2. 89%
of customers think
they are already
paying for a great
experience
8%
think they are
getting the
experience they
paid for
80%
of CEOs think
their companies
are delivering
great experiences
You can’t keep
doing the same
thing and expect
different results!
Get clarity, stay focused and deliver.
Companies have been surveying, continually
improving, focusing on defects for the past 20 years.
Customer experience is not improving, actually by
every measure it is getting worse. It’s time to stop
being everything to everyone. To optimize your
customer experience investment, focus on what you
do well for customers who value your strengths. This
is the sweet spot where your effort will increase
revenue and profit.
3. STRATEGY
Don’t leave the quality of execution to
chance. Identify your stakeholders, your
advocates and your most vocal
detractors. Create an internal and
external strategy for shifting
perceptions, changing behaviors and
increasing profitable customers.INTENTIONAL DESIGN
Design the experience that will deliver the
greatest value to your most profitable
customers. Focus on what you do well and
the things that are easy for your team to
do consistently. Take ownership for what
you can control and create the customers
you need for tomorrow and into the future.
AUDIT
Understand the strengths and
weaknesses of the experience
you are delivering to your
customers today.
Stop trying to create “delight” and make customers happy.
“Delight” is ambiguous and difficult to measure. If you want
people on board, give them something that aligns with their
objectives, that delivers results. If you can’t connect the
dots, it is time to evaluate your program.
PRAGMATIC CX STRATEGY
3
4. If you are launching a CX program or you are meeting resistance
within your organization, an experience audit is a great tool for
identifying gaps in in your foundation and clarifying where you
should focus to maximize results.
Download the Worksheet
01 03
02
WHY
Customer behavior is the proof that your product is
meeting needs, that you are delivering meaningful value.
Behavior doesn’t lie. It doesn’t say things are worse
than they are and it doesn’t sugar coat because they
really like the person, but hate the product.
OUTCOME
Maximizing ROI and puttting the
right measurments in place is easy
when you focus your efforts on
understanding why some of your
customers are so profitable and
others drain your wallet and your
your staff.
HOW
Discover your most profitable customers and compare
their behavior to your least profitable. Identify specific
behaviors that if altered, will improve their experience and
your bottom line. With an eye on your near term strategy,
identify opportunities and risk for both your ideal and less
than ideal customers.
EXPERIENCE AUDIT
4
5. SIX STEPS TO CLARITY
01
02
EVALUATE PROMISES
What promises are you
making at the various stages
of your relationship with your
customers? Are you
consistent? Do you deliver?
IDENTIFY THE IDEAL
Which customers generate the
greatest profit, are the easiest
to work with, shout your praises
from the rooftops? Why?
04
WHAT DO YOU NEED
Who do your ideal and not ideal
customers need to become to
support your near term strategy?
How?
03
IDENTIFY THE DRAIN
Who are the customers that are never
satisfied, difficult to please and a drain
on resources and morale? Why?
05
GET SPECIFIC
Identify three feasible behaviors you can
shift that will make your less than ideal
customers more like your ideal.
06
TAKE ACTION
Identify what you will
need to create the shift.
What type of benefit will
the change create for
your organization?
6. Evaluate Promises
What promises do you make?
Not just in your marketing material, but in your sales
presentations, education material, onboarding sequence, support
calls, follow up materials and everything in-between
01 02 03
Map your promises
across the customer
relationship.
What are the explicit
versus the implicit
promises?
How well are you meeting
each promise? Do they
contradict each other?
7. IDENTIFY THE IDEAL
KNOWLEDGE
What skills and perspectives do they bring to
the relationship that other customers lack?
STRUCTURES
What processes or structures do they
have in place that ensures your
relationship is successful?
INTERACT
How do they interact with you and your
brand? How does that make your
relationship stronger? How do their
interactions make it easier to deliver what
they need?
TRENDS
Put aside what you think you know. What
is the data telling you? What industries,
types, size, are most successful and
profitable?
OUTCOMES
How do their unique traits drive improved
outcomes? How do they benefit your
bottom line?
