10 Top Tips for Delivering a Branded Customer Experience

Over the last 10 years I have had the pleasure of working with many global organisations, across many sectors.

These include: retail, financial services, telecoms, technology, hospitality, professional services on the design and implementation of their Branded Customer Experience * (BCE) programmes.

Here are the top Customer Experience (CX) tips I have learned along the way:

1. Engage the Senior Leadership Early

Top down leadership is important in articulating a clear customer vision and  aligning the whole organisation around it.

People take more notice of what leaders  do rather than say, so engage leaders in ways that are visible to the organisation.

2. Establish a Cross-Functional Governance Process

Implementing a Branded Customer Experience (BCE) requires company-wide engagement.

Ensure composition of the Steering Group and Working Group is truly cross-functional.

3. Pay Attention to the Employee Experience

As we know from the Service Profit Chain, there is a strong correlation between the employee experience and the customer experience.

Address any factors that are having a negative impact on employee morale.

4. Appoint People with Strong Collaboration Skills

One of the biggest obstacles to progress on any CX  implementation is lack of buy-in from key stakeholders and functions.

Make sure the people you appoint to lead the effort have strong collaboration skills which will be needed to create alignment, commitment and engagement.

5. Gather Customer Insight

Start with customer insight gathered from your most important target customers.

Uncover the functional and emotional factors that drive retention and word of mouth referral.

6. Design a Branded Customer Experience

Design an experience that the organisation can deliver seamlessly across all  channels.

Three  factors should drive the design of your BCE:

• What matters most to target customers
• What your organisation can excel at  and become known for
• Where the competitive opportunity is

7. Simultaneously Focus on Consistency and Differentiation

Make sure you fix the basics – to drive functional  commitment.

Also, address the different sets of factors that inspire customers to be  emotionally loyal to your brand and  create a competitive advantage.

8. Bottom Up as Well as Top Down

Engaging managers and employees at all levels is critical.

Start a  Champions Programme, properly funded and supported, to help build momentum and embed the  cultural change that is often required, from the bottom up.

9. Think About Changing Behaviours

Don’t underestimate the degree to which behaviour needs to change.

Over-invest  in internal  communication and training for managers and employees at all levels.

10. Embed Customer Experience into the Organisation’s Infrastructure

This can be done by:

• Measuring the experience you are committed to delivering
• Ensuring performance management and HR processes are aligned with the CX and drive the right behaviour
• Integrating customer experience priorities into the business plans and budgets