How can you partner with experts to innovate customer experience?

1 Why partner with experts?

Experts are people who possess specialized knowledge, skills, or experience in a particular domain or field, and may be internal or external to your organization. Partnering with experts can help you innovate your customer experience in a myriad of ways. For instance, they can provide insights and data that you may not have access to, offer fresh perspectives and ideas that can challenge your assumptions, provide specialized tools and frameworks to enhance your design and delivery process, validate your assumptions and hypotheses with evidence and feedback from customers or other stakeholders, and help you avoid common pitfalls and risks that may impede your innovation efforts.

2 How to find experts?

Finding the right experts to partner with is not always easy. You need to take into account the scope and nature of your innovation project, the skills and expertise gaps in your team or organization, the availability and accessibility of experts in your network or industry, as well as budget and timeline constraints. To find experts, you can ask for referrals or recommendations from your colleagues, search online platforms, attend events, webinars, or workshops that are relevant to your topic or field, and reach out to influencers, thought leaders, or authors who have published or spoken about your topic or field.

3 How to engage experts?

Engaging experts is not just about hiring them or paying for their services, but also building a relationship and trust with them, and aligning your expectations and goals. To ensure successful expert engagement, it is important to communicate clearly and frequently about your project vision, objectives, and deliverables. Additionally, define the roles and responsibilities of each party and the scope and terms of the partnership. Furthermore, share relevant information and data to help the experts understand your context and customers. Involve them in ideation, prototyping, and testing phases, as well as solicit their input and feedback. Finally, recognize the value of their contribution to your project and acknowledge their work.

4 How to leverage experts?

Leveraging experts is not just about getting their advice or input, but also applying their insights and recommendations to customer experience innovation. To do this successfully, you should synthesize and analyze the information and data they provide to identify key findings and implications. Additionally, prioritize and select the most promising ideas or solutions suggested or co-created with you. It's important to test and validate these ideas or solutions with customers, measure their impact and outcomes, then iterate and improve them based on feedback and data from both the experts and customers. Finally, scale and implement the ideas or solutions across your organization and channels.

5 How to evaluate experts?

Evaluating experts is not just about measuring their performance or satisfaction, but also assessing their impact and value on customer experience innovation. To do this effectively, you should set clear and measurable criteria that reflect your project goals and expectations. Additionally, collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data that show the results and outcomes of the partnership. Furthermore, seek feedback and testimonials from experts and other stakeholders involved in the project. Additionally, identify the strengths and weaknesses of the partnership as well as the lessons learned and best practices. Finally, celebrate and share the success of the partnership and innovation.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?