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Let’s play 20 Questions. Luke Jamieson, a customer experience (CX) thought leader in Australia, asked me to answer 20 customer experience questions in a “lightning round” style for one of his projects. As I considered my answers, I realized that the subscribers to my newsletter and videos would also enjoy them. There is a lot here, so, let’s get right into it:
- In five words or less, what does CX mean to you? EVERY interaction your customers experience. (Five words are not easy!)
- What is your CX prediction in 2025? Based on the experiences customers have with the best customer-focused brands, they continue to get smarter about CX and will demand more from you. So be ready.
- What CX lesson did you learn from a TV show? I love the Seinfeld episode where Jerry tells the rental car employee, “You can take the reservation. You just can’t hold the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation.” The lesson is to honor your promises to customers – or else they may make fun of you on national TV.
- What is the most innovative thing you’ve done or seen in CX? AI is the obvious answer, so here’s a different one. I love the life-size holograms of people who greet and help airport customers. It’s a little bit of Disney-style magic in our daily lives.
- How do you know when a CX strategy is working? Low churn, repeat customers, referrals from happy customers, and more spending per interaction.
- If you could take a CX apprentice under your wing, who would it be? Anybody in high school. Teach them young, and they will have this powerful skill and mindset for the rest of their lives.
- What’s the weirdest complaint you’ve ever heard? I’ve heard a lot, but let’s go with the complaint that is often attributed to baseball legend Yogi Berra, who once said about a restaurant, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
- What is your CX secret ingredient? Convenience! All things being equal, the company with the easiest experience will win.
- What’s the first thing you think about when designing a new CX strategy? The customer. Start with the end in mind! Ask, “What do we want the customer to experience?” and work backward from there.
- If CX were a sport, what position would you play and why? I’d play center on a hockey team. The center’s job is to play offense and score and then get back and help on defense. That’s sales and service combined!
- What would the title of your CX superhero alter ego be? I’d be Captain Amazing, working with clients who want to create amazing customer and employee experiences.
- What’s the biggest CX challenge businesses face today? Consistency. Anything less than a consistent experience erodes confidence and trust in the company or brand.
- What’s your favorite metric to measure customer success? While I’m a big fan of a simple metric like NPS, when it comes to customer success and service, I coach my clients to think about TTH, as in Time to Happiness. How long does it take from the beginning of the time a customer decides to reach out for help until they are totally happy that they did? That length of time is Time to Happiness.
- What company do you believe is nailing CX? It’s not a belief. It’s a fact. Deferring to my annual customer service and CX research, year after year the public chooses… Amazon!
- This is a Star Wars-themed question. If you could have The Force with you, what is one thing you would change about CX? Let me play the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the bald, handsome Jedi Master who trained Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars movie. CX is not just a strategy. It’s a force that goes beyond tactics and operations. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by every employee. It’s everywhere! May the CX force be with you!
- If you could provide one piece of CX advice to a start-up, what would it be? Create your customer service and experience mantra. In one sentence or less, define your CX vision statement. It is every bit as important as your mission and values statement. By the way, ours is only three words: “Always be Amazing!” We want our clients to have an amazing experience with us, and we want to help our clients create amazing experiences for their customers and employees.
- What is the biggest CX crime you have witnessed? I often experience this when I call customer support and the recording tells me my call is very important. Then they make me wait for an extraordinarily long time. If my call really was important, maybe they wouldn’t make me wait for so long to answer the call. Okay, it may not be the biggest CX crime, but it’s one we have all witnessed, experienced, and can relate to.
- What’s a rule in CX you’d love to break? I never liked the rule that the customer is always right. No, the customer is NOT always right, but they are always the customer. So, when they are wrong, let them be wrong with dignity and respect.
- What did you do before you got into CX? I’ve been in the customer service and CX business since less than a year out of college. However, I was a magician working at private parties, comedy clubs, and corporate events during my high school and college years. I loved to be amazing for my audiences. Now. I teach my clients to be amazing for their customers!
- What is the latest breaking news in CX? Customer Contacts Customer Support, Gets Through Immediately, Talks to Someone Without an Accent, And Gets the Correct Answer Without Being Transferred… Okay, that’s not a real headline, but it is accurate. For some – not all – customer support needs, AI-fueled technologies have given us the ability to quickly and accurately answer questions in the language and accent of the customer, thereby creating an excellent – and sometimes amazing – customer experience!
As we wrap up these 20 questions, it might be an interesting project to take the questions you feel are relevant to you and your business and answer them. But when you do, take a little more time and discuss why the answers are important to you. For example, question 17 is “What is the biggest CX crime you have witnessed?” Add three words to the end of the question, and it becomes, “What is the biggest CX crime you have witnessed in our business?” The answers you get can lead you to make changes to avoid these so-called crimes and create a better CX. While not all of the questions will be appropriate for you, the ones that could lead you to answers that help create the experience that gets your customers to say, “I’ll be back!”
Related: Easy and Effective: Customer Service Tips for Everyone