Customer Experience Management - what is it?
Hello to all. I am starting a series of interviews about customer value management and client experience. In the future, and about other topics related to business development and management. With each new release we will dive deeper into a particular topic.
My name is Roman Nokhrin (R), and the expert will answer the questions - Arsen Dallakyan (A), managing partner of the Russian Behavioral Unit consulting company.
(R) So, we proceed immediately to the question: I want to understand in order to synchronize the conversation, which we will talk about in general. What is customer experience (CX), customer experience management (CEM)? What I hear from others: for a very large number of people it comes down to the word service. And I want to understand: what is it really like to manage and where it hurts?
(A) Yes, that is pain. The pain is that CX-management (CEM), which was born as a tool for cross-functional cooperation within the company in order to increase customer value in the market, has turned into a quality of customer service, in service.
And why do I call it pain, raise a red flag? Because I see:
The second stage is when they began to call service their language. And to say: in the service we have the main point of growth in profitability, because a happy customer pays more. That was the thesis. What did it result in?
(R) Does that sound normal?
(A) Everything sounds great. But it turned out that there were licked complaint departments, SMM departments appeared that stopped the negative in the network and the quality of the service department's work was whether there was a negative, whether there were any unprocessed complaints and how quickly we processed them.
(R) Feels like something is wrong?
(A) It's two heads down! Yes, that’s all good, but that’s not what we were going for.
Then there was hope for CEM. I have been following the development of the topic since 2006, so I see evolution. CX-management appeared. I got hooked on him because I saw in him the potential of a unifying approach of different functions: it includes IT, marketers, sellers, products, financiers - everything. Which unite in order to influence customer interaction in order to earn more from the client , because he [the client] happy wants to pay more.
The main difference between CX and loyalty, relations, service is that it is essentially all the interaction of a client with a company - from start to finish. It is standard - from the first mention (from friends, on the Internet, in advertising) to almost infinity, because after the client left the company, he himself is a potential carrier of references. If you completely forgot it, then it can say something bad, therefore it is better to support it further to infinity.
In this understanding, the whole chain of not just interactions, but, correctly speaking, microinteractions, should be created. That is, all the little things. Not just bought goods from us, but how I bought, how he lived.
There is an analogue of the definition - this is the process by which a client lives a life while he interacts with the company, from the very first point to infinity. This includes emotions, context, the fact of interaction, and so on.
We present customer experience now - it is often visualized in CJM. So we introduced him, he lay down on the wall. And in order to reproduce it, we must influence something — financiers, sellers, and IT specialists. We look at each segment, at the point - which functions affect and to what extent. And what needs to be changed for the influence to be the most positive. And these changes sometimes reach the level that the culture of the [company] needs to be changed, somewhere it is necessary to destroy the functional swamps. Because for an IT professional, a happy customer is one who does not press extra buttons, for a marketer - who leaves the department with a smile, for the seller - who received a discount. This is all very subjective. And just the idea of ​​CEM was to objectify the understanding: what is the client through behavior, through specific actions and learn to manage it together.
I saw that technologies appeared that supported this, big data.
In fact, CX-management stands on three pillars.
And these three whales create strong prerequisites for the ability to manage customer experience as one. And when we realized this in 2017, goosebumps went. We developed a methodology for how to manage this, taught executive mba, and it seems like companies began to accept it.
(R) And I have this question: on many topics, when we learn about them and see that a trend has appeared in Russia, it turns out that they have been used in the world for 10-20 years. You become interested and it turns out that the same agile, which has become popular with us from 2013-15, is first mentioned in the literature since the late 80s around the world [maybe without a manifest language, but prerequisites]. Are we also lagging behind this topic or is it starting to develop the same way with the rest of the world? When you say that in 2017 you were inspired: all over the world or us?
(A) In the world somewhere in the year 14. But it is important to understand that CEM has turned out a renaissance. CX many called - customer experience from the company. Only impressions. Only a piece of happiness. It was an evolution of relationships. This was discussed at the beginning of the zero. The definition and term are not new. But then, as a tool to manage all customer value , it was 14 years in the states: “Zappos” appeared, “Amazon” began to develop. And this story came to Russia in the year 17. Conferences appeared, and positions in companies began to appear, and I was a happy one. What a funny story: in 14 I thought: “what is marketing transformed into?”, Realizing that marketing as a function in the company has died. And this did not mean it as the science of creating added value (it will never disappear - this is the basis of the economy of the capitalist system), but rather as a function within the company. It really broke up into many functions, cross-functional interaction has become. And I thought: what will happen? CEM appeared - excellent. But 2 years have passed. Why raise a red flag? Because I see what it has turned into.
