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HOW DO YOU UNLOCK THE POWER OF DATA?
Harvard Business Review (HBR) estimates that it costs up to 25 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one; and New Voice Media estimates that poor customer service costs U.S. companies $41,000,000,000 ($41 B) every year. That is why CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (CX) continues to be a focus for every organization. In most organizations, taking data and turning it into true CX is easier said than done; yet it is imperative because the ROI is undeniable.
By harnessing the power of data, you can translate the voice of your customers into customer experience business intelligence (CX BI) that sets you apart from every other organization. In this Blog, I share 4 key steps for building and executing an effective CX ROI Strategy, and explore the sometimes-obscure value proposition of CX/
STEP 1 - START THE DISCUSSION
Be sure to include Your C-Suite in these discussions.
Ask your quality team for the Quality Index Score (QIS). Don’t worry if eyes glaze over—most people don’t think in terms of QIS. Then ask how many customer interactions the organization has each day and make sure they consider all touchpoints (e.g. inbound/outbound calls, chats, emails, snail mail, social media, IVR self-service, bot interactions, etc.). Now ask how many quality touches are made on these customer touchpoints. Unfortunately, few—if any—of these efforts really impact the customer experience, but it’s a great way to gut-check employee work. Let me know if you want help calculating your unique QIS.
What does this index score tell you? The average organization analyzes just two percent (2%) of its customer interactions. If your organization scores less than 2%, it’s scoring below average.
STEP 2 - DOCUMENT YOUR GOALS
Align with your executive team's vision and don't forget to keep your customers top-of-mind.
Documenting goals and objectives start with a discussion on customer touchpoints - these are any touchpoint. Some examples are outlined above. Too often, organizations stick with voice and email interactions but it is so much more from a customer's perspective.
All this begins with planning, and planning begins by documenting baseline measurements for the CX goals. Even if your baseline data is skewed by low volume survey results, low QIS, or lack of capturing any data, start with baseline assumptions anyway. You can always adjust your measurements later.
Work with your executive team to understand and whiteboard the organization’s high-level goals—both short- and long-term—and build a cross-functional team to identify the top five high-level customer experience objectives that align with each goal. Then solicit input on your objectives from a handful of customers representing different personas. Since customer expectations often do not align with existing or planned goals and objectives, their feedback may need to be reviewed by your executive team. Conflicting goals do arise, at which point it’s helpful to identify and define the relationship between them—i.e., cause and effect. I recommend Ishikawa diagramming, which is a simple way to visually explore all of the potential factors that may be causing or contributing to poor CX.
I commonly see 3 challenges in strategic execution in this step and I'm happy to discuss each one with you.
Over-promising a return (ROI) with scattershot themes and minimal qualitative and quantitative data that align with the goals set.
Collecting too much data to launch the project or support the budget request around the project, overthinking the process or analysis paralysis, and procrastination caused by insufficient preparation.
Insufficient understanding of customer needs or not engaging with the customer at this stage. Customer input and needs must be mapped back to the internal discussions taking place.
STEP 3 - ASK THE TOUGH QUESTION
How hard is it to do business with us?
You may have a moment of sudden realization on where you can positively impact CX within your organization; and, I am confident that these are also the same areas where you can cut costs. So where do you start?
I suggest you build key indicators that consists of 5-6 metrics you can measure on a basic level that tell you how easy it is to do business with your organization. First identify some of the key outcomes from your conversations and findings from the first two steps above that can be tracked and measured—that’s your basic starting point. A few tips:
If you want to translate the voice of your customers into actionable business intelligence that will transform your company into one that is easy to do business with, you must ensure you have the right data. Even if your organization is a pro at collecting a lot of data, the guidance here is to collect the right data to make intelligent business decisions—quickly and easily—and knowing where to focus in order to positively impact the suggested key indicators. You will need much more than transactional data— you will need access to, and the ability to understand and act upon, unstructured data.
One metric you will definitely want to track is how quickly your customers issues are resolved. This requires an understanding of all digital channels and AI systems. Why? Because repeat touchpoints negatively impact a customer’s experience with your organization while exponentially adding costs to the business.
Start small to ensure you achieve the goals you set and to ensure you get started. Once you take the first step, the other steps will follow more naturally.
STEP 4 - Deliver Benefits
Translate the Voice of Your Customers (VOC) into Actionable Business Intelligence
You may think I'm now going to disclose some special formula, secret sauce or fancy pixie dust on how to deliver the benefits. Nope! Each organization is different so it would be impossible to make the translation for you. I can promise, however, that if you have made it through steps 1, 2, and 3, you are in a place to deliver the benefits and associated ROI.
Some suggestions:
You likely have some great ideas that may require technology, software, or services to enable change. Choose cautiously and do appropriate due diligence. This is a career defining moment.
Determine your organization's threshold for change and plan your efforts and timelines accordingly.
Always document any quantifiable and qualitative changes so that you can roll these into executive reports and dashboards.
Don't forget the ROI of human capital. It is one of the most quantifiable ROIs.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions.
Chris
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