Your Customer Experience Garden

I have said for a long time that the best measure for a Customer experience department is not having a need for one at all. If you create the right Customer first culture, your Customer experience will not be as muddled as many of them are today. I took a few days off and among the projects I am working on is cleaning out the weeds from the garden. As I was working on cleaning up all the weeds, I could not help but compare it to the Customer experience created at many companies. We often say get out of the weeds, but as you read you too will realize that Customer experience is directly in the weeds, but make sure you pull the right things.

An ideal Customer experience garden would be weed free, with thriving vegetables. We can think of the vegetables as the Customers. The soil is the business and everything in between is the experience that is created for employees and Customers. Each weed that grows takes nutrients from the vegetables, making it difficult for the vegetable to thrive. We have witnessed the weeds growing for a long time, but instead we focused on expanding the garden and planting more vegetables, while not worrying so much about the ever expanding weeds. Maybe the weeds were not our responsibility.

As we planted our garden this year we tried a few things differently than prior years. We purposely avoided weed paper because of trouble that occurred during prior years. We decided that it may be easier to weed regularly. Not part of the plan was differences in the weather. This year we experienced a lot more rainy days in June which led to an influx of thriving weeds. Between the weather and family activities we did not have the time we planned to fully weed properly. This often happens in business. Each of us have different priorities or responsibilities to the business. Sometimes these efforts lead to unintentional weeds taking the nutrients from our Customers. No one planned on it, but what do we do now?

It is easy to point fingers at who is responsible for the weeds. I could say it was all my fault, or blame my wife, the kids, the rain or Mother Nature, but what will that really accomplish? It will upset people and it was not their fault, just as it was not my fault. We could easily plow through it all and start over, but that is not good for the tomatoes that are growing. Imagine plowing over your Customers? We could hire a team to fix it, which would help with speed, but at the end of the day would we learn? We would probably just need to hire them again when all the weeds appear. The garden was a project for fun for the family and helping the kids learn. In our view each of these weeds must be carefully pulled so not to spread elsewhere. We also must be careful not to pull plants that are viable.

The key is inviting all players to be part of your Customer experience effort. Let them help you weed. Help them understand each of the weeds, why they are there and ways to prevent them in the future. Some of the weeds have been floating in the garden for years. They may have deep roots, but if you get them all out it will help your garden thrive and multiply. Once you have all the weeds out, you can place a a heavy dose of straw to prevent further weed growth, feed your vegetables and be ready for a wonderful harvest.

By working together you are building the right gardening culture that will allow you to expand your crop even further. You are also creating a culture where everyone is always looking for any signs of weeds. How is your garden coming along?

BTW It can be fun to weed together!