Six Steps to Best-in-Class Customer Experience


The Customer Experience (CX) field is growing, and companies are realizing that it makes clear business sense. For companies that practice CX, MarketsandMarkets.com predicts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.3% from 2014 to 2019. But how do you ensure the investment you place in CX will be well spent?

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Six Steps to Best-in-Class Customer Experience
1. 1. suitecx ©2015,  suitecx  Inc.   September  23,  2015   Six  Steps  to  Best-‐In-‐Class  Customer  Experience   Creating  and  Executing  a  top  CX  Program  Yields  Real  Business  Results   The  Customer  Experience  (CX)  field  is  growing,  and  companies  are  realizing  that  it  makes   clear  business  sense.  For  companies  that  practice  CX,  MarketsandMarkets.com  predicts  a   compound  annual  growth  rate  (CAGR)  of  17.3%  from  2014  to  2019.  But  how  do  you   ensure  the  investment  you  place  in  CX  will  be  well  spent?     After  20  years  of  experience  in  Customer  Experience  Management  consulting,  we  have   determined  that  there  are  six  key  steps  to  deliver  a  best-‐in-‐class  customer  experience.   These  steps  should  ideally  be  executed  in  sequence  so  as  to  realize  maximum  value.     Step  1:  Start  by  understanding  how  your  brand  promise  actually  works  for  your   CUSTOMER.   The  brand  promise  is  the  commitment  a  company  makes  to  its  partners  and  customers.  It's   not  a  description  of  what  a  company  does  in  a  literal  sense,  but  rather  an  insight  into  the   company's  character.  To  some  extent,  it's  a  mission;  it's  the  way  in  which  the  company   creates  and  delivers  relevant  value.  The  brand  promise  is  where  trust  and  commitment  –   just  like  all  human  relationships  –  is  built.   You  need  to  understand  your  brand  and  how  it  delivers  value  to  your  customers.  Great   examples  of  brand  promises  are:   •  Starbucks:  To  inspire  and  nurture  the  human  spirit  –  one  person,  one  cup  and  one   neighborhood  at  a  time. •  Jaguar:    With  a  customer  experience  as  good  as  our  cars. •  Nike:  To  bring  inspiration  and  innovation  to  every  athlete  in  the  world.   What  does  your  brand  stand  for?  Are  you  delivering  on  the  promise?  Are  you  reinforcing  your  value  in  everything  you  do?  Have  you  defined  what  the  customer  should  expect  at   each  customer  touch-‐point? Step  2:  Develop  a  customer  experience  strategy.   What  is  the  customer  experience  you  need  to  deliver  to  be  competitive?  How  do  you   ensure  that  it  is  delivered  consistently  across  all  your  delivery  channels?  Have  you  defined   what  a  high  quality  experience  is  so  that  employees  know  how  to  deliver  it?   Your  customer  experience  strategy  should  impact  whom  you  hire,  how  you  train  people.   Thought Leadership A  study  by  Forrester   Research  and   Watermark   Consulting  tracked   the  six-‐year  stock   performance  of     companies  on   Forrester’s  Customer   Experience  Index.   Even  during  the   recession  years  of   2007-‐2012,   customer  experience   leaders  averaged double-‐digit  gains  in   stock  performance,   beating  customer   experience  laggards   by  an  impressive   margin. -‐-‐Customer  Strategist October  2014 and  how  you  empower  them.    To  begin  to  understand  your  current  state,  survey  your  customer  facing  employees  as  well  as  your   customers  get  their  feedback  on  where  the  gaps  and  opportunities  are.  Make  plans  to  fix  what  is  broken  and  empower  your  staff   to  take  part  in  the  process Step  3:  Know  yourself  –  and  the  experience  you  are  delivering  –  across  the  customer  lifecycle. Different  customers  have  different  needs  at  different  points  in  the  customer  lifecycle.  At  the  beginning  when  prospects  are   researching  you  need  to  be  sure  you  land  in  their  consideraAon  set.  Make  sure  you  place  yourself  in  the  right  spots  to  make  it   easy  to  learn  about  you  and  understand  your  value.  What  is  your  reputaAon?  What  do  other  customers  like  and  dislike?   In  the  purchase  cycle  customers  are  comparing  product  features  and  prices  to  see  if  you  are  the  best  fit.    Once  purchased,  if  the   product  or  service  doesn’t  live  up  to  customer  expectaAons,  you  will  know  it  either  by  complaints  or  by  customer  churn.  
