#37 - Radically reinventing CX in 2023, the atomic unit of CX is the customer, and lots more

Welcome to 2023. I think you will agree that the last couple of years have been special, to say the least. Remember when we all thought that 2022 could not possibly be worse than 2021? Let's all try to be optimistic and do our own part to make 2023 better than 2022, at least for our customers, partners, and employers.

Here are the topics this week:

• The ‘atomic unit’ of B2B CX is the customer.
• Use words that unite, rather than divide or bore your audience.
• Priorities for 2023.
• Please don't play it safe in 2023.
• Radical reinvention of CX.

Let's get going.

The ‘atomic unit’ of B2B CX is the customer

Please just reflect on the atomic unit statement for a moment. The point I am trying to make is really about what it is not: it is not a specific individual within a complex organization, even if that person happens to be the CEO. What we are trying to understand, predict, and influence is the behavior of the customer as a whole, rather than that of one specific individual. Yes, there are rare cases in which a specific individual really has most of the decision power, for example the procurement manager for some types of outsourcing or out-tasking. These cases are rare, and even then, they can be prone to traps. For example, you may keep on surveying the procurement manager after they have changed jobs and no longer have any real influence on your customer contract.

Surveys have been our traditional tool for understanding customers but they really only serve to provide information about what specific individuals thought of us at one point in time. That's simply not good enough. So what's the alternative? Easy - it's the operational data you already have about the customer. Has their use of your software been changing? Does your project management software suggest you have been missing more customer project milestones than you have in the past? Have your sales people been calling on the customer less frequently? Has one of your large resellers suddenly started to order less just two weeks after you missed a delivery deadline?

Your IT systems already contain the hundreds, perhaps thousands of data points you need to gain a comprehensive understanding of each and every customer / atomic unit, on a monthly, weekly, sometimes even a daily basis. Surveys do not provide this, so why have we been using them as our only information source? I have to say that I am not really sure why. Yes, it has now become much easier to use operational data as our primary source of CX intelligence, but it was never impossible. Could it simply be that people we trusted gave us an easy partial solution? Maybe, but whatever the reason, we have collectively failed to produce the CX revolution that we expected, so we absolutely have to change. Now!

Use words that unite, rather than divide or bore your audience

There are many subjects that divide audiences, families, and political parties. I will give an example in a moment. There are also words that are boring and fail to motivate. In the world of CX, an example of a boring sentence is, “Here are our latest survey results.” At least it is boring to people who do not work full-time on CX. Reactions start with questions about what this NPS stuff is anyway, and whether it is reliable, and what the survey methodology was, and so on.

Moving on to a more significant example, there are lots of political divisions about global warming, CO2 emissions, sustainability, carbon taxes, and so on. I am sure I don't have to go into detail. However, I believe that everyone, from every political horizon, is against pollution. At the risk of losing a small amount of scientific accuracy, I strongly suggest that anyone communicating in this space abandon the technical terms and just talk about pollution. It would probably also help deal with internal corporate issues where CEOs want to improve communication while changing nothing else. Even they should be motivated to reduce the pollution their companies generate, if only someone would use that word instead of the more popular terms that are far more difficult to understand. What are greenhouse gases anyway?

Bringing it back to CX, let's suppose yours is a SaaS software company. Your NPS has been declining, and you have various entertaining customer quotes. Should you use those to try to motivate people? No! Dig into your operational data. If that data reveals that the top cause of customers not renewing their contracts are various aspects of the onboarding process, talk about that, rather than about NPS and surveys. The data-driven argument will be solid and everyone will understand what you are talking about.

More content from OCX Cognition

Following my series on the top five reasons for B2B CX failure, I have written an article on the five-step path to B2B success in early 2023. Great source of positive resolutions for the new year, I believe, and most things can be implemented in just a few months. Read more here

And I love Richard Owen's short post entitled ‘In 2023, "playing it safe" is probably your riskiest move’. Some strong messages for CX professionals, and the cartoon he uses to illustrate it is funny and sad at the same time. So close to the truth. It's a quick read here.

Interesting items from elsewhere

Quite a lot has been written about the Southwest Airlines meltdown during the recent snowstorms in the US. As a former extremely frequent traveller, I am interested in understanding why they had to cancel a much higher proportion of their flights than other airlines. I think I have read ten articles on the topic and still don't think I have seen a completely credible explanation. Here is a reasonably good one from CBS News and another one from NPR. Your input would also be most welcome.

Coming up soon

The CX profession has changed remarkably little over the past two decades, and that should worry anyone who cares about customers and customer insights.

Stagnant professions fade away. Forrester predicts that 1 in 5 CX programs will be cut this year, and why not? They don’t deliver insights people trust, they don’t contribute to the bottom line, and they’re hard pressed to make an argument for their value to the company.

Despite the struggles of the CX profession, customer insight – done right -- is the best possible guidance for strategic decision making and operational planning. Join our webinar to learn what it takes to radically rebuild CX: predictive CX analytics. We’ll cover:

• Why traditional, survey-based CX programs have outlived their usefulness
• What a modern CX program should deliver, and how it should fit in the company landscape
• How predictive CX analytics transforms what’s possible via customer insight

Time: Jan 24, 2023 08:30 AM in Pacific Time (US and Canada) Please register here.

Notes

OCX Cognition predicts customer futures. Our breakthrough SaaS solution, Spectrum AI, lets enterprises transform what’s possible in customer experience. Reduce your customer risk, break down silos, and drive speedy action – when you can see what’s coming, you can change the outcome. Building on more that 15 years of CX-focused expertise, we’ve harnessed today’s advances in AI, elastic computing, and data science to deliver on the promise of customer-driven financial results. Learn more at?www.ocxcognition.com.

Maurice FitzGerald is a retired VP of Customer Experience for HP's $4 billion software business and was previously VP of Strategy and Customer Experience as well as Chief of Staff for HP in EMEA. He and his brother Peter, an Oxford D.Phil in Cognitive Psychology, have written three books on customer experience strategy and NPS, and a fourth book that focuses on Peter's cartoon illustrations for the first three. All are available from Amazon.

The author can be reached here on LinkedIn or [email protected]. Please let me know what you think and what sort of content you would like to see here.