While the predictions from Gartner and Oracle in previous years highlighted the rising importance of customer experience, it’s undeniable that in 2024, CX is not just a competitive advantage, but a business imperative. Regardless, few professionals would argue that the emphasis on an organization’s Customer Experience, (i.e., CX is the product of an interaction, including the resulting perceptions, between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship)  is not simply a fad, but an important tool to achieve what industry leaders like Seth Godin and Clay Hebert (among many others), recommend to connect to those vital to that organization. As Ian Altman says in Forbes: “it has become clear that we are in a Connection Economy. “

As we say at TSI, “the Customer Experience is the glue to make the connections come to life.”  Recently, it seems that there is something incongruent with the articles and statistics I read, the experiences we have with our clients and other organizations contemplating new strategies in this area.  Perhaps it is just what we are seeing here, I would posit that it appears many companies and higher education institutions are simply going through the motions in this area.

How are you approaching this change?

How are you TRULY enhancing your Customer Experience?

I want to use this short article to hit 3 points that will have a BIG impact for your organization in enhancing your customer experience:

1. Start by honing your CX awareness skills; these will pay off for you if you are planning to enhance or improve the customer experience within your organization.

2. Rather than simply going through the motions, use CX to create a real, legit, unfair advantage for your organization.

3. Expect the journey to be difficult, but prepare to persevere.

Hone your CX awareness skills

I challenge you to book your next business trip, make a doctor’s appointment, plan a vacation, buy a car, get a mortgage (or refinance your existing one), drive a car in Mexico (well maybe we’ll save that story for another day), apply for a college course (or apply to a university).

After completing one or more of these, take a step back and assess how these experiences were in terms of the following:

1. How ETDBW (Easy to do business with) was this organization, or process? What best reflects the impression the vendor left? Ask yourself the following:

• Do they care about your business?
• Would they rather maximize profit on one transaction, or have you become a loyal customer for a lifetime?
• Does your time matter to them?
• How would you rate the experience overall?

2. Aside from the efficiency and effectiveness aspect of the transaction, did the transaction have any emotional connection that left you with a memory that was more positive, neutral or negative in nature? Many of the readers of this likely saw the video from a recent United flight when a ticketed passenger was removed against his will, simply because the plane was over-booked, and members of the United crew had no room to board.  Based on the reaction by United’s CEO, that was not the intended emotional connection the organization was hoping to achieve. And although this example can be seen as an outlier, both in terms of how ridiculous the situation, as well as how vastly the customer’s “experience” was shared on social media, consider the financial effects alone. Fortune reports that United Airlines’ stock has dropped $1.4 Billion since this controversy took place!

In each of these examples, the business or higher education institution on the other end of the transaction would accurately tell you that they are in a very competitive industry.  Yet, at the risk of generalizing, each of these examples is, what we in consulting refer to as “opportunity-rich” with respect to how they often fail to create a memorable, meaningful and intentional moment that matters to the customer. Or, in United’s example, just the opposite.

Become a CX Jedi warrior to develop awareness skills that you can apply in your organization.

Your Legit Unfair Advantage

When we consult with our clients or lead CX training workshops on the topic of developing an improved Customer Experience, we emphasize the notion of creating, in very tangible terms, the organization’s unfair advantage (UA). Yeah, it sounds a little like defining your own super power.  In fact, it is a LOT like creating your organizational super power.

What do you want to be KNOWN for?  What will you be famous for?

We look at it this way – your UA is a function of your organization’s: 

Quality x Originality/Uniqueness x Service x Convenience/Comfort/Location x Price

There is a lot to unpack in this formula and you and your colleagues could easily spend a few focused work sessions on this topic.  Don’t expect to nail it on the first time.   But if you can truly understand, from your customer’s perspective, what are the “moments that matter” and define your unfair advantage that provides a unique and memorable CX, you are on your way.

Yes, it’s hard, but Worth it!

