CXPA Member Blog

CXPA Member Blog

This Blog features thought leadership from CXPA members and staff. All contributions are welcome!  Authors and commenters are reminded to adhere to CXPA's community expectations. Solicitation and direct selling are strictly prohibited, and CXPA has the sole discretion to remove any post for any reason.  For assistance with the CXPA blog, contact gabe@cxpa.org.

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Do you trust your Customers?

By Nicholas Zeisler,CCXP posted 2 days ago
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One important facet of efficiency and positive CX is making it easy for Customers to deal with you and navigate your processes.  The reason this is important is because corporations are necessarily defensive entities:  we create processes to protect our organizations from risk and loss.  That protection can come in the form of cash-on-hand, liquidity, T&Cs, and sometimes flexibility (for us) in how we deal with our Customers. What drives a lot of organizations in this direction is fear and avoidance of that risk.  If you’ve actually taken the time to read through the miles-long terms and conditions when dealing with just about any service provider, your ...

The Customer Experience’s impact on Customer Churn

By Nick Glimsdahl posted 2 days ago
1 person recommends this.
Caption Successful companies make it a strategic priority to retain customers because they know retention has a significant impact on their bottom line. When considering a company’s assets and liabilities, customers should be viewed as the greatest ‘asset’, and diligent work and time should be dedicated to making sure losing customers don’t hold much weight on the liability side of the balance sheet. The Cost of Churn Loss of revenue When a company loses a customer, there is the obvious loss of their business, which includes any immediate loss to a company’s revenue, the loss of what could’ve been that customer’s recurring business, ...

Close the loop on your feedback

By Nicholas Zeisler,CCXP posted 4 days ago
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You’ve likely heard about the concept and practice of “closing the loop” or a “closed-loop feedback” (CLF) cycle.  What is it, and how does it work? There are actually a couple types of closed-loop feedback systems depending on whether you’re talking about   internal   or   external   feedback.  Internal refers to an employee feedback mechanism where as an external closed-loop feedback system is geared toward the Customer’s inputs and what you do with them.  They’re both important to a healthy Customer-centric organization, and they operate basically the same way, just with different sources of feedback.  I’ll concentrate on that   external , or Customer-centric ...

Create memories that tell your brand story

By Chaman Maharaj posted 5 days ago
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Customer Experience has been a buzz word amongst C-Level executives for some time now and for good reason too. In fact, the term has extended its reach beyond the boardroom and is used just as frequently by tactical and operational teams alike, but what does it mean? Customer-facing teams in sales and service-orientated environments embrace the concept. Marketing teams use it to get to know their customers, to personalise their brand reach and encourage brand loyalty. Finance teams do not particularly enjoy the first two to three years of most customer experience initiatives, but it is not too long before they are raving fans. Legal divisions have had to adapt ...

Create memories that tell your brand story

By Chaman Maharaj posted 5 days ago
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Customer Experience has been a buzz word amongst C-Level executives for some time now and for good reason too. In fact, the term has extended its reach beyond the boardroom and is used just as frequently by tactical and operational teams alike, but what does it mean? Customer-facing teams in sales and service-orientated environments embrace the concept. Marketing teams use it to get to know their customers, to personalise their brand reach and encourage brand loyalty. Finance teams do not particularly enjoy the first two to three years of most customer experience initiatives, but it is not too long before they are raving fans. Legal divisions have had to adapt ...

Create memories that tell your brand story

By Chaman Maharaj posted 5 days ago
Be the first person to recommend this.
Customer Experience has been a buzz word amongst C-Level executives for some time now and for good reason too. In fact, the term has extended its reach beyond the boardroom and is used just as frequently by tactical and operational teams alike, but what does it mean? Customer-facing teams in sales and service-orientated environments embrace the concept. Marketing teams use it to get to know their customers, to personalise their brand reach and encourage brand loyalty. Finance teams do not particularly enjoy the first two to three years of most customer experience initiatives, but it is not too long before they are raving fans. Legal divisions have had to ...

