Get Out of Your Ivory Towers
Introduction
All of an organization’s leaders — and at their head, the CEO — are the first and last people responsible for the organization’s success in delivering distinctive customer experience. They do this by leading by example: being out in front, outside their ivory towers, writing the most powerful examples through their actions. They become the heroes of the distinctive customer experience stories that customers tell each other and that newspapers and media outlets pick up.
This article revolves around those few lines. If you want to know more, read on.
After reading more than 15 books in the field of customer experience, I haven’t found any disagreement on this topic. Every author agrees that an organization’s success in delivering distinctive customer experience is contingent on its leaders driving the change — because change doesn’t happen from the bottom of the pyramid but from the top.
And because people are enemies of what they don’t know, these leaders must first grasp the importance of customer experience management and believe in its impact before they can be convinced to carry its banner. As long as some consider it mere luxury, others can’t distinguish it from customer service, and still others can’t tell it from marketing — they won’t be convinced to carry that banner. “The leadership of any organization embarking on implementing customer experience management must have a strong grounding in experience management theory and a firm belief in the impact it can have on their organization.” [1] If they decide to ride the wave just because the field has become a fashionable trend, or because “customer experience” is a catchy term, they will never succeed in achieving anything. Those who raise some flashy slogans or cut ribbons for grand-launch projects covered in newspapers don’t enjoy their celebration for long and return disappointed before too long. True adoption means the leader is at the heart of the action — not at its launch or in an article about it.
After leaders carry the banner of customer experience, their next responsibility is to convince the rest of the organization to join them and follow their direction, even if that change pulls them out of the comfort zone they’ve sat in for years. “Building the experience isn’t that easy; there must be a shared commitment across the entire organization to achieve maximum results.” [2] “But even the best customer experience programs are pointless unless leaders put their full commitment into being role models for the behaviors they want their employees to adopt.” [3] So, dear leader, don’t forbid your employees from smoking in a certain corridor when you yourself smoke there every day.
Customer experience management will face massive challenges that cannot be overcome without leadership support. Breaking down organizational silos, dismantling toxic factions, modifying policies, changing procedures, and redesigning performance metrics cannot happen without support and empowerment from the highest and most powerful leaders in the organization — chief among them the CEO. As mentioned earlier, “if the CEO doesn’t find the time or capacity to lead the customer experience program, then someone else at a leadership level must give customer experience credibility — someone whose voice is heard and who is backed by the CEO.” [4] Of course, it’s not enough for the CEO to delegate someone to lead the change on their behalf. They “must review the customer experience scorecard and task all organizational leaders with taking responsibility for improving these metrics. That doesn’t absolve the CEO; they must still follow up so the change effort doesn’t drown in organizational politics or the depths of corporate silos.” [5] It’s also important to remember that this direction we’re urging the CEO and organizational leaders to adopt won’t emerge from nothing. “There must be a clear strategy related to customer centricity and delivering a distinctive customer experience. Then you’ll find employees inspired by this strategy, with it serving as a guide for them in serving their customers — especially when they see their leaders doing it from the start.” [6] It’s worth emphasizing that this strategy must be clear to every individual in the organization, and each one must understand how to reflect it in their daily work.
Dear leader, don’t sit in your air-conditioned office gazing from afar, seeing only the smallest of details. The army in the field is waiting for you to lead it from the front, not from the back. Do that, and you’ll find the winds of change have begun blowing the customer’s ships in the direction they desire. Jan Carlzon, the CEO of one of Sweden’s most prominent airlines, said in his book: “Had I remained perched at the top of the pyramid issuing orders and instructions, we would not have been able to accomplish these new plans in such record time.” [7] And finally, “Don’t launch any customer experience initiative unless you’ve secured the commitment of organizational leaders” [8] — because such an initiative will simply be doomed to failure. Not only that, but “if there’s no commitment from the leader to achieve world-class customer experience, your organization will not climb to the top.” [9]
Dear leader, take off the cloak of pride, take off your shoes, and go mingle with employees and customers. Listen to them, converse with them, so you can practice empathy with them successfully — to put yourself in their shoes and feel what they feel, to see the event from their level rather than from that high ivory tower.
Dear leader, I wish you and your organization all the best.
For related concepts, see CX Maturity Model and Customer-Centric Operating Model.
Sources Cited (Translated with Light Adaptation)
[1] Page 194 | Clued In by Lewis Carbone [2] Page 13 | The Experience by Bruce Loeffler & Brian Church [3] Put Your Customers Second by James Dodkins [4] Page 236 | Customer Experience for Dummies [5] Page 184 | Customer Experience Future Trends and Insights [6] Page 149 | The Service Culture Handbook by Jeff Toister [7] Page 18 | Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon [8] What Customers Crave | Nicholas J. Webb [9] Page 5 | Customer Experience Rules by Jeofrey
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