Extreme opinions A few decades ago, it was probably safe to say that the majority of the population was pretty nuanced in their opinion. Today, this distribution curve has been turned upside down. The recent abundance of dis- and misinformation and fake news, combined with the filter bubbles created by social media as well as the hardship of these difficult economic and political times is deeply changing the way we are thinking and communicating with each other. The result is that the number of people with extreme opinions now seems to dominate the discourse. In fact, a recent study in the US ..read more

Two ways to react to the same type of situation I want to illustrate with two incidents in everyone’s “favorite” places in international travel, which can really teach people a lot about customer experience and empathy: customs and security. A couple of months ago, I found myself in a German airport, having flown in from Thailand and on my way to a connecting flight to home. However, my incoming flight was late, and when I got off the plane, boarding had already started. Being in such a rush, I asked the security guard – I think very politely – if he could help me to move through security in a ..read more

Shep Hyken’s Customer Service Blog Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations, Forbes contributor and a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. On his blog, he writes excellent pieces about customer service, customer loyalty, internal service, customer relations and customer experience. Check it here. Seth’s blog All-round customer experience guru Seth Godin is one of the best speakers and thinkers in all things marketing and customer. His renowned blog is a must-follow for anyone focused on putting customers ..read more

TikTok: What’s Next 2023 Trend Report The TikTok What’s Next Report 2023 is designed to help marketers understand how consumers’ wants and needs will change in the upcoming year and what that will mean for their strategies, both on and off of TikTok. Its findings are consolidated into three major trend forces: Actionable Entertainment Making Space for Joy (my favorite for obvious reasons) Community-Built Ideals Check the report here. Ogilvy: Influence Trends You Should Care About 2023 From 2016-2022, the size of influencer marketing, taken at a global scale, increased from $1.7BN to $16.4BN ..read more

It’s Amara’s law In cases like these, I always have to think about Roy Charles Amara who was the president of the Institute for the Future and who coined Amara’s law on the effect of technology in 2006: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run”. This effect is perhaps not exactly new, but it does clearly explain why hitting that 90% rate happens pretty fast (well, you know, considering…), while it takes a very long time to overcome the last 10% to hit the real 100% target. I like to compare that to charging an electric ve ..read more

Positivity with impact When it’s clouded, people long for a blue sky and a bright sun. That goes for your customers, too. Yes, companies are facing hard times, but it is not up to your customers to care and forgive you for any suboptimal CX experience. To be blunt, it is certainly not their problem that you had to cut costs because your energy bill is 10 times as high as last year’s. Their energy bill is 10 times as high too. You are not unique in that matter. In fact, I really believe that it is up to you to help them feel better. That will be a Big differentiator in these coming months and y ..read more

Have a dedicated customer (di)vision A lot of B2B companies are still very product or service driven. They think inside out: “what could be the best features?” or “how can our services be more efficient?”. They lack the outside-in reflex that characterizes the most successful B2C companies. If you, as a B2B company, want to offer a better customer experience than your competitors, you just need to start with the customer: what are their hopes, dream, fears and needs? How can you help them offer a better service to their customers. One of the most radical ways of shifting your company towards a ..read more

These Summer holidays, my company nexxworks’ team visited Teleperformance’s “Global Esports Arena and Metaverse Center of Excellence” in Lisbon. For the moment, this metaverse-oriented eSports arena may not immediately mean something for Teleperformance’s core business – which is customer acquisition management, customer care, technical support, debt collection, social media services, and other services – but that’s not why they introduced the concept. They launched this center because they want it to have significant impact at the edges: First of all, the studio is meant to familiarize their ..read more

Back to the core A while ago, I was invited to give a keynote for DPG Media in Belgium, which is one of the leading European media companies. They are truly known for their ability to reinvent themselves and their understanding of the possibilities of the digital world. But surprisingly enough, I heard their chairman Christian Van Thillo state the following in one of his talks: “We are not a technology company. We are a media company. In fact, we are a media company that really understands how to use technology to make media better. And what we are above all is a media company with a consumer ..read more

1.    Make it easy to find and contact you I think we can all agree that few things that are more frustrating than very well hidden contact details on a website. Chatbots or FAQ are not always the right answer. 55% of users, in fact, say it takes too many questions for a chatbot to recognize it can’t answer their issue. We all know that sometimes people have questions that are not frequent or standard and just require a 5 minute conversation with a human, be it via phone, chat or even e-mail. These are hard times for customers. Be there when they need you. And make it easy for t ..read more