Customer Experience Archives – Page 12 of 23

When CX Value Is Hard to Find: 3 Truths You Need to Hear if Your CX Program Isn’t Moving the Needle

Here’s a difficult truth you may be facing: “my customer experience (CX) program is just not moving the needle.” Whether it’s an inability to prove CX value or a lack of recognition for your improvement efforts, it’s a scary realization to have. At the same time, it’s also an opportunity for you to reassess and, more importantly, transform.

The beginning of a true CX transformation journey starts with facing the reality that your old ways of approaching experiences might not be the best—and being willing to adapt your approach according to best practice.

If you find yourself at the beginning of such a journey, we’ll be diving into three truths you’ll definitely want to hear. Let’s get started!

Truth #1: Stagnant Programs Are Only Measuring and Managing Experiences

More often than not, the reason your program may not be impacting your bottom line is because you’re not actually improving experiences. Many businesses keep tabs on endless amounts of metrics. And that’s valuable information!

But measurements are not outcomes. They only tell you that there’s a problem.

In a similar fashion, managing experiences only focuses on understanding the customer or reacting to their interactions. But how does this ensure that customer problems are solved not just in one case but in all future iterations? You see, measuring and managing is one thing—actual improvement is another. So how are the experiences you’re providing really getting better on a day to day basis?

Truth #2: Improving Experiences (and Finding CX Value) Focuses on the Big Picture

Of course, today’s experiences are crucial. But so is every future one! That’s why the big picture matters. Because if you can predict and solve future customer problems today, you’re already a few steps ahead.

And that doesn’t just apply timewise as your customer journey develops. It’s also core to the progression and structure of your business. So many companies are organized in siloes, but it’s highly beneficial to a CX program if you close the gaps between departments. One effective strategy is to utilize a governance model that will keep your company in alignment and accountable.

Truth #3: True CX Transformation Requires Action

And finally, real Experience Improvement happens through action. People often use the Voice of Customer (VoC) and customer experience as interchangeable terms when they technically do not operate the same way. VoC is all about listening—but it doesn’t enact the necessary shift to concrete action.

Our Continuous Improvement Framework maps out the steps you need to take to actually see success: design, listen, understand, transform, and realize. You can see here that listening is only the second step! To have a successful program, there are three more steps to complete the full process and improve experiences.

Give yourself a pat on the shoulder for getting through these truth bombs with us. But it doesn’t end there! It’s now your chance to transform customer experiences for the better.

And if you’re vying for more CX insight, check out this webinar where Eric Smuda (Principal, CX Strategy & Enablement) speaks on “CX Transformation: The Key to a Truly Valuable Program.”

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by The Pearl-Plaza Team

Reading time 2 minutes

3 Ways to Make Customer Experience Governance Work for You

Whether you’re just getting started on your customer experience (CX) initiative or hitting pause to see how things are going, the term “customer experience governance” is probably something you hear your team bring up all the time. You probably also already know that customer experience governance refers to the system that sends insights to where they need to go and that holds certain team members accountable for different aspects of your initiative.

But which governance style works best for you? No two organizations are the same, which means that a governance style that works for another brand’s CX program may not be your organization’s cup of tea! We’ve got you covered, though—here’s three different customer experience governance approaches you can take a look at as you evaluate your program.

Three Ways to Approach CX Governance

Approach #1: Directive
Approach #2: Consensus-Based
Approach #3: Dispersed

Customer Experience Governance Approach #1: Directive

This one’s pretty self-explanatory, and ideal for companies that are highly centralized. Simply put, a directive governance approach is a top-down model that gives the same parameters and goals to every piece of your CX program in every region your company has a foot in. This model makes room for some localization, but espouses a direct-line approach from one team and clear sponsorship from at least one member of the executive team.

The advantage to a setup like this, especially if your initiative sounds like what we’ve laid out, is that all program abilities are managed as one function and the team at the heart of it all is highly collaborative. This can make it easier for your team to roll out improvements and quickly hand initiative changes down across multiple facets of your program. On the flip side, though, the folks implementing those changes on the ground may disengage if they feel too far removed from this centralized decision-making process.

Customer Experience Governance Approach #2: Consensus-Based

This governance style is a bit more loosey-goosey compared to the directive approach. Rather than rely strictly on a single, centralized team, the consensus-based approach gives regional teams greater autonomy. Whereas the directive approach we talked about earlier is great for brands whose regional operations are more or less the same, the consensus-based style is ideal for organizations whose regional teams work in much more varied conditions.

You probably already see where this is going when it comes to advantages and disadvantages—on one hand, this style is great for making regional teams feel included and for gaining on-the-ground insights that make your program better! But, by the same token, decentralizing decision-making power can result in lengthier deliberations, knowledge gaps, and the chance that some regional teams stray a bit too far from the path. Still, it’s a style well-worth considering if that different regional ops environment sounds like your organization.

Customer Experience Governance Approach #3: Local

This one’s on the opposite end of our spectrum from the directive approach, and encourages local/regional teams to take up the lion’s share of CX responsibilities. A central team may still exist somewhere in the initiative hierarchy, but with this style, its main task is mostly to share data, tools, and coaching. The heavy lifting, the action-taking, is left to groups and individuals outside of that team.

