Forrester Research's recent Customer Experience Forum in NYC just ended..  I wasn't able to attend due to a recent deluge of travel and client obligations, so I was keenly interested in hearing the outputs of the forum, so I've been reviewing some notes and key takeaways from the Twitter hashtag #cxp11.

You might find the notes from Harley Manning's session on "The Rise Of The Chief Customer Officer" somewhat interesting.  Harley is the Vice President and Research Director at Forrester.  Here are the raw notes from the Forrester website:

• On average, chief customer officers (CCOs) have been in their jobs for two years or less time.
• Very few have backgrounds in customer experience. Instead, they have backgrounds as general managers, marketers, and sales leaders.
• CCOs are heavily concentrated in the business services, IT, and financial services industries, although you can find them in many other industries, as well.
• The majority of them sit on the executive management team at their firms, and they are highly likely to report to the chief executive officer (CEO) or the head of a line of business.
• They spend their time evangelizing customer experience, creating a shared understanding of customers, defining customer metrics, breaking down organizational barriers, building a customer-centric culture, and demonstrating a long term financial impact.

My first reaction?   HM!  I can't help but wonder how someone with no background in CX can tangibly, meaningfully and action-ably evangelize CX beyond the use of hype and buzzwords..... much less build a CX focused culture inside an organization. 

My next reaction?  Questioning.  Why didn't this presentation cover the hiring criteria the companies had for these positions? Boy, that would have been insightful!  I'd like to know how these companies define the criteria that qualify a candidate as a potentially strong CCO -- quantitatively and qualitatively!

My next reaction?  Perplexed.  Why aren't companies aren't appointing more CCO's who have a background managing the SERVICE END of customer management.  We can argue that sales is a front-line arena -- but there's no mention of CCO's coming out of SERVICE-CENTERED arms of business.   Wouldn't that be a natural approach, if service is truly critical to creating great experience.

My final thought?  Challenging.   Why we aren't appointing CCO's to positions who have an understanding of Customer Experience management --- or in this technical age, at least experience with Information and Interaction Design or even Human Factors?  Are they that hard to find?  Is this a failure in leadership's understanding of the critical nature of such skills?  Is it an inability to FIND people with these skills PLUS a mature understanding of business and industry? 

Filing this under "Things that make you go 'hmmm'." 


You can find Forrester's Key Takeaways here.

Tonight, I'll be hosting #IMCChat on Twitter with hosts Anna Barcelos and Beth Harte at 8pm ET on Twitter.  This week, we'll be talking about "next-generation" marketing... specifically, the topic will be: "Is Customer Experience Management the New Marketing?"

You can join us on Twitter by searching for the hashtag #imcchat.  You can also use Tweetchat or other tools to follow the hashtag and respond.

To foster some good discussion, one of the things I'd love everyone to check out is the chart I've been using with my clients to help describe the business shift we are seeing today.
Post-Millennial dynamics are driving change in all aspects of business today -- from product development to front line sales and Marketing.  In tonight's chat, I'd like to discuss how these shifts are changing marketing, and marketer's perspectives of their role in Customer Experience Management.

Also, for discussion purposes, we'll define customer Experience Management can be defined as follows:

Customer Experience Management (CXM or CEM) is the discipline, methodology and/or process used to comprehensively manage the exposure, interaction and transaction between people and brands -- over time, and across channels.  The goal of CEM is to measure and optimize experiences to minimize attrition and maximize satisfaction, loyalty and business outcomes.

Looking forward to perspectives and insights that will be provided tonight!  You can also follow me on Twitter @livepath. 

Two years ago at an industry event, an executive from a major airline told me frankly the company would  NEVER go live on a platform like Twitter. “It’s Pandora’s Box” the executive exclaimed as we sipped glasses of wine, "There's no way we'd be on Twitter."  I felt my eyes widen as I responded:

I understand your concerns, and here's the problem with this thinking: “Pandora’s Box” is already OPEN!  Conversations about your brand are happening, right now, without you on the social grid. You can stick your head in the sand like an ostrich, but will only be a matter of time before the audience will demand your response. Wouldn’t it be better to enter the discussion proactively? Will it take a crisis to drag you into the conversation?  Can’t you see that these tools, like the Internet – have the potential to strategically extend your business – specifically in the area of Customer Service?

