All Posts by Justin Bayliss

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Jun 30

Country Hospitality is the best benchmark for CX

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

Country Hospitality is the best benchmark for CX!

How a road trip became a lesson in Customer Experience

I recently did a trip from Adelaide to Sydney that saw me stop overnight in Hay. My recommendation for those of you who have anything to do with hospitality or tourism is, if you haven’t done it for a while, get out into the country and check out how it used to be done.

Now I might be a little biased because I’m a boy from the country myself, but they just seem to get the people thing right! Well, maybe not everyone, but you certainly come across the right way of handling people more often in the country than you do in the busy cities that many of us now call home.

The following story provides some of the unexpected highlights that made my stay in Hay so pleasant, along with some of the startling disappointments I experienced once I got to Sydney and spent the night in a hotel owned and operated by a very well-known and respected brand. 

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May 31

What to do when you get a bad review

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

What to do when you get a bad review

A strategic approach to refining your CX and keeping your customers happy!

Ok, so you’ve had a bad review online. While it’s not ideal, it happens. And it certainly doesn’t mean you need to hit the Panic Button.

If this is the first time, remember, you can’t make everybody happy all the time.

But, if it’s not the first time and in fact you’ve noticed it’s been happening more frequently than just every now and again, then it’s definitely time to review what’s going on and carefully assess the quality of the experience you offer your customers.

Here are some of the most important steps for getting things in order and ensuring customers are saying how fabulous you are to deal with if they post comments about their dealings with your business online.

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Apr 30

Change Your People or Change Your People?

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

Change Your People or Change Your People?

Have you found your sales results dropping or your market share falling away?

Have you had a greater number of customer complaints recently or are your online reviews more negative than normal?

Is your absenteeism or staff turnover higher than previous years?

For all these problems, it’s likely your business is struggling as a result of poor levels of team alignment and team engagement.

But, before you reach for the phone to call HR and tell them they need to find new members for the team, it might be more pertinent to work on the team itself.

Perhaps it’s not so much because of the individual players you’ve recruited along the way but the way the team has been allowed to evolve.

So, does your team need to be re-trained or replaced?

Here are several points for consideration to help you make the right decision.

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Mar 31

How the 2018 Commonwealth Games can become the gift that keeps on giving

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

How the 2018 Commonwealth Games can become the gift that keeps on giving

After years of planning, the 2018 Commonwealth Games are finally about to kick-off.

We already know millions of dollars have been spent preparing for the event and that millions more will be spent during those two weeks in April when hundreds of thousands of athletes, support teams and visitors descend on the Gold Coast.

And, if we play our cards right, millions more could be spent in the years to come that could also be attributed to the quality of the experiences our visitors have while here for the games.

By providing every one of those visitors enough reason to feel this is somewhere they’d like to come back to, we also have the opportunity to establish the Gold Coast, Queensland and indeed Australia, as a destination of choice for future travel.

If successful, then the legacy of this two-week event will continue to benefit not only our tourism industry but the wider economy for many years to come and the 2018 Commonwealth Games will indeed become the gift that keeps on giving.

So, what do we need to do to make this a reality?

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Feb 28

8 sure-fire tips for building better rapport

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

8 sure-fire tips for building better rapport

Building Five Star Rapport

In any business, the ability to build and maintain strong relationships with your colleagues and your customers is an important ingredient for success.
For many of us, the initial step of connecting with someone for the first time and establishing a level of rapport that leads to a worthwhile connection, is not just a little awkward, it’s downright daunting.
The good news is it doesn’t need to be. Here are 8 easy to master ways for building great rapport to quickly establish that sense of confidence that allows business relationships to progress.

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Jan 30

It’s the experience that matters most!

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

It's the experience that matters most!

I am often disheartened by the number of business owners I meet who genuinely believe that if they offer high standard products and services, they don’t need to worry about the standard of experience they offer their customers.

Another scenario is they think if they make their products cheap enough, they don’t need to worry about how poor the experience they offer is because they honestly believe people will buy them anyway.

The trouble with both these theories is that we now compete in a global marketplace. Online shopping provides plenty of alternative suppliers for both high quality goods and discount products just like yours, if your customers are not happy with the experience they have with you.  

