Episode 30 of Leading Matters features New York Times Best Selling Author and founder of Convince and Convert Jay Baer.  Jay’s new book, Hug Your Haters, examines the customer service disruption that well underway, and how we can ride the wave of disruption to differentiate our business.

So excited to share this episode with you because there is some incredible information and perspective packed in these 30 minutes.  Jay Baer has long been a go to thought leader in marketing but in his book Hug Your Haters he maps out the new landscape of customer service in a way that will help any business leader better understand how they should be engaging their most ardent critics.  And more importantly, how that engagement can potentially turn what has historically been seen as a cost center, customer service, into a profit center.

HIGHLIGHTS OF JAY BAER INTERVIEW

YOU ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY HAVE TO READ JAY’S BOOK

The biggest takeaway from this interview is this, go get Jay Baer’s new book Hug Your Haters.  Doing so will help you to capitalize on this customer service disruption in a way that can immediately differentiate your competitors who are slow to adopt.  There is nothing in it for me, just go buy the book.  It has the potential to impact your business like nothing else you’ve read in say the past decade.

THE LOW HANGING FRUIT

Jay calls the “On Stage” haters, those that complain in public over social media channels, as the best opportunity for immediate impact.  He explains why this crowd is low-risk high reward when looking to increase engagement with those that complain about your business, product or services

DON’T SQUANDER A SEMINAL MOMENT IN CUSTOMER SERVICE

Historically customer service has been a necessary evil.  This is a moment, according to Jay, where that sentiment is shifting and will see customer service be a necessity of not protecting earned revenue, but uncovering new revenue opportunity.

IT IS YOUR CULTURE STUPID

Engaging customer service in a Hug Your Haters sort of way won’t work if the culture of the organization is not sincerely ordered to care. . . really and truly care. . . about the customer.  Probably a good place to start.

NOT A TIME TO BE CONSERVATIVE

While we shouldn’t throw caution to the wind, Jay suggests that we can’t allow fear of what might happen when we engage with our haters to outweigh the potential benefits.  We have to answer them, be present to them, help them, and above all listen to them.  Even when they are dead wrong.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT TEAR DOWN THIS WALL

One of the biggest structural challenges of hugging your haters it the chasm that exists between marketing and custom support.  Marketing must play a role here and customer support has to be open to that collaboration.

YET ANOTHER FUNNEL

We have our marketing funnels, our sales pipelines, well we need a new one – a customer service funnel.  What lies at the bottom of the funnel?  A phone call.  Too often we take a legacy look at customer service where outreach of phone or email is encouraged.  We should curate the help from our user community, make it easy for our customers to navigate and find their own answer. 

Listen to this one!  All the way through.  Then listen to it again.  Then share it up and down the hierarchy of your organization.