H&R Block’s Evolved Experience Aims To Wow Its 20 Million Customers
Release Date: 02/12/2020
Branding In The Era Of Racial Justice
The Modern Customer Podcast
2020 changed the world in many ways, including a renewed push for racial justice and equality in the United States. That demand must now be echoed in how companies brand and market their products. With increased calls for racial justice, Kirstyn Nimmo saw how she could bring her marketing expertise and experiences as a Black woman to help brands act authentically and impact racial equality. Nimmo founded Good Worx and consults numerous big brands on social causes. Branding in the era of racial justice brings unique challenges, but also new opportunities to connect with customers...
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An Innovative Approach To The Future Of Returns
The Modern Customer Podcast
It’s a common experience for online shoppers: an item arrives in the mail, either doesn’t fit or is no longer needed and now must be returned. But the process of making the return is cumbersome and requires printing shipping labels, packaging the item, making a trip to the post office and then waiting up to a few weeks to get the refund. With all the advancements in customer experience and online shopping, the return process for many companies has stayed the same—inconvenient and outdated. But an innovative approach to returns improves both the customer experience and...
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The Modern Customer Podcast
E-commerce has seen tremendous growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. But with so many customers going online, it’s never been more important for brands to make their products visible. According to Sarah Hofstetter, President of Profitero, search is the hottest and most important topic in the e-commerce world right now. When customers shop in stores, they tend to browse until something catches their eye. But when customers shop online at places like Amazon, they already have a brand or category they are looking for. Instead of just seeing what’s out there, customers come to buy...
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Behind The Scenes Of The Early Days Of Amazon
The Modern Customer Podcast
Before Amazon became one of the world’s largest retailers, it was simply an online bookstore shipping items within the U.S. But even in its early days, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos had a vision to build earth’s most customer-centric company. That mentality still holds strong today and is a driving force behind Amazon’s continual success. Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998, just four years after it was founded. Of his 12 years on the Amazon leadership team, he spent two of them working as Bezos’ Chief of Staff, where he had an inside view of what it takes to build a...
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What Modern Customers Want In Light Of COVID
The Modern Customer Podcast
Nearly a year into the global pandemic, what modern customers are looking for in the brands they interact with has permanently changed. At the top of the list of customer priorities are health and safety. Research from Volvo and Harris Poll found that COVID has altered the mindsets of consumers. In an unpredictable world, customers are looking for stability from brands they know and trust, which often translates into safety. Despite economic uncertainty, Volvo has seen growth and success during the pandemic. According to Jim Nichols, Head of Product, Technology & Brand...
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6 Ways To Break Free From Boring Meetings
The Modern Customer Podcast
Everyone who has sat through an irrelevant or bloated meeting knows the pain it can cause. Meetings that are too long, have too many people or wander from point to point can be counterproductive and put a drain on creativity. And somehow, during the COVID-19 pandemic, people are finding themselves in more meetings than ever before. According to Steven Rogelberg, author of The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance, the problem isn’t that there are too many meetings, it’s that there are too many bad meetings. He suggests taking a...
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What Does Customer Loyalty Mean In 2021?
The Modern Customer Podcast
It seems nearly every company today has a loyalty program, but the meaning of loyalty itself is often still a mystery. Customer loyalty in 2021 looks different than it has in the past and even than how many companies view it. According to Bram Hechtkopf, CEO of loyalty marketing and technology company Kobie, loyalty is more than just how a customer behaves. A customer who regularly purchases from the same company can appear loyal, but what matters more than the transaction is their emotional loyalty, or how they feel about a brand. Hechtkopf breaks emotional loyalty into...
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How Bank Of America Pivoted To Serve Contactless Customers
The Modern Customer Podcast
For many people, the days of going to the bank to make a deposit or cash a check are gone forever. Like in many industries, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a major shift away from in-person banking interactions towards digital services. The challenge now becomes how to pivot to best serve contactless customers. According to Holly O’Neill, Chief Client Care Executive at Bank of America, the switch to digital solutions was already in play for the company. The pandemic simply moved up the timeline. Bank of America’s strategy has always been to deliver world-class service in...
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How To Modernize Customer Interactions For The Smartphone Era
The Modern Customer Podcast
It’s a common situation for customers: spending time on a company’s app or website and then having to call customer service for help. Even after spending time searching online, the customer still has to wait on hold, log in or prove their identity and then re-explain the situation and wait to get connected to the right person. In recent years, many aspects of customer experience have been modernized and streamlined, such as the growth of chatbots and AI. However, even with these advancements, most customer interactions have stayed stagnant and without context. But that won’t...
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Blake’s 5% Rule For New Year’s Resolutions
The Modern Customer Podcast
It’s the time of year when everyone is making New Year’s resolutions and setting goals for the coming year. What do you hope to achieve in 2021? How do you want to improve yourself and your career? For many of us, it’s been a complicated year and we’re looking for some change and improvement. But too often we fall into the trap of thinking we have to reinvent the wheel and start completely fresh. If we want to make more money, we have to start a brand new business. If we want to lose weight, we have to go on a crash diet. But that’s not true—you don’t have...
info_outlineMore than 150 million Americans will file their taxes in the coming months. But how many of them will have a good experience doing it? H&R Block aims to create a smooth experience for its customers that both instills confidence and wows them. And that comes from continually evolving the customer experience to leverage both technology and human connection.
H&R Block’s 20 million customers run the gamut of what they are looking for in an experience. According to CMO Vinoo Vijay, the first wave of customers files early because they want to get their refund as soon as possible. Later in the tax season comes the second wave who just want to get their taxes done. Each group has different needs and emotions relating to their taxes, which means the company needs to offer a wide variety of services. But no matter if a customer is doing their taxes themselves online or sitting down with a tax professional, H&R Block aims to create a steady experience with consistent vocabulary and a singular narrative. Customers will hear the same terminology and receive the same level of service no matter if they file online in January or in person in April. Vijay says that focusing on the tiny parts of the customer experience accumulates into a great experience that wows customers.
At its core, Vijay believes marketing is about experience. In recent years, H&R Block has focused on experience as a core value to drive business. Connecting with customers on an emotional level builds the relationship, which is then strengthened with technology-supported services. In its continual evolution of the tax process, H&R Block is rolling out new services this year, including the ability for online customers to chat with a tax pro about questions and a digital drop-off program for customers to send in their tax forms electronically so that their taxes are already in process for their in-office appointment. The overall goal is to not only simplify the tax process but also provide great service and meet the needs of all types of customers. Some customers just want to file their taxes as quickly as possible, while others want to learn about the process and have a conversation with an experienced professional. H&R Block provides services that hit all points on the spectrum.
Companies across all industries, especially H&R Block, have to balance the push for new technology and automation with the natural urge for human connection. Vijay says H&R Block’s goal is to make sure human connections are more tangible and valuable. Even with all of the new technology and automation, it doesn’t want to lose sight of human relationships.
“It would be terrible for us to forget that our human needs are greater than speed,” Vijay says. “We need to find ways to serve the fullness of our communities and our people.”
Helping customers file their taxes in a convenient, simple and personalized manner comes down to continually evolving and adopting new technology without letting go of what makes us human—those connections with other people. By tapping into all areas of the equation and building emotional connections, H&R Block can continue to improve its customer experience.