Best Practices

A group of customer strategists recently considered various ways to keep an established customer experience program visible.  All of their programs are fairly mature and they share a common challenge of keeping employees engaged and motivated to take action.

Here are some of best practices identified to avoid these obstacles and keep the VoC initiative front and center:

1. Build Customer feedback into incentive compensation. This is a great motivator to keep employees engaged.  Tips: ensure all employees are impacted, incorporate customer feedback as a fairly small percentage of the incentive plan, and make sure the metric does in fact impact compensation.
    
2. Recognize employees. It’s important to recognize employees to let them know the work they do is valued.  For example, some companies post positive customer comments on intranets or internal blogs when employees are mentioned by name for providing outstanding customer service.  (Be aware of any internal restrictions, privacy issues, and the potential need to remove derogatory comments.)
    
3. Communicate progress. It is essential to communicate progress to keep employees engaged.  One way is to ensure data collection frequency provides visibility into progress on key indicators.  Another option is to define internal metrics that are customer oriented.  Providing regular updates will help to maintain focus on the customer experience.

These are just a few suggestions on ways your Customer Experience Program can stand out at your organization.  What other ideas do you have?

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President
 

Walker recently set out to answer the question, "What drives partner preference?" Or, asked a different way, "Why do partners recommend one product or brand over others?" 

As we analyzed data from more than 20,000 partner surveys across multiple IT OEMs, one of the findings that emerged is partners have similar needs as customers.  

As we reviewed the drivers of partner preference and compared them to the drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty, we noticed some similarities:

• Partners and customers prefer OEMs that offer reliable products. This area, more than any other, including the financial incentives that OEMs provide to their channel, has the greatest impact on partner preference and is a common top driver of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Partners and customers want to work with companies that are easy to do business with. While this is a nebulous concept, partners and customers generally consider the people and the processes they interact with when evaluating a company as being easy to do business with.

As we sifted through all of the data, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if OEMs adapted their voice of customer (VoC) best practices to their partner relationships. Best practices such as soliciting partner input, creating partner-specific action plans for vulnerable relationships, and leveraging partner feedback to prioritize improvement initiatives. Would that help them grow market share? Would this help them solidify their customer retention strategies?

Based on the work that we've done, the answer is yes.

Add benchmark questions to your survey: Many companies have a couple of questions asking the customer to evaluate a benchmark company. This is an ideal approach for many because it focuses on the perceptions of your customers and allows you to compare what they think about you versus another company.  

Benchmark against yourself: Companies can answer the “good or bad” question by looking at key segments within their business. For this approach, identify the customer segments with high performance scores and use those as the benchmark. The benefit of this approach is the "best-in-class" score is most likely achievable with your existing products/services.

Look at scores over time: As a customer survey research program matures, it is natural to look at changes over time. This becomes a good source for perspective since it will highlight improvements and/or declines. In year one, you create the benchmark and then measure progress against it over time.  

Secondary Research: There are a variety of secondary research options. These secondary sources can be a good benchmark. However, they do have some draw-backs, which are: timing of the program, differences in the respondent profile (e.g., different geographies or customer roles), or different research designs (e.g., scales used or questions asked).

As you prepare to share results from your customer survey research, don't just share the score, add some perspective by using one of these four methods.

Last week marked the inaugural Members Insight Exchange meeting of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA): more than 150 professionals, including practitioners and providers, came together for two days to talk about customer experience best practices, trends, and the emergence of this area as a recognized and fulfilling profession.

In an atmosphere of open sharing and dialogue, it became clear that many companies are making great progress in bringing the voice of their customers into the design of better customer experience and ultimately supporting corporate growth.  It also became clear that even the leading companies have struggled or still are struggling with familiar challenges as they work to evolve their programs. 

In this post, I highlight six themes that I heard over the course of the two days… things to think about as each us builds or enhances our own customer strategies.

