Do you know how to really listen to customers? There are many avenues to do so. During the month of October, the Customer Experience Investigators at 360Connext explored the best ways to not just listen, but really hear, your customers.

1. Customer
Centric
Listening
October 2013

2. Listening, really listening, is hard. What’s
more, the ones who need to be heard
often don’t speak directly to you or
about you. Let’s learn how to listen with
the right tools and customer centric
ears. Sometimes what you really need to
hear is but a whisper from some far-off
place.
It’s all about knowing why it’s so important to listen.

3. Click to Read
Listening is a key part of not just setting up a
customer centric strategy but also keeping ahead of
your competition. But listening, in all its deceptive
simplicity, is hard. Here are just a few of the many
challenges to listening with customer centric ears.

4. Click to Read
Is your business a gas-guzzling machine? Special
guest blogger and serial entrepreneur Merlin U
Ward explains how to keep your marketing engine
running efficiently by using smart context. Find out
why you are missing out if you are aiming for the
majority in your copy.

5. Click to Read
I once heard a business owner say that once she
stopped worrying about her competition, she was
able to better focus on her business. While I
appreciate the thought, I worry about the future.
Here are five reasons never to turn your back on
your competitors.

6. Click to Read
When your business scales your connection to your
staff can dwindle. You’re a star! But as you become a
workplace enigma their feedback can get clouded
and candy-coated. Here are 3 things that discourage
honest feedback along with 6 ways a rock star boss
can stay connected.

7. Click to Read
Early warning signals have helped us avoid damaging
natural disasters or workplace catastrophes, so why
not use the ones available to us for avoiding
customer experience disasters? Here are some ways
you can prepare for and prevent disaster before it
comes dangerously close to shore.

8. Click to Read
A lot of social “listening” is related to brand
mentions. But think of all the other ways you could
listen to understand your customers, not just
respond to them. There are huge opportunities in
social media to really listen to understand your
customers and their expectations.

9. Click to Read
A bad interaction could haunt your brand. You might
want to consider mystery trick & treating (going
undercover) to discover how your employees
actually interact with your customers. Here are 4
customer service creepy-crawlies to look out for!

10. Click to Read
When a customer mentions something, it’s easy to
nod and smile and then move on. But listening – and
then responding – to customer feedback is a vital
part of improving the customer experience. Here are
5 great ways to do so.

11. Click to Read
If you sell anything to anyone, you would do yourself
a world of good by enlisting mystery shoppers into
your customer insights mix. But I have a specific
beef with the standard way mystery shopping works.
Let’s talk about what it is vs. what it should be.

12. Click to Read
The average retail customer journey involves little
face-to-face contact and often only occurs at the
checkout. But when that part of the experience is on
a suggestive selling conveyor belt, the chance to
connect is trumped by a quick sales opp.

13. Click to Read
What customers, or people in general expect from
you sets the stage for how they will react
emotionally to the experience you actually deliver.
It’s time to go above and beyond to exceed the
expectations set, but we need to understand these
basic rules before we can do that.

14. Click to Read
What happens when there is too much emphasis on
the stockholder and not enough emphasis on
customers? Let’s take a look at what happened after
this successful retailer adopted the losing strategy of
prioritizing stockholders over customers.

15. Click to Read
Do you know what a FUSER is? I didn’t, either. When
tech people design the error messages we receive at
crucial moments, it can be terrifying! I give you our
Microinteraction of the Month along with a link to
some other machines that had some hair-raising
things to say.

16. Don’t let the “micro” part fool you- microinteractions often have a huge
impact on the customer experience. That is why we just can’t get enough of
‘em! So get social with us. Send us yours and maybe it will be featured next
month!
(You gotta click for a closer look!)

17. Thanks for joining us as we explored ways to listen with customer centric
ears all month. Have something to say? You’ve already found us, and we’re
all about listening here at 360Connext. Give us a holler!
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