Małgorzata Mikulska of GetResponse: 5 Things a Business Should Do To Create a Wow Customer Experience

An Interview With Orlando Zayas

Know your customers and their needs. It was a few years ago when we had a crazy quality checklist. It was a form with almost 40 questions that we wanted our advisors to pay attention to while communicating with customers. It got so bad that our employees did not focus on what’s most important: customers. Instead, they focused on the quality check form. It created unnecessary stress and shifted focus to the wrong place. Seeing this, we decided to simply ask our customers what they need and expect from our customer service.

As part of our series about the five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience, I had the pleasure of interviewing Małgorzatę Mikulską.

Małgorzata Mikulska is the Customer Success Director at GetResponse. GetResponse is a complete online marketing software supporting +350k customers in 183 countries all over the world 24/7 in 8 languages. Malgorzata has been successfully leading the award-winning Customer Success Team since 2015 and is obsessed and passionate about delivering exceptional service.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

When I was 20, I spontaneously decided to go to Ireland — with neither a job nor a roof over my head. After a week of sleeping in the car, I found my first job in a shop at the deli department, where I was responsible for making sandwiches and hot beverages. It was a great kick to firstly learn a foreign language and move very soon to team leading roles. It was my first job where I got promoted. I stayed in Ireland for seven years, and my career switched later to customer service desk roles. In this role, I felt most comfortable. Working with customers over the phone and email made me happy, so I decided that it is a field I want to stay in.

Now I am looking back on 17 years of experience in customer service. I worked mainly in foreign companies such as Sony and Boeing, including in Ireland, Scotland, and Poland. GetResponse is the first Polish company in my career, but it’s way different from any other place I ever imagined.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Though this story didn’t happen to me — I took a great lesson from it. It was at the very early stage of my career, back in Ireland. I worked as a multilingual technical advisor for a big brand, taking baby steps in a call center environment. One customer had an issue with his computer not functioning correctly. My colleague tried all the troubleshooting steps, but he didn’t manage to solve it. So he went to his team lead and asked what else he could do, and this team lead made a joke and recommended trying using a flux capacitor. I am sure you watched the movie “Back to the future.” But at the very moment, none of us even thought that it was a joke and it was not something that should be suggested to a customer.

Funny enough, the customer had a huge dose of humor, and he laughed out loud after hearing such a suggestion. Finally, his computer went to a repair center but what I learned is: listen and understand what others are suggesting, secondly don’t take anything for granted, and listen to your own common sense. Thirdly, don’t be afraid to make your own decision and trust that simple solutions sometimes are the best ones. And in this particular situation, we knew the PC needed to go to the repair center.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Along my way, some leaders simply had enormous trust in me and my gut feeling that allowed me to make my own decisions and learn from my mistakes. Those who saw potential in me gave me encouragement, empowerment at the right moment, and constructive feedback from which I could draw conclusions. When deserved, I was praised and allowed to develop myself. I also had (and currently still have) the opportunity to be exposed to different situations from which I can gain experience.

There were leaders I was working with that showed me who I do not want to be seen as when given a chance to become a leader myself. Those who had a management style based on micromanagement suffocated me because I was not given freedom and space when fulfilling my responsibilities. Having the experience of cooperating with toxic leaders makes you think. As a result, you know how it feels and how it impacts your day-to-day delivery of results.

Therefore it is a very difficult question; everyone I worked with had their share in my growth. However, good and bad experiences made me the person I am right now and shaped my leadership skills.

Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business?

This is one of my favorite questions! Imagine you are given a choice to buy a product from two different companies that sell it in the same price range, and the product specification is pretty similar. The only difference is the customer service they offer. One has just a website with some articles, but it is difficult to reach them if your product fails. Another one has 24/7 live chat support with representatives with a bigger picture in mind, and not only is their response time much quicker and tailored to your needs. It’s personalized with a deep understanding of the situation, and it is accessible very quickly.

Which product would you choose?

In most cases, the one that has easily accessible support services. It is easy to buy a product from beautiful and catchy web pages, but a good company is known for its approach to customers after they buy the product.

Customer service can make or break your business. People on the front line are the face and the voice of the company because customers don’t get to speak to product managers, scrum masters, UX, business successor IT guys who build the product from scratch. If there are questions about its functionality or a bug that needs to be reported, all customers are directed to support, and it is the support people whom they are speaking with. Because businesses should always have their customers in mind, they should invest and carefully select support employees. Let’s be honest and face the truth, no customers, no product, no business. It’s not the CEO that pays our paychecks each month. It all comes from the customers. Therefore we should appreciate their presence and their need to buy our product or service. It is a must to genuinely care for them, their needs, leverage their ideas, and use them in product growth.

I will repeat this in capital letters as often as needed; if not for the customers, we wouldn’t be here.

We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?

I believe it is not about disconnected service representatives. There is more to it. There are two things I want to mention: One is the company’s goals, and the other one is its management.

