Martha Brooke is a repeat guest on Distribution Talk for good reason. In her two previous visits, the founder of and lead customer experience consultant at Interaction Metrics made a compelling argument for conducting customer satisfaction evaluations via third-party, objective methodology rather than an in-house survey. This time, Jason chats with Martha about her most recent consulting case study, her favorite go-to techniques for analyzing customer interactions, and simple strategies for improving the entire customer experience.
“[Interaction Metrics] has a diversity of clients, but what’s clear is that they’re all serious about the customer experience,” says Martha. Regardless of vertical, many folks wrongly use customer experience and customer service interchangeably. Customer experience generally refers to a client’s entire interaction with your brand (from cursory awareness through post-purchase communication). Customer service focuses on a single interaction or multiple individual instances in which your company assists a client before, during, or after purchasing a product or service.
If you’re struggling to grasp the nuances between customer experience and service, chances are your in-house client surveys are, too. What’s worse, your unintentionally biased outreach is missing valuable metrics that could differentiate you from the competition. Interaction Metrics designs customer surveys and applies advanced observational methods to gauge a company’s ranking. Then, they develop improvement strategies that are easy and affordable to implement.
Once the C-suite is on board with outside analysis, it’s time to secure staff buy-in. “We find that when phrased well, everybody accepts this well,” says Martha of her company’s evaluation methods and subsequent training recommendations. Employees like knowing that the company is investing in their success. They’re also motivated by competition. “If you know you’re getting a score from an objective third party, you’re incentivized to do better.”
Martha urges clients to view customer experience as an ongoing pursuit rather than a one-time project. “How do you get the most out of the few minutes, the few hours you have with [a client]? And how do you do it in a way that when they hang up the phone or they close out that email, they say, Wow, I like them?”
The answer isn’t magic; it’s science.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES
DT013: Listening to the Customer with Martha Brooke, Interaction Metrics
DT054: Martha Brooke on pandemic-era customer experience research
QUOTES
“It’s very rare that a customer is such an undying advocate that they only will buy from you regardless of whether you have it in stock or not. The competition is always at play, as are comparable companies.”
“Objective scoring always improves performance. It’s just human nature.”
“We all have the opportunity to improve. We all have the opportunity to optimize. And interactions are difficult. They’re intrinsically difficult.”
“We are exposed to good, bad, and indifferent customer service all day long.”
FOR LIBSYN ONLY:
Martha Brooke is a repeat guest on Distribution Talk for good reason. In her two previous visits, the founder and lead customer experience consultant of Interaction Metrics made a compelling argument for conducting customer satisfaction evaluations via third-party, objective methodology rather than an in-house survey.
This time, Jason chats with Martha about her most recent consulting case study, her favorite go-to techniques for analyzing customer interactions, and simple strategies for improving the entire customer experience.
CONNECT WITH JASON
CONNECT WITH MARTHA
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Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth, and achieve personal goals.
This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.
https://www.distributionteam.com
Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: INxSQL Distribution Software, integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.
