Amplify Your Customer Experience Transformation

Let’s assume that your team has been steadfast in its commitment to the customer experience transformation process, from the first brainstorming and co-creation sessions to educating leadership and staff.

Now that you’ve ticked all the boxes, it’s time to make sure your transformational CX activities don’t lose traction or focus. After months of planning and design, you should have strong alignment with your team and a detailed roadmap for the future.

Keep your people top of mind

Pick any powerful movement and you’ll find a group of deeply committed people at its core. These people — the fearless early adopters and change agents — are your champions. They will be a crucial element of your customer experience transformation program and will help accelerate all relevant activities.

To maximize the skills and energy of your A-team, you need to identify them first.

Hint: they are the people at all levels of the organization who have been helping during your customer experience transformation. These are the folks who have been pitching in at events, sharing news about CX activities completed to date, making suggestions — you name it.

As you begin recruiting your dream team, talk to your leadership and mid-level managers. They may know other forward-thinking employees, positive role models, and team players with an optimistic mindset who would be great assets to your efforts.

Build a support system for your CX champions

After you gather your team, take the opportunity to formally structure their roles and offer additional training and guidance.

You might consider creating a “champions community” to enable these individuals to share ideas, collaborate, plan activities, and generate momentum around the CX transformation program.

Direct managers and department heads should ensure that your champions have the resources necessary to make a positive impact. It’s also important to recognize their commitment to the program and their willingness to take on this vital set of extra responsibilities.

Bottom line, if everyone is truly committed to your customer experience transformation, your organization will recognize the value of these CX champions — just be sure to set them up for success.

Use success stories to fuel your customer experience transformation

Once you’ve built a foundation with your CX champions, don’t forget about all the other employees in your organization.

We’ve helped clients set up a mechanism for employees to submit stories that exemplify the goals of the customer experience transformation program to ensure no one gets left behind.

In the first week alone, one client received over 200 stories of team members going the extra mile, living the company’s values, and wowing customers and colleagues alike. The client shared these stories across their organization to inspire their people.

Launching a “stories competition” of your own can help you create awareness, amplify the success and impact of your program, and motivate employees throughout the organization with great ideas.

When employees hear what their colleagues are doing and see that these efforts are being recognized, it gives permission and encouragement to get involved too. It’s an ideal way to drive collective action.

And the competition part? Why not select a few winning stories every week or month and reward the authors with a meaningful token of gratitude?

The results to your CX experience transformation program will be well worth it.

Communicate throughout the customer experience transformation

Communication is crucial during a transformation.

If your program is having the right impact, you’ll start to see evidence in your operational performance, employee engagement and retention, and customer satisfaction.

You’ll certainly see the impact on your company’s overall health.

Of course, it’s vital that you remember to communicate these inspiring developments and embrace opportunities to reinforce the value of your CX transformation activities.

Share the wins with everyone, and everyone wins.

Takeaways for accelerating organizational change

All stakeholders — even those looking on from the sidelines and wondering if ‘this too shall pass’ — need to feel confident that your organization is committed to change.

Remember these points as you seek to amplify your transformation program activities and impacts:

• Transformation is a marathon, with lots of little sprints along the way. Remember to pace yourself.
• It’s important to identify and activate a network of champions to help with program implementation and development throughout your organization. Be sure to give them the support they need along the way.
• Don’t forget the power of a success story. Leverage a “stories competition” to collect wins you can share with everyone.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate; then communicate some more!
• Be generous in your recognition of others — after all, teamwork makes the dream work!

Launching a customer experience transformation might seem like a daunting (and even overwhelming) process; but if you follow the steps laid out in this series — from defining the scope of CX within your business strategy to customer journey mapping, seeking input from your front-line teams and activating the new strategy with a bang — and partner with the right customer experience company, you can be sure that your CX transformation will be successful.

In the first blog in our customer experience consulting series, we explore how to get CX-centric change right.