customer experience

Now that according to Gartner more than 90% of businesses compete primarily on the basis of customer experience (CX), it’s no longer enough to make CX a corporate priority.  The next competitive frontier is employee experience (EX) and the signs indicate so strongly that EX will become the next priority for organizations that I’m calling 2018 The Year of Employee Experience.

What Is Employee Experience?

I originally wrote today's post for CallidusCloud CX; it was published on their blog on June 21, 2017.

Not seeing the results or improvements you expected to see from your customer listening efforts?

Why is that? What's going on?

I've been known to cite two reasons for VoC program ineffectiveness:

Customer Obsession Is Fashionable

I hear more and more Middles & Tops mention the importance/need for customer obsession. It’s often used as an exhortation to the Bottoms – those on the front line.  Something interesting happens when I ask the speaker what s/he means by, is pointing at, when s/he speaks of customer obsession. Silence followed by stuff that shows up for me as either banal or made up on the spot.  Little in the way of thinking (as in contemplation) has occurred in many instances.

What Matters And Is Missing In Those Who Are Working On Improving The Customer/Employee Experience?

One might think by now that we would have figured out what makes for great customer relationships & experiences. Ask yourself have we figured this out?  Really, lets stop and really sit with this question.  What comes up for you?  Here’s what comes up for me:

When you decide to work in the ageing business you have to get used to talking and writing about subjects that marketers would prefer to forget or not know about. That includes both the young and old variety of marketers.

When you say your specialist area of expertise is the effect of physiological ageing on the CX you get some rally weird looks!

Just to add to the naturally occuring travails of older consumers, the normal results of ageing, there are a host of age connected illnesses and disabilities that they might develop.

When it comes to a customer experience transformation, is there a burning platform in your business? Or is everyone happy with the way things are? No need to change how you do business? How leaders conduct themselves? How your people are treated?

I've been writing a bit about complacency in business lately, including my last post from two weeks ago, Complacency or Innovation: You Decide.

I originally wrote today's post for CallidusCloudCX. It was published on their blog on April 24, 2017.

When you think of the phrase "inside out" relative to the customer experience, you probably cringe. This is not a phrase that customer experience professionals take lightly.

How can anyone become complacent about running a business? or about winning at business?

It happens!

It's a broad question, but if you think you're going to become complacent about the customer experience - and think that's OK - then you might as well be complacent about your business, in general.

How can you be sure that your VoC initiative stays fresh and relevant?

Continuous improvement is just important for your VoC initiatives as it is for your entire customer experience journey/transformation. What are you doing to ensure that your listening efforts are always fresh and relevant?