Too obvious? Don't scoff! The philosophy of customer experience management demands that we acknowledge the needs of our customers. I'd like to think that most organizations working toward the greater good understand this at some level, but the day-to-day challenges of paperwork, tight deadlines, and the constant pressure to do more with less can get in the way. Patti Hart, CEO of International Game Technology, in this Fast Company video, says customers "have the same joys and sorrows, and dreams and aspirations that each of us have... Think first about what your products and services mean to the person, not the customer."
Marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously said "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole." Sorry to disagree with you, Prof, but I'm going to have to drill a little deeper (it's OK to groan). Are customers people walking around obsessing about a perfectly sized/shaped void? I don't think so. They want a quarter-inch hole because they're hanging a photo of their family--whom they love--in their new home--that they're proud to occupy. (To be honest, I tried coming up with some other emotionally-driven need for quarter-inch holes but I'm not very handy so please imagine whatever motivates you.) The point is that customers are real human beings with complex emotions and needs driving their decisions.
I suspect individuals at your organization, especially those closest to the customer, know what those needs are based on their experience. Empathy comes naturally to many people working in the social impact sector, but does it come as easily for organizations? Start by listening to your customers and those employees closest to them. Document those needs to create personas of your typical customers - but remember, we're all individuals, so don't assume you know the needs of your customers until you ask them.
This fundraiser I've dreamed up is all about raising funds for a worthy
cause--cancer--while giving donors a choice about where their
philanthropy goes. In essence: I walk, you choose. If you wish to honor
someone with a donation to a research organization, that's great! If you
want to memorialize a loved one with a donation toward direct care,
that's wonderful! You donate to a national or local organization, you
tell me about it, and I walk 5K with your names on my back on Mother's
Day.
Whoah. This is amazing and disruptive (in the awesome and innovative sense). The traditional walk/run/ride/pie-eating-contest paradigm is about to be blown away! Today's donors/supporters are savvy and demanding customers. They expect the organizations responsible for advancing their causes to act in consistent ways. My friend felt jilted by recent actions of one big organization but still felt compelled to raise awareness and funds for a cause she cares about, so she took matters into her own hands in a really earnest and heartfelt way. The "offending" organization is even still listed on her page of recommendations (you're free to chose whichever charity you deem worthy). I think she's on to something and I hope you'll support her.
When I was looking for a groovy video for this post (the kids and their short attention spans these days!), immediately Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots are Made for Walkin'"came to mind. Serendipity! Eureka! THIS IS THE PERFECT CUSTOMER-CENTERED THEME SONG! Is Nancy singing about enacting revenge on a cheating lover -- or the outrage (and subsequent joy in finding a replacement) that so many customers feel with a pattern of mistreatment from the companies that supposedly value their business? The full/real lyrics are here, but here's my customer experience translation of them:
My expectations weren't being met. You've lied and broke my trust. I deserve your best, but I'm not getting that. You messed up - multiple times. I've given you plenty of chances to correct your mistakes. Each time you say you're going to do better, but you don't. I see right through you. I know you think you can treat me however you want and I'll just stick around, but I can get what I need from another company. I will punish you for your multiple infractions by taking my business elsewhere and telling everyone about this bad experience. And BTW, my sassy friends in leotards are leaving with me!
The music tells a similar tale: The opening (and recurring) bass riff twangs away Nancy's disappoint in her customer experience. The same riff at the end is there but is overshadows by a slowly growing cadre of bright and shiny brass notes. Out of despair comes empowerment and joy, having found happiness with another!
Big crowd-funded awareness events are experiential marketing (though some of the nonprofits that administer them might not use those words), with the most important and first step occurring with engagement of supporters willing to solicit funds on your behalf, leading to walking/running/riding/eating-pies with a bunch of other people. If they had a bad experience, or you did something that is incongruous with their expectations, don't expect them to be as engaged, raise money/awareness, or show up on your perfect photo-op day.
Pay attention to your customers' experiences and expectations,or watch them walk (all over you).
I'm almost finished with a really fantastic book "Passionate and Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail and 10 Steps to do them Right" by Lior Arussy. In my quest for customer experience knowledge, this book is one of the most practical I've found. It is available for free digital loan for users of the New York Public Library system. Chapter 8 is titled: "Do we employ functional robots or passionate evangelists?" The idea is that recruiting, retaining, and delighting passionate employees translates into delivering the types of experiences companies desire for their customers. But what if there is a dark side to tapping into that passion?
In my nonprofit career I have had the privilege of working with many talented people who are very committed to their organization's cause. The social sector has a clear advantage over our for-profit counterparts. By the very definition we are mission focused. This is not to say that there aren't businesses with a clear mission or societal benefit; the best ones clearly have it. This is also not to say that there aren't nonprofit or government employees who are drones collecting a paycheck, completely disassociated from the mission (sadly there are).
