How to Transform Your Customer Experience in One Week

In my career I have seen Customer Experience reach the apex of success and then stall. I have seen employees crunch under the pressure of what they call the lack of "work-life balance," and I have seen the sparkles of epiphany when we finally connected the dots and fixed the two things together!

At the time I was VP of Customer Experience at Symantec. Our NPS had gone off to a great start of rising nicely – and then it stalled.

I spare you the long and painful journey to this epiphany and – instead – summarize it in your guide to the week that will change your customer focus!

If you like the journey, then download the free whitepaper with the essence of the learnings here.

Monday:
Combining Your CX and EX Efforts

Combine – formally or informally – the customer experience and employee experience related efforts in your company.

In my work, I have learned that CX and EX are two sides of the same coin. This is why we advise our clients to–formally or informally–combine the customer and employee experience efforts. Then, the two no longer compete for resources but rather form a synergy in a company’s effort to deliver stellar customer experience.

Tuesday:
Doing the Right Things

Be aware of your Darwinist phase of customer experience efforts.
Are you already doing the right things?

I have seen it with my own eyes: In companies’ focus on customer experience there are basically three Darwinist phases: in the first phase, companies do the profitable thing with a clear view to maximize earnings from a given number of potential customers. Then, in a second phase, companies establish a customer experience practice, analyze their customers’ journeys and the related pain points and then do the easy thing. In that phase the customer experience function gets to fix the low hanging fruit without basically running into conflict with any of the known conflicting behaviors of the company. In the third phase, the company understands its core values and matches them with their customers’ and employees’ values. This is when companies start to do the right thing and authentically overcome some of their own bad behaviors from the past. I believe that ultimately every company gets the customers and employees they deserve.

Wednesday:
Expanding Your EX Repertoire

From my own work of being responsible for the EX of tens of thousands of employees worldwide I have learned that the employee experience repertoire has four elements: compensation, workplace, task, and life related benefits. Many employers focus on the compensation and workplace related benefits to create wealth, convenience, and health for their employees.

However, offerings in the categories of task (targeted at the efficacy and efficiency of the workforce) as well as life (targeted at the Life Balance of employees) are scarce and this lack presents companies with a liability when preparing for the retention of current and the acquisition of future talent.

Blind spots in these two categories are a severe liability, particularly in the call center. If employers do not focus on task related benefits, then employees will lack efficacy and efficiency. The difficult to use collections of tools in the contact centers are a great example. And if the fourth category – life related employee benefits – is ignored, then employee’s throughout the company will find it difficult to find purpose and life balance in their current jobs.

Thursday:
Add a Life Balance Offering to Your Employee Experience

As you can see, stellar customer experience delivered by talented and motivated employees can only happen if the employee experience covers all four areas of the employee experience repertoire. If your EX offering is weak in the Life category, then check-out mybalance.net, an easy to implement tool.

First developed at Symantec, then made an independent platform, mybalance.net is the web's leading destination for employees to evaluate and enhance their Life Balance. It starts with a profound self-assessment questionnaire developed with leading psychologists and sociologists from around the world and based on principles recommended by the US Department of Labor. Taking the test yields a comprehensive Life Balance Report that clearly shows your individual areas of strength, as well as the areas that need better balance and improvement.

All this in an independent (not employer hosted) and self-driven environment.

Friday:
Review Your Employee Directed Messaging

Change your employee targeted messaging and eradicate phrases like "do more with less" from your vocabulary. We learned in freshman year that you either do more with a given amount of resources or the same with less – don’t demand the impossible from your team over and over again! Instead, create an atmosphere of sustainable, value driven work that allows your team to shine as the heroes they are and create the stellar customer experience you desire.

The Weekend:
Time for Yourself

Assess your own Life Balance

Why not take the Life Balance Check™ on www.mybalance.net and find out where you stand. The detailed multi-page results report will give you a useful starting point for your own journey towards more Life Balance.

Read a Good Book

Many of us have used the term ‘bad work-life balance’ to express that our lives are too much work and not enough play, but have we stopped to examine the term itself? Why do we set ‘work’ opposite of ‘life’? Can work be a healthy, enjoyable part of life and is it possible that our lives are actually made up of various components that ideally complement and balance each other, rather than two polar ends?

‘The End of Work-Life Balance’ will deconstruct the misleading concept of ‘work-life balance’ and introduce the reader to the much more sustainable and holistic concept of Life Balance. Through a comprehensive guide complete with 75 invaluable tips, you will have immediate access to the right tools to incorporate new patterns, habits and actions into a more balanced life.