5 steps to start aligning customer and employee experience efforts with your business strategy

In a recent LinkedIn post, I shared my thoughts on strategy execution "blind spots" - gaps or weaknesses in our strategy execution plans we might be struggling with or even unaware of, which get in the way of achieving our strategic goals.

Note that I mentioned "strategy execution" and not merely "strategy." This meme-worthy expressions sums up why:

"A vision without action is a dream. Action without a vision is a nightmare."

Too often, leaders say vision-y things, but don't or won't ever follow through. Then, there are the smart, well-intentioned folks who spin up smart, well-intentioned but completely uncoordinated (and usually competing) action-y things that may not achieve the intended outcome and may actually make things worse.

Cue cautionary tales:

• A sales team implemented a new quota-based rewards program that was successful in increasing sales, but created a cutthroat work culture and high staff turnover.
• A marketing team launched a new promotional campaign, which generated a lot of orders but overwhelmed the production team, causing delays and damaging customer loyalty.
• A procurement team implemented a new supplier selection process that saved costs but resulted in longer lead times and production delays.
• A legal department implemented a new policy to reduce risk but caused delays and added complexity to decision-making processes.
• An IT team implemented a new technology solution to improved efficiency but created more work for other departments who had to learn how to use it.
• An operations team implemented a new cost-cutting strategy that resulted in reduced quality and increased customer complaints.

These cautionary tales are all too common in organizations that fail to follow through on their strategic visions and coordinate their execution plans. Without a disciplined approach to strategy execution, even well-intentioned efforts can lead to unintended consequences and negative outcomes.

Switching gears...?

For all the talk and buzz about customer obsession, employee engagement, and human centricity, I continue to see many leaders and organizations struggle - and fail - to truly internalize these concepts and apply them in new, better ways of working. As a result, the organizations, customers, and employees all suffer (read those cautionary tales one more time!).

In the end, it really comes down to disciplined strategy execution. Creating better customer and employee experiences deserves more than lip service, but it doesn't require astronomical investments in CX and EX consulting or internal programs either. You can be smart and calculated in aligning customer and employee experience efforts with your business strategy and desired outcomes.

Here are five steps to get started:

1. Mobilize a cross-functional strategy execution team. Having representatives from different business departments will help break down silos to keep everyone working towards a common goal.
2. Re-visit and re-ground the team in your business strategy and measurable goals. Your business strategy and goals will direct your customer and employee experience efforts, and these efforts, in turn, can help you refine your business strategy.
3. Identify your most important customer and employee audiences (and articulate what makes them important). This will help you prioritize and be intentional about where to focus your customer and employee experience efforts.
4. Identify your priority audiences' most important journeys and key touchpoints or moments with you in those journeys. This will help you further prioritize your efforts as you begin the important work of empathizing with your audiences to understand their goals, needs, and pain points.
5. Identify and assess the business capabilities you have and will need to consistently create, deliver, and continuously improve customer and employee experiences. It's important to be real about what it's going to take to do this work, do it well, and sustain it over time.

Working through these steps is really just the beginning, but it will get you and your team moving in the right direction.

• You'll be focused on executing your business strategy.
• You'll start small with your most important audiences, and the journeys and touchpoints that matter most to them.
• You'll be realistic and honest about your company's ability to do customer and employee experience improvement work and you'll identify the internal capability-building work you need to do to sustain and scale this work over time.

Perhaps most importantly, you'll?become one of the few organizations that are not just talking about customer obsession, employee engagement, and human centricity - you'll actually be doing it.