CXPA Need to Know for the Week of 8/3/20

By Joy Wedge posted 5 days ago
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Join a CXPA Town Hall Discussion on August 4 th As a “by member, for member” association, we want to hear about the challenges you face and your feedback on the strategic priorities for CXPA.  We also want to provide an opportunity for you to provide feedback on our diversity and inclusion commitments as well as other topics you may want to address.  Stacey Nevel, CCXP, Director, Voice of the Customer at Prudential and New York CXPA Network Lead will facilitate this Zoom call. (Two time options are provided to accommodate schedules.) Your feedback is also welcome in advance by completing this  form. ...

August Online Learning Opportunities

By Gabe Smith,CCXP posted 6 days ago
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August is upon us! We hope you’ve been able to relax this summer—whether that’s been spending some socially-distanced time with friends and family, escaping to a remote cabin, or taking a well-deserved break from social media (the CXPA team is of the opinion that it’s a good thing to take a leave of absence from Twitter every once in awhile). Perhaps you haven’t been able to accomplish all your goals this summer. A little unfinished business can be a good thing. Maybe you’re still grinding—working to become the best CX professional you can be. We respect that too—and we want to help. Now You Can Take the CCXP Exam in Your Pajamas ...

‘Til CX Do Us Part: CCXPs Milda and Zayne Nair Vow to Improve CX

By Gabe Smith,CCXP posted 6 days ago
1 person recommends this.
Married couples share many interests—gardening, working out, binging the latest Netflix hit—but only Dubai-based CCXPs Milda and Zayne Nair can say they each hold the Certified Customer Experience professional credential. Milda, as the Director of Enterprise Portfolio, Middle East for Meltwater, and Zayne, as a digital consultant, share a passion for CX that goes beyond the workday. Originally from Lithuania, Milda started her career in the telecommunications industry after earning bachelor's degrees in psychology and sociology, and a Masters in Communications Policy Studies. After stints at Barclays and Thomson Reuters, she's since held a variety of roles ...

Which FCR is right?

By Nicholas Zeisler,CCXP posted 6 days ago
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I recently took part in a discussion among CX experts regarding FCR, short in our parlance for First Contact Resolution. That it used to be called First  Call  Resolution speaks to one point I want to make. We struggled with this in the last job I had as the Director of CX: How to even  define  FCR. Some on the team wanted to drive it from our own internal metrics, based on actual  experiences  of our Customers rather than from surveying them. I generally recommend and prefer this sort of approach: While it’s always great to solicit feedback from our Customers, it’s even better to capture their  actual  experiences. If a Customer says it took too long, ...

More than Able: How Pearl Interactive Network Taps Traditionally Underemployed Workers to Drive Its Contact Center Business Growth

By Gabe Smith,CCXP posted 6 days ago
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July 26, 2020 marked the 30 th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act.  While the ADA and related legislation have contributed to significant progress in access and inclusion, job seekers with disabilities are still twice as likely to be unemployed. Research by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) finds that top obstacles to hiring workers with disabilities include concern that the work cannot be done by those with disabilities; lack of awareness as to the cost of accommodation; and lack of buy-in from leadership. Success stories can help address these concerns by illustrating what is possible, and Pearl Interactive Network, which ...

"Treat your employees right" is more than just 'feel-good' rhetoric

By Nicholas Zeisler,CCXP posted 7 days ago
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The world of CX is covered in platitudes and clichés. I don’t say that to denigrate it as a field of study and practice (quite the opposite), but rather just to acknowledge it so as to better combat empty words in favor of making actual impacts. Sometimes clichés are clichés because they're right. One of those sayings that make the rounds all the time is, “if you take care of your employees, they’ll take care of your Customers.” There are variations but in the end the gist is that not only is good employee engagement vital to good CX, some even seem to think it’s the key; perhaps even that that’s all it takes. Oversimplifying the concept, however, is a bad ...

CXPA Need to Know for the Week of 7/27/20

By Joy Wedge posted 12 days ago
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CXPA Member Webinar Review: EX to CX - Understanding the Impact in Time of Crisis? Sponsored by Nice Satmetrix What I loved : "The ongoing shift to a culture of WFH is not going away, it is continuing to evolve." The most important thing to remember about the way COVID-19 has changed our working world is that we are on the path of evolution. Evolution, as in nature, does not go backward. Rather, changes that are made to best ensure challenging situations endure and become a permanent part of ecosystems. The professional world is certainly no different. Lisa does a great job at giving you the facts behind the speculations. ...

Be careful what you measure!

