How to launch your customer experience program

Set your goal

You’ll need a clear goal for your CX program, whether it’s fixing an existing customer problem, or becoming known as a company that’s easy to do business with. Issue a short and simple vision statement, and make sure everyone understands it.

It can be useful here to set a timeline too – you may want to start by addressing key problems in a particular channel (say, digital for example) and then roll it out to more channels, or you may want to start by simply understanding the customer experience and then move towards a more mature program in phase II where you’re actively addressing customer issues.

Your goals should be realistic and clear. If it’s the first time you’re putting a CX program in place, start small and roll it out gradually but if you already have a CX program, set out how and why you’re evolving it.

Get leadership buy-in

You’ll need the support of senior executives and stakeholders for your CX program to have maximum impact. The bottom line is top of the C-suite’s agenda, so you’ll need to prove the value of your CX program so they can see the financial benefits of investing in and supporting it cohesively through the tiers of management.

Engage your employees

A CX program is nothing without the employees who deliver it to your customers. It’s essential that they are sufficiently engaged with the program to deliver it successfully over the long term.

An employee engagement program can help energise your workforce and get them behind your goals.

It’s also essential to share insights from the CX program with your employees as you go so have a plan for how you’re going to keep them up to date and make sure you communicate that with them from the outset. Employees will appreciate the transparency and by regularly reporting back on progress, you help to galvanise them behind the program to help deliver on it too.

Decide what to measure

Do you want your CX program to measure customer satisfaction, loyalty, or something else? Overall relationships, the customer journey or individual interactions?

You’ll need to choose the right CX metrics to get you the feedback you’re looking for.

Choose a CX platform

Before you roll out your CX program, you’ll need systematic methods in place for gathering customer feedback.

Feedback can come in from multiple channels along the customer journey: it’s important to use a robust platform that consolidates and analyses all feedback, delivering insightful data.

Then there’s being able to take action on the data you’re collecting. So look for a platform that turns your data into actionable insights rather than simply providing raw data.

The capability and features in your customer experience platform should map back to your CX strategy – so try to draw up a list of ‘must haves’ before choosing a vendor to ensure you have the technology to realise your aims.

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