In short, a positively memorable CX matters! Why? It’s certainly a logical leap to think that a customer who has an excellent experience, remembers it.  Because of one positive experience, they can tell others about it; sometimes even becoming mini marketers for that product or service.  Further, those that are loyal, having had a positive experience are retained, becoming much more likely to buy a product or service over and over.

Consider the following:  Studies by Bain & Company, along with Earl Sasser of the Harvard Business School, have shown that even a 5 percent increase in customer retention can lead to an increase in profits of between 25 and 95 percent.

There are several reasons why this small increase in retention can have such a substantial impact on profits:

1. Customers are likely to spend more with companies they’ve already done business with. Particularly with small businesses that don’t have a lot of brand recognition, a customer’s first purchase or two can be considered somewhat of a risk. So they are likely to keep the cost relatively small, and then increase spending as the relationship grows.

2. Repeat customers are more likely to refer others. Bain & Company’s research showed that after just one purchase from an online apparel retailer, an average shopper was likely to refer three other people to the site. But a customer that made ten purchases from an online apparel retailer was likely to refer seven different people to the site.

So what?

Creating a positively memorable experience is HARD!  Especially for an organization that has any degree of complexity around the following:

• The types of products/services your customers want;
• How easy or hard, fast or slow, manual or automated, simple or cumbersome it is for you to quote/price the right products/services;
• How easy or hard, fast or slow, manual or automated, simple or cumbersome it is for them to order it, receive it, process the invoice, and actually pay for it.
• What about the delivery, set up/configuration, training, etc., how seamless are these processes?
• Do you have numerous people involved, sometimes with “less than ideal” coordination when you think about those involved from a contracting, pricing, order processing/execution, set up, training, implementation touchpoints?

In closing, I urge you to start this journey. Now. Waiting only lets your competition gain ground on you.  Follow the three steps you just learned:

1. Hone your CX awareness skills – these will pay off for you as you can be the CX Jedi that design’s the amazing and enhanced customer experience for your organization.

2. Use CX to create a real, legit unfair advantage for your organization – consider how your organization can effectively complete largely, if not solely, on the basis of the experience.

3. Lastly, expect the journey to be difficult and prepare to persevere – consider TSI’s Change Readiness Survey as a tool to assess your organization’s readiness to change.

As you know, TSI is always happy to discuss your situation, should you need any assistance enhancing your Customer Experience.  Regardless, please give us feedback; we love hearing from you! Contact us via our website, or reach out via social media.

The post Are You REALLY Enhancing Your Customer Experience (CX) To Create an Unfair Advantage For You? Or For Your Competition? appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

• A while ago I was in Montreal checking in a hotel (part of a major chain) at about 10 PM. The night desk clerk spent close to 10 minutes trying to look up my loyalty account, with no success.  Then he informed me I should go look it up, come back down to the front desk, and he would input my information. Note, the per night cost of this hotel was about $300.
• While merely trying to sign up at one of those indoor skydiving places, I discover a poorly organized website that is cumbersome and does not show accurate availability. I called to make a reservation, and after being put on hold for 8 or 9 minutes, the worker says she cannot sign us up.  All because she is too busy.  She asks for my number to call back when she has time, but never actually does.
• My flight is delayed due to mechanical issues (on an airline that I’m a Platinum member); this will cause me to miss a connecting flight and this 1 hour delay, will ultimately cost me 12 hours due to no open seats on other flights to my destination.  I never receive a call or text to attempt to problem solve this.

If you’re thinking, “Dan, if this is all you have to worry about, you have it pretty good”.  Well you’d be right, I do have it good.  These are definitely not awfully inconvenient problems for me. Not even close.

However, if you are a leader at any of these three businesses, or if your organization is not that ETDBW (Easy to do business with), know that you are inadvertently creating a a few lasting impressions:

1. They don’t care about my business
2. They would rather maximize profit on one transaction than have me as a customer for a lifetime
3. My time does not matter to them.

