Interviewed by Rockstar.cx on the theme of Outside-In. Here a few 2-3 minute chunks- do feel free to download and share, oh and sign-up for Rockstar.cx cos I know there are some excellent interviews coming up, the most recent with ex Zappos evangelist, Jon Wolske.
The single biggest piece of advice I give to senior executives setting out on the Customer Experience journey is to STOP. Yes seriously, the vast majority of CX efforts are completely misaligned.
CX Efforts Misaligned
Don’t get me wrong the intentions are good. Unfortunately, it goes something like this:
Top Team are listening and decide they need to get with this customer centricity/Outside-In/working backwards thinking.
Senior Management makes noises that the customer is THE thing the business must focus on.
The Executive engage the marketing and sales guys to get with it and start pushing the message.
Functional leaders hear the noise and bluster. They start using the language, whilst thinking this is just more fluff and nonsense. They make the right noises for now but keep their heads down, because they know this will go the same way as so many other ‘strategic initiatives’.
Fundamentally functional heads carry on working with the out of date reward system that promotes sub-optimal industrial age thinking and practice.
The Executive see the usual inertia, results not coming through, apathy and indifference and decide their business isn’t really an Amazon.
Top Team then reverts to just getting better at what we are doing, then when someone in ‘our industry’ proves it we will follow.
Functional leaders breathe a sigh of relief and invest even more in industrial age systems and training. The illusion of doing something, in this case, is actually worse than doing nothing.
The businesses failure is noted by customers who move to those who do understand and deliver Customer Experience success.
The company becomes another footnote in the history books. Talked about at business schools and picked apart because of the failure to get the new Outside-In customer-centric mindset.
Making Customer Experience Successful everywhere all the time
This isn’t rocket science (unless you are NASA of course). Understanding that the structures and ways of working from the industrial age were NEVER designed to be customer-centric. They were established to make things faster by optimizing production lines.
And oh, don’t think because you are not in manufacturing you are OK. It is likely your complete ways of working will be making everything look like production management systems, with talk of leaning out, waste reduction, standardization, efficiency, productivity. Sound familiar?
Understanding this Customer Experience misalignment is fundamental.
I encourage doing three things before re-joining the CX road-march:
Understand how big the gap is between what you are doing and what Successful Customer Outcomes you need to be delivering.
Audit the current key performance indicators.
Are they mostly about outputs?
Usually, the balance will be 80% output metrics (like calls answered, Average Handle Times, Abandoned Rates, Projects completed on time to budget etc.).
Meanwhile, the really important measures that tell you a Successful Customer Outcome is being achieved will only be a small proportion.
What you measure is what you get and no amount of Customer Experience drum banging will work unless those measures of Outcomes become the most important.
Create an awareness of what real CX success is all about.
This isn’t just the stories. It is about the actual things on the ground that need to change. The WHY and the HOW go hand in hand. Often times upskilling a group of key players at all levels to make them Ambassadors for the Customer achieves way more than massive corporate investment in branding and image.
In conclusion, Customer Experience cannot be treated just like another corporate initiative. To achieve success requires a significant shift in mindsets, and when that is achieved the realignment of the Enterprise to Outside-In can really begin.
Google tells us that lean thinking and practice has had its heyday. However, the overlay of ‘digital everything’ makes processes more important than ever, so what are the leading Lean Six Sigma articles of the last 12 months?
5th: Why Lean Six Sigma is a necessity in every industry
Intelligence Quality Intelligence Quality is a Management and Business consulting firm that specializes in Lean and Six Sigma strategies.
“There is a false notion about Lean Six SIgma wherein it is a waste of money to incorporate the concept in the company, however, one fails to realize that like any other department, Lean Six Sigma is a necessary method that every industry must follow in order to rectify their financial curve.”
