6 Steps to Help You Put Customers at the Center of the Organization, Part 2

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I originally wrote today’s post for Clicktools. It was published on their blog on October 25, 2016.

In this second part of a two-part series, I continue detailing some important ways to ensure that your company is putting the customer at the center of all it does.

In Part 1 of this two-part series, I left off with Step 3: Outline the Customer Lifecycle. In today’s post, I’ll pick up with the next step, mapping the customer journey, an important tool that helps put the customer front and center.

Step 4: Map the Customer Journey
Journey mapping is a way to walk in your customer’s shoes and chart his course as he interacts with your organization (channels, departments, touchpoints, products, etc.) while trying to fulfill some need or do some job within each stage of the lifecycle. It allows you to identify key moments of truth and to ensure that those moments are executed smoothly. Maps are created from the customer’s viewpoint, not yours, and look at each and every step a customer takes in order to achieve some task, i.e., calling support, ordering a product, etc., with the company. They describe what customers are doing, thinking, and feeling at each step in the journey. They’re not linear either, nor are they static. They become the backbone of your customer experience management efforts.

Why do you need a customer journey map? Journey maps provide clarity for the entire organization, helping to provide that clear line of sight to customers and ensuring that each employee understands how he impacts the customer experience.

Step 5: Listen to Your Customers
While VoC stands for “voice of the customer,” I like to use it to refer to “voice of the constituents” because there are so many voices that companies should be listening to as part of their efforts to improve the customer experience: voice of the customer, voice of the employee, voice of the partner, voice of the market, voice of the business, and the list goes on.

Traditionally, most of these voices have been captured through surveys or some other structured form that was initiated by the company, i.e., companies asked customers to provide feedback. Today, listening has become a better term to use, as customers also provide feedback on their terms, in their preferred modes, typically initiated by them in response to some stimulus or interaction. While asking puts the onus on the customer to respond, listening puts the onus on the company to be wherever customers voice their opinions. Examples of listening posts include things like social media (Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc.), customer immersion, customer advisory councils, voice of the customer through the employee (sales, customer service, etc.), CRM data, and more.

It’s important to listen to customers, but equally or more important are the actions you take on what you hear because, when you do, the benefits to the company – as a result of an improved experience for the customer – include:

•    A reduction in churn
•    An increase in saved customers
•    Stronger customer relationships
•    Potential new business from existing customers
•    Process improvements
•    New features and product enhancements
•    New product ideas
•    Recommendations or referrals from existing customers

Harvey Mackay says: You learn when you listen. You earn when you listen – not just money, but respect. I can’t argue with that. If you listen to your customers, if you use their feedback to not only make fundamental improvements to the experience but also to innovate, if you deliver a great customer experience – then the business, and the profits, will come.

Step 6: Socialize the Insights/Findings
You’ve done the work to understand the customer; now it’s time to ensure that he’s front and center. It’s time to socialize the feedback and findings so that the right people act on the right insights at the right time.

Here are just a  few things you can do to infuse the customer into everything the organization does. Key to this is to start at the beginning, i.e., start with the first day an employee starts working for your company. (Even better: start with the first day you start your company.)

  •     Onboarding: Showcase your customer-centric culture during the onboarding process so that new employees knows what that means. This is a great time for them to learn what it means to be a part of your organization, i.e., knowing your brand promise, values and commitment, what it means to live the brand, where the priorities lie, and how to deliver a great customer experience. Don’t have a formal onboarding process? It’s time to get one! This is a great time to set the tone for employees.
  •     Ongoing training: You can’t expect that, as both the business and customer expectations evolve, employees will automatically know what to do and adapt/evolve, too. You need to train employees regularly to ensure they are kept abreast of new customer insights and new approaches to delivering a great experience. Be sure to provide refreshers and reinforcement of anything you’ve learned about customers, the jobs they are trying to do, and their expectations.
  •     Communication: What gets shared and communicated regularly is viewed as important to your employees. Not only does communication lend clarity, it is critical to a clear line of sight to the goal. Communication needs to be open and ongoing. Share customer feedback with employees; don’t keep it from them. Tell customer stories and stories of great experiences to teach and to inspire employees to deliver the experience they need to deliver.
  •     Rewards and recognition: When you recognize and reward those who consistently delight customers, you are reinforcing the behavior you expect from your employees, further confirming and solidifying the importance of putting the customer at the center of all you do.

For a list of tools to put the customer at the center of the organization, check out Tools to Put the Customer at the Center of All You Do. I outline six tools that will absolutely help you put the customer front and center for the business.

My favorite? I’m a fan of having a chair for the customer in all key decision-making meetings. There’s no better way to draw attention to the customer and to ensure that all decisions made and actions taken are done so with the customer in mind. Try it for a while and see if it makes a difference in your company.

Are you using some of these steps? All of them? If not, when will you get started?

It is so much easier to be nice, to be respectful, to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and try to understand how you might help them before they ask for help, than it is to try to mend a broken customer relationship. -Mark Cuban

Read the original post here.