It’s not only what you say, but how you say it.
Socializing CX data, getting the word out, is by far one of the most challenging steps towards doing CX Right.
During this decade organizations have struggled to bring customers “into the room” and make sense of the feedback provided from them. Even after executives are informed of the number of completed customer surveys, recent peak of “promoters” or that a high percentage of customers give us a thumbs up, there are still questions: “How are we performing?” “Who is our most valuable customer?” “Where do we prioritize improvements with our limited time, money and resources?” “How are we doing compared to the competition, compared to our peers?” “Is a 75 good?” “Is moving to a 78 from 75 significant?” “Is a 10 point scale really better than a 5 point scale?” “What are the expectations of our customers, constituents, our prospects” . “Who is the best in our industry and what about overall?”
Over the past 10 years I have heard all those questions and hundreds more. The results of these questions going unanswered are, missed new customer acquisition opportunities, reduced revenue per member, customer churn, frustrated citizens, increased channel costs, decreased shareholder value and overall sub-optimal performance. The challenge to answering these questions and meeting results may be in HOW you are delivering the message.
Translating data to business intelligence is an art, not a science. And not getting it right will result in execs shooting the messenger!
Stop what you are doing…NOW!
Recently, I began work with a global publisher, who like many businesses, have been evolving their business to the web. The digital team is seasoned, led by a woman who absolutely knows her stuff. The team was planning on proposing an increase in CX spend and felt recent “beach softening” and reporting to the C-Suite would result in approval of the increased expenditures. In an effort level-set and learn more, I asked if I could see what they were delivering to management. One of the team members leaned across the conference table with her phone and began to scroll through their most recent executive summary. “Stop it!” (I wish I could have thought of something else to say, since this was the first time I had met with them since working with the client years before). Maybe a few empathetic head-nods and uh-huhs would’ve helped.
The team member showed me the report that revealed findings on satisfaction; a score on a 100 point scale that had recently improved by 3 points! Even an improved score on content and navigation. The team was pleased with how their efforts and focus were improving the customer experience. Like I said, this was a very strong digital team with great leadership, process and collective know-how. When I asked how the executive team responded, she looked side-to-side to her peers and leader and reported, “I think they thought the results were very positive”. Meh. As we continued to rewind and discuss the meeting, I asked, “Did the executive team recognize the significance in a 3 point increase to satisfaction?”…crickets.
The C-Suite…and other stakeholders for that matter, don’t speak Satisfaction!
The above story is a great example of the message “getting lost in translation”. Execs don’t speak satisfaction, customer effort, nor do they even speak “NPS”! [Even though the overused TLA (three-letter acronym) has become the proxy for cx measurement in Boardrooms around the world]. NOTE: It’s not the number, it’s how you improve it! Anyway; argument/blog post/podcast, YouTube video for another day);-)
Data scientists and analysts do such great work analyzing the experience prospective and current customers have with our organizations, but there is definitely an opportunity for improving HOW the data is delivered.
Focus on the Outcomes
If you are an analyst and spend time measuring satisfaction, NPS, customer effort and the drivers that effect those metrics. That of course is positive. But if you are putting data together to be used in an executive presentation, jump over to the “right-side of the model” i.e. the outcomes, the future behaviors our customers, members, citizens are likely to take as a result of a great experience (also the steps they might take after a poor experience).
The key is to not only focus on outcomes, but also in context with the objectives of the business.
Analyst: AOV and UPT increased by 10 percentage points over the period which led to an approximate $XXX,XXX increase in e-commerce revenue.
Exec: That’s great. Where did that come from?
Analyst: The improvement was due in-part to the improvements we made to the quality of the product catalog images and descriptions.
Exec: Really? How did you know it was the images and descriptions? We have always used those and always seem to work and load fast for me.
Analyst: Right. But for new visitors, the story’s a little different. The quality and the size of the images were taking a long time to load. As well, the product descriptions were limited and didn’t provide the adequate information required to make a purchase. Some visitors still made a purchase, but they might not return.
Exec: Not return? Why not? They made a purchase today, why won’t they purchase again tomorrow?
Analyst: Well just because one visitor accomplished her task, doesn’t mean she’ll be back again. Besides that, she told us. The Google Analytics revealed that a purchase was made, and that’s a good thing. But her feedback along with the replay of her experience revealed a difficult journey and the specific insights regarding the product images and descriptions. Having the real-time data and taking necessary actions to improve the issue, ensures revenue loss has been mitigated and the likelihood of future purchases has increased.
Want to improve the likelihood of having more discussions like this? Need positioning language, presentation materials or guidance on preparing for the potential grilling leading these discussions?
Dave Lewan 