December 17, 2024 • 13 mins
What if you could transform your customer experience strategy to drive tangible business results, like increased revenue and reduced expenses? In this milestone 99th episode of the Experience Action Podcast, we wrap up the year by reflecting on the successes and lessons learned in customer experience. Together, we'll explore five critical questions that will help you evaluate your priorities and achievements this past year. Join Jeannie Walters as we delve into positive customer feedback and uncover stories that can inform us of where future investments should lie. This is your chance to connect the dots between customer experience efforts and real business outcomes, ensuring that your initiatives are both meaningful and beneficial to your bottom line.
Use the insights and questions shared as tools for both reflection and proactive action. Let's prepare for an impactful 2025 by celebrating our successes and identifying areas for growth. Thank you for your dedication to your customers, and here's to a joyous holiday season and a Happy New Year!
Resources Mentioned:
Experience Investigators Website -- experienceinvestigators.com
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready, Set, Action.
Hi everyone! Welcome to aspecial episode of the
Experience Action Podcast.
I'm Jeannie Walters and let mejust say I can't believe we're
already at episode 99.
(00:41):
Not only are we at episode 99,but it's the end of another year
.
This is a great time, as acustomer experience leader, to
really reflect on where you'vebeen this year and what could
you do differently next year andhow can you have an even
greater impact in 2025.
So I want to give you fivequestions today.
These are the questions that weuse with our clients in what we
(01:05):
call a reflection period.
We want you to really reflecton what is the progress you've
made, not only so you cancelebrate it, but also so you
can learn from it.
As customer experience leaders,there is always pressure on us.
We always have to prove thatthis is worth the investment,
that we are speaking thelanguage of our leaders, that we
(01:26):
are showing that not only isthis the right thing to do, but
it's the right thing to do forbusiness.
So let's talk about it.
So, first of all, let's talkabout these five questions.
The first one I want you toconsider is what was the top
priority for our customerexperience goals?
Did we meet that priority?
(01:46):
Did we actually achieve what weset out to do?
And then, the most importantpart, why or why not?
Now, in this exploration, Iwant you to be really careful
about something.
Don't just say, well, we saidwe were going to achieve an NPS
of 70 plus and we did, because,remember, net promoter score,
customer satisfaction, all ofthose customer experience
(02:08):
measurements, those are feedbackmeasurements.
Those tell us something.
They are indicators, they aremetrics, but they are not
actually outcomes for thebusiness.
So we need to look at what didour improvement in customer
experience do for the business?
What were our goals there?
And if you're having an ahamoment which I've seen plenty of
(02:30):
leaders do here saying, gosh, Idon't know, I don't know what
our top goal was, what our toppriority was, then you know what
.
That's a good indicator too.
That's a good chance to reflectand think about how can we make
better goals next year.
How can we get crystal clear onthe number one priority as a
(02:51):
customer experience leader thatwe want to achieve?
So that's your first one whatwas our top priority and did we
actually achieve that?
Did we make the progress wewere looking for?
Why or why not?
All right.
Question number two (03:08):
what was the best thing we heard from
customers?
Now, this is really where Ilike to get into what is it that
makes what we do meaningful forthe people that we serve.
So this is why I like to get alittle tactical, a little
tangible here, because if wejust say things like, well, we
achieved a net promoter score of70 plus and we achieved
customer satisfaction rate of 85plus and all of that, that's
(03:32):
great, but those are stillnumbers.
Numbers don't fuel the soul andthe imagination, quite like
stories do.
When we get into really what weheard from customers, this is
where we can lean into ourstorytelling techniques.
We can say, okay, what was itthat made them give us that
feedback?
What did they actually say tous?
(03:53):
Here's what I want you toreally listen for.
So this is where you can gointo your qualitative feedback.
Maybe sentiment analysis, leaninto the AI, if you have have it
, to really help you understandwhat customers really said over
and over again.
Or maybe there's that onecustomer or one story that
really stuck with you this year.
What I want you to listen forare did they mention specific
(04:17):
employees?
Did they mention specificprocesses?
