Do You Really Know Your Customers? Customer Experience 2.0 Needs to be a C-Suite Obsession

There is really little argument these days that we are in a customer driven economy. But what does that really mean? It is very much on trend to talk about Omnichannel, VoC, and a brand’s Net Promoter Score but do they tell you what you need to know? How does a brand know that it is delivering a great experience? In today’s economy, customers expect brands and firms to know what they want, when they want it, and how they want to experience it. Yet most firms and brands seem to lack the structured framework to really gather, understand and act on that data, and so many executives are unaware of the actual customer experience that their firms deliver. 

A Bain study showed that “80% of CEOs believed that they were delivering a superior customer experience, but only 8% of their customers agree.”

Moreover, the 2019 CMO Survey results as described in an article by Christine Moorman and Katherine Lemon showed that “most companies don’t have an understanding of the journey from a customer point of view.” There is clearly a perception gap, especially at the executive level, between the experience that is ostensibly delivered by brands, and what is actually being experienced by customers.

The same article describes what executives name as the highest priority challenges, “developing the necessary capabilities” and “coordinating the various aspects.” Yet these are clearly internal management issues that could be easily addressed by devoting the appropriate management resources. By comparison, the lowest priority challenges included “mapping the customer journey,” “measuring customer perceptions,” and “ensuring that customer experiences are compatible with our brand.” Understanding these things requires the brand or firm to step out of their comfortable internal management seat and “get outside” and look at their whole brand ecosystem from the customer’s point of view. It seems obvious, right? But the data tells us that executives are not focusing their attention in the same areas that their customers do, nor in the same way as customers. This will certainly create a perception gap, and more importantly, customer attrition. 

Customers are quick to switch when they have a bad experience. In a study by the CMO Council and Pitney Bowes showed that 85% of customers said they would switch if they had a poor customer service experience. 50% said that they want human interaction, but 55% said they want human interaction and omnichannel on their own terms and time schedules. That poses challenges in terms of customer experience and customer understanding.

Now stop and ask yourself some of these key questions.

Do you really know who your customers are? Do you know how they react and feel about your brand?

How do you know if what you are doing is what your customers expect?

How do you know if your people are engaged with customers and delivering what customers expect?

So what can you do about it and where do you start?

First, there must be recognition and dedication throughout the C-Suite for a customer experience transformation to a more customer centric organization, with the full support of the CEO.

Second, customer experience has to be publicly named by the CEO or the C-suite executive who will be the champion of the transformation as an imperative for the brand or firm.

Third, brands or firms need to identify a customer experience transformation and management framework to identify how the entire organization will be involved and to lay out a clear roadmap. Theoretical frameworks are elegant but can often be cause for decision paralysis as things get going and people need clear guidance.

Any new initiative needs to start out with clear steps that the actual practitioners can grasp and run with. This is particularly true in Japan, where it is essential to see clear and concrete steps to take, as well as a clear roadmap to a goal that will not just be a finish line. Moreover, there is no need to try to do everything all at once, nor is it realistic. Conversely, starting small and taking a design thinking approach and making regular iterations is a much-preferred methodology. It feels “safer” to the actual practitioners in the sense that they are more comfortable trying new things. The same thinking will be valid when you start mapping the non-linear customer journey and start thinking about what “jobs” are your customers trying to accomplish when they interact with your brand?

While referencing various theoretical frameworks, we came up with the Customer Experience 2.0? Transformation framework. The underlying principles that drive it are based on many years of actual practice and designed to be a roadmap for ongoing transformation or instilling kaizen DNA.

The Customer Experience 2.0? Transformation framework is built on six core pillars or disciplines which are: 

Insight and Analysis. What do you know, and what don’t you know? Go beyond popular measures such and VoC and NPS. Get direct insight from customers and stakeholders. Dream and dig-data itself is useless and a waste of resources.

Strategy and Vision. Does the data match the brand vision? What is the current customer journey and what is your strategy to make it more customer centric? You need to be brutally honest with yourself.

Design. You need to take a design thinking approach to your customer experience and apply the “jobs to be done” principles. Use pilot programs and innovation popups to try new things. Constant iteration is the key to connecting with customers.

Governance. The transformation needs a governance strategy that fits into the overall corporate governance. It is essential to identify organizational roles and escalation paths. The best transformations have supportive governance processes.

Measurement. Measure, of course, but are you measuring what you really want to know? Innovative programs welcome innovation measurement methods and analysis methods. This is about your brand and community, not a textbook. 

Culture. Employee experience is the not so secret sauce. Establish the ongoing transformation strategy and make sure the entire organization is imbued with a Kaizen DNA. Everyone in the organization should be a Chief Customer Officer. Empowering employees to do right by customers translates to a better Return on Experience as well as the bottom line. 

Since we cannot read the customer’s mind, the best thing we can do is to open and keep a dialogue going with all customers: future customers, current customers, and past customers. Your Customer Experience 2.0? transformation is not a project that will end at some point, it is your roadmap to staying Responsive to your customers as they move fluidly across all touchpoints and brand moments.