Let’s put the “customer” into customer experience.
What does that mean?
If you’re a customer of any business on this planet, no surprise here, you know this: most companies are not really focusing on the customer and the customer experience. They might be giving it lip service, but that’s not the same as actually doing the work, understanding the customer, and designing a great customer experience as a result.
What is customer understanding? And how can you achieve it?
Customer understanding is the cornerstone of customer-centricity.
What is customer-centricity? Exactly what the word says: ensuring that the customer is at the center of a business’s philosophy, operations, decisions, or ideas.
This is the main topic that Shep Hyken and I discussed recently on my second time on his Amazing Business Radio podcast. I was thrilled to be back on the show to talk about something that is top of mind for me every day: putting the “customer” into customer experience.
In order to ensure businesses are putting the “customer” into customer experience, they must first understand customers’ needs, expectations, the jobs they’re trying to do, and their desired outcomes. And then use that information to design a better experience. You can’t fake it. You just can’t
In recent research conducted by Capgemini, they discovered that 75% of companies believe they are customer-centric, while only 30% of consumers agreed. Yikes.
I’ve written several times that there are really three ways to achieve that understanding: listen, characterize, and empathize. Shep and I talked about these three approaches in our conversation, and as we talked about journey mapping and walking in customers’ shoes, we also got to expose Shep’s humorous side, as he cited the Jack Handey quote: Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes. LOL.
I’d be honored if you’d take 30 minutes to listen to our conversation. I promise it won’t feel like 30 minutes! The conversation is fast-moving and fun, yet packed with a ton of information that you need to consider in order to put the customer into the customer experience.
Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced. – John Keats
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