5 Most Popular Customer Experience Blog Posts of 2017

The year is almost over, and I’m sure many of you are setting goals for 2018 if you haven’t done so already. As we all take the time to think about improving strategies for focusing on customer-driven growth, join me as we revisit 5 of my most popular blog posts of the year.

If you’re ever in need of a bit of inspiration or guidance for your customer experience implementation, this is the content you can come back to time after time.

I thank you for taking the time to read my posts, and I look forward to creating even more great content for you next year!

1. Customer Experience Labs: Your Strategic Weapon

Having a customer experience room/lab is an integral part of understanding the customer experience. It’s one of the most direct ways for a company to see first-hand what their customers go through to interact with them. This process engages both the customer and the organization’s leaders, allowing them to unify their decision-making skills and create an accountability forum.
Having a customer experience room/lab is an integral part of understanding the customer experience. It's one of the most direct ways for a company to see first-hand what their customers go through to interact with them. Share on X

2. What will CX Look Like in 2017?

Chatbots, geofencing, improved goal alignment, and omnichannel CX were hot topics for 2017, and I must say, it looks like these will continue to be a growing interest in 2018—especially chatbots. The implementation of chatbots will increase as more companies leverage them in social media as a way to communicate with customers. Chatbots be are a great example of how automation may ultimately benefit us, freeing us up to do more strategic work as the tedious aspects of our jobs are automated. Look out for my 2018 predictions soon!
The implementation of chatbots will continue to increase as more companies leverage them in social media as a way to communicate with customers. Share on X

3. Customer Experience Examples – 8 relevant ones

I enjoyed this post because I shared insights from previous guests on my podcast, The Chief Customer Officer Human Duct Tape Show. Implementing a new customer experience strategy isn’t easy and there’s a lot to learn along the way. A critical insight that I think is sometimes overlooked as we work to drive customer-focused growth is that sometimes, problems arise for an organization because its product or service actually isn’t really liked by the customers. As Jim Pendergrast of AARP and I discussed, this can be one of the hardest conversations to have during your transformation – because often, people derive a good deal of self-worth/pride from work, and addressing this type of criticism is a sensitive issue. Read the post to learn more.
Implementing a new customer experience strategy isn't easy and there's a lot to learn along the way. Share on X

4. Is Your Customer Service Department a Factory of Sadness?

A guest post by Matt Dixon, author of the book, The Effortless Experience, Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty, Matt addresses the topic of customer dissatisfaction. He notes that in this day and age, customers would rather do things on their own, and according to their own timeframe. For example, 81 percent of customers today will use self-service channels first before reaching out to a company to speak to a customer service rep live. Having spent nearly a decade studying the trend of the decrease in customer satisfaction, Matt shares four key things that companies can do to escape becoming a “factory of sadness.”
81 percent of customers today will use self-service channels first before reaching out to a company to speak to a customer service rep live. via @matthewxdixon Share on X

5. How Does a Customer-Focused CEO Make Decisions?

In this post, I share 5 decision making styles that great CEOs possess. Since CEOs are often the major decision-maker within an organization (and the person who will need to buy-in to a CX implementation) it’s important to understand their various decision-making styles. Effective CEOs decide with a clarity of purpose, they unite the organization, and they’re unafraid of swimming against the current. Ultimately, if you lead from a place where the customer’s benefit is your chief goal—and all decision-making and priority alignment flows from that—you will be successful as a customer-focused CEO.

P.S: If you’re looking for more great reads and industry news, be sure to also follow me on Twitter @JeanneBliss. Have a Happy New Year!