Customer Experience Management (CEM) Is Not A Single Act, But Rather A Total Company-Wide Commitment

I read an article on the topic of customer experience recently and whilst it did go into considerable depth, there was one basic flaw. Customer experience was described as “creating an experience that exceeds customers’ expectations.”

That term “exceeding customers’ expectations” has become such a cliché, don’t you think? My experience is that most companies believe they have exceeded expectations as long as they deliver the “five rights” - that is the right product/solution, at the right price, to the right place, at the right time, and in the right way.

How can we possibly know if we have exceeded our client’s expectations of us unless we ask at the front-end what they are? We cannot benchmark our performance regularly if we do not understand the parameters.

Let’s be clear, “Customer Experience Management” is a strategic understanding - not a departmental name. Most people, in most companies, don’t think about their responsibility for providing good customer experience because they simply don’t see it as within their remit. Have you ever seen a job description that contained a reference to customer experience?

The problem is the good old whip and trident management style, which works fine in a seller’s market - and costs a small fortune most of the time. The trouble is that you can’t see the cost from a simple item on the P & L - most of it is hidden in the cost of losing business, and winning new business. Existing customers cost much less to keep than new customers cost to win – but you knew that already.

Excellent customer experience demands the creation of a strong commercial partnership “to create and sustain a mutually productive relationship, which serves the needs of both parties, now and in the future.” The key word here is symbiotic. Partnership does not mean eliminating the tension between buyer and seller - it means that top-performing organizations know how to strike a balance between achieving immediate results and developing the relationship fully.

Between 68% and 80% of your orders will come from existing customers this year – unless, of course, you are selling commodities. If you fail to look after them, nurture them, respect them and constantly work to earn the right to their business, whilst pursuing a life of commercial promiscuity, they will respond appropriately. “Commercial promiscuity?” Our almost indecent obsession with spending most (probably 80%) of our available selling time hunting down new, more exciting opportunities at the expense of our very loyal existing customers/clients. These are the same customers who were themselves once new and “sexy” prospects, enticing us to invest considerable time and money at the wooing stage, only to discover fading interest once the conquest had been made.

This is a burning topic for me and has been for many years. I write about the huge gap between intention and reality when it comes to customer experience. I crusade on the need for much greater focus on customer retention. I speak about the millions of lost dollars in revenue when a customer or client finally becomes disillusioned with the lack of interest from the selling company and succumbs to the charms of a competitor, who convinces them they are “sexy” again. This crazy merry go round of commercial illogicality, insanity and ineptitude is never far from my thinking - it is short-termism. “Short-termism refers to an excessive focus on short-term results at the expense of long-term interests.” The London Financial Times 

There is always a penalty for poor customer relations. It plays its way out over the weeks and months ahead when people – and those they influence – simply avoid your firm and vote with their feet. Which gets us back to relations with customers. So long as the environment in your organization is tolerant of taking a patronizing, competing or negative attitude to customers, some people will do just that.

And you, can you truthfully say in your heart of hearts that you believe in the value and need for everyone in the business to help to build good customer experiences? If not, then watch out for the competitor who will figure that out first, or the person competing for your job who knows that is how it’s done.

So do believe it, every customer really is a consultant, and if you do believe it please share this, because we all have to get better at looking after the customers and clients that we have. 

Customers are not like tissues, to be used and then discarded. Any company that thinks like that will soon find that the box is empty!

I am the CEO of Top Sales World and the editor of Top Sales Magazine. TSW is a unique, international online community dedicated exclusively to the profession of sales, bringing together the industry’s best-known sales experts to provide information in the form of how-to-guides, articles, webinars, podcasts and so much more. Have you discovered TSW yet? And have you read February's magazine yet? It is out today and subscription is free.