I’m officially declaring the Gloom and Doom funk over! I think we’ve all spent too much time examining the lint in our own navels and have found it much too interesting. Maybe it’s the minute-by-minute access to disasters or the endless shouting by talking heads that has us paralyzed but we won’t get better if we don’t get busy.
Business always has been tough, even when everyone said we’d never had it so good. Finding good people; finding great customers; finding terrific ideas: haven’t these always been our challenges? Sure, the pace of change is much faster and there are a lot more consequences to our global business network. There’s always something so why not acknowledge that it is what it is and let’s get going to find new customers and keep those who have selected us as their provider of choice.
So, what’s on our To Do list? I can think of a few positive things to perk up our customer focus:
Paint a Picture: what is your vision of your ideal customer experience and how are you measuring up? Gather information and insights directly from customers and employees (who are very good predictors of how things really are with customers) and indirectly from web searches. There is a lot of comment in cyberspace and some of it could be about you. Ask your customers about all aspects of the experience including, for example, first call resolution, ease of self-service and access to information on your web site and so on.
Get a Plan: close the gaps between what you want your customer experience to be and what your audience says it is. And, execute it! A plan is not action and hope is not a strategy. You might be surprised at how galvanizing it is for your employees to experience the momentum of putting ideas into action.
Tell a Story: current and prospective customers are more engaged by success stories than by product features, brochures and fact sheets. Buying is an emotional experience and stories tap into that reservoir.
Give Them Something to Talk About: Engage in authentic conversations in ways that your customers prefer: social media, your web site, guest blogs, anywhere. Ask them to write reviews and participate in online focus groups. People are flattered by the invitation and most of the time, are happy to provide feedback (note: just don’t overdo the frequency) IF it’s done in a personalized way.
What else should be on our To Do list? Let’s get busy and start the party. End of funk.
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How about get our employees engaged in your ideas above. Get them excited, ask their feedback about how to improve the customer experience, because those front line employees...know the answer!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Cathy! I read some very sad statistics yesterday from two studies by The Conference Board and The Hay Group regarding disengagement. 85% of employees would leave their jobs if the market wasn't so dismal. I just don't think it has to be that way. There are so many ways to include and involve the workforce with what's going on: from understanding business strategy to asking them how customers can be better served. No good idea should be ignored. And, as I've learned recently, it's a whole lot better to think of the positives and convey that to others than to be in a funk.
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