When Steve Jobs kicked off the Customer Experience (CX) movement in 1997 (video here), he crystallized the idea of understanding customer NEEDS before doing anything else.
At the same time, another CX genius, Jeff Bezos, was three years into creating the most profitable company on the planet and precisely understood the working backwards imperative.
A young fresh-faced Jeff Bezos
There is this Need (even though customers don’t know it yet), and I can create the desire and meet that Need now. The rest is history. Watch the 2-minute video here.
Jeff Bezos
Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?
When Steve Jobs kicked off the Customer Experience (CX) movement in 1997 (video here), he crystallized the idea of understanding customer NEEDS before doing anything else.
At the same time, another CX genius, Jeff Bezos, was three years into creating the most profitable company on the planet and precisely understood the working backwards imperative.
A young fresh-faced Jeff Bezos
There is this Need (even though customers don’t know it yet), and I can create the desire and meet that Need now. The rest is history. Watch the 2-minute video here.
Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?
It’s been an honour and privilege to participate and attend the ACX-M course, It was an eye-opener and quite a revelation for me, I became conscious of these important concepts and aspects of customer experience, Thank you for showing us the way. Product Specialist at Laerdal Medical, India
Thank you Steve for the high quality & insightful training you delivered Your innovative approach, critical thinking & up to date case studies facilitated this achievement 👍 Muath Al-Azzam, Principal Services & Operations Specialist at Dubai Municipality
I have to say, every day since I left Denver, I have been able to apply some bit of learning that I got during the ACXM event into not only my job, but my personal life as well. Thank you so much for everything that you’ve done to advance the field of customer experience! Brett Gill, United States
Thank you Steve for another enlightening and engaging course that just keeps challenging the way we do things® Edwin De Lange, South Africa
Thanks again for four great and inspiring days. Christian Becker, Germany
It’s been great training with lots of new tools that we will be able to implement soon I hope. Super interesting information, I am looking forward to reading your book as well. I really appreciated your energy and enthusiasm throughout the training. Silvia Fernandez Calvo, Spain
Let me take this opportunity to thank Mr. Steve. Your teachings are timeless and they stick perfectly and forever in our minds. We shall never forget you wherever we find ourselves on this planet. Thank you so much, Steve 🙏 Benignus Otmar, Tanzania
Thank you, the experience was enlightening, empowering, educating, encouraging, and engaging. Natasha Doren, South Africa
Thank you, Steve, I have never enjoyed anything more than the CX course, The weight of knowledge I gained and the enlightenment that I got is indescribable. Reem Elsadig, Sudan
Thanks, Steve for such an excellent program, the dedicated manner you use to share with us your wonderful knowledge and wisdom in CX, and the time to respond to all our questions! God bless you, thanks a lot! Yanese Angeles, Dominican Republic
You started me out on this journey my friend. Thanks for letting me live out my passion! Molly Redenbaugh, Iowa, United States
Thank you! It’s been an amazing journey and you have been a great mentor. It was an honor taking your class, I am now a confident CPP Master🙏🏾 Masele Masudi Msita, Tanzania
Thank you Steve for your high-quality wonderful Master. I thought the course was brilliant. Thank you for everything. Ashraf Mohamed, Philadelphia, USA
Thanks again, Steve. Not only have you been a fantastic mentor to me but you have taught me how to mentor others. Thanks for being so supportive and getting me through. Chandan Chhabra, Delhi, India
Another fantastic learning, personal and professional development experience with you! Lyall Shapiro, Australia
Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?
An output is something you produce; an Outcome is a result of what you produce. “I have answered the customer query” is an output, “I have solved the customer problem” is an outcome. Here’s another… “We have made 10 cars today” is an output, “I have sold 10 cars today” is an outcome. As Steve Jobs said in 1997, “You have to start with the Customer Experience (and their successful outcome) and work backwards.”
Unfortunately, most organizations focus on outputs and correspondingly can get really good at doing dumb things. Think of the call center and the major typical KPI of Average Handle Time (AHT). That is an output measure. But what is the actual Outcome achieved from the customer contact? If your primary focus is the AHT, that’s what will drive the behaviors of the people as a priority over everything else; no matter how much you talk of customer-centricity, if you pay them for great AHT, that is what they will focus on.
A model that we use to help us connect the dots is the Customer Performance Landscape.
It is a fantastic tool for creating the linkages between everyone and everything to ensure we are all aligned to Successful Customers and grow shareholder value. You can experience this in our ACX Master program.
