Your KPIs aren’t as important as your Customers’ actual experiences
Let me be scandalous for a second here (okay, it’s not nearly as scandalous as I sometimes get in real life, but bear with me): Stop looking at your scores. Just stop. […]
Don’t let your most valuable resource go
I’m blessed to have been recruited to work in the field of Customer Experience. I came to the practice of CX via Process Engineering (Lean Six Sigma, or LSS). Using PE to better our CX is an incredibly fulfilling use of a legacy approach to improving what we do. Years ago, before I was involved [...]
Don’t tell me you love me
A few years back I was at lunch with a mentor and there was something we needed or wanted that we had to ask for. The waiter replied somewhat along the lines of: “Well, we’re not supposed to do that, but I’ll go ahead and do that for you.” We thanked him, but after he [...]
Chesterton and his gate
One of my favorite Process Engineering tools is the Five Whys. The basic principle is to consider a problem or imperfection, ask why it’s the way it is, and then ask why that explanation is so. We keep digging (as the title suggests, five times, but your mileage may vary) until we’ve uncovered the true [...]
The risks of executive escalations
Executive escalations can be a real life-saver for an organization. Whether it’s a high-profile Customer or just someone whose experience has gone completely off the rails, sometimes escalating dramatically can truly save the day for CX. I recently had an experience that was saved by an executive escalation. I happen to know a Senior Director [...]
Maybe you are already “doing” CX
“You’re soaking in it.” Do you remember that commercial for dishwashing soap that was supposed to be so incredibly good for your skin that the lady who’d gone in (to see Madge, remember?) for a manicure was unknowingly enjoying its benefits, thinking she was dipping her fingers into some wonderful skin tonic? Or have you heard [...]
The struggle for feedback
I came across the following article I wrote in an earlier part of my consulting career (I was much thinner then). Without knowing it at the time, I foreshadowed a lot of reflection that I use now as an executive CX consultant and Fractional CCO. At the time my practice was mainly focused on training [...]
Don’t ask questions if you already know the answers
A good lawyer never asks a question for which he doesn’t already know the answer. That’s not necessarily just about being smart and being prepared. Frankly, it’s a manipulation technique used to sway juries and judges: When they get a witness on the stand, the most important thing for an attorney is to control the [...]
Metrics: Output vs. Outcomes
Y’all know I’m a big fan of metrics. Long before I was in CX, I was in Process Engineering (Lean Six Sigma and Operations Research), and long before that I was an analyst. My BS is in Mathematics, and I teach Statistics at the Air Force Academy. So yea, I dig numbers. I write about them [...]
Channel Surfing
I have covered my experience using Twitter to solve a support problem in a previous article. For many CX (and definitely Customer support) professionals, the channel is ‘the thing’. We often talk about switching channels, being multi-channel, being omni-channel. It sometimes seems like an obsession. A colleague recently posted in one of the online discussion [...]
