How to Use the Customer Experience Maturity Model to Upgrade Your CX

The traditional Customer Experience Management (CEM) model could soon become a thing of the past. I’m seeing more and more companies willing to grab the bull by the horns and try out innovative approaches for staying ahead of the pack. There’s an increasing focus on the Customer Experience Maturity Model (CXMM) as a viable alternative to CEM. In this article, I will briefly touch upon the CXMM, discuss how it can be of benefit for your contact center business, and explore some CXMM strategies that you can implement to upgrade your customer experience.

Customer Experience Maturity Model (CXMM) – What’s Different?

Traditional CX approaches in contact centers have focused on reactive methods to attract and retain customers. The CXMM, however, goes a step further by proactively managing the customer experience from the inside out. Customer satisfaction forms the very core of the company’s culture.

The Temkin Group addresses 6 stages that an organization goes through for achieving CX maturity:

1. Ignore – This is the initial stage of CX maturity where a company has yet to realize the functional relevance of having a customer experience strategy and therefore does not see it as a crucial performance indicator.
2. Explore – As the company starts to become aware of how an evolved CX strategy could positively impact them, they start to study and focus on how best they can develop a viable CX strategy.
3. Mobilize – As the name suggests, at this stage, the stakeholders start actively mobilizing efforts to implement the first stages of a customer experience management program.
4. Operationalize – The 4^th stage is when the company starts implementing design and processes and puts tracking mechanisms in place to measure performance.
5. Align – The alignment stage is when the company starts to actively filter down the CX culture to its people, starting from hiring all the way through to management of positive frontline customer-focused behaviors.
6. Embed – At the final stage, companies will have reached a level where they are in a position to provide exceptional customer service given that a) they have created a deep institutionalized change to promote customer-centric behaviors and b) all parties in the company are vested to keep up the brand promise to provide the ultimate level of customer satisfaction.

Now that you are familiar with the six stages of CXMM, where do you think your organization stands?

3 Critical CXMM Strategies for Your Business

Here are 3 of my core recommended strategies to help you create an ideal CXMM for your contact center business:

• Have Comprehensive & Measurable Data

It’s important to have a fundamental understanding of customer behaviors and regular feedback surveys at all touch points. It’s also important to have your data organized in a meaningful way so that you not only understand it but can also use it to make concrete and profitable decisions. Keep data privacy in mind and only collect data that you absolutely need to run your business.

• Have a Vision and Create a Plan

The next step involves having a solid framework based on your understanding of what you lack and where you want to be. Create a plan around the framework in stages, determining who needs to be involved, what needs to be done to achieve specific goals, and how your efforts can be measured and adjusted as needed.

• Internalize the CX Culture

The critical component of customer experience maturity is having an internal culture that is congruent with exceptional customer experience management. Filter your vision down to every single person in your company so that everyone has a unified brand promise to work towards in a seamless fashion.

Also, read our blog on how to measure the customer experience here.

CH Consulting Group is 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.