Because They’re Written For Customers, Not Employees

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

I was recently asked by an executive, what’s the biggest mistake leaders make when rolling out a customer experience (CX) strategy? My answer was simple. Most leaders think about the customer first.

For years, I have preached, “Customer service is not a department. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by everyone, from the CEO to the most recently hired.”

At some point, the phrase customer service was changed to customer experience. There is quite a bit of crossover between the two. Customer support and any frontline interactions customers have with employees (customer support, sales, etc.) and is part of the overall customer experience, which includes every touchpoint the customer has with a company, from browsing a website, receiving email updates, the unboxing of merchandise, and more. Regardless, both must start with a philosophical approach that the success of a CX strategy begins on the inside of the company with employees. In other words, it’s about the culture.

Employees Are the Backbone of a CX Strategy

Customers don’t have to know your CX strategy. They only have to experience it. And it’s not really the strategy they are experiencing. It’s your system. The sum of all interactions and touchpoints helps them decide whether to do business with you now and in the future. Start with the end in mind (what you want customers to experience). However, recognize that everything the customer experiences is generated from within the organization. Employees must design a process with the CX strategy in mind. Employees are trained on how their roles impact the CX strategy, whether they are on the front line, supporting those on the front line, or supporting the process that impacts CX. The point is that everything the customer experiences comes from what’s happening inside the company, and employees are what drive that experience. That’s your system.

CX Strategies Are More than Words, But That’s a Good Place to Start

The first step in creating a new CX strategy or initiative is for leadership to decide to do so. It starts at the top. Once the decision is made, the next step is to create the vision. I refer to this as a mantra. This is the “north star” that defines the CX Strategy. This is a sentence or short phrase that is simple enough for everyone to remember. For example, the Ritz-Carlton’s mantra (they call it their credo) is nine words long: We’re ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. This is not a slogan. This is their defining CX statement, and all employee training on customer/guest service focuses on bringing this mantra to life. While a mantra is just words, it is the definition of your CX system.

All Employees Must Know Their Role in a CX Strategy

While the mantra may be both inspirational and aspirational, what employees really need is direction. Inspiration tells them why. Direction tells them how. Once the mantra is created, every employee must know it, memorize it, learn how their role in the organization plays into it, and then be properly trained to it. Even people behind the scenes impact CX. A warehouse employee who never interacts with customers may pack a box improperly, resulting in a customer service issue. All employees must know and understand the mantra and take responsibility for their part of the experience.

Employees Need to Know They Are Doing CX Right

Years ago, I developed a six-step process to build a customer-centric culture. It starts with creating the CX vision (the mantra) and ends with celebrating success. It’s important for employees to know their hard work is paying off.

Final Words

The CX strategy you build falls into two areas: people and process. Training people in their roles and responsibilities is critical. Creating a process that customers find easy and frictionless demonstrates your system is working. When you combine people skills with a well-thought-out process, you have your system.

Don’t tell people to be amazing. Train them on how to do so. Analyze every touchpoint a customer has with you and optimize it.

Let the employees and departments that impact the touchpoints know how important it is to deliver on your CX strategy.

And if nothing else, remember this: Even though your CX strategy is about the customer, your customers don’t experience your strategy. They experience your system.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.

Image Credits: Unsplash

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