. Appoint a Senior Customer Advocate
5. Measure Levels of Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty
6. Report on Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty
7. Take Corrective Action where Needed
8. Benchmark Performance within the Industry
9. Seek Independent Audit of Customer Service Processes
10. Conduct Annual Review of Customer Service Processes

The Customer Bill of Rights is the result of research and analysis of global best practices in business-to-business (B2B) customer service and support operations conducted this year through a web survey of members of Omega’s new View from the Top (VFT-500) Research Panel-500SM program. Announced in October 2007, the VFT-500 program consists of VP-level executives in customer-facing positions and/or chief customer advocates at 500 leading global companies, and is devoted to the continuous improvement of the global customer service industry.

Omega’s Center for Loyalty Research conducted the survey -- the first ever based on customer responses exclusively -- and analyzed and reported the results. The survey examined best practices in virtually all customer-facing operations and methods of customer interaction. Companies sponsoring the initial VFT-500 research are Customer Relationship Management Institute; Anthony & Alexander Group, LLC; GoldMine TeleServices Group and ProSearch Services Group. Sponsorship includes contributing to the research process and/or providing other services to the VFT-500 program.