State of Customer Experience: The Industry May Die Before It's Fully Grown
Colin Shaw
LinkedIn 'Top Voice' & influencer Customer Experience & Marketing | Financial Times Award Leading Consultancy 4 Straight Years | Host of 'The Intuitive Customer' in Top 2% | Best-selling Author x 7 | Conference Speaker
This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers analyze the state and future of their industry. Read all the posts here.
Despite the fact that the ‘Customer Experience’ discipline is a comparatively young industry I believe it is in danger of dying before it reaches maturity.
People have kindly told me I helped form this industry with my books, writing and thoughts. This is something I am very proud of. I therefore offer this view of the industry as it's something that is very close to my heart. The purpose of this blog is to highlight and generate debate on these dangers and gain your views.
Here are three things I hear all the time that epitomize the problems:
I am in Customer Experience…
Are you? Are you really? With the growth of the Customer Experience discipline many people are just ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ from the agency and client side. They say they are experts in Customer Experience, but they are not really. All they have done is change their label.
Agency side: One client explained how she selected my company, Beyond Philosophy, to help them run a Customer Experience program. She told me they approached a number of companies, including one of the big consulting firms. This large consulting company said they would get their ‘expert’ to talk to them. It turns out it was the same guy that was working for the client on their process re-engineering. When the client quizzed him and asked him about his experience she discovered he had just read some books on Customer Experience.... and this was their expert! The good news was that he mentioned my books, so they called me and then engaged us! Lol!
Client side: I see many people with job titles which say ‘Customer Experience’ - just do a search on LinkedIn for Customer Experience and you will see how popular it is. When I ask people with this in their job title about what they are doing differently to when they had a differnt job title, they invariably say nothing! It appears many people have just changed their job title to ‘Customer Experience’ as it’s trendier and headhunters would be more likely to contact them.
So what is the issue with this? My worry is that Customer Experience will get the reputation of ‘not delivering business results’, like CRM before it. As so many people now say they are doing Customer Experience then senior management, rightly so, expect results. But the reality is they are doing the same thing as before so the results remain the same. Therefore, they don’t get the results and the Customer Experience gets a bad reputation.
The irony is I know Customer Experience does produce ROI when done properly. For example one of our clients, Maersk Line, was singled out for a special Forrester report on how they increased their net promoter score by 40 points in 30 months which increased shipping volumes by 10%. See our case study here.
What is the one thing we can do?
I am constantly asked “what is the one thing we can do to improve our Customer Experience?” I then smile and think, ‘you clearly don’t understand what improving your Customer Experience takes otherwise you wouldn’t ask me this question’. I always have to disappoint them by telling them there is not one thing. If it was that simple, everyone would be doing it and I would be a very rich man! What this shows me is they don’t understand. I therefore spend time explaining how all aspects of the company conspire to deliver the experience that is being delivered today. During this process, I see them connect the dots and realize how naive their question was.
In contrast I see many software companies jumping on the Customer Experience bandwagon and extol the virtues of their software effectively marketing to these naive people with a message of ‘Just buy our software and this will be the answer to all your problems’. Like CRM before it, systems are not the answer. Granted systems form part of the answer but are nowhere near the complete answer.
People naively buy these systems in anticipation of the improvements in $$’s later and 2 years after the project started people again say the Customer Experience is not working again, destroying the ability of the Customer Experience to affect the bottom line.
Customer Experience is a key strategic issue for us….
The main thing that is killing Customer Experience are senior execs with their contradictory messages. We have now reached a point in the industry where people are doing Customer Experience just because everyone else is. The ‘me too’ strategy is alive and well. Here’s what normally happens. The senior team says ‘Customer Experience is a key strategic goal’. They say the words, but their subsequent actions show their true colors. One of my favorite pieces of advice I give my clients is ‘Everyone is happy until you ask them to do something’. It’s easy to say Customer Experience is a key strategy, but again the issue is the senior exec do not know what this means, so they nod their support, but when presented with the things they need to do to change they quickly backtrack and do not support the initiatives.
A key question is always ‘What is the ROI on this’? A very reasonable question. But why didn’t they ask this before they made the proclamation from on high? Fortunately we can tell them the $$’s they will get for this work through our Emotional Signature which shows the ROI of this work. Many times when this question is answered another objection is given. This shows to me these aren't real objection, the real issue is they do not fundamentally believe that improving the Customer Experience will improve the bottom line.
