Superb Customer Experience = Long-term Business Growth
Companies will often spend large amounts of time, effort and money to understand their customers and do what they can to ensure that the customer experience their clients have is positive and has a projected impact on business growth. It is not a task that is to be completed as a once off, “it’s an ongoing journey that requires a prioritization on educating employees and management.”.
When businesses are looking to improve their customer experience, attention naturally veers toward sexy technology like machine learning and natural language processing. But elaborate tools will make little impact unless leadership and employees can learn to use new systems, embrace different ways of working and accept CX improvement as an ongoing journey. In other words, companies who want to lead the industry in CX will need to develop a culture of continuous learning.
Having deployed a new technology, most companies will train people on how to use it. And that’s important, but not enough. New tools will uncover data and analysis, which the business has to review and act on. High tech ushers in a cycle of insight, planning and action that never stops.
A successful CX strategy must include people who can embrace change, innovate, experiment and collaborate while advancing their own abilities. When learning and growth take center stage every day, the business can quickly bring CX improvements to market, react to evolving consumer needs and smoothly handle challenges no one saw coming.
In addition, opportunities for career development increase employee engagement and reduce turnover. People with longer tenure have greater expertise than new hires and can provide a higher level of customer service. And companies with just 50 percent more employee engagement lead their industries in customer engagement.
A learning culture also increases employee resiliency and improves innovation. When new technology is frustrating or customers’ problems are difficult, people can turn to colleagues for collaborative solutions or work with management to improve the situation.
For some companies, developing a positive attitude to change and innovation will take time and work. But a few relatively simple initial steps can make a big difference. These steps can include
- Lead by example – Leadership has to get the ball rolling by setting company-wide objectives for learning initiatives.
- Create individual learning paths – Shift from one-size-fits-all training to individual coaching and mentoring.
- Recast working as learning – Give people assignments that help them expand knowledge and ability.
- Reward the process – Honor the lessons more than the outcome.
- Support collaboration – Give a team time to consult with each other, share concerns and solve problems together.
- Provide copious resources – Make learning resources available.