Mike Boyle:
Well, Nick, in your experience, can you talk a little bit about why some companies are so resistant to investing the time and the money into creating a better customer experience via a digital transformation?
Nick Glimsdahl:
It’s tough when organizations sit there and they say, “Man, we’ve already tried this once. We’ve already gone to the cloud, or we’ve already pushed this transformation one time four years ago and it didn’t work.” And so a lot of times when an organization kind of got bamboozled from the beginning four years ago, per se, and they’re like, “Man, I don’t like this experience, but I’m going to stay with it because I don’t know that this next company or this next partner is going to improve the experience.” And so it’s the fear of the unknown, from my perspective, a lot of times where organizations kind of, I call it the [inaudible [00:07:35]. They keep the issue still where that football is, and they keep you at arms distance because they only know what they know. And they’re not informed. They’re not provided with insights. You’re not helping them see around the corner. And you’re not educating them to give them that peace of mind of where they can go and what is possible.
And so a lot of times they’re thinking through that process with these colored glasses that have a negative connotation when you bring up that technology, or you bring up a partner because they’re like, “Man, I’ve already been through this. I’m not going to do it again. Because the last time I did it, my reputation got burnt a little bit. And so if I do this again, what is this going to do to my current personal brand inside this organization?” And so there’s a lot of risk back and forth. And so from my perspective, it’s the fear of the unknown. And every salesperson’s going to come in and say, “We have the best product. We have the best technology. We have the best implementation. We have the best support.” And if you’re not having honest conversations with, and solving for business outcomes, a lot of times you’re just a featured functionality service and you’re looking just like everybody else. And when you look like everybody else, that corporation’s going to treat you like everybody else. And that’s why they don’t make that move from my perspective.
Mike Boyle:
It’s no secret that implementing new technologies and rolling them out properly, of course, will improve customer experiences, will also improve employee experiences. Talk to me a little bit about how you encourage companies to invest in a digital transformation.
Nick Glimsdahl:
The Great Resignation is here, and I’ll start there because people are worried about hiring, training and retaining their talent. And if you can keep that talent, the reason why you keep that talent is because they feel also known and valued, and they have the ability for that upward mobility, and that growth, and that roadmap internally, they feel like they’re being cared for. And it’s not just because they have an amazing “culture” but they know where they’re going. And they feel like they have a place and they know their why. And the customer experience is a direct correlation in how you treat your employees, because that’s how your employees will treat your customers. And so I would say that if you don’t treat your employees, if you don’t have the right technology, if you don’t have the right process, then the people are just going to be frustrated.
They’re going to incite a … You think of the contact center or you think of a CRM per se, how are you building that relationship? How are you collapsing and consolidating and removing the friction for that interaction to take place so that they can just have a human to human experience, and enjoy that, and use their expertise? Instead of inside the contact center, you think of it, because that’s what my expertise is. On average, it’s what? 15 to 16 different applications that somebody’s opening at one time to create that experience. And so they’re just kind of winging it. And they’re asking about the weather because they’re opening up that second, third, fourth browser trying to solve the issue because the knowledge base isn’t integrated, the CRM isn’t integrated, the channels are not integrated, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I would say find ways to automate the routine, find ways to integrate and collapse and consolidate because the more that your employees are efficient, the more that they’re going to create a better experience internally. And the better that they’re going to treat your customers externally.
Mike Boyle:
Staying on the employee experience for just a second here. Do you think that they need to be measured on customer experience? And if so, how would you go about doing that?
Nick Glimsdahl:
Yes. I think there should also be a pulse survey internally, and depending on how large our organization is, and what your ability is, but just like you survey your customers, “Hey, how are you doing? How are we doing? How can we improve?” The same thing that you should be treating your employees, and maybe it’s on the one on one, maybe it’s a blind anonymous survey. And you’re just checking in to say, “Hey, what are we doing? How can we improve? And what ideas do you have?” And when that happens, a lot of times, that employee feels like you actually care because now they have a voice inside this journey.
Doesn’t mean that you have to implement every single thing that that employee says, does or wants. But that means that they now feel like they have part of the journey and they have a role. And maybe you have the ability to reward them based off of some of the ideas that they have. If that’s a, hey, you now get to go volunteer for the day on anything of your choice. Or you get an extra vacation day. Or you get something from the swag closet or whatever that is. But find ways to encourage them and create that experience. There’s all sorts of different metrics that’s going to be different for every company, let alone every industry. And that’s something I’m happy to have continued conversations over. But you have to find ways to listen to them, hear them out, acknowledge where they’re at, understand what they’re trying to say, and then respond accordingly. Instead of just saying, “Hey, thanks Pete.” You pat him on the top of the head and say, “Now, you go do your job.”
