Six blind spots in CX leadership communication - and how to address them

In the dynamic of Customer Experience (CX) leadership, communication is essential for engagement, persuasion, and education. However, even the most seasoned CX leaders can fall prey to certain communication pitfalls. With the result that they don't get their message across, colleagues don't understand them and more important, people don't get into action. Identifying and addressing these 'six blind spots' can transform how leaders communicate, connect, and influence their teams and customers.

Blind spot 1: being too complete

The Overload Trap: CX leaders often feel compelled to provide every detail in their presentations, believing that more information equates to better understanding. However, this completeness can lead to information overload, losing the audience's interest and diluting the core message.

The Fix

Focus on simplicity and clarity. Distill the story to its most essential elements to keep your audience engaged and the message impactful.

Blind spot 2: being too boring

The Engagement Gap: A common misstep is sticking to a dry, fact-based narrative and not much engagement. This approach can make your presentation, strategy and stories unrelatable and forgettable.

The Fix

Incorporate elements that have unexpectedness. That spark emotions - humor, surprise, or personal anecdotes. Engage your audience with a narrative that resonates and makes them remember.

Blind spot 3: being too conceptual

The Abstract Challenge: CX leaders might lean heavily on abstract concepts or industry and especially customer experience jargon, making it hard to grasp.

The Fix

Ground your story with concreteness. Use real-world and customer examples and relatable scenarios. Simplify complex ideas with metaphors or analogies to make them more accessible.

Blind spot 4: being too corporate

The Corporate Veil: overemphasis on corporate perspectives can make your presentation or strategy feel impersonal or propagandistic and might feel that it is just your CX idea.

The Fix

Humanize your story and add in true customer data to build credibility. Have a CX data sheet, that you can use and share experiences and lessons from a personal viewpoint. Combine data with stories and relate to everyday experiences that transcend corporate walls.

Blind spot 5: being too unpersonal

The Relatability Rift: presentations lacking a personal touch fail to connect with the audience on an emotional level. Often people won't connect and don't understand what to do next.

The Fix

Build in emotion to connect and let your personal stories come into play. Let your vulnerability and authenticity shine through to build a stronger connection with your audience. Also be specific on your call to action, what you want your audience to DO.

Blind spot 6: being too functional

The Functional Focus: focusing solely on the functional aspects of Customer Experience, like methodologies, processes or outcomes, can make it uninspiring.

The Fix

Weave in the human element and add stories. Highlight the impact on people, whether it's customers, employees, or communities. Stories that showcase human experiences and emotions are more engaging and memorable.

My conclusion and tips for you

Effective communication in CX leadership is about striking the right balance. It is my suggestion to use the success formula of Dan and Chip Heath from the book Made to stick. So, you start to focus more and get your ideas and communication across. To stand out from the crowd.

It's about being informative yet engaging, professional yet personal, and functional yet inspiring.

By addressing these six blind spots, you as a CX leader can craft stories that are not only heard but also felt and remembered. This approach not only enhances communication but also fosters a more profound connection with teams and customers, ultimately driving a more impactful CX strategy.

 

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*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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Irriklant

Oh well, it's summer. Then we as customers are all in a great mood. We go on holiday and show the best of ourselves. Nevertheless?! Or not...

I got these reviews from a guide who showed us around Jamaica over eight years ago and has to laugh and cry at the same time. We humans are sometimes a bunch of bastards. These are real reviews that she has received from the tour operator. Long live open feedback that you can get from reviews and surveys.

I've listed the eleven worst ones for you.

1. 'It should be forbidden to sunbathe topless on the beach. My husband was very distracted by that, he just wanted to relax a bit and that didn't work out now.'

2. "We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers. We couldn't understand them because they all spoke Spanish."

3. "The beach was just too sandy. We had to clean and de-sand everything when we got back to our room."

4. "We found that the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white, but it was more yellow in real life.'

5. "No one told us there would be fish in the water. The fish frightened our children."

6. 'The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we couldn't read the local guidebook on the bus ride to the resort. As a result, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday much more enjoyable.'

