There is no single path to exceptional experience. It happens in environments where daily learning and growing take place through trial and error.
Organizations that reach that level of customer engagement are those where people know they have the freedom to experiment. In these environments, the key ideas is to always be pushing ideas forward.
In these environments, leaders understand that not all ideas work, but all ideas are welcome. The process is healthy and flexible to allow for the daily trial and testing that new ideas require in order to understand which are best for the development of the experience culture.
In these thriving environments, processes do not supersede the growth and development of service agents. Without people, processes stagnate. Without people, processes eventually fail. It’s the people that contribute the creative resources and organize the basic building blocks of experience.
The Value Proposition of Customer Experience
As Peter Doucette, VP of Sales and Marketing at The Boston Globe said, “We needed to think of value proposition as the center of everything we do.” That is exactly what they have done. The Boston Globe team has taken a 150-year old legacy and revitalized it to meet the current and future needs of the audiences it serves.
They’ve done this, by focusing on three key questions that have become the core of their operational strategy:
- WHAT are we trying to deliver?
- WHO is our target market?
- HOW can we deliver the news that our target market wants?
No matter what and how many advanced technologies you may have at your disposal, the essence of sound experience strategy and service processes remain the same. It requires the continued growth, development, and conviction of the people who make up the components of the service organization.
Foster Experimentation and Personal Development
The key to their approach is creating and fostering an environment of experimentation and personal development in order to identify, cultivate, and enhance customer experience.
It’s about becoming more agile and focusing more on experimentation. You have to create a structure that allows for that productive experimentation and the agility to change things quickly based on feedback. It’s a marathon, and you constantly have to revisit it to ensure you’re on track.
-Peter Doucette, VP of Sales and Marketing at The Boston Globe
Today that audience comprises of both paying subscribers for the digital, subscription-only version of The Boston Globe and the media-snacking, mass audience that reads the free, online version at Boston.com.
Value Add for Companies and Customers
Simplified, the process is one of moving from serving anonymous customers to coming to truly understand the customer audience along with its most important needs, wants, and current pain points in your industry. Organizations can then work on personalizing and customizing the delivery of service along with demonstrating ROI to the customer and the organization.
Along with the right people, and a willingness to test alternatives options in order to refine the experience, these best practice will lead teams to develop impactful experiences and winning service strategies.
