Category: #cx #custexp #cxgen

Change Architect of the Year

The Global Change Architect of the Year is announced! And the 2021’s award goes to… Edwin de Lange in South Africa.

The BP Group and Affiliates are pleased to announce the winner of this years prestigious ‘Change Architect of the Year’ Award goes to Edwin de Lange, Manager: Customer Experience Design at Mercantile Bank, South Africa.

The Award, now in its fourth year, recognises the formidable achievements of the winner in delivering both personal, professional and business transformation in the organisations they work with.

Over the last few years, Edwin has progressed his professional credibility and qualifications and is acknowledged as one of the most accomplished and recognized African Customer Experience leaders.

His perspective on Customer Experience Management is both grounded in reality and backed up with sharp-end practical accomplishments and success. An inspiration to his colleagues and peers it is a well-deserved honor that once again sets the bar even higher for those wishing to push the boundaries and application of business transformation.

Edwin’s recent licenses and certifications qualifications include:

Prior to joining Mercantile Edwin worked for Old Mutual and All Life in the financial service sector in South Africa.

Selected by their immediate peers and fellow professionals the Change Architect of the Year now appears in the ‘Change Architects Hall of Fame’  – Edwin de Lange is now acknowledged as this years ‘Global Change Architect for 2021’. 

You can review Edwin’s profile at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwin-de-lange-cxs-cppmasters-acxmasters-mentor-coimaster-cppc-aba43911/

https://www.bpgroup.org/changearchitect.html

For Customer Experience, Process Transformation and Operations Management visit www.bpgroup.org

The North Star Metric and Why You Need It Now

Have you got a North Star metric? It’s one of the essential things for any company looking to innovate and drive growth. If you haven’t created one yet, it is time to seriously figure it out. And today, I will be explaining what a North Star metric is, why it’s essential, and how to come up with one.

The North Star metric is the most critical. It is that Metric that would consistently deliver Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO’s) and drive sustainable growth if you focus on above all else.

For Facebook is ‘daily active users,’ Airbnb is ‘nights booked,’ and for the BP Group, ours is ‘monthly organization upskilling.’

Why is having one important?


Because delivering SCO’s and driving change is a lot of work, and it’s easy to dilute effort and resources on things that don’t move the needle. Additionally, getting distracted with the latest and shiniest new ideas is a common problem. Having a North Star metric keeps everyone in your company focused on the most critical Measure for your company’s success. Chosen wisely, it will connect the dots from the front line to the top team

Creating Your North Star metric

You may already have created it in your Successful Customer Outcome Canvas®[1] (SCOC®). Even if you haven’t yet the steps are straightforward by examining your current key performance indicators and assessing what could be a lead Metric. Examine the metrics in the context of what creates the best outcome, for the business and the customer. It is especially effective when you aggregate the SCOC’s against all your customer categories and bringing out the most significant ones and deciding decide which is the most essential Metric.

Defining that North Star metric can have a considerable impact not only on your immediate customers but on how your company operates overall.

Your North Star metric will be different from other organizations, as is how it’s rolled out and communicated.

Connect the dots, Draw the Lines

Anyone involved in delivering Successful Customer Outcomes and driving growth for your company, from the ‘C’ suite to the marketing team to the operations team and all of your external agencies, should be clear on your North Star metric and their role in driving it forward. If you don’t have one and your success maybe isn’t where it needs to be, perhaps you should consider defining one for your organization.

  • Set up a time with key stakeholders,
  • Identify your customer categories,
  • Agree on the SMART needs,
  • Choose the most important one, then
  • Brainstorm what it should be across the entire organization.

It starts with understanding who are your best customers are and why. You will need to cut through all distractions and noise to identify the one metric that will have the most significant and most sustainable impact on your business performance.

It’s a significant process, and sometimes it can be challenging to see the forest for the trees.

It will take a concerted effort, but it is one of the most worthwhile things an organization can do to connect the strategy to execution. Realistically isn’t that desirable for every organization seeking to make winning systematic?

The Guiding Light

The North Star metric becomes the guiding light. It is tangible, objective, and touches everyone and everything. It is a simple concept and as a result everyone can understand it.