• Take the initiative to create a better organization
• Ask customers for their constructive feedback
• Listen objectively
• Be an advocate for change
• Measure and monitor progress
• Share best practices
• Reward success
• Learn from failure
• Be relentless

One of my mentors always said that you can learn a lot about a person’s character over the course of 18 holes of golf. Lately, I have learned a few other things from golf that translate into the business world.

A few weeks ago I found myself in Georgia at the Augusta National Golf Club watching a practice round before the Masters tournament. I have watched the Masters on television every year for as long as I can remember. On television, the course looks amazing. From the dogwoods and azaleas that are always blooming at the right time to the greenest and perfectly manicured fairways, Augusta appears to be perfect.

So as we parked our car and started walking towards the grounds, I started to wonder, “Are my expectations too high? Will I be disappointed because reality cannot possibility meet my expectations?” I was just about to get a big dose of what I am now calling the “Augusta Experience.”

Augusta National blew me away. Even with my sky high expectations, it simply blew me away. What I witnessed was perfection. And very customer focused. Here are a few things that contributed to my experience:

1.      An apparent lack of greed exists at this event. I bought one of the famous Pimiento Cheese sandwiches (had to do it, had to experience it!) for the whopping price tag of $1.50. They realize there is no need to gouge the patrons (there are no customers at Augusta, just patrons), because the experience is so great that patrons will keep coming back for more. More of the golf course, more souvenirs, more pimiento cheese sandwiches.

2.      The main product, the main attraction, is the golf course itself and the history that is part of its make-up. Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and many others have created history on this course. But in this case, the canvas might be more important than the paint and the artists. The course is hard to describe using any word other than…perfect. It is beautiful with strategically planted trees (for which each hole is named) and flowers. The grass (Bermuda, overseeded each fall with rye) is thicker and greener than any other course. There is no trash anywhere. Even leaves and pine cones that drop from trees are quickly scooped up by the grounds crew. It is a great product with a well-deserved reputation.

3.      The patrons form a community. Any given day of practice of the tournament there will be somewhere between 35,000 and 50,000 patrons on the course. Yet, if you place your chair in a spot you like and wander away for a while (even a long while, even the rest of the day), when you return, your chair will be there waiting for you. No exceptions. The patrons respect each other because they know they are all there to witness the best golfers in the world playing one of the best golf courses in the world.

4.      Augusta National is a patron-friendly experience. Yes, there are rules. Actually, there are many rules and they are enforced. But the little things that together make up the experience are all done to ensure that each patron walks away having had an incomparable day.

So here is the challenge that August National presents for the rest of us. Would your patrons, your customers, say their expectations of you are very high and you consistently blow them away? That is what I have started to call the Augusta Experience. It may be a lofty goal, but just think how loyal your patrons would be if you were to achieve it.

One of the best practices of effective internal and external communications is to reinforce the message.

If you watched Congressman Weiner's press conference yesterday, you would have seen an illustration of this approach.

Regardless of the question being asked, Congressman Weiner answered each question by reinforcing his primary message, which was to accept responsibility for his behavior and apologize to the people he hurt, primarily his wife and family.

• Their role
• Why it is important to follow-up with customers
• What you want them to share with customers
• What you don't want them to share with customers
• What you would like them to do after the follow-up

• How closely does this feedback align with your experience?
• Will these areas of focus have the greatest impact on your experience or are there others that would have a greater impact?
• While the company is looking at these areas for improvement, are there any additional suggestions that we can focus on to improve the value you receive?

As the nasty red blob heads your way, the national weather service already has a plan in place to communicate with you – and to reinforce the message about the impending storm.  Likewise, a communication plan should be a key element of your Customer Strategy.  An often overlooked step in communicating with customers, partners, and employees is to reinforce the message. This step is every bit as important as defining your audience, crafting the message, and choosing the right vehicle(s). 

It struck me as a powerful storm came through Indiana this past week - another in the increasing list of dangerous storms that have hit the U.S. recently. This particular storm was determined to be a “potentially dangerous situation” and had a history of tornados. Local weather forecasters did everything possible to get the word out and convey the need to take shelter.

