ist magazine May 2023

Feature FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER & EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE TO TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS

By Jason S. Bradshaw

As busy leaders and business own ers, you are faced with a seem ingly endless list of things to do to keep your business operating and an ever-increasing list of ideas on how to improve your business. However, you are encouraged to throw out the hundred plus to-do items and ideas; instead, focus on the experience you deliver and start with these three fundamental steps. THE THREE FUNDAMENTAL STEPS ARE: 1. DEFINE THE PROMISE; 2. MEASURE THE GAP(S); AND 3. SHARE THE STORIES But before unpacking the steps to improving the experience to transform your business, let’s clarify a couple of important elements. Firstly, the term experience in this context means the customer experiences, the employee experiences, the experiences you promise and ultimately, the ones you deliver. You may even make experience promises about your brand and products but for now, focus on customer and employee experiences. Also, as you will

quickly understand, the singular experi ence, the transaction, is just as important as the plural, collective experiences. Finally, before you get to the three crucial steps to focus on, let’s be clear that the customer and employee experience does not mean hugging your haters, nor does it mean surprising your customers/ employees with champagne and caviar. Each of these steps applies to custom ers and employees equally. If you don’t know where to start, start with your employees’ experiences. Investing in improving your employees’ experience will undoubtedly result in increased productivity and improved customer experiences. STEP 1: DEFINE THE PROMISE Okay, Step 1 actually comes in two parts and starts with defining what you mean by the words customer/employee experience. Defining what you mean by the term(s) and ensuring every Team Member understands it, is crucial. Part 2 of Step 1 is to define what you promise to deliver for your customers/employees.

Every day, people check into two-star hotels and fly low-cost airlines, while at the same time people are checking into five-star hotels and flying first class. In both instances, there are companies that make a profit and those that don’t; the difference is clear. Some companies com pete on price and others who win do so by delivering consistently on the experience that their ideal customers are drawn to and are willing to pay for. So don’t be afraid of defining your promise and sharing it broadly, there are customers who will choose your compa ny, and your promise over your com petitors if you deliver on your promise consistently. But beyond prospects and customers being drawn to your promise, the super power of defining your promise is that every Team Member will understand that above all else their priority is to deliver on the promise. STEP 2: MEASURE THE GAP(S) So you’ve defined what you promise to deliver to your customers; there may be multiple promises, and now is the

52

istmagazine.com

May 2023