Many of my clients often ask for my opinion on how best-in-class companies determine who owns the customer experience. It’s a fairly simple question, but my initial answer is equally as simple: everyone. Best-in-class organizations live and breathe customer experience. It’s part of their DNA, from the CEO to the newest hire.
One of my clients struggled with this issue for a long time. The organization had tracked NPS across its entire business for years; CX was even on its executive scorecard. However, the customer experience team members always felt like they were just collecting surveys to report a number. They couldn’t articulate the impact they had, or even if customer experience mattered to the business. Ultimately, they were operating in a product-centric organization that wanted to become customer-centric but didn’t understand what that meant or how to get there.
Unfortunately, this example isn’t unique. Many customer experience efforts fail simply because of who was assigned to “own” them. While the individual or team responsible for customer experience had the best intentions, ultimately they couldn’t make an impact because they were limited by their organizations. Some of these efforts are limited by resources, others by competing priorities, and still others by limited visibility or access to the broader organization. That’s why companies need to make customer experience a part of their DNA rather than just assigning it to an individual or team.
How does an organization go from asking who should own customer experience to being a customer-experience-driven organization? Here are four key factors to consider:
- Remember that it’s a journey, not a sprint. Think of this effort as a transformation journey. There’s no silver bullet or switch to flip to make this happen. Success requires commitment and support from your leadership team and long-term buy-in.
- Understand that gaining critical mass is a must. Again, this isn’t about identifying the one person or team that’s responsible for owning customer experience; it’s about changing the culture of your organization. To do this successfully, you must have critical mass. Senior executive leaders must be your champions, but you also have to have buy-in from individuals across different levels and functions.
- Define “what’s in it for me.” Whenever you ask someone to change, you need to help them see how the change will ultimately benefit them. It must be obvious to stakeholders how changing their behaviors to become more customer-centric and customer-experience-driven will make their lives easier and the outcomes better. For example, one of my clients discovered that their customers prefer not to use PowerPoint slides for business reviews, so sharing that information with the sales reps allowed them to save time that previously was spent preparing slides.
- Don’t operate in a vacuum. Ultimately, someone must own the customer experience efforts, but that person or team must have access to and visibility of the broader organization to share insights and information to collaborate on customer-centric solutions. Take the time to create a forum or process, such as customer councils or CX town hall meetings that facilitate the flow of information and ideas across your organization.
By having a clear plan in place and following these best practices, you’ll be on your way to creating a more customer-centric organization, leading to better overall customer experience—and, ultimately, increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
