Keeping the Customer Visible

The delicate balance between business efficiency and customer needs sits at the heart of successful process improvement. When organizations focus solely on internal metrics like cost savings and scalability without considering the customer perspective, they risk creating short-term wins that ultimately damage loyalty and undermine long-term success.

This deep dive into customer-centric process improvement reveals how to maintain customer visibility even when making internal operational changes. We explore the foundation of this approach—establishing a clear mindset about why customers matter in your business processes, rather than simply telling teams to "put the customer first" without proper guidance. By developing a customer experience mission statement and success blueprint, organizations create guardrails that help balance internal needs with customer expectations.

Making customers tangibly present in process discussions transforms decision-making. Whether through starting meetings with relevant customer stories, using journey mapping to visualize the customer perspective, or connecting process metrics directly to customer outcomes—these practical techniques ensure the customer voice isn't lost. The most powerful improvements create a triple win: benefits for customers through better experiences, advantages for the organization through operational efficiency, and improvements for employees through more effective workflows. This holistic approach recognizes that when customers feel lost or neglected due to hyper-efficiency, the consequences ripple through the business in reduced trust, lower retention, and diminished revenue.

Ready to become the bridge between what your business needs and what your customers expect? Subscribe now to continue exploring how to balance business priorities with customer-centricity, and discover how to deliver remarkable experiences while meeting operational goals.

Resources Mentioned:
CX Mission Statement Workbook -- https://bit.ly/cx-mission-workbook
CX Success Statement Workbook -- https://bit.ly/cx-success-workbook
Experience Investigators Website -- https://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/)

Episode Transcript

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 One, two, threefour

Jeannie Walters (00:31):
You know what we don't always talk about in

customer experience (00:33):
process improvement.
We're talking about it againhere today on the Experience
Action Podcast.

Listener Question (00:43):
Hi, Jeannie.
It's Christopher Brooks here.
When we talk about processimprovements and we can be
talking about being deep in anorganization.
What is your experience of howyou keep the customer and their
priorities on the agenda whilstbalancing it with the pressures

(01:03):
of business priorities too?
So how do you keep the customervisible, active, and their
priorities driving thedecision-making in the process
improvements?
Love to hear your thoughts,thank you.

Jeannie Walters (01:19):
Christopher, what a fantastic question.
Thank you so much.
And for those of you who don'tknow Christopher, I encourage
you to look him up on LinkedIn.
Christopher Brooks follow himfor all of his great insights as
well.
So when we are talking aboutcustomer experience work, a lot
of times we kind of fall intothese habits where we report a

(01:41):
lot about customer feedback, wereport a lot about things that
maybe are broken or not workingaccording to customers, but we
don't necessarily get into theconversations that are happening
in our organization aroundprocess improvement.
So this question of balance howdo we make sure that the
customer stays visible I lovethat you use that word so

(02:03):
process improvements staysvisible?
I love that you use that word.
So process improvements oftenthey focus on internal wins,
things like cost savings,scalability, speed.
All of those things areimportant and as a business
owner myself, I can tell you Icare very much about those
things within our organization.
But, frankly, I've seen itagain and again where, without

(02:24):
customer focus, theseimprovements are kind of short
term.
They're not something that is along term win, because they can
actually break the experiencefor the customer and cost
loyalty.
So the goal here is to balancethose internal priorities with
the customer's needs and wantsand voice and expectations.

(02:47):
We need to balance those things.
So how do we do that?
Well, first of all, start withthe mindset.
You've heard me say this before.
I believe customer experience,work and strategy is really
around the mindset, the strategyand the discipline to deliver
it.
So, with your mindset you needthat customer-centric lens.
But it's not enough to justtell people think of the

(03:10):
customer or put the customer inthe center of everything you do.
We hear that all the time as ifthat's the magic wand.
We have to give people toolsand the how and the why.
So the mindset is mostimportantly around the why.
Essentially, what is our beliefabout how we need to show up
for the customer and what is ourbelief about the role of the

(03:33):
customer in our businessprocesses?
So if we don't answer thatquestion, if we don't start
there, then we're basicallysaying to everybody hey, use
your best judgment.
And judgment is based on ourindividual life experiences.
So if you have a largeorganization and you're telling
everybody use your best judgment, you will have inconsistencies

(03:56):
in the customer journey that donot lead to process improvement.
They lead to breaking things.
So if we believe the customeris central.
If we're really focused on that, we must include them when we
define how are we improvingprocesses.
How do we do that here in ourorganization?

(04:17):
So one of the ways we do this isby starting with that
intentional success.
This is part of our CXINavigator Framework.
So, with intentional success,we always start with the
customer experience missionstatement, because that's really
about how we show up.
That's about how we want to befor the customer, no matter what
.
And then we also have ourcustomer experience success

(04:39):
blueprint.
This is where you define whatsuccess looks like for your
organization, with customerexperience meaning, what are the
efforts we can control aroundcustomer experience that lead to
greater success for ourorganization?
Now we can't just have ageneric phrase like that of

(05:00):
success for our organization.
We have to get specific.
What does success look like?
We want to balance that.
So those two pieces ofintentional leadership can
really help us understand how dowe balance that internal need
for scalability and speed andcost savings and what our

