3 Ways to Humanize Your CX Strategy

Just over a year ago on a beautiful summer day here in Toronto, my husband
and I had spent the day working in the garden and were coming back into the
house to unwind and relax.

Relaxation was short-lived, however, as 5 minutes in I found myself
dialing 911. We would later learn that my husband had a major heart
attack.

Doctors and nurses cycled in and out over the five-day hospital stay,
typically showing more interest in their files and the dashboard-like
monitors than us. Sometimes we were barely acknowledged.

They would spout numbers and acronyms, probabilities, levels etc. — often
discussing the state of my husband’s health as though we weren’t even
there! To us, it seemed that they were more interested in the brightly lit
monitors and the stream of numbers and beeps that continued day and night
than they were in communicating with the people in their care.

The treatment we received from the hospital was both effective and
efficient, and I am forever grateful to them. But on more than one occasion
we felt like an imposition.

Don’t forget the human element

It reminded me of a critical lesson in CX. Just because companies have
better technology, more data and better analytics than ever before
doesn’t mean we can lose sight of the human element. We have to
remember that CX is short for “Customer Experience”,
and that we have to keep the customers – the people – front and centre.

You’ve probably heard or read that human beings are actually hard-wired for
connection. We innately want to be helpful, to be kind. Our brains are energized by it.

When you help your organization go beyond the charts, graphs and
dashboards to connect with customers as people, you start to build a
customer experience culture that is as engaging for your team as for
your customers.

At TELUS we are passionate about improving the lives of our customers and
our communities.
Here are three ways we help our team see beyond the data and stay close to
our customers.

1. We put faces on our numbers

In our Small Business market, something that really super-charged our
performance was the addition of Personas.

Each persona was brought to life with a detailed narrative of who they were
and how they built their business. Each had rich details about their
workdays, their greatest accomplishments, their needs and goals, and their
feelings about technology and TELUS. And, most importantly, each had a
name.

It changed the conversation from products first to people first.

Instead of just talking about spend, product mix, growth potential, etc…
people said things like “Amy is all about being available to her customers
and building loyalty, so, […] would be a great option”. “Victor’s long-term
game-plan is to build global presence, so, […] is the offering that makes
the most sense”.

Everyone was more engaged, and business results were stellar. For example:

• Marketing campaigns close-rates tripled.
• When we integrated the Personas into our technician training program,
  technicians could better gauge how much time they were going to need to
  spend (affinity and comfort with technology was part of the Persona
  picture) and how they could best support.
• Customers started to tell us that they felt heard, and that we “got it”.
  That we “got them”.

2. We build improvement plans with our customers, not just for our customers

A while back, we saw that our CX improvement plans for our some of our
largest business customers weren’t having the impact we expected, and we
knew we were missing something.
So we decided to invite some of our customers in for a working session – to
build the improvement plans together, side by side.

We learned more that day and probably enjoyed the improvement planning
process more than ever before. People were already eagerly planning the
next one before the first one was even wrapped up!

The plans we built together were more streamlined and simple than the
previous ones, and our customers told us that they were also of higher
value. Furthermore, when we shared what we had done and the plans with our larger customer
base, other customers asked to be included in similar sessions.

Oh, and our results improved and participation rates in customer feedback
programs doubled.

3. We spend time together

At TELUS, we really are passionate about improving the lives of our
customers and our communities. And we don’t think you can achieve that by
staying tucked away in your office-building.

We like to spend time with our customers.

Each year our “TELUS Days of Giving” initiative brings together team
members, retirees, partners, and our family and friends from across the
country to give where we live by volunteering our time.

We believe customers want to do business with companies that share their
values regarding their community and environment. We believe that to
realize our goals, we need to be a company that our customers are proud to
connect with. And it’s hard to make a connection with someone you don’t
know.

Not only do we tend to come back to the office with new understanding,
appreciation and ideas after meeting with customers in-person, but we often
have a refreshed sense of purpose and pride. We are reminded of why we do
what we do, and more importantly, who we do it for.

Here is a short video celebrating our 10 year anniversary of “We give where
we live”.

And sometimes we give some extra special care to one of our cities to say
thank you to our customers and to get to know them a little better.

So continue to love your numbers, your data, and your models. But don’t
forget who this is really about — the customers behind the numbers.

Put faces on your data. Build improvement plans with your
customers. Get out there and spend some time together. You’ll build a
culture that enables your CX vision and is as engaging to your team as it
is to your customers. And that’s when the magic happens!