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Experience Action . Let's stop

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just talking about customer experience , employee

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experience and the experience of leaders

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. Let's turn ideas into action

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. Your host , Jeannie Walters

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, is an award-winning customer experience

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expert , international keynote speaker

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and founder of Experience Investigators

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, a strategic consulting firm helping

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companies increase sales and customer

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retention through elevated customer

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experiences . Ready, Set,

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Action . One, two, three, four .

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Hi everyone ! It's another episode of Experience Action

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Podcast . I'm Jeannie Walters

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and you bring me the questions

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and I do my best to answer . So

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we have another great question this week . Let's listen

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in .

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Hi Jeannie , it sounds like you've worked in multiple industries

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. I was wondering what do successful

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customer experience programs have in common

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? Are any elements must-haves

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as opposed to nice-to-have ? Thanks

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! Wouldn't

1:06

it be nice if we had that magic wand , if we could say every single successful customer experience

1:08

program has something that you can just sprinkle on top of everything else and

1:10

it will work , but unfortunately , that's

1:12

not the real world . [Down

1:14

note] However , I totally love

1:16

that we're talking about the fact that

1:19

it doesn't matter what industry you're in . It

1:21

doesn't matter if you're B2C or B2B

1:23

or nonprofit or healthcare . There

1:26

are some consistent ways to

1:28

deliver on the experience for

1:31

the people that you serve and

1:33

ultimately , no matter your organization

1:36

, you have to be successful

1:38

. You have to have a sustainable business

1:40

model that not only serves customers

1:43

but ultimately makes enough

1:45

revenue and profitability to

1:47

keep going . You have people to

1:49

employ . You have processes to deliver

1:52

. You want to innovate . You have

1:54

research and design . That all

1:56

takes funding , so we

1:59

want to make sure that we're not just delivering

2:01

for customers , but we're also delivering

2:03

for our organization . So

2:12

today I have three ideas for must-haves and then a few words of caution

2:14

around what might be nice- to- haves and some things you might

2:16

want to actively ignore . So when

2:19

we talk about successful customer experience

2:21

programs , let's talk about what that

2:23

means . And so the number one

2:25

thing that you must have as a

2:27

successful customer experience program

2:30

is a definition

2:32

of success . What does

2:34

it mean to deliver a great customer experience

2:37

for your customers ? What

2:39

are the rules of engagement ? What are the boundaries

2:41

? And then , taking that one step

2:44

further , what is the success

2:46

that your organization is looking for

2:48

? If we say , well

2:51

, we think that customer experience

2:53

is all about making sure customers

2:55

are happy when they're making a purchase

2:57

, and we're not paying attention to

3:00

the fact that the return policy is

3:02

a nightmare and customers hate it

3:04

and they get very

3:06

confused about it and maybe they don't

3:08

come back , if we're only paying attention

3:11

to one part that we think defines

3:13

success , we might be missing

3:15

the opportunity to really deliver

3:17

those organizational results that

3:19

our leaders care about . So

3:21

the number one thing to do here is

3:23

to define success . Now

3:26

, we always recommend two things to do this

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. Number one is your customer experience mission

3:30

statement . What is your belief

3:32

? How do you show up ? How do you make sure

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that everybody understands what

3:37

experience you deliver , no matter what , to

3:39

your customers ? And number two is

3:41

the customer experience success statement . This

3:44

is where you walk through . What are our organizational

3:46

goals ? What do our leaders care about ? How

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can we deliver on those ideal

3:51

outcomes with the right effort

3:53

around customer experience , and how

3:55

do we measure that ? So

3:57

get very clear about on what

3:59

success looks like . Now

4:01

, of course , any customer experience program

4:04

also has to have a deep understanding

4:06

of customers . This can only

4:09

happen if we are regularly

4:11

inviting them to provide feedback

4:13

. This doesn't just mean mailing

4:15

out surveys and hoping for the best

4:17

. This means inviting them to

4:20

provide feedback in a

4:22

regular way . That also

4:24

includes things like customer

4:26

interviews , passive

4:28

ways to provide feedback , operational

4:31

data how are they actually behaving ? All

4:34

of that information helps you understand

4:36

your customers . Now

4:38

, one of my favorite ways to talk about

4:40

this is if you thought

4:42

about maybe selling to

4:44

pets , maybe you said our

4:46

customers are pets . Well

4:49

, if you've ever had a dog versus

4:51

a cat , you understand that

4:54

saying pets is a little too general

4:56

. So get clear on who your

4:58

customers are and really

5:00

understand their specific needs

5:03

. That is a must-have as well . And

5:05

then , of course , another must-have we

5:08

cannot do this alone . This is an

5:11

all-hands-on-deck endeavor , and

5:13

so we need to have employee engagement

5:15

and leadership buy-in so

5:17

that we can make the changes that we need within

5:20

our culture , so that we can make

5:22

sure that we're providing the right processes

5:24

and tools and support

5:26

for the employees who are maybe

5:28

designing the experience in digital

5:31

experiences or they

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are delivering directly to the customer