Part Two. In Part One we reviewed how poor metrics drive bad behaviours. Lets dig deeper with a typical scenario…
And if you think this experience is unusual grab a coffee and google ‘poor customer experiences’.
Leadership Delusion
The leadership team can talk until they are blue in the face about customer centricity but if they insist on metrics designed for running factories everyone suffers. Here’s another typical conversation:
In all three instances the customer did not achieve a Successful Outcome. In fact there is now more effort required by the customer, and also more cost and time to be incurred for the organisation if the customer does follow through. If the customer doesn’t bother that is more potential revenue lost.
So how does this organisation look to the browsing customer? Pretty awful to say the least.
We know why this is so. Organisations like this are focused on measuring Outputs, rather than measures of Successful Customer Outcomes. If it is so obvious why is it so many persist in this Failure-Demand cycle?
Because they are measuring the wrong things. And guess what? Yes, they will have automated those measurements and put them on fancy management dashboards so everyone can feel happy. Except the customer of course. But what does that matter?
In Part Three – a big reveal. A couple of techniques that will help shape Successful Customer Outcomes brought to you from companies like Amazon, Zara, Zappos and Emirates.
Now, please remember if you pay people to do dumb stuff they will get really smart at it.
Join our upcoming Coaching and Accreditation sessions online, LIVE & Interactive
Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?
Business failures are all around us, nothing new there then. If we go back a decade or so we saw the demise of Nokia, we’ve seen companies like Blockbuster crash and burn, and other companies in the High Street whether it’s in Europe or in the US disappear and never to be seen again.
Why is this so? When you look at the investment those companies were making there was no lack of intent to spend in understanding how the customer was changing. In the year that Apple introduced the iPhone Nokia was investing heavily in voice of the customer (VOC) surveys, customer satisfaction and NPS.
But they missed the point. Progressive Outside-In companies (think Amazon, Zara, Zappos, Emirates) are not about retrospective subjective analysis of perceived performance.
Also it isn’t about overlaying processes with a new language when fundamentally the very systems and processes were never designed to deliver customer experiences. Those now creaking processes were designed with a factory mindset centred around production line thinking, throughput and waste. Hence the challenge for many is more fundamental as it’s not about rejigging what you’re doing – it is about a complete rethink to move outside in the way that you do business.
Remarkably even in the third decade of the 21st century there are still those companies that think they can just tweak and change the language inside their organisations.
As if doing better advertising and marketing to customers and talking about ‘new’ services on top of their existing infrastructures and IT systems hacks it. The actual reality is somewhat different.
Senior Executive commentary
Top teams and senior executives need to grasp this challenge. Roland Naidoo, a senior executive at African based entertainments company Multichoice puts the choice starkly:
“Would you measure how fast a 1600cc car performed around an F1 circuit. No? Then why would you try to measure customer experience AND improve it on processes and products there were never designed with experience in mind. Go on enter your 1600 into the next F1. Wonder how it would perform?”
Roland Naidoo, Multichoice Africa
Lipstick on a Pig? Surely not…
Those companies who understand that ‘outside-in’ thinking calls for a complete realignment and new appraisal of what the customer experience consists of.
Rather than, to coin a phrase, putting lipstick on a pig. You have actually got to think about what is it you’re trying to achieve; what does success look like for our customer? And then align across all functions, all systems and ways of working towards successful customer outcomes. Disney refers to this alignment as getting everybody to understand where true north is and not to do anything unless it contributes to that alignment. Imagine all new initiatives being assessed by a similar approach?
Are you working in a Rubik cube?
Another aspect which comes into play is this idea that traditional measurement* is predominantly subjective and retrospective. Progressive outside in companies are not reactive – they get scientific about the customer experience.
Measuring each interaction as it happens and if necessary course-correcting in real-time. They develop the ability to see around corners to understand what’s coming next. They don’t have to wait for analysis 2 weeks after an event to decide that some remedial action is required.
This knowledge in the instance of what is happening requires us to create this idea of ‘action in the moment’ for all our employees. Zappos**, for instance, give their employees the tools and the capability to be able to make decisions in the moment (without the need to escalate to supervisors).
Industrial Age thinking will kill you
And there is another challenge companies face if they are still organised around functional specialist silos. If you’ve recruited low paid people and given them a script to follow, manage them to average handle times and throughputs you’re going to fail.
