What is CX Management, and How is it Different from Customer Experience?

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Customer experience exists whether you are intentional about it or not.

After all, your customer is experiencing the brand via every interaction, touchpoint, service call, and delivery. The customer walks away with a perception of what the brand is, and whether or not this brand lives up to its promises, with every step along their personal journey.

Leaders often say, “We’re just getting started with customer experience,” but that’s a myth. CX has been happening as long as your organization has existed — with or without your attention and intention!

When leaders say this, what they really mean is, “We’re just getting started with customer experience management.”

What is Customer Experience Management?

CXM is what happens inside the organization in order to deliver an intentional customer experience. CXM is how we go from thinking CX is “nice to have” to act on it like what it is: a mindset, a strategy, and a business discipline.

Great customer experiences are the result of focused, intentional Customer Experience Management. Like any part of business, CXM requires intentional strategy, design, and ongoing evaluation.

Let’s break this down a bit further.

What does Customer Experience Management Require?

CXM requires four key elements:

• CX Strategy
• Technology and Tools
• Governance and Discipline
• Iterative Design

Let’s start with your CX Strategy.

It’s no mistake that I’m recommending we start with strategy.

Many leaders want to jump straight ahead to the technology and tools they’ll use to manage CX.

As a result, it’s common for customer experience management to be reduced to the platforms which enable CX strategy. CXM is often wrongly defined as a technology platform when instead it should be defined as a way of doing business.

So I encourage you to fight against the urge to jump straight ahead to tools (we’ll get there next!) and think about strategy first.

What is customer experience strategy?

Let’s start by defining what it’s not: It can’t be “have a great customer experience” or “exceed customer expectations.”

Those are wishes — and while they’re admirable wishes, they’re not strategies!

A CX strategy is based on a CX Mission Statement and a CX Success Statement. The strategy defines and communicates customer experience across your organization and aligns customer experience goals with larger organizational goals.

This strategy is not just for customer happiness, but for brand success.

Everyone in the organization should understand what customer experience your brand aspires to deliver, and their role in achieving that. The strategy is about what leaders are involved where, and what actions and plans are required to deliver on the promises made throughout the customer journey.

What should customer experience strategy include?

Your strategy should include:

1. A clear vision of what CX means at your organization. This is where the CX Mission Statement and the CX Success Statement are so helpful!
2. Defined goals for leaders around CX, including what leader is responsible for decisions and priorities ultimately.
3. How each goal will be measured for success, based on both customer feedback and operational outcomes.

Now consider technology and tools.

Once you know where you’re going with customer experience, then it’s time to find the right tools to get you there.

Continue reading the full article here.