The message was reinforced in many ways throughout the event. Television stations broadcasted the live radar. Radio stations reported on the situation across the state. Tornado sirens sounded in neighborhoods. Websites communicated the information online. And, news stations sent text and email alerts.  It was critical that people were aware and prepared. 

As a customer strategist, you need to do your due diligence to ensure your message is reinforced. Whatever you do, don’t just deliver your message and walk away. The message needs to be consistent and reinforced in order to really have an impact. Consider some of the following best practices:

-          Use multiple communication vehicles

-          Send follow-up messages

-          Provide status or progress reports

-          Ensure leadership actively supports the effort (when appropriate)

Positive reinforcement just might make the difference in taking action and achieving your goals – what are you waiting for? 

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President 

• Client interactions - Walker clients shared their journey and best practices for leveraging customer, partner, and employee insights to create world-class outcomes. We heard numerous stories about individuals who have used the customer or partner perspective to drive change within their organization and generate a return on the investment.
• Roundtable discussions - Walker clients and Walker associates facilitated roundtable discussions on the topics of 1) strengthening channel/partner relationships , 2) engaging account teams, 3) leveraging the customer perspective for a competitive advantage, and 4) increasing the value of customer comments through text analytics.
• Six working sessions  - Walker consultants facilitated discussions and activities related to each of the six essential elements for world-class listening (see diagram for the six elements). Each session included a description of world-class and steps for getting there.
• Social time - There were several opportunities to network and interact with all of the attendees and to enjoy the Palm Springs destination.

This is the fourth part of a multi-part series on the trends we are observing among the 1to1 Customer Champions with respect to their efforts to build a customer-focused culture.

In my last entry, I discussed how a company’s inclination to gather customer feedback interacts with its proclivity to act on that information to form how customers will view the company (in customer-orientation terms). The key constraining factor that any company will have in its efforts to act on customer feedback will be the orientation of employees. The 1to1 Customer Champions have a keen understanding of this, and it brings us to the fourth trend we have observed among this prestigious group:

Trend #4: Employees At All Levels Are Critical

This should not come as a surprise – we at Walker have been advocates of integrating customer and employee feedback for roughly twenty years. Over that timeframe, we have seen that the following best practices contribute to building a customer action framework that has long-term “stickiness:”

1)      You cannot communicate enough – I have never seen the results of an employee loyalty survey in which communication is not a driver of employee loyalty; several of the 1to1 winners clearly had a plan for how to frame the firm’s customer program, how to communicate its anticipated impact on both the company and its employees, and how to articulate what was expected from employees. However, this was not a one-time event – the best programs have an ongoing plan for employee communication, including not only status updates (similar to what are provided to customers), but also opportunities to publicly recognize and celebrate short-term wins and role model behavior.

2)      Do not assume that customer centricity comes naturally – The best companies are the ones that understand  most people have good intentions but may need help in converting intention to behavior. Many of the 1to1 Customer Champions talked about how they trained their employees to use the information to make customer relationships better. This includes providing tools and frameworks for taking action on the data.

This is a gap that we sometimes see with companies – they are willing to invest in designing, gathering and analyzing the feedback, but they fall short on training their employees on the use of the information.  As customer loyalty advocates, we are, to some extent, hardwired to think about how customer loyalty impacts customer behavior in an almost subconscious fashion. Not all employees share this intuition, which is not bad – they simply have a different focus. It is our job as customer advocates to help our fellow associates “connect the dots” between their day-to-day activities and the corresponding level of loyalty that customer exhibit.

One case comes to mind on this – our team worked with one of our clients to show the connection between software failure and customer sentiment. We are able to show that high levels of a specific type of product failure in one quarter was followed by lower overall customer sentiment in the next quarter. Making this connection not only helped the operational group understand how it impacts customer loyalty, but also provided a means to set performance targets in a manner that aligned with their day-to-day work.

