Technology, analytical prowess, and a solid strategy are all doomed if no one outside of the customer experience team knows that it is happening. Building awareness for the customer experience strategy and Voice of the Customer program is a daunting challenge being faced by many customer experience practitioners. Customer experience work that is siloed is useless, and if customer insights aren’t shared throughout the organization then it is doomed to be just that.
Brand it.
For some companies a bold customer experience champion who tirelessly advocates for the customer becomes the “brand” that builds awareness for customer experience work. For other companies it is a clear name for the customer experience initiative. Recently a client of ours branded their customer experience work with a simple logo that concentrates their customer experience strategy. What matters is that employees and leaders alike have a shared language to talk about the customer experience and the work your organization is doing to improve it.
Customize it.
If you want people to get excited about gathering feedback from Voice of the Customer software, give them access to customer feedback relevant to their work. Overall company trends can be interesting but they tend to be too distant, too unmovable. Drill into customer comments and trends, however, at the department level and this customized insight becomes both more interesting and more actionable.
Ritualize it.
Pre-shift meetings, client videos, daily push reporting, CEO updates, company newsletters – different tactics work for different companies, the important thing is that talking about the customer experience becomes a habit. Building these “operating rhythms” around sharing customer insight is an important step in gaining awareness for the customer experience.
To be successful, customer experience leaders need to prove that this is not a once and done initiative, they need the support of an organization committed to transforming the customer experience. And while nobody has ever said change was easy, the best are already proving that it is possible.
What has your company done to build awareness for the customer experience?
~Janessa Lantz