If your brand consists of, say, locally owned and operated franchises, or simply has a history of reduced central control, you might find this style most to your liking. It can enable franchisees and regional managers to turn their locations into CX powerhouses that are each very tailored to the areas they serve. However, this also creates the danger of program and experience inconsistency, both of which risk leaving customers confused and disengaged if they frequent multiple locales. Making group decisions is also, of course, more difficult with an approach this decentralized.

Decisions, Decisions

So, which of these sounds most like your organization, or most like the setup that would be great for a new or refurbished CX program? If you’re still on the fence and want to learn more, click here to see our new infographic on the subject, with more details and considerations for each customer experience governance approach. Customer experience governance is a challenge at the best of times, but if you can find the approach that works best for you, you’ll be well on your way to achieving continuous Experience Improvement (XI).

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Three Ways to Approach CX Governance Decisions, Decisions

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by The Pearl-Plaza Team

Reading time 3 minutes

3 Tips to Bridge the Gap Between Your CX Team & C-Suite

Oftentimes, the c-suite and the customer experience (CX) or customer success team live on the same planet, but almost in separate countries—they simply speak different languages. The former is interested in counting dollars and profitability and the latter with measuring metrics. So how should a CX practitioner go about bridging that gap in communication? How can you take the invaluable insights your CX team is discovering and translate it into meaning that executives will understand and act on?

We know that customer experience can be a tough sell—after all, your business has so many priorities! Proving that your CX program has direct ROI and impact on your bottom line can be nebulous at best. But when your CX team has the c-suite’s backing, many organizational walls are broken and it becomes easier to demonstrate the insurmountable value that a successful CX program produces for a business. To help your brand along, here are three essential tips to close the gap between the C-Suite and CX teams.

Tip #1: Break Down Metrics

Customer experience metrics are core to any CX program—whether it’s NPS, CSAT, CES, etc. The challenge is how do you present those metrics in a way that makes executives regard them as crucial data points? At Pearl-Plaza, we start with an approach we like to call the “Solving for X:” take your executives through your business objectives and what you’re truly trying to solve for customers. Then put it under categories like customer acquisition, customer retention, cross-sell and up-sell, cross-savings, etc. By parsing out the problems your team is solving for, you can show executives how they map onto the customer journey. And eventually, how those metrics directly inform the important touchpoints in that journey.

Tip #2: Tell Stories

Beyond all the data, numbers, and statistics, there’s a human customer at the heart of your CX program. So how do you get executives to see and empathize with the customers they don’t interact with on a daily basis? Stories, stories, stories. It can be a customer story, verbatims, videos, etc., but the point is that storytelling connects humans together—and it can do the same with your customers and executives.

And it doesn’t have to stop at just customers. Employees play a significant role as customer experience providers, especially as frontline ones. Getting executives to understand a day in the life of frontline employees or customers can shift their perspective on how your program is adding value to the company. It’s easy to latch onto numbers as concrete evidence, but stories can make the numbers come alive.

Tip #3: Use Small, Real Money Examples

When you’re presenting a business case, the goal shouldn’t be complexity. Even the most simple of cases can prove to be a persuasive argument. For example, let’s say there’s a rental car business that sells at airports. What if we could save one customer per month at each of the top airport rental locations? If you multiply that customer by ten and then by hundred, that’s millions of dollars of value saved. So asking small questions like that can be a huge game changer in how your executives understand the value in a successful customer journey.

Building a Strong CX Foundation with the C-Suite

Luckily, your relationship with executives is an ongoing one. Which means there will be countless meetings and presentations, and most importantly chances to learn to speak in the C-Suite language. Each conversation is an opportunity for your CX team to prove that CX value and business value is one and the same. So don’t be devastated if it takes a few swings. Fail and adjust your strategy for the next meeting.

And when you’re looking for a boost of confidence and CX expertise, watch this webinar: Eric Smuda (Principal, CX Strategy & Enablement) speaks on Translating CX Value into the C-Suite’s Language.

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Building a Strong CX Foundation with the C-Suite

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Updated August 9, 2024

Written by The Pearl-Plaza Team

Reading time 3 minutes

Natural Language Processing 101: Three Tips for Optimising Your Text Analytics Software

When it comes to experience programs, text analytics software has been revolutionising data interpretation since the capability arrived on the scene. I’m Siobhan May Jones, one of Pearl-Plaza’s Customer Success Directors, and over my career, I’ve seen this transition up close.

One of my first jobs whilst studying at university was manually coding thousands of verbatims about pet food. While this was great financially because I got paid by the hour, it wasn’t a good use of time by today’s standards. Over the next five years, I worked in the market research industry and found that too many tasks are manual process-rich, as well as subject to human error. It has taken years of discipline to rewire my brain from manual work to working with experts and tools to achieve the right goal.

Let me give you an example—let’s say you need to understand what customers are saying about your employees each month. Your goal is to track which employees you need to support, and which ones need to be celebrated.

You have two options:

1) Download a raw extract of the verbatim and read through it month by month, gain an understanding of what customers are saying, then talk to the team about it.

2) Use natural language processing tools to visualise where and why these comments are showing excellence or areas requiring improvement.

It’s not really a choice between these two options, as the first scenario has you spending hours clicking buttons and cleaning or filtering data, while the second forces you to make an action plan.

