DYK # 32: Did you know … that culture is your missing link to CX success?
In my job, I get to work with many wonderful CX leaders who all have one thing in common. They want their customers to have great experiences with them.
That’s a great starting point and well intended, but how do we actually do that? How do we build an organization where we deliver great CX, consistently, every single day? That’s what we’re looking into today in our DYK # 32: “Did you know … that culture is your missing link to CX success?”.
Let’s start at the beginning.
We often start with throwing technology at a problem; hello there AI.. Somehow we started to lead CX projects with tech solutions to find the problem later, rather than utilizing technology as an enabler.
But why is that? It’s because it requires us to be clear on what it is we need to enable, and that’s not always easy. It’s much easier to start with “cool” tech.
So we write a CX Strategy to get clarity on what it is we need, and what success looks like for us. It often helps us inform our tech needs as well.
Great, now we have a strategy, and /or some tech (hopefully the right tech), but somehow we’re still not moving forward with CX, and nothing improves from a customer perspective. So why is that?
It’s because something is missing. A magic ingredient. Culture.
Culture is the one ingredient that’s often missing, because it’s hard!
You can get a consultant in to write your CX Strategy (happy to help, by the way 😉), you can implement new technologies (especially if it’s AI-something you get buy-in fairly quickly), but how do we turn a ship around and move from an operational or product-centric mindset to a customer-centric mindset and culture?
That’s a little bit more complex. But it’s what’s needed, since CX is a Team Sport, and not something that one team can manage alone.
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that you need a CX Team or CX Function within your business, but that CX leader / team needs to work with everyone else in the organization. That team exists to empower all other teams, but also to hold them accountable.
How many strategies have we seen that collect dust somewhere, because we don’t know how to implement them? Too many I’d say.
A crucial part of any CX Strategy needs to be the Culture element. How do we go about “operationalising” CX, and creating a culture of customer-centricity, where all teams value our customers, and have a desire to understand the impact they have on the customer, and continuously improve their experience.
That’s a central part of every CX Strategy I’ve ever written or co-designed.
And here are a few tips for you:
Treat CX as a collective effort - it’s a Team Sport after all. Bring all teams along on the journey by sharing customer insights, co-design and share journey maps, and create shared KPIs. Those will help communicate the customer’s voice, help us understand the impact we have on our customers (even though we never knew we did!), and guide our behaviour in new ways.
Insights: Customer Insights help us understand what works for customers and what doesn’t. It’s important to share those insights with the relevant teams to help employees understand the experience they create for customers. Equip them with the tools and knowledge to enable them to act.
Journey Maps: JMs can be a powerful way to help all teams and the entire organisation understand that customer journeys span across many teams, and silo-thinking only makes matters worse. While every team has their responsibilities and jobs, we need to start considering the impact each team has on the customer, and the experience we create. And we’re all part of improving those.
CX Principles and KPIs:
I love using CX Principles to help all teams understand what it is we’re aiming for in terms of delivering great CX, and what that means for them in their roles. They pave the way to shape new behaviors and change our thinking and mindset about customers. They’re a great vehicle to make CX more tangible for all, and help us “operationalize” CX across the business.
KPIs can also help us “change behavior”. I use the term KPI very carefully, as it’s not about measuring or “punishing” people, it’s about incentivizing employees to change their behavior towards a more customer-centric one; often with the help of our CX Principles.
Additionally:
Training and coaching staff, embed CX into your onboarding journey, weave a customer focus through your JD’s, etc.
To wrap it up, while it’s essential to have a CX Strategy and the right tech, those two alone won’t get you to success. You need culture in the mix as well, to be winning the CX game.
I hope this was insightful. As always, don’t be shy to reach out if you have any questions.
See you next time! 👋
#CX #CustomerExperience #CXTransformation #VoC #CXstrategy #culture #CXTeamSport