While my thoughts admittedly made a dent in this executive’s conscience – they didn’t make a dent in the company’s approach. Sadly, within a year, United Airlines was dragged into the open - totally unprepared - as Dave Carroll’s song, “United Breaks Guitars” became an overnight, viral phenomenon.



Prior to the summer of 1999, few people knew who Dave Carroll was. United Airlines did, but they didn’t seem to care – even though he’d been working to gain resolution on a customer service issue with United for almost a year. Dave had a band with a small following. He didn’t have a Top Marketing Blog listed in Ad Age’s Power 150. He didn’t boast more than 5,000+ Twitter followers or a kick butt Facebook Fan Page. In short, by current standards, Dave Carroll wasn’t an “influencer.”

United didn’t flinch when he warned them that, if he could not get satisfactory response, he would write a series of songs about United’s poor service and post them on You Tube for open consumption, votes and ratings.  Perhaps United believe him. Perhaps they didn’t care because they were locked in the world of policy and procedure. Perhaps someone just decided that Dave Carroll didn’t really matter.

But boy, did he turn out to be influential.

It’s been a year and I’m resurrecting an old story by Internet standards.  However, I'm doing so because I think Dave’s story illustrates some points about “influence” that many of the pundits in social media don’t seem to actively consider; primarily the fact that, in the present economy – and with a totally unstable level of predictability -- almost anyone can become an influential force overnight. Dave Carroll was an ordinary guy with a simple recipe:

• A good story, artfully told
• A clear plight or frustration that resonated with others
• Access to / proficiency with You Tube and other social tools
• Creativity and personality
• Some good friends
• A little dumb luck

So if we know this, why don’t we treat people better?


Today, I leave you with this thought, but I’m following up with another “People Matter” post. Until then, consider Dave's lesser known "Video 3" from the United Trilogy. For those of you who suffer from short attention spans, my favorite part of this video occurs at (:50 – 2:10 minutes) where he makes some good points about customer service:



Companies:  How does your company treat people like they matter? How do you use market segment, CLV, influence measures to enhance the service or experience you provide?

Consumers: How do the brands you support make you feel valued and respected?  How much of this is "going beyond the call of duty" vs. "providing a base level of good service"?

All:  This "broke" Dave Carroll's career.  So, what do you think of his (relatively) new, non-musical, customer experience venture "The Right Side of Right?"   Check it out and weigh in!

I have this geeky habit of comparing CX ranking data across different analyst groups and publications to garner insight. Last year, I compared Forrester and Business Week's CX rankings against Forbes "Best Companies to Work for List" looking for threads of continuity.  It didn't produce a blog post but gave me great food for thought.

Today, I compared Business Week's top companies for customer experience in 2010 (released February 18th) with Forrester's Customer Service Experience Rankings, released on January 28th.

Of course, the methodologies and rigor used in both the studies are really different.  Business Week partnered with JD Power, to conduct analysis of 200 firms -- starting with an initial high level survey that yielded "over 1,000 responses."  It then used those survey responses to target companies and conduct more specific research using through JD Power's database and audience (an unspecified number of people - I hate that!). Companies are ranked by overall score -- and sorted a number of ways.  The Forrester Study covered 92 large companies and 4,600 people were surveyed.  Companies are ranked by a "Net Satisfaction Score"  (I like this method!) which should not be confused by Net Promoter score.

I loaded the top companies into a spreadsheet, and this is how they stacked against each other:


The results were interesting ... as USAA, Barnes and Noble, Marriott / The Ritz Carlton, Amazon and Southwest Airlines are the only companies shared between lists - but it's interesting that they are consistentlly ranked within 10 points of each other. Furthermore, all of these companies have consistently scored high in CX in past years.

However, Forrester's top leaders (defined as the top 80% net satisfaction score) did not include experience darlings like Apple (scoring only 79%) or American Express (scoring 74%).  There was also no mention of Starbucks or the other companies on Business Week's list.  I'm also unclear as to why Forrester masked banks, credit unions and insurance agents in their listings.  It'd be interesting to compare the companies reviewed alphabetically... but I have client work get to.  

So now that I've summarized -- here the links for you!

While I didn't love the lack of crisp description of the methodology Business Week used... but I loved the way they packaged the findings:

• The sortable ranking grid
• The methodology
• The  slide show (ooh ahh)  (Note each slideshow has an accompanying story on the company)

Forrester's full report is $499....However, here's a link to free preview data from Author Bruce Temkin  that includes some additional analysis as well as a list of those who belong in the naughty chair.

