In our ongoing CXBuzz interview series, we’ve been asking leading customer experience (CX) experts to name the most common misunderstandings that they’ve come across when dealing with CX. Most of these professionals work in CX planning or marketing roles, so it’s easy to see why they’ve got the know-how to advise people when it comes to CX.
“As I see it, the main misconception regarding CX is to treat it as an opportunistic tactical add-on instead of as a strategical all-encompassing mindset,” said Jorge Gonzalez Lopez, the CX, Innovation & Research Principal at Think&Sell in his recent CXBuzz interview. “Everything a brand does impacts the perception people have over it.”
CX has taken on a new meaning in the digital age with more touchpoints and online interaction than ever making good CX necessary for everyone, not just front-desk workers. Lucas Nascimento, CX Planning Specialist at Gympass, reinforced this when he told us: “Usually, people think that CX is only related to sales or customer support, but nowadays, our agents are basically the main contact with the end-user.”
With the ultimate aim of CX being to improve your business’ revenue and image, it’s no surprise that some people get the core idea wrong. Adam Ince, CX at iFit and Co-Founder of Summit CX said: “I’ve seen many examples where the CX champion’s goal is to earn the reputation of the best service company in their space when in reality, financial ties and business impact of the program are poorly scoped or immature.” You definitely need to be aware of your image, but optimizing CX for the customer should always be your first aim.
With that in mind, how do you begin this approach? Carolina Agueda, the CX Manager of Vivo Brazil, shared the insight that “Companies need to understand that customers demonstrate how they would like to be served. A lot of mistakes happen when we don’t look at the complete customer journey and a business direction is put in place without first prototyping and listening to the customer.”
Listening to your customers is the key to great CX, and it’s something that’s necessary in order for you to improve since what customers want and need is demographic and market specific. Sujith Jain, the CX India leader at IBM, reiterated this in his recent CXBuzz interview, stating: “One of the common basic and common mistakes people make is not understanding the user’s expectations.” Given IBM’s long history of creating machines for business use, you can be sure that they have listened to their customers and designed their products in order to best suit their needs — anything to not be outmatched by the rising tech companies of the modern age.
Now, creating good CX is a learning process that will vary wildly depending on the sector you’re in and the customer base you have, but one thing that remains constant is that it’s an ongoing process. Sujith Jain reminded us that “CX is not an end state, it’s a behavior that changes frequently, and we need to adapt to those changes.”
Meanwhile, Nicholas Casana, Head of Marketing at Nembol, commented: “Sometimes, all you need is to keep it real, as weekly markets do in small towns. What really makes the difference is moving the focus from the monetary transaction to the feelings that get involved.”
Customer expectations and wishes evolve over time, and while the idea that they are never satisfied is incorrect there’s almost always something you can be doing to improve your CX.
