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Articles by Stephanie Thum
CX Ignored: Unraveling the Unwritten Rules of Customer Sludge
There are a few well-known but unwritten beacons in customer experience. Here’s one: Example: Setting up an easy, one-click way for customers to subscribe to your services online. Then, to cancel the same subscription, customers are forced to call a contact center where representatives have been trained to do anything but immediately process the cancellation request. It seems like it should be the exception rather than the rule.
Customer fury, narcissism, and digital vigilantism: 5 studies on the stormy side of CX
Most of us would prefer to love our customers, but unfortunately, the feeling isn’t always mutual. Customers can be unruly. They can hate your brand, openly or privately. With a single swipe on a smartphone, they can ignite social media firestorms. The risk only grows in complexity when employees can get burned out and lose faith in your brand, as well. Understanding why is a solid step toward getting in front of the problems.
Book review: Why the most important customer experience book this year is a book about sludge.
When you make customers jump through hoops, negative things are bound to happen. One of those negative things is customers eventually stop jumping. When that happens, it shouldn’t be any big surprise. That is the main point of Cass Sunstein’s book, Sludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do About It. The book rarely mentions the word “customer.” But make no mistake.
Tips, Tools, and Tech for Better CX in 2022: Ten Leaders Weigh In
Show of hands. Who’s setting business priorities for 2022? How the world understands customer and employee experience has evolved this year. Stakeholder expectations have evolved. Customer experience practices are more widespread. Technology options have become more plentiful. It’s true the landscape has changed. Given the range of possibilities, how can you make the best decisions for 2022?
Customer Apologies, Language, and Sludge: 3 New Scholarly Research Articles for Your CX Reading List
Podcasts, blogs, reports, and books are great for staying sharp on the fundamentals and trends in customer experience management (CX). On the same token, peer-reviewed, scholarly research can really pack a punch when you’re building your professional credibility. Scholarly literature on CX topics continues to grow. You won't always see the words “customer experience” in the journal article titles.
Customer Trust-Building 101: Close the Loop!
Collecting customer feedback has become a mainstay for companies that want to reap the benefits of customer-centricity. There are now more ways and more tools to collect customer feedback than ever before! But one of the biggest mistakes many organizations make is assuming that customers should just know—without the benefit of your communication—what you are doing with their feedback. Feedback can be rich with ideas for: Business development. Managing business and operational risk.
7 things that haven’t changed about customer experience.
Sometimes it seems like everything has changed in the world of customer experience. But some things will never go out of style. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, customer behavior and expectations changed almost immediately. Teams of employees that once worked together in the office every day became virtual teams. Business models shifted. Digital transformation work went into overdrive. But for everything that has changed lately, it is also true that some things have not changed.
6 Ways Tech Will Enable the Post-COVID Airport Customer Experience
Gene Sutch knows not everyone who took a travel hiatus during the pandemic is ready to get back to flying. “But we’re here for customers when you are ready, and we’ve made it better than ever,” he says. Gene is Director of Revenue Strategy & Analysis at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). His territory includes Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport in the Washington, D.C. area.
Decoding Government Customer Experience Acronyms: A New Guide for Practitioners and Consultants
Hello, friends and colleagues! Here's some news about one of my recent projects! Dictionary of U.S. Federal Government Terms, Phrases, and Acronyms: A Guide for Practitioners and Consultants, is now available on Amazon.com! I decided to write this book because I’ve been asked more times than I can remember to explain the acronyms, laws, policies, and driving forces behind the growth of customer experience in the U.S. federal government. I love being asked.
Online customer reviews: 4 things marketers need to know
Online customer reviews have exploded with the recent surge in e-commerce. Marketers need to understand how to make the most of them. We’re learning that they’re about far more than just words on a screen. Last year at the onset of COVID-19, customers moved into isolation and started shopping online, more frequently, from home. Almost overnight, the number of written product reviews on Amazon.com—where millions of people shop online—more than doubled.
How Red Tape Ruins Citizen Experience Management
When Wendy Beban and her team got the chance to slash some red tape for the citizens and employees of Auckland, New Zealand, they charged at the problem like champs. They knew improving citizen experience management required breaking down bureaucratic barriers.
Do CX Professionals Need New Leadership Skills Now?