Enjoy!

Forrester's Bruce Temkin published a free-thinking piece called the Customer Experience Checklist last week.  Here's the graphic of the PDF of that checklist - to put my own suggestions in context.


Thanks Bruce, for giving us more good stuff to chew on!  I encourage all of you to visit his post and weigh in.

Right up front, I feel the following items are missing:

• The experience is designed to support users effectively and appropriately across online and offline channels.
• The experience is supported by a delivery plan that fully coordinates the collaboration of the business (customer service, marketing, product development, etc.) around customer needs.

I'm usually a big fan of checklists, unless they prove to be too high level to be useful -- or to detailed to be easily followed.  As this grows and morphs... the jury is still out for me on how helpful this will be -- and who it's targeted to.  Perhaps there should be the executive checklist and the manager's checklist. I don't know. (Still battling the flu so my head isn't exactly clear!)

If you skim through comments you won't find my suggestions offered but you will find a few others:

Linda Ireland added this: "There is a discipline across the company to use the ideal, or target experience as a guide for daily decision making."     (I get her point, and she's right but not sure many others will!)

Andew Harbourne-Thomas weighed in about splitting metrics to include specific focus on the project's financial impact or contribution to the company - and the importance of getting the CFO on board (I'm not sure that's realistic Andrew... but it's great food for thought - C-level engagement in CX is essential -- and not just from finance, but operations!)

Barry Dalton weighed in on simplifying the list...and a few others had their say... as well.  One user even posted a link to a Customer Centricity Audit to solicit feedback. I haven't checked that out yet. I hate audits that require my email address because it instantly makes me believe I'll be spammed.  Guess that's ONE flaw in that audit.

Again -- I'm not looking to scrape this post -- please go read it all here...I just didn't want to leave a gigantic comment.

What say you, my friends?  What would you put on YOUR Customer Experience Checklist?

As budgets shrink and headcounts freeze, there's greater pressure to do more with much less. In addition to managing traditional channels, marketers face the added challenge of learning to harness the power of new, low-cost social technologies - often with insufficient knowledge and resources.

It's not just the rapid pace of change and the evolution of new tools that impact the marketing cycle today that are daunting. There's a new language to learn and new communication dynamics exist. There's a need for more technical knowledge, channel expertise and core competencies not present in the current skill sets of the enterprise. There's not only a need for new talent, but a requirement that enables them to challenge the status quo, rock the boat, test and experiment that may threaten or intimidate co-workers. There's a need for increased cross-divisional and departmental collaboration -- juxtaposed with the reality that marketing is often either not empowered or respected enough to drive effective integrated, collaborative and coordinated delivery.

Today, it's more important than ever to work efficiently and effectively. Yet, for many, this seems to be an impossibility. This is not only because of increasing pressure and demand - but because in truth, marketing has fundamentally shifted. It demands new planning, skill sets and approaches to business that many people inside the enterprise do not yet understand. Breaking it down simply, it might look a little like this:

The unprecedented shifts of the last decade have left a host of traditional marketers and other executives very uncomfortable, and very afraid. Some companies are in denial. Other companies are stuck in a position of analysis paralysis -- unable to break out of the ice of inaction.

The truth is, denial, fear, and inaction are our worst enemies! They are dangerous to both individuals and the organizations they serve -- and they don't have to reign in your organization. There's a bright new future ahead - and while change is required - it's worth it. Breaking past the fear -- we find ourselves in a place of revitalization, with amazing new capabilities and stimulating new ways to learn, promote our products and services. We find ourselves closer to customers, and more able to understand their unique needs as well as market opportunities. To succeed, it's not necessary to become a new marketing guru overnight (P.S. overnight gurus are not gurus at all!). It's possible to take things one step at a time and retrench the organization in a way that creates some order in the chaos.  So let's get started.

