Customer Experience Conversations: The Morning Huddle

Conversation’s Role In Building Customer Experience

• We create policies and procedures and a “customer journey” including how customers will learn about, intact with, research, and buy from our company.
• This creates a level of predictability in the customer experience - but the problem with that is that it creates such a rigid process that it can often avoid leaving room for adjustment and growth.
• With a conversational environment, employees are able to voice concerns that customers have had or concerns that have been brought up internally. 
• Ongoing conversation is an extremely important part of customer experience as a whole.
  • Even if employees do not have any direct connection with customers, they are still part of the customer experience process when they are able to be a part of the conversation on how to improve the process.

How Morning Huddles Improve Customer Experience

• Morning Huddles are all about “scheduling serendipity.”
•  The overall goal is to guard against irrelevance and future-proof your business.
• “Don’t wait for others to disrupt and shake up your industry - you do it!” 
  • Conversation sparks creative solutions and ideas to improve the customer experience and frequent Morning Huddles will allow that conversation to take place often.
• Groups for Morning Huddles can vary in size from company to company.
  • Some only have two people, others may involve every employee and leader within a company, and others may have different branches/locations that all have their own morning huddles separately. 
• The videos that Mr. Avrin publishes are typically only about 5-10 minutes long and they are meant to jumpstart the conversation within that group.
• The book allows entrepreneurs who might not have others to meet with but still want to engage with the content.
• A Morning Huddle should spark important conversations that positively impact customer experience processes.

Benefits Of Engaging In Frequent Morning Huddles

• First and foremost, we engage our team.
• Next, we are staying current.
  • There are many products out there that no longer exist today even though they were introduced recently.
  • The life cycle of products today is much shorter than ever before.
• We should always be challenging ourselves to streamline business procedures and be innovative.
  • “Disruption happens to you, innovation you do to yourself”

Goals For Conversations

• Mr. Avrin claims the benchmark he used for his video content was whether or not it passed the “duh” test. 
  • This meant that he was focused on creating content that was interesting, thought-provoking, and actionable rather than content that people would roll their eyes at because it was common knowledge - this keeps participants engaged and innovation top of mind. 
  • Topics also need to be relevant to the company and situation - creating the awareness for when a similar situation arises and understanding how to handle that in the future.
• These conversations are not “touchy-feely,” they are specific and actionable discussions that should lead to improvements throughout the customer experience. 

How Long Should These Conversations Be?

• It only takes about 8-10 minutes to read a chapter of the book or watch one of the videos, but the actual duration of the meeting depends on the company and situation. 
  • Some companies meet for 15 minutes, others meet for an hour. 
• If the conversation becomes long and arduous, people will become disengaged and not want to participate.
• Mr. Avrin leaves it up to leaders to decide how long their conversations go. 
• Conversations can take twists and turns that lead to even better results than expected and can affect the length of the meeting for the better.

Great Conversation Starters

• Some of Mr. Avrins favorite conversation starters include:
  • How often do we throw our coworkers under the bus?
    • If a mistake was made in the customer experience process by an individual, are we singling out that individual to the customer when it really does not matter?
  • How often do we see humanity in a transaction?
    • At the heart of all customer experience transactions, there is a person. Showing compassion is vital.
  • Are we conscious of the fact that someone is always watching?
    • Today, just about everything is being watched, recorded, or documented, so are we aware of that and acting accordingly?
• All of these conversation starters look to improve the customer experience for not only the customer, but the internal employees as well.

Resistance To Customer Experience Conversations

• In most cases, people are almost always resistant on the front end.
• Motivation and understanding of the importance of these meetings comes from the leadership within a company.
  • These cannot be treated like “just another meeting.” They have to be stressed as being so much more important than that.
• Early engagement will make a world of difference in these meetings gaining traction within the company.
• This is a collaborative and productive setting where everyone should feel like their voice can be heard. 

Podcast & Blog

• Mr. Avrin also has a podcast and blog and both can be found on his website.
• The Customer Experience Podcast With David Avrin & The Common Grounds Blog are all about starting good conversations to better your business.

David Avrin Background

• BA in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Northern Colorado
• Mr. Avrin has previously served as CEO Group Leader at Vistage International where he led CEO roundtable groups.
• He is now a Customer Experience & Marketing Keynote Speaker and Consultant for Visibility International.
• Mr. Avrin books include:
  • It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You: A Practical Business Guide to Raising Your Profits by Raising Your Profile
  • Visibility Marketing: The No-Holds-Barred Truth About What It Takes to Grab Attention, Build Your Brand, and Win New Business
  • Why Customers Leave (And How To Win Them Back)
    • Named one of Forbes’ Top 10 of the year for 2019 and is published in five different languages.
  • The Morning Huddle: Powerful Customer Experience Conversation to Wake You Up, Shake You Up and WIn More Business!

Contact

• David Avrin’s Website
• David Avrin on LinkedIn
• David Avrin’s email: David@DavidAvrin.com