Customer Experience Blog

Expert insights on customer experience, employee engagement, and service leadership. Stay ahead with Brad Cleveland’s blog—featuring CX trends, actionable strategies, and real-world solutions to help you improve customer satisfaction, streamline operations, and drive business success.

Does Your Executive Team Understand Staffing Tradeoffs?

Does Your Executive Team Understand Staffing Tradeoffs?

Are you working through difficult discussions related to resources and budget? Just remember, contact centers must handle most customer-related work as it happens, so resource mismatches quickly result in big problems. It’s essential that those making decisions have a...

Knowing Your Customers

Knowing Your Customers

How do you know what a customer needs? If you mention customer advocacy and pose that question many executives will say, "Well they tell us, right?" I think they picture a frustrated customer across the counter or perhaps calling or posting a message that describes a...

Guidance for Customers

Guidance for Customers

During a time when customer service wait times are longer than usual, here's a short broadcast that played in local TV markets:

Developing – or Reconsidering – Your Service Strategy

Developing – or Reconsidering – Your Service Strategy

In these unprecedented times, you may find yourself rethinking your organization's strategy for serving your customers. Strategy is the bridge between your organization's vision and mission and the specific decisions required to make them a reality. This video from...

What to Say to Angry Customers

What to Say to Angry Customers

With the current crisis, contact center representatives are grappling with heightened workloads and anxious customers. It takes practice to find ways to ensure your impact is as positive and helpful as possible. Remember that you’re doing important work. It’s hard...

Controlling Contact Center Costs the Right Way 

Controlling Contact Center Costs the Right Way 

With the current economic challenges, many organizations are likely looking for ways to control costs as they serve customers. Done right, these efforts can succeed. But the wrong approach can backfire and result in new and/or hidden costs, frustrated employees and...

“Press 1 for Frustration” Article

“Press 1 for Frustration” Article

This article from Heather Kelly at The Washington Post is a great behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of reaching customer service when call volumes are high and wait times are long. I was honored to be a resource for the article—and I’m thankful for the heroic...

How Long Are Customers Willing to Wait?

How Long Are Customers Willing to Wait?

With much of the world on lockdown due to the current COVID-19 crisis, contact centers are grappling with both increased workloads and staffing challenges. One helpful framework — now and in more normal times — is to understand the factors that affect customer...

Real-time Management: Level 2 and Beyond

Real-time Management: Level 2 and Beyond

These extraordinary times have impacted our lives in unimaginable ways. They have also impacted customer service in ways we might have never thought possible. For those struggling to manage unexpected volumes of customer contacts, the following real-time management...