Once more the outside-in companies have an edge here as they understand that to give your most precious resource (the customer) to the employees then you need the right people in the right place able to do the right things at that moment of truth.
So what is your organization doing? is it trying to put lipstick on the pig? is it just trying to overlay the existing process is an infrastructure with this new customer-centric way of talking and doing?
It is very simple. You need to get down to brass tacks of rethinking what customer experience is all about its implication for the organisation going forward. Those organisations that are taking this outside-in approach find the world becomes simpler, faster and much more directly oriented towards delivering successful customer outcomes and winning for the bottom line.
Here are seven classic examples from a recent blog of someone selling Call Centre Services. No, I really am to polite to call them out. I thought I had travelled back in time 50 years, but I am appalled there are people still doing this?!
This hurts my Head
Why are these so Wrong? Answers on a post card but Part Two Next week will provide more insight.
And then in Part Three we will explore the alternatives…
Call Centre Measures that cripple Your Customer Experiences (the seven deadly sins)
Service Level – “The service level is the percentage of calls responded in a particular time limit. It assesses the skills of agents to deliver the service as per the Service Level Agreement (SLA) given to the clients.”…. It is a significant way to judge the performance of a call center.
Average Call Handle Time – “This KPI measures time an agent needs on a call.”
Average Queue Time – “To assure that the wait time of callers rests in the fair scope and the patience of customers should not be tested”
Call Abandonment – “It is a usual experience in the call center that clients disconnect the calls before even connecting to an agent.”
First Call Resolution – “The client is frequently in a rush. Thus, he requires that the concern of the caller must be fixed in the first call”
Occupancy Rate – “It is completely about the ability to complete the work within minimum time.”
Agent Turnover Rate – “It measures the rate of agents who switch the job. It not only causes customer service conflicts and delays as well as it also creates many issues.”
A person once said this to me… “If you pay people for doing dumb stuff they will get really smart at it”
A Very Wise Women
In Part Two we will review why Call Centre thinking is so BAD and should be BANNED.
We coach Certified and Accredited Professional Qualifications
110 K people qualified since 2006 in 124 countries 60+ Global Coaches and Mentors – All have been there and done it!
Congratulations to a newly qualified ACX Mentor Ridwan Gattoo in South Africa! Having qualified through the ACX Professional, ACX Masters and now the ACX Mentor Ridwan has passed all the tests to be a qualified ACX Mentor.
Congratulations Ridwan!
Find out more about the Certification and Accreditation programs at the https://www.bpgroup.org – Online and Inclass, Customer Experience, Process Management, Outside-In and customised to your needs.
The following from C. S. Lewis was written in 1948 after the dawn of the atomic age. Just substitute COVID-19 for the Atomic bomb and you will get the shivers.
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
We all know times are difficult so I wanted to use the current challenges of many of us in self-isolation to our collective advantage and launch a spiffy online series of sessions focused on the very latest ‘Next practices’ to complement your customer experience/process certification.
Steve keynoting in Romania in March 2020
For the first time ever, I’ll be teaching Outside-In 2020 Vision Workshop starting soon with SIX sessions over SIX weeks, and then a Bonus seventh session.
This training will be held online in a live weekly interactive video class. You’ll get your questions answered, see live-action, and practice with others. Each week will be about 3 hours.
If you’ve already found value in customer experience and process thinking, and want to go farther, I hope you join these sessions.
DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions
(and timezones)
South Africa – Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia – Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe – Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
PRICES Session One Only (to test if this works for you) USD 97 AUD EURO Session 1-6 (early bird) USD 297 AUD EURO Session 1-6 USD 597 AUD EURO
Explore Deeper Outside-In
This will be an opportunity for people already using the CEMMethod to go farther and to systematically explore significant areas of process and customer experience transformation. Working together as a group we can learn from and be inspired by each other, as well as gain from Steve’s experience.
We will learn…
New Outside-In principles.
New methods and formats.
Learn more about advanced Outside-In practices.
How to deal with challenges we’ve encountered – in our own work and with the people in our organisations.
Learn and begin to deploy the Outside-In Customer Performance Landscape. This is a powerful tool that literally connects the dots of everyone and everything an enterprise does.
How to integrate the different approaches and formats into a single approach.
Woven into the teaching, we’ll have the opportunity to explore unexpected aspects of Outside-In and the CEMMethod as they emerge.
