Today’s interview is with Stacy Sherman, Head of Customer Experience (CX) & Employee Engagement at Schindler Elevator Corporation and Founder of DoingCXRight. Stacy joins me today to talk about what customer experience means at Schindler, what knowledge and skills she was able to bring to that job from her time at Verizon, what humanizing business & leading with a heart means and what sort of things leaders should be doing to improve their customers experience right now.
This interview follows on from my recent interview – Mindset, method, motivation and harmonisation are at the centre of customer centric-thinking and leadership – Interview with Andy Murray – and is number 373 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.
Here’s the highlights of my chat with Stacy:
- Despite all of the hardship that have gone through in the last few months it’s also important to recognize that we have gained a lot too.
- We need to remember that we are not only managing our time but also managing our energy.
- If we don’t take care of ourselves then it diminishes our ability to care for others.
- There are parallels between thinking about customer experience at Schindler Elevator and Verizon. Both are focused on mobility: one is focused on the mobility of people and things (in a safe manner) and the other is focused on facilitating communications across a mobile network.
- Bring customers to the table in the design phase and before products launch to validate prototypes and testing propositions and pricing. Don’t just launch and hope it sticks.
- Bring your employees to the table too.
- The context or industry may change but the approach should be the same…..get closer to the business and the people that who use the solutions and get closer to the front line and understanding what’s what.
- Pay attention to company culture as it definitely will have an impact on what you do.
- Often if people don’t have incentives that are linked to better customer outcomes then they just don’t care about them.
- The magic happens when everyone’s incentives are focused on improving customer outcomes.
- Make sure you dig into data. If someone gives you a 10 then don’t assume that everything is great. Take the time to listen to the recording of what they said and you’ll likely find that they will tell you that there’s something they were unhappy about. You then have an opportunity to make sure that that promoter stays a promoter.
- Culture starts at the top. You need the leaders at the top as well as people at all levels embracing the culture and putting customers first.
- Culture change takes time a long time. And, it takes every individual to do their part.
- Leaders have to really empower and train their employees to deliver customer excellence even when their boss isn’t looking.
- The voice of the customer can be your game changer. But, remember that the voice of employees really matters too.
- Check out the Oprah supported book and series of video conversations done by Emmanuel Ocho called ‘Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man’.
- As a proponent of humanizing business, we can’t let technology take away the human element. You gotta strike the right balance.
- We’re passionate about people learning more about customer experience. Because, at the end of the day, I’m tired as a consumer of not having good experiences. And, the more that we can get people and brands really doing it right, it’s better for all of us.
- Stacy’s Punk CX word: Fearless & Courageous.
- Stacy’s Punk CX brand: Trader Joes.
About Stacy
Stacy is fearlessly dedicated to humanizing business & leading with a heart❣️ She’s on a mission to create and inspire better experiences so that REAL connections and happiness can exist. Stacy doesn’t just talk about it. She’s taking action and applying proven methodologies every day as Head of Customer Experience & Employee Engagement at Schindler Elevator Corporation (formerly CX leader at Verizon). When not at her day job, She’s mentoring, speaking, writing for Forbes, and blogging about the heart and science of CX, also known as DoingCXRight®.
Connect with Stacy on Twitter & LinkedIn and check out her work and writing at DoingCXRight.
