Everyone believes employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) are symbiotic: one affects the other continually.
Hmmm . . . Is this how your CEO has setup CXM and the senior leadership team?
- Does EX=CX include non-customer-facing employees?
- Do CX roles actually manage this?
- Does the Chief Customer Officer coordinate employee experience with customer experience?
- Does your Chief Human Resources Officer coordinate customer experience with employee experience?
- If not, why not?
What does it mean for your Chief Customer Officer leadership playbook? And to investors?
“All executives understand the power of investing in people, according to our 3 studies over 2 years” said Tiffani Bova, author of the book released in June 2023, The Experience Mindset: Changing the Way You Think about Growth.
“However," she continued, "three-quarters of executives said nobody in the organization is setting the roadmap for how to be an effective employee and have a great career.”
For what’s needed, you’ll see that your HR Chief is a vital partner, but your Chief Customer Officer is better suited:
The key is in how you collect, clarify, communicate, and champion insights from customers and employees.
1. Establish the business context for every employee’s purpose, i.e. their effect on gaps in what’s received versus promised to customers who make their salaries and budgets possible. Most employees want their work to shape the future in a meaningful way, according to the Trust at Work study by Edelman (September 2023).
In your Chief Customer Officer Leadership Playbook, show each work group how they are shaping the future by winning customers’ trust and funding of their job, using a futbol team analogy or baseball team analogy. Investors gain when everyone coordinates and collaborates like a stellar sports team.
2. Instill a lifetime value mindset regarding employees, internal customers, and external customers. When you show them how much of their budget is being squandered by their mis-steps, their response is “That can’t stand! What can we do about this?”. Aim for this reaction in every CX/EX report you share. Point out that your numbers are the tip of the iceberg in total costs. Everyone wants more budget for more resources, salary/bonus, hiring, and so on. Show diagrams for how the iceberg builds from a snowball of costs. Then show them how the iceberg can melt significantly by getting things right the first time. Talk about what it means as an employee to receive things right the first time, and then talk about what it means to customers, and then how that, in turn, affects employees.
In your Chief Customer Officer Leadership Playbook, here are Easy Keys to Lifetime Value Mindset. Investors gain when value is top of mind for everyone.
3. Apply your expertise in listening posts and analytics. 64% of workers say their employer does not make it easy to give input. This is a key reason why the CX team is better suited to collect employee inputs. “Your employees know the answer to what will make them most efficient, effective, and willing to go the extra mile for their teammates and company,” says Bova. “Ask: What’s the one thing that if we stop doing would be great for you? When you ask, take action. Be open to alternatives, be courageous to ask and listen, communicate what and why, admit what you don’t know, and take action. This builds trust and commitment.”
In your Chief Customer Officer Leadership Playbook, add these Two Keys to Employee Experience and Voice of Customer: A Better Way. Investors gain when you listen wholeheartedly and act urgently.
4. Facilitate urgency in acting on insights. “In the majority of firms nothing is being done with that data. Actions do not line-up with the employee surveys. This is where we have failed as leaders,” says Bova. Give every group their own report and guide each group in discovering root causes for the top 2 issues in their report. Facilitate their single-page action plan to stop the root causes forever.
In your Chief Customer Officer Leadership Playbook, here’s How to Drive Action on Insights. Investors gain when you continually improve, especially everywhere at once in their top weaknesses.
5. Ensure accountability in closure of action plans. Your CCO core team of facilitators and your CX/EX champions in each business unit should become experts in change management and speaking the jargon of each work group. Give high visibility to Gantt charts, swim lane diagrams, RACI (role, action, communicate, inform) charts, and single-page strategies. Get them at the top of meeting agendas. Really, what’s more important than making it easier for your customers to give you more money? That’s what CX/EX accountability is all about: permanently removing pebbles from all customers’ shoes and all employees’ shoes.
In your Chief Customer Officer Leadership Playbook, here’s How to Drive Follow-Through. Investors gain when you drive completion of every action plan.
6. Drive continual progress in closing gaps between the value proposition and what’s received by both external customers and internal customers. Make the 5 steps above THE way of life in your firm. Establish a council that drives accountability, smooths silos, and balances interests across stakeholders.
“Airbnb has an employee advisory board that is a cross-section of people in HR, IT, CX, and revenue generation,” explained Bova. “These 4 functions have impact on systems, processes, training, etc. When something is going to happen at Airbnb, it goes through this advisory board, to assess intended and unintended consequences for employees, customers, hosts, community, etc.” Instead of increasing effort for one party at the expense of another party, this advisory board ensures a mindset that balances stakeholders’ outcomes. Similar case studies in balancing all parties’ interests are in books like Firms of Endearment.
In your Chief Customer Officer Leadership Playbook, here’s how to setup Customer/Employee Experience Governance that builds on your company’s strengths and balances the greater good. And here’s How HR Can Add Value to Customer Experience Excellence.
Here’s how every work group in your enterprise can use CX/EX insights in their role:
Learn more about how to influence CX + EX, to catapult your CXM ROI and maturity:
See example images and the full article at How to Thrill Investors with Your Chief Customer Officer Leadership Playbook, which references 15 CXM mini-playbooks!
THANKS to YOU and everyone who is increasing value to customers.
Join us! 6 ways to celebrate CX Day 2023:
1) Growth via Massive Customer Experience Savings
. . . free webinar encore from my CX Leaders Advance workshop
. . . 11-11:30 am ET (NYC) Thursdays 28 Sept or 12 Oct or 19 Oct
. . . ClearAction.com/event/growth-via-massive-customer-experience-savings
2) CX Day theme inspiration (articles)
. . . CustomerThink.com/good-customer-experience-cx-day-2023/
. . . CXPA.org/blogs/lynn-hunsaker/2023/09/07/cx-day-learn-engage-honor
3) How to Quantify CX for Buy-In & ROI
. . . hands-on session shows you how to show $$$ for anything
. . . follow-on to free webinar, modest fee for your own ROI template
. . . 11 am to 12:30pm ET (NYC) any Monday in 2023
. . . ClearAction.com/masterminds
4) How to Influence Collaboration for CX ROI & Maturity
. . . in-person 2-day series of Masterminds templates
. . . Th-Fri 2-3 Nov in Phoenix ClearAction.com/retreat
5) Experience Leadership Mastery for you (or your team, colleagues)
. . . "Leadership" influences all. "Management" controls some.
. . . Experience Leadership is for beginners and experts: elevate your ROI.
. . . self-paced and/or live remote
. . . 11:30-1 Saturdays ET (NYC) 14 Oct to 11 Nov
. . . 13:00-14:30 Fridays AET (Sydney) 17 Nov to 15 Dec
. . . Use this timetable to see the start time for your location
. . . New dates and times are available upon request
. . . ClearAction.com/event/experience-leadership-mastery-sessions
6) Subscribe to my 4 article series: a) CEO, b) CMO/CCO, c) CX Skills, and d) roundup of what's new and upcoming.
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