4th: 5 Process Improvement Strategy Trends of Future-Ready Firms | AccountingWEB
Dustin Hostetler
Dustin Hostetler is a Lean Six Sigma consultant and shareholder of Boomer Consulting Inc. As a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with extensive experience working inside a large regional CPA firm, he has taken proven Lean techniques from the manufacturing floor and tailored them to bring groundbreaking value to public accounting firms
“The firms that have been comfortable with status quo, quite frankly, are going to be rudely awakened as the intersection of technology and process continues to change the game around them. I can’t help but think of companies like Blockbuster and Kodak that were at one time comfortable with the status quo.”
As a provider of LSS services and resources Scmula helps people ‘get’ techniques and approaches, tried, tested and proven.
“Lean Six Sigma is one of the most advanced and effective methodologies available for business process improvement and optimization. It is especially adept in battling a wide range of problems and inefficiencies. To help better understand and deal with waste, this approach classifies them into the 8 Forms of Deadly Waste. This classification is important because it makes waste much easier to uncover and then eradicate. It also helps you identify environmental improvement opportunities.”
One of the leading providers of training in the space periodically publishes ‘books most read’.
“What’s a good book to read if you want to succeed at process improvement? Is Lean Six Sigma all about manufacturing? Are there any about the service industry? Healthcare? Government?…”
“Do you ever walk into a store and know at a glance where to find what you need? Do you notice that seemingly long lines can often move really quickly? Do you find yourself wondering why things don’t go horribly wrong more often? Lean Six Sigma is at work!”
Google tells us that Customer Experience is a significant and trending topic, the graph below ably demonstrates that point. (See google trends)
However, given all the noise what are THE most popular articles on the theme?
Here we present the seven most popular of the last couple of years.
Read and share
7th: Putting customer experience at the heart of next-generation operating models
McKinsey
This one for is McK’s second in the top seven this time…
“Digital is reshaping customer experience in almost every sector. Digital first attackers are entering markets with radically new offers, disrupting the ways that companies and customers interact and setting a high bar for simplicity, personalization, and interactivity.”
Teaching MBA courses in international business, global competitive strategies, international market research, and capstone courses in strategic planning and market research gives Louis the opportunity to research mega trends. Add to his portfolio writing for Forbes establishes his credentials in the space of customer transformation. In this article, he reflects on the coming ‘Internet of Things’ everywhere, and the impact on business and customers.
“87% of retailers will deploy mobile point-of-sale (MPOS) devices by 2021, enabling them to scan and accept credit or debit payments anywhere in the store…”
5th: The expanding role of design in creating an end-to-end customer experience
McKinsey
The second of McK’s into the top seven this time. Lines between products, services, and user environments are blurring. The ability to craft an integrated customer experience will open enormous opportunities to build new businesses.
“As digitization drives more and faster disruptions—and as customers increasingly desire the immediacy, personalization, and convenience of dealing with digital-marketing leaders—the business landscape is undergoing an upheaval.”
4th: The Employee Experience Is the Future Of Work
Jeanne Meister
Working at Future Workplace, (an HR Advisory and Research firm) Jeanne casts her glow over the changes to the employee role within business today. She is also the co-author of The Future Workplace Experience: 10 Rules For Mastering Disruption in Recruiting and Engaging Employees:
“Today, almost every company is undergoing a digital transformation. Cloud and mobile computing, artificial intelligence, and increasing automation have created the potential to transform nearly every aspect of a business.”
3rd: United Airlines Changes Its Policy On Displacing Customers
Richard Gonzales
Correspondent, San Francisco, National Desk NPR. With an eclectic style ranging across diverse topics such as medical marijuana, gay marriage, drive-by shootings, the U.S. Ninth Circuit, the California State Supreme Court and any other legal, political, or social development he understands CX first hand. Here we see a well-accounted discussion of, yes again, United Airline’s trials and tribulations.
“United Airlines crew members will no longer be able to bump a passenger who is already seated in one of the airline’s planes…”
2nd: How to Gamify your Customer Experience and Win…
Mike Dillard
Proudly proclaiming himself as a disrupter and innovator Mike’s perspective on Customer Experience is refreshing and unique in a world of sameness. He writes with an entertaining AND well thought out logic.