In short, a positively memorable CX matters!  Why?  It’s certainly a logical leap to think that a customer who has an excellent experience, remembers it.  Because of one positive experience, they can tell others about it; sometimes even becoming mini marketers for that product or service.  Further, those that are loyal, having had a positive experience are retained, will buy a product or service over and over.

Consider the following:  Studies[1] by Bain & Company, along with Earl Sasser of the Harvard Business School, have shown that even a 5 percent increase in customer retention can lead to an increase in profits of between 25 and 95 percent.

There are several reasons why this small increase in retention can have such a large impact on profits. Here are two important considerations:

1. Customers are likely to spend more with companies they’ve already done business with. Particularly with small businesses that don’t have a lot of brand recognition, a customer’s first purchase or two can be considered somewhat of a risk. So they are likely to keep the cost relatively small, and then increase spending as the relationship grows.
2. Repeat customers are more likely to refer others. Bain & Company’s research showed that after just one purchase from an online apparel retailer, an average shopper was likely to refer three other people to the site. But a customer that made ten purchases from an online apparel retailer was likely to refer seven different people to the site.

Now, you might find yourself asking: “So what?”  I can tell these organizations do not believe in Design Thinking or Voice of the Customer ways of looking at their processes.

Well, creating a positively memorable experience is HARD! Especially for an organization that has any degree of complexity around the following:

1. The types of products/services your customers want;
2. How easy or hard, fast or slow, manual or automated, simple or cumbersome it is for you to quote/price the right products/services;
3. How easy or hard, fast or slow, manual or automated, simple or cumbersome it is for them to order it, receive it, process the invoice, and actually pay for it.
4. What about the delivery, set up/configuration, training, etc., how seamless are these processes?
5. Do you have numerous people involved, sometimes with “less than ideal” coordination when you think about those involved from a contracting, pricing, order processing/execution, set up, training, implementation touchpoints?

Having lived this firsthand, I know onboarding new clients/customers is not only challenging, but it is very time-consuming, and candidly, frustrating.  Now with even more awareness in the marketplace around this elusive goal of creating an ideal customer experience, the typical customer is more perceptive to whether you (or any) organization is truly “easy to do business with”.

In fact, check out this article on customer service expectations – https://www.alltius.ai/glossary/millennials-gen-z-customer-service-expectations 

If you feel that you may have some opportunities for improvement in this area, TSI can help. We’ve created a very hands-on training workshop that is short + sweet, and worth your investment. You will learn solid foundation of concepts and perspectives as well as tools to be used so they may be applied for your organization. If you are interested, email us at tsi@transforming.com.

The post Why a Positively Memorable Customer Experience (CX) Matters appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

In recent years, technologically savvy organizations have relied on Social Media to identify and secure business.  It’s a component of both our personal and professional lives, and certainly one that we can’t live without (in fact, it’s hard to believe that 19 years ago, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube did not even exist).  Based on TSI’s work in developing and implementing sound customer, market, and business-driven IT Strategies within the most progressive, fast-growing companies, we submit the following 7 reasons why your organization should develop /enhance Social Media tools to get closer to your customers, drive revenue, and manage the customer experience both inside and outside your organization: 

1.  Social Media isn’t Just “Social.”

Businesses invest in social media tools because they presume that they have to or believe that social media presents them with a decided tactical advantage. The more followers or “likes” another company has, the more we, as leaders, feel that we need to aspire to a new standard of social media success. While Twitter and Facebook may be surefire ways to attract customer visibility, visibility is only half of the equation; in fact, much must be done before your organization’s use of Social Media becomes – well, “social.” Getting those customers to connect with your business, engage with your thought leadership, and adapt to market conditions and trends requires tremendous effort in understanding your customers’ level of engagement with you. A critical first step to creating a social relationship is to form a complete understanding of the Customer Experience (CX) that your customers have with your company, product, or service offering.