Whenever we engage with senior exec one of the first questions I ask them is ‘are you serious’? My advice to them is if they are not serious about improving their customer experience then don’t start down this track. They will cause more harm than good.
In summary, I am disappointed to say but I am concerned for the state of my industry. I write this to try and provoke debate and to highlight some of the issues I think are facing the industry. I want to make sure the discipline of ‘Customer Experience’ does deliver ROI and because of this it is embedded in all companies going forward. The result being that the experiences that Customer receive are better and the world is a better place for it.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what you consider to be the main issues in the Customer Experience industry below in the comments.
Image credit: Jorgen McLeman
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Expert in CRM | Building Capabilities | Designing Processes | Architecting Solutions | Leading Teams | Managing Projects & Programmes | Salesforce Certified
10yHello Colin, just about every person that I know wants to be the butterfly rather than the caterpillar. And just about nobody is willing to do through that which it takes to make the transition from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Furthermore, we live in a culture where one is expected to be a butterfly (increases status, share price etc) and the accepted practice is to stay as the caterpillar and don on the costume of the butterfly. This applies at the personal and organisational levels. Which is a long way of saying that I find myself in agreement with you. I'd go further and say that in our default way of being-in-the-world (in the west) we are blind to experience. Further, we are blind to being blind to experience. That perhaps is the ultimate triumph of the 'left brain' over the 'right brain'.
Co-Founder and Director at Silver Stone Service Management Pvt. Ltd.
10yI agree with you Colin, senior management has blinkers on where servicing the customer is concerned. Customer service being looked on as a cost has embedded itself so deep in their minds, they cannot comprehend that service can have an ROI. To add to this sorry state of affairs, the service task force is largely 'uneducated', with no formal training of service, having learnt all they know on the job. This knowledge is not necessarily all good or complete in every sense. The problem, albeit different, lies as much at the bottom as at the top. My book, covering this amongst various other controversial aspects about service, will be out soon. You may want to read it for another perspective.
Horticultural advisor at St Bridgets nurseries
10yI agree with Brigette, in the past I have successfully resolved very serious, sometimes complex complaints because others were not prepared to find an alternative resolution (Or even find a resolution). Occasionally, it has been a simple issue but has gone on far longer than it should and often just because the employee they spoke to has such limited time to resolve the problem (such as the dreaded 'calls per hour',) the issue drags because they are not given the time to resolve it in one(if possible) 'hit' if they are given a small window of opportunity to do so. I agree that service agents should feel confident and well trained enough to feel they can get the 'buck' to stop here and that the agent they spoke to is the one that will be with the customer from start to resolution of an issue or complaint. Bouncing people from one department to another should be a last or relevant resort only. Having helped customers ranging from simple questions to outright (and sometimes understandable) pure rage. I have found one of the most common comments and feedback is when they have been transferred not just once but sometimes many times even supplying a list of names, departments and even calls they have had to make they are that fed up. Well trained, well informed and well looked after staff can make a massive difference too and although CPH is important, quality I believe is so much more so. If customer feels that they are getting quality down to earth no jargon (non patronising) conversations with good, honest, friendly agents who are artisans in their profession, customers will want to stay. As the internet expands and there are more and more companies that deal purely online with very streamlined, simple approaches. Customers will in the future go for a company with automated 'simple' resolutions at the cheapest prices especially, if they have had a bad experience and this means, fewer and fewer call centres and fewer customer care lines and switching to another company will be as easy as turning off a light.
Creative Project Manager. Client Services. Creative Thinker. Problem Solver.
10yLack of information. People are (generally) understanding and relatively patient when they are communicated with. The simple act of explaining what's happening or what will happen - in a timely manner - can generally contribute to a more positive customer experience.
Contact Center Strategy and Leadership | PMP | Six Sigma
10yI agree that saying the words "customer experience" is not enough to make a positive impression on a customer. There must be a sincere effort to find and remove obstacles to great interactions, while dreaming up and implementing ways to increase positive customer response. It's really about much more than words. It's about action and interaction and teamwork within an organization.