Building Your Super Muscle:

• DISCOVER YOUR SUPER POWERS  - It's easy to get caught up in "Aspirational branding." That is, the promises, stories and campaigns marketing creates. However, this is focusing on the wrapper -- not the candy. The good stuff is what your company does better than anyone else - this may be delivering unique products or services, or your ability to reach a unique market. There must be something your brand delivers better than anyone else. Examine your competitors. Study the customer and develop a clearer understanding of the pros and pitfalls of the customer experience. Define how your product or service makes life better for the customer. Write down your strengths clearly and succinctly, and keep a separate list of issues that undermine the customer experience so that you can address problems as you move forward.
• EXPLORE SOME SUPER TOOLS -  Get on the learning track. Sign up for some courses, do some reading failures of others.  Get yourself and your team learning about the host of new technologies that are transforming businesses today. If you don't have the expertise in-house, hire a consultant with an established track record to help you. As you begin to experiment with new tools (not just Facebook, or Twitter) and channels, it's important not to think of the tools as "marketing tools." Think of them instead as valuable channels supporting the extension of sales, service, support on the web. Champion these ideas within executive ranks. Dispel myths about Social Media, and help executive leadership understand key shifts (see chart above) in marketing, and the opportunities present in the new economy. Use the more educated leadership to help garner internal support.
• ESTABLISH MISSION CONTROL - Create an environment for collaborative planning, research, analysis, testing and strategy. This may be a center of excellence or a cross-organizational task force focused on improving customer-focused delivery. Focus less on ownership and control and more on support and facilitation across the enterprise. It's okay to fail - but fail fast and recover. Showcase key learning and present opportunities. With the help of executive leadership, invite other divisions to participate in proactive planning, research, testing and execution. Establish credibility by keeping the ego in check.  Develop tutorials and communicate best practices in a manner that facilitates and encourages engagement. Share openly and provide value-added information (articles, information, etc.) that can benefit the entire organization within an accessible knowledge base. Publish knowledge and key learning in a proactive, timely manner (perhaps using a few Super Tools like Yammer or a password protected Wiki). Communicate upward, outward and downward, and celebrate success with hearty approbation.
• WIN (AND EARN) SUPPORTERS - Agencies and silos don't typically develop integrated customer experiences that drive long-term success. Long-term success requires winning the hearts and minds of divisions like Customer Service, Sales, Product Development, Operations, IT and other divisions to a new way of doing business. Hearts and minds are won best through servant leadership, consultative selling and listening - and Marketing can play a much more successful and influential role in rallying the organizations around the customer.  New marketing requires the breakdown of operational silos, which is threatening to many stakeholders. Start by engaging in open dialog. Listen first!  If they're already engaged in the use of new technologies, learn from what they are doing. If they're not already engaged, think of ways you can help, educate and facilitate. Discuss your learning, thoughts and plans in an open manner.  Demonstrate customer centric behavior.  Describe the potential and up-side of involvement in new, social channels.  Show and teach - rather than Stand and preach!  Repeat the call to "support and facilitate" and you will your organization through servant-leadership.
• NEUTRALIZE YOUR FOES - Getting past denial, fear and inaction - it's time to tackle the enemies of customer experience within your organization. Create a "wanted poster" of the biggest enemies to consistently positive customer experience within your organization. Work with the front-line, sales, IT, operations, product development and customer service to resolve these problems. While other teams resolve issues outside your marketing's purview -- create wins by extending service through new, cost-effective channels where it makes the most sense. Consider how you may user the Super Tools to create improvements in the experience that are remarkable.  Respond quickly and with grace, celebrate positive feedback from customers. Work cross-organizationally to create a more integrated, cohesive customer experience that creates wins across-the-board.

Marketers who follow these steps will develop powers they didn't know they could have. They will find new courage and strength and build greater influence within the organization. Most importantly, they will be properly focused:   working proactively to improve and champion the customer experience, which results in a more positive brand identity and stronger outcomes. They will also begin enter the new era of Marketing, which is less about marketing and more about relationships, starting within the organization and working toward the best interest of the customer and the business.

In the midst of client deadlines and work, a lot of us feel pressure to give more than we have --  provide more value than we might be currently capable of.  There's pressure to be everywhere at once,  friend everyone, attend every conference -- all while giving away lots of stuff for free. Because of my work schedule, and my family who needs me, I tend internalize a lot.  However, lately I've been walking away from meetings and interactions feeling a sense of unease. So, this is an attempt to process and purge some of those feelings and hopefully, to do something positive with them.

To put this in context, I started this blog in early 2005 to write down my thoughts on customer experience. My passion for CX stems from my love of people, combined with my roots in information architecture and design, as well as operations, CRM and business strategy.  This complements my natural interest in making make things better for people - inside and outside of the enterprise.