Even if they don’t purchase online, the internet provides easy access to plenty of other suppliers, should they choose to go looking after a bad experience.

 So, to demonstrate the impact of good and bad experiences on your customers, here are two stories that clearly highlight why a carefully planned Customer Success Strategy is just as essential as a Business or Marketing Plan.
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Dec 30

Want to know the secret to Customer Loyalty?

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

Want to know the secret to Customer Loyalty?

In my October article, “Business Strategy #1 – Build Great Customer Relationships!”, I suggested the first and most important step in turning one-time buyers into Customers for Life, was to treat everyone as you would treat your Mum.

In this article I’d like to expand on that for you, introduce the GUEST model and provide some insight on how easily this can be implemented into your business to provide better outcomes for both you and your customers.

Why treat everyone like Mum? Because for most of us, this is the most tangible point of reference to determine the standard of behaviour to use with your customers, so they leave feeling like they’ve been treated like a family member or friend and been tended to in the best possible way.

By implementing this practice, you will provide a far better-quality experience that will inspire them to spend more, return more often and encourage others to visit and do business with you too.
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Nov 29

Want to know how to Calm your Crazy Christmas Shoppers and make them HAPPY?

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

Want to know how to Calm your Crazy Christmas Shoppers and make them HAPPY?

Upon arriving back from a walk yesterday, my neighbour approached for a chat and asked if I’d finished my Christmas shopping yet. “To be honest, I haven’t even started” I said. He smiled and proudly replied that they were done. I don’t mind admitting I was more than just a little envious. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas... just not Christmas shopping.

I’m often amused by the romantic notion that Christmas shopping is meant to be a joyous occasion filled with the spirit of Christmas and something to look forward to each year.

The reality for many people is that the annual grind of Christmas shopping means facing over crowded shopping centres filled with stressed, confused or just grumpy fellow shoppers and equally frustrated, tired and stressed shop assistants.

 So, as we dive into yet another “Silly Season”, here’s my Top 5 recommendations for retail outlets to take the Crazy out of Christmas and add more to your own Christmas stockings too.

1. Get your shop in order!

2. Create an enjoyable atmosphere

3. Become a Merchandising Master

4. Look for ways to WOW

5. Embrace the spirit of Christmas

It’s a long one folks but read on for some great ideas on each of these topics to help you maximise your Christmas sales.

Create this...

Not this!

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Oct 31

Business Strategy #1 – Build Great Customer Relationships

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

Business Strategy #1 – Build Great Customer Relationships!

I have previously shared that my primary guiding principle is to always put “People before Business” and that we should strive to be People Champions who place greater emphasis on the relationships we have with our customers than the business we do with them.

In this article I’d like to explore that a little more and share why I believe great customer relationships are an essential strategy for every business along with some tips on how to achieve them.

The statistical evidence is well known and widely published and while I’m sure you’ve seen these before, here are some statistics I feel point directly to the importance of great Customer Relationships:

5% increase in Customer Retention can

increase your profit by 25 - 95%

Source: Bain & Co. + Harvard Business Review Research

Probability of selling to a new prospect = 5 - 20%

Probability of selling to an existing customer = 60 - 70%

Source: Marketing Metrics

It costs 6 - 7 times more to acquire a new

customer than to retain an existing one

Source: Bain & Co.

If the evidence is so clear, why do so many businesses seem like they just don’t get it?

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Sep 30

Are you ticking ALL the boxes?

By Justin Bayliss | CX Insights

Are you ticking ALL the right boxes?

In my first blog Customer Experience is more than just Customer Service, I suggested one of the essential steps to creating happy customers was to conduct regular assessments to ensure the  standards you’re aiming for are being maintained. I call this process a Customer WalkTM and in this article, I’d like to unpack that a little more.

Typically, when asked, most business owners and managers believe they are doing a pretty good job in the Customer Service stakes. They confidently suggest the experiences they provide are great and they don’t need any help in that area. Sadly however, in most cases, perception is quite different to reality.

80% of companies say they deliver “superior”

customer service, 8% of their customers agree!

Source: “Customer Service Hell” by Brad Tuttle, Time, 2011

So how do they get this so wrong? If most people are walking away seemingly happy with the service provided, why is there such a vast difference between these two numbers?

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