6 Areas Of Thanksgiving For Customer Experience

To everyone who is celebrating the holiday: Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of the day, here are 6 things for which customer experience change agents should give thanks: 

1. Poor customer experience. Forrester’s customer experience index (CxPi) shows that most industries do a poor job with customer experience; so there’s a lot of opportunity to make a difference. (P.S. I’m currently working on the next CxPi.)
2. Engaged employees. Employees don’t wake up in the morning hoping to make things hard for customers; they’re more than willing to get on the customer experience bandwagon. As Walt Disney said: “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”
3. The customer’s voice. There’s nothing more powerful for gaining alignment inside a company than clear feedback from customers. That’s why it’s critical to create a strong Voice Of The Customer (VoC) Program.
4. Customer complaints. Every piece of negative feedback represents an opportunity for improvement. Don’t squander this critical asset.
5. Good customer service. Consumers really care about customer service; these interactions represent critical moments of truth. And those that care about customer service, tend to be much more loyal. So there’s a lot of upside in improving customer service.
6. Senior executive commitment. Customer experience transformation isn’t easy; it requires a multi-year journey. Sustaining the effort requires strong support from the executive team.

The bottom line: Have a great day… and be thankful!