By Stephanie Thum, CCXP There are two big things that we know to be true about the world of customer experience right now. First, things are changing fast. So much of what we've grown up with is becoming “the old way” of doing things. Second, the demands on customer experience leaders have never been more complex. There’s never been more pressure to lead remote teams and transform customer-focused systems quickly. And that got me thinking.
Customer Experience
Show of hands, who’s ready for a CX recharge? (Really, though. As this year comes to a close, who doesn’t need a recharge?) What will customer experience in 2021 look like? What are the priorities that make sense for your business? There are more options than ever for companies that want to kick it up a notch in 2021. What could that look like?
2021 CX retail trends: How to defy the decline of brick-and-mortar
When discussing 2021 CX retail trends, news headlines like these send a shot to the heart of us Gen-X mallrats: Brookstone to close mall stores, focus on e-commerce business Zara is closing stores, will focus on online business As a teenager, I, like many others, loved hanging out with my friends at the mall on the weekends. But there can be no denying it: Customer shopping preferences have changed. The tempo of change has only increased with COVID-19.
CX lessons: 5 pep talks for navigating resistance to change
Great customer experiences don’t just happen. They’re deliberately designed. But even the smartest, most business-savvy deliberate designs usually require navigating resistance to change from colleagues and co-workers. That’s because those deliberate designs require colleagues and co-workers to change something about how they work or think. Throughout my CX career, I’ve met hundreds of fabulous customer experience professionals.
5 Pep Talks for Navigating Resistance to Change
Great customer experiences don’t just happen. They’re deliberately designed. But even the smartest, most business-savvy deliberate designs usually require navigating resistance to change from colleagues and co-workers. That’s because those deliberate designs require colleagues and co-workers to change something about how they work or think. Throughout my CX career, I’ve met hundreds of fabulous customer experience professionals.
3 Ideas Industry Can Take From The Government Customer Experience
Customer experience (CX) isn’t just a “thing” that happens. As companies in the private sector are realizing, it’s about what you do in your business every day. But how about in government? Guess what? The same is still true. One big lesson I learned during four years as the CX leader for a U.S. federal government agency (before anyone really heard of customer experience) is there’s a business side to running every government agency that mirrors the for-profit world.
Want to improve customer experience? Start with content
Communication is fundamental to customer experience. In fact, I’d even say a good customer experience is probably also a great communication experience. Yet, communication is where too many companies keep losing opportunities with customers – they don’t recognize that content improves CX. That’s because communication — especially the content created to convey how you solve customers’ problems — really isn’t that simple.
What businesses need to do
Mind-blowing. Eyebrow-raising. Staggering. No matter which word you use to describe it, there have been some remarkable COVID-19 e-commerce stats coming out recently in connection to the pandemic. For example, some traditional brick-and-mortar retailers saw online orders go up by 42% in the U.S. and Canada in just a couple of weeks alone, according to this article.
5 Lessons From Experts
Crises aren’t anything new in business, but as we’ve moved to a more empathetic and customer-centric way of life, important questions are brought to life in the current business landscape: What are the guideposts contact center pros should follow in leading their organizations through times of intense difficulty?
Two Sides to Every CX Story
What’s X O data? Perhaps the best way to explain it is to first think of the saying, “There are two sides to every story.” In today’s data-driven business world, when it’s more important than ever to understand and respond to customers, that quote is more relevant than ever. X + O Data: Defining the two sides In customer experience, those two “sides” of the customer’s story are represented by operational data (O-data) and experience data (X-data).
Wait and See: Four Ways To Keep The Customer Experience Going When Uncertainty Looms
Part 4 of the “2020 Strategies and Insights for Midsize Companies” series “Wait and see.” That phrase can be like a huge, red stop light for businesses of all sizes when uncertainty looms.
Four conversations customer experience leaders aren't having, but should be.
Image courtesy of patrisyu at FreeDigitalPhotos.net. Published on October 15, 2017October 15, 2017 • 26 Likes • 5 Comments Stephanie Thum, CCXPFollow Founding Principal at Practical CX Most credentialed customer experience (CX) professionals know the foundational competencies that guide the work we do: strategy, experience design, employee engagement, metrics, and voice of the customer, for example.
How Pizza and the Supreme Court Are Changing the Customer Experience and Inclusiveness Conversation
Published on October 8, 2019October 8, 2019 • 8 Likes • 0 Comments Stephanie Thum, CCXPFollow Founding Principal at Practical CX Over the past few years, we’ve seen stories in the press, both positive and negative, surrounding how organizations plan for and manage the online and in-store experiences of customers with disabilities. You have the positive examples.
