Your Customer Experience Lifeline

“Customer Experience” is all the rage in business these days.

And in complete honesty, I like it - because at the end of the day, the ultimate customer value is found in the entire experience that a customer has, not a single impression or transactional touch point.

To be fair, for some, Customer Experience is simply an upgraded more “modernized” take on Customer Service. But as someone that works with business leaders, I view Customer Experience as the opportunity to approach your business from a holistic perspective, infusing intention throughout the entire relationship that you have with your customer.

Customer Experience can include everything from your marketing messaging, interaction with your sales staff, the transactional emails confirming an order, the unboxing experience upon receipt of a purchase and of course, the experience of engaging with your customer service team should an issue arise.

Organizations strategically integrate Customer Experience in a variety of ways - for some, it may be a dedicated Chief Customer Officer. For others, Marketing may be responsible for championing the customers’ needs. Or perhaps it’s your Sales team that “owns” the client relationship. 

Regardless of “who” is responsible for managing Customer Experience, there is no denying that it is multi-faceted and requires orchestrating many moving parts. As you navigate your company’s strategy, there are two primary elements that provide the lifeline to successful Customer Experience.

1. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM COLLABORATION

Delivering an excellent Customer Experience is only possible when cross-functional teams work in unison and collaboratively towards the same objectives. It is crucial for you to ensure that your teams (and vendors) are aligned on the definition of success and processes you use in order to deliver a consistent Customer Experience.

2. OPERATIONAL PROWESS

For your customers to experience an effortless and smooth relationship with your brand, your team must be committed to delivering all of the magic. Many companies don’t understand how much outstanding Customer Experience relies on operational performance. Developing strong trust with your operations team is a crucial foundation -  and remember that operational prowess is not limited to your “operations” team. Every team involved must be fluent in executing towards an excellent and consistent Customer Experience.

Lastly, your teams will operate more effectively when leadership clearly aligns on making these two elements a priority, so keep your communication and decisions in check to ensure that they are aligned with delivering excellent Customer Experience. 

Let me know how you’re tackling your Customer Experience!