7. "I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to that of our three-bedroom friends. And ours was considerably smaller.'

8. "We had to queue outside to catch the boat and there was no air conditioning. That was very disappointing to us.'

9. 'It is your duty as a tour operator to inform us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel.'

10. "My fiancé and I had requested twin beds when we booked, but instead we were given a room with a king bed. We hold you and your organization accountable and want to be compensated for the fact that I became pregnant. This wouldn't have happened if you had given us the room we booked."

11. "I've been bitten by a mosquito. There was no mention of mosquitoes in the brochure.'

What should you do if you get this kind of feedback in your own surveys? I would just do nothing. These people deserve zero attention. You wouldn't begrudge these customers to your competitor just yet.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on September 5, 2023

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*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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The red carpet

Let's go back in time. I think it was sometime in 1999. I worked at AMEV as a Life Inspector and I refinanced my mortgage. Because as an employee, I received a nice discount on the mortgage interest rate and I was happy to take that advantage. A few years later I started renovating and I was able to go to AMEV for that too.

Within AMEV there was a special office for employees, where everything was taken care of when taking out the mortgage. There was coffee ready, you could always walk in if you had any questions and also the communication about papers and the notary was well taken care of. There was no red carpet rolled out yet, but it felt that way. As employees, we were well pampered.

As a Life Inspector, I was responsible for a large area, east of Utrecht to the German border and helped intermediaries choose AMEV in the field of mortgages and pensions. I'm sure there are some time zones mixed up now, but I do remember that my clients – the intermediaries – didn't find our mortgage handling too flourishing. Communication was unclear. Their customers didn't understand our letters. It took a long time for official quotes to come. Things went wrong when sending the notary documents.

I didn't understand much of that. After all, we had arranged it so well, hadn't we? I really didn't know any better than that we as AMEV gave the red-carpet feeling to customers. Because that was my own experience. In Customer Experience, we call this the 'n=1 situation'. My own experience, would also be that of our customers and their customers. In addition, I didn't realize at the time that I had an inside-out view and was heavily contaminated with the 'curse of knowledge'. The what?! I had much more knowledge of mortgages, legislation, and processes than the customer who took out a mortgage. This is called the 'curse of knowledge'. As a result, I couldn't put myself in the shoes of the person without that knowledge. I missed the outside-in view.

I went with an intermediary to one of his customers and immediately saw where things went wrong with us. That the red-carpet feeling only applied to employees. But I also immediately saw the potential for improvement. 

That's exactly why I'm calling on everyone to visit customers themselves. Step out of your own processes, systems and ideas and look at the world through the eyes of the customer. Where the customer is. At the company or just at home. See where customers' needs lie, what keeps them awake at night and where the real potential for improvement lies. Who knows, you might also see where your organization can give that red-carpet feeling to customers.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on July 4, 2023

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*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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All Rob

We start the CX inspiration day at Starbucks. Together with eight Customer Experience leaders in the government, today we get a look behind the scenes at three companies to see how they organize customer experience.

While everyone trickles in, Robin and I stand in line for coffee at Starbucks. We slowly move up and then we can order coffee for five people.

"Two americanos, an oat latte and two cappuccinos please." The male barista looks at me and asks, "What name can I write on the cups?" Next to him is a female colleague with a marker at the ready. I think about who ordered which coffee, because how nice is it when everyone has their own name on the cup? I see a somewhat pleading look and realize that today it is not at all the intention that there are different names on the cup.

In a split second, I decide not to make a big deal out of it. Because it's rush hour at Utrecht Central Station at this Starbucks and I don't think he's in the mood for it. No, this man wants us away from that counter as soon as possible. So I look at Robin and realize that his name is easier than having to write Nienke on every cup, so I say 'Go ahead Robin.'

He looks at his colleague with the marker in his hand, sees the five cups and in half a second he has an even easier solution. 'Can it be Rob?' I look at Robin, we give each other a quick wink – hopefully unseen by the barista – and with a sigh I say that's okay.

