Understanding a Customer Experience Management Consulting Framework
A surge of brands are about to incorporate CX into their business models. More than 50 percent of companies will redirect investments to CX innovations by 2018, and 89 percent of organizations are expected to focus on CX, according to Gartner.Companies who invest in CX generate three times more revenue growth than competitors who don't, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ian Golding, a certified CX professional, has proposed a framework for customer experience management that helps your company create a customer-oriented culture. This framework focuses on the three core components that guarantee your business meets customer expectations:
Strategize
Developing a CX strategy should be the first thing your business does, notes Golding. As an executive or decision maker, analyze your relationship with your customer base. Then, map out CX processes (customer mindsets, interactions, actions) and make some tweaks to your existing models. Find out why customers interact with your brand and decide how you want to engage with prospects, for example.Having a CX management strategy lets your customers and employees know what to expect from your organization, helping you improve your customer service credentials. A good CX strategy reduces your churn rate, or the number of customers who discontinue using your services and switch to a competitor, and delivers value to your prospects. You'll need to determine what customer service means for your organization and optimize the customer service cycle, too.Big brands have created CX strategies that make life easier for their customers. MetLife, for example, streamlined the insurance application process with "insurance in a box" at Walmart stores. Customers can read about a policy on the back of a small box, pay for insurance in-store and register at home. In January 2016, BBVA announced a string of CX innovations that will change the way their customers use their banking services, including remote signature activation and mobile payments.
Measure Your CX Objectives
Measurement is the second element of Golding's framework for CX consulting. Once you've defined your CX management strategy, think of methods that measure how you deliver your objectives. These might include analytics software that ascertains which products and services provide you with the biggest return on your investment. Large companies often use big data to improve CX, fine tune digital marketing campaigns and drive business growth, too.Alternatively, map customer journeys across different touch points for greater insights into your demographic. In recent years, customer journey mapping, along with executive CX dashboards, has had a huge increase in focus among business owners. This CX activity makes your company more customer-centric, enabling you to view the customer experience through a different paradigm.You should also measure how effective your current customer-facing methods are. Golding notes that metrics like CSAT and the Customer Effort Score help you measure customer perceptions of your brand, while customer feedback methods let prospects identify problems in the sales cycle. This will help you recognize aspects of your business model that need an overhaul.Measurement shouldn't be fleeting but rather a long-term solution that lets you engage with your customer base over a sustained period of time. Golding says that a continuous improvement plan tells you how far you are from realizing your strategic goals.Customer experience management consulting can help you measure your successes and failures so you can better serve your targets. Whether you specialize in finance or healthcare, a CX consultant will work alongside your employees to fulfill your customer service goals.
Focus on Employee Engagement
The third and final stage of the CX framework is people, and, in particular, connecting with people. Few companies generate profit without engaging with their employees. In fact, an engaged workforce can result in innovation in the workplace, higher staff retention rates and a more positive atmosphere in the office.To make your company more customer-centric, focus on your staff. If employees love the values of your company, they'll soon become brand ambassadors, helping you recruit new customers. Workers who are highly engaged are twice as likely to be a company's top performers, according to research. They miss 20 percent fewer days at work than staff who are not engaged, too.Discover staff who are passionate about your business. Transforming the culture of your organization is tough, but if you have strong leadership, it's certainly doable. It's all about cultivating the culture in your company. Stay connected with all your employees, provide feedback weekly, set an agenda that focuses on honesty and transparency, and encourage socialization inside and outside the workplace.Some of the world's biggest brands have employment engagement initiatives in place that motivate staff and increase productivity. Kaiser Permanente, for example, increased engagement and performance in 2011 by introducing unit-based teams. The Kaiser Permanente Value Compass sets down company values that should be adopted by each team.A surge of brands are about to incorporate CX into their business models. More than 50 percent of companies will redirect investments to CX innovations by 2018, and 89 percent of organizations are expected to focus on CX, according to Gartner. If you want to attract and cultivate lucrative prospects, get CX right by following Golding's framework. Then, create a digital experience that your customers will love.