Experience My Brand

How Successful Companies Develop Loyal Customers and Increase Profits

Joe Tawfik

• Publisher: River Grove Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781632991287
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Kundenbeziehungen

Author Joe Tawfik presents an assured collection of valuable insights in Experience My Brand that are based on his 25-plus years in senior management. His expertise as CEO of business services companies in particular underlies his assertion that to differentiate itself in the age of digital disruption, a company must make branded customer experience part of its corporate strategy. Rather than relegate customer experience management to any one department, such as marketing, it must become “embedded within a company’s DNA.”
You will learn through detailed analysis and real-world illustrations how to:
• Analyze, Design, and Measure Customer Experience 
• Implement Superior Customer Experience Initiatives
• Consider how Customer Experience Will Change and Transform the Future
?With its plentiful tables and figures to complement his text, Experience My Brand puts theory into practice in a way that will keep you alert and engaged. Experience My Brand’s unique message makes it a must-have guide for senior managers and their teams who seek to strengthen this critical aspect of their businesses as well as anybody wanting to learn about this increasingly important field.

Part 1

MASTERING CX ANALYSIS,
MEASUREMENT, AND DESIGN

CHAPTER 1

Strategic CX: Is Your Organization Ready?

Many companies may think they are providing a strategic program of uniquely branded customer experiences, when in fact they are only delivering tactical, product-centric experiences. The fact is, a strategic customer experience can increase bottom-line profitability and provide other economic benefits to an organization that a tactical experience cannot. This chapter examines the two approaches to CX and reveals why the area of interest for business leaders is in the strategic value, and not the tactical value, of customer experience management.

Assessing CX Programs: Tactical vs. Strategic

The differences between tactical and strategic customer experience programs are linked to their primary objective. A tactical program will have a very specific objective limited to a particular area in the business that has an impact on customers. The strategic approach, on the other hand, requires a whole-company perspective. As we shall see, the results of each type of program contrast as much as their objectives do.

TACTICAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

A tactical CX program tends to operate only within the defined problem area, without considering larger root problems. Rather than tackling underlying causes, a tactical program tends to focus on symptoms of the problem.

Take, for example, an initiative to increase customer satisfaction levels. A typical tactical customer experience program may focus on the training of contact center agents. This type of program does not consider the multitude of other factors that affect customer satisfaction in the contact center.

An organization that adopts a customer experience program for tactical purposes only will not be able to extract value in terms of the bottom line. Tactical CX management tends to end up as a feel-good exercise. Executives sponsoring a tactical CX program feel good about themselves because they are doing something that appears progressive and customer focused, and employees implementing it feel good because they are doing something positive that could help their career progression. However, the general outcome of tactical customer experience projects is short-lived and does not normally translate into an increase in overall profitability. Most tactical projects have a negative return on investment, because what is created is merely an ephemeral asset that soon dissipates, giving no sustainable or measurable value back to the organization. The return on the investment made is rarely realized.

Consider the remedial training programs that your company has delivered over the years and the long-term impact on results. Contact centers are a prime example. Results may temporarily improve, but rarely do they lead to any long-term commercial benefits for the company. Contact center agents typically leave the company after a short tenure or fall into old habits because the underlying root causes of the problem have not been fixed.

STRATEGIC CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

A strategic approach to the same issue—customer satisfaction levels in the contact center—would address the issue from a different perspective, viewing it within a much larger framework by considering components such as the brand promise, customer research, business processes, organizational culture, and technology. If we apply a strategic approach to the contact center example, we would ask a number of questions to get to the underlying causes of customer dissatisfaction. We may uncover, for instance, that the underlying problem is not training but a poorly designed business process, and that only by fixing this process can we hope to remedy the customer problem once and for all.

Unlike tactical programs, strategic ones focus on the greater significance to the organization rather than on the short-term benefits to a particular department within the organization. Action would not be taken unless it would deliver long-term, sustainable value to the company. The myopic view of tactical programs prevents the broader perspective required to achieve sustainable benefits over a much longer period. While tactical CX programs focus only on symptoms, strategic ones fix the underlying causes.