It turned back into our classic functional crusher when we began to write “customer service, customer experience”. Just two new letters are fashionable and instead of customer service has become a customer experience. And the goal of the CX-leader within the company was the happiness of customers again, be it okay. To less complaints, good NPS, CSI and so on. Some kind of accompanying, supporting functionality for business. Again there is a division between the business that makes money and the CX that is needed, I don’t know why there should be good stars [in the estimates].
(R) If we can quickly answer and we will end here: why so? Because it’s too complicated, and the human brain is designed in such a way that when it’s difficult, it’s better to simplify, but at the same time to lie that it is [CEM] and it is, everyone believed and OK. You sit on your top position as a CX manager, get well, and do the same as 10 years ago. Or because it requires large cash injections and no one wants to spend money?
(A) Good question. First of all, I think that people seek isolation. Despite the fact that the whole story comes with cross-functionality, agile and so on, in human nature at a primitive level: I, you, we are different, I protect my own. And in functional management this is manifested very strongly: even when a good deed appears.
Here we put Petya Ivanov to build cross-functional interaction within the company, to build an integral system for managing client experience. He must run to everyone. He runs, runs, but everyone sends him. He says: I’m tortured to run to everyone, I don’t have anything of my own, like I manage something big, but it is in the [administrative] management of others. And he begins to create something of his own. He begins to say: okay, you are responsible for sales, you are run, then I will be responsible for a program that reads client smiles in bank branches. He comes up with his innovations, projects that only he manages. Then he encloses the fence around these projects and calls - these projects - there are projects to improve the customer experience. And everything falls into service again.
(R) There is an understanding of the difference between the proper management of customer experience and everything that came before that. I would summarize that CEM is about management, and what happened before is about working with consequences. At least as I heard it. Because working with claims, and so on, is not management and doesn’t “do so that this does not appear at all”, but “has already happened - we will drown out”. And working with customer experience is managing the whole process so that bad things do not happen at all, and sales grow.
The problems are also clear, in the next issues we will consider in more detail how this can be managed and what problems there are. Thank!
If it’s easier and more interesting for you to watch a video recording of the interview, I invite you to your personal channel.
My name is Roman Nokhrin (R), and the expert will answer the questions - Arsen Dallakyan (A), managing partner of the Russian Behavioral Unit consulting company.
(R) So, we proceed immediately to the question: I want to understand in order to synchronize the conversation, which we will talk about in general. What is customer experience (CX), customer experience management (CEM)? What I hear from others: for a very large number of people it comes down to the word service. And I want to understand: what is it really like to manage and where it hurts?
(A) Yes, that is pain. The pain is that CX-management (CEM), which was born as a tool for cross-functional cooperation within the company in order to increase customer value in the market, has turned into a quality of customer service, in service.
And why do I call it pain, raise a red flag? Because I see:
everything that turns into a service in Russia - everything fades out.So the excellent idea of ​​customer relationship management (CRM) was killed, which in essence was the forerunner of CEM. She said that it is necessary to build relationships with customers and then these relationships will bring you more money than you just give them a new product. What did CRM result in? At best, this is a program that shows when customers have their birthdays and sends them an email. This is the first.
The second stage is when they began to call service their language. And to say: in the service we have the main point of growth in profitability, because a happy customer pays more. That was the thesis. What did it result in?
(R) Does that sound normal?
(A) Everything sounds great. But it turned out that there were licked complaint departments, SMM departments appeared that stopped the negative in the network and the quality of the service department's work was whether there was a negative, whether there were any unprocessed complaints and how quickly we processed them.
(R) Feels like something is wrong?
(A) It's two heads down! Yes, that’s all good, but that’s not what we were going for.
Then there was hope for CEM. I have been following the development of the topic since 2006, so I see evolution. CX-management appeared. I got hooked on him because I saw in him the potential of a unifying approach of different functions: it includes IT, marketers, sellers, products, financiers - everything. Which unite in order to influence customer interaction in order to earn more from the client , because he [the client] happy wants to pay more.
The main difference between CX and loyalty, relations, service is that it is essentially all the interaction of a client with a company - from start to finish. It is standard - from the first mention (from friends, on the Internet, in advertising) to almost infinity, because after the client left the company, he himself is a potential carrier of references. If you completely forgot it, then it can say something bad, therefore it is better to support it further to infinity.
In this understanding, the whole chain of not just interactions, but, correctly speaking, microinteractions, should be created. That is, all the little things. Not just bought goods from us, but how I bought, how he lived.
There is an analogue of the definition - this is the process by which a client lives a life while he interacts with the company, from the very first point to infinity. This includes emotions, context, the fact of interaction, and so on.
