Traditional Annual Planning is Dead: Do This Instead

This time of year, people get jumpy about annual business plans. Blogs admonishing you to look forward, consider your strengths and weaknesses and set stretch goals abound. And although there’s nothing wrong with all that, Christa Heibel, founder and CEO of CH Consulting Group, argues the annual plans of the past just don’t cut it in today’s business climate. “It’s all about customer experience, or CX,” Heibel says. “Businesses have absolutely got to figure out the right way to accommodate their customers’ needs and wants in order to retain business.” In other words, a sound CX strategy is imperative not only for growing your business, but to simply remain relevant.

Customer experience and revenue are explicitly connected. That means today’s businesses have to possess a deep understanding not only of what their customers want, but of how they want it. To understand – and leverage – the CX strategy, leaders have to be open to changes in perspective, focus and operations.

The CX Strategy
Just as marketing, branding, growth and other business disciplines require sound strategies in order to maintain momentum, so does your business’s customer experience. Businesses that don’t have a thoughtful CX strategy usually employ broad tactics that don’t take into account their own unique customers’ needs or the unique customer experience the business can deliver. In other words, your CX strategy should differentiate your brand experience.

Some analysts predict as many as 20.8 billion connected “things” will be in use worldwide by 2020. This phenomenon, known as the “Internet of Things,” will have the ability to provide businesses of all size with an immeasurable amount of real-time data and analytics. The trick, of course, is to understand how to use this mass of information in order to affect the bottom line. “Businesses who don’t mine and thoroughly understand their customer data are missing a huge opportunity,” Heibel says. “These insights should be put to use in CX strategy to measure performance and outcomes.”

According to Heibel, by leveraging customer data and other insights, companies can craft a clear, thoughtful CX strategy that can have a significant impact on their business. A sound strategy:

• Aligns with your overarching company strategy
• Describes – in detail – the customer experience you want to deliver
• Reflects your business’ unique brand attributes

Help is Here
Devising a CX strategy that outlines how your company will deliver high-value, personalized experiences across human and digital touchpoints can be daunting, but CHCG can help. With CX tools that pinpoint your customers’ needs and compares that data to your current CX solutions, CHCG can provide immediate value. “Based on real-world, real-time data, we create CX solutions that enable business leaders to see the company’s landscape from a different point of view, the customer’s perspective,” Heibel says.

To learn more about the value of a winning CX strategy, contact Christa Heibel at 218-286-4006.