When was the last time you took a proper look at your CX programme and ensured it is fit for purpose and used to its full extent?
It’s spring cleaning time! Unless you’re ahead of me and you’ve already taken steps to freshen up and declutter your home. But what about your customer experience programme? When was the last time you took a proper look and ensured it is fit for purpose and used to its full extent?
Here are my 3 tips to a cleaner, fresher CX programme.
1. Examine your surroundings
The only constant is change. As you may have read in my blog about setting SMART goals, understanding your objectives and how your CX programme fits within your wider business plan is crucial to your success. But plans change, or at least they should do… After all competition doesn’t sit still, the industry you work in is evolving, technology choices multiply. Do your CX objectives need to be re-evaluated to match this changing environment? Is your company targeting a higher retention or acquisition rate for 2019? Quite likely both. Don’t forget to adjust your CX programme goals to reflect all this.
2. Ditch the junk
With time we all accumulate junk, and it gets in the way of running a home efficiently. Just like useless processes and data get in the way of running a CX programme efficiently. Data, like the junk in your attic, works against you, not for you. It clogs up your systems, and distracts your resources. Not all NPS®transactional data is created equal for instance… Deprioritise what isn’t collected at a moment of truth in the customer journey. Making changes can be difficult, traumatic even. But imagine how much time you could free up for your company if you didn’t need to perform certain tasks that don’t deliver value, or collect data that yields no actionable insights. Value and action are absolutely core to your programme, so be ruthless and ditch the junk.
3. Review your toolkit
Time is precious and the right technology can save you vast amounts of it. Just like an old vacuum cleaner that coughs up more dust than it collects, your CX technology might be presenting you with more challenges than solutions. You might be tied into a contract for a specific period, but is this coming to an end soon? Pay attention to notice periods and don’t give in to apathy. Even if you decide to remain with the same technology partner(s), you might want to look at your current package. Does it deliver enough value? Do you need to add / remove elements to fit your evolving goals? Do your customers expect additional feedback channels, or more personalised communications? If you don’t consider all your options, your customers might re-evaluate theirs.
According to a recent study from Gartner, 52% of marketers with CX responsibility expect their budget to decrease or remain the same, but on the other hand the importance of CX and the value it can bring increases year after year. To succeed CX professionals cannot afford a “rinse and repeat” attitude. “If it ain’t broke…”, they sometimes say about their programme. Well, it’s that thinking that will end up breaking it.
That’s why I suggest spring isn’t just time to declutter your home, it’s also time to spruce up your CX programme. Give it some proper TLC and it will reward you with the return on investment you seek, season after season, year after year.
If you need help reviewing your programme and identifying the junk from the hidden treasures, or if you simply don’t know where to start, contact us today.
Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.
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