What are the key steps for creating an inclusive customer experience with your team?

Understanding your customers through comprehensive methods like surveys, interviews, feedback forms, analytics, and social media is fundamental for creating an inclusive customer experience. Segmenting customers based on demographics, behavior, needs, and goals allows you to discern distinct groups with specific challenges and desires. This tailored approach enables you to address individual pain points and preferences, fostering a more inclusive and responsive customer experience that resonates with diverse customer segments.

If you are attempting at building an inclusive customer experience, the first and foremost step would be to understand your customer in detail. To understand your customers better, start by collecting and analyzing customer data. This includes demographics, feedback and preferences. Conduct surveys, gather online reviews and use analytic tools to gain insights. Additionally, invest in customer personas to create a more comprehensive understanding of your audience. Ensure that your team is trained to empathize with and listen to customers actively.

In my experience, understanding customers will always lead to strong connections and loyal relationships. Therefore always get inside your customer’s perspective for an exceptional customer experience.

Understanding your customers is always the first and most important aspect around all customer experience/service. Whilst that's an obvious statement to make, it often surprises me how some organisations don't fully do so. Perhaps they have been privileged to retain their customers for many years - and it is a privilege - and have forgotten why their customers bought from them in the first place! And if they do not keep in touch with their customers regularly, they won't know how their needs change. As always, segmentation is then the key. These days, in pursuit of being more 'inclusive', one factor is that of psychographics - segmenting people based on their interests, needs, and values rather than just their age, gender, income, etc.

One of the hardest parts of understanding your customers is to eliminate (as much as possible) internal bias and assumptions about your customers. We often have ideas and notions about our customers but lack the ability to get intentional about truly extracting their feedback. For smaller companies it’s often easier to do this individually with your customers. Approaching them with curiosity and without assumptions will allow you to truly get their perspective. Additionally when you have an assumption validate with your customers. Get their feedback objectively without trying to influence them and their opinion. It’s better to get the honest information. Happy ears will not help you. Stay objective and curious.

Setting up an inclusive customer experience definitely requires a lot of research and also, enabling an option for clear goals and metrics to be tracked as well. Begin by setting up clear and measurable inclusion goals. These goals should align with your company's values and mission. For instance, you might aim to improve accessibility for customers with disabilities or promote diversity in your product offerings. Regularly review and refine these goals to stay relevant and responsive to changing customer needs.

Consider creating a CX North Star for inclusivity. Designing a CX North Star for vulnerable customers is strategic in preventing their neglect by intentionally centering their unique needs in the design process. By prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility, this approach ensures that the products and services cater to the specific challenges and preferences of vulnerable customers. Regularly revisiting and refining this strategic North Star fosters an ongoing commitment to addressing the evolving needs of this customer segment, preventing oversight or neglect and ultimately enhancing their overall experience.

When designing a CJM, remember “Fundamentals First, Advanced awaits”. Crafting a stellar customer journey (CJM) requires a layered approach. Before indulging in fancy personalization and curated recommendations, prioritize nailing the fundamental experience: the core interactions every customer must encounter. Fulfilling the fundamental experience is crucial as it sets baseline expectations, preventing customer frustration. Once the fundamental experience is established, businesses can focus on advanced experiences like personalization and proactive support, exceeding customer expectations. By prioritizing the fulfillment of the fundamental experience, businesses ensure they cater to essential needs, creating a successful and inclusive CX.

Don’t forget about “Vulnerable CX” in identifying relevant customer segments. A vulnerable customer is someone who, due to personal circumstances or life events, may encounter obstacles in accessing, comprehending, or effectively interacting with a product or service. So when creating an inclusive CX for your team, don’t forget about vulnerable customer segments and their journey with your brand. So in short, don’t forget about vulnerable customers and ensure you form a diverse team to represent all customer segments.

When you have defined customer personas and cohorts for creating an inclusive experience, your next step is to setup a customer journey map that outilines the entire customer experience, from the first interaction to post-purchase support. Identify touchpoints where inclusivity matters, such as website accessibility or customer service interactions. Ensure that these touchpoints are designed with inclusivity in mind. This could involve making your platform more accessible to individuals with disabilities or offering vernacular options for customer support.

You have to live the life of the customer. Know what their wants and needs are. Understand their difficulties accessing your service. And base your customer journey around that.

Remember this a customer journey is an iterative process and a living experience. Don’t be afraid to continue to question your assumptions or iterate on your journey. Additionally ensure that your customer journey is about the customer and their realities, not your company’s. Then validate that your journey is accurate and delivering the right results by actively collecting data to validate your processes. A journey is not a destination. It is continual and living but make the mistake of setting and forgetting it…. Or your customers will move on without you.