Did they react positively to animprovement that was made?
Did you create a meaningfulmoment in their journey?
Those are the types of things Iwant you to not only listen for
, but celebrate and then sharethose throughout your
organization.
Once you really zero in on whatthey're saying about your
(04:40):
organization, that also givesyou an idea of where to maybe
over-invest next time.
Remember, we want toover-invest in positive moments
because we know that negativemoments will happen and we, of
course, have to address those.
But if we can look for ways tocreate more positive moments,
that actually builds trust withour customers.
(05:01):
So if you identify what made itmeaningful, what made it
special, that can help you lookfor that throughout the journey
so that you can overinvest whereit matters the most.
All right, ready for questionthree.
Question three (05:14):
what was the best business outcome that we
achieved due to our efforts incustomer experience?
Now, remember I talked aboutpriorities before, as your
number one.
Maybe the priority was reallywell, we need to improve net
promoter score or we need toimprove customer churn rate.
So yay, we did it.
(05:35):
What I want us to look at forthis one is what did our efforts
do to provide the best businessoutcome?
So, for example, maybe you madesome great improvements to your
customer journey.
You were able to reduce thetime between the first purchase
and multiple purchases, maybeyou were able to achieve a
(05:55):
higher customer retention rate,maybe you got more share of
wallet from your customers.
All of those things are reallyimportant.
But what do all of those thingsdo?
Well, they increase revenue,they might decrease expenses or,
better yet, they might do both.
So that's the part that I wantyou to really look at what did
this really do for the business?
(06:16):
How did our efforts reallycontribute to the success of our
organization from top to bottom?
This is where you might have tothink about connecting dots a
little bit more.
But again, if you have that ahamoment and you think about gosh
, I don't know, I don't know howto connect our customer
experience efforts to ourbusiness outcomes, then that's
(06:38):
an insight, that's a learningfor you to address in 2025.
Make sure that you aredeveloping your goals, your
priorities, your efforts allaround business outcomes, and
get real about what those are.
Now if you have things tocelebrate, it's time to really
address that too.
So using these questions canhelp you both reflect on what's
(07:00):
happened and prepare for what'snext and help you really tell
those around you here's whatcustomer experience does for the
business.
So this is a really importantone to get real about.
And then number four this one'sa little trickier, but it's
important.
What was the worst thing weheard from customers?
(07:20):
Get real about it.
How did we earn this criticism?
Once you put it into thatcontext, it helps you open your
mind to realize that, yes,things will happen.
People don't often complainjust to complain.
They are talking aboutsomething that happened to them
personally.
(07:40):
So think about how did wedisrupt their day, how did we
disappoint them and not meettheir expectations?
Really get into why it happenedand then ask did we do anything
already to change this?
Did we do anything to make surethis doesn't happen for the
future customers?
(08:01):
This is another one to getreally honest about.
Make sure that you are askingthese hard questions and sharing
the hard truths.
Sometimes I like to say thatour job in customer experience
is about sharing those hardtruths, and so that also applies
to ourselves.
When we reflect.
We have to be honest here.
(08:21):
How did we earn customers'criticism?
And if you can get reallyhonest about that and understand
the why, then you have thetools to improve it.
You have the tools to dosomething about it, and that's
where it can really lead tothose business outcomes, those
successes that we talked about.
So ask yourself what was theworst thing we heard from
(08:45):
customers and how did we earnthat criticism?
Complaints are a warning redflag.
They are a gift and we have tolook at it that way.
Not always easy, I know, butthere are times we have to read
it, we have to take it in, wehave to listen to the customer,
(09:05):
take that big, deep breath andrealize that, just like every
part of delivering on thecustomer experience, this is a
team effort.
So don't take that complaint onall by yourself.
Think about what are the waysthat we as an organization maybe
need to communicate better,maybe need to improve our
internal processes, maybe needto hire differently in order to
(09:30):
make sure that we can reallydeliver for our customers.
There are reasons we earn thosecomplaints.
Let's get real about it andlet's do something about it.
And then, number five (09:41):
did we improve or change the customer's
journey for the better?