While he is relieved to strike something at the cash register, he sees that he has charged cash instead of paying with a card and the order can be replaced. I think this is his punishment by the universe, because Robin's name is Robin. No Rob. And actually, these coffees are for Robert, Anke, Marieke, Nienke and Robin. Not for five Robs.

At checkout, it is also more than two euros cheaper the second time. So now that we're all called Rob, life has immediately become cheaper. I have to laugh a little.

Even though I'm bummed about it, because I've organized a CX inspiration day and that's why I want it to be personal for my guests. Oh well, you also get inspiration from the worst practices, it goes through me.

We sit down, waiting for the coffees for Rob. About three minutes later our coffees are ready. "I've got the coffees for Robin here!" the barista shouts with the marker. Haha. She has made her colleague very loud, but it is not a good customer experience.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on June 6, 2023

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*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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System

For a customer experience workshop I am conducting, I designed materials and had them printed. When I receive the envelope of printed materials, 75% of the order is missing.

Fortunately, I was in plenty of time to order and didn't need the materials right away. I can't call during opening hours because I'm participating in the annual fox hunt that day. To complete the picture for the visual thinkers: I am dressed as an orange supporter.

So I send a message to this printing giant. I include exactly the information I suspect the service person will need. The order number, that which did get delivered - my document named Handout, exactly as it says in the confirmation email - and that the other three items are missing.

Dressed entirely in orange, I walk around town in the meantime. I check my mail and read:


'Dear,

How annoying that things went wrong with the delivery of your order. So you have the handout, but the loose-leaf article and stickers are missing? When we have this clear then we can look at an appropriate solution.

Sincerely,

Madelon'

Um, yes. This is a case of copy-paste without reading properly. Because I already indicated that only the handout was provided. And apparently it is too much trouble to write to me with my name. Not recognized and certainly not acknowledged. I quickly reply back that this is indeed true. To get the following email back:

'Dear,

Totally right I put it in the system for you.'

Huh! And now? What a sloppy nothing email, even with a typo. She must have put it in the system, but what does that mean for me? For the entrepreneur who needs these materials to teach CX classes?

So this is where it often goes wrong. For Madelon it is probably obvious, but for me - the customer - it is now unclear. Is my order to the printer? Will I get my materials? And when? I send a short message on chat after this, to which a colleague kindly replies that the materials will be printed.

The fox hunt was top-notch. Just stripped of orange face paint, we sit enjoying afterward over Friday afternoon drinks. Then, at 6:41 p.m., I receive the cherry on the cake email.

'Dear Sir/Madam,

Unfortunately, due to excessive traffic, we were unable to ship your order today.

By: System'

What, this system is broken! Like so many systems. As a customer, it's killing me. It reminds me of a video from Little Britain, which I translate for you for free: 'System says NO.'

It's done: customer says NO. I'm going to look for another printer.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on May 2, 2023

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*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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Cup of coffee?

I almost always offer delivery drivers a cup of coffee. Or in the summer, I have a few cans of fresh cold. Or maybe they want to use the toilet for a while?

Usually they turn this down, because busy busy busy, but sometimes there is a need and some time for it. Like last Sunday when my meal package was delivered, where Tugrul liked a cup of coffee.

We started talking and he told us that this is his part-time job. He is happy to deliver these boxes, in addition to being an entrepreneur with his own Barbershop. Because living on your own costs money. So he works extra shifts as a delivery driver for this meal box service. What a great energy and drive. It was very nice to hear his perspective on delivery and entrepreneurship. Are you in Utrecht and would like to get a haircut by this entrepreneur? Then you can definitely go to Ozky's Barber at Bartoklaan 17 in Utrecht.

He also asked me what was actually in that box. Because he had never seen that before. Maybe a small point of improvement in the Employee Journey of this meal delivery company. But I fixed that. I showed him the app; That you have a choice of 30 meals, we opened the box together, he looked at the contents of the box, the recipes and with all the love he took the box back immediately. Good for the environment!

What a pleasure to meet such great delivery people and this also starts with ourselves. The customer. Do you do this too? If I take it wider. Are you nice to the service in a restaurant? Against flight attendants? Staff in stores?