This book is interested in the strategic potential of customer experience. The empirical evidence for companies delivering sustainable, differentiated customer experience and profitability is well documented and convincing. Research of over one hundred midsize and large companies shows that the companies that are able to translate customer experience into bottom-line profitability are the ones that deliver experiences of positive emotion at moments that matter to customers. They achieve this by closely matching, on a consistent basis, the value propositions most desired by their customers. This objective cannot be achieved by allocating the responsibility to a single or a few departments within a company. Instead, the strategic CX program requires a broad and structured approach.

The strategic value of customer experience as an economic booster is closely associated to a number of other dimensions in an organization, including three primary components:

1.Company processes

a. Company strategy

b. Back-office processes

c. Front-office processes

d. Technologies enabling the processes

2.Company environment

a. Culture and people

b. Operating structure

c. Investment capability

d. Employee engagement

e. Senior executive leadership

f. Product/service differentiators

3.Customers

a. Customer profiles

b. Customer values

c. Customer feedback

d. Customer expectations

e. Customer engagement

All these moving parts exist in the organization and affect overall customer experience. The broad examination of all these components will help you identify the problem areas in your company and the most important values identified by your customers. The tactical approach—focusing on only a single or a couple of these components—simply will not achieve any long-term measurable benefits. It simply does not dig deep enough to spark the transformation required for a lasting, meaningful change in the customer experience. Business leaders need to be strategic in our approach, to ensure the initiatives selected are closely aligned with our brand’s promise and address underlying problems preventing the company from creating a uniquely branded experience for customers.

Checklist: Evaluating Your CX Strategy

How do you know whether your company is providing not just tactical, product-centric experiences, but a leading, strategic CX program to your customers? By evaluating your organization’s current processes and position on customer experience, using a brief, fourteen-question checklist. To help you determine in which direction to proceed, the checklist will identify possible challenges you may face as you prepare to initiate any new strategies.

These key questions are related to how your company is performing in the same market as your competitors relative to volume, value, and profitability of sales. Answering these questions will better prepare you to accomplish the rest of the tasks in this book.

1. ARE YOU WINNING NEW CUSTOMERS FASTER THAN YOUR COMPETITION?

Compare your figures on new customers with those of your competitors. In most industries, these numbers are relatively easy to source. If the information is not easily obtainable, however, I recommend undertaking market research to determine your competitors’ activities and their success in winning new clients. The number of new customers acquired should include monthly, quarterly, and yearly figures.

2. WHAT IS THE VALUE OF YOUR NEW CUSTOMERS?

In some industries, a single sale could have a dramatic variance in value, perhaps even ranging in the millions of dollars. It’s important to understand the value of the customers acquired, as this will enable you to undertake a more thorough comparison of your own company with others. The aim is to ensure you can compare your competitors’ sales volume and value to your own.

3. ARE YOU WINNING AND RETAINING CUSTOMERS WITHOUT COMPROMISING YOUR MARGIN?

The gross margin achieved on the sales made will help you identify signs of market pressures driving your profitability downward. It may be difficult to obtain comparative figures on the profitability of your competitors. Publicly traded companies, however, issue financial reports (normally available in the investor relations section of the company website) that provide insights into gross margins achieved on sales.

The Importance of Comparative Analysis

Compare the trends of your closest three competitors with your own performance over the same time period a year ago. Also include in your analysis emerging competitors that are disrupting your competitive space with new business models and technology solutions. Nontraditional competitors should be squarely on your radar for this comparison, as the largest threat of market share erosion is likely to come from a new competitor using digital disruption as a means to break into a lucrative marketplace traditionally held by brick-and-mortar businesses. Even though such competitors may not be one of your top three competitors, studying them can provide insights on their business model, customers...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Praise
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• INTRODUCTION: The Quest for Unique Customer Experience (CX)
• PART ONE: Mastering CX Analysis, Measurement, and Design
• PART TWO: Mastering Implementation of CX Initiatives
• PART 3: The Future of Customer Experience Management (CEM)
• APPENDIX
• INDEX
• CONSULTING AND RESOURCES