There's a lot of talk about customer experience today.  As I've said before, CX is an easy thing to become an evangelist for. However, delivering great experience isn't easy and the fact remains that very few companies do it well.  Even so, we continue to pile on more  -- do more...

This is relevant to the era of social media because the more channels and tools we use to communicate, the more difficult it is to create seamless, solid, positive customer experience.  Companies today become so enthralled with keeping up with the dizzying level of channel proliferation, they often lose sight of customer experience.  Facing a sort of "keeping up with the Joneses" pressure to engage actively on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, crowdsourcing sites, wikis and more -- they often proceed without proper planning or resourcing in place.
But before we all rush ahead ... getting caught up in the frenzy, it's important to think pragmatically about what we're really trying to accomplish   To keep level heads, we should start by asking ourselves one simple question:


In my opinion, if we are not making things better for employees, customers or prospects we are only adding to the noise.  If we're not applying these tools to make our business better and drive qualitative results -- we are also doing our companies a disservice.  Too many "social media experts" are pushing tools and "strategery" at the expense of common sense and solid thinking, contributing to perceptions about social media -- and ignoring the many best practices that have been established.

I was shocked recently, to hear Andy Sernovitz tell a group of  over 350 marketers that if they wanted to get started easily in social media they should do this:  "Go out and find the lowest paid person in your company who can type and put them on Twitter."  He later contradicted himself on that point, but the damage was done.  In my opinion, as stewards of knowledge and experience -- we can't afford to be talking out of both sides of our mouths!

So, to clarify what I believe to be some misconceptions about social media, here are what I believe to be:

1. If your base-level customer experience stinks, using social media tools probably won't help much.
   
2. Social media isn't free. It is cost-efficient when planned for and managed appropriately, and like any investment that comes with a price, what you will yield is proportionate to what you invest.
3. Web 2.0 and social media tools are merely a means to an end - what you do with the tools, and how you integrate them to improve the base business are what matters.
4. If you are not using conversational media to drive some specific and measurable objectives you are probably wasting your time
5. "Transparency" is an illusion. While conversational media increases visibility into your operations, you can maintain enough opacity to protect your sensitive underbelly.
6. "Authenticity" is a terribly abused word. There are plenty of authentically bad companies and products out there. Strive to be authentically good and constantly improving and you'll win.
7. "Influence" is relative term.  However, it generally belongs to people that consistently deliver positive, remarkable experiences -- across channels and over time.
8. "Trust" is fluid and hard to measure. Deliver on every promise, exhibit high level of ownership / stewardship, be a mensch and gaining trust won't be an issue.
9. If your senior leadership wants to relegate social media to an intern or agency -- resisting the notion that these tools may transform the enterprise, consider changing jobs.
10. If you are looking for help, beware of snake oil. Strategists who can't execute are as dangerous as "one-trick ponies who only know how to use a single tool.  Find someone who can develop a solid strategic plan, execute, help your organization prepare, educate and stand by to help, if needed.
    

Going back to my roots, focusing on creating a better company, products, services and ultimately -- a better experience for prospects, customers and even employees is where we should focus.  Doing this well requires rolled up sleeves, attention to detail, a love for people and an understanding of best practices across an array of disciplines.  Pushing past the hype, and fixing our eyes on becoming better, wiser, faster, stronger, more responsive, authentically good  -- and using new technologies to accomplish quantifiable goals, we can drive success -- even in a rough economy.

In the course of attending the SXSW conference, I had the pleasure of listening to the amazing Kathy Sierra speak. In her session, "Making Breakthroughs Happen" she asked the audience to consider our clients or customers and try to answer the question "If your customers were living a movie, what movie would that be?"

The question stimulated a lot of chatter. I was instantly stumped, as the ever saucy Valeria Maltoni quipped "I don't know WHAT movie - but it would be a scary one!" Hoover's Tim Walk decided on Glenngary Glenn Ross and highlighted the high pressure sales situations some of his clients are in. Before Lauren Vargas could speak (I'm sorry Lauren), I blurted out the movie title that had invaded my brain -- even though it made no sense at the time. As we explored it, we were intrigued by the association. The movie was Can't Buy me Love.

