This article contains an unedited excerpt from our new book, Leading the Customer-led Revolution, due out in May. We hope you enjoy it!
Customers Are On A Journey + You’re Only Part Of It
Customer experience (CX) seems to be the buzzword around town. Beyond the buzz + hype, it comes back to leaders + decision-makers considering one question…
What is it like to be a customer of your business or organisation?
Truly. We don’t want the marketing or sales answer, we want the reality, the truth. How does it feel to be your customer? Throughout my interactions with you, is it consistent + painless or is it frustrating + all over the place?
Check out an excerpt from our book, Leading the Customer-led Revolution, below, as we share our view on the customer experience movement, simplifying it to become an actionable, measurable + useful approach, setting you up to win in the customer-led revolution.
We Forget To Look Around
[Excerpt from Chapter 22 of our new book]
There’s a concept in Japanese culture called oyakudachi, which translates to ‘walking in the other’s shoes’ or ‘putting yourself in the other’s shoes’. This concept was our inspiration in the development of this capability of Customer Experience.
In business, it’s common to get so busy looking inwards, caught up in operations + sales figures + internal culture + dramas + meetings + internal politics + egos (need we go on?), that we can lose sight of what it’s like to be a customer of our business.
We forget. It’s completely normal. The thing is, when we forget as the leaders, our staff forget as the followers. It’s a little like when you’re riding a motorcycle or a pushbike – look where you’re headed + the bike will follow. Look down at the potholes + the cracks in the road (in business, the sales figures or the issues), + that’s where your team will look. It’s also the most dangerous approach, as not only do you lose sight of where you’re going, you tend to ride smack-bang into that pothole when you focus on it.
When we forget as the leaders, our staff forget as the followers.
Some of your senior team will be great at looking around – seeing the whole picture + working with other functions to achieve the organisation’s overall goals. Others will be inwardly focused, working as a silo on their own priorities + goals.
In our experience, even the latter can be turned around, once they realise the value of taking a wider view + the opportunities it can afford them.
Once You See It, You Can’t Unsee It
But when you stop + look around, at your surroundings, your team, your internal culture, your deliverables, your reputation, your customer experience – boy oh boy, does the world open up.
It is a liberating – albeit somewhat confronting – experience to step into your customer’s shoes + see your business as they do. But the beauty of doing it is this – once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
You may think it’s not worth your time to make an online purchase on your website, or walk through the gardens of your resort, or call your call centre with an issue or use one of your products. But it can be one of the most fruitful, rewarding, game-changing experiences you’ll ever do.
This article is an unedited excerpt from the upcoming book from authors Sueanne Carr + Peter Turner (aka the Dynamic Duo of Customer-led Transformation) titled, Leading the Customer-led Revolution, due out May 2023.
Written for courageous leaders who are in charge of or charged with making their organisation truly customer-led, it provides a simple + powerful roadmap to making it happen.
Secure your copy early, signed by the authors, at our pre-purchase page here.