So how can you optimise your text analytics software and, ultimately, strengthen your customer experience (CX) program? I have three tips for you:

Tip #1: Confirm You’re Using the Latest and Greatest Software

Before taking any action with text analytics, we recommend chatting with experts in your field to make sure you have the latest tools, processes, software, and overall capability. Your text analytics software should have these four features:

Scalability

A solution that supports all of the countries and languages your customers work and buy in—at an acceptable level of quality and price.

Quality

Your text analytics solution must be able to surface important trends and patterns based on individual comments and the sentiments behind them.

Actionability

You need a layer of sophisticated analytics that can add tags and themes on a granular level, uncover sentiment, assign categories, identify intent, spot legal issues, and pick up on possible customer churn.

Speed

A solution with real-time analysis, reporting and action. This is specifically relevant when considering translations for global companies.

If your text analytics software is missing any of these features, you’ll be starting at a disadvantage. Here at Pearl-Plaza, we’re constantly innovating based on clients’ specific needs to ensure we’re helping reduce processes and increase action.

Tip #2: Keep Your Goal Front of Mind When Processing Customer Feedback

When you designed your customer experience program, you no doubt started with a goal in mind. And when it comes to processing thousands of unstructured pieces of customer feedback, it can be easy to lose sight of the original goal.

We recommend being honest and clear with your team (and yourself) about what your primary goal is, then using the right approach for that goal. Are you looking to add qualitative information to bring life to your metrics, trying to understand what makes customers angry or frustrated, or are you looking to track a recent frontline training initiative and see if customers noticed enough to talk about it?

Alternatively, are you looking to set up alerts based on topics (regardless of the many possible typos)? Text analytics is a powerful tool that will help you with any of the above goals.

Tip #3: Be On The Lookout For New Updates

When it comes to text analytics software, there will always be new updates, new features, and new opportunities. We recommend adding a biannual calendar note to yourself to proactively identify how text analytics software is changing over time. By being open to change and by constantly onboarding new features, you have a real opportunity to stay ahead of the competition by keeping focus on continuous Experience Improvement (XI).

For more information on text analytics, check out this eBook!

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Updated August 12, 2024

Written by Siobhan May Jones

Reading time 3 minutes

The Top 3 “Blended Experiences” Retail Consumers & Employees Expect This Year

In 2022, modern retailers will face many challenges as the industry continues to recover from the global pandemic. During the unpredictable lockdown, retail brands were forced to transform their in-person experiences to digital ones. And now, according to our most recent EX & CX Retail Trends research, both customers and employees expect a blended experience.

But what does the term “blended experience” really mean? Well, it’s essentially bringing the digital experience to the in-store experience. Hence, “blended”. Still not getting the gist of it? Then let’s take a look at three concrete examples we’ve discovered based on data our Strategic Insights Team collected from consumers and employees across North America. Here’s what people are truly expecting:

Blended Experience #1: Buy Online, Pick Up Instore

It’s no surprise that being able to buy products online is an expectation, but customers also want options on how to receive said product. During quarantine, retail stores often offered same-day home delivery, curbside pick up, and buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS). The question is, which of these will last?

For employees, curbside and delivery have proven expensive to operate and don’t drive sales like in-store traffic does (especially if retail employees are working commission). Meanwhile, because delivery is no longer considered a free necessity, and because curbside pick-up times aren’t as flexible, customers are less impressed with these options. So, BOPIS is a compromise: customers get to easily buy products online and receive their items relatively quickly, while employees get to engage with customers in-store while avoiding the obstacles those pickup types present.

Blended Experience #2: Pick Up, Walk Out (Automatic Payment)

After a long two years, customers and employees are used to a contactless experience and find it convenient for reasons beyond COVID. Additionally, with grocery stores continuing to capitalize on self-checkout experiences and innovations like Amazon Go’s Just Walk Out technology, more customers are expecting the retail industry to follow suit. Simply removing checkout lines can save retail stores over $37.7 billion and allow customers to shop without the hindrance of wasting time waiting in line.

Blended Experience #3: Virtual Try-On

Augmented reality in retail blew up during the pandemic. And, with the many social media filters that younger customers use daily, it’s no wonder that virtual try-on capability has emerged as a top expectation. Of course, customers would rather not wait to change in a stall or travel all the way to a store, but the real kicker is that virtual try-on actually minimizes a lot of risk for them.

One of the greatest barriers for online retail experiences is the reality that customers can’t really try on what they buy. With a virtual feature like this, customers get a visual sense of how the items they’re eyeing could fit in their lives, without ever having to leave home. After a virtual try-on experience, customers are reassured that their purchases truly suit their desires, reducing the chance of returns.

The In-Store Experience of the Future

It’s clear that, when it comes to retail, customers want a blend of digital and in-person experiences, not just one or the other. Both types of experiences have their pros and cons, and it’s our job as experience professionals to deliver an integrated interaction that brings forth each of their valuable qualities. Hopefully, these examples can help your brand take a second look at the experience you’re currently providing customers and spark meaningful Experience Improvement (XI) this year.

But this dynamic doesn’t stop at just blended experiences. The retail world is being impacted by changes in feedback methods, the influence of social media, and the Gen Z perspective. There are many opportunities beyond blended experiences for retail stores to meet customer needs, which you can learn more about in our new eBook: EX & CX Trends: What Retail Brands Need to Know in 2022.