5:35

or indirectly . It's

5:37

false to think that only customer

5:40

facing employees have an impact on the

5:42

customer experience . Every single

5:44

employee has an impact on the customer

5:46

experience . So getting that employee

5:48

engagement so everybody clearly understands

5:51

their role and how it's connected to

5:53

the customer that is an

5:55

absolute must have for successful

5:57

customer experience programs . Now

5:59

, what about nice to haves ?

6:02

I would say that today , in today's world , personalization

6:06

at scale is a nice to have

6:08

. Customers are expecting

6:10

it , they are , in some cases , demanding

6:12

it , but not all organizations

6:15

have quite caught up to what that means

6:17

with their technology and tools

6:19

and data . So if you're not quite

6:21

there yet , put it on the list

6:23

as something that you're working towards . It's

6:25

incredibly important for future

6:27

customers . But right now , today

6:30

, customers might give you some grace on that

6:32

. And if you're not set up for that , look

6:34

for what you could do to personalize wherever

6:36

you can throughout their journey , even if you're

6:38

not quite to the point where you can

6:40

personalize at the scale you need

6:42

to . The next thing

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I would say is you want to have a

6:47

really good way to

6:49

close the loop with customers . This

6:52

is where , when we hear from customers

6:55

, when we gather that data , when they tell

6:57

us something that's not working , we

6:59

not only acknowledge it , but

7:01

then we tell them here's what we're doing about

7:03

it . Here's what we're doing not just

7:05

to solve your problem , but to improve this

7:07

for customers moving forward

7:09

. Closing the loop is so important

7:12

because it helps customers feel

7:14

heard and recognized and

7:16

they see the progress being made based

7:19

on their feedback . That

7:21

can have a tremendous impact on loyalty

7:23

and feeling connected to a brand . However

7:26

, again , not all organizations are quite

7:28

there yet . They can't always close

7:31

that loop in the most personalized

7:33

way that really does foster

7:36

that loyalty that we're looking for . So

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do what you can here . If you

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know that you are working on something

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that a lot of customers have asked for , make

7:45

an announcement about that . Share it on

7:47

social channels . Do what

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you can to at least communicate

