Our recent survey of B2B marketers has revealed that the biggest hindrance to CX is a lack of strategy, followed by a lack of accountability. Given this, it’s no surprise that the typical B2B customer experience is far from seamless.
For those struggling to align their business on the path to CX excellence, we’ve devised this eight-point model, demonstrating the qualities you need to address.
Customers know what they want. If there are disagreements on how to improve their experience, it’s likely that internal politics have overshadowed the customers’ voice
The Magic Eight steps to aligning you business to CX
1. Great leadership with a clear strategic vision
Executive buy-in: Without leadership buy-in no change project will maintain traction or impetus. CX must be supported by the executive team’s continued endorsement. Leaders will regularly demonstrate their commitment to the customer.
A clear vision and uniting strategy: CX should be the shared goal that unites the business. Make that vision clear, accessible and achievable to everyone.
2. A shared purpose and values, which create a collaborative culture
An ‘outside-in’ culture: Employees should be focused not on internal ‘to do’ lists, departmental goals or pushing siloed agendas, but on the overall customer experience.
Empathy for the customer: Employees understand the customer needs and challenges having related to them through inspirational customer stories. Employees feel a genuine desire to improve the customer’s experience.
3. A loveable brand with great products and services
Customer-led product development: The quality of the product or service you offer is integral to your customer experience. Great CX also means making customer-led improvements to those offerings by pooling customer insight from across the business.
4. Employee engagement
Communication is key: Communication flows across departments breaking down siloes. Internal communication channels are used to celebrate success and share developments. All stakeholders must have the opportunity to resolve conflict by talking through challenges and concerns.
Clear and relevant goals: Departmental goals should be derived from the overall business strategy, shared among departments and monitored to ensure they drive the right behaviours.
5. Employee retention
Employee retention = customer retention: Employee retention is a clear marker of an engaged workforce. It can also minimise disruption to the customer and enable staff to apply long-term knowledge of the customer to their work.
6. Customer engagement
CX does not exist in isolation: As this diagram shows, customer engagement does not exist in isolation but is the result of great leadership, product, workforce and culture.
7. Customer retention
Keeping customers through the 4-stage journey: With good CX more customers will progress through the four-stage customer journey outlined in chapter three, then becoming long-term customers, advocates and in some cases partners.
8. Profitability
Measure CX in long, not short-term, profitability: While current or short-term improvements to profitability aren’t necessarily indicators of a good customer experience (in fact they can be at odds), your efforts should certainly culminate in higher profit long-term.