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The In-Store Experience of the Future

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by The Pearl-Plaza Team

Reading time 3 minutes

Three Considerations When Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Regulatory Compliance

Companies are investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) to save money and time—especially those in industries who have to constantly deal with regulatory compliance documents. After all, who wants to sift through endless amounts of tables and lists? Those working in legal, medical, or financial sectors are often all too familiar with this infamous struggle. And considering this, it makes sense that PwC predicts AI could contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy in the near future. Busy work, laborious practices, and the humdrum of paperwork are not the most ideal job duty for any employee. This poses an important question: is AI powerful enough so that no employee will ever have to touch a regulatory compliance document again?

To help you answer that question, here are the top three things you need to consider:

Consideration #1: What Is Artificial Intelligence?

Fundamentally, we should think of artificial intelligence as a tool rather than a replacement for human expertise. AI doesn’t accomplish anything without a proper wielder to fully comprehend how to use it. Therefore, it’s key to rethink your AI strategy. Ask yourself, how are you approaching AI?

Let’s first take a look at the problem at hand. Regulatory compliance documents require an extreme attention to detail due to their naturally complex text structure. That’s why traditional text analytics don’t necessarily do the trick. Essentially, what you want AI to do is to read, check, and extract data from a document that’s written and filled out by humans.

The thing is these documents aren’t standardized, resulting in arbitrary changes in format and other elements. This puts AI in a tough situation. As a technology that functions through learning from examples, how can it learn if the examples change unpredictably?

Consideration #2: AI Cannot Succeed Alone

That doesn’t mean you should totally scrap AI, it just needs a little help. In the case of regulatory compliance, AI cannot succeed alone, but it can be a core part of your success. To tackle regulatory compliance documents, you need a combination of three technologies:

Semi-Structured Data Parsing
Natural Language Processing
Machine Learning and AI

Each of these technologies supply needed functions, such as extracting text, understanding the meaning of a text, pattern recognition and response, etc. But with all these helpful aids, the human eye still remains the most reliable. Technology may not be able to totally replace humans in this context, but it can certainly provide a solution that mitigates the heavy burden of regulatory compliance.

Consideration #3: Designing an Effective and Personal AI Strategy

It’s likely that your specific industry and country encounters problems other companies outside of your field or location don’t. In that way, making sure that your AI implementation covers all bases in the documents you process can feel like a solo battle. And that’s why you need to invest in a platform that will allow for the customization your brand needs. Regulatory compliance documents vary depending on the business setting and thus have unique requirements for AI to fulfill.

Wrapping It Up

So the short answer is no, in this case AI cannot fully replace humans in regulatory compliance. But it can certainly aid businesses in working more efficiently and effectively. Rather than approaching this as AI or humans, one or the other, it should instead be AI for humans. Many AI for compliance tools fail to provide useful solutions because they don’t understand this complex relationship.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to sharpen your approach to AI for regulatory compliance, read the full white paper where we also include specific case examples!

In this Post

Wrapping It Up

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by The Pearl-Plaza Team

Reading time 3 minutes

What’s On Your Customer Experience Governance Checklist? Three Must-Haves

The term “customer experience (CX) program” refers to an immensely broad concept. But at the same time, a “customer experience program” encompasses countless daily actions and processes. How do you keep track of all your efforts? And what do you need to do to keep them going? That’s where a customer experience governance foundation comes in—and more specifically, where this governance checklist we put together for you becomes the most useful.

Think of it as the ultimate cheat sheet you need to ensure that your program is meeting all the standards it needs to make an impact. If you are able to cross off all the elements, you’ll be able to put in place the right framework—allowing your organization to continuously match your customers’ needs. Additionally, you’ll bring everyone together towards a consistent company mission. To help you start off your own CX governance checklist, let’s take a look at three must-haves:

Must-Have #1: Defined CX Leaders

Customer experience governance begins with a dedicated council to support your ongoing program’s initiatives and efforts. The key here is inviting a diverse range of stakeholders to the larger CX conversation. What should each team contribute and receive so that the program is distributing significant value across the board?

Not only is enabling leaders important to understanding the needs of the business and customers, but it also establishes a successful foundation for cross-business communication. The worst you can do for your program is to set it in a silo where no one is being heard. Customer experience improvement should be a company-wide investment because it can make a company-wide impact.

Must-Have #2: CX Program’s Rules and Regulations

Without rules and regulations, your CX governance structure will collapse. Clearly mapping out your program’s goals, outcomes, KPIs, etc. on a realistic timeframe sets you up for success. Teams across the business will be more enthusiastic and determined to overcome challenges if they’re directly involved in the planning process. Rather than someone from the outside demanding that a team meet certain KPIs by a certain time; it’s more likely that employees will be able to deliver on those requests through the support and understanding of their manager’s personal engagement with the program. And that’s how a healthy CX culture can be cultivated in the workplace—with a healthy customer experience governance foundation.

Must-Have #3: Ongoing Inspiration for Teammates Across the Company

Oftentimes, there needs to be an even greater push to drive a CX program to the forefront of your business initiatives. For that to happen, you need to broadcast what your program is, the value it produces based on concrete data or customer stories, and how it’s working wonders for customers. The more teams on board with your program will help sustain it in the long run and produce greater results.

There are endless ways to share customer experience with and inspire your teammates—whether it’s an elevator pitch presentation of why a CX program matters or sending consistent updates of how the program is making impactful changes among your customer base. You might need to think a little creatively as each industry operates differently. But there are no shortage of avenues to reach the employees who would support your cause through and through.