Implementing an inclusive customer experience strategy involves training your team to deliver on your goals. Provide diversity and inclusion training to employees, emphasizing empathy and cultural sensitivity. Ensure that policies and procedures are aligned with your inclusion goals. For instance, implement a policy to accommodate reasonable requests related to accessibility.

Always easier said than done! All aspects of your organisation must now be aligned - from marketing, through sales, delivery, operations, finance (invoicing), after-sales service, product/service development, customer success, account management etc. To deliver outstanding customer service and customer experience (given service is the heart of experience!), all these areas - and more - must integrate, in order to offer a seamless, effortless, delightful service to your customer. This involves aspects of people, process, technology, data, org structure, culture and leadership etc. And also cuts across your organisational boundaries, into your suppliers and partners. Following a strategic approach to CXP implementation is paramount.

Revisit your CX North Star to ensure it is designed with inclusivity in mind. Your CX North Star, the guiding principle or goal that shapes your entire customer experience strategy, should inherently include a commitment to inclusivity and empathy, specifically addressing the needs of vulnerable customers. By aligning your CX North Star with the goal of providing an exceptional experience for all, including those facing challenges, you ensure that every aspect of your customer experience is designed with sensitivity and understanding.

Empower your employees to actively contribute to an inclusive customer experience. Encourage open communication, where team members can share insights and concerns related to inclusivity. Create a safe and inclusive workplace environment that fosters creativity and innovation. Recognize and reward employees who exemplify inclusive behaviours in their interactions with customers and colleagues.

By cultivating a culture of diversity and belonging, encouraging feedback, and acknowledging achievements, you not only enhance team morale but also contribute to a more welcoming environment for both employees and customers. This approach can lead to a positive cycle of continuous improvement and innovation in customer service.

Empowering employees is crucial in creating an inclusive customer experience. When employees feel confident and are equipped with the right tools and knowledge, they can effectively address the diverse needs of customers. For example A hotel chain that empowered its staff to directly address guest needs and feedback saw a notable improvement in their online ratings and reviews, particularly highlighting the attentive and personalized service. Anotehr example of a banking institution gave customer service representatives more autonomy to resolve issues. This empowerment led to a quicker resolution of customer complaints and a decrease in escalations to higher management.

Now comes the hard part. This is often where the ‘rubber hits the road’, so to speak. It’s important here, to set and manage expectations carefully e.g. how much money do your staff have to spend? Per customer or in aggregation? Etc. Make sure to use good technology systems to help you solicit, refine, prioritise, track, retain, action, report against and feedback, to the employees who have contributed their ideas and suggestions. And use these to feed into the overall customer inclusion plan, with clear linkages to relevant outcomes for both your customers and your organisation.

To maintain a dynamic and effective customer experience. Regularly collecting and analyzing data, embracing experimentation, and staying informed about industry trends enable you to adapt to evolving customer needs. Embracing a mindset of learning from both failures and successes fosters a culture of resilience and innovation, ultimately contributing to a more robust and responsive customer experience strategy

Continuous improvement is key to maintaining inclusivity. Regularly gather feedback from customers and employees to identify areas for improvement. Use the feedback to make data driven decisions and refine your CX strategy. Additionally, stay updated on the best practices and evolving customer expectations to adapt your approach accordingly.

Two things. First: Most senior leaders are NOT like their core/target customers, yet they make decisions that affect them the most. This creates a strong bias and the further a business gets from a founding/founders vision, the worse the impact can/will be. Second: Many companies have customer facing Colleagues (specifically in service functions) who are VERY much like their target/core customers. Pay very specific attention to these people - Especially the quiet ones who deliver great experiences

Create a collaborative cadence of diverse voices. Establish routine practices, such as forming advisory groups, conducting regular focus groups with diverse participants, and soliciting feedback through surveys, to ensure ongoing collaboration. By embedding this inclusive approach into your team's routine cadence, you foster an environment where diverse perspectives are consistently considered. This not only leads to more culturally sensitive customer experiences but also promotes a team culture that values and respects diversity in decision-making.

Effective and inclusive communication is a simple but important way to improve customer experience. Aligning brands and employees' goals with customer promises is the most important step. This will lead to a customer-centric culture where they are been heard, valued, and understood. Few other ways: 1.. Willingness to ask challenging and uncomfortable questions. 2. Demonstrating empathy. 3. Demonstrating solidarity. 4. Create an open and welcoming physical and cultural environment for all.