“Well, tell me more about that. Let’s dig into what you’re trying to say.” And then maybe come back with another recommendation and saying, “Based off what your thoughts and what you came to me, I thought of this in addition, and here’s how we’re going to implement it. Thanks so much, Pete.” Your mindset changes and you will want to come back and be more innovative for that company moving forward. If the opposite is true and you’re like, “Pete, I don’t want to hear it. You’re super busy. You say you’re overworked. And now you’re coming to me with ideas.” The last thing that Pete’s going to want to do in the future is to provide another potential way to improve the experience on either the employee experience or the customer.
Mike Boyle:
Nick, if you could narrow it down to just four or five steps, what would you list as the steps businesses should take to create a customer experience strategy?
Nick Glimsdahl:
So the strategy I believe should align with your outcomes, should align to who you are and what you’re trying to achieve holistically at the very top. What are your business objectives? What are your mission, vision, and values? From there, that’s where you should start. From there, you should understand where you’re at today. What are the metrics that you’re implementing that you’ve implemented and how are you measuring them? And then how are you acting upon that? So you have a baseline. You also need to truly understand and interview your front line to hear what your customers are saying. Then go talk to your customers. What are they saying? And then you take all of this information, you bring that to the senior leadership team, or the people who are involved in this project. And you’re saying based off of the information that we have, what is that priority? What are we trying to achieve? And what’s most important to us? What’s the most important to our customers?
And let’s rank these in order, either by impact or depending on the budget, maybe it’s what can we do with the least amount of cost, with the most amount of impact. Start there. And then slowly, gradually increase back to the fully personalized experience, and measure, and communicate with that internally, and then give people a role in understanding what that experience is and how they play a part of it. I would also say that most organizations that are saying that they focus on customer experience, don’t have a measurement across either from the individual, let alone department, or at the corporate. They just say, “Hey, we’re going to improve our customer experience.” It’s a great buzzword, like you said, at the beginning with the digital strategy. But if you’re not going to measure it, you’re not going to improve it. So once you know everything that you want to do and you have it prioritized, understand who’s going to be involved, and then measure and act based off of that measurement.
Mike Boyle:
Marketing. Let’s talk about that for a second. Marketing in customer experience. Talk about the role of marketing and what tools companies should be using for marketing in customer experience.
Nick Glimsdahl:
So marketing is a way to guide your customers and inform them on how awesome you are in your product and service. It is part of the journey. And I think it’s an essential part because consumers are now instead of reacting and saying, I’m going to search for your company online, and I’m going to call you, and you’re going to inform me of who you are as an organization, and what product or service you sell. They now, in the importance of marketing, should be educating and informing them of where your consumers are searching, if it’s social, if it’s your website, and informing them of who you are, either through video, what are your top 20, top 30, top 50 things that your sales people hear, or the searches that you’re going after, based off of your subject. And then creating value that you can help guide your consumer to make an educated decision on that path that they want, on the pace that they want it.
Because if they’re not being informed and then immediately your sales people come in and say, “Hey, this is who we are. And this is what we’re about. And we’ve been in business for 30 years. And here’s the product and service we sell. And we’re really cool.” Then you’re wasting that consumer’s time. If you inform them, and educate them, and guide them, one thing that in my podcast, I interviewed a guy named Anthony Annoreno. And he was talking about being a sales guide. And he climbed a mountain. I can’t remember the name of the mountain, but he’s like in every … Before I got to the top of the mountain, before I got to the mountain, I asked my doctor, “Hey, I’m going to be going into altitude. What do I take?” And he’s like, “Well, take this altitude medicine.” He got to the base, I think the first day and he was getting altitude sickness.
And the Sherpa, the Sherpa who’s been there for 25, 30 years is saying, “Oh, I see that you’re sick. Are you okay?” And he said, “Well, yeah, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know why my body’s acting like that.” And he’s like, “Are you taking altitude sickness medicine?” And he’s like, “Well, yeah, I am.” He’s like, “Well, stop taking that and walk faster.” He’s like, “Walk faster. I can barely breathe.” He’s like, “Do you trust me? I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’m bringing hundreds upon hundreds of people up to the top of this mountain. And I know when you need to take the small steps, I know when you need to walk faster. I know when you need to take that step down at the end of the day. So you’re reducing the altitude. And I know when you need to add oxygen.” So he started walking faster and he started feeling better.
The same is true from my perspective, when it comes to marketing is that they also need to be that Sherpa because they are also guiding the journey of that customer. And the customer journey starts with them.
Mike Boyle:
Well said, my friend. As a guy who comes from marketing, that’s the goal. So before we end our time together here, Nick, I wanted to turn the tables on you. Speaking of your Press 1 For Nick Podcast, going to ask you two questions that you ask every guest on your podcast. All right, you ready for this?
Nick Glimsdahl:
I’m ready.
