Is Your Organisation “Ready” to Become Customer Centric? The Customer Experience Readiness Scale

Have you ever wondered whether there is really any hope for your
organisation? Have you ever turned up one day wondering if you are the only
person in the building who really gets it? Are you the only person who
understands that the organisation needs to do something different to
genuinely put its customers first? Have you had days when you can see some
light at the end of the tunnel, only for it to be extinguished before you
get anywhere near it?

If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions, I can confidently
confirm that you are very much NOT alone. In my time as a customer
experience professional, I have often wondered if I am completely mad (some
of you are very likely to say ‘yes’ to this). I have always thought that in
my motivation to do the right things for customers, surely everyone else
would agree with me. I have never been swayed by politics or selfish
ambition – only to do what is right – but too often I have continually hit
brick wall after brick wall.

As a customer experience professional, you become practised at
understanding where your key stakeholders sit in terms of their support for
your efforts. You know who the advocates are, and are even more clear as to
who the detractors are. You learn to never give up and to continue to
strive to do the right thing. What you also learn is that every
organisation is completely different, and this means that their ability to
change is different. Essentially, not every organisation is ready to become
customer focussed – even if they think they are.

The ‘readier’ your organisation is (or the people are within it), the
easier it will be to embed an all-encompassing customer experience
improvement initiative that can and will be sustained. The less ‘ready’,
the more difficult it will be. My experiences have led me to recognise that
there are actually four different phases of readiness. That is why I have
created the ‘customer readiness scale’ – a way of self-assessing how ready
your organisation is to embark on its customer experience initiative. The
customer readiness scale allows you to determine where either the whole
organisation, or key stakeholders within it, sit in terms of readiness.

So, let’s have a look in more detail at the different phases of readiness:

1. ACKNOWLEDGE – acknowledgement that the existing state of customer
experience is unacceptable and requires improvement

There are too many organisations who are not prepared to admit there is a
problem. These organisations sit in this first phase of readiness. There
are many reasons that could be driving this behaviour. It does not mean it
is impossible to introduce a customer experience initiative/programme, but
it makes it VERY difficult. You may need to operate very tactically, doing
whatever it takes to PROVE that there is a problem, to get ‘heads out of
the sand’ so to speak! Many businesses that have hit financial difficulties
in recent times may have had individuals who were in this phase of
readiness.

2. DIAGNOSE – agreement to both identify and accept what and where
problems exist in the customer experience

Once there is acknowledgement, you are then able to determine exactly what
is causing the problem. This phase of readiness combines both the
identification of the problem AND the acceptance of it – i.e. your leaders
saying something along the lines of ‘yes I agree that this is the cause of
the problem and something needs to be done about it’! Do not underestimate
how common it is for people to become defensive at this stage – readiness
here will require honesty and openness to the causes of the problem.

3. ACTION – agreement to implement a series of appropriate actions to
address the problems identified in the diagnosis phase

When your organisation is ready to do something about the causes of
customer dissatisfaction – you are doing well. That means that there has
been acknowledgement of the problem, and identification of the things that
need to be addressed. HOWEVER – this is the phase of readiness where the
‘proof is in the pudding’. I have had many situations where I have
successfully got past phase 2 – only for the decision makers to ‘change
their minds’ when I have proposed the actions that should/must be taken.
Phase 3 is the real test of readiness – it is only when your organisation
is really ready to take action that you know your customer experience
efforts are on the right track.

4. IMPROVE – implementation of a programme of improvement to enable the
organisation to continuously meet the changing needs of customers

Starting to act is great, but it is the sustainability of the action and
subsequent improvements that are key to a long-lasting focus on customer
experience. The 4th phase of readiness is IMPROVE – the phase that sees
your organisation embedding a continuous customer experience improvement
programme in its very fabric. This is the enigma or nirvana – the phase to
get to that ensures meeting and exceeding customer needs becomes just a way
of life. It means that the mechanisms are in place to ensure that whatever
needs to be done to improve the customer experience will be forever.

Improving the customer experience is not easy – just ask any committed
customer experience professional. Understanding how ready (or not) your
business is to accept the change needed to become more customer focussed
WILL help you plan your customer experience programme more effectively.
There is no point creating a detailed customer experience strategy if the
board of directors do not think they actually have a problem in the first
place! Now you know how to determine the state of readiness of your
organisation, you can start or continue to plan to address the issues.

Will the customer experience readiness scale stop you from having to bang
your head against a brick wall? Regrettably it will not. It will help you
to have clarity as to why you might be hitting the wall in the first place
though!!

Images Sourced From: Pixabay