David Heneghan

If you come across anyone that is not convinced about the efficacy of CX initiatives, the best way to remove any ambiguity is to measure satisfaction metrics against key financial outcomes. For a customer experience manager, failing to map customer experience performance against key the financial outcomes, is like a financial controller trying to run a business without a managing cash flow.

You cannot gauge CX performance without requisite analysis of results against key outcomes. It is hugely important to gather and analyse feedback, but very difficult to drive key decisions and assess progress without charting performance against key financial outcomes.

If you can grow the number of customers that are satisfied and delighted you will see a positive correlation with the key outcome. The key outcome depends largely on the industry in question, but it is often best advised to get buy-in form the finance department, as these are the guys that will have access to the key...

There is an unassailable truth that while data is a valuable commodity, managing it is problematic. In customer experience, feedback is the commodity.

John D. Rockfeller once said,
“The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.”

Just like most other commodities, data is not valuable in its raw state. When was the last time you purchased some iron ore? As you remember from school, Iron ore is the raw material used to make pig iron, which is one of the main raw materials to make steel. Iron ore is a truly valuable commodity, but without careful manipulation it isn’t much use.

Feedback data, while valuable, in and of itself, without careful attention and analysis is not much use. If a customer takes the time to give you feedback, you owe yourself and them the courtesy of extracting as much value out of it as possible.

There are numerous...

No matter what business you’re in; it’s really important to differentiate. One of the most fundamental rules is that an experience designed for everyone works for noone. You need to have a clearly defined value proposition to offer an outstanding experience to your customers. I was thinking about this when I eating some Pizza and thought, why not take a look and see what companies are doing in this highly competitive sector….

Mintel, the UK based research company found that 45% of UK customers stated that “Menus are pretty much the same at all pizza and pasta places”.  If you are hearing a message like this about your sector, you need to start hearing the alarm bells ringing. Why? It is a lot less likely that customer will remain loyal to your business if they don't have a well defined idea of who you are, and what you offer to them. Here’s a simple rule of thumb the less customers can differentiate the less reason they have to stay loyal.

If...