The Corporate Woman

In discussing a customer touchpoint mapping project recently, I was asked this question, “Have you formulated your ROI for this project yet?”  Well, no… at the beginning stages of this type of project (touchpoint mapping, customer expectations capture, gap analysis) you simply don’t know what your ROI is going to be, mostly because you have no idea what problems you’ll identify.  All of the ROI glory goes to the projects that come out of a customer touchpoint mapping project. 

I think this is the reason why so many companies don’t make the effort to do it.  Because it’s hard to quantify up front.  Because some people have that little voice sing-songing “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, never realizing that we might not think it is broken, but our customers might.

Having done these types of projects before, I know they can have tremendous positive impact (increase revenue, improve cusotmer loyalty, even attract more customers).  But the patience and willingness to invest (time, resources and money) for the currently unquantifiable gain, that’s hard to find.  What do you think holds companies back from doing these types of projects?

Tags: barriers to success, Customer Experience, projects, ROI, touchpoints

Customer experience is a growing specialty field.  It goes by many names and titles but the disciplines are quite similar.  As a member of this growing group of practitioners, I’m fascinated with the backgrounds where my colleagues come from.  Many are from market research backgrounds (since getting the customer feedback  is where you start a program) but mine is a different path.  I come from an improvement background (project management, Lean Six sigma, program development, etc).  I believe the heart of a customer experience program is identifying and driving customer fed improvements.

Measure – analyze – act – measure.

I’ve had the pleasure to work in this specialty for ten years now.  I continue to be fascinated and challenged.  I wonder where this career path will go.  I’ve heard some say that it doesn’t have “legs to grow with” as a career path or that it is limited in executive potential but I don’t agree.  I believe that the growth of social media highlights the potential need for even more people to participate in this discipline and more companies to adopt it.  Customers are demanding to be heard.  Customer experience professionals are here to listen and learn, using that customer voice to help companies grow and make customers happier at the same time.  What do you think?  Where is this field going?

Tags: Act, Analyze, best practices, Customer Experience, Customer Insights, customer satisfaction, Improvement, Measure

Few things will kill the development of a successful program designed for change than unengaged stakeholders.  For many, the desire to get things done quicklycauses the elements of communication and engagement to fall by the wayside.  If you have been in that situation, you know how easily you end up wondering at the end why your new or improved process isn’t going as well as planned. 

I have found that it saves a great deal of time and work if you spend the up front time engaging key stakeholders across the business.  This process is critical, yes, I said it, CRITICAL, to ensuring change is successfully enacted.  It helps on several levels, for example:

• You identify your internal supporters and detractors.  Listening to them helps you develop their WIFM and ensure you are able to overcome obstacles.
• The stakeholders feel a part of the change.  Their voice is heard and thoughtfully understood.
• The initial stakeholders identify other people you need to add to the list.

This is a process I teach my team and advocate for every new program or process.  When you have stakeholder interviews up front, you get great ideas to help you be even more successful and identify the obstacles to overcome.   Having this group on your communication list for ongoing updates also helps keep your improvement top of mind.  Do you engage your stakeholders at the beginning of every new project or program?

Tags: Program, Stakeholders, Success

The business planning cycle I have gotten used to seems to be one of good intentions but just slightly off.  I have had the good fortune to see this planning cycle work the same at more than one company.  I ask myself this (and you, of course) – is this cycle a necessity or can it be successfully improved upon?  Here’s the one I mean – it starts with budget time (where you hope you have a solid long range strategy to lean on).  It’s approximately mid-summer.  Now, for some it actually starts a bit sooner or a bit later but I picked a mean.  You haven’t solidified your plan for the next year yet but you have the framework, so you can put together the money.  Then year end hits (for those of you on the calendar fiscal year, which is quite a lot of you) and everyone is focused on that.  Come January, you hope to have a finalized budget and plan for the year.  That is always the goal.  It’s part of why you start the budget cycle early, right?  But how many of you make it to the goal line of early January?  Part of that is because you need to see how year end close went but there are often other factors that get in the way.  So you may not have a final plan and budget until February or even March.  It’s a crazy cycle – shampoo, rinse, repeat!  Every year this happens, everywhere I work or where my friends and colleagues work, it tends to happen.  Does it work better where you are?

Tags: Balance, Change, Leadership, Work

The importance of communication in leading a successful change effort cannot be overestimated.  I find myself pondering that element while participating in a major change initiative at work.  It is difficult, in our busy day-to-day world, to remember that others are not mind-readers - there is not instantaneous knowledge transfer.  Therefore, what you know is not necessarily known to others.  So how do you, as a leader, remember to communicate to the broader audience? How many of us build a formal communication element into our planning process that enables us to segregate people into communication audience categories and follow up diligently throughout the change?  Based on my experience this is a key element of employee dissatisfaction, when done poorly.  And what a shame, because so many initiatives might be more successful had effective communication happened in a timely manner.

Tags: Change, Communication, Leadership

http://www.catalystwomen.org/pressroom/pressdoublebind.shtml

This is a very interesting article.  When I first read it, quite a bit about the subject struck me as things I have experienced in my own career.  Is it true (as stated in the article) that women leaders are perceived by others (male and female) as “never just right”?  Are we truly often considered like the beds in the Three Bears story - ”too hard” or “too soft” but never “just right”?

What do you think?  Is this something that we experience today as women leaders but might be able to change in the future?  How would we change a perception like that?

Tags: Debate, Leadership