… identify the change needs and plan the appropriate responses
Change is a common occurrence in our world today. As humans and in our societies, we all succumb to one form of change. In our personal lives, we go through different phases of growth and transitions. We start life in infancy, become teenagers, and eventually enter adulthood. My point here is that each phase has its requirements and challenges which we must deal with in our life’s journey. There are times when we are confronted with complications beyond our capacity and other times when we sail through because we anticipated it and prepared ourselves for it. Whatever form the change takes the fact of life is that change is unavoidable.
Kenich Ohmae, the Japanese theorist and consultant, describes the phenomenon of change as follows: “Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses”. Naturally, most of us are so used to our present circumstances because we have become used to seeing things from our set of lenses and this makes it difficult for the average person to embrace any form of change. However, the reality of our world today is that we live in a very dynamic environment that throws novelty at us frequently.
This is what makes change an imminent occurrence for all of us – individuals, communities, organisations, nations, governments, institutions, just name them; whatever the setting, change is real. The writer Jeff Sheehan puts it a bit more bluntly using the battlefield as an analogy. According to him, on the battlefield, it is crucial to know where you are, where your friendly forces are and where the threat is; this is called situational awareness. Situational awareness is where our change journey begins. Customer experience management is about developing an organisation’s – or business, trade, etc. – situational awareness.
That awareness will drive you to, among others, assess customers and develop CX initiatives in response to the customer, employee, supplier, and partner needs to serve the business, organisation, commercial activity, and its customers. Green’s Change Management Masterclass (2007) identifies what is referred to as Paradigms of Change encompassing change through design, addressing interests, people, emergence and learning. According to him, these five approaches have implications for how a business begins the journey of change and manages it to successful completion.
Many organisations today are still grappling with the new demands from customers for customer-centricity. The need to drive their business through listening to customers and responding empathetically remains a challenge. Getting this right will require a significant transformation. Here are a few thoughts on the way forward. First, be intentional about designing out-of-world experiences to earn loyalty. Second, ensure that all your stakeholders are aligned with your goal of customer-centricity. Third, note that your goal of customer-centricity needs people who are well aligned. Fourth, manage change through emergence. Fifth, leverage change for organisational learning.
Design
A good place to start your experience transformation is to focus on CX design. It’s about working to optimise the experience as customers interact with your brand. The customer journey encompasses many touchpoints from initial awareness and research to conversion, purchase and retention, and referral. The focus of the design team is to work to optimise the touchpoints ensuring that pain points are addressed promptly so that your customers perceive the brand more favourably, and that the brand differentiates itself as customer-centered. It will require focusing on key areas, including advertising campaigns, customer service and others.
It is about working assiduously to understand the customer’s viewpoint and developing a customer-centric mindset. Never mind if your brand is a superior product, it may yet fail if it doesn’t address customer expectations at the various stages of encountering it. A few questions to ask in your design phase include how customers spend at your touchpoints, it depends on their impressions and experience. They are likely to vote with their feet by seeking your competitor at any touchpoint and leaving behind negative feedback. To address this, you must work to make them feel that they are part of the conversation with the brand.
Take time to reflect on the extent to which your brand fits the daily lives of customers. As much as we seek customer intimacy, we must be careful to manage the level of intimacy as we assess the rest of the competition. Another thing we must focus on is how we measure our CX. There are several ways to measure CX. However, as much as it is useful to have capabilities to measure, it is also subjective. Customer situations vary very widely as different customers show different idiosyncrasies and generate a large range of opinions as they engage us. Their behaviour at our touchpoints during their journey are subjective in how they align with our brand values.
Engaging stakeholders
In today’s dynamic world, the task of delivering exceptional customer experience is a top priority for businesses who wish to be on top of their game. However, achieving a high level of CX excellence requires more than a solo effort. It will require a collaborative approach with the active involvement and effective management of internal stakeholders, encompassing operations, marketing, HR, technology, vendors and other departments. This group of people is the backbone of the organisation. They interact with customers, develop products or services and implement strategies to ensure the smooth operations of the business.
Each department within an organisation contributes uniquely to the customer experience. Let’s take the marketing department, they are responsible for understanding customer needs and preferences, developing effective communication strategies, and promoting the organisation’s products or services. The operations department ensures the efficient delivery of these products or services while the technology team provides the necessary digital support for seamless customer interactions. Vendors supply the necessary resources, and the security department ensures the safety of business assets, employees and even customers.
Engaging stakeholders is pivotal to customer engagement. Not managing them effectively can lead to disjointed customer experiences, negatively impacting customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customer experience is everyone’s responsibility and is generally successful when the organisation is working collaboratively to address customer concerns and to keep them satisfied and loyal to the brand. To this end, one of the key challenges in stakeholder management is aligning the goals of different departments with the organisation’s CX objectives. According to recent research, alignment of goals fosters a shared sense of purpose, empowering employees at all levels to contribute to the organisation’s customer-centric vision.
