We already know that in terms of priority, customer experience trumps price or product. Global spend on CX in 2022 is expected to reach $640 billion. How can you ensure you are not left behind?
Know And Understand Your Customer
The customer is the be all and end all. Understanding who your customer is, and how to exceed their expectations of having their needs met is the underlying factor of a great customer experience strategy. A genuine display of empathy, understanding, value and service will forge strong connections that manifest as loyalty and advocacy.
Break Down Silos
One of the greatest hurdles to CX success is organizational silos. Operating with separate business units does offer certain advantages. A sense of trust and connection occurs between members of the same unit. This contributes towards a positive work environment, effective communication and effective collaboration, resulting in increased productivity, focused goals, all of which are important objectives of business in today’s world.
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However, while silos do have their place, they tend to spur behaviour that is beneficial to only the silo instead if serving the best interests of the organization as a whole or its customers. Often, silos mentality restricts the sharing of data across divisions. Essentially, for true innovation to occur, there needs to be a sharing of ideas, capabilities, and data across silos. Furthermore, if each unit is focused on achieving their own objectives, there is a lack of alignment of vision across the organization. Highly siloed companies also have a harder time restructuring and operationalizing change solutions. We have all seen the importance of adaptability and agility to accommodate non-routine change. Of greatest consequence is the impact of silos on customer experience.
Along the journey, the customer experiences many touchpoints with the company. If your organization is characterized by extensive silos, the customer will experience mixed messages instead of a unified voice, and their experience with your organisation is less likely to be seamless. This depletes the trust they have in your company to fulfill their needs.
The purpose behind silos is to create efficient internal systems that really benefit the shareholder and employee with little consideration of the customer. But customers don’t care for your internal processes. They see your company as a single entity and expect you to be able to satisfy the reason for their interaction with you. They need individuals who are empowered and customer-centric and will offer them a consistent, personalized experience.
Breaking down the silos means bringing your teams together for shared customer feedback and to create an inter-dependence to meet customer expectations. Here’s how you can achieve this:
- Focus on the customer instead of on internal processes. Everyone in the company should understand that they are part of the customer experience.
- Implement a unified company vision
- Integrate and share data across touchpoints and channels
- Create an environment rich in collaboration, communication, and information-sharing.
- Base your reward system on customer satisfaction rather than efficiency in process
The business cycle has changed as have customer needs. Business designed for the client will drive impressive results. If you are still building highly siloed businesses, it’s time to bring the outside in and make it easier for clients to support you. It’s time for an updated CX strategy.
CX and Business Objectives
It is crucial that customer experience and business goals are aligned if one is to enjoy long term business growth. While we intentionally design experiences from the customers’ perspective, these need to be balanced with satisfying the business and financial goals for the organisation. CX transformation strategies are long term projects that often require great investments and often come under scrutiny by shareholders looking for short term ROI.
To ensure continued investment the CX team needs to engage mature measurement models and prioritization strategies that can accommodate an extensive but relevant customer journey while simultaneously satisfying shareholder objectives.
This can be achieved through
- Out-comes based processes and iterative measurement and implementation to ensure continued business viability.
- Knowing what the ultimate long-term goal is for the business, and the experience you want to create for tomorrow’s customer while at the same time driving current growth through CX success for today’s customer.
More Than Better Sameness
Are customers always on a journey? Do they need to be? Sometimes creating extraordinary experiences is about directly connecting a solution with a need.
Furthermore, by sticking steadfast to journey methodology may create a detailed, predictable experience, but it also means that any improvements you try implement along the same sequence of events are in truth, small changes that are just more of the same. The key is to create something that grabs the attention of your customers – something truly extraordinary.
Find your balance
At Interact RDT we partner with you to create extraordinary experience for all your stakeholders – customers, employees, and investors. We will align your CX and business strategies with your objectives. Let’s get started!
