You care about the customer experience. But a lot of people in your company – who aren’t as deeply rooted in it – might not “get it.” Here are four ways CX pros got their colleagues on board.
Whether people within an organization have direct contact with customers or not, almost all of them impact the customer experience. However, they usually don’t see it that way. They often see themselves working in a silo, and don’t see how their job affects customers.
To help all employees see some impact they have on the experience — and give them positive feedback from customers — leaders often need to come up with novel ways to share the story.
Here are four examples of it done successfully:
1. Breathed new life into old reports
Jay Miller, director of customer insights at Fidelity Investments, had to give reports on customer activity to colleagues and employees quarterly.
He gathered the data, plugged it in an email and hit send. And he knew most people hit “delete” when they got it.
On a whim, Miller made a change to get people to pay attention to the message. He was on vacation in a beautiful mountain range when the information he was expected to share arrived in his email.
This time, he pulled out his cell phone, which he was using to document his trip anyway, and gave a quick verbal report while his wife taped it.
It took a few takes, and he used some free tools, such as a teleprompter app to help him script and say it all. Then he added graphics with other free apps and hit “send” from a social media platform.
It appealed to a broader group of colleagues and employees — and many more finally paid attention.
Miller, who recently spoke at the Maritz CXFusion 2017 Conference in Las Vegas, continues to do shoots at different places, keeping co-workers interested in where he’ll show up next and what he’ll tell them.
2. Engaged customers with employees
You know that employees who see how their work impacts customers are more engaged.
That’s why Iain O’Connor, a senior manager at Aegon in Edinburgh, Scotland, talked with his employees about how their work impacted products and helped customers.
But O’Connor felt that it didn’t always sink in — and he and his colleagues wanted to make a bigger impression.
This did it: Since they’re in the personal finance industry, they invited customers to submit photos via social media of their dream retirement.
One customer sent a photo of a van with beautiful scenery in the background to show a hopeful extended road trip. A woman posted a photo of her in a hula skirt by a blow-up pool and palm tree, pretending she was surfing to show a trip to Hawaii. Another sent a photo of kids at an amusement park because she hoped to spend more time with her grandchildren.
What an impact!
Employees in all areas of the company could see how their work within the company helped customers with their finances, and would make a difference in their dreams.
3. Added storytelling to data
Like many customer experience pros, Kay Lynn Hendrix, a team lead at Dell, had a lot of numbers and data to share with colleagues that would help them do their jobs better … if they’d pay attention long enough to absorb it.
Of course, Hendrix and the people in her department thought the information was interesting, but she recognized that it could be dull to people who didn’t get a kick out of it.
Still, they needed it. And she needed to get and keep their attention.
Since she noticed that colleagues were interested in casual conversations about the customers behind the numbers, she added a story to the start of her presentation.
She immediately saw more interest than ever, and received more questions at the end.
So she added more storytelling when she shared the data. And Hendrix, who also spoke at the 2017 CXFusion Conference, recognized people paid attention the whole time.
Now she tries to link the data to at least one real-life story, which works especially well when the data reveals something the group may not like hearing. It softens the blow.
4. Created a ‘Customer Focus Friday’
By the end of most work weeks, Miller noticed that his colleagues at Fidelity were often more focused on the weekend than the work that supported the customer experience.
While that was understanding to a point — everyone needs to unwind — he wanted employees to close out the week on a “work high,” too.
To boost morale and help employees stay as focused as possible on the customer experience that last day, he started “Customer Focus Friday.”
He’d send an email to everyone that included some fun stuff from the employees who talked to customers – such as notes complimenting products, extra efforts employees made to impress customers, or funny stories customers and employees shared.
Again, he threw in an infographic with some detail on a success the company had that week, trying to capture something the most employees had a hand in.
Miller says it helps celebrate employees, boost morale and keep everyone focused on the important work they do that impacts the customer experience.
