Customer experience is made up of the sum of interactions and touch points with all the people, products and services a company provides to or for them. Customer service experience is a subset of the overall customer experience. Specifically, a customer service experience is the sum of the interactions between you and your customers when they are trying to communicate with or to you, often regarding something that has gone awry. Customers of all types (not just social customers) are emotional and tend to rate experiences based upon the expectations set (either specifically, or ones we set in our mind) – yes, they are often shared. The simple question is: “Is your business organized in such a way to accelerate your company’s ability to deliver a service experience, which meets or better, exceeds customer expectations?”

1.
The
Importance
of
Positive
Customer
Service
Experiences
Author:
Mitch
Lieberman
th
May
18
2011
Customer
experience
is
made
up
of
the
sum
of
interactions
and
touch
points
with
all
the
people,
products
and
services
a
company
provides
to
or
for
them.
Customer
service
experience
is
a
subset
of
the
overall
customer
experience.
Specifically,
a
customer
service
experience
is
the
sum
of
the
interactions
between
you
and
your
customers
when
they
are
trying
to
communicate
with
or
to
you,
often
regarding
something
that
has
gone
awry.
Customers
of
all
types
(not
just
social
customers)
are
emotional
and
tend
to
rate
experiences
based
upon
the
expectations
set
(either
specifically,
or
ones
we
set
in
our
mind)
–
yes,
they
are
often
shared.
The
simple
question
is:
“Is
your
business
organized
in
such
a
way
to
accelerate
your
company’s
ability
to
deliver
a
service
experience,
which
meets
or
better,
exceeds
customer
expectations?”
Every
business
has
unique
opportunities
to
create
meaningful
connections
with
their
customers
every
day.
These
connections
give
a
business
a
great
chance
increase
loyalty,
and
to
be
quite
direct,
often
lead
to
incremental
revenue.
People
like
buying
from
people
they
know.
No
matter
what
part
of
the
organization
you
are
in,
you
can
make
a
difference.
The
customer
need
not
initiate
every
interaction,
a
simple
reminder
via
email
or
SMS
for
example.
Do
you
have
in
place
the
proper
foundation
–
cultural
and
technological
-­‐
to
meet
the
demands
of
your
customers?
Many
customers
are
less
satisfied
with
contact
centers
(ie
phone
calls)
than
they
are
with
the
trendier
contact
options
(Social),
but
the
investments
are
still
towards
the
new
flashy
and
‘cool’
applications.
Many
customers
do
still
prefer
the
phone
–
statistics
prove
it.
This
kind
of
disconnect
has
created
today’s
conundrum
with
is
receiving
attention
from
on-­‐high,
your
CEO.
Executives
are
taking
notice
and
have
made
it
one
of
their
business
priorities
to
get
closer
to
their
customers.
I
have
been
known
to
ask;
“what
exactly
does
‘getting
closer’
mean?”
Executives
have
begun
to
realize
that
embarking
down
the
wrong
relationship-­‐building
path
will
continue
to
critically
hurt
their
overall
business
strategy.
Leaders
are
now
facing
a
decision:
continue
to
let
customers
down
through
inadequate
capabilities
or
embark
on
a
journey
to
evolve
their
customer
service
experience.
Companies
cannot
do
this
alone,
a
new
vision
and
a
framework
for
support
has
become
paramount.
To
succeed
with
all
customers,
social
and
more
traditional,
companies
need
to
create
and
maintain
consistency
of
experience
across
all
channels.
A
complete
interaction
experience
goes
well
beyond
just
listening
to
your
customer.
It
branches
out
to
action,
enablement
and

2. empowerment.
Not
only
do
companies
need
to
learn
how
to
interact
well
with
customers
using
all
channels;
from
the
phone
to
social
media,
they
also
need
to
ensure
experiences
for
the
customer
that
deliver
real
value
to
the
customer
in
exchange
for
time,
attention,
actions,
information,
and
anything
else
that
companies
want
from
customers.
Few
organizations
are
capable
of
providing
the
cross-­‐channel
consistency,
an
imperative
for
modern
customer
facing
organizations.
Unfortunately,
the
internal
cultures
of
companies
have
not
been
built
for
this
model.
In
order
to
achieve
success,
I
am
suggesting
that
companies
must
first
change
to
better
embrace
their
customers,
not
just
as
industry-­‐
mandated
customer
service
operations.
Companies
will
need
to
enable
and
empower
employees
to
act
as
customer
advocates
who
help
customers
successfully
do
the
jobs
they
need
to
do
with
the
company’s
services
or
products.
The
company’s
view
of
and
objectives
for
customer
service
will
need
to
change
to
provide
very
different
kinds
of
training
and
guidelines
to
allow
customer
service
staff
to
work
creatively,
cross-­‐channel
with
customers.
During
the
past
month,
we
explored
the
above
from
many
different
perspectives
in
the
form
of
a
white
paper.
It
was
a
lot
of
fun
to
write,
which
we
did
in
collaboration
with
Julie
Hunt.
Some
the
key
questions
addressed
are:
• Are
you
able
to
meet
the
needs
of
a
multi-­‐
and
cross-­‐channel
customer?
• Do
you
know
what
your
customers
want
from
a
‘social’
relationship
with
you?
• How
can
you
align
processes
with
the
needs
of
your
customers?
• When
does
the
difference
between
an
Interaction
and
a
Transaction
matter?
• How
to
focus
on
what
your
customers
remember,
for
service
interactions?
• What
is
the
proper
balance
of
investment
in
‘Social’
channels
versus
‘Traditional’
channels?
If
you
would
like
to
receive
the
full
version
of
the
white
paper,
please
just
let
us
know.
No
registration
forms,
just
send
us
an
email.

3. About
Sword
Ciboodle
Sword
Ciboodle
is
an
award
winning,
multi-­‐channel
customer
engagement
platform,
designed
for
the
21st
century
organization
to
meet
the
needs
of
the
21st
century
customer.
From
telephone
to
email
and
community
through
self-­‐service,
our
customer
experience
fabric
enables
you
to
create
a
consistent,
efficient
and
differentiated
service
experience.
The
customer
experience
fabric
for
many
global
brands,
Sears,
Bally
Total
Fitness,
and
Vistaprint
all
leverage
our
platform
to
construct
a
genuinely
social
and
customer
centric
business.
www.sword-­‐ciboodle.com
info@sword-­‐ciboodle.com
About
Sword
Ciboodle
Sword
Ciboodle
is
an
award
winning,
multi-­‐channel
customer
engagement
platform,
designed
for
the
21st
century
organization
to
meet
the
needs
of
the
21st
century
customer.
From
telephone
to
email
and
community
through
self-­‐service,
our
customer
experience
fabric
enables
you
to
create
a
consistent,
efficient
and
differentiated
service
experience.
The
customer
experience
fabric
for
many
global
brands,
Sears,
Bally
Total
Fitness,
and
Vistaprint
all
leverage
our
platform
to
construct
a
genuinely
social
and
customer
centric
business.