Quick Tips #3: Why Good CX Ideas Get Ignored
How to win support for projects that improve customer experience
Customer demand for improvements is unlimited. Company budget and resources are limited. This is known as the ‘scarcity problem’ in business, which forces leaders to make difficult decisions.
When the business prioritisation conversation is due to decide between different type of projects, the verbal sparring match between “Mr Intangible Benefits” vs “Mr Cash Revenue” plays out the same every time.
Mr Cash is a heavy favourite that will win by knock-out in the first round.
Top tips to get CX projects prioritised
If you are a customer-obsessed operator who is trying to win support for your customer experience initiatives, here are my top 5 tips to make this happen:
1. Strength in numbers
A group of people who are together advocating for the voice of customer will be stronger than an individual acting alone. Find these people in your organisation and organise yourselves. Inject some energy and buzz into this to make others join you.
2. Data analytics & Finance are your new best friends
You need to quantify the benefits of your CX projects with numbers. A business case with assumptions and projections will be far more convincing than not being able to quantify any revenue increase, improved efficiency, cost reduction or customer churn.
3. The senior leader
With the backing of a senior leader who can act as an executive sponsor for your projects, their support and pre-alignment with peers will open doors and pave the way for successful project pitch outcomes.
4. Group initiatives together
Group individual initiatives and projects together under a single banner (e.g. a CX programme or work streams) to display a larger scale and impact. A well-prepared big pitch for a single programme will be more effective than multiple smaller pitches.
5. Change the rules of the game
Instead of going head-on into a conversation about whether to prioritise project A or project B based on financial attractiveness, put your stakeholder management and influencing skills to use to seek agreement to change the project ranking methodology.
Here are some examples:
Rather than ranking projects by financial size (i.e. spend/turnover), let’s make project decisions based on profit instead. These big commercial projects often have smaller margins and come with a heavy cost-base.
Include ‘Customer Experience impact’ as an actual ranking criterion for all type of projects, or mandate that CX impact must always be positive.
Considering ring-fencing budget and resources to support CX initiatives and funnel them through a separate, simplified approvals process to avoid the direct comparison of projects which are distinctly different activities.
Summary
The most successful organisations understand that customer experience isn’t a department. It’s something that an organisation lives and breathes. Rather than pitching your projects solo, find and ally with like-minded peers and consider how you can embed CX activities into your organisation’s working cadences and how the company actually runs.
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