Developing the CX Leaders of tomorrow

We have got to get more scientific about the Customer Experience.

The ACXP™ program is designed to introduce, develop and deploy the leading techniques and approaches that connect Customer Experience with immediate and sustained business impact.

Join us in a city near you and transform your approach to Customer Experience with immediate and tangible results.

Using pragmatic hands-on skills-based approach professionals get access to over 60 discrete techniques developed in the world’s leading CX companies.

CEMMethod™

Wrapped within the progressive and structured CEMMethod™ all levels of the organization are engaged to deliver the promise of CX success through delivering the Triple Crown –lowering costs, growing revenues and enhancing service simultaneously.

If your enterprise is demanding results from CX the four-day ACXM™ will get you in the right place double quick.

A city near you…

Dubai, UAE	Dubai Masters ACXM	8-11 April 2018
Sydney, Australia	Sydney ACXM	28-31 May 2018
Joburg, South Africa	Johannesburg ACXM	18-21 June 2018
Dubai, UAE	Dubai ACX Champs	1-4 July 2018
Denver, Colorado	Denver ACXM	17-20 Sep 2018
Washington DC	Washington DC ACXM	9-12 Oct 2-18
Washington DC	Washington DC ACX Champs	15-17 Oct 2018
London, England	London ACXM	10-13 Dec 2018
Orlando, Florida	Orlando ACXM	28-31 Jan 2019

Learn why…

Existing CX measurement systems are fundamentally flawed, subjective and misleading
Connecting the dots from the customer experience to business impact is not just necessary, but essential for credibility and ongoing CX investment
Upskilling to proven tried and tested techniques and the CEMMethod will guide you to immediate results
Building an Outside-In dashboard that links everyone to Successful Customer Outcomes encourages the top team and enterprise-wide support

Recent validations…

Thanks very much for an amazing course! You are a fantastic facilitator and I’m truly blessed to have you share your wisdom with us.
Jenny Simpson, Senior Consultant, Business Improvement, National Australia Bank

I’m writing to endorse BP Groups program. It completely changed the way I think about the customer experience and process. The program provided me with the ability to apply all the learnings immediately after the training. Very effective training with a wealth of knowledge to share. This is a must training for everyone who’s interested in making a process better!
Maria T Ferreira AVP – Client Experience & Process Improvement at Citi

Thanks for your time and the fantastic course, delivered in Auckland recently. Looking forward to attending the Masters in June – will see if I can bring some colleagues!!
Neal Ross, Chief Information Officer at Konica Minolta Business

Brilliant Workshop. The speaker was awesome and gave great guidance on matters I am finding in the workplace.
Cindy-Lee Muller, Planning & Roadmap Manager, MTN (Pty) Ltd

The workshop is highly recommended for anyone who wishes to simplify and expedite processes thereby enhancing customer satisfaction. The speaker is immensely knowledgeable and demonstrates vast experience in the subject.
David Mulovhedzi, DPSA (South Africa)

Strategic Changes

I did the Masters two weeks ago and it completely changed my world.
Since then things are going really fast within our organization. The rest of the guys in our executive team are completely sold on the concept.
I am now taking the rest of the staff through some sessions. We plan to work on and optimize 6-10 key processes in the near future.
We are also:
• Revamping our organization structure to go to the “customer inclusive” model.
• We are going away this weekend to re-think our business plan (which was based on old thinking)
• We are actively considering getting rid of all our titles and silos in the organization and only having “the business we really are in” on the business cards.
• We are completely changing the KPI model to only focus only on and rewarding for an increase in revenue, cost savings, good service and most of all successful customer outcomes.
• We have appointed a staff member to begin talking to clients and to start understanding and managing their expectations.

To be honest I did not think it would happen that quick.
Nachiket Gole, Chief Information Officer – PowerNET Computer Consultants

…you’ve fundamentally changed the way I think about every process.
And inspired me to try Outside-In (OI) in all walks of life.
The first two levels should be included in educational curriculums (yes, even at the junior levels).
If everyone started applying OI, the world would be… where it should be.
Mahesh Mirchandani, CEO at BhumiTech

Going behind the ‘green line’ at Disney

Rockstar.cx (James Dodkins) takes us behind the green line at Disney with Disney EVP Lee Cockerell

Join us to find out more of the Outside-In and Customer Centric approaches and techniques at http://www.bpgroup.org/training.html at a session in New York, Washington DC, Denver, London, Dubai, Johannesburg, Sydney in the next 90 days.
See you all there!

The Shocking Truth about Customer Experience

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.

Customer Experience 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 thinking.
Senior Management makes noises that the customer is THE thing the business must focus on.
The Executive engage the marketing 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 moves for now but keep their heads down, hoever 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 industrial age thinking and practice.
The Executive see the repeating inertia i.e. 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.

