According to Forrester, 90% of customer service decision makers believe that delivering good customer service is vital for their company to succeed. But, to make this happen, support from senior execs is essential. Without this support in place, Customer Experience programmes can be hard to get off the ground and even more difficult to maintain. So what steps can you take to earn and maintain support from senior execs, to ensure your Customer Experience initiatives are a real success?
#1 Emotionally engage key stakeholders
Often senior execs are removed from day-to-day customer engagements. Without this connection, it’s harder for them to understand customer motivations and needs.
To get buy-in for your programme, re-introduce your senior execs to the true Voice of your Customer. One of the most powerful ways to do this is to show them the raw, unfiltered feedback from your customers. This way, you can emotionally engage key stakeholders, so they are invested in the success of Customer Experience.
#2 Show the ROI of Customer Experience
Unsurprisingly, it’s hard to engage executive support for programmes that can’t show a return on investment. Indicating the value of your CX initiative is essential, you need to come in with financial metrics that make your case stronger.
For stakeholders that aren’t reporting on financial metrics, you can engage their interest through showing the impact on their function - such as showing HR that a 5% increase in employee engagement can reduce absenteeism by up to 26% [source: Corporate Leadership Council].
#3 Link Customer Experience with other high profile initiatives
Create more value for your CX programme by showing senior execs how it will support other initiatives in the organisation. For example, can customer insights help drive forward sales and marketing efforts? Or could it be used to help bolster recruitment efforts, by identifying the qualities that make successful employees?
This approach will contribute to embedding Customer Experience into other departments, as they use these insights to drive their own programmes and projects forward.
#4 Provide updates and insight throughout the project
Earning the support at the start of a project is one thing, maintaining it is quite another. To do this, it’s important to provide senior execs with relevant updates. Show the progress that you’re making with the programme through metrics and KPIs.
Report on the measures that are most important to your senior execs, reviewing the metrics you have in place to ensure they remain relevant.
#5 Give your initiative a name
Giving your initiative a name will help give it more shape to senior execs - and the wider organisation.
This approach gives people something concrete to work towards and makes it more relevant in their work life. Call your initiative something that will convey its purpose, rather than something bland or generic. So avoid ‘Customer Experience Programme’; think more about what you’re trying to achieve and ensure the name reflects these goals.
Want to learn more? Dive into our eBook: The Anatomy of a Great Customer Experience to find out what defines a CX story and tactics you can use to build customer experiences with memories in mind...
