Customerland
Customerland is a podcast about …. Customers. How to get more of them. How to keep them. What makes them tick. We talk to the experts, the technologies and occasionally, actual people – you know, customers – to find out what they’re all about.So if you’re a CX pro, a loyalty marketer, a brand owner, an agency planner … if you’re a CRM & personalization geek, if you’re a customer service / CSAT / NPS nerd – you finally have a home.
Customerland
Bridging the CX Gap: Aligning Intentions with Consumer Realities
Can the gap between what CX professionals aim to achieve and what consumers actually experience be bridged? Join us as we unravel the complexities of customer experience in a compelling discussion with Sam Gutierrez, a senior research scientist at SurveyMonkey. Sam reveals the art and science behind creating effective surveys, ensuring data accuracy, and understanding consumer perceptions. We dive into the thought-provoking "CX Gap" report, shedding light on the stark disparities between CX professionals' intentions and consumers' lived experiences. This episode is packed with actionable insights on balancing demographics, crafting precise survey questions, and effectively using modern technology to meet evolving customer expectations.
Dig deep into the significance of strategic business partnerships and the need for brands to shift from reactive customer service to proactive, personalized interactions. We address common frustrations with unhelpful automated responses and the challenges of gauging customer emotions. Sam emphasizes the importance of seamless communication handoffs and understanding a customer's history to make them feel truly heard. This episode will equip you with the knowledge to enhance customer satisfaction and build lasting connections, making your customers feel valued in today's competitive market. Tune in to discover how to transform your approach to customer experience and bridge the gap between intention and reality.
So I think there are a lot of actionable, small actionable things that really add up to ultimately making the customer feel like they're listened to.
Mike Giambattista:Today on Customer Land, I'm with Sam Gutierrez, who's a senior research scientist at SurveyMonkey, and if you've been paying attention to this podcast at all, you know that we've interacted with SurveyMonkey a couple of times. It's always fascinating because it's always insightful. So, sam, thanks a million for joining me. I really appreciate it.
Sam Gutierrez:Absolutely, Mike. My pleasure to be here.
Mike Giambattista:So tell us what you do. What does senior research scientist mean at SurveyMonkey? And then I think it would be really fun to unpack some of the stuff that SurveyMonkey is up to before we get into the meat and potatoes of this particular report.
Sam Gutierrez:Oh, absolutely so. My name is Sam. I've been at SurveyMonkey for about three years, starting off as a research scientist, and I think research can mean a lot of things, right. So my role specifically here at SurveyMonkey we I create research, whether it's working with media partners such as CNBC understanding elections, polling, politics, cnbc in terms of understanding small businesses or creating, helping create reports, such as for CX professionals and HR professionals understanding their experiences, their sentiment, current trends, right Things that help customers on our platform understand how they can best use our tools to get what they need right, get the feedback that they need. So content for inspiration there. I also do research on surveys themselves. How do you ask a question that gets at what you need? How do you actually craft a question or a survey? So a lot of nerdy aspects of the job, but again, I think, anything related to research I think my role kind of covers.
Mike Giambattista:Okay, so this is going to be even more fun than I thought it was going to be, but let's start with just because I think we should the recent report that SurveyMonkey released called the CX gap, which is very telling, because what you surveyed for a lot of people, as it turns out, were the difference between what CX professionals the companies they represent think they need to do to improve their CX scores, as it were, versus what the consuming public is saying, and some of those differences are pretty stark. So I'd love to just kind of high level this report with you for a few minutes, and then there's a couple of statistics that I think are worth just kind of pulling out and, even if we can't explain them, just letting them hang in the air for a bit because they're such a big deal. But first, the CX gap report. I think it's a known it's a known fact of corporate life that companies don't always often don't almost never do see life the way their customers do.
Mike Giambattista:Um, so this report goes a long way to kind of bridging that gap, collapsing it, if you will. But how did you go about? How did you go about finding the right questions to ask? We'll talk about the. Get real deep into the weeds on that in a little bit to start understanding what those gaps really were.
Sam Gutierrez:Yeah, so a bit of background about the study. So we actually ran two separate studies for this report. One we surveyed about 300 CX professionals as well as 1,000 consumers or just Americans in general consumers or just Americans in general. So I think I think for starting with and between both surveys, we had certain questions that we asked both groups, just so we can have a comparison right, just apples to apples comparison.
Mike Giambattista:Same phrasing, same kind of, you know, contextual cues and all that.
