How to Make 2022 The Year of the CX
It’s been an extremely challenging two years, a period of time filled with ups and downs, hopes and fears, conflicting information, disruption of everything, massive innovation, and more. We’ve never experienced anything like it in the past, and we hope we don’t again. Yet, along with all of the bad has come some surprisingly positive changes and outcomes, many of which we do not yet fully appreciate.
Enterprise executives have been thinking about how this turmoil affects their companies, their customers and their bottom line. Despite the uncertainty that currently surrounds us (and is going to continue), businesses can control the service experience they provide to their customers. DMG respectfully suggests that companies position 2022 as the year of the customer experience (CX) and that they make the investments and changes that will enable them to deliver on their promise of providing an enhanced and differentiated customer relationship.
An improved and consistently outstanding CX must be a top priority for enterprises. Customer service is now considered the primary differentiator between otherwise commoditized products and services. Delivering a great CX is essential for every business’s ongoing success. It’s no longer about what the company views as an outstanding CX. Companies that want to be great must look at how they are perceived through the eyes of their customers, which can be difficult to do, and it cannot be captured in a Net Promoter Score. Once executives understand what their customers expect of them, they can begin the process of making the required changes and adjustments throughout their organization.
Digital transformation is also important, as it provides a framework to make the CX better, but it’s only one piece of the very complicated relationship that customers have with companies. Digital transformation should make your processes better, faster and more efficient, but the only way to guarantee that you are automating and transforming the right systems and processes, supporting the most important channels, and delivering the self-service capabilities that matter, is to listen to your customers.
While viewing the relationship through the customer’s lens and digitally transforming the organization are two vital steps, enterprise leaders must acknowledge that it takes empowered and engaged employees to deliver on this goal. Enterprise service departments (including contact centers) are essential customer-facing organizations that need the right blend of people and technology to deliver a great service experience. Companies that want to thrive in today’s business world must create a positive, flexible and rewarding work environment that enables them to hire and retain great employees. In the midst of the “great resignation” and historically low unemployment in the US, the ability to deliver a coveted CX is tied to becoming an employer of choice.
How do organizations take into consideration everything that’s happened to them, their customers, employees, partners, supply chain and the world in general, and use it to become more successful? The answer is by redefining and redesigning every aspect of their business by taking into account current realities and customer preferences. As part of this transformation, they must put in place a mechanism to identify and tackle ongoing opportunities to further enhance the CX, as this is the only way to remain at the top of their game and forefront of their industry.
DMG is laying out a challenging, aggressive and necessary agenda for all companies that want to succeed in the era of CX. We will be addressing these themes throughout the year. Please reach out to us for assistance in building and implementing your CX strategy. We’re here for you.
Welcome to 2022. We wish you and your families a healthy, happy and successful new year!