Who’s Watching Over Customer Experience?

“Everyone,” you say? Then what you’re really saying is “no one.” 

Here’s an interesting exercise to prove the point. Build a simple grid with all customer MOTs  listed vertically in likely order of occurrence. (MOTs or “moments of truth” identify customer interactions with sellers that significantly affect customer experience). Next, horizontally list all the functions interacting with customers either directly or indirectly. Finally, in the grid portion identify which internal functions control process and policy at each MOT. 

What does the grid tell you? In 90% + organizations, you have a range of functions, each largely responsible for its own process and policy―without strong central oversight. Inevitably, each unit will have a somewhat different view of what customers should experience and how much to “give” to please customers. And some will have very different perceptions. A classic example is sales wanting quick shipment of orders to meet customer expectations and Inventory Management cutting stocks to the bone to reduce cost. 

Companies presenting multiple faces and voices to customers in this manner or even more subtle ways rarely create sufficiently positive customer experience to minimize churn―and suffering churn in low-demand economic times just multiplies negative effects. 

Since process design and execution (and process-level policy) create virtually all customer experience, should the task of overseeing process consistency fall to process leaders? And if so, what does marketing have to say?