The fool-proof 5 steps for Governance in CX Programs

A quick search will reveal- A program governance plan is the framework of processes and techniques used to monitor programs. Its purpose is to monitor a program to ensure it meets the requirements and expectations of those who created it.

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Governance is critical for all CX programs to have accountability, clear understanding of roles & responsibilities, a working framework on specific instructions to resolve issues & crisis etc. In the lack of a governance mechanism in place, individuals are left to develop their own understanding of what project governance means or else try to find an implicit meaning from the context in which the term is used.

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According to the Harvard Business Review, “Decisions are the coin of the realm in business. Every success, every mishap, every opportunity seized or missed stems from a decision someone made or failed to make. Yet, in many firms, decisions routinely stall inside the organization, hurting the entire company’s performance. The culprit? Ambiguity over who’s accountable for which decisions.” (Rogers and Blenko)

The United Nations defines?“good?governance” as the?process of decision making?and?the process by which decisions are implemented?(or not implemented). Furthermore, the United Nations suggests that there are eight characteristics of good governance and these are:

1.???? Participatory?- Participation is a key cornerstone of good governance and as such needs to be informed and organized.

2.???? Consensus oriented?- There are several actors and as many view points. Good governance requires mediation of the different interests.

3.???? Accountable?- Who is accountable to who varies, depending on whether decisions or actions taken are internal or external to an organization. In general, an organization is accountable to those who will be affected by its decisions or actions.

4.???? Transparent?- Transparency means that decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement

5.???? Responsive?- Good governance requires that institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders within a reasonable timeframe.

6.???? Effective and efficient?- Good governance means that processes and institutions produce results that meet the needs of stakeholders while making the best use of resources at their disposal.

7.???? Equitable and inclusive?- A society’s well-being depends on ensuring that all its members feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of society.

8.???? Follows a rule of law?- Good governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially.

The 5 steps every CX champion needs to follow to ensure success are:-

1.???? Get started: Have the key buy-in from the executive team, ensure they support your dream, they need to influence the laggards, have the CX playbook in place.

2.???? Define goals, objectives & directive: Answer to critical questions-

a.???? Who (to be involved, is responsible)

b.???? What (ensure clear understanding, what course correction)

c.???? How (define structures & roles, brand the program)

d.???? Why (focus on the end goal, an ongoing always on channel to communicate internally, make a business use case)

3.???? Recruit, build & empower the team: Have the right talent that’s fits your culture, drop silos work across other teams, sustain CX initiatives across organization.

4.???? Iterate, keep the momentum: Monitor to deliver value, Keep the customer focus first, map customer journeys to ?identifying pain points & areas for experience differentiation.

5.???? Share learnings with the larger team: That’s the key responsibility of the steering committee, utilise their services to do away with any gate keepers. These are the main decision makers, get them involved actively.

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To sum it up, have a cadence for a quarterly CX Council to review performance and action plans to enhance experiences.