Because this work is operating on a different level than most of us are accustomed to, frequently small (or big) “misunderstandings” on the part of the unconscious mind can hold us back — until our system “gets it.” We will explore how to identify these “misunderstandings” and how to create new insights and “aha” moments. DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions (and timezones)
South Africa – Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia – Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe – Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
My personal interest in teaching this
From my experience so far, I believe thinking and practising Outside-In has the potential to guide each of us individually on a path that is transformative. And because it brings more wisdom, clarity, compassion, and humour, it can bring needed healing and transformation to our world.
I would like to support those wanting this deep transformation, and those wanting to coach others, to have the skills and experience that will make this possible. That’s the purpose of this Advanced Outside-In Training for 2020.
I’ll be including as much as I can fit in of what I’ve learned over the past two decades exploring this work in my own life.
Seeing Outside-In online soon
Live Online Video Training
This will be an online course, so you can participate from any location. We’ll have interactive video, so it will be much like in-person training — except you won’t have any travel costs.
A big benefit from this course will be participating in the paired exercises with coaching available. Each exercise will take us into different Outside-In territory.
Training Dates & Times
We’ll meet approximately 3 hours, once a week, for 6 sessions. After the training, there will be a bonus coaching session to help integrate the learning. DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions (and timezones)
South Africa – Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia – Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe – Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
PRICES Session One Only (to test if this works for you) USD 97 AUD EURO Session 1-6 (early bird) USD 297 AUD EURO Session 1-6 USD 597 AUD EURO
How this Online Training Works
The training will happen online through Zoom.
This will be an extended training, meeting approximately 3 hours, once a week, for 6 sessions. Each session we’ll learn at least one new format. As with the live training, I’ll demonstrate each new method, you’ll be able to practice each method, and we’ll have time for discussion afterwards.
We’ll be able to include everyone’s video feed so that we can see and hear each other. When I’m talking you’ll see and hear me. Then when I do a demonstration, you’ll be able to see me and the work I am doing. When there’s a discussion, we’ll be able to see who is sharing.
We’ll be able to do exercises in pairs, by using Zoom’s “room” feature. Each pair will have their own “video room” to do the exercise, and you’ll be able to raise your hand and call me into your room if you want coaching assistance. Once the exercise is done we’ll return to the meeting as a group.
Access the recordings of the sessions, anywhere anytime to suit your Needs.
Recordings You Can Review Each training session will be recorded, and you’ll have the opportunity to view the recording as many times as you like in between sessions. If you have to miss a session, you can catch up by viewing the video. The recordings will remain available (to training participants only), until 2 weeks after the last training session.
Extra Support Included in this training, I’m offering a follow-up group coaching session, (meeting online and recorded), just for participants in this training. The intention of this coaching session is to support you in integrating your new learnings about Outside-In, in your life and your ongoing practice. You’ll be able to share how things are going and ask questions about challenges, or anything else.
Who is Eligible If you’ve already found value in customer experience, process thinking or Outside-In, and want to go farther, I do hope you will join us on this exciting journey. Of course, if you have gone on further to become a Master or Champion this training will help you be even more effective. Check with us if you have any questions.
DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions (and timezones)
South Africa – Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia – Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe – Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
PRICES Session One Only (to test if this works for you) USD 97 AUD EURO Session 1-6 (early bird) USD 297 AUD EURO Session 1-6 USD 597 AUD EURO
Technical Requirements To participate you’ll need access to the internet, and have a computer or laptop with a webcam. We’ll ask you to participate in a very brief set up a meeting ahead of time, to make sure you can log into the meeting successfully.
Investment: $297 EARLY BIRD – $597 FULL PRICE – Register Here Now This includes…
the online course of 6 sessions,
the 1 follow-up coaching session, and
access to video recordings during the training period
an advanced copy of my new book ‘Outside-In 2020 vision’
access to a dedicated and exclusive WhatsApp Outside-In group
certification and accreditation
lifetime access to The Experience Manager
Because this is an extended training, after each session if you have suggestions or questions you’d like me to address at the next meeting, you can email or WhatsApp them to me.
DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions (and timezones)
South Africa – Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia – Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe – Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
PRICES Session One Only (to test if this works for you) USD 97 AUD EURO Session 1-6 (early bird) USD 297 AUD EURO Session 1-6 USD 597 AUD EURO
Group Size: We’ll be limiting the group size, so register soon if you want to be sure to have a seat at the ONLINE table.
If you’ve already found value in Customer Experience, Process Management or Outside-In, and want to go farther, I hope you join this training.
I am very much looking forward to it and meeting with you soon,