You can explore the North Star Alignment approach within the Certified Outside-In Masters® program. Review the short video introduction here:
https://cemnext.com/oi2020

[1] The Successful Customer Outcome Canvas® is a technique within the CEMMethod®. This technique and its companion approach can be reviewed here. https://cemnext.com/customergame

Other Useful Resources

I have just done a 3 minute explainer video for Outside-In – see it here:
https://experienceprofessional.com/oivideo

How to become Outside-In
Step #1 – Get The Book: Outside-In The Secret *FREE* https://bit.ly/OI2021now  

Step #2 – Get The Training:

Certified Outside-In Master® | https://cemnext.com/oi2020
Certified Process Professional Master®  | https://bit.ly/CPPM21  
Accredited Customer Experience Master®  | https://bit.ly/ACXM2021  

Step #3 – Get the Software:

The Experience Manager | https://bit.ly/TEM2021  

Step #4 – Connect With The Community:

LinkedIn | https://bit.ly/Steve2021

Blog | https://bit.ly/CXO2021

BPG Website | https://bit.ly/BPG2021

Steve Towers Web  |  https://bit.ly/SBT2021

Twitter | https://bit.ly/SteveTowersTwitter

YouTube | https://bit.ly/ST_Youtube

The 5 Secret Steps to Process Masterdom

Do you ever have that sneaky feeling that we can get so much more out of our business processes? Are you Struggling to get support from the organization for your change? Are you curious about what are the best proven techniques (that go way beyond Lean and Six Sigma)?

If so you are in the right place!

THE USE OF THE RIGHT APPROACHES WILL REDUCE COSTS BY AT LEAST 30% (and at the same time significantly improve customer satisfaction!) – 100% Guaranteed

Steve Towers

This FOUR day 5 Hours per day program shows you how using the REAL LIFE work you are doing! Come get upskilled and take back IMMEDIATE improvements that realise tangible benefits from the get-go.

Review the Preview here: https://experienceprofessional.com/cppm_preview

REVIEW THE CPP MASTERS HERE

Here are just some of the recent testimonials:

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 time to response 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 high-quality wonderful Master. I thought the course was brilliant.Thank you for everything.

Join our upcoming Coaching and Accreditation sessions online, LIVE & Interactive

Professional WebclassStartsDuration
Accredited CX Master
(ACXM)		16th Nov4 days @
5 hours per day
Certified Process Professional Coach
(CPP-Coach)		3rd Nov4 weeks @
3 hours per week
Certified Process Professional Champion (CPPC)9th Nov3 days @
5 hours per day
Certified Outside In Master
(COIM)		17th Nov7 weeks @
3 hours per week
Certified Process Professional
(CPP)		23rd Nov2 days @
5 hours per day
Certified Process Professional Master
(CPPM)		23rd Nov4 days @
5 hours per day
Accredited CX Champion
(ACXC)		1st Dec3 days @
5 hours per day
Certified Outside In Champion
(COIC)		8th Dec3 weeks @
3 hours per week


The One Template To Rule Them All?!

Simple things can be very very effective and that is certainly the case with this ‘go-to’ template. Based on the Next Practice of some of the worlds leading companies completing this could change the way you think and do business forever.

It is my first interaction with Top Teams and Leaders and I use it as my first conversation with anyone who says they are tasked with helping transform their organisations (and themselves sometimes!)

You can get this template and watch the overview 1 minute video at:
https://experienceprofessional.com/northstar

Is it the One Template to Rule Them All? You tell me 😉

This neat 30 second video might just give you a clue as to its origins…

Finding Your North Star

Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?

https://lnkd.in/djWxB8m

👉 Step #1 – Review the upskilling options to become an ACX Professional & ACX Master: https://lnkd.in/dANgYX59

👉 Step #2 – Get The Book: Outside-In The Secret *FREE*  https://bit.ly/OI2021now

👉 Step #3 – Connect With The Community: https://linktr.ee/SteveTowers

👉 Step #4 – Keep Pace with Change: Recent Keynote – The Hard Benefits of XM | https://cemnext.com/xmroi2023

👉 Step #5 – Review the Testimonials Accredited Customer Experience Professional – BPG (bpgroup.org)

Call Centre Metrics are the Reason Customers Are so Unhappy (part 1)

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!

The Certified Process Professional Master (CPPM)
4 days, 5 hours per day ONLINE & LIVE – August 10-13
https://experienceprofessional.com/launch-page-cppm

The Accredited Customer Experience Master (ACXM)
4 days, 5 hours per day ONLINE & LIVE – August 18-21
https://experienceprofessional.com/acxmasterinvitation

Uncovering the Secrets of the Top Influencers

Who are the best and what are their secrets?

I revisited my lists of sources, contacts and influencers, brought them up to date (the last two years or so) and collated the best across the domains I operate in. I included the recent Award winners acknowledged for their contributions to business. The result you can access below which contains the people, their LinkedIn connections, their best videos and in some cases additional resources.

