The 7+1 method to sustain your customer experience

At mabcx , we love to talk about customer stories and investigate the psychology of consumer behavior. It is very rewarding to look at the end product: a functioning customer experience. Nevertheless, we are process people, and for us, 'the machine room' is our home and also the place where we spend most of our time.

In our work to help organizations to become more customer-centric, we identified a practical and pragmatic approach to driver change: the 7+1 Method. It's our systematic and comprehensive framework that will help you to plan, implement and sustain the necessary actions that will lead to a reliable and repeatable Customer Experience. It's technical stuff, but maybe you enjoy it as much as we do.?

1 - Engage your people with Customer Moments

Sharing our experiences as customers have become a thing. Today, most of us "google" the name of a company/product + the word "review" and check what others are saying about it. And maybe, you are among the group of people that take time to leave your opinion registered, too. Every single experience shared is a "Customer Moment."

Discussing a customer moment is a simple process comprised of 4 steps: 1) think about one experience you had as a customer; 2) Was the experience good or bad?; 3) Do you think this is a reliable/repeatable practice of the company or an exception? 4) As a result of your experience, would you continue buying/doing business with this company?

We noticed that organizations that included the practice of dedicating 5-10 min before a meeting to share a customer moment started to grow the awareness about the company's actual customers, leading to improvements in the organization's customer centricity.

2 - Engage with Customer Feedback

Conducting customer surveys has become standard business practice. Organizations are collecting more feedback than ever before, and customers are willing to provide it. Statistics show that the average online survey response rates are around 30%. That's a lot of feedback! But… What are companies doing with all that information?

We found most of it is used in highly aggregated form. Like NPS is 9.2 or CSAT is 87%, and so on. That’s not necessarily a bad approach, but it misses a HUGE opportunity. We found customer feedback to be most effective if it is a) as personal as it can get, down to a single customer, and b) is shared with the person that is either directly responsible for that feedback or can immediately relate to it.

Above and beyond, companies are underestimating the value of re-engaging with customers who give feedback. Have you ever heard back from a company to whom you provided feedback? Engaging with customers that answer surveys or leave reviews on social media demonstrates that you care and is a huge engagement opportunity to deepen the relationship with your customers.

3 - Deep dive into KPI and Quantity Metrics

All the data collected from surveys, reviews, and social media are usually poured into high-level KPIs (key performance indicators), such as Customer Satisfaction Index (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score, among others. All those numbers can tell a story about your customers, especially if combined with analyzing verbatim feedback and engaging with customers. KPIs cannot only serve as a thermometer because, in this case, when you detect you have a fever, it can also be too late. The practice of discovering the story behind the numbers allows your organization to connect with how customers feel about you and what they really expect from you.

4 - Identify the Moments that Matter

Every Customer Experience is the sum of a handful of moments that happen throughout the journey your customer travels to buy your product and service. A moment that matters to your customer is when an emotional impression is made on the person resulting in a feeling, opinion, or action. Not every moment matters the same way to every customer.

The careful selection of Moments that Matter shapes your customer experience, and the magic starts to unfold when you make those moments reliable and repeatable.

Moments that Matter are spread out across the whole value chain: Marketing, Sales, Order Processing, Product or Service Delivery, Customer Service, and Customer Feedback. Only a consistent approach in all those instances creates a customer experience with the potential to turn one-timers into regulars.

Moments that Matter allows your organization to focus on what's relevant and deliver a defined standard in every situation.?

5 - Improve the Employee Experience

The Employee Experience is correlated with the Customer Experience. When your employees aren't happy, customers will feel it. Every great customer experience is based on the strong personal connection between your employees and customers.

Loyal, committed employees allow better relationships with key suppliers, distributors, partners, customers, and each other.

Employee Experience requires really understanding employees’ wants and needs. Having a structure and processes beyond the employee satisfaction survey, nurturing conversations that make people feel heard and allow them to authentically speak their minds, leads to action.

There is a direct correlation between Employee and Customer Experiences - "happy employees, happy customers."

6 - Keep track of the process (PMO)

To meet goals consistently, as well as to create a reliable and repeatable Customer Experience, more than great ideas and initiatives are needed. The execution needs to be organized - procedures, practices, operations - they all need to be on time and on budget. In addition, to also create a great Employee Experience, it needs to be clear who does what/by when.

A PMO - project management office - is a group that sets, maintains, and ensures that standards for the defined projects are met across the organization. Having a PMO ensures the organization will work in an orchestrated way, delivering value and contributing to an improved CX.

7 - Leadership is key

When leaders have a clear vision about the role of the Customer Experience for the organization, they can inspire and motivate the organization. They need a deep understanding of the impact of all relevant aspects to be able to translate the vision into action. It is a high bar, but like a conductor, the transformational leader is capable of allowing each individual to play their own instrument (role/responsibility) to deliver a great concert (Customer Experience / Employee Experience). Communication in that context is the key ingredient.?Listening to customers and employees, capturing ideas and feedback, and constantly highlighting progress. We found effective leaders to be great storytellers.

+1 - Transformation Mechanics

Why +1? Transformation is always about tangible business impact. Implementing a new way of doing things to improve the Customer Experience will require a change to happen at all levels of the organization.

Every successful change follows a strategy is well-scripted, thoroughly planned, and meticulously executed. Transformation Mechanics is the program that provides direction, guidance, and support for the people who are implementing change. It makes sure nothing falls through the cracks, progress is measured, and the organization works towards a common goal.

In our daily work, we strictly follow the 'train the trainer approach'. We share our knowledge, and over time, the people on the inside become change agents, able to drive the programs and make the desired changes. We would love to hear your story and bring our knowledge to you. Please book a 30min Jam session with us here .