2. 2. suitecx ©2015,  suitecx  Inc.   September  23,  2015   About  suitecx® Backed  by  over  120  years  of  combined  experience  in  customer  experience  consulAng,  suitecx  is  a  set  of  software  tools   that  allow  users  to  make  fact  based  decisions  and  process  improvements  that  are  grounded  in  the  customer  experience.   Customer-‐centric  diagnostics,  touch  inventories,  journey  maps,  customer  storytelling  and  precision  markeAng  are  all   components  of  this  groundbreaking  soTware. Six  Steps  to  Best-‐In-‐Class  Customer  Experience   Crea?ng  and  Execu?ng  a  top  CX  Program  Yields  Real  Business  Results   Thought Leadership  Comfortable  customers  already  in  a  relationship  want  you  to  remember  them  and  communicate  with  them  with  relevance,   using  that  knowledge.  Use  evidence,  such  as  behavioral  and  lifecycle  data,  to  engage  and  interact  with  your  customers   intelligently  and  value  their  connection  to  your  brand.     Mapping  the  customer  journey  allows  you  to  see  the  different  challenges  unique  to  each  lifecycle  stage.    Make  sure  to  gather   data  from  all  departments  to  provide  an  evidence-‐based  approach  to  making  recommendations  for  change.   Step  4:  Plan  for  different  customer  segments.   Different  groups  of  customers  have  different  value  and  needs,  and  it  is  up  to  you  to  plan  your  customer  experience  by  the  needs   of  each  customer  segment.  Knowing  what  each  segment  wants  and  what  they  consider  to  be  a  good  experience  is  crucial  to   success.     Some  customers  may  prefer  self-‐service  while  others  want  a  high  touch  experience,  for  example.  Some  customers  prefer  to  take   away  and  others  want  to  eat  in.  Match  the  customer  experience  to  the  different  groups  to  be  sure  they  get  what  they  expect   and  desire.       Step  5:  Prioritize  your  improvement  plan.   Once  you  have  completed  your  surveys,  journey  mapping,  mystery  shopping  etc.,  you  will  have  a  long  list  of  required   improvements.  In  order  to  make  progress  you  will  need  to  group  the  improvements  into  categories  and  then  get  your  team   together  to  prioritize  these.    Key  considerations  for  prioritization  include:  cost  to  implement,  ease  or  difficulty  of   implementaAon,  the  expected  impact  on  the  customer,  and  the  impact  on  your  organizaAon.       The  prioritization  exercise  leads  to  a  longer-‐term  improvement  roadmap  that  can  be  funded  and  managed  by  your  resources   over  a  multi-‐year  cycle.  Be  sure  to  assign  specific  individuals  to  run  each  project  and  provide  them  with  a  project  charter,   defined  deliverables  and  a  budget.     Step  6:  Review  and  improve.   Nothing  is  static.  You  will  always  be  gathering  more  information  and  your  channels  will  morph  and  change.    In  order  to  innovate   your  CX  to  match,  you  will  need  to  constantly  innovate,  test  and  measure.    Never  be  satisfied  that  you  are  finished  improving   your  customer  experience.  Continue  to  look  at  other  industries  for  best  practices,  bring  in  outside  perspectives  to  be  sure  you   aren’t  overlooking  something,  and  consider  yourself  a  student  of  customer  experience  who  is  always  learning  and  improving.   Why  invest  in  CX?   The  bottom  line  is  that  what’s  good  for  the  customer  is  good  for  the  company.    Retained  customers  are  4X  more  profitable.     Acquisition  by  referral  and  social  sharing  costs  almost  half  of  tradiAonal  acquisiAon  spend.    Companies  who  lead  in  CX  are  15X   more  profitable  through  reduced  costs  and  higher  profit  margins.    While  it  may  not  be  easy  to  get  there,  doing  the  right  thing  by   your  customers  will  yield  a  guaranteed  payoff.