I'm going to say that again.
Did we improve or change thecustomer's journey for the
better?
Now, you notice here, this isnot a how did we question.
This is a simple yes or no.
Did we or did we not?
The reason I like this questionis because there are times
(10:05):
where we put in a lot of effortand work and yet, at the end of
the day, we can't point to thoseimprovements.
We can't say, wow, this is whatwe did.
So, if this question is hard toanswer, one of your goals for
2025 needs to be about trackingwhat are those improvements and
what do they do.
(10:25):
Because, at the end of the year, we all need to justify why
we're here.
We all need to say, yes, Iearned my salary and my bonuses
and my benefits and all of thosethings, and I deserve to be in
this role because because lookat all the improvements that we
made.
Look at what we did as anorganization, doing not just the
(10:45):
right thing for our customers,our employees and our
organization, but the rightthing for our business.
So, if you can't answer thisquestion, or if you are
struggling with answering yes,that's another indicator for you
for where you need to put yourfocus on customer experience in
2025.
(11:06):
So the follow up here is, ofcourse, if we did, what happened
?
If we didn't, why not.
Really reflect here on whatcould you do within your
organization to make morechanges for the better?
You all work so hard and I knowthat it is really challenging
(11:27):
to take a step back, especiallythis busy time of year, and
think about these questions, butwe have found that it can be so
valuable to just take a halfhour, take a half day, take a
few minutes, jot some thingsdown, get those ideas flowing
and then ask yourself how canyou have a bigger impact in 2025
(11:49):
?
I have seen the extraordinarythings that happen when we
invest in the right places, whenwe make sure that we're
spending our time and ourresources and our energy really
improving the customer journeyfor the right reasons.
These questions, I hope, cangive you the tools to really
(12:10):
reflect and understand and moveforward with an intention of a
proactive, positive experiencethat drives business results,
and that's what it's all about.
So thank you so much for beingon this journey with us for the
99 episodes so far.
We love your questions, asalways.
(12:31):
So please leave me a voicemailat askjeannievip and I cannot
wait to talk to you again in2025.
We're taking a few weeks offfor the holidays.
I hope you enjoy the time withyour family, your friends and
just reflection time so that wecan all hit the ground running
(12:53):
next year and make sure that wehave an incredible 2025 full of
customer experience improvements.
Thank you so much for all youdo.
Happy New Year, thanks again.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
, check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom,
(13:17):
where you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more.
And please follow me, JeannieWalters, on LinkedIn.
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready, Set, Action.
Hi everyone! Welcome to aspecial episode of the
Experience Action Podcast.
I'm Jeannie Walters and let mejust say I can't believe we're
already at episode 99.
(00:41):
Not only are we at episode 99,but it's the end of another year
.
This is a great time, as acustomer experience leader, to
really reflect on where you'vebeen this year and what could
you do differently next year andhow can you have an even
greater impact in 2025.
So I want to give you fivequestions today.
These are the questions that weuse with our clients in what we
(01:05):
call a reflection period.
We want you to really reflecton what is the progress you've
made, not only so you cancelebrate it, but also so you
can learn from it.
As customer experience leaders,there is always pressure on us.
We always have to prove thatthis is worth the investment,
that we are speaking thelanguage of our leaders, that we
(01:26):
are showing that not only isthis the right thing to do, but
it's the right thing to do forbusiness.
So let's talk about it.
So, first of all, let's talkabout these five questions.
The first one I want you toconsider is what was the top
priority for our customerexperience goals?
Did we meet that priority?
(01:46):
Did we actually achieve what weset out to do?
And then, the most importantpart, why or why not?
Now, in this exploration, Iwant you to be really careful
about something.
Don't just say, well, we saidwe were going to achieve an NPS
of 70 plus and we did, because,remember, net promoter score,
customer satisfaction, all ofthose customer experience
(02:08):
measurements, those are feedbackmeasurements.
Those tell us something.
They are indicators, they aremetrics, but they are not
actually outcomes for thebusiness.
So we need to look at what didour improvement in customer
experience do for the business?
