About our guest:
Janet LeBlanc is an internationally recognized expert in customer value and experience management with award-winning results in driving transformational change. She was the executive responsible for leading the enterprise-wide integration of customer feedback and the transition from customer satisfaction to customer value for one of Canada’s most recognized brands, Canada Post.
From her website: http://customervaluenetwork.com (see more of Janet’s bio below the interview).
View part 1 of the interview here
Some Lessons From the Interview
Janet LeBlanc + Associates: “Our mission is to help organizations to improve performance by transforming how they interact with customers to deliver a branded customer experience.”
Q: After being successful at Canada Post, what led you to start your own company?
Many companies are good at collecting customer experience data, but the challenge is managing change through an organization. From convincing an executive team to invest in Customer Experience Management, or tackling some of the resistance that employees have when you are a change agent, to helping employees to create action plans on what they need to do; my experience helps organizations with tools and techniques to help them through that change.
I see very similar problems across organizations, they want to be customer oriented and they have the right language, but they struggle with techniques to integrate customer experience as part of the operating platform.
Q: In 2007, you provided insights to your work at Canada Post and described what you call the “five pillars of customer experience” Could you elaborate a little on those?
The five pillars are:
- product offering (what are the features and benefits that you are offering)
- product delivery or execution (does the product perform as expected)
- price
- service culture (what kind of service is perceived)
- reputation/image (brand and image)
These five pillars capture the end-to-end experience, and allow the organization to assign accountability for making improvements in each of those areas. We want every employee to know what they need to do.
Q: What have you found to be some practical metrics that change employee behavior?
The best metrics are those that employees have control over, that they can influence themselves. They also need to be accountable for these changes. This helps them to remain motivated to do more.
More on Janet’s biography:
Janet was the winner of a 2009 Stevie Award for Women in Business (Best Executive in a Government Sector over 2,500 employees) and her leadership won Canada Post four international awards—namely an International Business Award for Best Customer Service Organization, a 1to1 Impact Award for Organizational Transformation, a World Mail Award for Customer Service, and an Aberdeen Industry Achievement Award for Business Evolution.
Janet was named to the prestigious position of Customer Champion, joining a world-wide community of top-level executives who are the voice of the customer in their organizations and whose efforts help tie customer strategies to bottom-line results. Janet is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Customer Strategist, an executive journal by the Peppers and Rogers Group and has been a member of numerous advisory councils.
A 20-year marketing veteran, Janet has covered sales, marketing, customer service, and transformational strategies since starting her career. Janet holds a Masters of Business Administration and was an adjunct professor of marketing at the University of Ottawa for over a decade. She is the co-author of Straight Talk about Children and Sport, now available worldwide in three languages.
