It’s time to bridge the gap between the C-Suite and CX
In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, Customer Journey management is more critical than ever. Companies that prioritize customer centricity are finding success, while those that neglect it are struggling to keep up. To stay ahead of the game, businesses must pay attention to the latest trends in CX. These trends are not only changing the way companies approach CX, but they are also helping businesses better understand their customers and deliver exceptional experiences. Amazon is a good example of a company that has stayed ahead by prioritizing customer-centric policies and initiatives (one-click ordering, fast and reliable delivery, customer reviews and ratings, etc.), thereby creating trust and loyalty and achieving the highest customer satisfaction rating of any retailer in the United States (ACSI).
Are CX metrics enough, though?
Over and above CX metrics, leading CX teams are taking the opportunity and responsibility to drive business growth. Traditionally, there’s a disconnect between what CEOs care about and what CX teams care about. A study by Forrester shows that C-Suites chase sustainable growth and CX teams focus on loyalty*. That’s some misalignment! C-suites should be benefitting from CX teams’ deep customer insight to place smart bets and de-risk growth initiatives. Business growth is about new customer relationships, and the CX team understands customers better than anyone.
It’s time that CX teams started having growth conversations, and paying attention to these important trends.
1. Measure what matters
Traditional CX metrics (such as NPS, CSAT and others) serve a purpose and customers have certainly benefitted over time. In isolation, though, they have their shortcomings:
- They have limited scope as far as what they can measure at any point
- There’s no why behind the ratings, making actionability challenging
- Bias can be introduced by external factors or recent experiences
- It’s an incomplete picture that doesn’t account for segments or market changes
- Intent vs. reality – there’s a disconnect between what people say and their behaviour
Rather, traditional CX metrics are slowly being replaced with a focus on growth metrics. Revenue and costs help teams to focus on what’s really important – the growth and longevity of the business – thereby bridging the gap between the C-Suite and the CX team and creating a common language. Loyalty and CSAT are important, but the relationship between these and profitable growth, growth challenges and sustainability is essential for survival. Today’s leading CX teams are making these connections.
2. From mapping to management
Traditional journey mapping is a noble pursuit and often the first step in improving the customer experience. Lines are drawn and stickies are stuck in order to create a single process chart for the boardroom wall. These maps have some notable shortcomings:
- Maps aren’t real journeys. Customers’ experiences are very different, and maps don’t accommodate for friction and inefficient processes.
- Maps don’t change, but journeys do. There’s no refresh button on your journey map, so it won’t accommodate for changing customer behaviour or market factors.
- Maps don’t know individuals. Behaviour and emotions of individuals are unique and aggregates are no longer useful when trying to understand them.
- Maps don’t identify or address obstacles. Whether it’s an inefficient process or confusing documentation, individual’s responses differ across segments and touchpoints.
In contrast, customer-centric teams are transforming their view of the customer journey by ensuring it’s data-led. Customer Journey Analytics uses existing business data to provide a real-time visualization of customers’ paths, goals and obstacles.
3. A framework for collaboration
The market revolution of the last few years has led to different voices around the boardroom table. The P&L and customers’ dynamic journeys now share the agenda, especially since recessionary factors & labor shortages are forcing businesses to find more efficient, smarter ways of servicing.
Multi-disciplinary leaders are responding to ‘business unusual’ with approaches that are both customer-centric & growth-focused, which demands a flexible framework for collaboration. Collaboration brings diverse perspectives together and encourages more creative solutions. Decision-making is improved which leads to higher quality outcomes, and working relationships are improved through trust, respect and accountability amongst members. But collaboration needs a common basis.
Leading teams are adopting the actual customer journey as a framework and central point of their collaborative efforts. Because the relationship between successful journeys and business growth is understood, and new and existing customer relationships are key to success, multi-disciplinary teams are now analyzing actual customer experiences, obstacles, engagement and conversion on a unified canvas.
4. Rapid prototyping
Your business environment is evolving quickly and this demands agile decisioning. A faster time-to-market allows for quick testing and refinement which provides a competitive advantage. Rapid prototyping encourages experimentation and iteration, leading to more innovative ideas. It also encourages better collaboration between business areas like engineering and customer success. Swift cycles also allow businesses to reduce rick by testing and validating ideas swiftly.
The same success is being seen in Customer Experience and Customer Journey Management where rapid innovation cycles can lead to more effective interventions and journey optimizations. Hyper-personalization amplifies the effectiveness of engagements and interventions, and boosts customer conversion and business growth.
In today’s highly competitive business landscape, Customer Journey Management has become a critical strategy for companies looking to achieve growth, improve collaboration, and drive innovation. By placing the actual customer journey at the center of the business, companies can gain a deeper understanding of their customers’ needs and preferences, identify pain points and opportunities for improvement, and rapidly prototype and iterate new solutions. This approach requires a shift in mindset and a commitment to collaboration across teams and departments, but the benefits of a customer-centric approach can be significant, including improved customer satisfaction, increased revenue, and sustainable growth over the long term.
In short, Customer Journey Management is not just a buzzword, it is a proven strategy for success in today’s customer-driven business environment.
Coming up: look out for our next post in this series where we’ll be looking at the factors guiding digital transformation in leading businesses. Successful transformations are easier waterfalled than done but successful implementations all have a few things in common!
About inQuba Journey Management
Customer Journey Management is the laser technology of CX. Lasers offer targeting precision for specific use cases, and users have granular control. Similarly, managing customer journeys allows you to focus on the specific – cohorts, behaviors and use cases. Every systematic action is for someone, not everyone.
While CX results are flattening, inQuba Journey Management, which includes Journey Analytics and Journey Orchestration, is helping businesses to visualize actual journeys, understand their emotion, dynamically clear their paths, nudge them in the right direction and double customer conversion.
We’d love to understand your business challenges better, and discuss how Journey Management can transform your customers’ experiences and business growth.
Discover more about Journey Management with these great resources.
