2011 has been a great year for all of us here at PeopleMetrics as well as the Customer Experience strategy space at large. And so in honor of the close of this year and a start of the new one, we’d like to share four customer experience themes we uncovered this past year.
Building a Customer-Centric Culture
A key theme throughout 2011 was the importance of engaging employees and managers in order to engage customers and clients. The ability to align everybody, from senior management to front-line employees, around the desired customer experience is essential to the success of any customer experience transformation journey.
As part of this, earlier this year, we announced our Brand Ambassadors, the individuals in our top performing client companies, who garner high levels of customer recognition and praise. We also had the opportunity to interview these individuals and heard from each and every one of them that the work environment and culture is a key part of their motivation to deliver great experiences to their customers. In July we conducted an independent study on Employee Engagement where we found that employees working for customer-centric organizations are more engaged with their work and give extra effort as a result.
Customer-centricity will never happen without employee buy-in. As Elizabeth Boehm said at Forrester’s Customer Experience Forum, “Your culture is what your employees do when you’re not in the room.”
Walking in Your Customer’s Shoes
We believe that customer feedback technology is essential in helping companies to understand, measure, and manage customer experiences. This technology allows companies to systematically listen and respond to their customers. However, we also know that without a real commitment to improving these experiences, this feedback just becomes more unused data. A 2011 trend we have noticed is the desire to move beyond the NPS or loyalty number and seek to understand the, “why?” behind these ratings. The goal is to truly connect with the customer– not just the score.
Mike Sachs, General Manager, CRM & Owner Loyalty at Volkswagen of America spoke at the NACCM conference earlier this fall and shared his novel approach to helping VW executives truly connect with the customer experience. One of the benefits (and ironies) of being a leader in the automotive business is that you are never actually a customer – you never have to purchase a car. What this means, according to Mike, is that VW leaders are prevented from experiencing how it feels to buy a car from a VW dealership. So, Mike plans to implement an initiative in 2012 that will have every executive go through the car buying journey (that will then be donated to charity) so they are better able to understand the experiences their customers are having every day in their dealerships.
Finding Your Best Customers
This year we noticed an increasing number of our clients taking an interest in our “Market” and “Recognize” alerts (part of our Voice of the Customer technology). Both of these alerts focus on what your customers and clients love about doing business with you. Leaders are realizing that knowing what makes you great in your customers’ eyes is marketing gold.
At the NACCM Conference, Becky Carroll (@bcarroll7) spoke about her efforts to build an online community of Verizon’s best customers who are willing to offer and test new ideas. Becky shared that 90% of Verizon’s latest releases have been suggested, or refined by Verizon customers. Evidence of the deep value in finding, and capitalizing, on your very best customers.
Sharing Ownership of the Customer Experience
At Forrester’s Customer Experience Forum Kerry Bodine introduced “The Customer Experience Ecosystem,” which she defined as: “The complex set of relationships among your company’s employees, partners, and customers that determines the quality of all customer interactions.” In other words, the customer does not belong to one department or function. Every brochure that is produced, every bit of code that is written, every employee that is hired is part of this ecosystem and ultimately everybody impacts the customer.
Many of our own clients are asking for ideas on how to share customer feedback with more employees because an annual executive presentation is simply not enough anymore. Customer feedback management is powerful and inspirational, and to change the ecosystem, these stories (whether quantitative or qualitative) need to be shared.
It’s been an exciting year, and we’re looking forward to what 2012 has to offer. Happy New Year!
~Janessa Lantz
Topic: Customer Experience