The bigger risk for businesses: unengaged employees who could care less about their company's mission because it's unclear or the company has shown little interest in cultivating a passion for their work. They don't see themselves as making a difference in anyone else's lives. Their jobs are a means to an end and interchangeable with any number of different opportunities.
The bigger risk for nonprofits: over-reliance and abuse of their employees' passion for the mission. All too often cash-strapped organizations successful in attracting talented people willing to exchange salary for heart don't recognize the sacrifices they're asking their employees to make. Just as companies that fail to understand the journeys their customers take, failure to recognize employees as an important customer will doom any customer-facing experience initiatives. This isn't a new concept. Nonprofit professionals are always asked to "do more with less" and are all-too-familiar with the term burnout. This article in the Nonprofit Quarterly was written in 2002 but could have easily been written yesterday:
The vast majority of nonprofit workers come to work in the morning because they love their jobs, but many go home at the end of the day exhausted by the workload and unsure that they have the tools, let alone the stamina, to come back the next morning.
From the book:
The inability to design and execute a well-crafted employee experience will damage the organization's ability to differentiate and build a compelling value proposition.Without employee experiences, there is no customer experience. To unleash the best in your people, you must treat them like customers. You must give them the same surprisingly amazing treatment that makes them want to excel and give you the best they have to give. Show them your commitment, and they will reciprocate.
Inc agrees that happier employees help companies' bottom lines (profit). Wouldn't it hold true that a nonprofit's bottom line (mission) would benefit?
I know so many people are fond of quoting the Golden Rule when thinking about customer experience or service - "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - but I cringe every time I see or hear it. The arrogance! Laziness!! Downright gauche!!! Let's just unpack that a little. I don't even want to get into "unto" right now, so I'll focus on the meaning. Instead of taking the time to find out what the customer wants/needs or how they want to be treated, one is supposed to just assume they'll be hunky dory with whatever it is that floats your boat. Hold on sailor, what makes you so hot to trot?
The discipline of customer experience teaches us to listen to what our customers need/want and, hopefully, exceed their expectations. How can we accomplish this when we are stuck thinking about what we want out of the situation?
For the totally uninitiated (and unempathetic) or in situations where it's not possible to discern what the customer wants, what I think the Golden Rule is trying - but fails - to say is that little human decency goes a long way.
Bryan K. Williams has coined the term "Double Platinum Rule" to make up for the shortcomings of its less precious cousin:
Grounding your service strategy in the three Universal Service
Rules works well, because it heightens your empathy (Golden Rule), encourages a
keen focus on your customer’s expectations (Platinum Rule), and challenges you
to consistently think of ways to exceed those expectations (Double Platinum
Rule).
For the social sector, the Double Platinum Rule makes even more sense.
So often our customers are people who have incredible and complex needs that if we only addressed the one initial thing that drove them to request our services, we would be shortchanging them, tarnishing our efforts to make a difference in this world.
How might you introduce this thinking at your organization?
Most organizations simply don't think about, let alone document, the complete thread of a customer's experience with their organizations. They're structured to support the functional units within, not in ways that maximize the experience for their varied customers - and they are varied. Donors, partner organizations, vendors, employees, volunteers, community members, and least we forget the ultimate "end user" customer sometimes called client, participant, or stakeholder - they all have unique needs, wants, and desires that must be met in increasingly complex ways, all with (usually) very limited resources.
The idea of documenting all the stuff that happens before, during, and after engagement with an organization is so fundamentally important and awesome, that by just going through this simple exercise should be a huge eye opener. Nonprofits and government (imagine a world where going to the DMV is a delightful experience!) have a tremendous opportunity to become more customer-centric, and a better understanding of their customers' journeys is a great starting point.
Welcome to the CXforGood blog! I spent a
month blogging internally about customer experience management at my
job. After the encouragement of one delightful friend/colleague, I have
decided to bring the blog public. So many of the resources I have found
on this topic are focused on for-profit enterprise. As a lifelong
nonprofit professional, I think there are ways in which this discipline
can/should be applied differently.
My goals for this blog are:
Increase my own understanding of customer experience management (CEM/CX)
Find (and share!) best practices of CX in the nonprofit, government, and social enterprise sectors
Highlight the different ways CX can/should be applied in these
sectors where financial gain to stockholders is not the primary
motivator of activity
Develop a community of CX practitioners and enthusiasts whose enterprise is being put to use for the greater good
Be a little goofy, because I am
I hope you’ll enjoy this experience with me engage on this journey.
