The Future of Customer ExperienceAugust 2012

Greetings!

Welcome to the era of CX Professionalism!

 

If you're working on customer experience, then you might be wondering how your efforts fit into the bigger picture of where the overall CX movement is heading. Well, we've got some answers for you in this month's featured research report, The Future of Customer Experience. Read about how the era of CX Professionalism is the third phase of evolution.

 

This month's edition of the CX Journal includes a section on happiness. We've analyzed the connection between happiness and loyalty as well as examining which consumers are the most happy.

 

We've also included a short list of posts for you to share with your leadership team. Think of it as a good CX summer reading list for execs (for those of you who are in the midst of summer).

 

Other posts from the Customer Experience Matters blog include a guide to customer-centric culture, employee engagement lessons from Apple, and research on Net Promoter Score in the tech sector.

 

The Temkin Group update includes an exciting workshop in Boston on October 9th: CX Realities: Learn, Experience, Transform

 

I also invite you to participate in our new survey which examines CX metrics as well as a bit on employee engagement. As always, if you complete the survey then we'll send you a free copy of the report.

 

The Future of Customer Experience

 

Our newest research report, The Future of Customer Experience, examines the evolution of CX management. After passing through the initial stages of CX management evolution--CX Intrigue and CX Exuberance--the North American market recently entered into what Temkin Group has labeled the era of CX Professionalism where repeatable CX best practices are being codified.

This evolution is being driven by an increase in companies that are gaining more CX capabilities. In the report, we've identified six levels of CX maturity that companies go through:

  1. Ignore: Company does not see customer experience as a key differentiator. 
  2. Explore: An ad-hoc group is established to understand how the company can improve customer experience. 
  3. Mobilize: A full-time executive leads the effort to improve customer experience and the company establishes a cross-functional governance system. 
  4. Operationalize: Company redesigns many of its operational processes using clear insights about customers. 
  5. Align: Customer experience behaviors are widespread across employees and they are supported by the company's standard measurement and incentive systems.
  6. Embed: Company delivers great CX without focusing on it explicitly. It comes as a result of the entire organization being committed to the company's clear sense of purpose. 
The report also describes eight emerging CX skills: Journey-centric alignment, mobile-infused experiences, predictive personalization, distributed contextual insights, federated CX capabilities, business rhythm integration, rejuvenated purposefulness, and promoter activation. We've also included an exercise for you to do with your CX team to prepare for these new skills.
Happiness And Loyalty

 

I've been following the research on happiness for several years, because I think it has a strong link to customer experience. The theory is that happy people tend to be more loyal customers and more engaged employees. So I analyzed happiness with a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers. It turns out that happy people are the most likely to recommend companies.

  • 74% of U.S. consumers are typically happy.
  • Women are happier than men in every age group except for the oldest Americans
  • People 65 and older are the happiest
  • Consumers with higher incomes are happier across all age
  • Hilton, Westin, Lexus, Alamo, Hertz, and Courtyard By Marriott have the happiest customers
  • Medicaid, TracFone, Virgin Mobile, 21st Century and EarthLink have the least happy customers
CX Reading List For Execs
 
An informed senior executive is a critical asset to your organization's CX ambitions. So we put together this short reading list for senior execs to get quickly up to speed on CX:
Customer Experience Matters Blog
 
Here are some recent posts from Customer Experience Matters:
CX Workshop in Boston on October 9th 

 

Temkin Group is excited to announce a new workshop in Boston on October 9th: CX Realities: Learn, Experience, Transform

 

During this extremely hands-on one-day session, attendees will work in small groups to evaluate real-world experiences and apply what they learn to their organizations. And, the fall is a beautiful time to experience Boston!

 

Attendance is limited, so sign-up soon!

CXPA Update 

 

The Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org) has just launched a couple of exciting new offerings:

  • CX Tools: Access to a growing online library of tools that CX professionals use within their organizations.
  • Best Practice Visits (BPV): A unique opportunity to get an immersive look at leading-edge practices within companies.The first BPV will be at Fidelity Investments in October.

The CXPA is a non-profit organization that's dedicated to the success of customer experience professionals. Join us!

Temkin Group Update 

We're very excited about a new member of the Temkin Group team. We've hired a CX analyst who will start in early September. So keep an eye out for an announcement over the next few weeks.
 
On the research side, we'll be publishing research in August on voice of the customer, looking at the maturity of these programs.

 

If you're looking to accelerate your customer experience efforts, here are a number of ways that Temkin Group can help:

  • Assessments of customer experience efforts, to identify gaps and opportunities to accelerate your transformation efforts
  • Speeches and webinars on a wide range of customer experience and leadership topics
  • Interactive workshops for executive teams or other groups to gain alignment around key customer experience principles and priorities or to develop plans in areas such as voice of the customer programs
  • Educational curricula to establish and reinforce an understanding of proven customer experience principles across an organization
  • Strategy reviews of marketing and product plans for vendors who want to help companies transform their customer experience
Drop me a line at [email protected], visit our website at

www.temkingroup.com, or give us a call at (617) 916-2075.

 

Sincerely, 

 

Bruce Temkin
Customer Experience Transformist
& Managing Partner
Temkin Group

Chair, Customer Experience Professionals Association

Follow me on Twitter  

In This Issue
> The Future of CX
> Happiness Researh
> CX Reading List for Execs
> CX Matters posts
> CX Workshop
> CXPA update
> Temkin Group update
Temkin Group
We are a research and consulting firm that combines thought leadership with a deep understanding of the dynamics of large organizations to help senior executives accelerate their customer experience transformational efforts
CX Tidbits 

> 59% of large firms want to be CX leaders within three years

 

> NPS for tech vendors is more highly correlated to ease of use than to product satisfaction

 

> There are more than 100K CX professionals in North America

 

> Publix, Hy-Vee, credit unions, and Chick-fil-A are at the top of the 2012 Temkin Customer Service Ratings

 

> Eight out of 10 CX vendors expect their 2012 revenues to grow by at least 25%

Quick Links

Temkin Group 

 

 CX Matters Blog

 

Temkin Ratings

 

Temkin Ratings UK 

 

CX Professionals Association 

10 CX Mistakes  
to Avoid
 
eBook provides advice on how to spot and avoid these mistakes:

 

1) Faking Executive Commitment 

2) Over-Relying on Customer Surveys

3) Neglecting Experience Design 

4) Treating All Customers the Same 

5) Un-Engaging New Customers 

6) Ignoring Employees

7) Obsessing About Detractors 

8) Forgetting to Celebrate Success 

9) Falling in Love with a Metric 

10) Mapping Internal Touchpoints

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