How can a Customer Experience leader create accountability?

Clearly communicating expectations is foundational for creating accountability within a team. Utilizing tools like job descriptions, customer journey maps, and feedback mechanisms helps define roles and goals effectively. Employing SMART criteria ensures that expectations are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Involving team members in the process fosters engagement and motivation, establishing a collaborative approach to meeting and exceeding performance standards.

When you are driving a vast charter like CX, it's critical that there is clear accountability when it comes to making teams responsible for driving customer experience. Clearly commuincate the CX goals and expectations to the team. Ensure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities in delivering exceptional customer experiences. Use written guidelines, training sessions and regular team meetings to reinforce these expectations. Develop a detailed CX playbook that outlines specific standards, processes and KPIs to guide the team.

To foster accountability, a Customer Experience leader must establish open communication with the team, providing motivation and sharing the CX vision. Assign tasks based on individual strengths, ensuring expectations are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). Engage team members in setting and reviewing expectations collaboratively to enhance their motivation and involvement in the accountability process.

It is just as important to create clear expectations for what you hope to achieve with CX as it is to create clear expectations for what you hope each individual should achieve in support of the CX organization's goals.

To create accountability in customer experience (CX), a leader should: 1. Set clear, measurable CX goals and communicate them to team members. 2. Assign CX responsibilities, ensuring each member understands their role. 3. Implement (KPIs) to track and review progress. 4. Provide feedback/coaching to guide team members towards goals. 5. Recognize/reward those who meet or exceed CX expectations. 6. Build a customer-centric culture, emphasizing the importance of each role in CX. 7. Regularly reassess and adjust CX strategies, incorporating feedback for continuous improvement. This approach ensures a committed team that is focused on delivering exceptional customer experiences.

When it comes to driving accountability within the org, one of the ways through which this can be done is by establishing a system for continuous feedback and performance reviews. Regularly meet with the team to discuss their progress, provide constructive feedback and offer any sort of coaching support, if needed. Implement a peer feedback system where team members can provide input on each other's performance. This enables in creating a culture that's collaborating and self-improving.

I like to practice first-“AID” when leading a team. In the military, I used a simply framework to quickly provide feedback I think the same can be used for CX teams. It is called the AID Model: Action, Impact, and Direction. The AID model is a feedback framework comprising three key components: Action, Impact, and Direction. It involves describing the observed action, discussing its impact on the team or project, and providing guidance or direction for improvement. I like this model encourages a focused and constructive approach to feedback, emphasizing specific behaviors and their consequences.

“Feedback is the ONLY way to understand what's people (customers/employees) going through, their feelings, wants and needs.” So feedback plays a key role in driving changes.

You have to be extremely focussed on data when it comes to driving any initiative within the organization. One of the ways through which you can drive accountability would be to ensure that as a leader, you use data driven tools and analytics to track metrics such as NPS, CSAT, RR. Ensure that there are dashboards and reports that provide real-time insights for the team to work upon. Implement customer journey mapping to identify specific touchpoints where improvements can be made and track progress in those areas.

La medición es crucial para el control, siendo el núcleo del desarrollo de la responsabilidad. Es esencial que tu equipo comprenda claramente su dirección, razón de ser y el método para pasar del punto A al punto B. Deja en claro las expectativas, plazos y métricas ya que esto les dejará en claro cuáles son sus responsabilidades. Debes de realizar mediciones periódicas en el camino para que puedas retroalimentar y motivar, esto te va a permitir fomentar el compromiso e involucración de cada uno de los integrantes del equipo. Al final del camino verás como naturalmente tu equipo alcanzará los objetivos establecidos.

Consider using Individual Scorescards for each of your team members to help drive accountability. I had a role once where individual scorecards were used, and I found it very help to track progress on professional and customer goals. Individual scorecards offer a structured framework with clear objectives, measurable KPIs, and regular check-ins. Scorecards not only cultivate a culture of accountability and transparency, but the incorporation of feedback and development elements facilitates continuous learning and professional growth, reinforcing the integral connection between individual contributions and overall organizational success during performance reviews.

If you have to create an accountable mindset within teams, as a leader, it becomes crucial for you to ensure that you are recognizing contributions done by the team. Establish a program to celebrate team members who consistently excel in delivering outstanding CX. Focus on recognizing either by offering a monetary or non-monetary reward that can help in the individual's growth. Create a "CX Champion" title that rotates among team members monthly, allowing everyone to experience recognition and motivation.

Recognition and rewards validate efforts and motivate employees to maintain high standards. There have been a few companies that introduced a 'Customer Hero' award. The monthly recognition of employees who went above and beyond in customer service led to increased enthusiasm and a competitive spirit among team members.

When one of my achievements was highlighted, I really felt more valued by the team. I learnt that acknowledging and celebrating team efforts always fuel a culture of ownership and responsibility. Interestingly, it fosters a stronger commitment to delivering exceptional results.

For every initiative, there has to be a structured process for handling customer complaints and issues promptly. Encourage open communication within the team to address internal challenges that may hinder CX delivery. Implement an RCA framework to identify the underlying causes of recurring issues and implement preventive measures with clear ownership.

If you have to build an accountable team responsible for driving initiatives, make sure you are supporting your team's growth by offering training and development opportunities. Encourage them to continuosly improve their skills and stay updated on industry trends. Provide coaching and mentorship to help team members achieve their career goals within the field of CX.

Explore the theory of self-efficacy in order to create an environment where team members can be challenged and thrive. I spoke about the theory of self-efficacy by Albert Bandura. I am a big believer in translating that theory into leadership. Fostering a culture of regular challenges within the team aligns with the theory of self-efficacy, nurturing continuous growth and confidence. By progressively introducing tasks of increasing complexity, team members experience successive mastery moments that enhance their belief in their capabilities. This approach, combined with constructive feedback and goal-setting, creates a supportive environment that celebrates achievements and encourages a mindset of continual development.

Tenacity is so incredibly critical. The old metaphor of “pushing a rock up a hill” was a reality for me as a practitioner. As long as CX is thought of as a “nice to have,” then CX leaders will have their work cut out for them. I would add trust to the list. Not just tenacity but a focus on building trust at all levels, particularly with the C-Suite. Developing a strategy and using frameworks to earn trust and bring others with us helps to flatten out the slope when pushing the rock : )

I believe the biggest issue which any organization has more towards understanding what experience they want to impart. We are driven by certain buzz words of Delight, Technology, automation etc. However, we must first judge what are our brand promise and create a framework, tools and delivery basis that. Let us say that your Brand Promise is Lowest Price in market. The whole experience should revolve on that premise. Customers are not coming to you for wow service and delight. The lowest price is what is wanted and basis that should be experience. So focus creating experience basis that brand promise and design everything from service to delivery to make sure that brand promise is met.

Tenacity seems to be the most underrated #CX leadership skill. You need it just as much as an understanding of the technical competencies of the CX discipline. It takes time for people to accept accountability, even if you flawlessly follow all the other advice in this article.

Instituting for a cadence of CX Governance within the organization is the key path towards attaining accountability, meanwhile working on changing the organizational Culture & mindset as well Additionally, three main pivots : A- CX knowledge B- showing and explaining to impactful players the linkage between their work and CX measurements results C- Assigning CX KPIs as a mandate to various impacting players

Most of this is typical management and leadership principles. The most important thing specific to CX is to create clarity surrounding how individual performance connects to organizational performance, and ultimately how this improves the experience for the customer.