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Are your Customers the goal…Or just part of the machine?

We sometimes have an officious way of dealing with our Customers, almost as though they’re the problem that we have to deal with.  As Customers ourselves, we witness this all the time, and surely as CX professionals and leaders we’re also more aware of it when we see it.  It’s interesting, then, that it ever happens in the first place, considering the positions we hold and the authority we wield.

For instance, if you wanted to come up with the worst thing you can ever say to your Customer, you’d be hard pressed to beat: “Your ticket has been closed” when the issue hasn’t been resolved.  And yet, don’t we get that all the time?

I recently had a minor issue with a product and went online to submit a question about it.  I receive two emails three days later in rapid succession: (more…)

By | 2020-08-27T14:39:48+00:00 August 27th, 2020|Categories: CX Thoughts|0 Comments
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Building a Customer-centric culture

Here is the final post in a series about building a world-class CX program in your organization.  I introduced the component parts here, expounded on aligning your CX strategy here, delved into the Voice of the Customer here, and showed how to put it into action with your Process Engineering program here.  Now it’s on to building and supporting a Customer-centric culture.

“Well, culture’s a tricky one.”  So a guru once said to me about this ever-important aspect of corporate success.  And it’s obviously true.  HR departments and ‘climate committees’ spend lots of time and energy spinning up theories and ideas about how to improve and foster a great corporate culture.  It’s one of those things that’s easy to identify if it’s absent, but it’s challenging to identify steps toward achieving. (more…)

By | 2020-08-19T14:54:33+00:00 August 19th, 2020|Categories: CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, Leadership|0 Comments
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Do something! Process Engineering in your CX program

This is part three of a four-part series of posts about the components of a world-class CX function.  I began last week with an overview of the structure.  Since then I’ve posted on CX strategic alignment and your Voice of the Customer program.  We come now to the action part of this series of articles where I’ll emphasize what you do to improve your CX.  In the last installation we’ll discuss what it takes to build and support a Customer-centric culture.

One of the cliché lines I use with my clients (and anybody else who’ll listen) is that without action, your Voice of the Customer (VoC) program is a lot like the weather:  Sure it impacts you, and yes everybody talks about it, but nobody ever does anything about it.  A good friend of mine and CX guru Nate Brown will often say that too many folks see VoC as the finish line instead of the starting point that it really is.  In fact, if all you’re doing with your CX data is reporting it up to leadership, it’s not likely to be doing much good.  No matter how valuable the insights gleaned from (for example, but surely not limited to) survey data, it’s not going to do you any good if you’re not doing something with it.  First of all it’s a waste of your analyst’s time and effort to simply report it up the chain or put it on a pretty slide if you’re not going to act on it.  Secondly, and more importantly, it’s kind of an insult to your Customers to ask them for their input and not use it to improve their experiences.

So how do you do that? (more…)

By | 2020-08-29T19:46:31+00:00 August 17th, 2020|Categories: CX Thoughts, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Human touch or not? Today’s CXQODT

Sometimes I’m too literal, but Jeremy asks if we can deliver good CX without human interaction.

Well, your insights have to come from somewhere!

By | 2020-08-29T00:23:20+00:00 August 17th, 2020|Categories: CXQOTD|0 Comments
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Voice of the Customer basics

This is part two of a series of posts on the four components of a good CX system.  I introduced the concept here and my first post, on CX strategic alignment, is here.  Soon I’ll write about Process Engineering and wrap up with notes on what it takes to build and maintain a Customer-centric culture.

Folks often simply boil the Voice of the Customer (VoC) down to surveying.  This is a big mistake.  You’ve heard of the expression that we need to “meet the Customers where they are” when it comes to our offerings.  Well, gathering their input should also take that approach.  Just as different needs of different Customers are differently met by our products and services, so too should we understand the individuality and unique journeys of each segment of our Customer base when it comes to soliciting their feedback. (more…)

By | 2020-08-29T19:46:43+00:00 August 14th, 2020|Categories: CX Thoughts, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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CX Strategic alignment: The First Step

This post is part of a series on the four components needed for a CX organization to be successful.  An introduction to the concept can be found here, and look for briefs on the moving parts (VoC, Process Engineering, and CX Culture) coming soon.  Here we’ll kick it off with a discussion about aligning your CX strategy with your overall corporate strategy.

CX practitioners, and especially more-so leaders, talk a lot about aligning CX strategy with overall corporate strategy.  Sometimes, though, we think it’s just as easy as putting the Customers first, or centering “all” our decisions around the Customers’ experiences.
(more…)

By | 2020-08-29T19:46:57+00:00 August 12th, 2020|Categories: CX Strategy, CX Thoughts|0 Comments
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CX: How it all works

In this article I’ll explain the components needed in place to elevate an organization’s Customer Experience.  I won’t go too far in depth into the four parts but rather provide an overview of how they work together with a brief explanation of what they are.  Following, in a continuation of this series of articles, I’ll explain with more specificity how these work (and work together), as they each deserve their own writings.

(more…)

By | 2020-08-10T15:31:08+00:00 August 10th, 2020|Categories: Consulting, CX Culture, CX Strategy, CX Thoughts, Process Engineering, VoC|0 Comments
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