Now a Customer Experience governance checklist isn’t a static one. It calls for continuous revision, additions, and hopefully completions! So this isn’t the end. There are probably countless boxes you can think of right now that need to be filled. Get a headstart adding to your checklist today by reading the full white paper where we give an in-depth look at what will make your program stick.

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by The Pearl-Plaza Team

Reading time 3 minutes

The Cost of Deprioritising Customer Experience During Tough Times

It’s no secret that the Head Of Operations and the Head Of Customer Experience often have differing priorities. This happens because each party, due to their experience, sees the business through a different lens. In fact, COVID-19 has further encouraged most businesses to prioritise a more operational lens, decreasing their focus on the customer experience. As things begin to open up, however, this lack of emphasis on creating positive customer experiences could prove to be problematic as the care a company has put into CX initiatives during this pandemic will surely affect their business post-pandemic.

My name is Justin Rehayem, Head of APAC Solution Designer at Pearl-Plaza, and I’ve seen this first-hand. To be clear, I do not believe that businesses prioritising operations over customer experience the past few years means that they do not care about the customer experience. However, decreasing CX initiatives in the short term can truly cause some long term effects, especially when it comes to customer churn.

We can’t change the past, but what we can do is learn from it. When future times of crisis present themselves (as they’re sure to do) we as CX professionals can carry forward this lesson: that both operations and customer experience need to be prioritised in order to make it through hard times.

Balancing Operations and Customer Experience: A Case Study

To get a better look at this concept, let’s analyse a policy at an ANZ airline.

First, some context for our international readers. New Zealand’s international border remains closed to the world until at least April 30th 2022, with arrivals having to undergo a 14 day hotel quarantine. In April 2021 however, New Zealand entered into a quarantine free travel agreement with Australia leading to a surge of flight bookings throughout 2021 and into 2022. Unfortunately, due to the rise of the Delta variant, this quarantine free travel agreement was short lived. With quarantine back on the table, as you would expect, airlines had to cancel their international flights and offer credits or refunds to their customers.

But what about domestic flights within New Zealand? You would expect those to be converted into a credit as well since the international visitors cannot enter the country and board the plane. Well, not all airlines agree. Some airlines took a stance that since domestic borders are open, and since the domestic flight can take off, then ‘normal fare rules apply.’

An operations leader might view this situation as the customer’s fault since the international visitor chose not to purchase a flexi fare. Therefore, they should not be entitled to a credit, and must pay the change fee of $50 if they wish to move their flight.

What complicates the policy above is the fact that now there is no certainty when New Zealand’s international borders will open quarantine free, what with the rise of the Omicron variant and nations reverting back to lockdown measures. So what does an international visitor do? Do they change their flight to a future date and pay $50? And risk paying another $50 if the borders are not opened, or just forfeit their airline ticket all together?

Whatever they choose, I can tell you with certainty that when customers have a negative experience, they develop a negative perception of the brand. And this negative perception doesn’t stop with one person, research indicates that an individual’s negative experience with a brand is shared with at least five other people.

A customer-focused policy will view the long term impact this policy can have on a customer’s lifetime value and compare it against the financial impact that a customer centric policy will have on the business. This must be at the root of their reasoning as they advocate for the customer, showing the financial impact of both operations-focused and customer-focused policies side by side. Why? Numbers are the universal cross-functional language spoken by the CEO, CFO, and COO.

What Is the Financial Impact of Customer Churn?

As an example, let’s quantify the possible financial impact to an airline with a less customer-focused policy.

You probably will have gathered by now that I am one of those unlucky customers that have been impacted by the policy having lost $260 on two economy tickets. My partner and I fly at least twice a year to visit family, and you probably can guess by now that I won’t be flying with an airline that doesn’t have customer-focused policies in place. And at $600 a return flight per person, that equates to $2400 in lost revenue per year I choose to fly with a competitor.

Remember how I said that an individual’s negative experience with a brand is shared with at least five other people? Well in my case that number is around 100—since I have around 100 international guests flying overseas for my wedding. With airline tickets so competitively priced, who do you think they will be flying with? So assuming that all my guests follow through on their promise to book a customer-focused airline, then that’s already $60,000 in lost revenue.

So what did this airline gain from deprioritising the customer experience? In my specific circumstances, they may have gained back my forfeited economy flights for $260, but they also forfeited $62,400 in lost revenue over the next 12 months. If the business had offered its international visitors a flight credit for their domestic flight, what would they have lost? The answer is not much, especially compared to the cost of a disgruntled customer.

Wrapping Up: Customer Churn Is Always Costly to Businesses

It’s important for businesses to take into account customer stories like this one when designing policies. A policy focusing that deprioritises customer experience has the potential to cost your business big time when it comes to recurring revenue.

To learn more about customer churn and its impact to your business, check out this article, “Understanding the “Why” Behind Customer Churn”

In this Post

Balancing Operations and Customer Experience: A Case Study What Is the Financial Impact of Customer Churn?Wrapping Up: Customer Churn Is Always Costly to Businesses

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by Justin Rehayem

Reading time 4 minutes

3 Ways to Capture Non-Purchaser Feedback to Improve Experiences

When it comes to collecting feedback, of course we want to hear what our actual customers have to say about their experience. But, what about those individuals who have yet to make a purchase? Without a transaction, these non-purchasers won’t receive an invitation to take a survey—but, their experience is just as important to listen to and understand. In fact, non-purchaser feedback can offer you additional perspective that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

Non-purchaser feedback is valuable for many reasons—it can help point your brand to the reasons why customers might not be completing transactions as well as help you discover critical experience gaps in the customer journey.

