Recently I went to an event entitled ‘how to improve and innovate customer experience using service design’. The title piqued my interest as being highly relevant to the kinds of work we regularly encounter at Truth. We’re often asked to help clients understand the customer journey and bring to life the customer experience across touch points in order to better serve customer needs.
While at the event I heard from a number of keynote speakers. Many were themselves service designers – working to improve the customer experience through design for an organisation. Whether you’re a ‘designer’, ‘researcher’, ‘insight consultant’, ‘marketing manager’ or ‘head of customer experience’, we can all improve and innovate.
So, how can we improve and innovate?
The biggest self-reported barrier to change is culture
It’s important to think about who you need to bring along with you on any journey or process. Always ask yourself, who do you need to convince and who do you need to influence to effect change? It’s also important to cater any process to varying levels of engagement. Some team members will be core to every step of the process while others will ‘dip in and out’ – in order to be successful, the process has to work for all involved.
When people go on a transformational journey with you they become your biggest advocates
It’s important to take your stakeholders on the journey with you. And, to think about who else will be affected by the work – how will the material live on or be cascaded within an organisation? Managing this well, will create advocates who support and understand your agenda and the importance of the customer experience.
Share what you know
Don’t work in a bubble. Sharing the core idea or foundational direction with the team early will benefit all. It allows people to understand where you’re headed and ultimately allows for an iterative and collaborative process to flourish. An iterative process helps refine thinking and outcomes.
Understand the systems you’re working in
You can’t influence or shape an outcome successfully without understanding the system or systems you’re operating in. Organisational silos may be challenging when trying to focus on the end-to-end customer journey and holistic customer experience, but they needn’t be an insurmountable barrier. Being aware of silos and systems helps recognise potential blind spots and meet challenges head on.
Handle customer satisfaction data with care
Customer data and satisfaction metrics are but one piece of the puzzle. NPS scores, for example, allow an organisation to measure and track customer satisfaction at a moment in time. Alone, they can not create an holistic view of the customer experience across touchpoints. Putting the customer experience first, means much more than tracking NPS.
If you’d like to know more, please get in touch - I’d be more than happy to discuss further. info@truth.ms