For those who haven't seen it, or don't recall, Can't Buy Me Love is a 1987 hit teen sensation starting Patrick Dempsey as Ronald Miller. Ronald is an awkward, lawn mowing nerd who is sick of being unpopular as he enters his Senior year. Capitalizing on a personal crisis, he successfully convinces the very pretty, popular, lead cheerleader Cyndi Mancini to be his boyfriend for one month, in exchange for $1000. They get off to an awkward start, but as Cyndi begins to work on Ronald, a friendship ensues. Ronald's popularity soars through his association with Cyndi and she truly begins to develop romantic feelings for him. However, new found popularity causes Ronald's head to swell, and he begins to behave badly.

Ronald soon realizes that chasing popularity isn't all it is cracked up to be -- especially as he loses girl he cares for. Toward the end of the film, Ronald has an awakening that speaks to his need for internal change: the need for authenticity, being true to himself, demonstrating character and care for others. This realization prompts a return to the basics for Ronald. In the final scene of the movie, the redeemed Ronald rides off into the sunset on his lawnmower...and Cyndi joins him, perching on the back.

Now, I hadn't seen this movie in eons - and I can't say it was ever in my list of top 80's movies - or even top-of-mind. However, I was a bit surprised by the parallels I noted between this movie and many of the companies I've been exposed to.

Like Ronald, many companies courting customer popularity go out and hire the best and most charismatic to help them in their plight: Expert agencies develop brand plans and multichannel, experiential campaigns filled with promise. Large consultancies support them in purchasing and leveraging the leading CRM and marketing automation tools. As they team with the experts, these companies begin to speak the language of customer centricity. They begin to make adjustments and changes. They also learn some new dance moves, network in new channels (such as social media) and apply spit, shine and polish that can make them more attractive and popular.

This is certainly a start, start, but the action can't stop there - and it often does. For the story to end happily, there must be a moment-of truth that leads to truly redemptive, internal change. True customer is hard work that demands some tough introspection and internal change!

Unfortunately, when it comes to addressing the internal operational, cultural and organizational issues that negatively impact customer centricity, many companies haven't yet turned a corner. When it comes to creating truly seamless, integrated experience, there's often no plan in place, and no executive mandates or alignment to ensure the total experience is being addressed. As a result, the customer experience suffers, relationships are impacted and brand equity suffers.

This isn't just one consultant's opinion. Consider this data extrapolated from Forrester Research, Strativity and Destination CRM, reflecting input from senior executives at Fortune 100/500 firms:

• 83% of companies have no executive tasked with improving customer experience across channels
• 74% have No single set of customer performance scores applied across the organization
• 73% claim that customer experience is not well defined & communicated
• 71% do not meet with customers regularly (DOH!)
• 76% say employees are not well-versed in how to delight customers.
• 71% believe employees do not have tools and authority necessary to solve customer problems
• Less than 44 % believe their companies deserve customer loyalty
• About 42% say their product/service is not worth the price they charge

What's ironic about this data is that, between 82-85% of the same executives agree that Customer Experience is the next competitive battleground!



Taking a look at how companies stack up, perhaps this inconsistency is the reason MOST organizations fall horribly short of customer experience excellence. The fact remains that the problems present in our companies related to culture, operations, strategic planning and programmatic execution are almost always reflected at some level in the the customer experiences we offer.

The message should be clear for us all: We can't buy customer love. It comes only from offering authentically great experiences. This requires really hard work - unglamorous work - but this is also the work that pays off the most in the long-run. Customer centricity is driven out of organizations that truly understand and engage with their audience, deliver operational excellence, support an open, responsive culture and drive customer-centric collaboration from the top-down. In short, they are agile, transparent, creative, responsive and engaged, and they deliver consistently solid, positive experience.

Perhaps it's time for your company to have a Ronald Miller experience. It wasn't an easy journey - and it involved a fair amount of humiliation. Realigning an organization from a silo-driven, product-focused culture to a truly customer-focused alignment isn't for the faint of heart. It requires solid, cross-organizational top-down leadership, dedication to knocking down organizational and collaborative barriers, appropriate strategic planning, a transformation in the culture and a better orchestrated and collaborative enterprise. However, at the end of the story, it's the heroes that take on this work that will ride off into the sunset with the customer.