3)      Make customer focus a part of everyone’s job, not just “one more thing to do” – I’ve written about this previously, but it warrants another mention – if we try to pile a customer-focus initiative on top of an employee’s existing work, the probability of failure is high. Here’s why – most employees are extraordinarily busy (particularly as firms have cut back on the number of employees in light of the recession); adding to an already heavy workload means that something will fall through the cracks.

A better approach is to audit workflows in each employee group and determine how the customer feedback can assist in the workflow (which is what we did in the software failure example cited in point #2 above). For example, leveraging customer feedback in the account planning process helps a sales associate achieve his/her key goal – to sell more.

4)      Linking customer feedback to compensation – Another theme is the notion of linking some portion of bonus compensation to customer feedback. This is not a step that should be entered into lightly - before implementing an incentive compensation plan, we advise clients to use the following questions as a litmus test on their proposed plan:

a.       Are the metrics we have selected valid? In other words, are we measuring what we really mean to measure? For a metric to be valid, it should have a clear connection between the metric and the firm’s financial success.

b.      Are the metrics we have select reliable and stable?  Reliable means that results are consistent – that is, they do not vary based simply on statistical whims. Stable means that the metric is not prone to wide fluctuations – this level of volatility is, by definition, difficult to predict and therefore will be less impactful in shaping behavior.

c.       Are the results achievable? Any incentive that is driven by an unrealistic or unreachable goal will lose impact and will be considered worthless by employees.

d.      Is our approach to gathering the customer feedback free of bias? This generally relates to the methods employed in sampling and gathering the feedback. How many times have you had a customer service interaction which culminates with a statement similar to this:

“…you may get a survey related to this experience; if there’s any reason you won’t give us a ‘5,’ please let me know.”

I had one experience in which an auto dealer, as a “convenience” to me, offered to pay me $25 if I would bring my survey to them – they claimed they wanted to make it easy for me to return my feedback. Do you think my skepticism was warranted?

The fear is, of course, that we will compromise the integrity of the metrics (i.e., their validity), which will result in artificially high scores that have no relevance to true customer sentiment. This not only will result in the payout of undeserved incentives, but it severely compromises our ability to use the customer feedback to predict future business performance – which is a serious problem.

Ultimately, we encourage clients to link customer feedback to incentives, but it has to make sense and be a part of an ironclad, defensible system of measurement.

Engaging and leveraging associates in the customer action process yields a more sustainable process, which in turn will reinforce the customer-focused nature of the firm’s culture. From a business perspective, this is the gold standard – building and maintaining a customer-focused culture will create a long-term sustainable competitive advantage that your competitors will not be able to easily replicate.

In my next blog, I will discuss some of the tools we can employ to help employees leverage the power of customer feedback in their ongoing efforts to take action in an efficient manner.

Mark A. Ratekin
Sr. Vice President, Consulting Services

Remember back to a few weeks ago, we were discussing the topic of incorporating operational data or any other information we keep on our customers with their survey data to help us get a fuller picture of the customer experience. This data can be very useful to include in analysis of the customer experience, but as mentioned we need to take the time to assess our confidence in the information (i.e., is it up-to-date, etc.).

Ideally all the data sources that we have will agree with each other, but practically that really does not always happen. The first thing we need to do is assess the level of agreement – where is there agreement? Where is there disagreement? Next, we need to decide what we are going to do when they don’t agree. For example, if a customer indicates their issue was not resolved, but our records indicate the case is closed – do we treat this respondent as one with a resolved or unresolved issue? What about the number of transfers or the reasons they called support, which data source do we treat as the ultimate authority? What do we do?

Well as with most things, it depends on what you want to do with the information and how it will be used. There are cases where the customer’s voice should override other data sources, but there are also times when it makes sense for other data sources to be the authority. Ultimately this comes down to the objective of the analysis, but a few examples are outlined below…

• Some things to consider:
  
  • What steps does a case have to go through to be resolved? Do any of these give indication on why there could be disagreement?
  • With the type of issues that we are being looked at, could an issue be resolved for a short time but then reoccur?
  • Typically, we see scores decline tremendously when issues are not resolved. Is analysis is looking at these groups separately, as the placement of these respondents will impact scores and findings.
     
