A couple of years ago Bob Thompson of CustomerThink talked about some of the issues around becoming “customer-centric”. Problem #2 was the inability to link customer-centricity to business results. Building a business case for improving the customer experience, particularly for existing customers, seemed to be a real stumbling block with upper management.
At the time there were few resources with the type of supporting information that business leaders would listen to. There was (and is) the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and a study by James L. Heskett, et al that covered 31 years of research showing the positive correlation between how employees were treated and the customer experience.
There are more resources to help now, although some are not easy to access. For instance, Forrester has a current document about the issue but it is not available for individual purchase. It highlights another metric, the Customer Experience Index (CxPi) score. When the CxPi goes up, so does revenue (from excerpt on Forrester site).
There are also resources to help you build the case. Hoffman’s Hot Seat on 1to1 Media has an excellent video illuminating some best practices to demonstrate the business improvements to be made with improvements to the customer experience. There is even a white paper I found on Linked In about the subject.
When you want management to go for something, you need numbers to back up the idea. These resources and more will help you do that. If you are reading this blog you probably already understand that the way you treat customers and employees translates into better business, but maybe it seems somewhat anecdotal. Use these resources to help change that to sounding more like a money-making proposition.
I hope these resources help you in your journey to creating a great customer experience that increases your business at the same time.