Business success is no longer based solely on product or service traits but now requires the creation and delivery of holistic branded experiences. Customer Experience Management (CEM) is the name of the practice which places new demands on enterprises as they coordinate the delivery of experiences across functional silos. Yet, while many managers recognize the importance and potential impact of customer experience management, few are prepared to handle the demands CEM creates for their organizations.
For the most managers the vision for CEM is clear. First, understand what drives customers experiences, attitudes, behaviors and financial returns. Then, design holistic experiences for targeted customers and implement the experiences by changing internal processes, structures, and systems. Finally, track performance, take remedial action where necessary, respond to market and competitive dynamics, and create engaging new experiences to keep CEM invigorated. Despite being clear, the vision is realized in few organizations. Initial efforts at CEM emphasized huge database systems. Billions of dollars have been spent on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems as organizations have struggled to understand and connect with their customers. Many CEOs, CMOs and CIOs alike will tell you that they have not seen the return on these investments. More alarmingly, customers have not reported great improvements in their own experiences despite all of the resources deployed to their intended benefit.
Companies clearly need to do better in converting their CEM visions into reality. In fact, many of our clients ask us about best
practices that we find as we help organizations bring their customers to the center of their business strategy. During our more than twenty years in this field working with dozens of organizations implementing CEM, we have identified four critical steps to implementing customer experience management.
- Engagement: Align the senior executive team
- Insight: Understand the drivers of customer behavior
- Action: integrate the customer experience with business processes
- Embedment: Connect the entire organization into delivering the experience
These steps were empirically derived by looking at what successful clients do; the steps are at once powerful, practical, and possible
This article is posted at ipsos.com
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