Chapter 1: Want More Customers? Deliver On Your Customer Experience.

The landscape for restaurants and retailers has changed. Many of the competitive advantages of the past have become commoditized. There are more competitors than ever before. And customers’ expectations have soared. At the same time, the explosion of social media has created a new challenge--poor experiences are now easily shared with thousands of other customers and potential customers. These changes and challenges have paved the way for what’s next: your customer experience as the next battleground. The good news is that we’re here to help. What follows is the first chapter in “The Customer Experience Playbook: Deliver on Your Brand Promise. Every Visit. Starting Now.” Stay tuned as we release new chapters. Over the coming months we’ll cover tactical topics such as writing survey questions and picking the right incentive to strategic topics such as making customer feedback a way of life. Along the way we will also provide great examples and case studies. And point out a number of common pitfalls. Happy reading! Now go forth and create a better experience.

2

Let’s create a better experience

What we’ll explore:

ü  Landscape changes ü  Leaders and laggards

ü  Competitive challenges ü  Impact of your experience

ü  The social effect ü  Customer expectations

ü  Measuring and managing

Sole property of Elevate | July 2014

-Joe Stanton CEO - Elevate

The Landscape has Changed

The landscape has changed

4

More competition and options than ever

No matter your industry, consumers have more options now than ever before. And that is quickly eroding competitive advantages that have been in place for the last century or more.

For example, in the restaurant industry:

-  The number of restaurant locations in the U.S. continues to grow, up 5% to 990,000 in 20141

- Market share for food trucks is expected to jump from just 1% of U.S. restaurant sales to 4% by 20172

The landscape has changed

5

Economic instability creates higher expectations

Consumers are spending less, but expect more when they do spend. They want to make their money count. Your business needs to deliver exceptional service in order to meet these expectations.

- 44% of consumers have higher expectations for customer service than they had a year ago2

- 8 out of 10 consumers have either somewhat or significantly cut back on their spending until the economy improves2

}

The landscape has changed

6

Social networks amplify experience

Joining the social conversation is mandatory in terms of service and success.

Your customers are already sharing their experiences on social media – good and bad.

- 45% of customers share BAD customer service experiences via social media, compared to only 30% of customers sharing GOOD experiences6

- A majority of tweets about customer service are negative or critical in nature7

Social media brings scale. Having a feedback process where you can address any issues and share the positive experiences is essential to the success of your business.

The landscape has changed

7

Customer service has become king

Thinking you provide good service and knowing you do are two different things.

- 8 out of 10 businesses say they provide “superior customer service” but only 8% of consumers agree with that statement4

-  Poor service will cause you to lose business. Most dissatisfied customers say they will not do business with that company again4

-  But if you resolve a complaint in the customer’s favor, 70% of the time they will do business with you again4

- Only 1 in 4 companies have a well-developed strategy in place for improving customer experience9

8

Your Customer Experience Matters

Your customer experience matters

9

Great experiences lead customers to come back

Intent to Return based on Experience

} There is a big difference when customers receive less than a great experience

Had a great experience

Did not have a great experience

77%

44%

Great experiences bring back customers, but they must be nothing less then GREAT.

Your customers are no longer willing to stay loyal in the face of poor service.

- 89% of customers will make their next purchase from a competitor following a poor customer service experience10

- 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated11

- 39% of customers continue to avoid brands for 2 or more years after a bad experience6

Your customer experience matters

10

Consistent customer service impacts your bottom line

Intent to Return based on Overall Satisfaction

Very Satisfied

Satisfied

81%

49%

Neutral

23%

{ Just satisfying customers gives you only a 50/50 chance of retaining their business14

When your customer’s experience is consistently great, you will make more money.

Today’s business landscape is more service oriented than ever before. Consumers have high expectations and standards when it comes to good service – and they’ll pay to ensure their expectations are met.

-  Almost 90% of US consumers say they would pay more to ensure a superior customer experience5

-  Companies that deliver consistent customer experience excellence are outperforming their competitors8

Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied

8% 5%

Your customer experience matters

11

How the leaders are excelling

12

Measure So You Can Manage

Measure so you can manage

13

Typical customer complaints are easily avoided

Listening to your customers allows you to know without a doubt what needs to be done to make them happy.

Each customer comment, complaint, review or compliment is valuable, and is often a representation of more than just that one customer.

-  For every customer complaint, there are 26 other unhappy customers who remain silent3

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”

-Bill Gates

Measure so you can manage

14

Customer feedback makes hard conversations easy

Manage through facts – no more finger pointing or he-said-she-said.

Having real customer feedback will allow you to have real conversations about performance based on facts and not feelings.

-  For example, there are over 28 Million employees in the retail industry alone. They are key to your success; knowing what customers think of their performance is necessary to ensure quality of service13

-  Communication is key to engaging employees. Companies with low employee engagement earn an operating income 33% lower than companies with more engaged employees12

15

Measure so you can manage

A CEO’s Perspective

“If someone is going to take the time to share their experience, that’s noteworthy enough for us to start the conversation with an employee or group of staff members.”

“Rather than having a hear-say situation, we can say ‘no we have the data and we need to talk about this’.”

John Abdo � CEO, My Burger USA

Measure so you can manage

16

Raise the bar on consistent performance

Consistent Brand

Consistent Training

Consistent Workforce

Deliver an experience that is similar each and every time customers come in, no matter locale. This consistency creates confidence in the brand so that customers know what they will get when they visit.

Giving employees the information they need to make decisions will improve overall customer experience. They’ll feel empowered to help correct any issues and resolutions will come sooner for the customer.

Ensuring that all staff are trained in how to handle customer complaints will keep experiences consistent, and fix most issues before they become bigger problems.

17

Key Takeaways

Very Satisfying Service =

Return Business

The Customer is King

Your Employees

are Your Best Assets for Service

With so much competition, great service

is a MUST

Never Underestimate What YOU can

Learn From Your

CUSTOMER

18

Coming Next

In Chapter 2, we’ll explore how to develop an effective customer experience survey

ü  Starting with the end in mind ü  Creating an actionable survey

ü  Survey questions 101 ü  Adding the voice of the customer

ü  The right survey length ü  Designing for mobile first

Chapter 2 coming soon!

19

Learn more about Elevate…

Sources:

1. KitchenAll 2. National Restaurant Association 3. White House Office of Consumer Affairs 4. Lee Resources 5. Customer Service Impact Report by Harris Interactive / RightNow 6. ZenDesk 7. Touch Agency 8. Peppers & Rogers Group, Customer Experience Maturity Monitor 9. Econsultancy Multi-Channel Customer Experience Report 10. Harris Interactive 11. McKinsey 12. Decision-wise.com 13. National Retail Federation 14. Elevate Customer Data

Elevate is the easiest and most affordable way for restaurants and retailers to survey customers who recently dined in one of their restaurants or shopped in one of their stores. It allows all sizes of restaurants and retailers to: -  Get immediate feedback from real customers; -  Follow up with upset customers to get them to come back; and -  Have better conversations about performance. Start your free 30 day trial today. There are no setup fees and no contracts. Learn more about Elevate by visiting www.elevateresearch.com. Connect with us:

Sole property of Elevate | July 2014

let’s create a better experience

20