What were our goals there?
And if you're having an ahamoment which I've seen plenty of
(02:30):
leaders do here saying, gosh, Idon't know, I don't know what
our top goal was, what our toppriority was, then you know what
.
That's a good indicator too.
That's a good chance to reflectand think about how can we make
better goals next year.
How can we get crystal clear onthe number one priority as a
(02:51):
customer experience leader thatwe want to achieve?
So that's your first one whatwas our top priority and did we
actually achieve that?
Did we make the progress wewere looking for?
Why or why not?
All right.
Question number two (03:08):
what was the best thing we heard from
customers?
Now, this is really where Ilike to get into what is it that
makes what we do meaningful forthe people that we serve.
So this is why I like to get alittle tactical, a little
tangible here, because if wejust say things like, well, we
achieved a net promoter score of70 plus and we achieved
customer satisfaction rate of 85plus and all of that, that's
(03:32):
great, but those are stillnumbers.
Numbers don't fuel the soul andthe imagination, quite like
stories do.
When we get into really what weheard from customers, this is
where we can lean into ourstorytelling techniques.
We can say, okay, what was itthat made them give us that
feedback?
What did they actually say tous?
(03:53):
Here's what I want you toreally listen for.
So this is where you can gointo your qualitative feedback.
Maybe sentiment analysis, leaninto the AI, if you have have it
, to really help you understandwhat customers really said over
and over again.
Or maybe there's that onecustomer or one story that
really stuck with you this year.
What I want you to listen forare did they mention specific
(04:17):
employees?
Did they mention specificprocesses?
Did they react positively to animprovement that was made?
Did you create a meaningfulmoment in their journey?
Those are the types of things Iwant you to not only listen for
, but celebrate and then sharethose throughout your
organization.
Once you really zero in on whatthey're saying about your
(04:40):
organization, that also givesyou an idea of where to maybe
over-invest next time.
Remember, we want toover-invest in positive moments
because we know that negativemoments will happen and we, of
course, have to address those.
But if we can look for ways tocreate more positive moments,
that actually builds trust withour customers.
(05:01):
So if you identify what made itmeaningful, what made it
special, that can help you lookfor that throughout the journey
so that you can overinvest whereit matters the most.
All right, ready for questionthree.
Question three (05:14):
what was the best business outcome that we
achieved due to our efforts incustomer experience?
Now, remember I talked aboutpriorities before, as your
number one.
Maybe the priority was reallywell, we need to improve net
promoter score or we need toimprove customer churn rate.
So yay, we did it.
(05:35):
What I want us to look at forthis one is what did our efforts
do to provide the best businessoutcome?
So, for example, maybe you madesome great improvements to your
customer journey.
You were able to reduce thetime between the first purchase
and multiple purchases, maybeyou were able to achieve a
(05:55):
higher customer retention rate,maybe you got more share of
wallet from your customers.
All of those things are reallyimportant.
But what do all of those thingsdo?
Well, they increase revenue,they might decrease expenses or,
better yet, they might do both.
So that's the part that I wantyou to really look at what did
this really do for the business?
(06:16):
How did our efforts reallycontribute to the success of our
organization from top to bottom?
This is where you might have tothink about connecting dots a
little bit more.
But again, if you have that ahamoment and you think about gosh
, I don't know, I don't know howto connect our customer
experience efforts to ourbusiness outcomes, then that's
(06:38):
an insight, that's a learningfor you to address in 2025.
Make sure that you aredeveloping your goals, your
priorities, your efforts allaround business outcomes, and
get real about what those are.
Now if you have things tocelebrate, it's time to really
address that too.
So using these questions canhelp you both reflect on what's
(07:00):
happened and prepare for what'snext and help you really tell
those around you here's whatcustomer experience does for the
business.
So this is a really importantone to get real about.
And then number four this one'sa little trickier, but it's
important.
What was the worst thing weheard from customers?
(07:20):
Get real about it.
How did we earn this criticism?
Once you put it into thatcontext, it helps you open your
mind to realize that, yes,things will happen.
