One of the most common questions I am asked by CX leaders is, “How do I get executive buy-in for our program?” What the question reveals is that while many companies have “bought in” enough to dedicate one or more employees to focus on the experiences of customers or have funded insights programs to measure performance and identify pain points, true executive commitment still lags. And this is a problem for experience management programs because successful transformation efforts require senior executives to set direction, lead communication efforts, model desired behaviors, and hold the rest of the organization accountable.
So how can you get executives more engaged in your CX program? Well, you can’t sit back and hope for an epiphany to magically happen across your executive team – as nice as that would be. Instead, you can use these six levers for raising executive commitment:
- Create Vision Clarity. Senior executives may be enamored about improving the customer or employee experience, yet have an unclear picture of what it really means for their organization. So, you need to find ways to provide them with a clear understanding of where CX efforts are heading.
- Share Compelling Opportunities. Senior executives will only stay committed to a CX effort if they remain convinced that it will help the organization succeed. That’s why it is important to make and reinforce the business case on the upside of action and the downside of inaction with senior executives.
- Amplify Emotional Empathy. There’s a different level of support provided by an executive who is intellectually bought-in versus one who is emotionally committed. To gain this emotional commitment, bring customer experiences to life for executives to enhance their emotional empathy.
- Feed Intrinsic Motivators. Executives are motived by a myriad of things, from “leaving a legacy” to reaching some self-defined objectives. Therefore, you should connect CX efforts to the personal goals of executives and make them feel good about what’s going on.
- Enable First Steps. Even executives who are fully committed to your experience management agenda may not know exactly what they can do to help propel efforts. To get them started, make it easy for them to participate by recommending specific, do-able steps they can take.
- Fuel Ongoing Confidence. You will need ongoing support from executives who, like all of us, can be prone to distraction and doubt. Be sure you communicate progress and celebrate the successes of your efforts and demonstrate that resources are being well used and any risks are being well-managed.
How do you choose which lever to use? The best lever will depend on where the executive's commitment level is at and what you have available to deploy within the respective levers to move them towards the action you need them to take. This table provides you with some recommendations to take the next step:
Using these levers, you can do something about ensuring your program has the executive it needs.