In the first half of 2008 I have personally visited with execs at more than 140 large consumer-focused companies in Asia, Europe and North America to discuss their plans and goals around customer experience (CE).
What have I learned so far?
- More and more companies are giving a senior exec a title that includes “Customer Experience.” One multi-billion dollar computer peripheral manufacturer now has a “CMO and EVP of Customer Experience.” A 140,000 person telco now has a head of Customer Experience reporting directly to the COO. To me this indicates the rising recognition of the importance of Customer Experience.
- Not everyone knows where to start. CE is viewed as hard, but necessary. Most people still have a bad taste in their mouths from CRM and CE smells similar; complicated, time consuming and expensive.
- The industries that are really embracing CE are those with lots of customers; telcos, consumer packaged goods, travel, entertainment, retail, government agencies, higher education and financial services.
What are you doing in your organization this year to improve your customer experience?
We have launched Customer Advisory Boards that provides valuable input from our customers on products and services. Additionally, we have updated our customer portal to provide more interactive customer experiences, such as wiki.
Interesting article, thanks for posting