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Leading the Customer Experience
Book

Leading the Customer Experience

How to Chart a Course and Deliver Outstanding Results

Kogan Page, 2021 more...

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Well Structured
  • Visionary

Recommendation

Customer experience is the linchpin of corporate success across all industries. Customer experience leadership has never been more critical than in this time of easy and lightning-quick impression sharing. Companies whose customers aren’t thrilled with their experience can tell others about it in a flash. A bad experience could drive potential customers in the opposite direction with one click. Even more important, satisfied customers can send out the word just as swiftly. Brad Cleveland offers expert customer strategy insights that could elevate customer experience and overall performance.

Summary

The first step in leading customer experience is defining it.

It’s not enough for leaders to have a handle on the concept – they must ensure their teams understand it, too. Customer experience (CX) is bigger (more than the product, its customer service and its technology platform) and smaller (a single interaction with your company can create a lifelong association for a customer) than many realize.

CX is defined as:

  • Everything a prospect or customer hears about your organization (from your marketing department, employees, customers and other stakeholders).
  • Every interaction they have with it (including pre- and post-sales encounters with products and services).
  • Ultimately, how they feel about your organization (calm, excited, confident or confused).

Although you can’t control every encounter a prospect has with your company, you can create enthusiastic customer advocates by creating a culture of positivity and enthusiasm.

It’s common for a company’s CX to be worse than its leaders realize. Research indicates that many companies observe only 1% to 5% of customers encountering problems.

About the Authors

Brad Cleveland is an expert in customer strategy and management. He was the founding partner and former CEO of the International Customer Management Institute, now part of London-based Informa PLC.