Driving change through people
A successful customer experience campaign in an organisation is only as good as its employee experience. The two are mutually dependent on each other. Company initiatives – such as facilitating an organisation’s culture shift, influencing the working environment, and overall business strategy – hinge on and are measured against traditional key performance indicators (KPIs). Common corporate goals such as profit increase, reduced operational costs, the number of leads and prospects, the average value of purchases, and the level of customer engagement must all synergise to drive a successful CX campaign.
The reality, though, is that business KPIs around improvement tend to weigh more heavily on the hard elements and less so on the soft, such as the employee experience (EX). What is needed and ultimately offers more tangible customer engagements is human-centred change (HCC). It is about putting people at the centre of everything you do. By taking a structured approach, HCC can help to facilitate a comprehensive transformation to improve both the customer and employee experience. when employees are happy with their work, they will translate this to their customers. Happy employees make happy customers.
According to an article by Forbes, “Companies with an excellent customer experience (CX) have employees that are 1.5 times more engaged than employees at companies with less satisfactory CX. Additionally, companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147 percent.” To do this effectively will depend on corporate leadership who listens and responds by enacting changes that deliver customer success. The key is to lean less on initiatives that are oriented around achieving defined business targets and lean more on a CX orientation based on passion and engagement, and create an emotional connection between the company and its customers.
Change through emergence
In our world of uncertainty and complexity, emergent change is a more feasible option than relying on a predetermined change plan. It offers an environment that is congenial for continuous experimentation and learning. It recognises that change is not a linear process, but a dynamic and unpredictable one. Employees are encouraged to test new ideas, take risks and learn from failure. It is called smart failure. Prof. Eddie Obeng of Pentacle UK puts it this way: “When it comes to learning, don’t underestimate the power of failure. But if the company culture discourages experimentation, then beware. It’s not a learning environment”.
A major feature of emergent change management is the implementation of change in manageable chunks. It is about using small-scale pilots to validate new processes and ideas. Rather than rolling out a new initiative across the entire organisation, leaders test the idea in a small area first. The feedback and data gathered from this present opportunities to refine the initiative and make adjustments before rolling it out on a larger scale. It is imperative during this process that resources and support needed to make these experiments successful are made available.
Change experts refer to another important aspect of emergent change management as the use of feedback loops. CX Leaders should continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their initiatives, using data and feedback to inform future decisions. They also involve employees in the feedback process, encouraging them to share their thoughts and opinions on the changes. Advisedly, a potential drawback to emergent change management is that it can be more difficult to manage and coordinate the change when it is happening in multiple areas of the organisation simultaneously. A measured approach by leadership is recommended.
Organisational learning
When your staff are well-trained, they are more likely to deliver out-of-world experiences to customers. As employees who have the skills to handle all customer inquiries, they will be eager to provide quick and efficient service. They will understand the importance of going above and beyond in meeting customer needs. Additionally, they will be motivated to foster a positive attitude toward customers and build customer loyalty over time. They become willing representatives and ambassadors in their customer engagements, ensuring that the positive side of the business is showcased to the customer based on understanding their preferences.
Consistent learning ensures that employees know and understand company policies, procedures, products, services and other essential aspects of business operations. Thus, they represent the company’s brand values and are empowered to effectively serve customers. Employees are empowered to better understand the latest industry trends and customer preferences and thus, are well-placed to deliver cutting-edge solutions and services. It makes them develop the confidence to use up-to-date technologies successfully. They develop competence in using new tools, platforms and strategies that have been proven to deliver excellent customer experiences and incorporate them into their customer experience strategy.
With the right set of resources, employees are better placed to meet customers’ expectations leading to higher retention rates, greater loyalty and improved overall performance of the organisation. Everything gets done professionally for the common good. Training programmes that focus on customer-centric topics ensure that within the business, there are capabilities to create an effective CX measurement strategy, provide data insights into customer preferences, behaviours and feedback trends, and be better equipped to improve the overall quality of the customer experience.
Being intentional about CX is the only way to ensure that your focus on the customer, leading to their satisfaction, is guaranteed. As the Chinese say, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. When you discover the gaps in your customer experience, you are on the journey to driving the change needed to entrench the customer-centric culture in your business. Above all, learning and development are essential for creating an effective customer experience strategy. With the proper training and resources, businesses can ensure that all employees are updated on the latest trends and technologies to provide the best possible customer experience.
| The Writer is Head of Training Development & Research
Service Excellence Foundation, and Management Consultant (Change and Customer Experience). He can be reached on 059 175 7205, |
