Delivering a Great Customer Experience: It’s About Listening

“Shock and surprise me,” was the advice we recently heard from a client when embarking on their first customer advisory board meeting. These words capture the incredible pressure companies feel in trying to build effective, remarkable customer experiences with the c-suite.

Knowing that the bar of ‘shock and surprise me’ was a difficult one to hit, we spoke with other Board members to gain a deeper understanding of how they measured success and – not surprisingly – they were looking for action not shock and awe. They were looking for the following:

Lessons Learned. 

We all learn from our mistakes, but executives consistently asked to hear about failures.  Not the cost of the failure but why it failed, what were the organizational challenges, where it failed, and what changes were now in place to avoid future failure.

Action Taken by the Vendor Organization. 

Consistently listening and taking action on advice is the number one recommendation from Board members. One executive said, “if the meeting is exciting and I never see action taken on our advice… it feels like I wasted my time”.

Use Cases. 

While this may seem like a no-brainer, we were surprised that many are interested in how to build and sell the case internally.  ‘It’s less about the content and more about the development,’ explained one CDO. Successful approaches and techniques that worked elsewhere are great fodder for illustrating this point.

What we like best from the above list is that  any organization—large or small— can achieve the above three. As we begin another year, we look forward to helping companies build remarkable client experiences by taking action.

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Customer Advisory Boards

Customer Advisory Boards are powerful engines of engagement, insight, and business transformation. Make the most of yours.

Meeting Facilitation: Virtual and In-Person Boards » Taking Your Customer Advisory Board Meetings Virtual »

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Engagement Strategy

Like any good relationship, customer engagement is a long-term, reciprocal effort. When done well, meaningful engagement leads to better business results, faster.

Engage Your Customers to Help You Stop Pitching » Getting to a Customer Engagement Mindset »

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Understanding the C-Suite

Building C-level programs that are meaningful and bring value to you as well as to your c-suite customers is challenging. Veiled sales pitches won’t win the day with this audience. Deliver what executives want: ideas, inspiration, innovation, influence.

Building a C-Suite Client Experience Strategy » Do you Know What Your Customers Value? »

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