Back to the delivery people. They don't have it easy. I have to deal with the strangest situations in terms of traffic, especially in Utrecht where I live. Just think about what it's like to have to go to the toilet when you have so many packages in the back of your bus...

So ask your delivery person if he/she wants a cup of coffee or tea. Just have a few take-away cups at home, because then they can go back into their bus with a nice hot cup of hopsakee. Or if it's summer and warm, have a few cans of cold lying around. Offer that they can use the toilet for a while. And for the meal deliverers; Have some euros ready. I know it can be done in the app, but I'd much rather give a few euros myself that I have in a container. That's how I thank them personally. And everyone likes that. Tugrul certainly does.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on April 4, 2023

Don't miss another blog? Sign up for my monthly CX Greetz!

 

*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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In love, engaged or is it complicated?

Yes, it is. February, the month of love. Or to be more precise, the month in which Valentine's Day falls. That day when a lot of people send a card. Buy a bar of chocolate that says "I love you" and then give it to a loved one. Or send someone a message. To our loved one, a friend, mother, neighbor or daughter.

Actually, the shape doesn't really matter. Showing love can be done in many ways. Say something nice, send or do something nice. It works. It makes your own heart do a dance and therefore also that of the other. Isn't it wonderful to have a column about love? Unfortunately, this is where the happy part ends.

Because I want to switch to another world. That of love for the customer.

That's where my heart stops with the dance. Unfortunately, for many, that's where the imagination stops. Because love for the customer. What does it look like? Should we call the customer and tell them we love her/him (I'll keep it to her for now)? No, we're certainly not going to do that here in the Netherlands, that's too American for us. But that's not the point.

The point is that we do want the customer to love us and give us a nine or ten in the survey. That she spends her money with us every year. Tacitly renews the contract. Buy more policies. Tacitly accepts the price increase and let's hope she doesn't call. That she doesn't disturb us with our work, but mainly finds her own way, digitally.

Love. That's exactly where things go wrong in organizations. We don't really like the customer. Of who she is. What she's doing. We do want her to choose us. But even if she, as a customer (i.e. citizen, participant or applicant), cannot choose, that she does not bother us too much.

That's what we're talking about here. About whether you and your colleagues are in love, engaged, or married to the customer. And whether you really feel something about it. Or is it complicated? (Thank you Facebook, for allowing us to choose this wonderful addition within "types of relationships"). After all, do we talk about the customer internally as if we love her? Or do we prefer to use her customer number? Do we talk about customers in meetings, or do we prefer to stick to the process?

The love for the customer is a topic that should really be discussed. Do you love your customer? Ask yourself and your colleagues the question. I suggest that you have this conversation lovingly in your organization. I dare say that Valentine's Day next year will be a very different one.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on March 7, 2023

Don't miss another blog? Sign up for my monthly CX Greetz!

 

*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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Why and how to engage your leaders

As a CX leader, you're not the person in charge. In the end, that is someone from the management. So you have to take that into account in a CX program. You don't just manage and advise your team, you also do that with your managers. There is no one who is more important than the other, but you need to know exactly who the high-priority stakeholders are: those are the ones who matter most at that moment. As a CX leader, you need to figure out who that key stakeholder is and make sure you're working together. The better you understand your leader, the better you'll be able to empathize with and respond to the needs of all stakeholders.

I list the 3 best tips to properly involve your leader in your program here:

1. Provide good and relevant information

Communication is key. Without proper communication, it is impossible to build a good relationship. It's your job to provide your supervisor with the information that specifically meets his or her needs. This is information that helps him or her to perform the role of manager well and that supports the making of important decisions. Managers are busy and don't like surprises: the more you respond to them with adequate information, the better.

If you proactively provide relevant information, you build your own credibility and you help your managers to appear credible to their bosses. So it's important that you work on your business acumen. So that you understand what is important to them and how your CX program fits into the organization. That way, you'll build a solid working relationship with your manager.

