Building a successful and effective customer experience programme is not easy. It is, however, worth the effort as learning more about your customers allows you to better serve them and stay ahead of competitors. To increase the chances of a successful programme, we’ve outlined the 10 biggest mistakes to avoid.
1. Rushing it
Rushing into field can often mean vital aspects of the programme are overlooked. Take your time, especially at crucial stages such as customer journey mapping, questionnaire design and list-building, to ensure all bases are covered and you’re collecting all the information you need.
2. Losing focus and going overboard
While it can be tempting to cram as many questions as you can into the survey, it’s better to focus your efforts and leave it to a dedicated team and not let other departments keep adding additional bits onto it.
3. Assuming that satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy are the same
Different metrics measure different things and all have their specific uses. Be clear on what is being measured and how each sets out to meet the research objectives.
4. Letting stakeholders influence customers
While buy-in should be sought from everyone in the business to ensure a successful programme, it’s important to keep the survey execution as independent and objective as possible.
5. Making rash decisions
Decisions shouldn’t be made based solely on limited or anecdotal evidence. Make sure you know exactly what’s going on before any key decisions are made.
6. Comparing apples to oranges
Changes in the data may not always be because of customer experience improvements and declines. Biases such as culture, demographics, methodology and social desirability may also be responsible. Ensure any such biases are identified and accounted for.
7. Keeping it a secret
Customer experience should become embedded within the company and should form the basis of everything that is said, thought and done.
8. Ignoring the data
Any issues flagged up by the research should be dealt with promptly. ‘Closing the loop’ in this way applies equally to promoter management systems (rewarding stakeholders) as it does with detractor management systems (dealing with problems).
9. Thinking short term
CX programmes should be developed with a long-term focus. Continuous tracking is essential to measuring the impact of any actions that result from the findings.
10. Standing still
Make benchmarking a vital part of your programme in order to keep improving and beat the competition.