Let's face it - we're all sweating a little: Product and service commoditization are forcing strong price competition - squeezing margins and motivating us to tigthen our belts. In the midst of "the squeeze", it's harder than ever before to deliver increased value to customers and build differentiating customer experiences. We often have fewer resources to draw upon, and we want to be wise about how we invest them.

Even so, in times like this, most successful business leaders understand the importance of investing back into the business. The most successful customer experience leaders follow this principle, as well: investing in ways to innovate and improve customer experience. It's important to note, however, that the most successful leaders in customer experience never favor "flash over substance" approaches to experience innovation. Experience Leaders understand the critical need to deliver innovation from a foundation of "experience fundamentals," outlined below:

#1. Deliver the Basics.

If innovative experience is the hook, the line is delivering what we know all customers want:

- A pleasing, safe, functional environment
- Knowledgeable, professional help
- Fast, reliable service
- Selection and availability
- Reasonable, competitive pricing

The sinker balances the delivery of these elements effectively – in and across a variety of media and channels. Without the basics, investment in innovation is the equivilant of putting lipstick on a pig: You're not fooling anyone.

#2. Diversify with Discipline

Experience Leaders consistently innovate within a core area of expertise, rather than trying to “be all things to all people.”

- Starbucks brings us coffee culture
- Amazon sets the standard for online retail
- REI delivers recreation and adventure
- Best Buy offers electronics and entertainment
- Great Harvest warms us with local baked goods
- Progressive innovates insurance
- Coca-Cola brings us liquid refreshment
- Disney entertains us with innovative story telling

It takes discipline, focus and dedication deliver one thing better than anyone else. As a litmus test, try to articulate what you deliver - in three words or less.

#3. Wear the Customer's Shoes

Experience leaders are deeply interested and thoroughly immersed in evaluating and improving customer experience. They dedicate time, attention and resources to:

Regularly test purchasing and interaction within every channel:
--> Personal engagement is key - click, call and walk-in on a regular basis!
--> Utilize third-parties: Secret shoppers, experience architects, usability experts
--> Run test cases that utilize profiling and variables to uncover gaps and trends
--> Work across functional groups to streamline and perfect experience

Understand and address customer needs and desires
--> Talk to customers and non-customers
--> Understand market, demographic, behavioral, contextual, intent & timing dynamics
--> Look for hidden opportunities: Customers don't always know what they want
--> Review incoming data and customer feedback to identify issues, trends, causes and effects

Thoroughly test and review experiences offered by competitors
--> Always wearing the customer's shoes
--> Acknowledge the elements what work - and better them
--> Pinpoint weaknesses - and exploit them

#4. Create and Engage in Ritual

Experience Leaders understand that predictability, order and routine contribute to a sense of security for customers. They work to incorporate “positive predictability” into experiences, ensuring customers can reliably:

- Access the company (McDonald’s; 1-800-FLOWERS)
- Locate products (Nordstrom; Netflix)
- Engage in transaction (Starbucks; Amazon)
- Find help (Radio Shack; Target)
- Predict selection / price (7-11; Staples)
- Anticipate timing / delivery (Fedex; Dominoes)
- Anticipate quality (Marriott; Papa John's)

Brands that successfully mesh their experiences with behavioral customer patterns can successfully make their brands a part of the customer ritual. They can even introduce new ritual: Picture Starbucks; McDonald's; 7-11...

#5. Authentically Humanize the Brand

Today’s culture is short on trust and shy on human touch. Experience leaders work to incorporate personal relationship and reinforce trust by ensuring all agents of customer experience:

- Believe in / use / show passion for products and services
- Exhibit personal dedication to customer satisfaction
- Honor commitments to reliability, quality and service
- Demonstrate ownership and personal accountability
- Establish positive customer relationships

Reinforcing this with effective marketing and branding results in the creation of legitimately humanized brands that connect with their target markets in more memorable and personable ways: Think Apple; Nike; You?

Parting Shots...

Deliver the foundational elements well, and the rest will be icing on your very appealing cake: You'll develop a new understanding, appreciation and passion for customers; attract better employees because of your authentic focus on the things people most care about; and your influx of innovative ideas will become more relevant, actionable and customer-centric.

Experience Leaders never forget that beyond bells and whistles, it's the cumulative experience that people remember. Making sure innovation is delivered from a foundation of excellence will help ensure innovatiion dollars do not go to waste. This is how experience leaders are creating brand equity, today: You can do it, too.