I find it fascinating (say that word like Spock, raising one eyebrow, please) that I have been in and around the Customer Experience space for more than 20 years at this point. I started out as the sole customer support rep at a small software company (thanks, Dave Alison!), and from there moved into roles that have ranged from support to professional services, from sales engineering to management. I have, despite my tendency to forget why I walked into a room, picked up one or two things along the way. I thought I might share three today, with some examples.
Feed the Flow
This is NOT a phrase you’ll find on the CCXP exam, or in any of the books by the Heath brothers. In fact, the only place I’ve ever heard this phrase used was 5 or 6 years ago on the sidelines of a son’s soccer game. The opposing team’s coach was a not-so-recovering hippie, and was way ahead of all of us on the myriad uses for hemp and edibles. He had a tendency to say things like, “feed the flow”, “see the field for the field”, and “you can’t play the ball unless you SEE the ball”. It was… amazing, and ENDLESSLY entertaining.
And here I am, telling you to feed the flow. That is, watch what your customers are doing in the context of what they want to do, and work to make the steps they need to take less onerous (or, to be fancy, optimize the customer journey). Case in point: the Greta Van Fleet concert at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. (yesterday, as I write this). My goal: go see an epic band play some amazing music. The venue’s goal: make sure no one entering the arena is packing heat. Fine, except for how they arranged the flow of guests through the entrances. All guests pass through the ubiquitous metal detectors after walking through the doors, and before tickets can be scanned. Small problem, big impact: the little trays you need to place your keys, wallet and other items are only available to you once you go through the metal detectors. So, now, having walked through the metal detectors with keys and money clip and phone still in my pockets because there’s no place to put them BEFORE I walk through, I (and I assumed several thousand of my now-closest best buddies) have to get I little tray, empty out pockets, pass the tray around the detector a security staff member on the other side, walk around the metal detector, get back into line, and finally walk through and get my ticket scanned.
Look, I know I sound like John McEnroe (You CANNOT be SERIOUS!!!), but c’mon, man! The arena was built in 1997, we’ve been using metal detectors since 2001, this is not a new process flow. Fix it! Feed the flow, and design the customers’ experience as it should be.
Power to the People!
There are metric-tons (tonnes?) of research on the impact employee experience has on customer perceptions – I mean, Gallup has made this their bread-and-butter for years, and rightly so. Sir Richard Branson has been quoted as saying, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” This may very well be apocryphal, but it did end an online debate amongst CX practitioners several years ago I lurked around.
Empowering employees is hard. Budgets are brutally scrutinized, and there is never enough to truly provide every front-line, customer-facing staff member with all of the technology they should have at the ready to successful engage with customers. We need to continue to support them as best we can, through clear, frequent communication, straightforward and well-documented expectations, rewards for solid performance and coaching for those who aren’t working to their potential or meeting the marks. Managers and team leads need continuous support, as well. Far too often, we promote terrific individual performers into team lead or other management and leadership roles. It’s been noted many times by folks far more insightful than I that the skills making one successful as an individual contributor are not the same skills necessary to be a successful leader. Find the formal and informal coaching and training that yields the desired leadership competencies, and plan this time and effort into both financial and calendar budgeting. Taco Tuesdays and Pizza Fridays aren’t gonna cut it. Support your support (as it were) and they’ll deliver on the promise your brand is making to your customers.
Measure Once (a Day, a Week, a Month, a Quarter, a Year), Don’t Cut
My colleagues are SO tired of hearing me say it, but just because any monkey can write a survey does NOT mean every monkey should! But once you’ve “fed the flow”, you must (MUST, I say!) implement a customer listening, analysis, and action strategy. If I were the acronym type (and I am, as you well know by now), this is LAA (LAA, LAA, LAA ad nauseum, because this cycle must never end).
Listening means first understanding your goals, products, processes, and capabilities long before you start surveying your customers or analyzing your interactions with them. And while in the courtroom you never ask a question you already know the answer to, in the Customer Experience world you never ask a question you can’t act on. Except, of course, you can always act on the responses. In fact, it is ESSENTIAL you do so, especially if the only action is to acknowledge the answers provided, whether you can take any other steps or not! And while I love (LOVE!) me some surveys (I mean, SurveyYoda is my nickname), pay attention to all the other sources, formal (surveys, call recordings, , focus groups, etc.) and informal (social media, email/Slack exchanges, Reddit, etc.).
There are any number of tools out there (we vendors call the “platforms” or “Solutions” (note the capital S, you can hear it when we say it, shh, don’t tell anyone I told you!) to help you collect and begin the analysis process. But don’t forget, you could just as easily begin with a handful of intentional customer conversations and a spreadsheet to start to CX program before you can win investment from the budget-keepers. If you have a CX program already in place, take a step back from it, and check to see if the current program is aligned to your overall objectives and strategy, and is collecting the right information to begin with. You may need to start by begging, borrowing, and stealing analysis resources (staff and/or technology) from other departments until you can build out your program value proposition. That’s ok, if not fun, but lean on other CX practitioners in your company (they may be called Customer Success managers, or Data Analytics leads, or even sit in Finance) – anyone who has a vested interest in keeping and growing your customer base is a de facto CX practitioner. You just need to show them how they are already on your side.
So, there you go, three thoughts. I’m sure I’ll have more, but I’ve got to grab Kid #2 from swim practice. Feel free to share your thoughts – critiques, contrary positions, amplifications and refutations are ALL welcome!