Here are three customer experience (CX) solutions you can use to connect with and understand the experience of non-purchasers:

Solution #1: Use a Digital Intercept on Your Website

One of the most prominent solutions is to use digital intercepts on your website. An example of this is Foot Locker—this retail brand uses an ‘always on’ listening tab on their homepage that collects feedback from both customers and non-purchasers.

When it comes to connecting with customers that haven’t completed a purchase, digital intercepts are a creative solution for collecting feedback. For example, Foot Locker uses a web survey that pops up in an iframe after customers browse for more than five minutes, if they abandon their cart items, or if they return using the same IP address multiple times without completing a transaction.

These are all opportunities to engage with your customers and better understand their experience, allowing you to better inform your business on what actions need to be taken to improve these experiences—and improve conversation rates.

Solution #2: Encourage Employees to Invite Non-Purchasers to Participate

Because the employee experience (EX) is tied so closely to the customer experience (CX), of course we recommend to involve your frontline staff as much as possible in your overall CX program. These employees can be your greatest asset when it comes to connecting with non-purchasers.

Many retailers use posters throughout the store to encourage feedback, and others will hand out QR codes on cards to shoppers if they leave empty handed. Simply asking staff to promote the feedback program to both customers and non-purchasers will boost the volume of feedback and insights for your business, and help you understand more about the in-store experience gaps and opportunities to improve.

Having a CX program that incorporates the voice of employee is a modern day ‘must’. Make sure you have an easily accessible channel for your employees to share the feedback that they are hearing from customers each day. It is far too valuable to ignore!

Solution #3: Consolidate Your Solicited Customer Feedback with Your Unsolicited Social Feedback

Let’s face it, 80% or more of the customer feedback you’ll collect will come from customers, people that have made one or many purchases from your brand. A channel that is already rich in non-purchaser feedback is social. There are loads of reviews that exist today about your brand, about your website, or about the in-store experience that a non-purchaser has already shared. If you are reading and acting on these already, that’s terrific.

The next step is then to consolidate all this rich non-purchaser feedback into your broader CX program. Having all your feedback in one location improves your level of understanding, broadens the range of customers you’ll hear from and leads to much clearer decision making across the whole of your business.

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by Scott Hobson

Reading time 2 minutes

Three Steps Chevron Federal Credit Union Took to Reinvigorate its CX Program

Stagnant NPS scores. Data silos. Slow response rates. Chevron Federal Credit Union realized it needed a change. As a not-for-profit, member-owned organization, Chevron Federal Credit Union’s mission is to provide the highest level of personalized service to customers. But when it became difficult to effectively measure and improve experiences, Chevron Federal Credit Union partnered with Pearl-Plaza to create a holistic strategy for its customer service initiatives—and were able to power some incredible results.

Here are the three steps Chevron Federal Credit Union took to reinvigorate its customer experience (CX) program:

Step #1: Streamline Surveys to Align CX Objectives Across the Business

Instead of sending surveys irregularly without a clear plan, Chevron Federal Credit Union began to streamline its surveys for a more integrated approach. Developing and sequencing surveys takes preparation, so this meant Chevron Federal Credit Union had to align its many business sections to set a precedent for consistent survey sendouts. Even though the surveys were unique to its department, Chevron Federal Credit Union’s partnership with Pearl-Plaza gave them the opportunity to combine data from across the board. This holistic view of their data allowed them to understand how different sources of information were informing one another and telling a greater story.

Step #2: Implement Advanced Text Analytics to Enable Closed Loop Feedback

To enable closed loop feedback, Chevron Federal Credit Union implemented the technology platform’s advanced text analytics capabilities. This allowed the organization to capitalize on the data collected from the new survey approach. With the ability to automatically collect, normalize, and analyze open-ended survey responses as well as online comments and reviews, Chevron Federal Credit Union was able to immediately identify the areas in which to take action. Unified survey management and customized dashboards could support all of Chevron Federal Credit Union’s customer experience objectives going forward—and so the next step was obvious.

Step #3: Turn Member Feedback into Experience Improvement

With more than 110,000 members in eight states, how do you turn survey data and feedback into efficient action? Chevron Federal Credit Union integrated the platform with the Salesforce case management solution so that the right people would be instantly notified whenever a customer gave a low survey score. Before it’s partnership with Pearl-Plaza, it took Chevron Federal Credit Union a few weeks to process survey data and present that information to front-line managers and employees. Now, case management allows for actionable responses within the same day a survey is submitted. Having a reliable follow-up procedure helps Chevron Federal Credit Union maintain its vision to provide members with the quality service that keeps them coming back year after year.

Making Meaningful, Long-term Improvements

Chevron Federal Credit Union overcame customer experience problems many businesses struggle with: turning survey metrics to meaning, systematizing structured and unstructured data, and providing excellent customer support.

