John Evans / CEO of Evans & Evans Consulting.
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We live in a hyper-commoditized world. So, how can you get your enterprise noticed and remembered? And the holy grail: How do you catalyze positive stories being told about your enterprise?
Here’s part of the answer. Find, and designate in earnest, a chief experience officer, or CXO: someone in charge of going beyond the business at hand.
For example, I consult for a Fortune 500 home repair company. After a robust coaching session with a division of the firm, something exciting happened. The refrigerator repair man made a visit to a client and did his job. He fixed the fridge. But he also did something more. While doing the work, he heard—remember, a tremendous client experience is all about information—that the homeowner had recently broken her ankle playing tennis. After completing his job excellently, he then reported what he learned to the CXO of his unit.
In a flash, the high-EQ woman suggested an idea: a handwritten note to the client, along with a can of tennis balls, with the company logo, saying, "Please use these when you return to the court."
Hold the phone! Are you kidding? Question: How many people do you think that client shared that story with? Do you see how powerfully "wow" can scale? Is this rocket science? And how much joy do you think this adds to the firm itself?
I could go on with hundreds of such stories, all of which are wholly unique and compelling and shareworthy to the ecosystem at hand.
Ergo, I suggest considering the following five criteria for your CXO, which I developed in conjunction with Bob Bies, PhD, professor of management and executive leadership at Georgetown University.
1. The CXO must have an obsession with the customer experience. What does your customer like about your product or service? What do they dislike? Are they feeling loved or neglected—and why? Remember the wisdom often attributed to Maya Angelou: I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
2. Engage the customer directly. To really know your customer, it is so important to engage in direct outreach—whether it is through customer journey maps, surveys, social media or, importantly, face to face. Ask for stories from the customer as part of this research. Everybody loves to be asked—and then follow up with them, thank them and show your appreciation. Remember the wisdom attributed to Dale Carnegie: To be interesting, be interested.
3. Creativity and adaptability. It is a fast-moving and ever-changing marketplace that you are dealing with. A CXO must embrace change as a positive for innovation in the customer experience. Remember the wisdom attributed to Steve Jobs: Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity—not a threat.
4. Collaboration, co-creation and celebration. The CXO can’t do it alone. Successful CXOs actually engage people within the team and across the enterprise to collaborate and co-create product and service improvements for the customer. Celebrate those who helped you. Remember the wisdom attributed to Althea Gibson: No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.
5. Bring passion, enthusiasm and a smile. When dealing with the customer, part of their positive experience is the passion and enthusiasm they encounter from you, your team and others across the enterprise. Bring a smile. Remember the wisdom often attributed to Victor Borge: The shortest distance between two people is a smile.
Look, life is not about how many breaths you take, but rather, how many times you take someone else's away. Keep the "wow" alive in your organization. Aim for meaning-making, like the celebrated return to the tennis court, and business will take care of itself. Your team can decommoditize with smiles.
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