By Nicholas Zeisler,CCXP posted 12 days ago
1 person recommends this.
I recently fielded a question from someone regarding moving NPS ratings from 8s to 9s.  I asked why that was important.  It was noticeable that the question was posed in terms of  numerical  scores, rather than moving  Passives  to  Promoters , so I was curious.  Digging a little further I found that the source of the question was a desire among the associates to have their  individual  interactions move from 8s to 9s.  Peeling back the onion I discovered that they were seeking this because their bonuses were based on their own individual NPS ratings.  Ah, paydirt–in more than one way of meaning. This is yet another one of those ways that, as I like to ...

The Big Mistake People Make with AI

By Colin Shaw posted 13 days ago
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This post originally appeared at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/big-mistake-people-make-ai-colin-shaw/ ) Artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for decades and mostly used in a science-fiction context. As a result, many people are either terrified of it or assume it is as inexplicable as magic. However, like all science, AI has concepts that are accessible to us all, no suit of armor or magic wand needed. Business leaders should understand what AI is and what problems can be solved using AI to provide the future's Customer Experiences. We had a special guest on   our podcast   Bikram Ghosh, associate professor of marketing at the Eller ...

Why You Need a Closed-Loop Survey & How to Do it

By Martha Brooke,CCXP posted 14 days ago
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I founded Interaction Metrics in 2004 because I felt like companies weren't listening. Simple requests were rewarded by silence. And if I had an issue or question, rote ‘sorry for the inconvenience’ was often the reply. I figured if this was happening to me, it was happening to other customers too. In the interim years, we've vastly improved the quality of customer listening for our clients, but broadly speaking, what's the state of customer experience in 2020? Two things are for sure: 1) companies care endlessly about their NPS survey scores and 2) many tout customer experience as a differentiator. So, it appears customer experience has advanced as a ...

More on CX ROI: Save AND make money

By Nicholas Zeisler,CCXP posted 14 days ago
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I have written previously a  couple   times  about return on investment for CX.  In fact, there are volumes of articles and books written about it.  It’s almost as though there’s a sense of having to prove ourselves as CX professionals constantly.  Now, in previous professional lives, I’ve been part of PM teams and Process Improvement teams.  Having to justify our existence is something I’ve had lots of experience doing.  Sometimes CX feels the same way:  we can feel kind of peripheral to the operational or revenue-generating parts of our organizations.  And sometimes that catches us off-guard when someone asks us, “So, what are you bringing to the table?” ...

What's Really the Most Valuable Question on your Surveys?

By Rachael Perez,CCXP posted 15 days ago
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If you’re a VoC expert, the first thing that probably popped in your mind is the Ultimate question –  “How Likely are You to Recommend ”… the  Net Promoter Score’s  indicator for Customer Loyalty. That’s a good question, but not the one I’m thinking of.  I’ve been a CCXP® for years and focused on creating great Customer, Partner & Employee Experiences for nearly 20 years. I’ve found that the first step in gaining real customer understanding (after the customer journey map) is getting meaningful customer feedback. In many organizations, this starts with surveys, so your surveys must work.  I was creating a training deck today on Survey design and ...

Model for Sustained Customer Experience ROI

By Lynn Hunsaker,CCXP posted 17 days ago
1 person recommends this.
Proving strategic impact on your organization's success is a key to career mobility and customer experience maturity. A close look at the most prevalent customer experience practices reveals that we’re “putting the cart before the horse” with near-brute-force on business results (referrals, quick wins, churn turnaround, upsell) and forgoing the   essential building blocks to sustainable customer experience ROI. Truth About Customer Experience Goals Most of us are pursuing retention, loyalty, service excellence and customer experience differentiation.  Let's explore the nature of these goals: Customer retention (duration of relationship) and loyalty ...

Our Continued Diversity and Inclusion Journey: Latest Actions

By Mr. Greg Melia,CAE posted 19 days ago
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Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle.” Diversity and inclusion (D&I) are a top priority for CXPA, and we hear that we can do better. We are thankful for the CXPA members who have shared feedback, ideas, messages of support, as well as messages reflecting the urgency and importance of diversity and inclusion within CXPA. This feedback has been extremely important to the Board. As a result of what we heard from you, the Board recently conducted a self-assessment on the state of D&I in CXPA. This self-assessment was based on top diversity and inclusion practices ...