IS YOUR CX PROGRAM FIT FOR SURVIVAL?

Is Your Cx Program Fit for Survival?

I was lucky enough to spend a week this summer in the Galapagos Islands, where I got to see a number of unique creatures that do not exist anywhere else in the world.

From the dinosaur-like iguanas that learned to swim in order to access the seaweed they live off of to the giant tortoises whose shells vary by island based on where vegetation is, it was amazing to see so many unique species thriving because of how they adapted to their unique environment.

This incredible environment is what inspired Charles Darwin’s famous theory of natural selection (or survival of the fittest), which among other things states that species that best adapt to their surroundings are more likely to survive.

While observing this incredible variety of highly adapted species, I found myself reflecting on how Darwin’s theories apply to customer experience. While most leading organizations are now investing in CX programs, the impact these programs have on both company performance and the customer experience wildly varies.

Customers’ needs and expectations have changed considerably in recent years, both in terms of the experience they receive and how they want to interact with organizations. The result is that CX practices that may have worked a few years ago are much less effective today.

From my experience working with a number of leading CX organizations—and what I have observed as a consumer—the best CX programs are those that are constantly evolving and adapting their approach, just like the incredible species in the Galapagos.

Some examples of how leading CX departments have evolved include:

• Increasing the number of channels used to engage with customers
• Elevating customer experience efforts from the department level to the enterprise level by broadly sharing customer intelligence across their organization
• Integrating robust analytics by combining customer feedback with behavioral and operational data

How do CX leaders sustain the energy to evolve their programs? While the evolution of the iguanas and tortoises that I saw was genuinely impressive, it took millions of years for that to occur—and we don’t have that kind of time.

What we do have is the ability to learn from each other and adapt accordingly. There are a lot of great CX best practices out there—one thing CX leaders do really well is leverage this knowledge and make small but important changes.

Conducting an assessment of your CX program and benchmarking your capabilities against other CX leaders is a great way to help ensure your program evolves with the changing environment. While this might seem daunting, it is actually something that can be done relatively quickly.

Verint has worked with a number of mature CX organizations on high-level CX Assessments that are completed in as little as two weeks. The assessment evaluates 30 capabilities across six core CX disciplines and helps companies see how their capabilities stack up against both their competitors and broader CX leaders.

It has been a useful tool for these organizations to identify capability gaps and prioritize the efforts needed to continue to evolve their programs. If you are interested in learning more about Verint’s CX Assessment offering, contact us here and we can set up a time to discuss a brief assessment.

While the evolution of your CX program may not be as fascinating as the evolution of iguanas and tortoises in the Galapagos, it is a necessary step for your organization's continued survival.