There are various definitions of Customer Experience including
“ ‘Customer Experience Management’ represents the discipline, methodology and/or process used to comprehensively manage a customer’s cross-channel exposure, interaction and transaction with a company, product, brand or service.” (Bernd Schmitt 2003)
Customer Experience is how customers perceive their interactions with your company. (Forrester 2010)
Customer Experience is the customer’s perceptions and related feelings caused by the one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier’s employees, systems, channels or products. (Gartner 2013)
Customer Experience is the embodiment of a brand, and of each and every interaction between an organisation and a customer. (Cap Gemini 2013)
Customer experience (CX) is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods and/or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. (Wiki 2014)
We take exception with all these definitions.
They do go some of the way to describing an aspect of customer experience, however fall way short in terms of the everyday reality of our digital age. We need a broad view that encompasses all aspects of a customer experience, not just necessarily the encounters and feelings directly experienced by a customer.
We need to get scientific about the customer experience. In this way our newly engineered processes and the complete customer experience can operate at 70-80% lower cost, 50-60% improved customer service and 3-4 times revenue improvements. In our definition of Customer Experience this is referred to as winning the Triple Crown. The concurrent and sustained ability to reduce costs, improve service and grow revenues simultaneously.
Let’s paint a picture – a duck on the mill pond. What the customer sees and feels is the duck on the surface, however a great deal of effort to move the duck takes place out of view, below the surface if you like. That is a fundamental part of the customer experience. So our definition encompasses this idea – “Customer Experience is the collective energy and effort that produces the engineered encounter to provide value and substance to a customer” (Towers/Dodkins 2014). It is an understanding of the complete duck if you like.
Through this definition we can indeed get scientific about the customer experience. For instance to deliver the desired experience we must clearly articulate the cause and effect of work. A simple observation is that all work is ultimately the result of a customer interaction, somewhere, sometime. Another is that of the Successful Customer Outcome (SCO).
We can shape the experience and expectations of customers and formulate measures that go way beyond the legacy production line mindsets. In fact we can better create and modify technologies that support the delivery of the SCO.
Through this engineered understanding we can also contrast the effort currently undertaken and assess its contribution to the SCO. If it doesn’t contribute then potentially stop doing it. In this way our newly engineered processes and the complete customer experience can operate at 70-80% lower cost, 50-60% improved customer service and 3-4 times revenue improvements. In our definition of Customer Experience this is referred to as winning the Triple Crown. The concurrent and sustained ability to reduce costs, improve service and grow revenues simultaneously.
Impact on Customer Satisfaction and Revenue Growth
If you deliver a great customer experience research* suggests customers will buy from you again – and that is both B2C and B2B.
Impact on cost
Delivering an engineered Customer Experience will reduce costs by identifying work currently undertaken that does not contribute to a Successful Customer Outcome. Elimination of this unnecessary work speeds and streamlines the process. In fact it is about creating, managing and delivering to expectations.
Virgins maxim of “Simple basics with occasional moments of magic”enables their people to deliver consistently with discretion to go the extra mile when necessary.
* Forrester in 2009 used data from nearly 5,000 consumer surveys to examine the correlation between the Customer Experiences delivered by 100+ US firms and customer loyalty. Results across 12 industries showed that good Customer Experience correlates to consumers’ willingness to repurchase, reluctance to switch, and likelihood to recommend firms.
Process Mapping or Customer Journey Maps? Two sides of the same coin.
The perspectives we share become our reality so we had better make sure the pictures we make convey the truth.
We must move beyond the left-to-right, top to bottom legacy of the industrial age and map the future.
Customer Journey Mapping is a subset of Customer Journey Management, which is part of the broader Customer Experience Management.
Within the CEMMethod, we define Customer Journey Management as: The discipline and practice of recognizing the ideal approach to connecting with customers at every phase of their journey to guarantee that they keep progressing through their experience to achieve a Successful Customer Outcome.
That way, we win customer approval, deliver corporate success and keep our people happy.
Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
(Warwick UK Sep 15-19, Edmonton Canada Sep 22-26, Las Vegas US Sep 29, Sydney Australia Oct 27-31, Brisbane Australia Nov 3-7, Dubai UAE Dec 7-11, Orlando US Jan 22-23, Denver US Jan 26-30, London UK Mar 2-6) www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html
An internationally recognised program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
This slide deck is a wonderful illustration of the hard work underway in the Customer Experience arena. Delivered by Pascal Spelier (www.finno.nl) – link with him here – it demonstrates how you connect customer journeys with process transformation.
If the top team tells the people who are in charge of the coach and horses to make sports cars it isn’t going to work. Don’t be surprised if they deliberately do not understand.
To realize the full benefits of the digital age you need to look at things differently and then do stuff in original ways. You need to see things Outside-In.
Work in Progress includes Amazon, Southwest Airlines, Emirates, Samsung, Google, Zara.. to name a few. Are you coach and horses, or do you belong with the future?
At Zappos (Las Vegas), CEO Tony Hsieh says “our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff — like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers — will happen naturally on its own.”
The leading global corporations understand that the usual strategy mission stuff is not cutting it.
You have to reach further, understand what the real customer needs are and then align everything you do to meeting those needs.
Fundamentally this comes down to the Rewards system. If you are rewarding people for doing dumb stuff then don’t be surprised if they get really smart at doing that stuff really well.
Join me in Las Vegas this month and we will review….. Workshop link
Or, if you can’t make the US then skip to our free online course: www.processmiracle.com
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?! Well I certainly hope not as we host a 3 hour workshop on 29 Sep at Caesars Palace at the The Business Performance Excellence Summit. Attendees will potentially have their opinion and practice of process changed forever with hands-on insights, tools and techniques. I will be sharing some of the content from my upcoming book “High Performance Organizations” and providing 10+ Gb of information as takeaways.
Join me and the team from IQPC to see what will happen in Vegas. Here’s the skinny of the workshop with links: Workshop link | Conference link Classically process activity has focused on improving productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. Methods and approaches have evolved over decades to help organizations streamline, remove waste and standardize processes to great effect. In fact the American economic success story can be attributed to these fine efforts from global companies. However times have changed and we must change with them.
This session will discuss and review some of the ‘new’ approaches and techniques developed in 21st century leading companies from diverse sectors such as aviation, pharmaceutical, retail fashion, technology and banking. We will look at the common ingredients of their success and how using the power of process linked with customer centric strategy and operations produces a winning and sustainable formula suited to the challenges of today and tomorrow.
Delegates will go away with: • Overview of the ‘new’ methods and approaches • Three proven techniques to provide immediate cost reductions, revenue improvements and customer satisfaction improvements • The 101 Guide to linking process to successful customer outcomes • In addition delegates will gain access to (a) quick guides, (b) videos, (c) case studies and (d) work sheets for immediate use • Copy of Steve Towers latest book, The High Performance Organization
A restaurant chain might not be the first place that comes to mind as a hub of innovative thinking–a consequence perhaps of the corporate motherships that standardize everything from the order-taker’s scripted lines to the clamshell boxes presented on abundant plastic trays.
Panera CEO Ron Shaich: “SOME PEOPLE CONFUSE PANERA 2.0 AS A TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION. IT ISN’T. IT’S A SOLUTION FOR GUEST SATISFACTION. IT’S ABOUT CHANGING THE GUEST EXPERIENCE.“ Review the full story at: http://bit.ly/CXuseyourloaf
