The Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) held its annual conference last week at the beautiful Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. It was a sold-out event and didn’t disappoint.
The experience confirmed many beliefs about the challenges customer experience leaders face, many of which are summarized here. This event was a great opportunity to learn what others are doing to overcome these challenges.
One takeaway is the importance of using various approaches to engage employees and customers.
Here are some examples:
- Empowering Employees: There were two examples I heard from companies who empower employees to deliver a memorable experience. One company gives front-line employees a $500 budget each year which is to be used to delight a customer – no questions asked. Another company partners with Hallmark Business Connections to deliver personalized cards to customers.
- Recreating the Emotion: There were several stories of companies recreating an experience to illustrate the emotion they hear from customers. For example, one company shared how they scheduled a meeting with the senior leaders of the organization. When the leaders arrived they were 15 minutes late picking them up from the lobby. They started the meeting by sharing a customer “wait-time” story. One of the leaders commented that she felt like her time wasn’t important and reflected on how their customers could feel the same way.
Having an Anchor: Walker facilitated a storytelling discussion where several creative ideas emerged. One popular topic was around anchoring the story to a physical object. For example, one company uses a large box to represent their invoice process. This “anchor” emerged after a customer brought her last invoice to a focus group. The focus group facilitators assumed the box had many invoices (because the box was so large) and were surprised to learn it was just the latest invoice. - Application-based Training: The Insight Exchange had several opportunities for short round table discussions. One of the discussions was titled “How to Engage Scrum to Speed Up Your CX Improvements.” The facilitator used the Scrum framework to deliver his presentation. As he introduced new topics, he moved them through the framework. It was a creative way to learn about Scrum and experience it.
- Creating Interactions: At the Insight Exchange Walker demonstrated an approach we use to help non-CX professionals understand the importance of customer perceptions – it’s a card game called Face Value. It’s a fun and interactive way for groups (think sales and account managers) to consider the various sources of customer intelligence as they make decisions about their customer base.
When a diverse group of professionals assembles to share experiences around common challenges, great things emerge. We hope you’ll join us at the Walker B-to-B CX Summit to share your experiences and learn from others.