Here’s what Chevron Federal Credit Union’s President and CEO John Berlin had to say:

“We realized that to improve our NPS score and other metrics, we needed to move beyond the basic survey tools we’d been using to create a more modern, cohesive, and data-driven customer experience program. This was a big, ambitious step for us, so we knew we would also need an experienced, capable CX partner to help us get there.”

This success story can be your success story too. Read the full case study to learn more.

In this Post

Making Meaningful, Long-term Improvements

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by The Pearl-Plaza Team

Reading time 2 minutes

3 Factors to Consider if You Have a CX Incentives Program

Though customer experience (CX) programs are always changing and evolving, one element that many brands constantly consider is whether to add a CX incentives program to those initiatives.

On its face, such a program may seem quite straightforward—directly reward experience outcomes or add incentives to existing programs, and you’re good to go. However, there are actually quite a few factors that organizations need to look at while weighing an incentives program, not the least of which is ensuring that such programs aren’t subject to abuse or distortion (check out this eBook to read about the cons of incentivizing your CX program). We’ve put together a few lenses through which to view CX incentives. Let’s go through them!

Behaviors
Feedback-Based Incentives
Incentivizing Existing Behaviors

Lens #1: Behaviors

This lens is fundamental to any rewards program because it challenges you to consider which behaviors you’re trying to change. Perhaps more importantly, in whom are you trying to change those behaviors? Taking a behavioral magnifying glass to a potential rewards program helps define its purpose. At the same time, though, brands need to be mindful that behavioral reporting can be skewed. Consider that possibility as you establish which behaviors you’d like to see change and how such changes are reported; that consideration goes a long way toward skew-proofing your CX incentives.

Lens #2: Feedback-Based Rewards

This question is a bit more specific to EX initiatives, but we’ve seen it come up a lot when working with clients on their rewards programs. It’s hardly uncommon for organizations to reward employees, but whether you’re incentivizing above-and-beyond behavior or encouraging higher engagement, there’s always the risk that some reporting could be exaggerated. The best way to sidestep this potential obstacle is to base your incentive rewards on customer feedback. It’s a pretty safe bet that your employees deserve recognition if the insistence on it is coming directly from your customers!

Lens #3: Incentivizing Existing Behaviors

Most CX incentives programs are built with the goal of changing or improving certain behaviors in mind, but what about staying the course? If your brand is in a good place right now (i.e., most of your employees are passionate about your organization’s mission and you’ve formed bold, human, and invested relationships with your customers), there’s nothing wrong with incentivizing everyone to just keep doing what they’re doing. Even if you see room for improvement in your CX or EX spheres, incentivizing existing behaviors can help provide a good foundation for rewards initiatives before taking things higher. As always, though, remember to consider how that behavior is being reported and how else it could be tamper-proofed.

The Next Step

Considering the purpose and effectiveness of your CX incentives program is of obvious importance, but what else do organizations need to strategize as they build or refurbish such initiatives? Additionally, how can incentives programs help directly stimulate meaningful change and Experience Improvement (XI)?

Click here to read our full-length white paper on the world of CX incentives programs, in which expert David Ensing considers these initiatives from every angle and presents a carefully researched perspective you can leverage.

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The Next Step

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by The Pearl-Plaza Team

Reading time 2 minutes

Digital Intercept: How to Collect Customer Feedback Without Ruining the Experience

We’ve all been there. You’re shopping for something online and you start to compare options on different websites. You’re excited to explore a particular item, but as soon as you click into the brand’s website, a little window pops up asking you what you think of the website experience. “What experience?” you think. “I barely just entered the page!”

This little pop-up window is more commonly known in the customer experience (CX) industry as an intercept or digital intercept. Though the use of a digital intercept has great intentions, the unfortunate truth is that it can often harm the customer experience more than it improves the experience.

How Traditional Intercepts Damage the Experience

The ultimate goal of digital intercepts should be to get valuable feedback about your website and user experience so you can innovate and improve; however, some common practices can actually be perceived as intrusive, ill-timed, or irrelevant.

Intrusive

When a customer is casually perusing a site, a random pop-up can feel intrusive to the overall experience; they can feel hassled or like their interaction with your site has been interrupted. Ultimately, what may have been meant as a well-intentioned prompt can feel invasive and could cause a customer to abandon your page.

Ill-timed

If a survey window pops up as soon as a customer arrives at your homepage, your customer has not been able to get a good look at the full page, much less get an impression of how it functions or if they have any suggestions. Therefore, they most likely won’t have much feedback to give you—if they choose to participate in the survey at all.

Irrelevant

Traditional practices with intercepts are one-size-fits-all; very rarely are they customized to ask the right questions at the right time. This lack of customization means the questions asked are not directly relevant to a customer’s individual experience, leaving the brand with shallow feedback that won’t make a real difference.

What Are Best Practices for Digital Intercepts?

The end goal of an intercept is not about collecting as much data as possible, but about giving customers the opportunity to provide useful data at the right time.

Here are some suggestions on how brands can do just that:

Don’t: Create One-size-fits-all Intercept Surveys

Do: Map Out Possible Site Pathways for Customization

Instead of drafting one intercept survey to serve your entire site, consider all the different touchpoints you want to collect data from and then craft questions.

Keep in mind how users are browsing your site and craft intercepts around that information. For instance, a feedback tab may be perfect for desktop users, but it’s far too small in size for mobile users. Consider using a banner on your mobile site instead.
Be creative! Triggers can be used together to target specific user groups for feedback. For example, if you want to collect more feedback from customers in a specific state, you can set a trigger based on IP addresses.