Sam Gutierrez:Yes, so they're not necessarily identical, simply because, again, I think consumers have a very different perspective about their experiences than CX professionals. But correct, pointing at the same concept and experience. So I think, first, starting off, it's like we all realize that we ourselves are customers. We purchase products, we have experiences, um. We contact customer service, right. We go on websites, um. So I think, like first digging into like our, like my own experiences, right, I think that helps inform certain like responses, um. But I think, like I think there's so much research out there, right, plenty of Plenty of reports. We have a fair amount of experts within the organization SurveyMonkey, because I think SurveyMonkey, I think our platform, is also a CX platform, right, I think feedback is pivotal to the customer experience, so I think it's very much embedded in, I think, how our product works, how our culture works. I think just sussing those aspects out.
Mike Giambattista:Interesting. So you mentioned an earlier part of the conversation that you, the part of your job is to research, research. So were you part of the team that kind of developed these questions? Part of the team that kind of developed these questions? And?
Sam Gutierrez:maybe you can talk a little bit about how and why and what and who participated? Yeah, so I crafted the study for this report and I think, like, when it comes to surveys, you want representative data, right. You want CX professionals and specifically those who work in customer service, whether it's or sort of digital experiences for consumers. So I think really honing in on your target audience, right, like, are you really just going to ask are you a CX professional, yes or no? That's not very helpful because I think even that is a very vague term, right For the consumer side. I think just focusing on us adults, um, but also making sure again, are the, is the data representative? So we do something called waiting, where we make sure all the respondents in our surveys actually match with, uh, certain demographics like age, gender, just so we're not getting a very specific type of audience. So I think accuracy is extremely important for data, because if you don't have good data coming in, it doesn't matter how you ask the questions, the data is just not very good.
Mike Giambattista:So let's talk a little bit about some of the I'm going to just call them call-out statistics here, and we can unpack these. So only 12% of customers say a lack of personalized service is one of their top three frustrations, yet 39% of CX professionals consider more personalized customer service as a top priority. So again, it's that gap which I think anybody who looks at this kind of stuff would expect some sort of a gap, but this is a pretty big one 12% versus 39% is I guess I'm going to ask the really silly question, which is does this really indicate that the CX professionals that you surveyed and however you want to generalize that universe are really misapplying their efforts, or are there some nuances here that we need to pay more attention to?
Sam Gutierrez:I think there are definitely nuances. So I think, yes, that's what the data says, but that 39 versus 12, like I think we have to understand that customers and consumers.
Mike Giambattista:They don't really have the full picture of what they're experiencing.
Sam Gutierrez:Right, when you're in a website, you don't know if it's personalized, right, you, you don't see the code, you don't see the back end cx professionals know. So I I think this really goes back to what does personalized mean, right? Right, and I think that is one potential gap here in terms of, well, cx professionals think providing a personalized experience may mean X, y, z, while consumers their definition of personalization is maybe more feeling right, maybe if a customer feels like the customer service is excellent, then it's personalized right. But I think this is potentially more so a semantic sort of difference. But I think what I do want to point to is that there are actual differences in what that word personalized means, right. So we ask a question what do you most associate with a personalized experience? So we ask this of both CX professionals and consumers and there are a few response options and again they have the same response options for both groups Tailored recommendations like product recommendations, individualized customer support, customizable products or services, proactive outreach or special officer deals right.
Sam Gutierrez:So what we're seeing is that personalization is in some black box where, like, no one knows what it is and it's completely different for every single customer. But we're actually seeing a fair amount of similarity. What we do see gaps is on customizable products or services and special offers or deals. So CX professionals are actually a lot more likely to say that, well, a personalized experience for customers means that they can customize their experience for the product and service. Customers don't really associate that as much, right. What customers do really associate with a personalized experience is special offers or deals, right. So when it comes to recommendations fairly similar Customer support, similar Outreach, similar. So again comes to recommendations fairly similar customer support, similar outreach, similar. So again, like there are I think there's a lot again, as you mentioned, nuances to again what a personalized experience means.
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Mike Giambattista:Whoever's listening, please don't bother challenging me, because I realize that I'm painting a broad brush here. But, as the consumers would say what they feel are the more important personalizations, customized offers, etc. I think there are a lot of CX professionals who I would say the majority of CX professionals are focusing on areas of the customer journey, broadly speaking, that are more um reactive in nature. These are customer service people. They're working out journeys for any number of things like returns or customer service, and yet some of the things that consumers are saying would indicate to them that they're getting real personalized service or personalization. It sounded like they're more sales oriented, which is where a place where a lot of CX professionals really don't play, so I think that's kind of an eye opener as well. It's not just nomenclature, if I'm interpreting this correctly, but it's also the journey we're on the journey. Which journey we're talking about as to what they're going to feel are the most important aspects of personalization. Did I get even close to correct on that?
Sam Gutierrez:Yeah, no, I think you're right.