2. Be helpful

Giving information is good, but think carefully about what you give them and why. You can't get away with 'I'll make a report out of it'. You don't convince people with that. The communication you give should be:

  • Goal-oriented: Think about why you're giving this report. Is it to raise awareness, to bring about a change, to get a decision or something else?
  • Targeted: make sure it's specific to your stakeholder.
  • Appropriate in terms of form and content: how does your manager want to receive the information? In a presentation, a spreadsheet, an action list? Don't make assumptions, just ask and you'll know.
  • Monitor for effectiveness: do you actually see a change in attitude? Has the communication had an effect? If not, change it. Adjust the way you communicate or report.

So make sure your communication style matches the way they like to receive their information.

Be helpful. Recognize that your CX program is just one of many programs and that sometimes you need to help them manage their time. This will help you build your credibility in case something goes wrong.

Don't confuse being helpful with being submissive. No manager expects their team members to blindly follow. Your manager does expect you to think along and take responsibility.

I know of at least one strategy that always works. The strategy of causing others to "stumble over the truth." This means that you're not going to say what customers say or what's hurtful to the organization. No, you let them discover it for themselves. Dan Heath himself explains how this works:

3. Be functionally disobedient

Managers are normal people. They may not have all the answers, but they too learn new things every day. Be sympathetic and realize that they also have work to do.

You don't have to do everything by the book. If your manager asks you to do something that you know isn't best for your manager, the organization, the team, and yourself, you should say so. Have the confidence to challenge decisions. Being able to say no to your manager helps you build your credibility.

Finally, some extra tips to increase engagement

  • Define the active role that top management has in your CX program and keep them engaged; shows that excellent leadership is important within CX and CX programs.
  • Have empathy for the top and realize that they have more limited information than you do and that they are constantly being pulled.
  • Support the board members: they may be new to their role and need extra (subtle) support to ensure they function well in their jobs.
  • Recognize that it takes time for people to change their mindset from a "doer" to a "leader."
  • Make it clear that the CX program or project is a means to achieve the organization's strategy and that the top managers are therefore the top project managers.
  • Know that they also have to advise, to the CEO and other stakeholders. So give an example of the business impact (preferably the ROI) of good individual and organizational competencies of your CX program.
  • Get rid of the idea that risk is bad news.
  • Focus on the business impact and strategic benefits of the CX program – the big picture – and reduce the level of detail in communication.
  • Build a sponsorship culture upwards and downwards: support each other.
  • If you know what drives your manager, you can better manage expectations.
  • Work on building credibility and trust.

 

*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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Unknown makes unloved

We go back in time about ten years and I am sitting across from my then CEO. I have been in charge of KPN's Customer Excellence team for three months now. I am new to the company, he even a little newer. My goal is to bring the relational NPS from -14 to zero in just under three years.

Yet he asks "Nienke, what result did you achieve with your team last month? Stammering, I bring out that we have a long-term goal. That our growth strategy is focused on reducing detractors, what actions we have for that, that I am confident. 'No, no. I expect you to bring results here every month. Of course it's good that you have plans, but I also want to know what short-term results you've achieved with your team.'

Full of doubt, I left the meeting room. How was I supposed to do that? With such an erratic long-term goal that might grow a point or two per quarter? I consulted a colleague and he told me how he did it.

A light bulb went on for me. All those years I had worked very hard in various roles and management positions, but I had never structurally kept track of my successes (and failures) and reported on them. Nor did I have my story in focus when I spoke to colleagues: I mainly told them what I did. What results I had achieved, I could not tell in a few sentences.

If you work in a large organization, it's important to think about your own marketing. "Huh?!" I hear you say. Yes. That's important if you work in customer service or customer experience, well, really anywhere. But especially in our professions, it's important for people to understand the work you do, how it is linked to the business strategy and the impact you make.

In marketing, they often talk about Know, Like, Trust. Apply this to yourself: make sure management knows you, likes you professionally, and ultimately trusts you. You don't want to leave that to others, so take charge yourself.

I saw a great example last week at the International CX Awards. Vattenfall's CX team won three Awards, including the best B2C CX team in the world! As a big learning point, they told me that the process to the Awards had helped them to tell very concisely where they had achieved successes.

