Customer Experience Management is not a technology.
CEM cannot be done better, easier, faster, or simpler by using any software or technology. There are sine-qua-non elements you have to have (feedback, analytics, process management tools) but there is no technology that can make it work better.
CEM is not a strategy.
No matter how cool, detailed, or well thought out your strategy for CEM is, it won’t make a difference whatsoever in how successful you are in implementing. There are cases of companies that have been doing experience management for some time now, with no set strategy.
Customer Experience Management is a lifestyle.
CEM is when you transform your organization into thinking how to deliver better value to the client. Empowering your people to do what’s best for customers, to create unbelievable experiences. Deciding that either you do all you can for your customers – across the entire company – or you don’t. Becoming customer-driven – letting your customers tell you what to do.
Great examples of companies that have embraced this as as their lifestyle:
- Any employee at Zappos can make decisions to make their customers happier and provide a better experience
- The Four Seasons gives each employee a dollar amount to “spend” every day comping guests for failed experiences
- Southwest Airlines encourages their employees to take charge of customers problems and fix them
None of these values or guidelines are part of any technology, or inherent to any strategy they planned to put into place. They were not widely discussed in committees, they were just done because it was the right thing to do for customers.
You either change your organization’s culture to become customer-driven, or you are not going to succeed at CEM.
Are you in?
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HP is in!
For the Consumer Support Operations we have several people that are busy on a daily basis to improve the customer experience as it is or to look at future projects and how they impact the customer experience.
I myself am busy with the customer experience for everything related to email, other colleagues are busy with call support.
Arvid,
That is fantastic, and actually offering different options via different channels is a great best practice. I encourage all my customers to figure out what interactions work best in which channel, and then implement them that way – as well as let customers know that certain interactions won’t be completed via certain channels. Managing expectations is the key to satisfied customers.
This is great news, and puts you in a different class. There are not that many people who have people assigned on a daily basis to monitor and improve experiences. Bravo!
I do want to make sure that you work in collaboration with your colleagues in other channels – as to provide a seamless and coherent experience for your customers who decide to channel-hop or to use different channels for similar solutions over time.
I think I read that from your comment, but I just wanted to make sure. If your customers get great experiences through one channel, but not similar through others, it is likely they wil develop a predilection of one channel over the other and you are putting the burden of managing the experience on them (remember which channel to use for what, find out if another channel will yield a different or better answer, etc.).
It sounds as you have ti covered!
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[...] 15, 2009 · No Comments E.Kolsky said some interesting things this week in his blogs: Why managing experiences is not a technology, nor a strategy and Why do you want te be the same mediocre loser. The essence of both articles is that companies [...]
[...] 15, 2009 · 1 Comment E.Kolsky said some interesting things this week in his blogs: Why managing experiences is not a technology, nor a strategy and Why do you want te be the same mediocre loser. The essence of both articles is that companies [...]
[...] Esteban Kolsky about experience management not being a strategy. [...]
strategic change management…
Great post. My approach to strategic change management says the quality of the first five percent determines what happens in the rest of the process. This same principle applies to many situations….
Hi Esteban, indeed, we do connect on a daily basis. We work together to align the work that is done by the people answering the calls/emails and make sure that the experience is similar across channels. Only big difference is what options the channels offer. Call is ofcourse different from email with the amount of options you have, nonetheless we try to make everything aligned and transparant as good as we can.
Arvid