My last blog was dedicated to the economic value of a customer lifetime. An important topic given it forms the basis for any investment an organization made or will make in programs aimed at improving the customer experience. In essence, it speaks directly to why the for-profit firm is in business…for profit.
As promised, we’ll dedicate future blogs to dissecting each of the economic levers an organization can pull in the CX value equation, and, what types of solutions & strategies exist to help facilitate the pull. Today, I want to step back just a bit, and present my take on the 2 perspective of the customer experience. This is another foundational topic to the customer experience discussion. I promise to dig deeper as these blogs progress, but it’s important first to build the foundation before in-depth discussions. This may seem like common sense to most of you, and it is, but I feel compelled to cover it anyway as future blogs will be built upon this.
Let’s start…
In any endeavor there are usually at least 2 sides to every story. Customer Experience is no different. Therefore, I believe the customer experience discussion is represented well via a coin. 1 coin, 2 sides, and 1 edge. Depending upon if you are a glass half empty or half full type of person, the edge represents either the divide between the 2 sides, or, where the 2 sides come together and are joined. The edge never gets the attention either side do, but I believe the edge is the most important part of a coin.
Side 1 – The Organization
From an organization’s perspective, the topic of customer experience gels into a management practice referred to as, “customer experience management”, or CEM. Simply put, it’s the organization’s objective to manage the experience in such a way that customers are converted into lifelong partners, bringing sustained economic benefit to the firm, and value to the customer in a unique way via the organization’s products & services that differentiate it from competitors. For an organization to do this consistently well, it must address and align 5 key areas;
- Alignment of the Organizational Strategy & the role the customer & their experience plays within it (usually by segment)
- Linkage of an Organization’s key financial success metrics to operational KPI’s and individual employee performance measures (trickle down/up financial & performance linkages)
- Creating/nurturing a customer centric culture populated by customer centric people
- Alignment of Enterprise Business Processes with the Customer Journey
- Optimizing Enabling Technologies driving bi-directional value
Side 2 – The Customer
From the customer’s perspective, you might hear customer’s refer to their interaction with an organization, product or service as “an experience”. The word “experience” I think is on the rise in part due to conditioning, organizations wanting customers to consider not just the product or service they purchased, but the process they go through buying and owning what they purchased. This adds more, intrinsic value, and over time, customers are willing to pay more for both the product and the experience. Customers are also able to differentiate better between two competing organizations that may offer a similar set of products or services. Simple economics.
If you boil the customer’s perspective down, it’s actually very simple. Customers have needs, and they look to the organization to fulfill those needs in a timely, competent, efficient and personalized manner.
Customers are people. You and I. We go into a situation with a set of expectations, expectations are either fulfilled or not, resulting in a perception of what we just experienced. This perception makes us feel something emotionally, it leads to us forming certain behaviors in response to our perceptions and experience, and these behaviors drive actions. These actions culminate in results; either continued purchasing & advocacy, or leaving the firm and negative word of mouth.
Summary; expectations > perceptions > behaviors > actions > results (all wrapped in emotions)
The Edge – my favorite part
The edge is that space between the 2 sides. It’s where the 2 sides meet up, join. In terms of customer experience, I like to think of the edge as the “engagement” between the organization and customer. It’s where the customer and organization come together via the customer journey and enterprise business process and something (hopefully) magic happens.
The edge is repeated thousands of times per day, across multiple touch-points, geographies, in different languages, etc. The edge is where the rubber meets the road. Where all the extensive planning by the organization springs into action and is met by the customer.
The edge is how we gauge the success of this extensive planning process, and our execution. As you know, edges over time typically become dull, smooth. The goal is to keep a sharp edge. Constantly refine the organizational side of the coin, understand in more depth customer needs, expectations and experiences. Sharp edges produce optimal results for both the customer and the organization.
Often times the topic of customer experience can be complicated and difficult to understand. There are certainly esoteric aspects to it, squishy if you will. There are also quantifiable and more tangible aspects to it. I have found that simplifying it initially using the coin analogy is an easy way for me at least to get my head around it before diving in to greater detail. If you are new to customer experience, I hope it helps you as well.
