We all know that no one will write a 5-star review for you if they’ve had a bad experience. But did you know they won’t write a review at all if they’ve had just an average experience?
An average experience just doesn’t cut it — think about it. If you had an “okay” day at work and you are asked how your day was, your answer is typically, “Fine,” or “okay.”
But if something remarkable happened to you? No one will be able to shut you up!
That’s the kind of experience you need to give to each and every one of your customers if you want a consistent flow of 5-star online reviews. You want your customers so excited about your service that they shout your praises from the rooftops.
New Ways To “WOW” Your Customers
It can be tough coming up with new ways to WOW your customers and it typically takes more than your own creative genius to muster. We get where you’re coming from. We need fresh ideas sometimes too.
For inspiration, we look to other companies and people we respect, in order to learn how they impress their customers. So we check in on their blogs to see what’s new, and if there are any new nuggets of wisdom we can apply to our own business.
Here are our top ten favorite blogs for delivering superior, remarkable customer service:
- Zappos’ CEO and COO Blog – The popular internet shopping heaven Zappos was founded
by customer service visionary Tony Hsieh. While it’s a great idea to pick up his book Delivering Happiness, to learn about the best in customer service, this blog is maintained by the executive team at Zappos with the latest ideas and practical applications of world class customer service. There’s a reason why customers love Zappos, and this blog shows you how you can do the same with your own customers.
- Fonolo – Touted as the blog for call center professionals, this blog provides a fantastic host of tips that any call center team can master. We love this blog because the writers clearly do their research — there are tons of facts and figures to backup their claims, proving these tips will really work! But even cooler is how they own the idea of having fun. Some of the articles are all about how to improve call center culture and how to enjoy work more. Happy call center = happy customers.
- Contractor Sales Coach – If you are in the home service industry and aren’t familiar with Joe & Julie Crisara — you should be. Their unique approach to training owners and managers has helped countless home service companies improve customer service to maximize sales. Their Contractor Sales Coach blog is kept up to date with the latest ideas and strategies for improving not only sales, but customer service.
- Shep Hyken’s Customer Service – Shep Hyken is a best selling author on the subject of customer service. With four books under his belt,Shep has built a solid reputation as a customer service and experience expert. When he’s not speaking at conferences or writing another powerful book, Shep writes on his blog and shares the secrets behind wowing customers into ambassadors of businesses. The blog comes with tips on customer service, but also offers a wealth of resources such as interviews, infographics, featured guest blogs, and more.
- Help Scout – This blog has a beautiful user interface that makes clicking around a delight. Each of the articles is put into a distinct category, and the one you will want to focus on is their Support section. There you can find easy-to-read articles on everything from handling difficult support situations to what books to read if you’re in customer service.
- Jackie Huba – What sets Jackie Huba apart from other customer service coaches is that she is a customer loyalty expert. She focuses not only on a single customer experience, but instead on converting one-time customers to lifetime customers — loyal to your brand till the end. Her blog is packed with insight on how to create repeat business, customer loyalty and customer evangelists.
- HDIConnect – This is straying a little off the path of “10 best blogs” because this is a hub for customer service bloggers complete with a forum for discussion. This is a great place to go for connecting with others and sharing ideas. But more importantly the Blogs section organizes blogs by service area, such as Service Management, Desktop Support, Support Operations, Customer Service, etc.
- Groove HQ – From the start you’ll see something is different about Groove HQ. The blog features a unique vertical timeline, which makes browsing through blog posts easy, improving your ability to find a relevant article to your particular business and role. From there, writer Len Markidan fills his articles with to-the-point tips on practical customer service strategies. What we like the most is he doesn’t fluff his blogs with wordiness or noise. Well, we also like how he provides visuals to enhance learning and make sure his teachings stick.
- ZenDesk – We use ZenDesk, we like ZenDesk, and yeah, we read ZenDesk’s blog. They just plain old fashioned know what they are doing, and they are awesome enough to share what they’ve learned on their playful blog. Their tips of the week are ideas that you can use right away, which we like. Between the tips of the week, and insightful articles, we like the way they use humor to increase engagement so you are actually reading the article, not thinking about what you need to get at the grocery store later.
- CSI: Customer Service Investigator – This is a cool site. CSI goes all over the place with customer service, which is where you need to go to. Topics cover ideas of how to improve call centers and how to treat your customers better. But they also cover stories on how big companies are improving their customer service, which can inspire you to implement similar practices and processes at your company.
Remember, customers don’t write reviews if they feel, “meh,” about your service.
You need to be remarkable to motivate your customers to do some finger dancing on their keyboards to write you a 5-star online reviews.
We hope these blogs will help you get there.