In the course of my work over the past 20 years, I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to work with a wide variety of companies across multiple industries and sectors. We’ve helped them to navigate and overcome challenges with disinterested, disempowered colleagues and dissatisfied, disappointed customers. Typically, there are always quick wins to help drive an uplift in customer satisfaction scores – some easily replicable skills that can make a tangible difference. But really the thing that differentiates the men from the boys, or the top performers from those who consistently operate in the mid to low performance quartiles is mindset. Mindset is everything. And it’s a mindset of curiosity that’s king.
In multiple Service environments, we’ve seen a curious mindset among Advisors leading to customers sensing a level of interest, and colleagues having a rewarding day at work through more meaningful conversations. Take the example of BT Enterprise, where curiosity was one of three key differentiating mindsets we identified. Service teams there delivered a massive uplift in both customer touchpoint NPS, and Sales Order Value. Or in Tesco’s Customer Experience Centres, where curiosity led to customers being asked questions that drove a huge surge in both C-sat scores and First Contact Resolution rates.
In Complaints environments, being curious up front around what constitutes a good outcome from the customer’s perspective guarantees a more laser focused conversation, driving down AHT and ensuring the customer feels valued. We’ve seen this time and again across industries as diverse as Retail, Utilities, FS, FMCG and Telco.
And in Sales too, a curiosity led approach means really finding out what’s important to customer, rather than leading on price, or following a script. We’ve seen this work whichever way the pendulum swings – in organisations that have been too focused on service at all costs, and those that over-index on Sales performance.
And where a curiosity-first mindset brings an improvement in customer experience, being empowered to be curious also drives an uplift in people engagement, a reduction in attrition, and a better outlook on life. What’s not to love?!
If you’d like to know more about the first hand experience we have of creating curiosity filled customer focused corporate cultures, and the magic in our method – let’s talk!