Customer satisfaction. Loyalty. Lifetime value. Shopper marketing. Customer experience (CX). These attributes are known to be important since the beginning of capitalism, right? Then why is CX so prevalent right now? We didn’t really hear much about customer experience until a few years ago. Clearly, something has changed.
To help shine some light on this topic, this article welcomes guest expert John Bardawill, CM. John has been navigating, consulting and bringing the CX space forward over the last 25 years with TMG International Inc.
Having worked on three continents, John has a unique perspective that guides clients to optimize CX investments and strategically integrate it into their overall marketing mix.
Many companies are trying to “do” customer experience well but are struggling. They can’t seem to figure out how to move it forward in a meaningful way from a customer perspective. This comes out when asking companies “what are the barriers to improving customer experience?” Two years ago in a study conducted by TMG, the number one barrier was alignment across the organization. What has been identified now is there’s not just one reason being given for the challenge. TMG completed an August 2020 CX study and found the number of barriers identified has increased, including: a lack of resources, lack of internal ownership and competing priorities.
CX is Increasing in Complexity Due to COVID
What it means to deliver an impactful customer experience is changing. It includes such things as corporate culture, technology, employees, service providers and resources. It is much more complex than originally thought.
With COVID, consumers don’t just expect an effortless interaction, they are now demanding a “safe” and effortless interaction.
As a result, it’s rapidly redefining CX because it’s now a prerequisite that customers feel safe to have a good experience. It’s a three-legged stool that requires continuous, broad-based buy-in from across the organization:
The New CX Imperative: 3 Scenarios
There are three distinct groups of organizations when it comes to CX. There are those that are new to focusing on CX but recognize it is important (around 10% of organizations). The next group (around 30%) is focused on advancing existing CX efforts that are working well. Finally, there is the majority of firms (around 60%) that have not yet focused on CX at all.
New to CX
Today, companies are having to consider CX. Perhaps they’re relatively inexperienced and having to figure it out now in a very volatile marketplace. For instance, airlines are looking at CX from a survival standpoint. Their sense of urgency is quite high and they’re trying to address it aggressively. Many airlines entered into COVID and did a very good job building safe protocols, branding the initiative and communicating it to the marketplace. But because they are under pressure financially, many have made the ill-fated decision to restart selling the middle seat which scared off potential customers and has dampened current demand even further than before.
Advancing Existing Efforts
For those who have been focusing on CX, they’re now elevating their game and adapting relatively well. For example, some restaurants have a very good product, but have been restricted in the fact that they can’t do a lot of in-restaurant business due to social distancing rules. Many have done very well by creating an e-commerce delivery model. They’ve done it in a way that put benefits back into the consumer and are aggressively trying to promote their product (the food) as a take-out or delivery offering.
What’s CX All About?
The third grouping of companies are just trying to figure it out (60% of companies). They’re an interesting group because they’ve done a pretty good job with their business operationally. Now they are admitting they really don’t understand what their customers want. They are asking questions like “Do we have a good definition or understanding of what a great customer experience is? Have we figured out what the components of it are and do we know what to do differently to benefit?”
Alignment Opportunities to Drive CX
Leaders of organizations are busier than ever. There are multiple priorities and complex organizational issues that are difficult for most companies to manage while focusing on the customer. They’re worried about supplies, shipping, retail, their call centre and putting out fires. The missed opportunity over the long term is that without a singular focus on the customer, effective CX will not happen.
CX is not a project – it’s a journey – and you must continue to work on it.
Organizations are struggling with how to improve CX. The challenge is that typically companies don’t assess their CX strategy because they are not aligned internally on the need and the opportunity that CX can provide.
There are many organizations who have just recently realized they don’t really know what their customers think of them, even though they’re a multi-billion dollar business. With COVID, they are having to adapt very quickly. For instance, many companies have had to move to a new digital platform. That may have always been planned to slowly transition to a stronger digital platform, but they have been forced to get it done much faster. It was the only way to get the business back on track. COVID demands alignment and rapid deployment like never before.
The Pace of Change & Looking Forward
The scale and pace of innovation has been fascinating to watch as organizations evolve literally overnight. There are a percentage of companies that were very advanced and have been thinking through their digital pathway and its applications for years. There is also a group that’s been a laggard just because they believed they could get away with it. It’s now personal; they must change or die.
If we consider the biggest impact due to COVID, it is that personal safety is now a core component of customer experience.
How people will think about health in the future is similar to traveling on an airplane prior to 911 and afterwards. We now routinely navigate through tightened security and customs. The same thing is likely to happen with our health. We’ll now be consciously wondering about an invisible killer. Winning organizations are going to figure out how to mitigate this fear to improve their CX offering. What’s going to set them apart and keep their businesses viable is their ability to demonstrate their focus on the customer, their personal safety approaches and providing a great customer experience.
In Partnership With
John Bardawill, CM is the Managing Director of TMG International with over 25 years of international marketing and management experience. John helps clients translate marketing, customer experience and change initiatives into meaningful actions across an organization to drive results. Prior to founding TMG International in 1998, John held numerous executive and senior management positions in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.
Tim Bishop, CM is a multi-disciplined executive with a proven record of optimizing strategic efforts to expand the influence of leading organizations, such as the Canadian Marketing Association, Cineplex Entertainment, Lavalife.com, IMI International and Northstar Research Partners. In Partnership With is his latest focus to curate Canadian marketing experts to celebrate the power of strategic partnerships in a perspective-based content series.