Who are your
ideal
customers?
Which ones generate the most profit, are the
easiest to work with, shout your praise from the
rooftops?
Take all of your big data and voice of the
customer information you have been gathering
and figure out what makes them special.
Why do they get you and why do you get
them?
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8. IDENTIFY THE DRAIN
REQUIREMENTS
What special accommodations do they require
to be successful? Why do they have these
requirements? How does this impact your
organization?
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
What additional steps are required to
manage the relationship with these
customers? Quantify the cost of staff,
time, resources and lost opportunities.
INTERACT
How do they interact with you and your
brand? How does that make your
relationship weaker? How do their
interactions make it more challenging to
deliver what they need?
TRENDS
Put aside what you think you know. What
is the data telling you? What industries,
types, size customers are most likely to
struggle and are the most costly to
service?
OUTCOMES
How do their unique traits impact the
quality of the outcomes? How do they
impact your bottom line?
Which customers
are a drain on
your bottom line?
No one likes to talk about them, but everyone
knows who they are. They call and people hide.
They are a bad fit, expecting things you can not
deliver well.
They take up way too much time and they are
never satisfied – because you are not meeting
their needs and they are not meeting yours.
Frankly they do more harm than the benefit of
the revenue they provide.
Let’s figure out why!
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9. WHAT DO YOU NEED
CHANGE IN DIRECTION
Are you changing the fundamental way
in which you deliver your product or
service. New technology, new devices,
moving to the cloud versus physical
delivery, subscription versus one time
purchase?
NEW CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
Are you focusing on a new customer
segment? How will you continue to deliver
value to your ideal and manage those that are
struggling while directing energy toward your
new customers?
NEW PRODUCT LINES
Are you introducing a new product
line or technology that is going to
change how your customers do
what they current do?
Who do your
customers need
to become to
support your
strategy?
Are you shifting gears in your business? How
are your dream customers going to react to this
change? What is in it for them?
If your pursuing new markets, how are you going
to scale to continue to rock the experience for
your most profitable customers? What are your
risks & opportunties?
How can you begin now to prepare your
customers for the future?
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10. Take responsibility for your less than ideal
customers. Identify three specific behaviors
that if changed would make your challenging
customers more like your ideal.
GET SPECIFIC
FOCUS
Select elements that are within your ability to control and
that align with your core compentencies. Some
expamples are: Is costly behavior rooted in disjointed
promises? Is a costly behavior rooted in a lack of
knowledge? Can you shift behavior through more targeted
education?
PLAN
Support your data with some conversations and
observations. What would it take to change these
behaviors? Think beyond technology or process to human
behavior. How will you position the change with your
customers and with your internal teams to provide enough
benefit to justify the pain of change?
NARROW
Identify three behaviors that you believe, based on
available data, would be the easiest to shift. Often this is a
change that aligns with what the customer is craving, it
aligns with internal needs and objectives, and it will have a
measurable impact on the bottom line.
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11. The point of this exercise is clarity. It is not a end, but a tool
for focusing your customer strategy.
PROCESS AND ASSESS
So now what?If you want to build a strong, results oriented customer strategy, you must have a
solid foundation that will allow you to focus limited resources, deliver tangible results
and remove the overwhelm. The following steps may be necssary to firm your
foundation and we have you covered. Balentyne.com/musings is were we post our
tools and guidance. You can also register for upcoming webinars and workshops.
DATA
The number one issue many
companies have is a lack of visibility
across the customer relationship.
This is critical for calculating success
and ROI
VISABILITY
You may personally lack the visibility
across your organization to accurately
map the promises, technology,
processes and individuals involved.
INFLUENCE
You may be thinking: Who am I? I
don’t have access to this
information and even if I do, I can’t
make the case for change. You do.
We will show you how!
CUSTOMER
KNOWLEDGE
Many companies focus only on
existing data points and survey
results but fail to get out and actually
get to know their customers on a
human level. If you want to shift
behavior, you have to understand the
human behavior that influences
actions.
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