The CODE 4 Framework

CODE 4!

The term CODE 4 is probably best known for its use by the emergency services as a call to “stand down” or “everything is under control”, and is communicated to others to let them know that no further action is required.

A Framework to Focus on Delivering World Class Customer Experience.

In a business environment we are always trying to achieve a state where everything is under control, but with ever changing landscapes, technology, expectations, competition and many more factors it is difficult to achieve. Getting the right focus however is critical in order to deliver great customer experiences, and that was the basis for me establishing the CODE 4 Framework, to focus on what I see as the key areas of building a successful platform and be able to continuously improve on it in order to maintain a competitive edge.

The 4 Pillars

I identified 4 Pillars that form the CODE 4 framework, and each of these have 4 further areas of focus.

C - Customer Experience

O - Organisation

D - Data

E - Employee Experience

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Consistency

Options

Delight & surprise

Echo

Consistency

Being consistent is paramount to success, the product, the customer journey, and all interactions with the company at all touch points, whether it be pre-sale, point of sale, post-sale or via any channel, whether that be voice, chat, messaging, social media, video and email, the experience must be the same every time.

Options

Giving your customer options in products, services and ways to communicate show you are understanding of their needs, and are flexible enough to meet them. For instance, with the evolution of Digital interaction, there should still be a choice to reach a human if required.

Delight & Surprise

Taking time to offer a more personalised experience, delighting or surprising your customer doesn’t have to cost thousands, but can reap the rewards in terms of brand loyalty, life time spend, and word of mouth advertising.

Echo

An Echo by definition is “a sound or sounds caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface back to the listener”

Ask your customer what they want, and then ensure your service or product reflects what you learn. Don’t offer them what you think they want, listen to what the customer tells you and deliver it.

ORGANISATION

Continuous Improvement

Objectives and Goals

Dynamic

Ethical

Continuous Improvement

Mark Twain famously quoted “continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”

As a business it’s important keep moving forward, making incremental improvements to products, service, and processes that deliver a better experience.

Objectives and Goals

Its important to know where you are going and what you want to achieve. It provides the foundation for the business and gives clear direction. It allows you to evaluate the business, employees, and yourself.

Dynamic

The ability to rapidly adapt to change, to new technology, consumer wants and needs, products, procedures, service and new ideas. Highlighted by the pandemic, where the best businesses dealt with the changes in the most efficient ways.

Ethical

Being ethical is a foundation of success, being honest and acting with integrity is vital to building lasting relationships. It establishes the company as being very fair and transparent and encourages loyalty from employees, business partners and customers.

DATA

Clean

Optimised

Distributable

Effective

Clean

Making sure your data is clean and removing any errors increases productivity and helps avoid costly mistakes from occurring from using incorrect or outdated data.

Optimised

The ability to be able to easily extract the key data that you need is critical. Your data needs to be readily accessible, analysable and accurate. If it isn’t, excessive administration and employee frustrations will hamper the efficiency of putting your data to use.

Distributable

Ensuring that the data you have is shared between departments is essential for providing excellent 360-degree experiences. If silos exist, and you cannot communicate key data across the organisation it will lead to dissatisfied customers, and missed opportunities.

Effective

Consider what data you are actually collecting and its relevance. If you are not going to use the data, then don’t collect it. You should however ensure that you do act on the data collated, it’s your trump card and when used correctly gives valuable insights that can benefit the organisation.

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

 Culture

On Boarding

Development

Engagement

Culture

Creating a great culture not only enables employees to feel wanted and happy which organically increases productivity it also translates to customer happiness and retention and is the foundation for creating a thriving business model, attracting promotors rather than detractors.

Its important to note that you cannot dictate culture – E.g., you can’t tell everyone to smile on command and expect them to do it, instead create an environment where involuntary smiling is infectious.

Onboarding

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Statistics show that nearly 70% of employees will stay with a company for 3 years or more if they receive great onboarding. Other advantages of onboarding are increased productivity, easier talent attraction, building a stronger company culture, and higher employee engagement.

Development

Employee development adds to the overall culture, I believe that any team is only as good as its weakest member, and so professional development is key to improve the overall performance of the individual, the team and ultimately the business.

Engagement

Engaging your team is important to ensure continued success, helping them feel part of and understand how they contribute to the overall goal is essential. Communication is key to ensuring effective engagement. Providing feedback on company and personal performance is a powerful way to increase engagement. Numerous studies show a direct correlation between engagement and increased profitability.

Greg O'Sullivan