(05:21):
customers expect from us.
The next part you've heard mesay this too is strategy.
We want to make sure thecustomer is visible in those
decisions that we make.
We have to do this by reallyunderstanding what that
definition of success is andwhere are our priorities today,
because everything can feel likea priority if you don't have a

(05:44):
real strategy.
So one of the ways you canincorporate customer visibility
into strategy and what goes intothat is really start with the
customer.
When you're talking aboutprocess, when you're talking
about these types ofimprovements that are mostly
internal, start with a customerquote, with a story, with a data

(06:05):
point that really shows whythis is important to the
customer and what we need to doto show up for the customer in
that moment, in that process.
You can use personas, you canuse things to really represent
the customer.
I've seen this go terribly awry, so I am going to put a little
asterisk here, because I haveseen this turn into things like

(06:25):
we're going to have that emptychair for the customer.
We're going to bring in a 3Dprinted persona that's cut out
like a person that you have towalk past when you go in the
room and while that's effectivefor about 30 to 60 seconds,
those things just startcollecting dust.
They become wallpaper.
So we have to be veryintentional again about who are

(06:48):
we serving, what are we doing,and let's make sure we're all
aligned on that.
So while those gimmicks can beshort-term success, I would not
lean into those personally.
This is where things likejourney mapping, service
blueprinting, the before andafter that we're looking for, so
maybe that ideal customerjourney mapping, this can really

(07:11):
help because if we know what wewant the experience to be like
for the customer and we havethat ideal customer journey map,
then we can break that down ina service blueprint and figure
out okay, what do we need to dowith our people, process,
technology and tools to actuallydeliver that for the customer?
So it becomes a broaderconversation, not just about the

(07:32):
one process not acting like weput our blinders on to the rest
of the customer journey.
It's all part of that holisticapproach to customer experience.
We want to reinforce this ideathat internal efficiency and
internal inefficiency they haveconsequences.

(07:53):
So if we are being hyperefficient but the customer feels
lost or neglected, for instance, you could say it's efficient
to turn off the phones in yourcustomer service area and just
force everybody to go throughthe online channel.
But you and I both know that isnot what's necessarily best for

(08:13):
the customer.
Would it be cost savings?
Absolutely.
But what are the consequencesof that?
The consequences are customersnot trusting you, customers not
getting what they need,customers telling other people
about their horrible experiences, not renewing their contracts,
not retaining, not spending morewith you.
The list goes on and on and on.

(08:35):
So instead of just making thoseefficiency-driven decisions
around process, we really haveto look at the big picture.
That's why having a successblueprint and a journey map can
be so effective.
And then, of course, we have todeliver on this every day.
This is where the disciplinecomes in.
So, whatever we're focused onwith process, we want to balance

(08:55):
that with the business casearound customers and our
organization.
So we need both lenses.
We need to make it a win-win,meaning what's the business gain
.
What are we getting out of this?
Is it more revenue?
Is it cost savings?
Is it higher employee retention?
Is it being an employer ofchoice?
There are all sorts of ways tolook at value for what we're

(09:19):
doing.
And then we want to look at thecustomer impact.
What will this do for them?
Will it drive more happiness?
That leads to more loyalty,that leads to higher retention
and referrals and all those goodthings that we get.
But we have to really look forthat.
I like to say it's awin-win-win when it's done well,
and it's a win for the customer, it's a win for the

(09:41):
organization and it's a win forthe employees, because, if we
are looking at this in the rightway, we are including employees
in that decision.
What is the employee experience?
What can we do to help them dotheir jobs better and more
effectively while being happierwhile they're doing it?
How can we treat them likewhole people?
That has to be part of thisdiscussion as well.

(10:09):
So this is where we need to berealistic about being business
people, not just customerexperience people, because it's
really easy to slide into thatview of well, we're going to
advocate for the customer nomatter what, but that only works
if you can balance that withthe business outcomes that you
are seeking.
We want to connect our processmetrics to our customer metrics,

(10:31):
so we might want to look atokay, we automated a task.
How is that showing up?
Does it reduce customer effort?
Are customers getting throughthat process faster?
Are our employees getting moredone in that time because they
don't have to do that task?
If we're cutting costs, are wedriving up trust and loyalty?

(10:53):
Does it have an impact oncustomer satisfaction, maybe for
a transactional response, or ifyou're measuring loyalty like
net promoter score?
There are different ways toconnect the dots, but we have to
be hyper aware of that evenbefore we get started.
So this is another one of thosethings that when people say, oh,

(11:14):
your work sounds so interesting, they probably aren't thinking
about connecting all these dots.
This is so much more complexthan we give it credit for, and
the fact that you are out theretrying to do this, that you are
being that change agent I neverwant you to forget how important
that is, because you areshowing up for your customers.

(11:35):
You are showing up for yourfellow employees, your
co-workers, your colleagues.
You are also delivering for theorganization and that is no
small thing.
So keep up the great work outthere and remember we're
constantly looking for thatstate of balance.
What does the business need?
What does the customer need?

(11:56):
We are the conduits for that ascustomer experience leaders,
and I personally think that'spretty cool.
What a fantastic question.
I always love your questions,don't forget you can always
leave them for me ataskjeannievip and we can't wait
to see you next time.
Thanks, everybody.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience

(12:19):
, check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom where
you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more, and pleasefollow me, Jeannie Walters, on

(12:42):
LinkedIn.