The best tips for acting on customer feedback, from CX-experts

Guide: How to use conversation analysis to improve customer satisfaction

When working in customer service, it can be difficult to get a full overview of what behaviors contribute to higher customer satisfaction. The conversation analysis software Capturi analyzes more than 15 million customer conversations yearly and turns them into actionable advice. Capturi’s conversation analysis expert, Jacob Opstrup, will walk you through how you can use data to get more value from your customer conversations.

Simple things make a big difference

According to Jacob Opstrup, it can be easy to improve customer experiences when you know what works. “If your department invests in the right tools, you will quickly be able to identify situations where agents can improve their communication with the customers. Both on an individual level and across the department”.

Data from Capturi show that there are several low-hanging fruits that can improve the way companies interact with their customers. For example, you can increase customer satisfaction by as much as 15% by using empathetic phrases. Examples include “I get that” and “I understand that”.

Behavioral changes are difficult

Once you know what to say in customer conversations, you can facilitate behavioral change across departments.

According to Jacob Opstrup, behavioral change is first and foremost about understanding “what good looks like” and getting everyone on the journey: “We experience that data and insights is the strongest lever to align the organization towards the same goals”. He points out that it is important that agents are given the right tools to change their behavior and that behavior change often becomes easier over time when agents see that their work is paying off.

Do you measure the right things, and do you measure it properly?

“We all know it –  On a scale from 0-10 how likely is it that you will recommend our firm or product to a friend or colleague?”, the classic NPS question hunting for measuring and creating loyal customers. We are increasingly being exposed to this question and you could discuss if we have reached a saturation point and if the model becomes devalued or diluted because of this. Therefor I will share my reflections on how you measure the right things and measure it properly. This is how Per Østergaard, lector at CBS and leading expert in CX and digitalization, begins.

Let us assume that NPS is the right measuring tool

Your management paradigm, your mental management cage, will set the scene for how you use NPS. Is it driven by a mindset that reflects self-expression and internal focus that is projected out to the world? The starting point here is that we develop products and services based on internal expertise (Blue paradigm). Here NPS data will be a tool to promote communication and prevalence of your products and services to the customers.

Or are you more focused on the customers’ thoughts and feelings, and do you want insight into the customers’ preferences, needs and motivations? (Red paradigm). In this management paradigm NPS data is used to deliver more meaningful products and services to the customer. The NPS measurement will typically be analyzed and used with other data sources to give the best insight into the customers behavior and thus there is a better foundation for mutual value creation.

Is your mindset to develop innovative ideas with the customers, show trust in their perspectives and invite them on a cooperation and development journey? (Yellow paradigm). Here the NPS measurement will be used to catch up and take advantage of new and visionary inputs and knowledge from the customers. Of course, based on seeing the NPS results in context with other data sources.

Is your approach to the market holistic and empathic, in interaction with the wider society? (Green paradigm). Then NPS will be used to improve and renew sustainability and ethical interaction with all stakeholders. Read more about the different management paradigms here (In Danish).

What if NPS is the wrong tool?

To this Per argues: “In relation to the customer journey and where you are located, could it then be worth a thought to consider if CSAT and/or CES could be better options? And if more of these measurements could supplement each other? I think that you should look at your measurements and customer insights in correlation and set these in relation to the management paradigm and the firm’s strategy.”

What if NPS is used incorrectly?
Per elaborates: “My belief is that NPS is often being used incorrect. You could talk about both abuse and misunderstanding of the concept. Firms by the dozen have destroyed a valuable measurement by making NPS a goal, turning it into a number, without understanding what the basis of the number is! It is contributing to ruin the credibility and the benefit of NPS”.

How can NPS be used correctly?
It is simple Per says. “Look at data in a context with other measurements and information. Look at what influences there are, in relation to the result? How has the interaction been between the customer and the firm? Which channels are being used? Where are the challenges – good or bad experiences between the customer and the firm?”