2. Your Competition is Using Social Media on Your Customers.

As if connecting and engaging with customers needed to be more daunting, your competition is engaging with social media and possibly better than you! Gone are the days when you could be a trailblazer by using Twitter or blogs to identify and drive business. Companies in touch with recent trends already have these tools built into daily communication and tactical approaches to secure business. You may not be as hooked as Jay Baer (note his podcast series “The Social Pros” https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/shows/social-pros-podcast ), but that should not be an excuse not to keep up with your competition’s use of social media to secure business. Understanding the dynamic, shifting nature of both your customers and your competitors will help lay the foundation for an effective social media strategy, which will hopefully result in our (essential) #3:

3. Social Media Drives Measurable Business, but How do you measure it?

You probably noticed that social media usage increased during the Covid 19 Pandemic, and this caused many successful companies to shift their marketing priorities from the established traditional methods to social media and relationship-building with consumers. Since this, Businesses have started increasingly investing more money into digital marketing efforts and have seen an increased return on their investments, with the amount invested expected to grow this year to over 1.3 billion, according to Statista (2023). However, determining the success and/or ROI can be tricky, with many factors and calculations that must be considered. Some factors that must be regarded to determine success include specific goals, growth, and sales from particular marketing efforts (see post https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/understanding-roi-in-digital-marketing for more details). Depending on your company’s specific objectives, you would then select the metrics that help measure the corresponding goal. For some, ROI may not be the most critical metric. Instead, awareness and brand building may be the main goal for a specified campaign.

4. Social Media Can Provide Metrics and Feedback, Help you Tailor your Service / Product, and Generate More Business by building relationships.

Tailoring your Social Media tools to perform what Ted Rubin calls “The return on Relationship” (see his post “About return on Relationship” https://www.ror.online/about-return-on-relationship ) can help you customize your offerings to make them more attractive to potential/existing customers. Enhancing the relationship increases the level of “engagement” with that customer, fostering their loyalty to you and your offerings. Ted explains, “Be it via valuable information or personal introductions, engagement, and interaction will remain key. By asking questions and proposing ideas, you can engage your followers in such a way as to give them the ability and reason to respond.”

5. Social Media is an Effective tool for Develop Branding.

Just as enhancing an experience with a customer can foster loyalty and drive new business, Social Media marketing can be an intelligent way to create a recognizable identity for your product or service. Creating activity around contacting current or prospective customers can facilitate defining and circulating product or service branding.

6. The importance of choosing the right social media channel

By now, you realize the importance of having and maintaining a social media presence, but it is important to note that not all channels are suitable for all businesses. Knowing and understanding your target audience and goals are the keys to choosing the proper social media channels. For example, while LinkedIn is an excellent option for targeting career-minded professionals, Instagram is much more suited for targeting Gen Z with features like filters, reels, and stories. Understanding your target market and selecting the proper channels can lead to more significant profits and greater brand awareness; both are keys to overall success.

7. Have you heard of Programmatic digital marketing?

Chances are your competitors have and are harnessing it to find and target potential customers. In short Programmatic digital marketing is using software to buy digital advertising. For example, a higher ed institution could harness the power of programmatic digital marketing to place ads on the televisions of the parents of potential students from particular feeder schools while they tune into their favorite shows. For a more in-depth explanation, look at Brook Osmundson’s Post “What is Programmatic Advertising? How Does it Work? (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-programmatic-advertising/462655/#close )

Based on the seven points above, social media is not just a job you give to interns anymore. In some ways, your company’s Social Media strategy should be just as important as your company’s overall corporate strategy. Both are means by which your organization chooses its overall intent in response to the opportunities and threats in the marketplace; both will guide how the company considers its internal strengths and weaknesses, and both will connect your internal and external stakeholders.

TSI is a leading performance improvement, process re-engineering, technology strategy, and change management consulting firm. We help our progressive, growth-oriented clients become more efficient, cost-effective, and customer-focused. In short, we help our clients grow BETTER.

