More than ever, CX is the province of the CEO – but what does that mean for CX leaders?
According to Gartner, 89% of companies will be competing MOSTLY on the basis of customer experience (CX) by 2016. This number is up from 35% in just 5 years. Many would argue that this trend significantly raises the profile of CX within organizations.
In recent years, CEOs and other senior leaders have become familiar with CX metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), and, more recently, CXi from Forrester. These metrics have been validated based on their correlation with business outcomes. Thus, many senior leadership groups have adopted these metrics as part of their variable compensation plans. This has been the equivalent of putting their toes in the water.
Recently, MaritzCX launched a comprehensive program called CXEvolution, which enables companies to assess where their CX program stands on 14 dimensions of CX capability and readiness. Those who participate can get not only a diagnosis of where they stand, but also a benchmark of comparison to others in their industry and to CX leaders across industries.
In studying this benchmark, we have learned that the choice of metric has little impact on business outcomes. Metrics such as NPS, Customer Effort Score, Overall Satisfaction, etc., have little to no impact on whether a company is successful at driving business outcomes with its CX program.
Last week I presented a webinar on the importance and implications of conducting an annual CX ‘health check’ assessment, including suggestions of how CX leaders can be more strategic with their programs. As part of this webinar, participants were polled to find out what they thought was most important as an underlying condition for CX success. Among a choice of four options, over 70% selected leadership that walks the walk.
Our research found that the presence of certain processes, governance structures, technology tools, and underlying culture has a very significant impact on enabling the CX program to drive business outcomes. One of the key contributors to success was having leadership that not only talks a good game when it comes to being a customer-centered organization, but really makes customer experience a driver of company action.
CEOs and others in the C-suite are starting to get all the way into the CX pool. It’s time for CX leaders to use a strategic planning process for their CX efforts – one that will align their effort with business outcomes and with the goals of their leadership. Please check out this week’s webinar to get more specific results and our suggestions on how CX leaders can become more strategic.
Watch Michael Allenson’s Webinar, ‘Implement a CX Health Check.’
Also, feel free to take the assessment.
