During confluence, our flagship Experience Management summit, commonFont hosted a group of expert practitioners for a panel discussion on Employee and Customer Experience. Our panelists dug into the challenges and opportunities Experience leaders face as they work toward growth and change in their organizations. Read on to meet the panelists and review the top insights from their experiences working at the intersection of EX and CX.
When engaging stakeholders, make sure they can connect with your message.
Vern: At Verizon, we call this WIIFM (what’s in it for me). When you are setting up a program, you can show your value by learning about stakeholder concerns and demonstrating how your work can address them.
Arjun: Learn what matters to and what motivates various teams. For us at Blue Cross, it’s helping the lives of Louisianans. We align with our purpose.
Look at all initiatives as change management initiatives.
Connie: Different departments will have different rates of adoption. When you create a dashboard for a specific department, teach them to interpret the data and what it means for their role.
Arjun: It’s a good idea to set up a center of excellence to define good and great. From there, let different departments contribute to that vision and get to good or great at their own pace.
Create a cultural change that puts the customer first.
Vern: Bring in the frontline employees, brand advocates, and representatives who interact with customers. Their input is valuable; it can help you understand and contextualize your feedback data.
Arjun: Take the time to observe your customer’s day-to-day transactions with your business. Call center listening, ride-alongs, and store visits can help you understand the employee and customer perspective in those interactions.
Buy-in at every level is key.
Connie: We had turnover in Executive Leadership, so we targeted the middle managers who make day-to-day decisions. We worked to understand the problems we could help fix, and gained their support to keep the program moving forward fast.
If you can get your naysayers to crossover by helping them solve their biggest problems, they will become your biggest advocates. It also helps to define ‘what’s in it for me’ at the departmental level, find a champion at the senior leader level, and engage supporters at all levels to increase chances of success.
Arjun Iyengar, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
Vern: It helps to have a senior leader that can depend on you to speak on their behalf and who will go to bat for you. They will champion your work.
Drive customer empathy among your team.
Connie: We have a Customer Love Slack channel that all employees can access. Positive feedback gets fed into that channel to highlight great experiences, tie them back to our work, and boost morale.
Vern: In the back of all centers and stores, we have a scoreboard that shows sales numbers. We recently instituted a ticker that scrolls through customer feedback specific to each location to create opportunities for coaching and celebration.
Thank you to our accomplished panelist for joining us at confluence! We look forward to future opportunities to connect with our clients, partners, and community members. For commonFont’s perspectives on EX and CX, learn How We Help Clients
