
Developing and Executing a Customer Experience Strategy
Developing and executing a customer experience strategy requires considerable effort, but when done right, the payoff is significant, writes Brad Meehan.
The idea of a business focusing on its customers seems simple, yet developing an enterprise-level customer experience strategy can get complicated. Many companies struggle to understand what customer experience management truly means, which makes it challenging to get strategies off the ground.
Why Executives Struggle with CX
While executives publicly acknowledge the importance of customer experience, many hesitate to fund these initiatives. This is often because they don’t see a clear connection between the experience delivered and financial value creation. To overcome this, start by proving how customer experience impacts financial value, demonstrating that customers with a positive experience are more likely to stay loyal, accept upsell opportunities, or bring in more business.
By combining your own research and transactional data, you can quantify the value creation opportunity. This step is essential not only for securing ongoing leadership support but also for optimising your investments in CX. Without a clear understanding of how experience drives value, it’s hard to determine where to invest or when to reduce investment.
An Enterprise-Level Approach
An enterprise-level approach is critical to driving step-change improvements in CX. Tactical projects can certainly deliver value, but they won’t bring about the fundamental changes necessary for long-term success.
Building Your CX Roadmap
To build an effective CX strategy, follow these steps:
- Define
Who is your customer? What are their needs? How do they interact with your business? What experience do you want to deliver, and how will this improve profitability? Many companies fail to deliver on their brand promise because they haven’t clearly articulated how it translates into the actual customer experience. - Develop
Develop a program to innovate and improve your CX across all touchpoints. Start by mapping the customer lifecycle using qualitative or quantitative techniques. The qualitative approach helps understand customer needs, journey, and ideal experience, while quantitative methods assess where your investment will deliver the best ROI. - Assess
Evaluate your organisation’s customer-centricity using a comprehensive audit. High-quality, brand-aligned experiences only happen when the entire organisation is truly customer-focused. - Deliver
Execution is where value is realised. Translate your strategy into a well-sequenced action plan with clear dependencies, target dates, and success metrics. Employees must understand their role in delivering the desired experience, even if they don’t interact directly with customers. - Measure
Create a customer experience dashboard to track key metrics that impact value-creating behaviour. Ensure your metrics provide actionable insights and assess the success of strategic initiatives. - Redefine
Customer needs and market conditions change, so regularly review and redefine your strategy. Stay aligned with customer expectations and business profitability.
Developing and executing a successful customer experience strategy is no easy task, but the rewards are undeniable when it’s done correctly. By following these steps—defining your customer journey, developing and assessing your CX initiatives, and measuring their impact—you can create a meaningful experience that drives financial value.
For more insights on Maximising ROI with Exceptional Customer Experiences, watch this video. If you’re ready to take your CX strategy to the next level, contact us today and let’s explore how we can help!