Is Your Organisation Strategically Focused On Customer Experience?
A recent Walker research paper reports that by 2020 Customer Experience will overtake Price and Product as the key brand differentiator in the marketplace. That’s huge. This is a major shift in the business world, and forward thinking organisations are already aligning, or in the process of aligning their strategy to reflect the central importance of Customer Experience. But with this shift in strategic focus comes some challenges that every organisation needs to overcome.
The Challenges
Organisational-Wide Buy-In
Moving Customer Experience into the core of an organisation’s strategy is going to create the need for change, and change is always a bumpy ride. The bigger the organisation, the more turbulence is likely. The key is to ensure buy-in happens on more than just a Tow-The-Party-Line, lip service level. It needs to sink in deep. The change needs to bring with it an authentic appreciation that this strategic focus will tangibly help them win in the marketplace.
Aligning Perceptions
Customer Experience is one of the most used buzz words at the moment, but what does it mean? Ask ten employees and you will likely get ten different answers. The challenge here is aligning everyones perception of Customer Experience by enlarging their current understanding and broadening their insights at the same time. Getting teams on the same page in regards to what Customer Experience means, how it can practically be leveraged, and how it effects all areas of the business results in greater synergy with team members across the whole spectrum of the business.
Empowering Teams To Implement
The research is clear. Those that succeed in delivering the best customer experience will win in the marketplace. Organisations all over the world accept this and are shifting their strategy to reflect its importance. However, for this strategy to succeed teams need to be empowered in such a way that they can imbed the Customer Experience into their own workflow and projects, regardless of their position or function. The challenge of supporting staff to understand and appreciate the value of Customer Experience and empowering them with the tools and resources to implement it will be a major factor in how successful an organisation is in rolling out their Customer Experience strategy.
Positioning Clarity As King
With the rise of Customer Experience, the old king, Content, has been dethroned. It’s not fallen far, and still wields great power, but it has been replaced. In the new world where Customer Experience is the key brand differentiator, clarity is king. The onus is now on organisations to be clear on what they want their customer experience to be and how effectively they build their plans off this clarity. Those that do this well will develop and implement the processes and programs required to move Customer Experience from an abstract concept to a tangible metric, one that not only moves the needle, but has the potential to usher in an era of significant business transformation.
Customer Experience: How to Win in the Marketplace
The Starting Point
Confusion & Basic Understanding
Team members are enthusiastic about the idea of Customer Experience, yet are unsure how it should work practically. Empowering training that equips and clarifies ensures the team step out of the status quo of confusion.
The Turning Point
Insight & Appreciation
With clear, engageing and interactive training your teams can move from a basic understanding and into the critical 'Aha' moments of deep insight. This insight transitions staff to appreciate in a tangible way how stratically focusing on Customer Experience will be a game changer for the organisation
The Winning Point
Engage & Tranform
When your staff are trained and equiped with insights and appreciation for the Customer Experience, they can take the tools and resources and practically engage with implementing Customer Experience projects that support the overall strategy of the organisation.