Customer Experience Or: The Art Of (Five) Small Steps

Customer Experience, Customer Centricity or Customer Obsession – all these marketing concepts are extremely popular at the moment, not least because of their relevance to the increasing digitization initiatives. At its core, it’s about better understanding the customer experience as a whole as well as the components involved, formulating a unique target experience, and implementing it in a way that inspires. But this is easier said than done. From the experience of dozens of customer experience projects, I see five key success factors for the sustainable success of customer experience initiatives.

Dr. Markus Koch in the midst of the extensive customer experience maps he creates for his clients. 

Convincing customer experiences are based on relevant and sharp positioning. Only when it is clear how a company or brand positions itself can a customer experience be defined on the basis of this specification that leads to success. To give a simple example: A company that positions itself via the attributes “inexpensive and fast” must offer a completely different customer experience than one with the attributes “customer-focused and service-oriented.” One company will strengthen digital touchpoints and self-service modules, the other will emphasize personal customer interaction, accessibility, and so on. Strong positioning meets six criteria: It addresses a relevant customer need, differentiates itself from the competition, is motivating for employees and partners involved, has longer-term validity, is credible, and fits the corporate strategy.

Most companies still think of websites or apps as a single touchpoint or experience episode along a series of customer interactions. This is wrong. Rather, such tools in combination must be understood as a so-called “digital interaction layer” that accompanies the customer experience from awareness to churn along all episodes. On the one hand, there is less and less of a distinction between website, app, customer portal, etc., as they increasingly merge through responsive designs, hybrid apps, etc. On the other hand, nowadays the “digital extension of the individual” in the form of a smartphone accompanies customers at every turn. The easiest way to understand this is to visualize the customer experience of a traveler. He or she becomes aware of a Facebook ad, evaluates it via Tripadvisor, books at a travel agency that he or she finds via Google Maps, and receives the ticket in the mobile wallet. What seems obvious in this example should guide the digital customer experience of all innovative companies.

Customer strategies written down on countless PowerPoint slides are rarely implemented. Customer Experience, Customer Orientation or Customer Obsession – whatever you call it – is a mindset, a productive attitude. Only when work on the customer experience becomes a task that is supported by daily discussion, motivation, action and optimization can a convincing customer experience grow. That’s why comprehensive concepts on DIN A4 pages are of little help. A customer experience management overview is the “driver’s cab” for better customer experiences, the command post for sustainable competitive advantage. That’s why a customer experience map belongs on the wall of every management meeting room – not as a decorative wall ornament, but as a strategic and operational working tool.

A major challenge in the orchestration of the customer experience is the integration of online and offline as well as the coordination of own and third-party touchpoints. When integrating online and offline, it is important to clarify which touchpoints should be predominantly digital, which customer interactions are “multi-access” – i.e., both digital and personal – and where personal interaction is deliberately given space. Just like a successful orchestra, the customer experience also needs the right instruments in the right place. All interactions – whether online or offline – can be supported by digital processes and tools. Another challenge in aligning touchpoints is faced by companies working with sales or service partners. Here, innovative customer experiences must be defined jointly.

You can’t achieve everything at once, certainly not seamless customer experiences that often span different organizational departments, depending on the size of the company. Moreover, customer experience should not be understood as a big project that has a starting point and an end point – rather, it is a focused behavior, a continuous optimization effort in a customer-centric organization. Similar to agile software development, customer experience ideas and initiatives are continuously implemented: identified, evaluated, valued and prioritized. Prioritization is based on importance, urgency, maturity and effort/benefit ratio. Prioritization also means consciously identifying a small number of so-called “signature touchpoints” that set your company apart from the competition in the long term. Customer Experience Management is the art of small steps, with a few deliberately large footprints.