Learn from Qualtrics professionals how to build and execute a customer experience program. Part one of a four-part series, this session lays the foundation of how to build a CX vision by following 7 key factors for success.
(see page 7 of Ultimate Guide)
Micro:
identifying issues and solving right away—a hotel guest who had a bad meal in the hotel. Following up involves creating formal or informal processes and workflows to follow up. Call it closing the loop or case management, it can be as simple as a manager talking to the front line staff or an email generated to the sales rep or service manager.
Macro:
Something that re-occurs. Like long lines in a particular retail shop or bank branch
Takes large scale change
Best practices: give one person the responsibility and authority to make it better
External: how do we learn what they think
Customers do not always tell us about problems, they just leave (especially in the midwest and the south)
Have seen as high as 30% problems, and 29% cross sell opptys
No brainer ROI case
Internal: criticism is a gift because we can react
Worst case scenario is not reacting, or reacting poorly.
How do you build an organization that is CAPABLE of serving customers? Not all companies are capable.
Tie webinar to others: they focus on 3 fundamental components
Collect
Every touchpoint you can get feedback, also broader relationship
Every method you can get feedback
Analyze
Trending scores, text analytics, key driver analysis
I would also include in this getting the feedback into the hands of you front line staff so they can understand
Act
Enabling your staff to do something about it
Providing tools for case management, coaching for how to address issues
To lay the foundation, quick
2 broad concepts to keep in mind
Organizations often only focus on the macro and the external
Others implicitly know and follow this
There are 7 factors I will touch on.
Leaders set the tone and priority
EXECUTIVES: Recent study the largest companies in the US, 98% vs 40%
CX LEADER: crystalize the vision and lay the course
MANAGER: don’t roll their eyes at flavor of the month
FRONT LINE: what does it actually mean on a day to day basis
Q: Can you succeed without strong leadership? Very very hard, but not impossible
Show a clear case of great ROI- one call center, one branch, one unit
Create some specific case study: show a few concise examples of impact
Vision statement:
Keep it simple and clear, share across the organization. Every employee should be familiar. Too many times I have seen it hidden within CX function.
Then add specific goals:
to gain the highest business traveler ratings of any hotel in NY
To have top quartile loyalty among our Chicago banking customers,
Win major awards for service in the airline industry
Then add specific milestones that help to set timing expectations:
assess where we vs competition stand by end of Q3 this year,
by end of Q4: figure out what the top performers are doing differently,
By end of Q1 next year, create and get org buy-in a specific strategy to close the gaps,
implement by end of Q2 next year
Beat the competition by mid 2018
Share the vision across teams
Others can support it early on, and provide feedback, increase chance for success
sometimes the back office operations does not see the client and does not understand their impact.
A clever client asked back-office staff how their actions affect clients. They were shocked that many did not know. When they did, they made processes much easier.
SHARE, SHARE, SHARE impossible to over communicate
Employee engagement with the process increases results tremendously
Capture feedback however the customer or client wants to give: social media, phone surveys, email surveys, website feedback,
Remember: surveying becomes part of the customer’s experience.
Don’t make it painful
no ugly surveys! No pop overs on my web pages1
Also, feed customers back the results as much as possible. (Regions Newsletter example)
Share: overall results at first with just the executive team, then eventually specifics with the front line
Careful:
Be careful about open ends. Don’t lose control of the message
Vet them to make sure they reflect the overall sentiment
And screen any unproductive comments (worked with a client who had the CEO virulently criticized in an open end, and the program was tainted by that)
Implement:
This is part of the customer’s experience.
no ugly surveys! No pop overs on my web pages1
Also, feed customers back the results as much as possible. (Regions Newsletter example)
Let:
social media, inbound customer service calls, text, SMS,
or NO feedback at all (keep careful lists)
Share:
overall results at first with just the executive team,
then eventually specifics with the front line
Careful:
Be careful about open ends. Don’t lose control of the message
Vet them to make sure they reflect the overall sentiment
And screen any unproductive comments (worked with a client who had the CEO virulently criticized in an open end, and the program was tainted by that)
Alignment means that all units are marching in sync toward the same vision and outcomes
Be sure to share the vision as I mentioned before
Often companies work in siloes and no one has the ultimate responsibility for satisfying the customer, and problems get bounced around and go unsolved
How to prevent this?
Best to start from a customer perspective: if it turns out that unhappy customers say you are not responsive, dig in.
Hold times? If so, why? Staffing in the call center? Not enough people trained to address key growing issues?
Best practice: successful orgs then assign one person, outside the siloes, to figure out a solution
It IS a journey, and a LONG one
need to line up different people at different stages:
Lots details: when do we form a steering committee? Who needs to be on it?, when to roll out internal branding of the CX program?, who will develop the branding? who gathers client lists? When do we start integrating the results into our CRM system? Who is responsible for that? Who in the executive team sees the initial results? When do we show everyone their results?
Planning out ahead of time enables things to go smoother, and gets people prepared to chip in
Helps manage senior leadership expectations, they can see that there is a lot that needs to happen
Most common question is: How long
Totally new might take well over 5 years to do everything.
Modifying or consolidating programs: 18 months is fastest, generally 2+ years
All the best programs in the market are over 10 years old, and most were not working well for some part of that
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT
Cannot be built overnight, this week, this month, this year.
Organizations that try to rush it, inevitably fail
I will have several clients tell me in the next month: “President says we need a VoC program this year and wants it linked to compensation by the end of the year”
Unless someone can convince them to slow down, each of those will fail.
But if you must, HOLD OFF on compensation linkage until you have buy in
Cannot be outsourced!!
As a former strategy consultant, I was paid millions for the promise that we could implement this for large corporations.
And while our strategy was sound, Culture eats strategy for lunch.
So YOU have to take control.
GOOD LUCK!
(see page 7 of Ultimate Guide)
Micro:
identifying issues and solving right away—a hotel guest who had a bad meal in the hotel. Following up involves creating formal or informal processes and workflows to follow up. Call it closing the loop or case management, it can be as simple as a manager talking to the front line staff or an email generated to the sales rep or service manager.
Macro:
Something that re-occurs. Like long lines in a particular retail shop or bank branch
Takes large scale change
Best practices: give one person the responsibility and authority to make it better
External: how do we learn what they think
Customers do not always tell us about problems, they just leave (especially in the midwest and the south)
Have seen as high as 30% problems, and 29% cross sell opptys
No brainer ROI case
Internal: criticism is a gift because we can react
Worst case scenario is not reacting, or reacting poorly.
How do you build an organization that is CAPABLE of serving customers? Not all companies are capable.