Editor’s note: This is the final article in a three-part series that explores the primary pillars of new global CX standards that Bain & Company, the creator of the NPS score, released alongside Kantar and Qualtrics. You can read about the standards here, the first pillar here and the second pillar here.
Historically, CX teams have struggled to connect their work with its impact on the bottom line. The relationship between experience and revenue is better understood today, but it still falls on CX professionals to nurture that connection.
Leaders need to approach experience based on how it will affect both customers and the company, according to Paul Smith, senior director, MyCX at Bain & Company. He highlighted two key questions to ask when crafting strategies.
“One is, are you building things that they want, changing things that are problems or designing new experiences?” Smith told CX Dive. “But also, are you doing it in a way that adds value to your business?”
“Customer experience execution” is the third mandate in the Global Standards for Customer Experience, which Bain, Kantar and Qualtrics released in September. The final mandate of the standards examines how well leaders put all the elements of a CX strategy into action.
The 24 standards in the execution mandate are designed to help companies improve CX while supporting brand efforts, standing out from the competition and supporting the bottom line. It builds on the first two mandates, which look at where CX fits in the company culture and how companies handle their data management capabilities, respectively.
Culture and capability form a strong CX foundation, but execution is the culmination of those investments, according to Peter Aitken, senior director and head of customer strategy and insights at Kantar.
“You can have great capabilities, but if your journeys are not designed and delivered to enrich customers’ lives and make them more predisposed to choose the brand again, then you're not going to be commercially successful, and you're not going to grow,” Aitken told CX Dive.
Understand the who and what of targeting
A great customer experience looks different to different people. The execution mandate calls on leaders to understand the people they serve and offer what they want out of their relationship with the company.
“You can't do everything for every customer,” Smith said. “As much as everyone would probably like to, it's impossible, and therefore you have to make choices.”
Leaders can start by studying the customer journey for each of their key customer segments. From there, they can examine the touchpoints that are ripe for CX refinement, as well as how improving journeys will pay off for the company.
CX teams need to approach customer segments from multiple angles, according to Smith. Similar customers often share a common set of needs, but they can be very different in other important ways.
“We always encourage people to have, essentially, a multifaceted view,” Smith said. “I always think of a customer like a diamond. You hold it in your hand, turn it, look at it in one face, and it looks this way. You turn it again, you see a whole different view and a whole different set of reflections. That's the same with customers”
For instance, demographic information can be a great baseline, but it needs more data to properly guide CX strategies.
There are often common sets of behaviors that hold the same across similar age or geographic groups. However, just because two people share certain traits doesn’t mean they want the same, or even a similar, experience from a company.
CX teams can use demographics to help guide their research, but they still need to generate a 360-degree understanding of the customer, according to Smith.
“Demographics are important, but oftentimes they're quite misleading,” Smith said. “Don't rely on them. A 60- to 75-year-old male living in London could be Ozzy Osbourne, or it could be King Charles.”
Deliver on the differences
Today’s customers have an astounding variety of choices for whatever they need. Great CX execution helps companies win by standing out even if they offer the same basic goods or services as the competition.
The global CX standards call on teams to identify the key factors that drive customer value and use those as the differentiator for the brand, rather than offer up generically pleasant experiences.
“You've got to understand what they need and make sure that you're delivering on their needs,” Aiken said. “You're being meaningful to these customers, but also you're delivering on the most important things in a way that means that you stand out from the rest of the competition.”
Research from Kantar and University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School found "difference" is the No. 1 predictor of share price performance. The study found that a brand’s perceived difference makes consumers feel it’s “worth paying more for.”
However, brands can’t offer differentiated CX in a vacuum, according to Aitken. Leaders need to understand their customers’ demands, then use that information to come up with a plan to stand out from the competition in their minds.
“If you're able to do that, you're going to be able to meet more customer needs,” Aitken said. “You're going to be able to address a wider set of needs and situations. But you're also going to do that in a way that your competition isn't, and that's going to set you up in the greatest place of growth.”
Keep the bottom line top of mind
CX-powered differentiation can be a growth driver, but it falls on leaders to prioritize tangible results over metrics. The standards encourage CX teams to prioritize their investments based on how they will affect revenue, profit and loyalty.
Leaders should consider how their strategies will affect important factors like retention, according to Smith. Other departments may not be interested in how much customers love a new CX initiative — but if you prove that initiative is driving customer loyalty, it may grab everyone’s attention.
“Prioritize customer experiences based on the impact they will have on the business, not the impact they will have on the NPS score,” Smith said. “Really understand the metrics that any other business unit in the firm would look at, and use those ones.”
In the past, it was often difficult to connect experience improvements with tangible business outcomes. However, modern data science techniques can help CX teams draw a line between their efforts and financial benefits for the entire company.
The standards call on CX teams to connect with other units from across the business, and the marketing department is no exception. A combination of experience and marketing is a powerful long-term loyalty driver that can help businesses overcome their challenges or capitalize on growth opportunities, according to Aitken.
Both teams stand to benefit if they work together to determine when it’s time for CX or marketing to take the lead.
“Where do we focus our attention?” Aiken said. “Do we focus on a TV advertising campaign, or do we focus on improving the app or the contact center? If you start thinking of these things as the same, you can see them as equivalent drivers of that long-term predisposition for people to choose you again in the future.”