My work takes me all over the planet and I get to meet some awesome people who are generous with their time and ideas. I then test, optimise and codify these great ideas into techniques and approaches we can all access.

Dare! Amazon Number 1 Best Seller (2020)

I was relating this approach at a keynote in a conference in Romania recently following the publication of our new Amazon best selling book Dare!

The keynote went well (see the extract version below) and everyone adjourned to the bar to relax and network.

At that drinks reception several people wanted to know my sources of inspiration, so naturally, we started trading names, some well known and some not yet so. As I was doing this it struck me this was one of the most commonly asked questions whether I am talking or working with some of the leading companies on the planet. So an idea was born…

Steve’s keynote in Bucharest in February 2020

Who are the best and what are their secrets?

I revisited my lists of sources, contacts and influencers, brought them up to date (the last two years or so) and collated the best across the domains I operate in. I included the recent Award winners acknowledged for their contributions to business. The result you can access below which contains the people, their LinkedIn connections, their best videos and in some cases additional resources.

So the next time someone asks me a question about influencers I am going to point them here!

All the Best, Keep safe and well,
Steve

Customer Experience, Customer Service, Leadership and Operational Excellence

Click the image to access videos, books and other resources!


TipTop Influencers

Yesterday someone asked me why was I publishing all the FREE material?

Well, in my line of work I am so often asked ‘who is the best person to watch on youtube about y?’ and of course each of us has our go-to person or people that we always mention. Terrific speakers and storytellers alike but I wanted to go one step further and collate some favourites. But then can it just be my opinion (as good as that could be?). No.

So I have scoured the web for the organisations who take time to run Awards programs and pass on that information for broader consumption. You could of course just go on Youtube and search for hours (and days) but these Tiptop Influencer lists make short work of that.

Change Architect of the Year

The Global Change Architect of the Year is announced! And 2020’s award goes to Roland D Naidoo in South Africa.

The BP Group and Affiliates are pleased to announce the winner of this years prestigious ‘Change Architect of the Year’ Award goes to Roland Naidoo, Head of Customer Operations at Multichoice in Africa.

The Award, now in its third year, recognises the formidable achievements of the winner in delivering both personal, professional and business transformation in the organisations they work with.

Roland Naidoo is a Chief Coach and Mentor for several hundred people and has pioneered the integration of Customer Experience Management by changing the methods, approaches and measures of success to innovate within his organisation. 

Over the last few years Roland has also led the upskilling of more than 150 colleagues across the business with professional qualifications in Customer Experience and Process Management and now co-ordinates a team of 20+ qualified ACX Mentors who in turn are coaching, transferring the skills and leading their teams with advanced Customer Experience Management Methods.

Prior to joining Multichoice Roland worked in the banking sector and technology companies in South Africa.

Selected by their immediate peers and fellow professionals the Change Architect of the Year now appears in the ‘Change Architects Hall of Fame’ A charismatic leader Roland is now acknowledged as this years ‘Global Change Architect for 2020’. 

You can review Roland’s profile at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roland-d-naidoo-b403a029/

Previous winners of the Award can be reviewed at https://www.bpgroup.org/changearchitect.html

If you would like to qualify and become Accredited in Customer Experience, Process Transformation and Operations Management visit www.bpgroup.org

It is the end of the world as we know it… but I feel fine

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.

— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948)

Chilling eh? And hopeful too!
It is the end of the world as we know it… REM would be a good bash on the last night perhaps?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OyBtMPqpNY

James Dodkins Online Tour Rocks Customer Experience!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! The ACXS™ training and certification program is now available online.
Get instant access to 25 video lessons and become certified as an Accredited Customer Experience Specialist – the first choice certification for CX disrupters.

https://acxs.kartra.com/page/acxs

You will learn how to connect with your customers at a deeper level, understand their expectations, where they came from and how to change them, uncover hidden needs, articulate ‘Successful Customer Outcome’ statements and build ideal experiences that deliver on these things.

Measure the CX6, calculate Return on Experience Investment, implement Proactive Experience Recovery, learn how to redefine CX in your company…and much, much more.

Things are a bit crazy right now, we’re all stuck at home, we’re all looking for ways to make the most of our time, we’re all trying to be as productive as possible – Why not become an Accredited Customer Experience Specialist Online, On-Demand, On Your Terms?

Use code ‘special50’ to get a massive 50% discount, taking lifetime access to the training down to from £860 to only £430!

And if that wasn’t good enough you can spread the payments out over 4 crazy low payments of just £107.50

https://acxs.kartra.com/page/acxs