• Possible Decision:
  • Since the customer’s experience is completely the survey with the mindset that their case is not resolved, then the customer’s voice should override our metrics and they should be considered as an unresolved case.
  • A follow-up could be triggered based on survey responses that would allow someone to contact the customer to see what issue they are dealing with. This would have a two-fold advantage in that it would help the customer resolve their issue, as well as showing them you are listening to what they are saying.
    
     

• Some things to consider:
  • Do the lists in the survey correspond with how you talk about issues internally? 
  • Is any organizational or operating structure trying to be mimicked? For example, are separate teams/departments to handle certain issues?
     
•  Possible Decision:
  • One of the goals of the survey is to provide actionable information to teams that are in charge of fixing the issues customers call about. In this case it is important to ensure the information can be aligned with the various teams. 

I’m sure there are multiple other situations or possible decisions that you can think of that would result in either the customer voice being the authority or operational data. While there will never be a cut and dry answer of always using one or the other, it is important to think through your objectives and use of the information to come to the best solution.

A VP of Marketing who has launched a strategic account management initiative in his company in the past year made the comment to me this week that his account teams were skeptical of the impact executive sponsors could have in their accounts. 

Even though I know we strategic account managers like to be in control of everything going on in our accounts, this surprised me a bit. All evidence I’ve seen shows the positive impact gained by having top-to-top relationships between your company and your account.

Some examples of the evidence:

-The Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA, a great resource in this topic area) says right on their web site: “Executive sponsorship is considered a critical success factor for any organized strategic accounts effort.” (http://www.strategicaccounts.org/public/knowledge/glossary.asp)

-Grover Smith of Cisco presented his company’s executive sponsorship program at the recent SAMA annual conference. He shared that they expanded their program from 15 executives covering 30 customers in 2006, to 125 executives covering 194 customers today – and they did so because they see a positive impact on revenue, customer satisfaction (which we all know leads to growth), and keeping Cisco focused on the customer’s top priorities.

-In some best practice gathering interviews recently completed with the highest performing strategic account managers at a Fortune 500 company, each one of the 6 high performers interviewed cited (without prompting) the influence of their executive sponsor on their overall success (high customer loyalty and high revenue growth) with the customer.  

So, it seems like a good idea, right? If you’re starting to think so, try these tips to ensure your executive sponsor is a growth contributor:

-Be sure to find the right executive that fits with your customer. Grover Smith of Cisco shared that their sponsors are selected via a six-step process with the last step being an expectation setting/match analysis meeting between the account team and the proposed sponsor.

-Keep your executive (and you and your entire team) focused on your customer’s priorities rather than your own.  

Remember, you all want the same thing – success for your customer (okay, so that will lead to your success too…nothing wrong with that). 



Sonya McAllister,
SVP/Principal

• Greater market turbulence (the speed at which customers and customer preferences are changing) increases the effect of customer orientation on business performance.
• Greater technological turbulence (the speed of technological change) decreases the effect of customer orientation on business performance.
• More competitive markets see a stronger effect of customer orientation on business performance.
• Stronger macroeconomic performance decreases the effect of customer orientation on business performance. When the economy is weak (i.e., a recession) is the best time to increase your customer orientation.
• Regional and cultural differences have an impact on the effect of customer orientation with "Western" cultures having a stronger effect of customer orientation and "Eastern" having a weaker effect.
• The size of the economy in your home market has impact on the effect of customer orientation with larger economies having a stronger effect of customer orientation on business performance.
• Finally, mature markets demonstrate a stronger effect of customer orientation on business performance.

1. Re-centering on customer centricity
2. A broader orientation for being customer-focused
3. Characteristics of a customer-focused company
4. The focus of customer-focused companies
5. The moderation of customer focus