Jeweller - February 2022

BUSINESS
Marketing & PR
Three steps to creating a great
customer experience strategy
The best customer experience strategy encourages a bold vision and
takes all staff along for the ride, writes STEVEN VAN BELLEGHEM.
One of the most popular questions in my
conversations with decision makers has to
be about setting up a successful customer
experience (CX) strategy.
The solution is at the intersection between
your customers, staff and the vision
binding everything together and any solid
CX strategy should integrate a three-step
approach:
Create an engaging vision
At the heart of any successful business
strategy lies a powerful yet tangible vision
and that’s no different when dealing
with customers. The usual, ‘putting the
customer at the centre’ is not sufficiently
specific to enthuse and engage your staff.
Identify the customer’s problem or their
‘want’ and what you can do to improve
their life and which mindset should be
connected to that.
Don’t start from a key performance
indicator attitude but focus on an ‘intention
mentality’ and make sure you are truly
useful and helpful to customers, not just
with your core offering but also with your
other products and services.
A good example of creative thinking is Lumi
nappies by Pampers. Proctor and Gamble
(P&G) pushed a standard commodity like
a nappy to a whole new level by adding a
baby monitor and sleep app into the ‘mix’.
With this approach, P&G does not just
sell nappies, instead, it aims to be a true
partner in the life of parents and ‘helps the
whole family rest easier’, as its website
states.
So, just like P&G with Lumi, make sure that
your vision is both concrete and appealing.
All staff should know how to contribute
The reason why you need step one, a
concrete and engaging vision, is to get your
staff on board with your CX vision.
It should not be some top-secret for
‘C-level only’ strategy document; it needs
to resonate throughout the entire business.
The link between the vision, customer and
Puzzled? The key to customer engagement is always experience.
staff in large companies is often buried
below processes, KPIs or vague slogans.
Factory workers or people in HR often lack
that tight connection with the customers
but it is absolutely crucial if a company
wants to offer great CX.
There is no shortcut to achieve a tight
relation between staff, vision and the
customer. There’s no secret ingredient,
you might have to find a way to convince
your employees one by one.
However, in SMEs, especially retail
based business such as jewellery stores,
focusing on customer satisfaction and
enjoyment is much easier.
One of my favourite examples of a business
that has every staff member on board with
the company’s vision has to be Disney, and
the fact that it’s a master storyteller has a
large role to play in that.
From the outset, Walt Disney decided his
theme parks would not have ‘employees’,
instead they would be cast members who
wear a costume, not a uniform and that
made a huge difference in the way they
engaged and behaved with customers/
visitors
He also made sure everyone knew their
vision and stayed in character. From the
actors playing Snow White to the staff
selling ice cream or the cleaners: everyone
knows their role in the script.
Creating a
vision and
ensuring all
staff are aware
of their role is to
accomplish the
vision to help
create fantastic
customer
experiences, are
fundamental
steps in a CX
strategy.
Make sure staff receive customer feedback
Creating a vision and ensuring all staff are
aware of their role is to accomplish the
vision to help create fantastic customer
experiences, are fundamental steps in a CX
strategy.
However, one crucial step many companies
seem to neglect is ensuring staff receive
feedback from customers.
If they don’t know what customers think
and feel about their work, they won’t be
able to replicate what worked or change
what didn’t work.
This direct link is essential in order to
offer great CX and keep adapting it to
customers’ changing needs. Use quotes,
videos, audio fragments or feedback
scores, but make sure all staff know what
customers feel about them.
For example, at Coolblue – a Dutch
ecommerce company – every morning the
delivery drivers are shown their previous
day’s Net Promotor Score.
In a more hands-on approach, Dutch
insurance company Centraal Beheer, (CB)
holds Small Dent Days which they organise
four times per year.
On these days, 10,000 people have small
dents in their car repaired free of charge
while they are warmly welcomed by CB’s
insurance agents, creating a human
relationship and direct feedback with
customers they otherwise almost never
meet in person.
A successful CX strategy goes beyond a
written policy. All levels of the business
must be involved in an engaging and clear
vision that relies on constant feedback to
fuel progress.
STEVEN VAN BELLEGHEM
provides coaching, workshops and
advice about social media and
conversation management. Learn More:
stevenvanbelleghem.com
54 | February 2022