A majority of customer service representatives genuinely care to do their job as best as they can. But they have a significant obstacle to tackle. They face tons of procedures to meet the employer’s goals and targets. There is always this battle between productivity and quality, and sadly enough, usually, productivity wins. To achieve some crazy numbers, service representatives must sacrifice quality. Otherwise, they won’t be seen as good employees. Remember also that the majority of support services representatives talk live with customers for eight hours every day. And trust me, this can be very exhausting.

Secondly, the management. Everything is always cascaded from top to bottom. Top leaders may have a great vision and mission, but if they don’t lead by example and don’t even know what it is like to be in the front line, they won’t see the day-to-day struggles employees face in their job routine.

As to your question, why do so many companies not make this a priority? It is an excellent question. I don’t think they realize the importance of having great customer support service and the consequences of not having one, or having one that is not meeting the needs of their customers.

How is GetResponse different?

First of all, we are focusing on training us as if we are customers. So we always look at their perspective first. Secondly, we constantly discuss the importance and impact of five-star service. But good training on its own doesn’t do the magic.

We schedule our employees to talk live with customers via LiveChat only four hours a day, then they have a break and focus on emails and self-development. That way, they are not as tired as you would typically be after eight hours of constant talking.

Additionally, no matter if you are a Customer Success Advisor, Coach, Manager, or Director, if customers are waiting, you just put up your sleeves and talk to them as anyone else in the customer success team. This way, management is in tune with reality and can set achievable goals for the whole team and help in challenging situations. I often hear from my team that they haven’t met any other director or manager who will just jump in to talk to customers and know the product inside out.

Leading by example is the key to success in every organization. Having down-to-earth management who knows its own customers and employees is the right direction for any company that wants to be recognized and well known in today’s world.

Do you think that more competition helps force companies to improve the customer experience they offer? Are there other external pressures that can force a company to improve the customer experience?

Right now, the competition is prominent, but the demand is more significant. You can order goods from any place in the world from the comfort of your own home. The products or services are usually very similar with a single price tag. The only differentiator is customer service. If you want to be seen as a market leader, you have no choice then make your service stand out. It is a broad and visible trend for people. Before buying a product, go to the review and opinion pages and read the ratings and comments. Even if 98% of customers are happy, one terrible comment can often be a decision-maker for completing the purchase. As a customer myself, it is essential for me to know that the product will serve its purpose, but it is also crucial for my purchase decision that if anything goes wrong, I will have someone to speak to, who will be keen on helping and will address all my concerns promptly.

Product, of course, has to follow the customer service too because, on its own, it won’t work for too long. You can be knowledgeable, helpful, and professional, but if the product has many faults and is not growing with customers’ needs, you may find yourself in big trouble very soon.

Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the knowledge you provided?

We have many happy customers every day. We are aware of that because we receive excellent comments left during or after the chat conversation. Usually, words refer to knowledgeable support members. But the communication with customers doesn’t happen only via one channel or one team. At GetResponse we also regularly conduct webinars (of course, using our tool), always taking care of the high level of content and timeliness of communication. For example, if we conduct the webinar on Thursday and we promise participants that we will send the recording of the webinar to them on Friday. We do it. This increases trust in the brand and builds its positive image among the participants of the events we organize. Each of our webinars leaves a hunger for more — participants ask for new webinars covering other topics during the current event. This shows the importance and demand for high-quality content and the interest it draws to have the opportunity to listen and learn from leaders.

Did that Wow! Experience have any long-term ripple effects? Can you share the story?

Each of our appearances on the stage, for example, the IAB Forum, eCommerce Fair, or the last Online Marketing Day, causes a stir and positive reactions among customers. During offline events (which I hope we will return to again), we always observe increased traffic at the stand right after our speaker presentation. This is because we combine the company’s exposure at the event with an appearance on stage to strengthen the expert position of the brand — in addition, the speaker is also present at our stand, which allows talking to him about the lecture and getting answers to questions.

A good example is the InternetBeta conference, where we had a stand and a speaker — and we also agreed with the organizers that the mailing about the event would be sent via GetResponse. The excellent experience made the university where the event took place interested in our services, which resulted in the purchase of a MAX account.

Ok, here is the central question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience. Please share a story or an example for each.

Remember the Wow! experience goes from the top to the bottom. Everyone needs to participate in it. But to involve the whole organization to strive for delivering the Wow! factor few elements must happen first.