Concluding Per has described the best advice to get started with measuring NPS today:

• Start with acknowledging your management paradigm – Which mental cage are you in?
• Assess how these fit with the customers’ expectations
• Assess how frequently there should be measured (frequency) and how representative the measurement is (validity)
• How relevant is the measurement? Does it make sense in relation to the balance between insight and dilution?
• Use the measurement actively and proactively in the firm

Closed Loop is the road to high customer loyalty

CX expert and CEO in Cuori, Kent Bredahl, has always had the mission to generate growth through increased customer retention. When you act based on NPS, he says, there is especially one activity which makes a difference.

“My absolute best advice to create actions based on NPS is to start with Closed Loop. This method consists of systematically follow-up on the customers’ answers, and preferably done by phone, as this enables actual dialogue and further questions. Closed Loop is a decisive element for succeeding with getting value from a NPS project. My experience is that Closed Loop is the most efficient and value creating initiative when working with NPS and customer loyalty.

The reason is that it brings the employees and managers closer to the customers. To speak directly with the customers and hear their experience be described through the customers own words, gives a unique understanding, and is stored in both the consciousness and the subconscious. And it automatically starts many thoughts from the person listening, in regards how they can make things better.

Closed Loop is both underestimated and neglected, but for the organization who manages to apply it fully, there are great business opportunities to reap” says Kent concluding.

Ally yourself with relevant departments

The best is to find colleagues from different, relevant areas or departments who can participate in Closed Loop, so it is properly anchored in the company. Customer loyalty does not only live one place within the organization but is created in collaboration between all the organizations’ different departments. Start with creating a list with NPS responses from the last week, where the employees themselves can choose who they wish to contact. Develop a simple interview guide, that the colleagues can use as guidance for a good customer interview.

During a customer interview it is important to remain neutral and curious to what the customer has to say, as it enables you to obtain the customer’s unreserved input. Perhaps it sounds like something even a fool can see, but way too many people do not really listen, but merely wait for their turn to talk, and in such a setting miss valuable information.

The purpose of customer interviews as a follow-up on the NPS, is exclusively to better understand the customer’s experience, so that the sum of inputs can be used to improve or create better experiences. And just as important, to avoid creating bad experiences.

It is bad form to use these types of customer interviews, to sell or bring up dozens of excuses and explanations to the customer. If it is relevant, then you can give the customer a good explanation of what went wrong. When a person receives a proper explanation of wrongdoing, the nerve system will calm itself, because they then can better reconcile with the bad experience. And at least it showed there was a good explanation!” Kent concludes.

Structure is the keyword

In addition, Kent continues: “Make sure you create a structure for Closed Loop, where the notes that your colleagues write down during a customer interview can be stored and connected with the customers original NPS response. That way it becomes available for others in the organization and can be used to assess the customers’ general experiences.

Be prepared that it can be difficult to implement Closed Loop in practice, in an already busy organization. Your colleagues already have a full-time job where the work week is filled up, and now there is another activity you are trying to push in. In relation to this, it is an advantage if you can give them motivation to participate in the Closed Loop and create a mindset that the closed loop is an absolute necessity. You can for example use Kotters 8-step process (in Danish) for change management when preparing Closed Loop.”

Kent elaborates: “Closed Loop can seem like a huge undertaking, but I promise you that it will be worth the effort. Once your colleagues have talked to a handful customers, and gotten used to the customer contact, then the enthusiasm for the great customer experience will spread, and it will be clear what actions you need to take, to make a positive difference for the customers.”

Create a common language

Customer Experience expert Klaus Lund works with the concept “common language”. The intention is to create a connection between the customer experience and the employee’s behavior. If the employee delivers a 10s behavior, it often results in the customer getting a 10s experience. The work with customer understanding is extremely important. It is essential to both understand what creates customers satisfaction, and not merely focus on the background for the unhappy customers. He explains: “Most companies typically have somewhat focus on bringing the number of unhappy customers down, which are the ones who score 0-6 on the NPS survey. It is a given, that that work is important. But it is just as interesting to work with improving customer satisfaction in the high end of the scale, lifting the customers who score 7-8 up to scoring 9-10, and that is where I focus my counselling.”