We present customer experience now - it is often visualized in CJM. So we introduced him, he lay down on the wall. And in order to reproduce it, we must influence something — financiers, sellers, and IT specialists. We look at each segment, at the point - which functions affect and to what extent. And what needs to be changed for the influence to be the most positive. And these changes sometimes reach the level that the culture of the [company] needs to be changed, somewhere it is necessary to destroy the functional swamps. Because for an IT professional, a happy customer is one who does not press extra buttons, for a marketer - who leaves the department with a smile, for the seller - who received a discount. This is all very subjective. And just the idea of ​​CEM was to objectify the understanding: what is the client through behavior, through specific actions and learn to manage it together.
I saw that technologies appeared that supported this, big data.
In fact, CX-management stands on three pillars.
- The first is a culture of customer-centricity, that is, the thesis that a happy customer spends more.
- The second whale is data, we must collect all the data about the client, not only when it is his birthday.
- And the third is cognitive behavioral sciences, which are able to push customers to the desired action so that he does not notice it, that is, they influence him as efficiently as possible.
And these three whales create strong prerequisites for the ability to manage customer experience as one. And when we realized this in 2017, goosebumps went. We developed a methodology for how to manage this, taught executive mba, and it seems like companies began to accept it.
(R) And I have this question: on many topics, when we learn about them and see that a trend has appeared in Russia, it turns out that they have been used in the world for 10-20 years. You become interested and it turns out that the same agile, which has become popular with us from 2013-15, is first mentioned in the literature since the late 80s around the world [maybe without a manifest language, but prerequisites]. Are we also lagging behind this topic or is it starting to develop the same way with the rest of the world? When you say that in 2017 you were inspired: all over the world or us?
(A) In the world somewhere in the year 14. But it is important to understand that CEM has turned out a renaissance. CX many called - customer experience from the company. Only impressions. Only a piece of happiness. It was an evolution of relationships. This was discussed at the beginning of the zero. The definition and term are not new. But then, as a tool to manage all customer value , it was 14 years in the states: “Zappos” appeared, “Amazon” began to develop. And this story came to Russia in the year 17. Conferences appeared, and positions in companies began to appear, and I was a happy one. What a funny story: in 14 I thought: “what is marketing transformed into?”, Realizing that marketing as a function in the company has died. And this did not mean it as the science of creating added value (it will never disappear - this is the basis of the economy of the capitalist system), but rather as a function within the company. It really broke up into many functions, cross-functional interaction has become. And I thought: what will happen? CEM appeared - excellent. But 2 years have passed. Why raise a red flag? Because I see what it has turned into.
It turned back into our classic functional crusher when we began to write “customer service, customer experience”. Just two new letters are fashionable and instead of customer service has become a customer experience. And the goal of the CX-leader within the company was the happiness of customers again, be it okay. To less complaints, good NPS, CSI and so on. Some kind of accompanying, supporting functionality for business. Again there is a division between the business that makes money and the CX that is needed, I don’t know why there should be good stars [in the estimates].
(R) If we can quickly answer and we will end here: why so? Because it’s too complicated, and the human brain is designed in such a way that when it’s difficult, it’s better to simplify, but at the same time to lie that it is [CEM] and it is, everyone believed and OK. You sit on your top position as a CX manager, get well, and do the same as 10 years ago. Or because it requires large cash injections and no one wants to spend money?
(A) Good question. First of all, I think that people seek isolation. Despite the fact that the whole story comes with cross-functionality, agile and so on, in human nature at a primitive level: I, you, we are different, I protect my own. And in functional management this is manifested very strongly: even when a good deed appears.
Here we put Petya Ivanov to build cross-functional interaction within the company, to build an integral system for managing client experience. He must run to everyone. He runs, runs, but everyone sends him. He says: I’m tortured to run to everyone, I don’t have anything of my own, like I manage something big, but it is in the [administrative] management of others. And he begins to create something of his own. He begins to say: okay, you are responsible for sales, you are run, then I will be responsible for a program that reads client smiles in bank branches. He comes up with his innovations, projects that only he manages. Then he encloses the fence around these projects and calls - these projects - there are projects to improve the customer experience. And everything falls into service again.
(R) There is an understanding of the difference between the proper management of customer experience and everything that came before that. I would summarize that CEM is about management, and what happened before is about working with consequences. At least as I heard it. Because working with claims, and so on, is not management and doesn’t “do so that this does not appear at all”, but “has already happened - we will drown out”. And working with customer experience is managing the whole process so that bad things do not happen at all, and sales grow.
The problems are also clear, in the next issues we will consider in more detail how this can be managed and what problems there are. Thank!
If it’s easier and more interesting for you to watch a video recording of the interview, I invite you to your personal channel.
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