The post Social Media and Your Business appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

According to Gartner, “89% of companies surveyed plan to compete primarily on the basis of the customer experience by 2016”. According to Oracle, the percentage is even higher. Regardless, few professionals would argue that the emphasis on an organization’s Customer Experience, (i.e., CX is the product of an interaction, including the resulting perceptions, between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship)  is not simply a fad, but an important tool to achieve what industry leaders like Seth Godin and Clay Hebert (among many others), recommend to connect to those vital to that organization.  As Ian Altman says in Forbes: “it has become clear that we are in a Connection Economy. “

As we say at TSI, “the Customer Experience is the glue to make the connections come to life.”  Recently, it seems that there is something incongruent with the articles and statistics I read, the experiences we have with our clients and other organizations contemplating new strategies in this area.  Perhaps it is just what we are seeing here, I would posit that it appears many companies and higher education institutions are simply going through the motions in this area.

Is your organization in the 89% or the 11%? 

How are you approaching this change?

How are you TRULY enhancing your Customer Experience?

I want to use this short article to hit 3 points that will have a BIG impact for your organization in enhancing your customer experience:

1. Start by honing your CX awareness skills; these will pay off for you if you are planning to enhance or improve the customer experience within your organization.

2. Rather than simply going through the motions, use CX to create a real, legit, unfair advantage for your organization.

3. Expect the journey to be difficult, but prepare to persevere.

Hone your CX awareness skills

I challenge you to book your next business trip, make a doctor’s appointment, plan a vacation, buy a car, get a mortgage (or refinance your existing one), drive a car in Mexico (well maybe we’ll save that story for another day), apply for a college course (or apply to a university).

After completing one or more of these, take a step back and assess how these experiences were in terms of the following:

1. How ETDBW (Easy to do business with), was this organization, or process? What best reflects the impression the vendor left? Ask yourself the following:

• Do they care about your business?
• Would they rather maximize profit on one transaction, or have you become a loyal customer for a lifetime?
• Does your time matter to them?
• How would you rate the experience overall?

2. Aside from the efficiency and effectiveness aspect of the transaction, did the transaction have any emotional connection that left you with a memory that was more positive, neutral or negative in nature? Many of the readers of this likely saw the video from a recent United flight when a ticketed passenger was removed against his will, simply because the plane was over-booked, and members of the United crew had no room to board.  Based on the reaction by United’s CEO, that was not the intended emotional connection the organization was hoping to achieve. And although this example can be seen as an outlier, both in terms of how ridiculous the situation, as well as how vastly the customer’s “experience” was shared on social media, consider the financial effects alone. Fortune reports that United Airlines’ stock has dropped $1.4 Billion since this controversy took place!

In each of these examples, the business or higher education institution on the other end of the transaction would accurately tell you that they are in a very competitive industry.  Yet, at the risk of generalizing, each of these examples is, what we in consulting refer to as “opportunity-rich” with respect to how they often fail to create a memorable, meaningful and intentional moment that matters to the customer. Or, in United’s example, just the opposite.

Become a CX Jedi warrior to develop awareness skills that you can apply in your organization.

Your Legit Unfair Advantage

When we consult with our clients or lead CX training workshops on the topic of developing an improved Customer Experience, we emphasize the notion of creating, in very tangible terms, the organization’s unfair advantage (UA). Yeah, it sounds a little like defining your own super power.  In fact, it is a LOT like creating your organizational super power.

What do you want to be KNOWN for?  What will you be famous for?

We look at it this way – your UA is a function of your organization’s: 

Quality x Originality/Uniqueness x Service x Convenience/Comfort/Location x Price

There is a lot to unpack in this formula and you and your colleagues could easily spend a few focused work sessions on this topic.  Don’t expect to nail it on the first time.   But if you can truly understand, from your customer’s perspective, what are the “moments that matter” and define your unfair advantage that provides a unique and memorable CX, you are on your way.

Yes, it’s hard, but Worth it!