There is a way to optimize the chances of success by Upskilling, using a proven tried and tested approach, and make sure your folks are capable, aligned and rewarded for Successful Customer Outcomes. Have a look at some of the workshops that might help achieve your Customer Centric Objectives.

We are all leaders in Customer Experience!! That must be true Shep Hyken told us so :)

Three minutes of insight to conjure with…

ROCKSTAR CX LIVE – James Dodkins and Shep Hyken talk about the why’s and how’s of amazing customer experience leadership.

Watch the full ROCKSTAR CX episode here: https://www.facebook.com/JDODKINS/vid…

Get in touch with our rockstar guest Shep Hyken!

Website: www.hyken.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hyken

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShepHykenSpe…
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shephyken/

ACXM Training Orlando 26th March:
for CX improvement consultancy and training, customer-centric culture transformation, the ultimate rockstar team building experience and rockstar keynote speakers.

Get in touch with James:
Email: james@jamesdodkins.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/jdodkins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesdodk…
Facebook: http://bit.ly/jamesdodkinsfb
CX Discussion Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/fbcxgroup
Website: www.jamesdodkins.com

#cx #custexp #rockstarcx #leadership #live #fblive #jamesdodkins #shephyken

FOUR fundamental questions regarding CX and Outside-In?

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.

What and
Who is
Outside-In?

What do
Outside-In
companies do
differently?

Where to start
with Outside-In

How to turn a
Failing
project
Outside-In

If you are more patient than me you can review the full Outside-In interview over at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjQsYFVXAKk

Cheers,

PS. Updated the www.stevetowers.com portal – go have a look…

What is & Who is Outside-In? (interview by James Dodkins)

Two-minute bite-sized chunk provides the answer.

Podcast with Roland Naidoo | Live stream – rockstar.cx | Business Awards…

Live broadcast with James Dodkins Rockstar.cx

This was an interview across the continents
(I am currently in Colorado, James is in England)
https://www.facebook.com/JDODKINS/videos/1425739797553815/

Do get along to the link – James will be hosting CX Rockstars from all over the globe 🙂

Business Leader in South Africa provides his views on Customer Centricity

Roland Naidoo, Senior Executive, Multichoice

Roland Naidoo (ACX Master) is a highly respected senior executive in the global entertainments business. As part of a podcast hosted by Futurology…

https://itunes.apple.com/za/podcast/futurology/id1078860959?mt=2&i=1000397468049

You can reach Roland here to progress the discussion:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roland-naidoo-b403a029/

Award won by yours truly!

I was deeply honoured by the PEX community at the annual conference in Florida last month and received the Global Community 2018 Award. Needless to say (but I will) this is as much down to you guys and your great transformational work, so I graciously excepted the Award on your behalf. Thank you so much :

See the snapshot here: https://buff.ly/2EEE9Im

Next time we will be reviewing highlights of the upcoming 2018 conferences…

Get the inside track with Customer Experience thinking and practice

The once favorite topic for improving business performance was Lean Six Sigma, however, the last two years have seen the ascendancy of Customer Experience (CX) as a focus for top teams. ‘Google trends’ is a good barometer of emerging interests and this graph demonstrates increasing interest in CX (blue) compared with LSS (red).

Curiously the largest interest in industrial age improvement techniques like Lean and Six Sigma is in non-English speaking countries, whereas Customer Experience is strongly represented in North America, UK, Australia and South Africa.

For those using the search term ‘Customer Experience,’ the associated topic list provides additional insight into searchers interests. The % trend reflects the growth year on year with ‘Omnichannel’ and ‘Digital data’ seeing explosive growth.

By way of additional information, a search with Epictions focused on Articles produces these top three pieces in the last three months on the theme of ‘Customer Experience – Omnichannel’.

1. The Future of Car Sales Is Omnichannel (Bain & Co)

http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-future-of-car-sales-is-omnichannel.aspx

2. Your Omnichannel Reading Challenge (Genesys)

http://blog.genesys.com/your-omnichannel-summer-reading-challenge

3. Omnichannel Study: Now’s Your Chance to Get Ahead of the Competition for the Holidays (Marketingprofs)

https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2017/33005/omnichannel-study-nows-your-chance-to-get-ahead-of-the-competition-for-the-holidays

The ‘Reading Challenge’ provides an opportunity to dig deeper with some surprising reads available related to employee engagement and the very latest customer trends.

In the BP Group, we have codified the very best practices of CX leaders in and around Customer Experience into the CEMMethod™.

If you would like to find out more about how to access this learning please visit us at www.bpgroup.org or drop by at www.stevetowers.com

Data and information shared with thanks to Google and Epictions.

The Shocking Truth about Customer Experience

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.

Want more guidance and tips like this?

☑ More Articles like this one – visit my CX Obsession resources

☑ Upskilling and mentoring – Every level from the boardroom to the lunch room – BP Group

☑ In person and virtual training – The ACXM™ program

☑ Executive briefings and keynotes – How to get your hands on me and other CXperts (see what I did there?)