So, dear reader. Is your marketing in order? Do you know and share your successes? Don't underestimate this. Because unknown makes unloved. The choice is yours.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on December 13, 2022

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*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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How can you add fun to change?

Customer centric change is a matter of having a long breath: changing behavior and engaging colleagues won't happen in just a month. It is a demanding process, both from you as the initiator, facilitator or leader, as well as from the people you want to engage in the change. Adding FUN to your CHANGE program is a brilliant idea, since it will boost morale and will be distinctive from other programs.

Here are my five tips on how to add more fun to your CX change program and achieve your goals at the same time:

  1. Create an overarching appealing storyline
    Too many CX strategies are linear, corporate schmorporate (sorry for my language). They don't give any excitement and fun and don't create any arousal while you share it. So, what about adding an appealing story line? Using sports, movie scripts, heroes, best practices and all kind of other stories. I still love Project #99 that Clint Payne CCXP started in 2016. He wanted to improve the current customer experience of Multichoice, a South African Telecom and Television provider and created an overarching storyline where he challenged the organization to fix 99 current customer and employee issues. Project #99 is a great tagline that gives context to the change.
  2. Set an appealing BHAG
    How about aiming for the moon when it comes to your CX or change program? How about truly going for an ambitious quantitative and qualitative goal. The example of Project #99, is already a perfect one - fixing 99 issues in one year. But I have more examples for you. What do you think of this one? In three years, you and your company are best in class in Customer Experience, your NPS is at a certain number (the quantitative part). And that the CEO of your company will share the story of how the organization changed in the last three years to a true customer centric company in the Financial Times or HBR? These kind of moonshots a.k.a. BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) work. They add fun and excitement to change.
  3. Celebrate and celebrate milestones
    Too often we just keep going after we delivered a success. But how about turning your BHAG into a couple of milestones that can be celebrated? Or put the spotlight on those that did a fabulous job? Who showed customer centric leadership or is there a team that fixed a big customer issue? My suggestion is that you make sure you have a collection of fun gifts. How about branded t-shirts, water bottles, pens or tailored virtual backgrounds and give those recognition? Have those that did well have lunch with a senior leader. Take them on an inspiration trip, to another customer centric organization or to an amusement park.
  4. Create challenges and visualize them
    What happened in project #99 is that the CX team created challenges and that employees and leaders adopted those challenges. Working on short term projects (don't try to implement a CRM system with this one ????) that have high energy and are supported by senior leadership, they work magic. By making sure the change is pleasant (rather than painful, although it may feel painful at first), it creates a feeling of hope (rather than fear) and it creates a feeling of identity with others who are doing the same. Make sure you visualize the journey of the challenge, so others also understand what they are doing. Have those fun and vibrant visuals (like a logo of your team or project) all around the organization. Both offline and online. Yes, this might require some guerilla marketing actions and you might bump into some conflicts with the communication and facility departments of your organization. But remember: no guts, no glory!
  5. Use fun in your interventions
    Too many workshops are just functional: learning the new behavior by the customer manifesto and delivering on the new brand values. Workshops are important and it is up to you to add fun to them. Some examples.
    1. Create a CX quiz, where you quiz around NPS topics, add some fun CX facts (like from what date was the first complaint) and of course you have a winner.
    2. Play the CX game, this is a fun CX workshop (dressed up as a board game), where the questions and assignments are tailored to your organizations context. The feedback we always hear is: "this was FUN!"
    3. Add persona re-enactment to your customer journey workshop. Bring artifacts like scarves, sports gear, glasses, hats and whatever. Transform your participants of the workshop into customers. My experience is that participants will be a bit hesitant upon starting, but once they get going, everybody will have the most of fun!

You see, there's a lot of things you can do and organize in order to add FUN to CHANGE. And I strongly recommend you do so! Create big or small fun and know it will give you and your colleagues the energy you need to keep the change going. I am curious how you feel about these suggestions. And if you have any other suggestions, please let me know in the comments!

 

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*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. 

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