People don't often complainjust to complain.
They are talking aboutsomething that happened to them
personally.
(07:40):
So think about how did wedisrupt their day, how did we
disappoint them and not meettheir expectations?
Really get into why it happenedand then ask did we do anything
already to change this?
Did we do anything to make surethis doesn't happen for the
future customers?
(08:01):
This is another one to getreally honest about.
Make sure that you are askingthese hard questions and sharing
the hard truths.
Sometimes I like to say thatour job in customer experience
is about sharing those hardtruths, and so that also applies
to ourselves.
When we reflect.
We have to be honest here.
(08:21):
How did we earn customers'criticism?
And if you can get reallyhonest about that and understand
the why, then you have thetools to improve it.
You have the tools to dosomething about it, and that's
where it can really lead tothose business outcomes, those
successes that we talked about.
So ask yourself what was theworst thing we heard from
(08:45):
customers and how did we earnthat criticism?
Complaints are a warning redflag.
They are a gift and we have tolook at it that way.
Not always easy, I know, butthere are times we have to read
it, we have to take it in, wehave to listen to the customer,
(09:05):
take that big, deep breath andrealize that, just like every
part of delivering on thecustomer experience, this is a
team effort.
So don't take that complaint onall by yourself.
Think about what are the waysthat we as an organization maybe
need to communicate better,maybe need to improve our
internal processes, maybe needto hire differently in order to
(09:30):
make sure that we can reallydeliver for our customers.
There are reasons we earn thosecomplaints.
Let's get real about it andlet's do something about it.
And then, number five (09:41):
did we improve or change the customer's
journey for the better?
I'm going to say that again.
Did we improve or change thecustomer's journey for the
better?
Now, you notice here, this isnot a how did we question.
This is a simple yes or no.
Did we or did we not?
The reason I like this questionis because there are times
(10:05):
where we put in a lot of effortand work and yet, at the end of
the day, we can't point to thoseimprovements.
We can't say, wow, this is whatwe did.
So, if this question is hard toanswer, one of your goals for
2025 needs to be about trackingwhat are those improvements and
what do they do.
(10:25):
Because, at the end of the year, we all need to justify why
we're here.
We all need to say, yes, Iearned my salary and my bonuses
and my benefits and all of thosethings, and I deserve to be in
this role because because lookat all the improvements that we
made.
Look at what we did as anorganization, doing not just the
(10:45):
right thing for our customers,our employees and our
organization, but the rightthing for our business.
So, if you can't answer thisquestion, or if you are
struggling with answering yes,that's another indicator for you
for where you need to put yourfocus on customer experience in
2025.
(11:06):
So the follow up here is, ofcourse, if we did, what happened
?
If we didn't, why not.
Really reflect here on whatcould you do within your
organization to make morechanges for the better?
You all work so hard and I knowthat it is really challenging
(11:27):
to take a step back, especiallythis busy time of year, and
think about these questions, butwe have found that it can be so
valuable to just take a halfhour, take a half day, take a
few minutes, jot some thingsdown, get those ideas flowing
and then ask yourself how canyou have a bigger impact in 2025
(11:49):
?
I have seen the extraordinarythings that happen when we
invest in the right places, whenwe make sure that we're
spending our time and ourresources and our energy really
improving the customer journeyfor the right reasons.
These questions, I hope, cangive you the tools to really
(12:10):
reflect and understand and moveforward with an intention of a
proactive, positive experiencethat drives business results,
and that's what it's all about.
So thank you so much for beingon this journey with us for the
99 episodes so far.
We love your questions, asalways.
(12:31):
So please leave me a voicemailat askjeannievip and I cannot
wait to talk to you again in2025.
We're taking a few weeks offfor the holidays.
I hope you enjoy the time withyour family, your friends and
just reflection time so that wecan all hit the ground running
(12:53):
next year and make sure that wehave an incredible 2025 full of
customer experience improvements.
Thank you so much for all youdo.
Happy New Year, thanks again.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
, check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom,
(13:17):
where you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more.
And please follow me, JeannieWalters, on LinkedIn.
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