What are the best ways to develop a customer experience culture in yourself and others?

A critical part of my customer care teams training has been the inclusion of multiple customer personas as a way to talk about how we need to look for various things in order to understand customers and assist them in the most effective way.

Expose your employees to your customers. If you're in retail, make all new hires spend their first week helping out in the stores, including completing any employee onboarding training on laptop or tablet in earshot of customer conversations or in a break room instead of at their desk in HQ or an administrative office. This will help even your accountants have a better understanding of how the company makes money. Back it up by sharing the voice of the customer beyond the customer insights group.

Picture the scene where every piece of feedback, shared through various channels, becomes a plot point in an evolving story. This ongoing narrative shapes a commitment to continuous improvement, a pledge to refine the tale of customer satisfaction. In this storytelling culture, both employees and customers play protagonists, knowing their voices are heard and their contributions valued. Together, you craft a narrative that transcends a mere transaction, weaving a rich tapestry of lasting connections and exceptional experiences.

In addition to aligning personal and professional goals with the company's vision, fostering a customer experience culture involves actively seeking customer feedback and incorporating it into continuous improvement efforts. Actively listening to customers, understanding their needs, and adapting your approach based on their insights not only enhances individual customer experiences but also contributes to the overall development of a customer-centric mindset within the organization. Furthermore, promoting a culture of empathy is crucial. Encouraging employees to understand and appreciate the customer's perspective helps build lasting connections.

To truly create a customer experience culture you must widely disseminate not just the COMPANY'S goals and values, but the CUSTOMERS' goals and values as well! What jobs are they trying to get done? What does success look like to your customers?

Yes yes and yes again. Deliver and deliver quickly and also communicate as much as is reasonably possible. The more you can communicate with updates, the better. And to make your life easier, try automate the updates!

You will never achieve loyalty from your customers if you cannot build AND MAINTAIN trust. This means that customers must know that you will do what you say and that your products will do what they say on the tin. Repeat purchase and loyalty are two different things and there will be no loyalty from customers if you don't deliver on your promises. But you must also demonstrate loyalty to your customers as well.

Developing a customer experience culture is like teaching a cat to fetch – it requires patience, a few scratches, and the occasional treat. Just like you wouldn't expect your feline friend to retrieve a ball effortlessly, creating a customer-centric environment takes time and a playful approach. So, remember, in the world of customer experience, the only scratches should be from your customers eagerly returning for more, not from avoidable mishaps. Keep the laughs frequent, the promises reliable, and soon you'll have a customer experience that's the cat's meow!

Learning is so important. I rewrite the customer care manual every 3 months because things change, we learn and adapt often.

Seek knowledge from diverse sources, including industry experts, thought leaders, and even outside your immediate field, to gain fresh perspectives and innovative ideas that can elevate the overall customer experience. Follow people who are creating content in this niche and make sure learning never stops.

Modeling desired behaviors is especially important to growing and reinforcing the desired culture. Share stories of the type of customer experience you want to create AND where the company has fallen short.

Encourage open discussions about both successes and challenges, creating an atmosphere of collaboration and shared commitment to elevating the customer experience. This not only reinforces the importance of customer-centricity but also empowers individuals to actively contribute to the ongoing improvement of the overall customer journey.

In today's competitive world, you can either do or die. If you stop innovating and trying new things to add value to your customers, you'll soon realize lower sales and more competition as your weakness becomes someone's competitive advantage. Where do you get ideas from? Your existing customers are a great source to know their pain points and expectations from your brand. On the other side, you have got the Internet, and your competitors locally and internationally that can inspire you. Make sure whatever you improve or offer, falls in line with your customer and business goals.

Lead by example, spotlight where you're trying to take the culture, and shine a light both on what success looks like and where we're falling short when it comes to creating a customer-centric culture. Creating a customer experience culture is slightly different - and lessor. It's more about making customer experience something you consider (next to revenue and profitability), but it isn't the same thing as committing to putting the customer first.

Remember that customers aren’t one-dimensional. They are humans just like us, balancing priorities and navigating a world filled with different forces and influences. For too long, customer-centricity has relied on the oversimplification of customer needs and boxing them into neat little segments. This doesn’t always work because customer needs are fluid. For example, I might prioritize speed and efficiency (self-service) when scheduling my next routine PCP appointment but I might want a face-to-face interaction if I have a sensitive healthcare need to discuss. Customers can seek similar products with a completely different set of priorities and we have to consider this when designing customer experience and user experience.