By Sameer Raje, General Manager and Head, India & SAARC Region, Zoom Video Communications, Inc
Leaders of the most successful businesses know that providing the best customer experience (CX) in their markets leads to greater customer loyalty and revenues. However, they also recognize that the costs of not achieving customer experience maturity can be significant.
A Morning Consult study found that more than half of respondents would switch to a competitor after one or two bad customer experiences, making it imperative for businesses to focus on positive CX.
According to a recent study in India, 78% of Indian consumers prefer personalized and culturally relevant experiences, influencing their purchasing decisions, and 64% are willing to switch to competitors after one or two negative CX encounters. This emphasizes the crucial importance for businesses to prioritize positive CX strategies.
Having a customer experience maturity model can provide insights to help organizations keep their business on track with customer satisfaction and business success.
Here’s everything companies need to know about how to create a customer experience maturity model.
Customer experience maturity is a framework that allows businesses to understand how well they meet their customers’ CX expectations. The CX maturity model takes the guesswork out of assessing the customer experiences of organizations, showing areas where they excel. The model will also reveal areas where a business’s CX strategy is missing the mark and provide information that can help improve them.
The CX maturity model is a valuable tool for customer experience professionals leading the charge to improve customer experience, customer loyalty, and customer lifetime value (CLTV).
The model encompasses five areas of action necessary for becoming a customer-centric organization and allows the business to score performance from “excellent” to “room for improvement” or “needs immediate action.”
Here’s what to focus on.
1. Data
Before creating the CX customers want, businesses need to know what they want. Intuition and anecdotal information only go so far when determining what the ideal customer journey looks like. Data-based decisions will result in better outcomes.
Numerous data sources are available to a company’s customer experience management team. However, listening to the customer and considering that information as businesses update their CX strategy is vital.
Collecting data for customer experience maturity model in the real world
Businesses can collect and analyze operational data, scrape data from the web or social media, and analyze emails or interactions with chatbots, which can reveal customers’ behaviors and preferences.
A highly effective way to determine what customers want is to ask them. Short surveys that collect customer feedback can provide key insights about the CX business offers and help companies better understand consumer expectations.
2. Design
After data insights have been used to develop a clearer picture of what customers prefer, the next step is to design customer experiences that will delight them. Companies need to formally document and create customer experiences to minimize inconsistencies. The best customer experience design goes beyond linear customer journeys to consider all touchpoints at which customers can interact through a holistic approach.
Building a team from product development, sales, customer service, development, and leadership will help businesses ensure that the company’s CX program includes all perspectives. A team representing all departments will also ensure that the customer experience the company envisions is true to its brand and business goals.
3. Delivery
Once the company has mapped out the customer experience that will enable it to build a base of satisfied customers, it’s time to execute a CX program. Training employees is vital, particularly if a company’s CX strategy varies from the way businesses have operated in the past.
Optimizing customer experience may require substantial changes to business culture and day-to-day processes. Ensure employees are well-acquainted with the company’s plan to enhance CX, including empowering them in the right way and to the right extent, enabling them to make appropriate decisions and take timely actions to reduce response times for the customer. This approach not only enhances customer satisfaction but also fosters a positive employee experience, cultivating a work environment where employees feel empowered, valued, and engaged in delivering exceptional service. This synergy between customer and employee experience is fundamental in creating a customer-centric organization.
How technology helps one company with CX delivery
The 2020s decade will mark the turning point when consumers become overwhelmingly digital-first. While employees will always be integral to providing great customer experiences, customers will expect companies to provide self-service and other digital engagement options.
4. Measurement
Use the data collected before the company created or optimized its CX program as a baseline, and then use it to benchmark customer service metrics and measure how the new CX strategy impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty. In the digital age, companies can request feedback or collect data on multiple channels, giving greater visibility into whether their new CX strategy is working.
5. Culture
A company’s CX governance plan may look good on paper. However, if the company culture doesn’t align with it, the customer experience will suffer. Company culture stems from a business’s core values, and factors such as whom they hire, their management style, and policies and processes all play pivotal roles in shaping the employee experience (EX). By identifying how employees perceive and engage with the organization, businesses can flag areas that need attention. When the EX is positive, with motivated and engaged employees, it invariably translates into a better CX. Therefore, addressing and nurturing a healthy employee experience becomes integral to fostering exceptional customer experiences.
Next steps
After the companies have filled in the customer experience maturity model framework and scored each segment, they will have a roadmap for improving the CX offers.
This customer experience maturity assessment will help companies focus their time and resources on areas that need it most and can result in the greatest ROI in terms of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and business success.
Remember, with each change companies make to their policies and processes, it’s pivotal to have buy-in at every level of the organization to ensure a coordinated effort that leads to consistently excellent customer experiences, however their customers choose to engage.
