targeting customer experience with the CX octagon

One of the most important points of any operation to boost sales is called “customer”, and is rarely seen within strategic and tactical planning.

Within the planning process based on the balance scorecad, a business management methodology, there is a strategic dimension called customer, which most of the time I see a manager or director planning it is always focused on acquiring new shoppers.

Where does the error live?

The customer dimension and theme need to be seen from a deeper and experiential perspective, it is necessary to think, analyze and plan consistent actions from the inside out. A theory that I bring in my book, CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN PRACTICE (2023) is the octagon of customer experience where I present 8 management drives that must be present in all strategic planning.

8 drives that must be present in every company’s planning:

1. Customer-centric culture – it is essential for managers to start at the base and understand what the customer culture is like within their company. No attraction or loyalty strategy will work without a strong customer-focused culture that comes from leadership. My tip is to review the mission, vision, values, customer practices, leadership literacy and creation of customer culture rituals.

2. Develop customer-focused leadership – the biggest problem I see in some businesses is leadership. In general, managers do not know how to develop people, are not sensitive to the customer and are unaware of excellence processes, such as the purchasing journey, standard operating procedures, service scripts, after-sales processes – which are “basic” elements. in customer management. My guidance is to always develop leadership for good sales processes with a focus on CX.

3. Invest in employee experience practices: it is the internal customer who will deliver experience to the external customer, therefore, it needs to be cared for and developed. It is essential for the company to have onboarding, recognition, career development and ongoing training practices.

4. Employee experience metrics: measuring is as important as planning and executing. The HR area still has many gaps when it comes to employee experience metrics – it is essential to measure organizational climate, eNPS, turnover and other indicators that reflect internal employee satisfaction.

5. The fifth element of customer experience management based on the CX octagon theory is customer experience design, it is understanding who the customer is – here, planning must include deeply understanding the customer’s desires, needs and pains through different methodologies such as VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER, Persona Map, Market research, NPS surveys.

6. After understanding the customer’s desires and desires, it is essential to design their purchasing journey and interaction with the brand – it is essential to think about the customer journey, service script, operational procedures, work instructions. This will provide standardization and excellence in the execution of the shopper experience.

7. Have CX metrics and indicators – what cannot be measured, cannot be managed. It is also essential to have customer experience and loyalty KPIS to understand the health of the business, in this case, I always advise businesses to measure revenue associated with loyalty rate, evasion rate, complaint rate, customer effort score (ces ) and net promoter score (nps). These indicators provide great clarity about the operation’s focus on the customer.

8. Finally, it is super important to have senior management focused on looking at all 7 previous points – this is what I call CX governance. In the most important operations in which I participate as a manager or mentor, we work monthly with client committees made up of senior management and management, dedicated to discussing and improving all managerial variables related to the client.

It is worth mentioning that good customer experience management will directly impact customer acquisition and loyalty, which generates more or less financial results.

How is your operation planning from the customer’s perspective?