Fortunately for all involved, an accident was avoided but it got me to thinking – why do people seem to lose a bit of their humanity while driving?  It’s like the act of getting in the car causes some people to lose their consideration of others and it’s all for one – period.  Their schedule is most important, their time, their focus, their needs, etc…  all primary.  And yet, these are people we know, once they are out of the car.  What makes some of us act that way?

Afterwards, I started thinking about how the same thing can happen at work.  We get so caught up in what we are doing (day-to-day work, goals achievement, incentivized behavior, etc…) that we can sometimes lose our sense of the customer and the reason we are doing the job we do.  Being motivated at work, finding the value in what we do, that’s the type of thing that makes me want to go to work each day. 

How often do you find yourself “getting in the car” when you get to work?  Have you seen this same type of behavior where you work?  How do you make sure that doesn’t happen where you work?

Expectations (missed and misunderstood), communication and lack of sleep created a rough go of things.  We figured out what the problem was and fixed it, no worries there, but it reminded me about how critical it is to understand expectations well and thoroughly at the outset of a project.  All the key stakeholders need to have 1:1 interviews by the project leader.  It’s time consuming but critical.  Understanding what they need and want out of the project and what they think the output will be like are so important.  Getting a sense for their level of engagement and support will come out of these interviews as well.

Often we are eager to “get down to work” but this is a big part of the project work as well and if left undone, I think it can cause the whole project to fail or at the least cause it to miss the mark of true success.  What do you think?  Do you encounter this in your work (or personal life) as well?

One – it’s a pleasure to see how the people at the park (the heart of the Disney customer experience) respond when they see someone with the Happy Birthday button.  They could simply wish you a Happy Birthday but they take care to use your name as well.  It’s a delight, just as they intend.  And I equally appreciate that this is not an easy thing for them to do, day after day.

Two – I came out of a restroom in the park and found a little bird that seemed to be having a problem.  It was huddled against the wall and kept stretching its wings.  I kept watching the bird for a couple of minutes, trying to decide if it was okay.  Close by were two cast members who noticed my concern about the bird.  They assured me that they were there to watch over the bird until the staff vet got there to check the bird out.  That was impressive, even for Disney.  Caring for the birds that also enjoy the park is special and as an animal lover, I appreciate that even more.

Three – it’s construction time at Disney.  Main Street is getting some love, the under the sea stuff is going up, the new entrance to California Adventure is under way and Tron is under development, to name a few.  But even during all this construction, Disney takes care to ensure that you are looking at something interesting.

That is attention to detail along the entire customer journey.  Fascinating.  That dedication and focus is what makes them great at what they do.  I want the same thing for my program.  How about you?  What great customer experience’s do you want to share?

One of the things I’m obsessing about lately is what comes next.  I love dreaming big, gaining traction, getting engagement and building something great with others.  It’s part of my passion and the thing that gets me going each day. 

Here I am – I have a great team and we are rounding out the foundation laying phase for our Customer Insights program.  Phase two is coming and the design is starting to take shape.  I’m at the interviewing stakeholders stage once again and ready to geek out on ideas and concepts so we can shape that into a next level roadmap.

So forgive me for my distraction, my dreamy eyed distance stare and my lack of posting.  I think that I’m going to share more of what’s going on in my head this year rather than what I have learned put into practice.  Some of it might be more about growing me than about customer experience specifics.  I hope you are along for the ride and I can learn about you too.

I have been working on something like this – what if the metrics are functionally grouped but instead are aligned along the customer journey from awareness to advocacy?  (For example, Awareness, Knowledge, Consideration, Buy, Satisfaction, Loyalty, Advocacy)

So awareness might contain your metrics on brand and social media and PR.  The buying phase would be where your sales metrics go (sales, win/loss, etc…)  Satisfaction might metrics related to customer service.  Loyalty could be retention, Net Promoter Score or repurchase intention measures.

I’m really interested in learning how you think dashboards can be more customer centric.  What examples can you share?  Where have you seen best in class ideas?

I see customer retention as a key metric and focus for a customer experience group.  I vote for leaving churn behind as a measure and developing a measure that helps focus efforts on improving the behavior we want – retention. 

I think it becomes a more interesting and actionable discussion, when you have a metric (or metrics) that focus on customer retention.  There are also different views of retention, for example –  

• # of accounts retained
• # of products/services within an account retained
• retained value

I don’t know but a “focus on reducing churn” sounds less customer focused than a “focus on increasing customer value”.  Some have said it is more about semantics (which could be right) but even so, semantics matter.  I’ve heard many versions of this phrase (Tom Peters to  Deming) but essentially you do get what you measure or at least that what’s people will focus on, so I think getting the focus on customer retention does matter, in the end.  What do you think?  And which one does your company measure?

Let’s start with Customer Satisfaction vs. Customer Loyalty (including NPS) – what are you going to use it for? 

• Customer satisfaction is all about us – the company/product/service/employees – how did we do? 
• Customer loyalty is all about your customers and their behavior – what stories will they tell about you?  What will they say when someone asks them what they think about a company/product/service?

Picking one or the other (or using both) starts with knowing how you will use the data once you get it. 

• Customer satisfaction – great for repeatable events (like customer support or field service) that need a customer based metric on the scorecard and to drive repeatable excellence in the customer experience. 
• Customer loyalty – great for determining what stories customer’s are telling about you.  Good at showing (or even predicting) customer lifetime value.  Excellent source of customer feedback for product or brand improvement suggestions.

Once you’ve decided how you want customer feedback to apply to your business, it becomes easier to answer questions like “how often do I ask?” and “what method do I use to get the customer’s feedback?” or even “at what level do I ask the question (brand/product/service)?”  **We’ll get to these questions in my next post in this series.**

I’m big on actionable information.  I like to know what business questions customer feedback will answer or what business problems customer feedback will resolve.  It helps me find the right focus for applying customer metrics.  My program team is service oriented – we are here to help our business partners across the company and improve the customer experience at the same time.  This is important because it is feedback from the customers and my business partners that help fuel how I design a program.

These are my thoughts.  What do you think?  Share your experience with me.

Here are the areas we will cover together in the next couple of weeks:

• Strategy:
  • Appetite for risk
  • Customer focus
  • Embracing innovation
• People:
  • Executive buy-in
  • Employee engagement
  • Company culture
• Metrics:
  • Satisfaction and loyalty
  • Customer retention
  • Customer lifetime value

I look forward to hearing what you think as we go through these topics.

What do you think?  Is Chief Customer Officer going to become a popular position?