Boo!
Hey, it's Halloween.
That time of year when the ghoulish specters and frightful spirits are out and about.
When, characters like Pennywise, Mike Meyers, Dracula and Freddy are closing in.
When planning for 2022 is pressing upon you with no relief in sight.
When your need to develop or advance your strategy for Customer Experience has stalled. The pressure is mounting. And, you find yourself lost in a corn maze. Trapped, yet somehow running every which way in the hopes of getting out alive.
And then...
You wake up. You're in a cold sweat and can't go back to sleep. Eyes peeled and ears alert. On watch from under the covers. Looking and listening for anything that is definitely not normal or that which is of the super natural.
Ok, planning your CX Strategy might be a little scary. We'll give you that. So, here are three of the most terrifying scenarios of developing a Customer Experience strategy and how you can confront them...
1.) Your CX Strategy is invisible (non-existent)
For many organization's, it's as if Harry Potter dropped his cloak of invisibility and it collapsed around your CX Strategy. In reality, it was never there in the first place.
This is a code level 3 scary situation. But don't be to afraid. All is not lost. But you are going to have to act now. A company in today's Customer-In-Control business environment will be losing ground to competitors faster than ever before without a coherent and integrated strategy for Customer Experience.
The best thing to do is circle the wagons. Get the big guns from the C-suite involved, engaged and interested in what's going on. A successful CX strategy is going to live and die with buy-in and endorsement from the top down and action from the bottom up.
Here are six things to focus on as you get started*...
// Align your business strategy with your CX strategy
// Discover the strong and weak points of your CX
// Understand your best customers, better
// Create a CX hierarchy using best customer scenarios
// Set priorities in action: Inside-out and outside-in
// Make CX your core strategy across the entire organization
2.) Your CX Strategy is a vortex trapped in a matrix that's stuck in old-world thinking
Wow. This sounds like a riddle wrapped in a mystery insider an enigma - only worse! If you're developing your CX strategy from within the walls of a large matrix organization, that can be scary AF.
First thing to do is to unplug, relax, cool down and start thinking straight. That outlier faction of business-as-usual types aren't going away anytime soon nor are they going down without taking a stand for the tried and true of what was working yesterday.
But today is a new day. A dawning of a new age. One where competitive advantages are built on the experiences your customers have with your business and your brand. In this scenario, it is best to start by identifying your customers' positive moments of "ahhhh" and those not so positive moments of "ow."*
This can be used as a baseline of understanding that can reach out and get through to the most hardened of the status quo-ers. From here, you can continue to build on common ground to improve current customer experiences as well as create new ones. Together, with everyone on board.
3.) Your CX Strategy is a two-headed beast
Ugh. Not the demogorgon from Stranger Things. This one is no walk in the park or leisurely stroll down Main Street of Hawkins, Indiana. In this case you are dealing with a conflicted leader who is focused on short term survival at the expense of long-term triumph. This can be dangerous. Proceed with caution.
On this one, you'll more than likely need a group of trusted souls who share the same mindset of team work to get things accomplished. Here, you may have to go a little rogue and rely on your small team to make big things happen.
What we can offer are the ten "E"s of CX. Ten available powers that can be played individually or together. However, when used at the same time they are a most potent force to reckon with.
The 10 "E"s are...Expectation, Emotion, Empathy, Engagement, Elegance, Execution, Economics, Engineering, Equivalence and Experimentation*.
When used wisely, the Powers of E should help you cut an initial pathway through the upside down and gain safe passage back home again.
Your CX Strategy is Important. That's Why It's Not Easy.
Our take on business (not just CX strategy) is that it's team sport, and at times we can't get there by ourselves. That's why we're here. We can help you and your team create the biggest opportunities from the biggest challenges you face.
Right now, creating and implementing a CX Strategy that is designed to give your organization a competitive advantage is a challenge that every company needs to take on. The ones that can do it will win big. The ones that resist will have a hard time moving forward.
As you prepare to confront this giant undertaking of CX, be sure to let us know how it's going. And feel free to reach out if you need a little help along the way. If a deeper dive is needed, we also offer a CX Strategy Workshop for you and your team.
It's lining up to be a zero sum game out there. That's what you should really be scared about.
* Ahhh and Ow moments, 10 "E"s of CX and 6 Principles of CX are all featured in the best-selling book Woo, Wow and Win: Service Design, Strategy and the Art of Customer Delight.
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