Sam Gutierrez:I think customers, how they interact with companies, they're all in certain situations, whether you have an issue with your product or experience and you have to contact customer support or you're making a purchase. So again, I think customers again have a very, I think, different, I think level of experience with a product and service than what CX professionals provide. But I think what this goes back to is that when it comes to even customer satisfaction or NPS, we use any metric, it's what do customers feel when they have an experience with a company or brand. So I think there's one step that really is kind of jarring to me. So we ask for the consumers how do you think your interactions or what best describes how you feel when you interact with customers? Do you feel companies are trying to provide you with the best experience possible, or do you feel like companies are trying to make the most money best experience possible, or do you feel like companies are trying to make the most money off of you and it's split great question right and it's, it's, it's, obviously it can be.
Sam Gutierrez:It's not mutual, exclusive right. You want companies providing the best experience so that they can get, uh, more, more sales right, or or or better loyalty from consumers, but we're seeing that 52% of consumers essentially split, think that companies really just focus on making money off of them, right? So, whether it's CX, on customer service or even just using a product service, I think it's more like what is the customer left feeling? Is it delight, is it satisfaction? Do they feel nothing? Are they frustrated? And again, it's hard because CX professionals can't really go off feelings. They have very measurable KPIs, measurable products and experiences that they have to craft. But I think keeping the customer in mind and their personalized experiences and what they feel, I think is absolutely essential when crafting experiences.
Mike Giambattista:We have a lot of conversations internally and with some of our clients. I think it's just kind of the universe we happen to operate in that it really is as difficult as it is to gauge feelings in some sort of you know, numeric way, assign them and weight them and index them. It's still the feelings that are driving the purchase behavior or the next response or the next desired action, and I think that's kind of been one of those challenges that so many people in the research space and also the CX space and retailers and the brands are all kind of going. Okay, I hear what you say, the consumers are telling you, but let me be honest. I mean, I've taken surveys before and sometimes I'll take the survey just so that I can get past the survey and may not be giving the most thoughtful, accurate answer, just because that's you know, that particular moment in my life and I'm sure that's you know I know for a fact. There are lots of reasons why asking somebody directly how they feel you're probably not going to get the an absolutely true, 100%, accurate, you know, bank on it kind of a response.
Mike Giambattista:That said, though, this next statistic here I think is pretty important right now, because the entire world, certainly the entire world of CX, is talking about AI and bots and automated responses. Know, are they any good? Are they really helping? Is automation and efficiency really the benchmark we should be going for? And so I want to point to one of these gaps that you uncovered says, while 40% of customers are frustrated with unhelpful automated responses, only 25% of CX professionals say making automated responses more helpful is a top priority. That one to me. I'll editorialize Please correct me if I'm wrong. That one does seem like a total miss. Like you would really want to, as a CX professional, hone in on those points of real, genuine frustration and make that better, because those, those those kinds of frustrations, tend to carry on. They have legs. So your thoughts?
Sam Gutierrez:no, absolutely, I think. A statistic I would like to add to that is long wait times 42 percent of consumers think think that's your biggest frustration, but for CX professionals, that's actually a priority. So, when it comes to automated responses, I think they've been around for decades Phone, online chat, email and I think this really goes back to understanding the fundamental customer experience and what is table stakes. Right, and I think you see it kind of a trend in terms of companies trying to do a lot using shiny tools like AI chatbots, but ultimately, customers just want to be helped for customer support. Right, like, if you're going to do an automated service, there are ways to improve that. Right, it's not like automated responses have no place. I think they do have a place.
Sam Gutierrez:I think this just shows that it's really important for companies to never lose sight of fundamentals, because that's not going to change. It hasn't changed in 50 years. It's not going to change in. It hasn't changed in 50 years. It's not going to change in 50 years. Right, um, and and I I think you see that right and it's quantifiable. And I think, clearly, when automated, automated responses aren't helpful, that is an objectively bad thing. Right, like it is going to lead to negative experiences. There's no ambiguity around around this. I don't think cx professionals would say that's good as well, right? Right, so I think that's also where personalization can play a role, right? Having a single set of responses for all customers can be really frustrating and not very helpful, right? So I think it's up to the companies to do due diligence in terms of improving the services, to do due diligence in terms of improving the services, but also, again, focusing and keeping their eye on fundamental aspects of the customer experience.
Mike Giambattista:Boy, oh boy. You just opened up a whole new set of topics that I am dying to get into with you and we'll see if we can pack enough time in this conversation. But the idea that CX has a handful of base metrics NPS and CSAT, like you mentioned that end up being used in simplified ways you know what's your NPS score Answer who cares? Without context, it's utterly meaningless, and it's the same thing with CSAT. So I want to hear maybe in different conversation with you, I want to hear how you feel companies should be looking at those kinds of metrics and and are there alternatives or alternative perspectives to cx that might add more valuable insight, make these things more actionable, more valuable insight, make these things more actionable? I don't know and I'm asking that selfishly because we have an open kind of forum here with a handful of CX professionals addressing that very issue because it's frustrating.
