CX Excellence – Zappos, LUSH, CVS Pharmacy and Credit Union

Five more examples of CX Excellence

When your business offers world-class CX, customers come back for more. But more importantly, they tell others about you. They tell their family. They tell their friends. And – thanks to digital – they tell the world.

Below are real life examples of customer experience excellence, told by the customers themselves.

A remarkable gesture from Zappos

Dialogue have been tracking Zappos’ CX Excellence for many years. Here is another classic!

A Zappos customer meant to return shoes she had bought for her mom before she had passed away and naturally didn’t have time. Below is the customers take on how the situation was dealt with by Zappos.

“When I came home, I had an email from Zappos asking about the shoes, since they hadn’t received them. I was just back and not ready to deal with that, so I replied that my mom had died but that I’d send the shoes as soon as I could. They emailed back that they had arranged with UPS to pick up the shoes, so I wouldn’t have to take the time to do it myself. I was so touched. That’s going against corporate policy.

Yesterday, when I came home from town, a florist delivery man was just leaving. It was a beautiful arrangement in a basket with white lilies and roses and carnations. I opened the card, and it was from Zappos. I burst into tears. I’m a sucker for kindness, and if that isn’t one of the nicest things I’ve ever had happen to me, I don’t know what is.”

The world’s top performers in CX score very highly on empathy with their customers, which is something you can’t buy or recreate through advertising. Zappos clearly get this with this amazing gesture of kindness. And have kept a customer for life as a result

Sometimes all your customer needs is a cup of tea and a chat

Lush’s workforce are trained to deliver great customer service, the company empowers its employees to go the extra mile for customers.

LUSH gives employees the freedom to make decisions in the spur of the moment, go off script and do what they feel is the right thing for the customer. As a result, empowered employees take pride and ownership of their jobs when they know they can exercise independent judgement.

“We recently had a customer who had just lost their job and visited LUSH to be cheered up. Our team approached her, sat her down in the store and offered her tea. We then started looking for products that would uplift the customer’s spirit, while listening to her story.” – LUSH team

Lush may be one of the bigger brands in the UK and Ireland, but they started off as a single shop and had to work their way to the top. And without CX in their philosophy they would be nowhere near where they are now.

CVS Samaritans save the day

Customers are time poor and increasingly are looking for instant gratification. Removing unnecessary obstacles, impediments and bureaucracy to enable the customer to achieve their objectives quickly and easily have been shown to increase loyalty. CVS pharmacy has been running a ‘good Samaritan’ programme for over 30 years! Here is a customer’s take on an unexpected experience with them.

“On Friday night around 5:30 I got a flat tire on a very busy Washington DC area highway. I know I should know how to change a flat tire, but I have roadside assistance through my insurance and warranty so I never worried about it. I called my husband who works on the other side of town and he said he’d try to come over instead of having to use roadside assistance, which would probably take even longer.

I waited for about 5 minutes when a CVS Good Samaritan van pulled up. The gentleman, Ernie introduced himself and got right down to business to put on my spare. He even apologized for being tied up with another driver farther back. He told me I could call my husband and tell him not to worry. 5 minutes later my tire was fixed and I was on my way. CVS only asks that you fill out a postage paid comment card. Because of this service I will definitely be shopping at CVS more often. Thanks to CVS and to Ernie, who helped me out of a jam on Southbound 395.”

Target employee gives interview advice

KPMG Nunwood say that “Empathy is the art of letting the customer know that you can genuinely understand what it is like to be in their shoes.” We couldn’t find a better example of this than a target Employee helping a nervous customer prepare for a job interview.

“In Target at Triangle Town Center. A kid came in looking for a clip-on tie for a job interview this afternoon. The store only had regular ties, so this awesome Target team member took the time to help the nervous teen put on his new tie, tuck in his shirt and then showed him how to give a proper handshake and tackle a few tough interview questions! As the kid exited the store, a bunch of supportive Target team members cheered him on! THIS is true Customer Experience – Right on the mark, Target!!”

An Irish financial institution that treats you like a family member.

Consumers crave a more personalised experience from their bank. Banks are fixated about advanced capabilities in e-mail and digital personalisation today. While they have buckets of customer data, they continue to struggle to stitch basic customer data together. First you have to know your customer before you can customise something for them. Making life simple for customers should be a priority for all banks. Forget about in-house cafes, free Wi-Fi and nappy changing berths.  Banks need to get engaged and treat their customers like a member of their family.

Below is a father’s take on co-signing a loan with his daughter in their local Credit Union. Proving why they are Ireland’s leading financial institution and overall brand in Ireland’s 2015 Customer Experience report

 “I was asked to co-sign a loan on behalf of my daughter who was taking a trip of a life time across South America. Upon arriving at Ranelagh Credit Union, I was greeted by the Manager. ‘’You must be Saragh’s father. She just called me to tell me she is running 3 minutes late. Would you like a coffee and I’ll get you started on the papers ‘’. When Saragh arrived, the paperwork was completed in minutes. Before I left, another member of staff greeted Saragh like a friend and handed her a list of great attractions she had visited on a similar trip before. It felt like I had walked into a family gathering. Everyone was excited for her and seemed to genuinely care about her safety.”