Customer experience is a memory building business…

• Exceptional experiences create lasting WOW memories
• Good experiences are meeting basic expectations, it’s what the customer paid for
• Poor experiences tell your customers you don’t care and should purchase someplace else

Why should you focus on customer experience? The service you provide is a key component to customers’ loyalty – as seen from a KPMG study on what consumers claim inspires brand loyalty:

We know it’s complex – having led numerous customer experience initiatives across B2C, B2B and B2B2C companies. In Customer Experience: A Simple Term Made Complex, I explained that CX is no more complex than implementing a new technology platform, developing marketing strategies, developing and launching new products, or starting up a new company; and I outlined several factors which have the potential to reduce the complexity of customer experience.

However, while complex, there are frameworks for success. One important factor to keep in mind is that CX is cross-functional – as Beth Karawan mentioned in CX – It Takes a Village, 70% of CX programs fail because they are not supported by the whole organization.

There are many elements to successfully implement strategies to deliver exceptional experiences.  There are no shortcuts, however, following are the “Cliff Notes” version of key aspect to consider when planning to strive to deliver exceptional experiences:

• Develop your CX strategy to include the Why, What and How
• Align leadership and ensure they understand their role
• Communicate your strategy across the organization and make sure that all leaders share their voice to support the strategy
• Understand your current state:
  • Know your customers wants and needs
  • Know your experience delivery gaps from the customers’ and employees’ perspectives
  • Understand what’s holding your organization and employees back from meeting and exceeding customer expectations
  • Determine the ROI of exceptional experiences
• Refine your strategy, if needed, based on your knowledge of the current state
• Share your knowledge of the current state and further refine based on feedback across the organization
• Co-create with employees to develop your future state:
  • Eliminate/reduce customer pain points
  • Elevate the experiences that matter most
  • Define the processes, mindset and behaviors needed for delivering your future state
• Share efforts and learnings across the organization
• Develop and implement ongoing programs to:
  • Align, educate and inspire employees
  • Monitor customer-centric decision making
  • Monitor the Voice of the Customer, create a feedback loop and process to share and act upon insights captured
  • Monitor CX progress and share success stories

Exceptional customer experience is a differentiator that will set your organization apart—it can increase retention and drive growth. Having a thoughtfully constructed action and communication plan will help guide you on the road to success. Here at ImprintCX, we understand the keys to successful CX programs and can support you along the way. Let’s get started.