1. Know your customers and their needs. It was a few years ago when we had a crazy quality checklist. It was a form with almost 40 questions that we wanted our advisors to pay attention to while communicating with customers. It got so bad that our employees did not focus on what’s most important: customers. Instead, they focused on the quality check form. It created unnecessary stress and shifted focus to the wrong place. Seeing this, we decided to simply ask our customers what they need and expect from our customer service. The answer was simple: to talk to someone who knows the product and provide the response quickly. Customers showed very little interest in typos or over-politeness. So what did we do? We stripped out our quality checklist and replaced it only with six questions related to the accuracy and response timing. This change made a lot of difference to our Success Advisors. It empowered them, gave them freedom, threw away scripts, and eliminated unnecessary stress. The only focus they had since was the customer and the actual question (s)he is coming to us with.
2. Know your values and wear them every day. What values you want your employees to follow. Have you ever thought about the company values? Are they meaningful or just empty words? Are they in line with the general company strategy? What is the number one value? How can you, as a leader, set an example for the whole organization to show that you truly speak the language of the company values you are developing? For as long as I remember, at GetResponse, our number one value was to provide five-star customer service. And this relates not only to the customer success department. It is relevant to the whole organization. So in every step and action we make at GetResponse, we always put the customer in the middle and ask ourselves how our customer will benefit from the product or new feature. How can we make their usage more effortless and more comfortable? But, again, remember no customers, no business, so when making a change in the product, it has to be useful to our customers. Otherwise, they won’t buy it. Because at the end of the day, why would you pay for something that is no use to you?
3. Listen to the voice of your employees. They are in the front line speaking to customers on a day-to-day basis. Have you ever thought about bottom-up communication? How is customer feedback collected in your organization? How employees who are in the front line are educating your business about customer needs? Do you really know what your customers think of your business and service, or do you think you know it? At GetResponse, we use Slack, in which we have separate channels for each feature GetResponse offers. Anyone in the organization and the Customer Success Advisors are taught from day one about the importance of sharing ideas and feedback that comes from customers or them directly. When I compare GetResponse five years ago to what it is now, I clearly see it has way more solutions, better design, and it is a genuinely all-in-one eCommerce tool, not just an email marketing platform. Without that feedback, we wouldn’t be in the place we are right now.
4. Know your employees. Use your employees’ potential and hidden skills. It is common for people to get hired for a specific role, but many managers don’t even know them. They have no clue what their hobbies and passions are. Such knowledge is crucial for their own and company development. I trust profoundly in hiring people for good, instead of for a few months. But it doesn’t mean keeping them in just one role. Knowing your employees’ hidden talents can add value to the organization. For example, imagine having experience as a customer success advisor for 2–3 years. Solving questions and issues every day for that amount of time makes you an expert in knowing customer needs and complaints. Then imagine moving to an IT role and being responsible for the product creation or UX and designing the best user experience. It is a widespread practice at GetResponse that Customer Success Advisors are promoted to different roles. In my team, I have approximately 50 employees who support customers in eight other languages 24/7. We develop them based on their capabilities. Firstly we closely look at their strengths, and next, we leverage them. What else can be more fun and exciting than doing what you love and what you are good at every day? Employees from the Customer Success team are in almost every possible team in GetResponse. They developed in recruitment areas and are smashing the process by hiring best out of best, went to UX and knows exactly what the customer experience should be, or to marketing and are taking part in the product ambassadorship.
5. Be a human, not a ghost. I know many brands where employees are afraid to speak to top management and are not exposed daily. Imagine now being able to casually talk to them if you have an idea or challenge their view no matter what position you have in the organization. Adding another layer to it, try doing it without any fear of being judged. Or asking for help in solving a challenging situation. Sounds like a utopia, right? At GetResponse, it is all possible and is done every day. Before the pandemic, you could easily approach any top manager or CEO in the kitchen or the corridor. After moving to the remote first mode, the approach didn’t change. If you need to consult a challenging decision no matter what position you are in, you can pick up the phone and call top management to be sure they will always help.

Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?

First of all, customers must be aware of all possible communication channels. Therefore we need to educate them of such possibilities. At GetResponse, we have an established presence on different types of online and offline marketing events, social media, and we invite people to contact us at all times. In addition, we stay in touch with customers and test users, updating them with what’s new and how they can grow their business with GetResponse. We also offer 30-day free trial accounts available to anyone to try out before becoming a paid customer.

And when we deliver the Wow! Factor. Word of mouth starts working right away. We are often mentioned in posts on social media. We are invited to participate in events to be a speaker and share our knowledge with others. Other companies are looking to cooperate with us by creating many integrations with their platforms. Or we are asked if we will accept guest posts on our blog.

Established presence online opens access for everyone to reach out to us directly whenever they need, and we warmly invite you to do so.

My particular expertise is in retail, so I’d like to ask a question about that. Amazon is going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such intense competition?

For sure the focus on supporting customers. Having fantastic customer service focused on the overall customer’s success can make or break any business. I genuinely believe it is a differentiator factor from anything else.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

A movement that would be an exciting idea. My personal inner motto is to treat everyone as a partner. A partnership is based on cooperation, mutual agreement, mutual respect, and understanding of each one’s point of view and role they have in the organization. This would be my message to every employer.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can find me on LinkedIn.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!