One thing that is very reflective of today’s marketplace and business atmosphere is the “nobility” of the customer. Leading companies today, understand that they are in the customer experience business, where the “how” is just as important as the “what”, where the delivery of services is concerned.
Customer Experience as a Corporate Strategy
Being in the customer experience business means that companies must constantly strive to pre-empt and adequately serve an increasingly educated consumer, meet their demands, and consistently deliver quality experiences; or risk losing not only their patronage, but also profits, reputation, and even the business.
It is why the customer experience has become a bigger focus of corporate strategy in recent years. Fueled in part by the digital revolution, this customer-centric view has had the game-changer effect for many businesses and organizations.((https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2019/09/24/50-stats-that-prove-the-value-of-customer-experience/))
Of course, understanding customer needs is fundamental to delivering a positive customer experience. But even more so, is a strategy to leverage that insight.
Hence, the questions that are today increasingly asked; “Who are our customers? What do they like? How do they communicate? Have they enjoyed our service? If not, How can we ensure that they do?
So, What Is Customer Experience (CX), and Who Are CX Leaders?
With what all that’s been said, it’s easy to take a shot at defining customer experience. The answer is fundamentally straightforward, and is usually the reply to the “how easy was it?” question. This is otherwise known as the Net Promoter Score method.
It’s a fact that today’s marketplaces are simpler, larger, technology-reliant and far more accessible than in the last 3 or 2 decades. Back then, customer experiences typically involved many people and required a lot of time invested both by businesses and by customers. Many things could go wrong, and it didn’t help that things were localized.
Today, that has largely changed. Customer interaction rarely occurs in person, but instead via electronic means. It is now consumers, no longer businesses, that drive technological advances. All to help interact with businesses in the way that is most convenient for them.
Think broad consumer choices. No one’s restricted to visiting the local mall to shop, and when businesses pose some sort of limitations, there are plenty others offering service, limitation-free.
That kind of pressure from customers puts a demand on businesses to constantly court consumers. Meeting customers’ needs has always been canon. But now, you have to do so at an increased pace, using new methods.
So, Customer Experience Leaders are persons, or organizations who offer expertise with this method of doing business. With advanced analytics, customer-experience leaders gain rapid insights to build customer loyalty, make employees happier, achieve better revenue gains, and reduce business costs.
In essence, thanks to formal know-how around topics including behavioral economics, research, financial acumen (ROI is always going to be important), strategy and culture; they train, help or teach businesses and organizations to see the world through the customer’s eyes and to redesign functions to create value in a customer-centric way.
What It Takes to Be a Good Customer Experience Leader
Today’s consumer is knowledgeable enough to want to shop where he can get the best service, the best product, at the best price — basically, the best customer experience. It is vital to be able to determine how to give this to him, since being able to create fantastic customer experiences reaps many dividends for all involved. Businesses are distinguished from competitors, and customers go home happy. More so, there isn’t a company in the world that is immune to the damaging effects of delivering poor customer experience. Hence the question that many businesses must ask; “How can we make business more customer-centric, and organize it for desired business outcomes?”.
In all, Customer Experience Leaders are able to figure out the answers; offering a flexible, intimate customer experience whilst being compliant, and protecting their bottom line. At a basic level, a triumvirate of actions is usually critical to becoming a Customer Experience Leader.
ONE: Strategy, Focus and Vision
Being a Customer Experience Leader is to first be strategic and not tactical. Before focusing on new tactics and technology, it is best to first identify your customer and evaluate needs on both sides. And then build a strategy around those needs so that you can improve customers’ experiences.
This can generally be done by offering, and prioritizing channels tailored to customers; bettering connectivity and making device interactions easy for your customers; providing the customer with a seamless, consistent experience and leveraging existing infrastructure to create revenue‐generating and differentiated customer experiences.((Jim Tincher, ‘What Make a Great Customer Experience Leader’, https://customerthink.com/what-make-a-great-customer-experience-leader/))
Great strategy should help you translate business goals into technology solutions.
TWO: Innovation, Technology and Digital Solutions
Successful Customer Experience Leaders develop ways to design an innovative experience for customers. They take the time to intimately understand the customer journey – all the interactions that create an overall experience for customers. This is usually done through the instrumentality of the Net Promoter Score. To determine the NPS, a question is put to a customer by asking “How likely is it that you recommend our company to a friend?” on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being “least recommended” and 10 as “highly recommended”.
They usually derive these cutting edge insights by using advanced technology. Surfing the waves of shifts in the market and trends amongst customers, Customer Experience Leaders work with commitments to digital solutions; not only to improve customer satisfaction but also increase productivity by enabling agents to handle multiple customer interactions at once and with a quicker resolution time.
Customer Experience Leaders can become even better by digitizing the processes behind customer journeys.((Chandana Asif, Jiro Hiraoka, Tomas Jones, and Prekah Vohra,’Digitizing customer journeys and processes: Stories from the front lines’, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/digitizing-customer-journeys-and-processes)) Leading businesses usually have multidisciplinary teams that design, test, and iterate high-impact processes and journeys in the field, continually refining and releasing them after input from customers.
Such methods help high-performing incumbents to release and scale major, customer-vetted process improvements in reasonable time. Agile digital companies logically have an edge over competitors, and established businesses coveting those statistics must take a hint, and embrace new ways of working.
THREE: Communication
To be a Customer Experience Leader, businesses and persons must align themselves with customers by working directly with them in retail settings, taking calls, and getting out into the field. Some organizations create boards or panels of customers to provide a formal feedback mechanism.((Blake Morgan, ‘The Top 20 Traits Of Customer Experience Leaders’, https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2018/03/30/the-top-20-traits-of-customer-experience-leaders/?sh=1b239ef36fb4))
In conclusion, the ability to properly leverage these insights usually allows businesses to commit to a broad customer-experience transformation. More so, taking actions inspired by what your customers are saying, empowers frontline employees to deliver your customer vision, and foster customer-centric engagement.
What do you think about the Customer Experience Leader role and need to consistently deliver quality experiences? Is something missing in this article? We would love to hear your perspective.
