Truly improving CX to ensure even good service experiences are consistently provided for every one of your customers is NOT Easy. I'm convinced most companies are going about their CX Transformations the wrong way. Here's why...
So start by accepting that fact, realising this is going to require deep strategic CX thinking across practically every area of the business, or at least those areas that interact with, or are involved with, selling and servicing customer products, solutions & services.
The techniques and approaches I make as a CX Leader have always been fairly consistent, so I'm sharing them here.
So, when I say deep strategic CX thinking, this is the first big failure point with most CX Transformations - they start out with the wrong structure and approach.
This deep CX Strategic thinking should NOT be about Journey Mapping, CX Insight VoC campaigns etc, and NEITHER should it be about deploying as much of the latest CX / CRM / AI Tech straight off the bat.. Don't get me wrong, they do have their place, but not yet...
Start With Customer Types, Not Journey Maps
CX Transformations should start with understanding who are your differing customer types (groupings, personas if you like). You want to give every customer a reasonable level of service experience (the more 'reasonable' the better) but you want to give your most valuable customers, or those with the most valuable need, amazing service experiences. So pick out under which circumstances your customer service experiences should be really 'special' and for whom...
These customer groups could be based on customer lifetime value, cost of the service purchased, loyalty, demographic profile etc. But clearly there will be situations in which one type of customer should be treated slightly differently to another type, and this could also absolutely depend on the Context of the situation..
So, this is just a placeholder of customer types as later on you need to consider the Context for each Customer Group, when an intervention is needed.
Map Every Lifecycle Stage, In Your Own Language
When you have your customer types, you should then consider every lifecycle stage and experience within each, that your Customer or Prospective Customer goes through for each customer type.
Lifecycle stages are typically :
Awareness, Interest, Intent, Purchase, Fulfilment, Activation, Support, Retention etc..
You must make your own Lifecycle stages completely clear and relevant to your own business. Literally think through every stage a customer may go through from finding out more about your brand, products and services, through to placing an order, and realising value from the product or service purchased, or even returning it.
Then think of what your Customer (or Prospect) experiences across each lifecycle stage actually look like right now across your business, across every channel and touchpoint.
Capture these, however you want, Service Design Blueprints can be a good start, but remember you're just concerned right now about what the customer sees and experiences.
Personally I use my own EPIC (Easy, Personalised, Intuitive & Contextual framework), but whatever works best for you.
It is vital you capture true customer experiences across every channel, including switching across channels from time to time. So walk into a store after making a call, make a call after having a chat session, revisit a website after sending an enquiry etc etc.
Of course you can look at customer data, complaints, VoC, CRM, Review sites, etc, and I do that for sure, but as a CX Leader I always start by walking myself in the customers shoes for all the above Lifecycle stages...
Turn Friction Points Into a Primary/Secondary Taxonomy
Personally I always unearth a plethora of customer friction and failure points, in which customers either give up, or have to battle through the most ridiculous of journeys to get an answer or even make a purchase... In most companies there are still truly some horrible experiences for customers and employees that just aren't being highlighted, let alone addressed, capture all of these...
When you've identified the failure / friction points (they are always there), get as much data as you can to see how often these issues happen on a typical daily, weekly, monthly basis. - Big issue may well be when the data does NOT exist in standard databased - That's when you must ensure data capture is put in place, again NOT an Easy Part of being a CX Leader, but getting data to back up the facts you uncover is vital... There is always a way...
Ok, so you have your biggest failure / friction points, and you have some data to back up how often it happens, there is your business case...
This is when the really Cool part starts if you know what you're doing as a CX Leader, but the not-so-Cool part, if you don't. And again it's here that far too many fail.
From the above process you should have captured all the possible reasons a customer may reach out, or need help across every lifecycle stage.
But this is where too many CX Experts get overly confused and complicated, so they don't know what to do next. Personally I just create circa 6-8 Primary Customer Interaction CX reasons, and 6-8 secondary Interaction CX reasons for each customer interaction type. e.g. 'Existing flight / Change date' or 'Order I'd like to make' / Delivery Question' etc etc
FYI this Primary & Secondary Customer Interaction hierarchical approach is then the perfect way to structure your CRM Case Management workflow, and better still, your Customer Service (self-service or human) interaction workflows...
