Katie Liebel offers valuable insights on how to link customer experience to strategy and value.
Customer experience (CX) is a top priority for many companies today with multiple topics as part of the dialogue – personas, user-centered design, AI, culture, digital, etc. There are two main implications to this confluence of topics and increased investment. First is the complexity it drives in building an effective CX strategy and, in many cases, even knowing the right starting point of the effort. Second, with the increased investment and visibility of large-scale CX programs, the expectations for impact are quite high. This makes it essential for companies to articulate clearly what a superior customer experience is worth and how it will generate value (growth, profitability). The topic is of even higher importance as we step into 2023 with heightened uncertainty around the macro-environment.
While there is much written about personas, journeys, and the like, there is less focus on linking CX to strategy and value creation. We believe it is imperative to initiate CX transformations firmly grounded in the business strategy, prioritize changes based on value creation, and sustain the CX engine by linking outcomes to strategic and financial goals.
The article below highlights three vital elements for a successful Customer Experience Transformation to create long-lasting value for the company.
- Anchor the CX strategy in the business strategy
In our experience, we have seen some common challenges in CX efforts – investing without clarity on priority segments, building ‘flashy’ fixes that do not move the needle, or addressing the wrong problem (e.g., focus on service when price is the challenge).
The best way to define the CX strategy is to inform it from the overall business strategy. The business strategy will typically contain the strategic objectives around:
Priority customer segments: which will help with the focus area for CX
Customer value proposition: For example, CX investment should be different for a price leader vs. experience leadership
Areas of differentiation: For instance, if new products drive growth in the upcoming years, CX investments need to prioritize the experience around the new product’s journey.
Growth levers for the company: For example, if growth will be driven by new customer acquisition, the experience effort should focus on “make it easy to join” vs. growth through deepening relationships would emphasize “make it easy for bundling.”
Any robust business strategy is informed by market trends, customer needs, internal capabilities, and a solid financial assessment. Leverage this body of work to prescribe the CX needs.
Key points include:
- Value creation
- Program outcomes and strategic and financial goals
- Drilling down on output measurements
Read the full article, Linking Customer Experience to Strategy and Value, on LinkedIn.