4 Must-Have Customer Experience Competencies

While the 2018 U.S. Tempkin Experience Ratings Report doesn’t surprise me in terms of results, it does highlight a number of different topics of interest in anticipating and managing the customer experience, otherwise called developing “customer experience maturity”. The report, based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. customers, sought feedback on their most recent interactions with 318 companies across 20 industries, against 3 criteria – success, effort, and emotion.

The report concluded that companies have a long way to go before they reach the highest levels of customer experience maturity. It also concluded that 4 customer experience competencies were required to create CX Maturity and establish long-term success. I’m going to be talking a little bit about each of these competencies in today’s article from the perspective of the contact center industry:

Purposeful Leadership

The Temkin Report defines purposeful leadership as operating consistently with a clear, well-articulated set of values. I would go a step further and say that purposeful leadership is about embracing a clear vision, executing it with genuine passion and positively, and influencing others through example. Purposeful leadership, as opposed to “accidental’’ leadership, is a strong enabler for driving profit and creating meaningful impact. 

From a practical perspective, ask yourself whether you are really committed to embracing the need to upgrade your customer experience competencies. The next step would be to create that clear vision of the ultimate customer service experience and set the wheels in motion to achieve it.

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement refers to aligning employees with your brand vision so that they will be excited about their work and will positively impact the company. A blog article by ICMI entitled “Employee Engagement Is Everyone’s Responsibility”, discusses the importance of this factor for company success. Having engaged employees is necessary to successfully transfer your goals and model of deployment to all customer touch points. Therefore, it is important for a company to understand the link between employee engagement and great customer service.

Keeping an employee engaged is an ongoing process that needs to be maintained for his or her entire job cycle. Do your employees understand the values of your business and how their roles fit in with meeting the overall business objective? Is the work environment conducive and are there ongoing training and mentorship programs to develop and ingrain an internal culture that is customer-centered?  Most importantly, are the employees vested in fulfilling the brand promise?

Compelling Brand Values

Creating compelling brand values, at its foundation, is about creating a brand vision statement that reflects the core purpose of the business and ensuring that both your employees and customers are aware of the statement and the behaviors that support this core purpose. Going a step further, ask yourself whether your brand values are driving the decisions about how you treat your customers.

Needless to say, compelling brand values are about creating a deep organizational change from the inside out, ensuring that everyone in the organization has to hold themselves up to fulfilling the brand promise. In contact centers, the easiest way to look at this is to consider that everyone in the business is responsible for engaging the customer in a way that reflects the brand purpose.

Customer Connectedness

Customer connectedness is about deploying customer feedback and insight into each area of your contact center business. Continuously evaluate the customer experience at every touchpoint, keep stakeholders and management informed, and make necessary changes. It is important to always keep the channels of communication open with both employees and customers to ensure the best possible customer service experience.

For today’s blog, I’ve covered the 4 critical customer experience competencies that your business should have. Also, read our blog about How to Use the Customer Experience Maturity Model to upgrade your CX, here.

CH Consulting Groupis a team of nationwide Customer Experience (CX) Consultants for today’s omni-channel contact center. Our team provides national and global clientele with unparalleled expertise in supporting businesses to achieve growth, manage change, and generate profit. For a comprehensive CX assessment and strategic plan customized for your unique business needs, connect with us here today.