Mike Giambattista:It's kind of like if you run a website, people want to know how much traffic you have, and it's kind of a dumb metric. It's kind of like you know, if you run a website, people want to know how much traffic you have, and it's kind of a dumb metric. It just tells you how much traffic you have. It doesn't give any qualitative insights at all. So sorry for the mini rant data that goes into all of the kind of mini and sub components that roll up into an NPS score, that roll up into a CSAT score.
Mike Giambattista:And yeah, you got to present the top line number because that's what the C-suite wants to see. But for the folks who are running CX initiatives and trying to create experiences that create better customers, there's got to be something better than just NPS and CSAT out there. So how do you view that? As somebody who surveys for this all the time, like, let me phrase it this way, what advice would you give a CX professional who's just looking at these top line numbers and going, okay, what do I do with this at these top line?
Sam Gutierrez:numbers and going okay, what do I do with this? Yeah, I think any metric is useful insofar as it leads to the results that you want. So NPS is great because it's simple, it's benchmarkable, it's controversial. Same with CSAT, right. Same with loyalty, like.
Sam Gutierrez:I think there is no single metric that we want and obviously, like we're beholden to C-suite, we need KPIs, we need some way to measure improvement and that's not going away. It's always going to be a numbers game one way or another, whether it's turn rate, whether it's loyalty, whether it's retention rate, like anything. So I think one advice I give to a lot of clients is choose a metric and hope and work toward improving that metric and over time, you should see an improvement. Csat, loyalty and BSR are all correlated, right, like you should not see diverging trends. That's just not how it is right.
Sam Gutierrez:So I think, like, yes, not putting a stock in a single metric, but focusing on inputs that improve NPS, and that is, I think, what changes for every company product service. Right, like NPS for an iPhone can be very different for NPS for, let's say, a pen. All right, you bet. So I think, again, there needs to be work done to be made for CX professionals in terms of why you're justifying using a metric and also what you're doing to improve that metric. And there are many analytical tools. There's driver's analysis, right, um, regression. There's many things that you can use with mps, um and the data.
Mike Giambattista:I think it's just really not letting a single metric do more than it promises it's great, great advice, and I love the way you phrased that, which is far less accusatory than I would have been. Um, so I have one more kind of high level statistic I'd love to get you get your accusatory than I would have been. So I have one more kind of high-level statistic I'd love to get your thoughts on 31% of consumers are frustrated over repeatedly explaining an issue, while only 15% of CX professionals say minimizing customer explanations is a top priority. Is that just a matter of context? Or, again, is that CX professionals just kind of missing the boat?
Sam Gutierrez:Yeah, I think for customers, there's a very, I think, low bar for what I think a bad experience is. Let's say, you get transferred from phone to email. That is a frustrating experience. I think, when it comes to CX professionals and their priorities, I think it's more about one how to improve customer support Because, again, if a customer feels like they repeat too much, then that's the reality. You're not going to tell them no, you did not explain too much.
Sam Gutierrez:I think it's also on the job for customer support to understand a customer's history, previous interactions, whether it's an intake form for consumers. I think consumers just want to feel like they're listened to ultimately, and if there's no handoff from one channel to another, I think that's a miss. So I think I've seen this I personally, um and and I think in in my experiences with with brands or companies. So I think there are a lot of actionable, small actionable things that really add up to ultimately making the customer feel like they're listened to right and not repeating, whether it's asking questions right, in an apathetic way, right, whether it's again like understanding previous experiences. So I think there is a gap and I think, whether this is a quantitative gap or an emotional gap, I think there is work that brands need to do to make customers again ultimately feel like they're being listened to.
Mike Giambattista:Interesting about this particular stat is this is very fixable. The technology is out there to make this a technology fix, really fix, really. You know these are we're just talking about one, one channel speaking to another channel, maybe to multiple channels, but that's, that's so fixable right now and it's you know, whereas you know 10 years ago it was a challenge, uh, but fixable, but very expensive one. Now this is kind of table stakes I agree.
Sam Gutierrez:Yeah, expectations are going higher, as they should be.
Mike Giambattista:Yeah, yep, exactly Well, sam, I really appreciate your time here going through this, but also kind of the ancillary insights and the ways that you do things at SurveyMonkey. I would love to do this again at some point. I think there's so much to talk about as it relates to delivering really actionable CX insights to CX professionals is a complicated task Because, as we've said, you can't just ask somebody for a yes, no answer and then just move on that. There's way more that goes into these things. So hopefully I can get back on your calendar, but for the moment, thank you, I really appreciate this.
Sam Gutierrez:No, no, thank you, mike, it's.