If your customers can easily tell you their Primary and Secondary reason for wanting help, you can then quickly and easily assess what the best approach should be for that customer in that situation. Self-service or human, callback, message, or chat.. etc
Sell The Vision, Then Fight For The Roadmap Slot
It is now that you must create a compelling CX Strategic vision for 'how things should (and could) be done, for every customer type, across every lifecycle stage, and every channel. Draw some UX designs on a whiteboard, draft an omnichannel workflow to show when data needs to flow from one aspect of the situation / interaction to another, across every channel...
Come up with a one pager of CX principles, that will truly get people excited about this new world. I always do that, and it works !!
If you're the right sort of CX Leader, people will experience one of 2 things about your CX Strategic vision ;
1 - Huge excitement - how can we help ? this will make our CX truly outstanding!
or
2 - It will never happen - The Technology doesn't support that, we've tried something like that before (didn't work) - nobody else does it like that!
This is without doubt where great CX Leadership comes to the fore, and also why so many CX Transformations fail.
You must be a CX Leader that understands how to build an EPIC omnichannel interaction framework on a technical level. So of course you need to build a strong relationship with your CTO / CIO, understand their broader company Tech stack, and see if you can leverage that.
Often you cannot deliver your vision with existing CX Tech, and this is another huge aspect of being a strong CX Leader, you have to fight your battles, and prove your arguments, to get the right CX Tech platforms in place to deliver against your CX vision...
It is often a very difficult challenge to get the CX Tech you need, but this is where a strong CX Leader will bring it down to a fact based ROI argument.
So with the right level of understanding, and a good working relationship with the CTO / CIO and probably CEO, the investment case usually comes through. Then of course it comes to prioritisation, many CTO / CIO's will have long roadmaps for change which will not deliver your own CX Tech needs in time. Again, strong CX Leaders will find a way to make this happen, even if it means securing additional implementation resources directly.
So when you have a CX vision, and there is at least reluctant buy-in from the CTO / CIO the next stage is vital... Of course the CFO / CEO and any other relevant Execs need to be on board at this stage (Again, NOT Easy)...
Earn The Frontline's Respect Before You Share The Vision
You absolutely must have taken the time to first 'earn the respect' of all the people involved in customer experience delivery right now...
Those people out delivering parcels, fixing machines, answering calls, dealing with web chats, working in fulfilment areas, retail stores, airports, everywhere...
And you earn their respect by spending time with them, in their natural working environments, and also listening to them, really listening to them...
Then you need to spend just as much time as those people involved in Customer Experience that feel they don't necessarily 'interact with customers'.. Many of them have vital parts in the CX chain which they don't even appreciate.
The people designing the self-service knowledge articles, chatbots, or AI solutions, the people designing and updating website information, delivery tracking, order fulfilment etc...
Then when you've earned their respect AND listened to their own feedback, you can share back with each of them your CX vision of the future, see what they feel. Big picture it, sure, but make it relevant to them also.
The way you share this CX Vision, truly dictates what sort of CX Leader you are, as it absolutely needs to be relatable, challenging, inspiring and achievable.
Then the fun of setting up multiple components of CX work streams and establishing all the dimensions of an enterprise CX Transformation can truly begin.
And to be clear the CX Transformation Executive Sponsor should always be a strong CX Executive Leader.
The Bottom Line
This is just a high level summary of the approach I take, and of course there is a LOT more to it than even this.
But as recent statistics and polls have shown, the vast majority of CX Transformations are failing, Customers are reporting worsening satisfaction of their own experiences, and I strongly believe, companies need to get back to employing strong CX Leaders, those that truly understand the nuts and bolts of ominchannel customer service experiences, as well as the war wounds of fighting those CX battles with the Senior Executives.
Hope this makes sense ?
Keep CX EPIC !!!