Three Takeaways from the 2019 CXPA Insight Exchange
By Sandra Mathis, CCXP
Customers have moved into a new age, and companies across virtually every industry recognize the value of moving with them. Leaders clearly understand the need to adopt customer experience (CX) strategies in order to be competitive, and they are facing tough challenges as they now evolve CX within their organizations.
At this year’s CXPA Insight Exchange, over four hundred CX executives came together to share how they are “Moving Mountains” throughout the industry. Below are three key takeaways about the current state of customer experience:
Driving Alignment and Value Requires Agile Thinking
Agile provides a framework that enables rapid iterations based on customer feedback, taking ideas to market faster than ever before. It also drives a broader cultural shift within an organization toward collaboration, communication, and continuous improvement. One of the biggest challenges in transformation can be making inroads throughout your organization, especially within silos. We often hear from clients that they want to know the bigger context behind CX initiatives, what it is exactly that they do to contribute to customer outcomes. One of the key benefits of an agile approach is the focus on vision. Every step of the way, it is critical to continuously develop and communicate your CX vision. As decisions are made across departments and teams, agile aligns people around the practical and aspirational reasons for focusing on CX.
Storytelling Still Beats Statistics
The industry continues to focus on storytelling, in a sense because we still are doing it wrong. Keynote speaker Scott Steen from the American Physiological Society delivered a compelling talk about why stories beat statistics every time. He shared that stories are 22 times more memorable than facts. Moreover, facts use more brainpower to understand, while stories can activate several sensory areas of your brain.
“In North America, the average attention span is 8 seconds according to a Microsoft study…don’t waste the 8 seconds on the extraneous information.” - Scott Steen from @APSPhysiology #IE2019
— Strong-Bridge Envision (@AskSBE) May 15, 2019
Facts and figures can help to reinforce a decision or beliefs already held. But a narrative can help ease the change. Stories are everywhere, so find a balance between the two when you’re looking for buy-in or empowering your employees.
Change Management Increases Effectiveness
Customer experience has far-reaching impacts for every industry and business, well beyond the touchpoints delivered for an end customer. The single biggest issue facing CX is the failure to work together across large, complex organizations. It’s important to remember that CX is a human effort, including many people behind and in front of the channels you are transforming. We encourage our clients to have a holistic view of how business processes and customer experiences interact to mindfully shift in the way things work. From multiple workshops and talks at this year’s conference, it is clear that change management is a new core competency of CX leadership.
In order to drive successful transformation, many CX practitioners are looking at the crucial intersection of agility, storytelling, and change management. Focus on building a realistic roadmap that aligns with your organization’s CX maturity and pursue solid change management every step of the way. Just remember, moving mountains does not happen overnight.