I originally wrote today’s post for GetFeedback. This is an updated version of that article from July 2020. What customers are seeing and experiencing vs. what brands are saying can often be in conflict. The gap between Marketing and Customer Experience (CX) teams is largely responsible for that. In this article, I’ll pose some concepts to discuss to help bridge that gap and get everyone working together for the benefit of the customer – and, ultimately, the business. In a 2016 Marketo study, 86% of CMOs and Marketing executives believed they would own the end-to-end customer experience by 202 ..read more

I wrote today’s post for RingCentral; it covers the power of communication in the customer experience and includes how AI can redefine your communication strategy for better customer engagement. Communication is one of the most overlooked components of the customer experience. But it’s one of the most important components of any relationship, including a brand’s customer relationships! It forms the foundation of understanding between individuals. It enables you to address conflicts and misunderstandings. When it’s transparent and honest, it fosters trust and respect. And it plays a vital role ..read more

I wrote today’s post for Nextiva; it covers an important topic: how to scale your customer experience strategy and includes how you can implement tools like Nextiva to support that strategy. The only true and sustainable competitive advantage brands have today is the customer experience. As a result, more and more companies are slowly getting on board with the need to design and deliver a great experience in order to support and sustain their growth initiatives. But developing a strategy to deliver that great experience isn’t as simple as just deciding you’re going to do it and then doing it ..read more

Earlier this week, Marketing Charts shared the results of a study conducted by Qualtrics XM Institute that looked at whether or not customers shared feedback about their experiences – and with whom or how they shared that feedback. There’s this preconceived notion that customers only complete surveys or tell others if they’re mad – or happy, you pick. I’ve heard both sides of it over the last 30+ years. This point has played out in the Marketing Charts article as follows: “Interestingly, five years earlier, in 2018, research found that US consumers were more likely to share very bad than very ..read more

One of the biggest asks that CX leaders (still) have to deal with to get executive commitment and engagement – and for the rest of the organization to feel that there’s meaningful impact as a result of changes being proposed/made – is showing ROI. One of the ways to start to do that and to get that adoption across the organization is to show some quick wins. What are quick wins? Why are they important? What are some quick wins best practices? What’s the best way to communicate them? What Are Quick Wins? Let’s start where I always like to start… with definitions. What are quick wins? Quick wins ..read more

Over the last few months, as I’ve followed the most-recent issues that Boeing has had with its planes, I’ve wondered how things could have gone so wrong. If you were to ask customers their most basic requirement when it comes to travel, I’m guessing the answer is, “Get me from Point A to Point B… safely!” (Yes, beyond that, they look at price, convenience, speed, etc.) So that made me think about Boeing’s core values. On their site, it states: At Boeing, we are honored to serve all the people who rely on our products and services every day. That’s why we hold ourselves to the highest standard ..read more

There’s this interesting phenomenon that Bain uncovered, the delivery gap, which I dubbed the CX Perception Gap several years ago: 80% of executives believe that they are delivering a superior customer experience, while only 8% of customer agree. There’s a pretty big divide between executives and customers, and I think that gap has only closed a little bit. I’ve seen other stats over the years (that one was from 2005) that bring the two a bit closer together… In 2017, Capgemini found that 75% of companies believe that they’re customer-centric, while only 30% of consumers agree. …but it’s c ..read more

Years ago, I wrote a post titled, What Exactly is Employee Experience?. I know I’ve written tons about customer experience, and I’ve included my definition here and there, but there are always new folks coming into the discipline, so why not do a refresh. Plus, I’ve had several conversations over the last couple weeks that reminded me that it’s still challenging for some folks to understand the concept of customer experience. It’s important to clearly define it (and there are various definitions out there, but I think most of the more reputable ones are in line with what I’m saying) so that it ..read more

If you’ve never attended Medallia’s annual Experience conference, you need to plan to attend next year. Last week, I spent a few days in Vegas at Experience 2024, and between the new product announcements and the celebrity keynotes, the event was packed with lots of great case studies, best practices, real-world use cases, and industry/discipline research for both employee experience and customer experience. One of the sessions I really enjoyed was with Josh Bersin and Kathi Enderes, who spoke about employee activation. Here’s the session description and what intrigued me to attend: Industry ..read more

Seth Godin once said, “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” When you do, you solve problems for them and provide value; this ensures that they’ll come back – and they’ll tell their friends. About a year ago, I wrote about how I’m often asked to look at new products in the customer experience technology arena to get my thoughts on those products. I don’t take all of those calls, but occasionally curiosity gets me. I’ve seen some great products, but I’ve also seen plenty that are just me-toos, aren’t well thought out, or just have no real purpose. In those c ..read more