As enhanced customer experience continues to shape the landscape of a successful marketplace, CEOs are leading the charge
Now more than ever, chief executives understand the importance of enhanced customer experience (CX). Not only will an enhanced customer experience drive profitability, but it will also create stronger brand loyalty and competitive advantage. The most successful CX programs are championed by their CEO.
What is Customer Experience?
Customer experience (CX) includes every interaction your customer has with your brand and organization. Across every stage of their journey, these interactions will shape their overall perception of your company.
When your company creates a positive customer experience, they will be more likely to use your products and services. Additionally, when a customer has a positive experience, they will be more likely to share their experience with their friends and family. Perhaps most importantly, a positive customer experience leads to enhanced brand loyalty.
The Role of the CEO to Drive CX
Ownership of the customer experience process is central to successfully creating and delivering enhanced customer experience focused on providing the customer what they want and need. Any organization can claim to be focused on providing an enhanced customer experience. However, the most successful CX programs are championed by their CEO.
When a CEO takes an active role in gathering relevant customer feedback data to create actionable insights, their proactive involvement not only leads by example, but also provides a comprehensive perspective for the organization to follow. A recent Economist Intelligence Unit study, released by Genesys, found that active involvement from the CEO in an organizational CX plan resulted in a direct increase in both profitability and consumer loyalty.
The study, which included more than 500 companies across Australia, distributed across industry verticals, confirmed a direct correlation in profitability when customer experience initiatives were led by CEOs. In fact, 58% of businesses surveyed confirmed a direct correlation between higher profits compared to their competitors and CEO involvement.
How to Implement an Exceptional Customer Experience
CEOs are in a unique position not only to identify the external and internal interactions that influence CX, but they also are in the position to keep specific elements of the initiative coherent within the whole. As an organizational leader, the involvement of the CEO sends an unambiguous message to employees, customers, and all other significant stakeholders. While a CEO is the most singular authority within a company, their involvement in the CX process doesn’t have to be overly intrusive. However, to experience the most successful results, the chief executive must play an active role in championing, planning and monitoring the customer experience implementation.
The foundation of enhanced customer experience is laid upon commitment, accountability, and streamlined communications. A recent Deloitte study explained how the evolving expectations of modern consumers are motivated by their desire to experience an enhanced CX. In order for an organization to find its niche within the new landscape of customer service, a company needs to view the customer journey from the perspective of the consumer. Only when they experience this point of view can they create the optimal customer service required for an organization to hone a competitive edge.
Whether you are at the start of your organizational CX journey or looking to breathe new life into an existing program, consider the following:
- Embrace change – Transforming an organization requires both macro and micro management. Companies with the best CX initiatives embrace change and innovation across many platforms, to include employee training and development, operational processes, and new technologies. However, for these elements to successfully impact CX, they must align with organizational goals.
- Commit to the cause – When it comes to the success of an organization, the energetic involvement of CEOs and management teams is non-negotiable. A customer experience focused initiative requires a visible and tangible commitment starting at the top of the leadership chain with the CEO. Furthermore, CX needs to remain a top strategic priority for all allocated organizational resources, budgets, comprehensive strategies, as well as a top priority for all stakeholders. This starts by creating a concise yet powerful mission statement for individual employees and departments to rally around.
- Formalize and streamline internal communication – Cohesive actions are critical for the delivery of an enhanced customer experience. A single negative experience can undermine your customer relationship and providing excellent customer service requires coordination between all organizational departments. To create a successful CX, all channels of communication and reporting must be formalized and streamlined. This will allow the entire organization to work towards the same goal.
- Involvement, funding and accountability – From marketing and operations to human resources and finance, organizational departments must have clear goals and metrics. Additionally, they must allocate sufficient resources to operate successfully develop and implement a CX program. A comprehensive CX strategy allows leadership to measure and account for performance and goals while simultaneously enforcing accountability.
- Timelines, reporting and metrics – Transformation is a complex process, widespread understanding of individual and organizational goals is essential for it to succeed. Clearly defined timelines and metrics need to be shared with leadership, stakeholders, and employees. Additionally, measurement processes should be clearly defined and laid out in advance.
Take Your Organization to the Next Level with CX
Orienting your organization towards delivering exceptional customer experience is a sure-fire way to enhance your business model and performance. With proper planning and a CEO to champion CX initiatives, the promise of enhanced profitability and competitiveness can come to fruition. However, it requires commitment, attention to detail, and inspirational leadership.
Whether it’s a wholesale transformation or a series of tweaks, every CX initiative can run into roadblocks along the way. Without support from leadership, these roadblocks can throw a CX program off track. However, one factor can help a CX initiative withstand even multiple setbacks along the way: a deeply involved CEO.
At Kanari, we are all about your customer and their experience. Our innovative customer experience management solutions provide a reliable, flexible, and scalable platform to help your company create better customer relationships. If you are a CEO looking to develop or improve your customer experience program, contact a member of our team to schedule your consultation.