7:51

about the feedback

7:53

and the input that customers are providing

7:55

for you . [Ding] Another

7:57

nice to have is really looking

8:00

at how can we make our

8:02

customer experience more and

8:04

more proactive . Now , this is

8:06

right now , I think , what a lot of

8:08

organizations are really grasping for how

8:11

can we prevent things from happening

8:13

so that we don't have service issues

8:16

? Some of that proactivity

8:18

can be in the form of communication

8:20

. If we know something's not working

8:23

, if we know something's a little confusing for

8:25

the customer , we may want to just

8:27

proactively communicate that as

8:29

they get to that point in the journey and

8:32

say here's a workaround , here's something

8:34

we will do , here's a support feature that

8:36

might help you . But if you're

8:38

not quite there , if you don't have that level

8:40

of visibility into , maybe , the

8:43

data points that will give you those insights

8:45

, or if you simply don't have the resources

8:47

or bandwidth to proactively

8:49

communicate that way , one of the

8:51

things I would recommend is pay attention

8:54

to what customers

8:56

are indirectly telling you through

8:58

their service and support requests

9:00

. If you're seeing the same thing again

9:03

and again and again , that's a great way

9:05

to prioritize these proactive

9:07

points in the journey . Maybe

9:09

you can't solve the technology , maybe

9:11

you can't overcome the legacy

9:14

system that is creating that

9:16

challenge for customers , but what

9:18

can you do in that moment ? You

9:21

can certainly look to maybe being

9:23

more proactive with your communication

9:25

or proactively giving

9:27

the support employees

9:29

more information so that they can guide

9:31

customers a little more proactively . Those

9:35

are all must-haves and nice-to-haves

9:37

. Now let's talk about what

9:39

I would not recommend for successful

9:42

customer experience programs . One

9:44

is simply ignoring customer

9:47

feedback and I use the word

9:49

ignoring , but it's really a bigger statement

9:51

, because what we don't wanna do

9:53

is gather all that feedback , make all those requests , gather all that feedback

9:55

, make all those requests , get all that data and

9:58

then basically just nod along

10:00

and observe the data , not act

10:02

on the data . If customers

10:05

are taking the time to

10:07

share their feedback , we have to respect

10:09

that . That means using

10:12

the insights gathered from that data

10:14

to actually act on improving

10:16

the customer experience and ultimately

10:18

innovating around the customer journey

10:20

for the future . If we are

10:22

only collecting and reporting out

10:24

internally about what our customers

10:27

are telling us , we are

10:29

wasting everyone's time . Absolutely

10:32

not ! If we can

10:34

take that right approach . Look

10:37

at what the data is telling us

10:39

and come up with action plans to not

10:41

only improve , but look to the future

10:43

. That's what customers are asking

10:46

us to do . So do not ignore

10:48

customer feedback , whether

10:50

you're not collecting it at all , or maybe you're just

10:52

collecting it and not doing anything with it . The

10:57

other thing I would say is let's stop the over reliance

11:00

on technology at the

11:02

expense of humanity . I

11:04

am a huge fan of automation

11:07

and technology . I think artificial

11:09

intelligence and large language

11:12

models and all of these exciting things

11:14

happening are really going to help

11:16

human productivity . However

11:18

, humans still need other

11:21

humans , and so we have to make sure

11:23

, when we make those decisions about

11:25

the customer experience , that

11:28

we are also considering what happens

11:30

if . What happens if this

11:32

automation goes awry ? What

11:34

happens if the customer still

11:37

doesn't feel whole after getting an explanation

11:39

from a chatbot ? What happens

11:41

if the customer goes from

11:43

one channel to the next ? If

11:46

we don't consider those questions

11:48

, then we're going to create even

11:51

bigger problems for our customers and

11:53

our employees . Embrace

11:55

technology , embrace what it can do

11:57

for you , but not to

11:59

the point where we ignore the human factors

12:02

that all of us carry

12:04

. After all , every customer

12:06

is human and every employee is

12:08

human . Now , we might

12:10

have tools and

12:12

automation and the support of

12:15

the robots among us , but

12:17

at the end of the day , whether you're

12:19

B2B or B2C or anything

12:21

else , we are still human beings

12:24

and we need nuance and understanding

12:26

and empathy . So let's not

12:29

sacrifice that for

12:31

, ultimately , automation . And

12:35

finally , I would say we

12:37

can't be neglectful

12:39

of how important touch

12:42

points are throughout the customer journey . If

12:45

you are looking at your customer journey as only those

12:47

big moments and forgetting

12:49

that those small decisions that

12:51

customers have to make every

12:53

step along the journey , if

12:55

we're not looking at those as opportunities

12:58

for improving

13:00

the positivity that a customer feels

13:02

towards our brand , for making

13:04

their lives a little easier , for not

13:07

ruining their days , then we're

13:10

missing an opportunity that might

13:12

be right in front of us . The

13:14

organizations that do this well . They

13:16

provide a lot more positive moments

13:18

than those that don't , and

13:21

that's because they're proactive and intentional

13:23

about those moments . They

13:25

don't neglect those micromoments along

13:27

the journey . They embrace them and

13:30

they say how can we make this a little better

13:32

for the customer , a little easier

13:34

, a little more delightful , maybe some

13:36

humor involved . Whatever it is

13:38

, we want to make sure that we are considering

13:41

the customer at every step of the journey

13:43

, including those small micromoments .

13:45

I love this question

13:48

because sometimes people ask me

13:50

do you have an industry that you specialize

13:52

in ? And while we've certainly

13:55

done a lot of work in certain industries

13:57

more than others , whenever

14:00

we are introduced to a new industry

14:02

, one of the things I love is that these

14:04

principles hold true . There

14:06

are aspects to managing

14:09

the customer experience in an intentional

14:11

and proactive way that are true

14:13

no matter the size of

14:15

the organization , the leadership

14:17

, the industry you name it , and

14:19

so I hope that all of you can take

14:22

these ideas and apply it to your

14:24

organization . If we really

14:26

look at this as a mission , then

14:29

we are in the mission

14:31

of creating better experiences

14:34

for the humans among us , and

14:36

I can't think of anything that is

14:38

more exciting to be a part of . So

14:41

thank you for being here with us , thank

14:43

you for listening , thank you for your reviews

14:46

and your referrals to others . We

14:48

love when others find this podcast

14:51

thanks to your kind words and

14:54

, as always , if you have more questions

14:56

, we're going to do our best to bring you the answers

14:58

. Leave me a voicemail at askjeannie

15:00

. vip . Thanks

15:03

for all you're doing and I will see

15:05

you next time on the Experience Action

15:07

Podcast . To

15:09

learn more about our strategic approach

15:11

to experience ,

15:17

check out free resources at experienceinvestigators . com , where you can

15:19

sign up for our newsletter , our

15:21

Year of CX program and more

15:23

, and please follow me , Jeannie

15:26

Walters , on LinkedIn .