The CEO’s Guide To CX: Six Practical Tips For Getting Started
By now, almost every CEO has heard the phrase “customer experience.” Some CEOs may have considered adding a chief experience officer (CXO) to their leadership ranks. It makes sense for CEOs to have customer experience management on their minds. After all, it is the CEO’s responsibility to advocate for modern business practices that attract customers and profits. But customer experience management is a newer management discipline.
Hyperconnectivity
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Military retention rates are falling, but there’s a way to save them
Military retention rates have been steadily declining, but there’s a hero on the horizon. Imagine this: A senior pilot with years of experience and training under their belt is currently serving a six-month tour of duty in a far-away country. They just talked to their spouse and kids via Skype. Their partner says that the family is burned from the military lifestyle. They’re done and want a “normal” civilian life in a “normal” environment.
Five Ways "X Data" Fuels The Intelligent Enterprise
Part 4 of the series “Winning In The Experience Economy“ Some people love numbers. They love ratios, percentages, scores, ratings, targets, charts, and spreadsheets. Operational data (“O” data) and customer experience data (“X” data) – that’s totally their jam. But there are others who simply don’t like data or the story told by the data. And in the case of X data, some still cling to long-held lore about why, what, when, where, or even if those measurements matter.
Integrated systems for growing businesses: What does CX have to do with it?
One of the first significant investments growing companies make is in business management systems. The objective may be to become more efficient, add transparency, automate some processes, and stop relying on ledgers and Excel spreadsheets to support the business. But how and where do you start thinking about integrated systems? How should a transformation unfold? What are the risks and pitfalls to avoid in a typical business transformation?
4 Steps to Keep Customers & Employees Happy During Times of Change
Change is inevitable in business. New rules, regulations, product features, prices, procedures, policies, personnel, and customer portals, for example, happen all the time. Most of the time, change isn’t easy—and when customers experience change in the way of higher prices, confusion, and red tape, their perception of and overall experience with your company can waver.
What Digital Government CX Pros Should Know About the Connected Government Act
Just before Christmas, the Connected Government Act (known as H.R.2331 in the House and S.1769 in the Senate) passed both chambers of Congress and now heads to the president’s desk for signature. The Connected Government Act may be considered a win for improving the experience of citizens who need to access government information via mobile device. However, Congress still has a lot of work to do in clearing bigger hurdles that stand in the way of improving end-to-end digital citizen experiences.
This Customer Experience Bill Is Building Momentum.
Stephanie Thum, CCXP, is the former vice president of customer experience at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. She is currently practice director, customer experience and analytics, at Capitol Management Consulting Services. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniethum.
The Core Federal Services Council is Gone. Now What?
Stephanie Thum, CCXP, is the former vice president of customer experience at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. She is currently practice director, customer experience and analytics at Capitol Management Consulting Services.
Federal Agency Customer Experience Act of 2017
If you're a customer experience pro working in or with the federal government, there is much to like about the bipartisan Federal Agency Customer Experience Act of 2017 (S. 1088) introduced May 10, 2017 in the Senate. The bill's purpose is to roll back rules and long processes that make it difficult for government agencies to collect timely feedback from customers. Frank Konkel's recent piece in NextGov is a great primer.
United's Hot Mess: The Customer Experience Truth Government Must Now Face
Stephanie Thum, CCXP, is the former vice president of customer experience at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. She is currently practice director, customer experience and analytics at Capitol Management Consulting Services. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniethum If ever there was a time for government agencies to think hard about hiring a chief customer officer, now this is that time.
5 Lessons From a Former Agency Customer Experience Leader
Stephanie Thum is the former vice president of customer experience at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. She is currently practice director, customer experience and analytics, at Capitol Management Consulting Services. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniethum. "I understand what you did, but how did you do that?" I hear this question occasionally when people ask about my past life as the head of customer experience for a federal government agency.
How the Trump Administration Could Advance Customer Service
Last November, the Government Accountability Office issued its proposed management agenda for the next presidential administration. For those who have been working for the past four years to make government services more citizen-centric, there’s a tremendous opportunity to advance the customer agenda within government and take it to a higher level.
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