To achieve outstanding results for your business, you have to deliver outstanding customer experiences.
In our dynamic and digitally savvy marketplace, where customers are demanding and expecting more, the customer experience (CX) and customer journey are intertwined. Moreover, they often start digitally. Today, customers expect exceptional and nothing less, so that’s what what you need to deliver. So, here are 10 principles to keep top of mind during your customer experience transformation.
Read more: The Future of Business: data and digital transformation
A superb customer experience requires consistency across all touch points, from your products to all the interactions a customer may have with your business, including your website, social media, any loyalty programme you may offer, as well as in-store.
To achieve consistency, you should unite your customer information and break down customer data silos. No only will this provide a single source of truth when it comes to your customer data, it will also facilitate smarter decision-making for your executive team, who will gain a clearer picture of who their customers are. The more holistic the view of your data, the smarter and more evidence based your organisation's decisions will be.
You may have heard the saying “culture eats strategy for lunch”. This to say that culture plays a key role in achieving CX success; it’s effectively how you get all the different elements synched up.
You aim should be to create sustainable culture that is focused on the customer at all times. Think of it this way: the worst thing that can happen to your business is having employees who think they're already providing superb customer experiences. Many employees might think they go above and beyond but often their customers don’t agree. However, it’s not easy to enforce a mind-set shift. The solution is to focus on the impact of CX on your customers and on your business performance as a whole and highlight how each employee's role directly affects the customer experience. Remember, culture is all about what your organisation believes, thinks and does. Communicate this clearly and believe it passionately.
According to Bain & Co, companies that excel in CX grow revenues 4 to 8 per cent above their market. Meanwhile, 81 per cent of organisations say CX is a competitive differentiator. These stats are just two of many reasons why businesses prioritise CX. From greater customer retention to improved advocacy and operational efficiencies, the financial value of providing great CX is significant. Therefore, it is important to understand and communicate why you're focusing on customer experience. What financial goal will improving your CX help you achieve? Connecting you CX gains to financial outcomes can change the conversation entirely from something 'nice to have' to a 'must have'.
This goes for you customers as well as your employees. CX isn't just customer service, it's about delivering extraordinary experiences at every touchpoint. Therefore, you want to get your employees to buy in to a vision that everyone wants to be a part of, and clearly communicative all of the opportunities that this transformation will bring.
Having a vision is particularly important if for transitioning a business to a customer-centric culture. Without direction and clear goal posts, it is exceptionally difficult to not only assess how far you've come, but also keep employees motivated and your change management streamlined.
Develop metrics that people share responsibility and accountability for and that are clearly connected to customer-related KPIs. Develop accountability processes so that people are held to account. Siloed metrics achieves nothing as they won’t be accountable to the customer measures. As renowned management consultant Peter Drucker once said, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."
The only way for customer experience (CX) to be successful in your business is if it doesn’t compete with other initiatives like customer engagement, leadership, and innovation. Your CX complements them, and the key is to find the elements that link them all together. Your final objective will be to create a stronger organisation as an end result, therefore these elements will all need to work in unison.
Your CEO is the single biggest factor in your workplace culture and employee engagement. A study from MIT Sloan Management Review found that CEOs shape up to 70% of workplace culture through their actions and decisions. From having the power and influence to break down existing silos and approve any needed budget to enforce real transformation, they are crucial for transforming your business' employee and customer experience. So, get their buy in and get it early.
The truth is that what makes a business or any experience unique are human interactions. This is what will make your business stand out. Products can too easily be copied, and only real people can truly exceed customers' expectations to surprise and delight. Studies have found that organisations with highly engaged employees not only perform better financially, but also experience greater productivity, less staff turnover, and significantly higher customer ratings and sales—regardless of businesses size, location, and economic situation.
Therefore, a key part of your customer experience strategy should include employee experience.
Read more: The Management Guide to Employee Experience
CX is not just one person or one team's role—it's everyone's. Every employee has a part to play. This point is about instilling a mindset that holds everyone in the organisation accountable. CX will become a priority once everyone understands that CX is a collective responsibility. To speed this along, appoint CX leaders who provide the training and tools needed to empower employees to deliver amazing customer experiences.
Unless your CX initiative is going to be a sporadic occurrence, you need a long-term plan to ensures CX will be adopted across your business. Develop a comprehensive long-term plan where you pinpoint the existing skill set in the organisation. Your aim should be to develop those skills in other members of the team and appoint representatives to maintain the momentum of CX.
Learn more about how your business can succeed through digital disruption with our free Customer experience in an age of digital disruption ebook!