Don’t: Ask Unnecessary or Irrelevant Questions

Do: Gear Questions Toward the User’s Specific Experience

In order to get the best feedback possible, you have to ask the right questions about the right experience for each type of customer. For instance, a question asking about the checkout experience would be irrelevant to a customer who has yet to make a purchase. Instead, set a trigger for an intercept to appear for a customer with a few lingering items in their bag to learn why they haven’t taken the plunge.

Keep it simple. Surveys that are too long are less likely to be completed and also take away from the user experience. Try to keep it to a few high-quality questions so you can get the information you need without losing your customer’s attention.
Revisit the map of possible visitor pathways you created to help prescribe questions to specific user situations. The more tailored your questions can be to a customer scenario, the better. For example, you can ask specific questions targeting those who use the mobile site in order to improve the mobile design and experience.

Don’t: Have Something Pop Up Right Away

Do: Give Customers Time to Provide Informed Feedback

The phrase “garbage in, garbage out” is especially relevant when you’re collecting data; if you aren’t collecting quality feedback, your insights won’t create real business impact. This is why it’s especially important to give your customers the opportunity to navigate your site before asking them to give you feedback.

Strategically place a feedback tab or another always-available channel on the website for instant feedback. This way, customers have the ability to provide you with feedback outside of the triggers you’ve set up.
Set up an intercept for customers who have lingered on the site for some time but haven’t made a purchase or reached out. This allows you to check in and see if they have any questions or concerns.

Enhance, Don’t Interrupt

Whenever you set up an intercept survey on your website, you should ask yourself if it will enhance or interrupt your customer’s experience. If you seek to enhance the experience with every question, you are well on your way to the best feedback, insights, and positive business impact.

In this Post

How Traditional Intercepts Damage the Experience What Are Best Practices for Digital Intercepts? Enhance, Don’t Interrupt

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Watch this demo video to see how Pearl-Plaza’s award-winning AI tech does the heavy lifting on analysis so you can spend more time lifting CX results.

Written by The Pearl-Plaza Team

Reading time 4 minutes

Build an Integrated CX Program

Build an Integrated CX Program

2024 Online Reputation Benchmark Report

Truth #1: Stagnant Programs Are Only Measuring and Managing Experiences

Truth #2: Improving Experiences (and Finding CX Value) Focuses on the Big Picture

Truth #3: True CX Transformation Requires Action

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Get More Out of Your CX Program

The 2024 Consumer Trends Report

10 Steps to Easily Build An Integrated Customer Experience Program

Three Ways to Approach CX Governance

Customer Experience Governance Approach #1: Directive

Customer Experience Governance Approach #2: Consensus-Based

Customer Experience Governance Approach #3: Local

Decisions, Decisions

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Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Get More Out of Your CX Program

The 2024 Consumer Trends Report

10 Steps to Easily Build An Integrated Customer Experience Program

Tip #1: Break Down Metrics

Tip #2: Tell Stories

Tip #3: Use Small, Real Money Examples

Building a Strong CX Foundation with the C-Suite

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Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Get More Out of Your CX Program

The 2024 Consumer Trends Report

10 Steps to Easily Build An Integrated Customer Experience Program

Tip #1: Confirm You’re Using the Latest and Greatest Software

Scalability

Quality

Actionability

Speed

Tip #2: Keep Your Goal Front of Mind When Processing Customer Feedback

Tip #3: Be On The Lookout For New Updates

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Get More Out of Your CX Program

The 2024 Consumer Trends Report

10 Steps to Easily Build An Integrated Customer Experience Program

Blended Experience #1: Buy Online, Pick Up Instore

Blended Experience #2: Pick Up, Walk Out (Automatic Payment)

Blended Experience #3: Virtual Try-On

The In-Store Experience of the Future

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Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Get More Out of Your CX Program

The 2024 Consumer Trends Report

10 Steps to Easily Build An Integrated Customer Experience Program

Consideration #1: What Is Artificial Intelligence?

Consideration #2: AI Cannot Succeed Alone

Consideration #3: Designing an Effective and Personal AI Strategy

Wrapping It Up

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Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Get More Out of Your CX Program

The 2024 Consumer Trends Report

10 Steps to Easily Build An Integrated Customer Experience Program

Must-Have #1: Defined CX Leaders

Must-Have #2: CX Program’s Rules and Regulations

Must-Have #3: Ongoing Inspiration for Teammates Across the Company

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Get More Out of Your CX Program

The 2024 Consumer Trends Report

10 Steps to Easily Build An Integrated Customer Experience Program

Balancing Operations and Customer Experience: A Case Study

What Is the Financial Impact of Customer Churn?

Wrapping Up: Customer Churn Is Always Costly to Businesses

In this Post

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Get More Out of Your CX Program

The 2024 Consumer Trends Report

10 Steps to Easily Build An Integrated Customer Experience Program

Solution #1: Use a Digital Intercept on Your Website

Solution #2: Encourage Employees to Invite Non-Purchasers to Participate

Solution #3: Consolidate Your Solicited Customer Feedback with Your Unsolicited Social Feedback

Watch the Video – Get More Out of Your CX Program

Get More Out of Your CX Program

The 2024 Consumer Trends Report

10 Steps to Easily Build An Integrated Customer Experience Program