Mike Boyle:
You already know what they are, but number one, what book or person has influenced you the most in the past year?
Nick Glimsdahl:
It’s such a tough question because I know that it’s coming and I’ve had the ability to ask so many people. I would say that I’m going to cheat and give you two because I’m reading two books right now and I think that they are powerful. And I think that two people behind them are rock stars. One of them is the founder of the Ritz-Carlton, who I have the ability to interview in September, Horst Schulze. And he has a book and it’s called “Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise.” And I love the book because he started off saying as a kid that he wanted, at like age 11, he wanted to be in the hotel business. And his whole family basically shunned him. And now he is the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. And it’s just an amazing story.
And he’s a leader in the marketplace and you think of the Ritz-Carlton, anytime that there’s an issue from the person who’s cleaning the sheets all the way to the senior executive or CEO, per interaction per day, you have the ability to fix an issue and empower those employees for up to $2,000. And I love that. And he’s like, the most somebody has ever spent, I think is $851. And there’s a whole story around that by somebody lost their wedding rings and the people ended up buying some metal detectors and finding these rings. And the newlyweds were frantic and overnight, they were searching, all these couple of employees were searching for the wedding rings and they found them and put the wedding ring on the breakfast table that next morning. And they were beyond thrilled. And I love that because these employees were seeking ways to think about what they could control and how could I be part of that journey to create and keep that experience.
The next one that I think is another awesome read is “The Power of Customer Experience” by Elizabeth Dixon. And she has spent the last 21 years at Chick-fil-A, and she goes into a ton of details and it’s a really, really good read. And it’s more of a, she’s telling stories as if she was at the dinner table and that’s kind of how I read it. And there’s so many solid reads. And she was actually mentored for a year by Horst Schulze. And so those are two that I would highly recommend.
Mike Boyle:
Question number two, if you could leave a note to all the customer service and CX professionals that are out there, what would you say to them in that note?
Nick Glimsdahl:
I would say to start, everybody thinks about customer experience as this touchy, feely subject, and oh, everybody can do it. And I think everybody can do it, but it’s all about what are you doing? What are you controlling and understanding what the customer is saying, feeling, thinking, and then doing? And I would say at the very end, this job is not easy. A lot of times in customer service, you are the whipping boy of the experience and you get the butt end of when experiences don’t go well. And I would encourage you and challenge you to have fun serving others. Because the issue and the opportunity that you have when somebody interacts with you in customer service specifically is nobody … Mike doesn’t go and call the insurance company or the internet company and say, “Hey, I just want to let you know, we’re having a great day. Internet’s working well, I’ll see you tomorrow, air high five.”
He’s bringing his entire life along with that issue to that internet company. And so a lot of times that end user, that consumer, that customer is giving them their whole life in addition to that issue. And so if you understand, we are all humans, doing business with humans and we are all bringing, oh, I had an issue with my kid, just got an F in history, or I’m getting challenged because my 20 year veteran employee just transferred to a new company and now I don’t know what to do. And I’m stressed out. They’re bringing their whole life to that conversation. And I would challenge you to understand where they’re at, even though they might not say it and have fun serving them.
Mike Boyle:
As you were speaking, I was having this great idea. First of all, thank you for being our guest today, Nick Glimsdahl on the Salesforce Simplified Podcast. It was awesome having you here, listening to you. But as I was listening to you throughout these 25 minutes or so, it hit me that it would be great to have you come back at some point in the future, and we’d have some examples of what bad customer experiences are. And you could maybe offer some suggestions on how a company or how this situation could have been handled differently. What do you think of that idea?
Nick Glimsdahl:
I’m all on board. I could think about it for about three weeks and run into three or four experiences myself. So that’s the exciting and the frustrating part about being in customer service, and or customer experience is you get to see it and you know the ability and the ways to fix it. And you know that companies are not fixing it.
Mike Boyle:
Well, book it. We’re going to do that sometime down the road, for sure. He’s Nick Glimsdahl. He’s the Director of Contact Center Solutions at VDS. And again, Nick, thanks. Look forward to having you back with us soon.
Nick Glimsdahl:
It’s my pleasure. Thanks for the opportunity, Mike.
Mike Boyle:
And if you’d like to have more information about Nick and what he does, I highly, highly recommend that you visit his podcast page, which is press1fornick.com. That’s press1fornick.com. And as I always do, I’ll put some helpful links about today’s topics in this episode’s notes section. And lastly, if you like what you’ve heard today, I always encourage you, please tell your friends, tell your colleagues about the podcast, tell them to listen on any of the podcast outlets, Apple, Spotify, Google, Pandora, YouTube, we’re on them all. I’m Mike Boyle from Ad Victoriam Solutions. Want to thank you again for listening to our “Salesforce Simplified” podcast. As always, our next episode is just around the corner.
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