Customer Experience expert Ian Wisler-Poulsen, when asked for his best tips, emphasizes the same, stating: ”In my experience, there are way too few concrete actions and reflections of the results the company achieves. And said actions are removed from the employees. If we have 3s, 8s or 10s experience, it is important that we figure out what the reasons for the customers assessment are. The employees must know where they hit and where they miss. And it does not need to be every time. It can be a random sample.”

The three behavior categories can be defined as:

• A 3’s behavior = leads to the customer being unhappy and gets a less good experience and scores 0-6
• An 8’s behavior = leads to the customer being satisfied and gets a medium experience and scores 7-8
• A 10’s behavior = leads to the customer being very satisfied and gets the extraordinary experience, scoring 9-10

Klaus and Ian both highlight that something completely decisive for the process, is to involve the employees and create a common language. That ensures the employee will more easily be able to understand what to do and what to avoid. The work with NPS must be present and current. The employees are the firm. Therefore, it is also important that the management ensures that the employees are assigned responsibility so that they can take ownership.

The most important thing is to get the employees be able to see the difference between the behavior that creates an 8s experience and a 10s experience. We see very often that it does not take much effort to lift the customer experience from an 8s to a 10s experience. Therefore, it is essential to define what it takes to create a 10s experience for your customers. And what has made the customer have a 3’s experience.

Anticipate the unhappy customers

Although it is recommended that you put strong focus on lifting the satisfied customers (7-8)) up in the category of very satisfied customers (9-10) , CX expert Klaus Lund explains that it is important that you also have focus on getting input from the dissatisfied customers. Here, with a solution from nps.today, you can, among other things, set up alarms that are connected to your existing IT system, which thus alerts the current employee when a detractor is received (0-6).

Klaus elaborates: “It is about getting a general learning about what customers are dissatisfied with and act accordingly. You can of course do 1:1 follow-up via phone calls, so you can correct what has made the experience bad. And thus make an operational customer rescue.”

Celebrating successes – 10s experiences

Another essential part of working with customer feedback is motivating employees. Ian Wisler-Poulsen says: “The company should celebrate their success. Once employees have created a 10s experience it should be celebrated. Celebration can be a pat on the shoulder, cake or coziness. The most important thing is that the 10s experience and thus the employee or team is recognized for the performance. In connection with the recognition, it is important that the action is multiplied. What did the employee or team do that created the great experience? Which action was decisive?”

In addition, Ian elaborates: “It is my experience that there is too little focus on celebrating when the individual employee or the individual team is doing well. Often it is about how well the company is doing overall. There needs to be more presence. It is important that we all know where we are doing well and where we are making a difference.”

Concluding he says: “When we engage in 10s experiences, we create higher satisfaction for the customers, we create better well-being for the employees and the firm gets a more sustainable business.Win-win-win.” A 10s behavior creates 10s experiences!

Note: To engage in 10s experiences presuppose in the meantime that the firm has a relatively high low point.

Below you will find four examples of extraordinary experiences from everyday life.

One is about strong teamwork, and the rest shows how an employee with a few changes in customer experience shows strength and overview. Common for all four is that they created 10s experiences.

Customer focus is mostly about the employees and the management

If you only focus on what is important for the customer and ignore what is important, difficult, or decisive for the employees who deliver the experience, you will never be able to drive any kind of behavior change. In other words, CX expert, Stine Ringvig Marsel explains that you must understand the employee as good as the customer to get them on the journey and create lasting changes.

Be unambitious, dose the effort over time to gain success

With over 15 years of experience with implementing customer focused transformation in three of Denmark’s biggest brands in the adventure industry; Zoologisk Have, The Tivoli and Copenhagen Airport A/S, Stine’s experience is that the customer experience projects that creates lasting change to benefit the customers and the bottom line is the ones where the effort is being dosed in such suitable doses so the effort can be maintained in the long-term operation.

Use the valuable (and free) knowledge about the customers' experience that you already have

The most efficient way to create changes is letting the customers voice and experience be a lighthouse that leads the way contemporary with that the work with the customers experience solves the everyday problems for the employees.

Focus on all the sources of information about the customers that you have, for example the employees’ input about difficult situations, customer surveys or complaints etc. Turn against the biggest challenge first. Prepare and implement a proposed solution and then move on to the next. Small steps. One at a time. That is the road to success.