In short, a positively memorable CX matters! Why? It’s certainly a logical leap to think that a customer who has an excellent experience, remembers it.  Because of one positive experience, they can tell others about it; sometimes even becoming mini marketers for that product or service.  Further, those that are loyal, having had a positive experience are retained, becoming much more likely to buy a product or service over and over.

Consider the following:  Studies[1] by Bain & Company, along with Earl Sasser of the Harvard Business School, have shown that even a 5 percent increase in customer retention can lead to an increase in profits of between 25 and 95 percent.

There are several reasons why this small increase in retention can have such a substantial impact on profits:

1. Customers are likely to spend more with companies they’ve already done business with. Particularly with small businesses that don’t have a lot of brand recognition, a customer’s first purchase or two can be considered somewhat of a risk. So they are likely to keep the cost relatively small, and then increase spending as the relationship grows.

2. Repeat customers are more likely to refer others. Bain & Company’s research showed that after just one purchase from an online apparel retailer, an average shopper was likely to refer three other people to the site. But a customer that made ten purchases from an online apparel retailer was likely to refer seven different people to the site.

So what?

Creating a positively memorable experience is HARD!  Especially for an organization that has any degree of complexity around the following:

• The types of products/services your customers want;
• How easy or hard, fast or slow, manual or automated, simple or cumbersome it is for you to quote/price the right products/services;
• How easy or hard, fast or slow, manual or automated, simple or cumbersome it is for them to order it, receive it, process the invoice, and actually pay for it.
• What about the delivery, set up/configuration, training, etc., how seamless are these processes?
• Do you have numerous people involved, sometimes with “less than ideal” coordination when you think about those involved from a contracting, pricing, order processing/execution, set up, training, implementation touchpoints?

In closing, I urge you to start this journey. Now. Waiting only lets your competition gain ground on you.  Follow the three steps you just learned:

1. Hone your CX awareness skills – these will pay off for you as you can be the CX Jedi that design’s the amazing and enhanced customer experience for your organization.

2. Use CX to create a real, legit unfair advantage for your organization – consider how your organization can effectively complete largely, if not solely, on the basis of the experience.

3. Lastly, expect the journey to be difficult and prepare to persevere – consider TSI’s Change Readiness Survey as a tool to assess your organization’s readiness to change.

As you know, TSI is always happy to discuss your situation, should you need any assistance enhancing your Customer Experience.  Regardless, please give us feedback; we love hearing from you! Contact us via our website, or reach out via social media. Be sure to let us know if you’re interested in attending our next CX event (planned for September 20, 2017) at TechNexus in Chicago!

[1] https://smallbiztrends.com, 2014

The post Are You REALLY Enhancing Your Customer Experience (CX) To Create an Unfair Advantage For You? Or For Your Competition? appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

The post TSI Service Offering Announcement & Customer Experience (CX) Training Updates appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Improving your customer’s experience is one of the best improvements you can make this year.  You’ve probably read some of the recent research (see below).

We’ve been generating our own buzz lately around our CX Training Workshop that we’ve made some of our own improvements to.

TSI will be leading a full-day Customer Experience (CX) training workshop on February 15, 2017.

You will leave this work session:

If you are in an industry where the experience that a customer has when they receive a quote or proposal, make an order, receive that order, or pay for the order occasionally requires “customer service”, this workshop is for you.

We have reduced our price from $525 per ticket to $375. This is now our standard ticket price, but you can also take advantage of a promotional discount (referenced below) if you have multiple people from your organization you’d like to attend.

Click here to sign up

Promotion: If you, or someone from your organization would like send 2 or more team members to our fantastic event, be sure to reach out to us at tsi@transforming.com, and we will give you a discount code in return!

We hope to see you there and we are certain you will become a CX zealot!

Related (and Updated) Customer Experience (CX) Articles 

Transforming in 2017: What’s on Your Horizon?

The post TSI’s Latest Updates – Customer Experience Updates and More! appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..