Shaun Belding, author of The Journey to WOW
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"Our executives aren't committed."
That's the biggest gripe I hear about customer experience, or CX. Companies are launching new initiatives, but executives aren't making CX a true priority.
Here are some statements I've heard from frustrated leaders:
"We just report our Net Promoter Score results, but don't do anything."
"All we've done is have endless committee meetings."
"My VP doesn't want to hear customer feedback."
"I don't think our CEO actually knows what CX means."
"We were in the process of implementing the CX vision, when marketing surprised us with a new one."
One factor is the confusion between customer experience and customer service.
Customer service teams are re-naming themselves the "customer experience" team, but customer experience is much broader than just service. (If you aren't sure about the difference, you can check out this handy explainer.)
There are other barriers to gaining executive buy-in.
CX expert Shaun Belding highlights a number of them in his book, The Journey to WOW: The Path to Outstanding Customer Experience and Loyalty. It's a story about a company embarking on a CX initiative and the difficulty the CEO faces when trying to get everyone on board.
The book is available on Amazon and I highly recommend it.
Belding and I recently had a conversation about getting the c-suite to buy-in to CX initiatives. He provided insightful responses to a wide range of questions:
Why is it difficult to get buy-in for CX initiatives?
Should there be someone in the c-suite with CX in the title?
What does the CEO need to do to get the rest of the team to buy-in?
How do you prevent CX from becoming just a "flavor of the month" program?
Why is it challenging for leaders to embrace a CX vision?
You'll gain a ton of practical ideas by watching the 21 minute interview.
You can learn more about Belding by visiting his website or following him on Twitter.
I encourage you to pick up a copy of Belding's book, The Journey to WOW, and learn how to get your own CX journey back on track!