The smartest companies don’t give you much choice. They don’t ask you what you want, they know what you need and that simplicity, as it turns out keeps costs down, boosts service and grows revenue.
This counter intuitive approach to customer experience is, according to Siegel+Gale, preferred by two out of every three customers. Interestingly we are more likely to recommend a brand that saves us time and makes it easier to buy, hence the German supermarket chain, Aldi, with few choices and focus on quick in-out for the regular shop, tops Siegel+Gales 2017 simplicity league.
Fellow German competitors Lidl are a close second with a similar proposition aligned towards successful customer outcomes – getting in easily, moving around and selecting quickly, paying lower prices, and fast exit. This simplicity isn’t however just the province of global discount chains as the top six for simplicity include Netflix, Google and Amazon whose respective digital experiences all boast ease of use, quick to results and great touchpoints.
As a Netflix customer I am… review the complete article and access the Simplicity League from Siegal+Gale on LinkedIn Pulse
Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Emirates success
Accredited CX Professional, Masters & Champions (ACXP, ACXM, ACXC) Program
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 180 times, in 64 cities with delegates from 118 countries. The program, now in its eleventh year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
“We have got to get more scientific about the Customer Experience.”
Strategic positioning of customer experience is now widely recognized as a key to business success. However, the majority of many well-intended CX initiatives is to become a victim of the organization inertia and sink to the level of metrics on dashboards buried in functional departments. At best these failing efforts deliver small incremental performance improvements rather than providing the customer and business insights necessary to strategic success.
Why is this so, and what lessons can we learn?
We have identified five major errors and causes of failure
1. Top teams have unreasonable expectations of CX success
2. Customers needs are not clearly defined from the Outside-In
3. CX Initiatives are not implemented with transformation in mind.
4. CX Initiatives focus on the wrong measures, rather than successful customer outcomes.
5. CX Initiatives go way down deep into functional complexity
Error #1: Top teams anticipate CX Success without understanding the enterprise was never designed to do this stuff.
Talking about customer experience and implementing the changes necessary to delivering CX success are two quite distinct things. Many organizations brief their senior people with the importance of the business transformations underway, why a focus on the customer is essential to survive and thrive, and why it is necessary that the dots are connected from every activity to the customer experience. Fair enough. However, Top teams then anticipate internal leadership towards customer centricity but at the same time do not enable the underlying functions to realign to achieve successful customer outcomes.
The realization that the organization structure, rewards systems and technology were never designed to deliver great customer experiences, they were in fact originally designed with an industrial age mindset to achieve industrial age goals. To achieve strategic CX success, it is necessary to understand the limitations imposed by inside-out thinking (getting better at doing stuff faster) and help the organization migrate to Outside-In thinking and practices (alignment to delivering Successful Customer Outcomes)
Error #2: Customers needs are not clearly articulated and underpinned by smart Outside-In metrics.
The challenge here is two-fold. Do we understand who our customers are, and what success looks like from their perspective?
It is frequently observed that 80% of profit comes from 20% of customers however organizations are especially fickle when it comes to understanding where they should focus limited resource to get the maximum sustained return from the appropriate customers. Good discipline here is about identifying the categories of customer and prioritizing them in terms of needs and success. That can mean migrating away from undesirable customers. Intrinsic in this failure is arbitrarily segmenting customers by circumstance (where they are based, the length of relationship, immediate spend available etc.) rather than categorizing customers based on their needs.
Needs assessment is NOT about asking customers what they want. If you asked your kids what they want for dinner, don’t be too surprised if they say burgers, ice cream, chocolate and gummy bears, on one plate. That question is just plain stupid. So why go asking customers what they want? Smart CX companies figure out their customer needs even when the customer doesn’t know them. Case in point would be the launch of the iPhone more than a decade ago. Apple’s genius was in understanding the new customer and getting ahead of the game to design products and services that met, at the point of launch, something customers could never have articulated. This is not, however, an excuse to stop listening to customers, that is more essential than ever before. Just stop asking them dumb questions which may cause you to do the wrong things (rather like Nokia did).
Error #3: For CX initiatives delivering success will require change and transformation
This is a very common problem and is rooted in the idea that CX initiatives are just another thing to integrate into the existing ways of working. This couldn’t be further from the truth. A fundamental of successful CX initiatives is identifying and implementing the ongoing change required across the enterprise to align everything to Successful Customer Outcomes.
Once the customer needs are articulated work backward to recraft the appropriate structures that will guide the enterprise progressively towards success. That will, of course, require potentially significant changes to the shape and technology of how work gets done. It will reach into every nook and cranny of the business. Ultimately the organization may look quite different from the industrial age model and will become shaped to achieve the ongoing change brought about by the digital revolution.
