From the crisis of our time, to the struggle of all times; this spring has been the rolling white waters of a never-ending rapids. It is in these times that consistency matters, in over managing the fundamentals and in over communication of what an organization stands for and how it is here for its customers.
Customer Experience as defined by Wikipedia
“Customer experience (CX) is the product of an interaction between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship.”
As a reminder, customer service is not customer experience, just a portion of the experience. Often customer service is what is required when the experience has been going poorly.
These times require new thinking around the experience all organizations are offering. Every interaction counts, and all interactions create the product of the experience.
As leaders, we need to focus on creating a new, relevant experience for these new times.
As always, I am here to help. In keeping with the theme above, I have compiled additional resources for consideration—thoughts for the focus of your experience right now, and articles for future experience enablement.
This month’s roundup includes:
- SafeX is the new Moment of Truth (two-minute read)
- Welcome to the age of intelligence (five-minute read)
- Digital Growth and Consumer Convenience will drive the next normal (three-minute read)
- What I am currently reading and why – A bit of the lighter side of Steve.
My hope is you can use these resources to help you navigate the way forward for your organization.
Stay well,
-Steve
SafeX is the New Moment of Truth
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, safety is one of the base requirements. In this article I share a personal experience for when that need was not addressed.
SafeX is the new Moment of Truth, do your customers and staff feel safe?
Read more here
Welcome to the Age of Intelligence
CX has come of age.
Harley Manning, Forrester’s VP and research director serving CX professionals, recently shared this sobering prediction for 2020: One in four CX leaders will get fired this year if they cannot improve CX to ensure revenue gains or cost savings.
Indeed, more than half of consumers (54%) say CX at most companies needs some work, and a third (32%) will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience, according to PwC.
With that level of impact, there needs to be accountability.
And there needs to be a future focus. This article starts with these sobering stats only to delve into how areas of technology will impact the future customer experience such as:
Conversational AI
Emotion Detection and Recognition
Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality
Blockchain
A note of caution:
For all of these technologies to be utilized, brands need data, customer interaction and customer trust. To be able to be future-focused to create a remarkable future experience, it starts today with creating a foundation of trust and excellence in current systems, customer data management and a foundation of CX that proves ROI.
Read more here
Digital Growth and Consumer Convenience will drive the Next Normal
“Experiences will ultimately influence their demands and expectations.” Whether your brand is B2C or B2B or B2A (any). The customer experience your brand creates will be the differentiator between being a leader or a laggard.
To do this the classic areas of customer experience need to be focused on: Culture; Organization Strategy; Technology to enable and enhance the strategy and culture; anchored with Metrics to measure progress and gain complete customer understanding.
“Will it get easier?” Witcher asked. “No. We’re creating digital experiences everywhere; they’re ubiquitous and we’re creating more platforms for customers to engage with us.”
“COVID has actually validated and increased our conviction that we’re on the path,”
This article dives further into the direction needed to take the journey. But know this. Transforming your organization, culture and the way you interact with your customers is a journey that never ends. It is a mountain with no top. My advice is to get a guide and start climbing.
Read more here
What I am Currently Reading and Why
I am almost willing to admit that I am a book hoarder. Isn’t that the first step to recognizing you have a problem?
I fully admit that the purchase of our home for my part was entirely driven by my desire for the two-story bookshelf with catwalk. Upon first walking into the house, I imagined the view of books freed from my basement boxes, openly displayed so I could cruise the spines pulling out a treasure to leaf through or grab for reference.
Upon releasing my confined collection, happily, I discovered there yet remained space on the shelves. Filled with purpose, I immediately set to fill the space, visiting new and old book stores to “discover” books on a wide variety of topics, curated to my taste and areas of interest.
The upside is that I have amassed a small library of which, about 20%, I have not read. That said, unlike a good librarian, I did not catalogue my collection, so this past month as I cruised the shelves, I was delighted to find a book I did not know I had. Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon,
And that is one of the books I am reading, and below is the why.
-Jan Carlzon
I have quoted this book in speeches yet never read it. The book is often referred to as the seminal work for Customer Experience. I have intended to find it and read it, so you can imagine my surprise and delight when I came across it unexpectedly in my bookshelves.
It was not in my CX section; in fact, it was tucked on a low traffic shelf, plus it is a small book, so I suspect with those two factors that is why it has escaped my attention. None the less it does not disappoint.
It is old school formulaic and self-aggrandizing at times and yet genuinely depreciating at the same time. Jan Carlzon quickly marches through his career progression to provide context for crucial leadership and organizational tactics. At 135 pages, it is a quick read.
Profoundly Jan writes on page 133. ” I make no claim to having discovered a unique approach to doing business.”
His statement reflects that in 1987 the best practices of business have been around for a while. The best practices and customer-centric approach Jan took from 1974 – 1984, have stood the test of time, and I suspect they may stand for all time.
-Simon Sinek
I have read all of Simon’s books, Start with Why, Find your Why, Leaders eat Last, and the journey Simon has taken as reflected in his writing and speeches has been interesting. There has been a progressive elaboration of understanding on enlightened leadership.
So in reading, The Infinite Game I wondered, if you have not read his first two (Start with Why and Leaders eat Last); would you understand this current work? I can’t answer that, but I believe it is a stand-alone work.
The book is compelling and thought-provoking. If you are looking at developing a “just cause” for your organization, I highly recommend the read.
Downloads Available
Whether you are looking to map your customer journey, build customer profiles, set goals or conduct marketing channel ROI, check out the expanding set of tools available:
Steve’s first book Thriving in the Customer Age – 8 Key Metrics to Transform your Business Results teaches about the customer journey and provides a guiding framework spanning all stages of the customer experience. The book explains how every metric impacts an organization and how leaders can utilize each metric to create continuous improvement in their customer experience. Everyone knows the customer is the most important part of a business. This book provides the tools to improve an organization’s customer experience and drastically transform business results.
If you are looking to take your customer experience to the next level let’s connect!