Defining customer
experience management
| When we wrote ‘Managing the Customer Experience – turning customers into advocates’, little did we realise that it would help to stimulate a worldwide interest in customer experience management that is growing all the time. The question is why has customer experience management become such an issue for organisations?
As markets mature and customers become ever more sophisticated, meeting consumer expectations is a pre-requisite for doing business; the price of entry, not the way to win, and traditional marketing does not provide the answer. In a sea of sameness, customers seek those organisations that are clear about what they promise and then deliver this consistently in a way that is valuable to them. But isn’t customer experience management just customer service under a new name you ask? The answer is emphatically no. Customer service is usually what an organisation does to the customer, often via its people. Customer experience is what that customer receives at every touch-point through processes, products and people. Whilst it is evident that customer experience management is high up on the leadership agenda, there is still much debate as to the best approach to take. Throughout our website, you will get a good understanding of the smith+co approach, but we thought you might find it valuable to see other perspectives, to help you determine the best approach for your organisation. The attached article ‘Defining Customer Experience Management’ compiled by GCCRM, outlines the perspectives of 12 different international experts on the subject. They all speak with the same passion yet define customer experience management in different ways and offer varying approaches. Whilst we applaud the authors for the enthusiasm we don’t necessarily agree with every point they make and, of course, nor should we as it is in the debate that the best answers emerge. |
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