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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BEING CUSTOMER-CENTRIC IS A REQUIREMENT, NOT AN OPTION

By Nick Glimsdahl posted 4 hours ago
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Albert Einstein once said, “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.” Wise words. When it comes to evolving customer expectations, companies cannot meet the needs of customers today with what worked in the past. A decade ago, customers expected decent service at a fair price. They also were more accustomed to brick and mortar stores, using a landline to call for support, waiting for answers, and staying loyal to a brand; they stayed loyal not because they loved the brand so much as they dreaded the hassle and time to switch to another company. Just as important as all of this, most customers did ...

CX: How it works

By Nicholas Zeisler,CCXP posted yesterday
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In this article I’ll explain the components needed in place to elevate an organization’s Customer Experience.  I won’t go too far in depth into the four parts but rather provide an overview of how they work together with a brief explanation of what they are.  Following, in a continuation of this series of articles, I’ll explain with more specificity how these work (and work together), as they each deserve their own writings. CX Strategy and Corporate Strategy Alignment Before we begin, we must ensure that our CX Strategy is aligned with our overall Corporate Strategy.  Many CX practitioners, and surely, many business leaders simply define this ...

Inspiring Racial Equity: CXPA Networks Explore How CX Professionals Can Drive Change

By Gabe Smith,CCXP posted 4 days ago
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"The Civil Rights movement was filled with people who were not only trying to argue for their personhood, but arguing for their personhood through their status of being a customer." Those words from Professor Gary David , the moderator of a recent live collaboration between the CXPA Atlanta and Boston networks, hit me like a freight train, instantly transforming my perception of the intersectionality of CX and race. The ensuing conversation among members of an expert panel including Sandra Mathis, CCXP , Stephanie C. Harris , and Thomas Houston offered thought-provoking insight as to how CX professionals can help their organizations drive positive ...

CXPA Need to Know for the Week of 8/10/20

By Joy Wedge posted 4 days ago
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CX Impact Awards Application Deadline August 21st Have you or a colleague made a demonstrable impact on CX within an organization?  If so, submit a video nomination for the 2020 CXPA Impact Awards. CX practitioners and providers across industries, geographies, and career levels may be nominated. Nominations will be accepted Friday, July 24th through Friday, August 21st, with winners announced on CX Day—Tuesday, October 6th! These short videos should capture specific examples of how the nominee’s actions impacted CX or the organization’s CX program, the degree and type of impact the nominee’s actions had on customers, and ways that the nominee ...

Don't try to be Zappos

By Nicholas Zeisler,CCXP posted 4 days ago
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There’s a saying in CX:  You’re not only competing against your industry peers, you’re also competing against Zappos.  While folks in the shoe business can take that sentiment seriously   and   literally, the idea is that Customers these days are getting more used to outstanding experiences from certain brands.  Besides the online shoe retailer, people point to Four Seasons hotels, Wegmans, and Apple, among a small group of elite Customer-centric companies.  These brands are impacting Customer expectations far beyond their own industries.  No matter what line of business you’re in (and whether you’re offering a product, service, or both), Customers know what ...

To Improve CX in Unusual Times, Stop Writing the Usual Phrases

By LESLIE O'FLAHAVAN posted 5 days ago
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On a typical day, most customers will understand what you mean even if you use less-than-graceful words when you speak or write. For example, lots of customers dislike the phrase “No problem!” but they’ll look past it if you’re providing great service. They’ll give you a pass on “No problem!” But these aren’t typical days. The usual customer service phrases can make your anxious customers even less patient and more emotional. These phrases can also make your company seem clueless. In these pandemic days, can you imagine an outbound call center agent starting a phone call with “Is now a good time?” That’s just oblivious. Here’s a list of six phrases ...

Webinar Review--Partners in CX: How CX Leaders Can Team-Up with Contact Centers to Demonstrate CX ROI

By Taylor Barbieri posted 6 days ago
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Did you miss this webinar? Check out the link below: https://www.cxpa.org/viewdocument/partners-in-cx-how-cx-leaders-can   It’s never been more challenging for organizations to deliver unforgettable customer experiences (CX).   Around 40% of customers will change brands after just one bad experience, with 80% leaving a brand after several bad experiences.   At the same time, it’s arguably never been more profitable for businesses to invest in their CX efforts.   Businesses that excel in offering stellar customer experiences (CX) see their revenue grow five times more quickly than those of CX laggards, according to research ...

Will 2021 Be the Year of CX as North Star?

By Lynn Hunsaker,CCXP posted 6 days ago
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In a time when customer attitudes and behaviors are shifting and evolving rapidly, companies are finding customer intelligence uses — across all functions enterprise-wide — to be vital to survival. Along with widespread thirst for customer insights is the heightened realization that mis-alignment to customers is wasteful and precarious. The best way to be nimble and lean — to grow — is to tightly align with customers. Are managers in your firm thirsting for customer insights? Persistent Forces for 2021 Will the dynamics behind this recent trend lessen in 2021? Not likely. This decade ushered in changes that are here to stay, along with even more ...

Do You Trust Your Customers?

By Nicholas Zeisler,CCXP posted 7 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, ...

The Customer Experience’s impact on Customer Churn

By Nick Glimsdahl posted 8 days ago
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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 10 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 11 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 ...

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

By Joy Wedge posted 11 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 12 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 13 days ago
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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 13 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 13 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 14 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 19 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 19 days ago
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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 ...