Howdy folks,
Tami here, your trusty CX Geek from down under (that’s pronounced ‘down undah’ for those who aren’t fluent in Aussie! 🙃).
Today’s post is an open letter, of sorts, to the leaders of companies around the globe who hope to become a customer-first organisation and are looking to hire their first Customer Experience (CX) or Customer Success (CS) Leader to help them along the way.
Scroll down to dig in!
“Dear Leaders,
As you can see, we’re now living in a world where consumers are armed with more knowledge, more options, and ultimately more power than ever before, which means that putting their experiences and needs above all else is the only way to ensure that you remain their first choice for the product/service you offer.
But…(there’s always a but!) before you bring your CX/CS Leader on board to help you cement your footing in this exciting new world, allow me to pass on some advice which helped me a great deal during my time leading Customer Experience for a young startup, who still remains the leader in their market today:
“Becoming a customer-first organisation is not the responsibility of a single person or a department. Genuine customer centricity occurs as the result of having a great culture in place which empowers everyone in your team (from the CEO to your Support Agents, and everyone else in between) to put customers at the heart of every decision and engagement, without exception.”
In addition, the most important lesson I’ve learned on my journey thus far is that becoming a customer-first organisation is a long-term investment that everyone in your organisation needs to back 110% — there are no shortcuts.
Subsequently, if you bring a CX Leader on board before the rest of your team are ready to go all-in on a customer-first way of life, or if you do so expecting an immediate return of investment, you’ll be setting them up to fail before they’ve even had a chance to make a difference.
Why?
Because, instead of dedicating their time, expertise, and energy towards helping your team’s build and execute customer-first initiatives (such as Voice of the Customer programs, Customer Success Strategies and Product Roadmaps), they will instead be spending their time fighting an uphill battle of resilience from key stakeholders who are yet to buy-in to a customer-first mindset — which is not a productive or cost-effective way to do business (not to mention it’s a really crappy experience for everyone involved).
Finally, with all of this being said, I’ll leave you with the following statement:
"At the end of the day, it’s the values and actions of your people which define who you are as a company — so if being known as a truly customer-first organisation (like Zappos!) is what you’re gunning for, then you have to ensure that you have a team of people who believe in this way of life and that you also have a non-negotiable culture to support it."
Cheers,
Tami”
So there you have it, folks — my two cents on where to start if your company is looking to successfully adopt a customer-first way of life!
Until next time, my CX Geeks ❤️