Customer experience (CX) transformation is the secret sauce that gets your marketing mix geared up to completely nail new product and marketing initiatives … even if you’ve rolled out new initiatives before…But to truly transform your CX, you need to step back and review what you already have.
Does this sound familiar?
Your product/innovation and partnership teams have developed several products or partnerships over the past 18 months and you’re continually rolling out initiatives. You’re marketing team is working ‘at pace’ to get all these different product, services and partnership initiatives rolled out. The client services and sales teams are trying to retain customers, build value and revenue as well as win new customers …
… but you don’t really know if you are directing all these organisational resources (budget and people) effectively to deliver a superb customer offer and achieve the best ROI.
If you’re trying to get a grasp of the most effective way to direct your organisational resources (budget and people), you need to review everything from top to bottom.
To help you reach an unbiased snapshot, a CX review considers the specific activities your teams are doing to deliver against each of the customer experience channels (the marketing mix elements).
So, what is it about and how does it work?
What is a CX review?
A customer experience (CX) review considers the 7-customer experience’s operations and efforts of your organisation across what is known as ‘the marketing mix’. This review outlines what works, what does not, and where things can improve. It also measures the effectiveness of all the marketing mix activities, methods, and strategies and looks for hidden opportunities in those areas.
A strategic exploration combines quantitative and qualitative data from the seven marketing mix elements:
- Product and Service Portfolio
- Pricing
- Distribution channels
- Promotion/Marketing
- Process (sales and service)
- People and Partnerships
- Physical Evidence (the tangible elements of your business – website, stores, offices etc)
Why conduct a CX review?
A CX review allows you to identify strategies that can benefit your company and suggest changes in your approach if needed. Ideally, you’d benefit by conducting this review 2-3 years.
If you’re continually updating processes and adding new products, services, and partners, it’s important to understand how these all fit together operationally, strategically and as a CX that adapts you value proposition.
The strengths and shortcomings of the CX (value proposition) are assessed by evaluating each component of the seven marketing mix efforts. Having this data at your fingertips is key to optimising operations (efficiency), increasing ROI (effectiveness), enhancing your customer value proposition, and reaching your targets.
By reviewing your CX, you can learn the answers to these seven questions:
- Is your product portfolio optimised and setting clear strategies and tactics that support each individual product/service?
- Are your prices set on a sound cost, demand and competitive criteria that supports your positioning?
- Does your distribution channel coverage and service support your objectives and strategies?
- Are the organisation’s promotional strategy and objectives being set and measured in a customer-focused way that validates your budget?
- Are all your different process points delivering an excellent customer experience that simplifies their lives and retains customers?
- Are your back office and front-line people capable, available, and effective at delivering an excellent customer experience?
- Are you providing the right Physical evidence that supports your customer experiences and positioning?
With this information, you can find what mix elements work best, and create a strategy that directs your resources effectively to achieve the result you’re looking for.
How Do You Perform a CX review?
You are a detective, and you must be thorough and inquisitive. Make sure to include data, analysis, evidence, and examples that show the status of the market mix elements.
It analyses all seven of the marketing mix’s performance, assets, data, and optimisation opportunities.
What’s key here is to conduct 1:1 stakeholder interviews with each of the seven element’s departmental leaders e.g., Product Director, Marketing Director etc. An interview allows you to build on questions and creates a discussion that reconfirms objectives and reveals hidden challenges and opportunities within each department.
The beneficial side-effect of an review is that draws stakeholders in. These 1:1 interviews ensure each stakeholder can talk, in detail, about their department and ensures they feel that they’ve been included in the problem-solving process. That way, a review is NOT a witch hunt or a blame game, it’s about departmental collaboration that creates alignment to help solve problems and achieve bigger goals together.
Bringing all the analysis together will formulate recommendations of how each department can reach their goals and capture opportunities.
Have can a CX review help my business?
- Maximise limited budgets
- Identify opportunities to leverage (long term and quick wins)
- Create a relevant customer offer
- Strengthen positioning
- Solve capacity and capability challenges
Join the big players and uncover hidden value within your organisation with a CX transformation.
Let’s chat
Would you like to delivery excellent customer value and nail your objectives? Let’s talk CX transformation first. Drop me a message or book a complimentary no-obligation meeting and find out how I can help your business.