“I honestly can’t think of a more difficult industry to get into than candles. You have thousands of manufacturers who are all selling the same thing… A piece of wax with a string in the middle and the only way to differentiate yourself is by changing your label, along with the size, color, and smell of that wax.”
1st: Delivering exceptional customer experiences – an art and science
Luke Shave
Luke works on the Retail partner side of Microsoft and benefits from first-hand experience of the changes in and around Customer Experience.
“Interacting effectively with customers has traditionally been a form of art, especially in face-to-face settings. But now that customers are increasingly shopping on social media, mobile apps, and websites, a bit of science can help win their loyalty. How can retailers combine customer service expertize with advanced technology to create exceptional customer experiences?”
The smartest companies don’t give you much choice. They don’t ask you what you want, they know what you need and that simplicity, as it turns out keeps costs down, boosts service and grows revenue.
This counter intuitive approach to customer experience is, according to Siegel+Gale, preferred by two out of every three customers. Interestingly we are more likely to recommend a brand that saves us time and makes it easier to buy, hence the German supermarket chain, Aldi, with few choices and focus on quick in-out for the regular shop, tops Siegel+Gales 2017 simplicity league.
Fellow German competitors Lidl are a close second with a similar proposition aligned towards successful customer outcomes – getting in easily, moving around and selecting quickly, paying lower prices, and fast exit. This simplicity isn’t however just the province of global discount chains as the top six for simplicity include Netflix, Google and Amazon whose respective digital experiences all boast ease of use, quick to results and great touchpoints.
As a Netflix customer I am… review the complete article and access the Simplicity League from Siegal+Gale on LinkedIn Pulse
Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Emirates success
Accredited CX Professional, Masters & Champions (ACXP, ACXM, ACXC) Program
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 180 times, in 64 cities with delegates from 118 countries. The program, now in its eleventh 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.
Is the education system letting your kids down? Are the young folks joining us in the workplace equipped for the Digital Customer Age? Do you suspect ‘education’ is broken?
Watch this amazing video that puts education on trial… thanks to Tanguy Petre, CPP Champion @tpetre0168 for spotting this terrific and scary piece 🙂
Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Emirates success
Accredited CX Professional, Masters & Champions (ACXP, ACXM, ACXC) Program
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 180 times, in 64 cities with delegates from 118 countries. The program, now in its eleventh 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.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 180 times, in 64 cities with delegates from 118 countries. The program, now in its eleventh 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.
Just finished up our webinar Customer Gold – How to convert the Customer Experience into a Gold Mine
Among other things, we revealed how to convert any CX into a source of rapid actionable objectives
Comments coming in from live attendees have been great!
Keep your eyes peeled for the replay tomorrow or the next day!
Some really cool “time-limited” stuff available here if you want Assess to identify massive improvement opportunities, Develop a consensus on where to focus improvement efforts, and Gain the support of the top team and your colleagues for rapid CX improvements.
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 180 times, in 64 cities with delegates from 118 countries. The program, now in its eleventh 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.
I was recently interviewed by BPMTips.com Zbigniew Misiak. It was a fun experience as he put me on the spot about a whole range of things including Ducks! Here is an extract and you can access the full interview below (with a useful bonus handout of the SCO Canvas!)
Zbigniew Misiak, Editor BPMTips.com
We shouldn’t be asking customers what they want because they will tell us.
Provocative? Maybe.
Making you think? Surely.
One of the common problems with processes is focusing on the wrong things.
We model processes that do not need to be modeled or in a way that does not create value.
We improve things in processes that customers do not care about.
But how are we supposed to know what should we focus on? Of course, experience helps, but what if you did not spend last 35 years doing BPM and Customer Experience projects?
No worries – you can listen to the BPM Tips interview with Steve Towers and benefit from the decades of his experience.
Steve tells about the difference between what customer wants and needs, and shares lots of actionable tips for anyone interested in processes, so grab a pen and notebook and listen to the interview:
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 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.
Here a few 2-3 minute chunks- do feel free to download and share, oh and sign-up for Rockstar.cx cos I know there are some excellent interviews coming up, the most recent with ex Zappos evangelist, Jon Wolske.