Error #4: CX Initiatives focus on the wrong measures, rather than successful customer outcomes.
The Successful Customer Outcome is like the beacon on the hill; everyone should be aligned and progressively moving in that direction. If your metrics are not contributing to that alignment, you may be getting better at doing the wrong things (in the context of delivering an optimized CX).
Here’s a good question to ask anyone in the business “is everything you are doing aligned to delivering a successful customer outcome?” and if the answer comes back with anything other than “yes, 100%” you may be doing dumb stuff really well. The why of that is easy to understand – you get what you measure, and frequently companies excessively measure outputs (what is produced) rather than business outcomes (what is delivered). If you task people to measure outputs and reward them for improving those outputs, there is often a repeated disconnect between the work performed and the end customer delivery. Getting a balance right here is essential.
There is a remarkable lack of science in this sphere of CX Initiatives. Reliance on simplistic measurement systems, with ‘one question rules them all’ approaches is not only misleading but may cause you to do precisely the wrong things.
Error #5. CX Initiatives go way down deep into functional complexity
CX Initiatives have lofty visions but all too often become bogged down in organization politics and the natural resistance to change. Often the local leadership pays lip service to the customer experience ‘it is not my job after all’ and this resulting crawl ultimately thwarts the CX initiative.
To deliver and ensure ongoing success the guiding light of the Successful Customer Outcome and it is associated focus on winning the triple crown – simultaneously improving the Customer Experience, Reducing Costs and Growing Revenues – should be on every agenda in the business. Linking the triple crown across the departments and divisions dispels the practical objections as everyone becomes accountable for demonstrating their substantial triple crown contribution. This, in turn, ensures a significant contribution to delivering the ROI for the CX Initiative.
There are many bear traps and blind alleys to avoid on the journey to delivering CX success however an understanding of the most common errors will ensure a greater chance of success. After all the goal is to deliver strategic Successful Customer Outcomes that result in terrific and rewarding customer experiences.
Is the education system letting your kids down? Are the young folks joining us in the workplace equipped for the Digital Customer Age? Do you suspect ‘education’ is broken?
Watch this amazing video that puts education on trial… thanks to Tanguy Petre, CPP Champion @tpetre0168 for spotting this terrific and scary piece 🙂
Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Emirates success
Accredited CX Professional, Masters & Champions (ACXP, ACXM, ACXC) Program
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 180 times, in 64 cities with delegates from 118 countries. The program, now in its eleventh year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Honestly, someone has got a grip on this. How can a definition be so difficult to come by? They are either soft, fluffy and meaningless or, try as they might, nothing to actually do with delivering successful customer outcomes. So there you have it, and here is the definitive definition:
Customer Experience Management (CEM or CXM) is a strategic approach used most commonly as a competitive differentiator. It involves aligning every aspect of an organisation towards the delivery of customer needs and successful outcomes no matter how far removed the customer is perceived to be.
This includes:
•Customer journey – what the customer does, expects and feels.
•Customer Interactions.
•Supporting internal process.
•Associated team and hierarchy structures.
•Performance metrics.
•Digital capabilities.
•Vision, mission & strategy.
Typically companies who engage in Customer Experience Management activities out perform those who do not.
Towers-Dodkins
“We have got to get more scientific about the Customer Experience”
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Today’s internet consumers want their online questions to be addressed promptly; 42% expect a response within one hour. (Ohio University)
Failure to respond via social channels can lead to a 15% increase in the churn rate. (Gartner)
When companies engage and respond to customer service requests over social media, those customers spend 20% to 40% more money with the company than other customers do. (Bain & Company)
Customers who encounter positive social customer care experiences are nearly 3 times more likely to recommend a brand. (NM Incite via HBR)
Companies with a social care program experience a 7.5% YoY increase in customer retention – those without only see a change of 2.9%. (Aberdeen)
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Here is a two-minute snap video and a copy of Outside In The Secret, the seminal book that will change the way you think about work forever. (updated for 2021)
Join your fellow professionals in getting more scientific about the Customer Experience.
Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?
We all wish to cut through digital overload and focus scarce attention on the things that contribute to our busy business lives. Here we have pulled together, based on membership feedback ‘must follow’ blogs.
They are Rated by CPP professionals for their content, objectivity and interesting articles/research into Customer Experience Management.
So what matters most? (1) information content (2) relevance to the actionable content (3) popularity in terms of readership, and last but not least (4) credibility in the eyes of the customer and process community.
Naturally this research is a moving feast and will evolve further, we will keep you in the picture… visit the top 5 table here.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
