B2B

B2B CEOs, boards, investors and senior leadership teams typically squander tremendous earnings and growth opportunities by putting the cart before the horse in their views of customer experience-driven growth. This may be more prevalent among newer companies, but it's generally universal. Your mindset about customer management overrides your values and mission statements. Your walk is louder than your talk in shaping employees' and partners' effectiveness and efficiency. . . .

Consider these 3 growth mindset principles:

1. Feed the hand that feeds you.
2. Get things right consistently.
3. Facilitate performance ownership.
   . . . 

B2B voice of customer maturity means (1) participation is second nature (enjoyably easy) to customers, (2) absorbing, adopting, and acting on voice of customer (VoC) insights is second nature (enthusiastically easy) to managers, and (3) your enterprise uses VoC insights to adapt instantaneously to shifting market needs. . . .

Use your Expectations VoC to educate all facets of your business in their performance standards. This is how customer-centricity is built. And it's how your Realities VoC can be reduced greatly, minimizing the burden on customers and CX budget. . . .

B2B customer experience governance can generate stronger growth when it's tied-in to the way that B2B ecosystems work. . . . 

Your built-in extended CXM team is a treasure trove of customer insights, engagement, and value-generating opportunities. It's crazy to think you must start from scratch with a council that may be unrelated to what's actually underway. When you build upon current strengths, you're more likely to take on a holistic view of B2B customer experience right away. Customer experience is already being affected by these parties, so it's simple logic to rapidly embrace them.

Why this propels stronger growth: You get further faster by acknowledging what's in play and rallying around commonalities. Don't waste time and resources by reinventing the wheel. Make these managers your allies in your enterprise's CX excellence quest. . . .

Customer experience metrics are the most important choices in your CX strategy! What you monitor shapes your mindsets, conversations and actions. . . .

1) How Metrics Work: Every metric is part of a chain reaction. The concept of "no man is an island" applies to metrics: without context, your view will be myopic and your decisions will be weak compared to the situation's inherent potential. . . .

2) Start Right: Before dedicating your attention to any customer experience metric, double-check the veracity of your assumptions. . . .

3) Customer-Centric Metrics: What do customers care about most?  . . .

4) Focus on Leading Indicators: Financials, customers' sentiments and behaviors, and outcomes of workflows are lagging indicators. The train has left the station - it's too late to make adjustments at those points. Peel the onion: financials are generated by customers' sentiments and behaviors, . . . which are shaped by outcomes of your company's workflows, . . . which are influenced by workflow decisions and workflow inputs from suppliers. It's these relevant workflow decisions and supplier inputs that are true leading indicators. You see their performance before customers experience their outcomes. You can make adjustments before the train leaves the station. . . .