If Customer Experience Were a Girl, I'd Marry Her
Introduction
One of the most common questions in qualitative research to define a brand’s personality is: “If the brand were a person, how would you describe them?” I asked myself the same question, trying to describe the ideal CX practitioner in human terms. I chose to describe her as a woman, because much of delivering an outstanding customer experience depends on emotion — winning the heart before the mind — and women are better than us men in the emotional domain.
This article is aimed at HR professionals and CX leaders looking for the most suitable candidate to join their customer experience team.
Let Me Tell You About Her
She is warm-hearted. She has high empathy and always puts herself in customers’ shoes — embodying them emotionally so she understands their feelings and can express them better than they can themselves. She is exceptional at her craft, striving for perfection without making it the goal. She constantly thinks about simple solutions and improvements that make the customer journey smoother. She has a sharp eye for detail and often takes longer to decide because she studies everything carefully. She doesn’t pay attention to what her peers offer and doesn’t think for a moment about copying their ideas; she consistently brings original, creative thinking. She is skilled in office politics — not the bad kind aimed at personal gain, but the kind aimed at breaking through organizational silos to serve customer interests without harming shareholders. She is a great storyteller, and when she tells a story, you’ll find colleagues — even the grey-haired veterans — gathered around her, listening with every sense, like children. She is wise and discerning, looking at the long-term impact of every decision, and she warns her colleagues against decisions that produce short-term gains but cause long-term harm. She has remarkable resolve when defending customers (internal and external alike), holds firm to her convictions, and positively explains to everyone why she’s right and patiently shows them how the current way of working negatively affects the customer experience. She proposes middle-ground solutions that satisfy everyone. She practices the principle of small but consistent — every day she tries to make the customer experience a little better than yesterday, in a never-ending race with herself toward excellence.
There’s More
She radiates positivity and energizes everyone idle around her. Her thinking is unshaken — despite the wretched attempts of those who don’t work, of whom Taha Hussein [the renowned Egyptian writer] said: “Those who do not work are pained by seeing others work.” These people exist everywhere. She has strong communication skills and uses different channels for different people based on what suits them. Naturally, she is a great listener — or more precisely, an attentive listener — to everything the customer says, never interrupting and waiting until they’ve said everything on their mind. She has never offered advice without extending a hand to help the recipient achieve what she asked them to do.
She is candid and transparent to the highest degree, hiding no information from anyone. Unlike the stereotype of many women, she keeps secrets and never uses what’s been entrusted to her against the one who shared it. She has a strong sense of responsibility, carries burdens beyond her capacity, and never shifts blame onto others. On top of all that, she is highly adaptable to change — as long as it serves customers or employees. She is organized and can prioritize no matter how many tasks pile up, and she doesn’t mind taking on any job, however small or trivial it may seem. Despite all this pressure, she’s incredibly easy to approach and talk to — her heart is always open to everyone, she is generous with her time, and people turn to her because she’s a problem solver who looks at issues from every angle and bridges differing viewpoints when there are disagreements.
In Closing
After answering this question and listing the qualities of outstanding CX practitioners (as if they were a woman), I found myself thinking that if such a woman existed, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to propose to her. The only remaining question is: would she accept me as her partner? In short, if you want to choose the strong and trustworthy person to work in customer experience, make sure the candidate possesses these qualities.
Important note: if you know my wife, please don’t share this article with her.
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