Every leader I’ve ever worked with has asked for explicit actions that they can take to show their commitment. I call them ‘CX success recipes’ because to be successful, the steps for each competency need to be specific and easy to own. Each competency’s success recipe includes three leadership behaviors to drive transformation:
1. Unite the leadership team
2. Give permission
3. Prove it by action
Here we focus on the customer journey map. It provides a framework that aligns the organization around experience. Leaders must become consistent and united in how they use the framework, which enables them to focus and prioritize the work of the organization. This includes:
- optimizing investments
- managing resources most effectively
- improving experiences that impact customer asset growth
6 Success Recipes for Competency 2 (Align Around Experience):
#1. Align the Leadership Team: Unite Leadership on the Customer Journey
- Unite leaders by having them agree on the names of the stages of your customer journey (as your customer would name them), and the top 10-15 touchpoints customers care most about.
#2. Align the Leadership Team: Seek Accountability by Each Customer Experience Stage
- Have leaders, in unison, start asking for accountability by each stage of the customer journey rather than by silo report-out.
#3. Give Permission: Drive Accountability
- Leaders regularly engage with the front-line and behind-the-scenes folks to discuss stage by stage:
- What is hindering your work?
- What is impacting customers?
#4. Give Permission: Enable Performance by Experience Stage
- Stage by stage of the customer journey, identify skills, hiring & development tools and support to enable employees across the company to deliver value to customers.
#5. Prove it by Action: Unite Leadership Decision Making in the “Code of Conduct”
- Establish a “code of conduct” by stage of experience.
- What will you always do to honor customers and employees?
- What will you never do to dishonor, disappoint, or distrust them.
#6. Prove it by Action: Communicate and Reward Decisions
- Free employees to make decisions guided by your “code of conduct” of what the company will always do and never do to customers by each experience stage of the customer journey. Reward for decisions made.
Don’t take these on all at once. Stair-step them. Get agreement among your leadership team. But then don’t stop once you start.
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Each competency has required actions that prove commitment to your organization by having leaders act in unison.