Don’t drown the organization in data

To become wiser on how the employees experience the situation you can ask the ones that meet the customers; “What is the most difficult situation you experience when in contact with the customers?”, “What is the most frequent situation which is hard and perhaps appear 3-5 times a week?” When you ask continuously then make sure to solve one challenge at a time.

In Copenhagen Airport they measured twice a year with NPS look-a-like questions on the passenger experience of the security. It does not sound like much but in this context it was enough. Stine explained: “Why use time and money on collecting data and drowning the organization in data when it nonetheless can be transformed into change? Why collect data today when it will tell the same as the data from yesterday because you have not launched and completed transformations initiatives?”

What is right for other firms must be assessed from firm to firm, Stine explains. But do you need to drive change in an operation that drives 24 hours with 500 employees where no one can attend courses, then it takes time to create changes. Therefore, two measurements a year combined with the employees’ input, overview of complaints and customer feedback are enough to kick off workshops and initiatives that create the wanted change.

Work with the reason for the NPS score – not the score

Way too many drowns their organization in data and for example looks continuously on a NPS that does not create any value because there is not being worked with the comments and reasons for the responses. If used correctly and in combination with other data types, for example qualitative interviews, NPS is a strong tool to create change for the customer which will create value for the firm.

But used incorrectly and focusing only on the score, it is irrelevant noise.

The tools must be created by the employees

When Stine worked in Copenhagen Airport as Service Excellence Director the focus was the employees and she used their knowledge and experience as the foundation for creating the right tools. She established a work group consisting of seven employees. Based on customer satisfaction surveys, NPS, observation of behavior, input from the employees about difficult situations they developed proposed solutions. This becomes the best practice behavior and sentences which could refute the challenges the passengers faced.

Make the work concrete and close to practice

Instead of fluffy cases like: “Give extraordinary customer experiences” or “Smile and be polite” the employees developed concrete and close to practice sentences and guidelines for behavior which were easy to test and implement. And best of all it did not only create better customer experiences but also improved the employee experience.

Below you can read Stine’s guide and practical implementation on creating better passenger experiences with Copenhagen Airport as starting point:

• Understand the goals and challenges the employees and managers have in relation to the customers. Solve their problems and challenges with the customers first
• Look at several data sources
• Use customer and employee feedback in your proposed solution
• Make the solutions concrete and close to practice
• Incorporate the management in collaboration with the employee in your proposed solution
• Plan a marathon not a sprint. Stretch the implementation over time
• Make the customer experience a part of what is being talked about in the organization at regular intervals in all relevant meetings
• Make it fun and inspiring to work with the customer experience. Seriously. Otherwise, no one wants to.

Take everything with a pinch of salt – and do not believe any books that have “the recipe”

“The right way when working with the customer experience is different depending on what type of firm, employees and customers you have.” That is how Stine Ringvig Marsal introduce her eBook (NB in danish) “Gode kundeoplevelser der giver bedre bundlinje”. Stinge elaborates: “There are many who think they have “the recipe” on how to do it, but such does not exist. You must always assess what works from organization to organization.

Be patient or buy a confetti bomb

Do you want to work with Customer Experience Management that strengthen your bottom line you have to work with management, customer understanding, management, the right customer insights, management, employee understanding, management, knowledge about change management, behavior, habits, culture and … management. The point as you probably caught is that you cannot work with Customer Experience Management and have success unless you collaborate with the management. Habits must be created, which become part of the culture, and it is the managers who is in charge for both.

About Stine

Stine Ringvig Marsal is a sociologist specializing in behavior and organizations, she has plus 15 years of experience from Zoologisk Have, The Tivoli and Copenhagen Airport with Customer Experience Management and implementation of customer focused change. Stine is CEO and founder of Experience Management Community a forum where managers who work with creating better customer experiences sparring with each other across industries about how implementation and lasting change best is being created with the customer in focus.

Read Stine’s eBook “Gode kundeoplevelser der giver bedre bundlinje” here (NB in Danish) and her Airport Security Case here.

Stine Ringvig Marsel e-bog.pdf

Stine Ringvig Marsel Airport Security case.pdf