How to Build a Customer Experience Vision

Many people talk about customer experience and customer service interchangeably. That may be okay for customers, though not so great for businesses. Focusing on customer experience vision creates a better statement, gets everyone on board, and offers a beacon for all employees to work towards. 

Business leaders tend to approach their companies with a narrow focus, especially due to the lack of frequent customer interactions, contact, and engagement. In this case, marketing is left for marketing and operations for operations. Very few understand that without an elaborate customer experience vision the company will lose to competitors. 

But that should not be your end. If you are ready to invest in customer experience, this article will show you how you can do it seamlessly. 

What is a customer experience vision?

A customer experience vision (CX vision) is often described as a statement that speaks about how the organization wants to offer its customers services. In other words, it communicates how the organization chooses to focus on clients. 

Accordingly, CX vision can be said to be a standard that the workforce strives to meet in its pursuit to serve customers. A well-established and elaborate customer experience vision inspires action at all levels of the organization. Therefore, creating a CX vision is an essential step towards improving your customer service, experience, and support. 

What is the difference between customer experience and customer service?

To many, customer experience is often mistaken for customer service. However, the two differ broadly, though also closely related. Here is why customer experience is not the same as customer service. 

In most cases, clients first interact with the business through employees. This can happen through in-store visits or online interactions. This platform allows the firm to offer excellent customer service. 

However, customer service is a single sub-sect of the greater customer experience. 

For instance, if a client books a vacation ticket online and the employee on the other end of the phone is helpful and friendly, that is excellent customer service. On the other hand, when the customer receives the ticket in time and finds the hotel room fully furnished and upgraded, that becomes an exceptional customer experience.

That is the difference between the two.

Like any other business aspect, customer experience is very dynamic. It has changed to become more than just a person-to-person service. Accordingly, technology has revolutionized how companies interact with their customers. 

For instance, the current business environment has CRM software you can leverage to monitor customers’ shopping history and predict future trends and needs.

The ability to predict future trends and needs allows you to be proactive. Accordingly, you can:

• Offer products that match consumer preferences.
• Created targeted marketing messages.
• Understand consumer perception to improve customer service.

Customer service has remained as vital as ever. However, that is no longer the focal point of the business. Customer experience, on the other hand, has become a more far-reaching aspect that allows you to strengthen customer engagement and interactions. 

How to establish customer experience vision

A company vision for the customer experience program should be specific and clear so that every employee within the organization can understand and implement it. It is advisable to go for a concise and simple vision statement that helps you improve understanding and implementation. In other words, your customer experience vision should tick the following boxes:

• Simple and concise
• Posses executive sponsorship
• Associated with organizational objectives
• Associated with organizational vision and strategies
• Understandable at every level within the organization

How to Build a Customer Experience Vision

Building a customer experience vision is not a complex task. However, other businesses tend to go the long way by making it more complicated. This may not be the best way since it should be relatable, simple, and short for better understanding. 

In a nutshell, here is a guideline for developing an excellent customer experience vision:

• Your intention should be to make a difference in customer’s lives
• The strategy should be based on customer insights
• The customer experience vision should guide your strategies
• The CX vision should be in line with organizational vision, values, and objectives
• Your customer experience strategy should be specific to the organization and drive a competitive advantage
• The vision should hold together all organizational units and promote teamwork
• The customer experience vision should not be vague or ambiguous
• The statement should be straightforward, clear, and engaging
• The CX vision should be embedded in the organization’s guiding values and principles

With this in mind, here is how you can create a customer experience vision:

Define your aspirations

Customer experience may vary from one organization to another. For some businesses, a customer experience may represent change and transformation within the company. For others, the experience may represent tailored short-term changes. Accordingly, for you, the vision may transcend the overall company vision, values, and offerings. 

Therefore, the first thing is to define what you want to offer. You must know the kind of experience you want to provide your prospective and current customers. Only this way can you create a customer experience vision that aligns with your principles and reflects the company’s identity. 

Understand your customers

It is essential to understand your customers if you want to offer a great customer experience. Luckily enough, many tools are available to help gather and analyze customer data as a starting point to understanding your clients. However, data alone can never be enough. 

A successful customer experience effort involves asking questions.

For instance, you need to know your clients beyond the seller-buyer relationship. What motivates your customers to buy from you? Are they satisfied? 

Answering these questions requires analytical efforts that will help you develop and implement customer-oriented programs. 

Make it customer-oriented

A quick fix may not offer an excellent customer experience. You have to make it customer-oriented by designing a holistic view of customer experience. To do this, you have to align all your vision with your leadership team, operations, and metrics to customer-focused agenda. 

Customers and employees are nowadays more informed. Accordingly, these groups are more willing to invest time, money, and efforts in your company if they see a purpose. While consumers are more aware of products and business operations, employees want to feel a part of a larger good. 

Align your CX vision with organizational values

Your customer experience vision should be original, inspiring, and mobilizing. In this case, you should break it down to communicate company values, principles, and strategies. Therefore, you should define the vision in a meaningful way to prospective and current customers. 

Accordingly, you should define your company’s promises and how you want to achieve them. The roadmap should help you focus on creating a customer experience vision that speaks for the business. Your next focus should be on defining key areas and benchmarks that help gauge customer satisfaction. 

Getting started on your customer experience journey

Now that you know how to create a great customer experience vision, the next focus should be on structuring the vision. Here are steps that will help you format your customer experience vision and tailor it to meet customer expectations. 

• Focus on the brand: the customer experience vision should flow from the entire organization. The first thing is to ensure your brand promises inspire clients and employees alike. 
• Find the problem: which problems need urgency? This may be a narrow perception. However, it helps you find the right direction and make your CX vision more customer-oriented.
• Review your customer interaction: knowing your customers allows you to understand their feelings and how you can serve them better. Make sure your CX vision addresses their needs. 
• Take your time: you need time to brainstorm and research various ideas for a compelling CX vision. You can find many brainstorming tools on the internet that can assist you in mind mapping and learning more about your customers.
•  Engage others: make sure your employees and sponsors are aligned with the vision. Accordingly, they should understand and share it. 
• Socialize: a vision can only be effective if other people share it. Therefore, focus on spreading the word. Have your employees and teams share and implement all strategies that align with the CX vision. You may use training and in-house workshops to make your vision more straightforward to understand and implement. 

The Bottom Line 

Business leaders in the current business environment recognize the importance of customer experience. However, not everyone is willing to invest in it. 

This is a common mistake you should avoid if you want to capitalize on the competitive advantage that customer experience vision delivers. 

About the author
Rithesh Raghavan is the Director at Acodez, a Digital Agency in India. Having a rich experience of 15+ years in Digital Marketing, Rithesh loves to write up his thoughts on the latest trends and developments in the world of IT and software development.

Don't forget, sharing is caring! :)