Treat CEM as core task, not add-on

What are your suggestions on getting buy-in from top management on customer experience management projects?

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Building customer experiences should be considered the true work of the organization. As such, it should be built into the core strategies of a company and not be considered secondary to what some might call the “real” work of company, such as achieving quarterly sales goals. Here are some keys to getting buy-in from top management:

1. Connect the customer experience to customer profitability.  Identify the “moments of truth” critical to sustaining and growing customer relationships. Your priority touch points are the following:

  • Relationship
  • Growth of share of wallet, or how much the customer is spending with you  
  •  Rescuing customers at risk
  •  Customers’ revenue

 

2. Ensure your CEO and leadership team take personal ownership of a customer experience initiative. Leaders on a customer mission take responsibility for driving value for customers and improving the customer experience. This is not something jobbed out to someone else.

3. Establish clear and regular accountability for customer experiences. Regular accountability takes the key customer interaction points down to operational metrics. These interactions need to be tracked as fervently as the number of products sold because in those moments experiences are made or shattered.

4. Engage leaders early in calling lost or lapsed customers. We get traction from this more than any 10 customer survey reporting sessions. This simple call (they only need to talk to five to eight initially) puts the voice of the customer in the ear of your executive team -- and makes the issues driving customers out the door as real and relevant.

 

 

This was first published in October 2011

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