NOVEMBER 2023MARTECHOUTLOOK.COM9Simply put, engagement is not satisfaction. Engagement is an associate's willingness to do "more" - for themselves, their peers, the business, and their customers.Engaging associates at all levels means rethinking the way we lead, how we collaborate with our teams, our employment practices, our policies, processes, and the overall environments that we create for our team members and our customers. Let's look at some key components of successful associate management.· Hire only the right person for the job.· Onboard new associates like your business depended on it (because it does).· Train always and provide growth and development opportunities.· Engage don't incent.· Communicate, listen, inform and involve.· Fully empower team members to immediately resolve customer issues including making financial decisions.· Constantly gather meaningful associate feedback and celebrate successes and failures. PartnershipsThink about those you might call "your other customers" ­ the vendors, suppliers, stakeholders, legal partners, and clients. A great partnership requires mutual understanding, listening, empathy, and trust, which can take time. Think about recent supply chain issues and how you were desperately seeking sanitizer and toilet tissue not too long ago. I know organizations whose procurement goals with their suppliers began and ended with "getting the lowest cost in all ways possible." They may still be looking to stock the shelves with these items ­ because they didn't have good relationships with their suppliers which meant their suppliers weren't going out of their way for them.Establishing win-win partnerships with these groups is a foundational element of a great CX culture. Win-win partners help organizations to achieve a competitive advantage. The win-win works only if each group has a similar mindset, and each will gain something from the partnership. Consider these key factors in managing your partnerships.· Make the relationship one that is Win Win· Vendors and Suppliers ­ Don't bully them for short-lived gains. Costs will rise. Quality will suffer.· Client or Customer Engagement ­ measure if your partner feels you deliver on promises, are proud to be your customer, and if you feel you're the perfect company for them.Customer Experience ManagementThrough the duration of their relationship with an organization, customers' perceptions are built upon the totality of their interactions from the moment they begin to explore purchasing to the point at which they reach their goal or complete a task and ultimately the creation of brand advocacy and loyalty. Customer experience management is what we often think of when we speak of CX. It is how we manage the touchpoints of the customers' journey. Which should be managed like products -- by people and teams with specialized, journey-dedicated roles who continually listen, research, measure, optimize, and design the touchpoint experiences to improve the customers' satisfaction and promotion along with business outcomes.In a recent Bain & Company survey, 80 percent of companies believe that the experiences they provide for their customers are "superior." However, just eight percent of their customers describe their experiences with the same company as "superior." That means that 92 percent do not feel they are having superior experiences.What is clear, is that organizations that are ranked by their customers as leaders in customer care perform better financially. Studies of public companies' financial outcomes demonstrate that companies that are customer experience leaders grow revenues four percent to eight percent above their market.Your culture and how you operate your business set the stage for executing great customer experiences. You can't become an industry leader ­ or even keep up - without it. And just focusing on CX management programs, practices, and initiatives or creating a CX department won't get you there either. MTYOUR CULTURE AND HOW YOU OPERATE YOUR BUSINESS SET THE STAGE FOR EXECUTING GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES. YOU CAN'T BECOME AN INDUSTRY LEADER ­ OR EVEN KEEP UP - WITHOUT IT. AND JUST FOCUSING ON CX MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS, PRACTICES, AND INITIATIVES OR CREATING A CX DEPARTMENT WON'T GET YOU THERE EITHER
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