In an era of major transition with digital disruption, changing organizational models, changing theory of businesses, boards need to listen more to the “outside” world of customers and respond to their increasing power and needs.
Every business and every board has in fact the same priority: to create and keep customers. Boards and CEO’s must recognise therefore the importance for their organizations of Customer Experience (CX); giving them the ability to listen to the Voice of the Customer (VoC) through additional customer channels than their existing ones, such as the salesteam or the marketing manager.
CX – centric companies build customers who are more loyal, promote proactively more and better the brand, have more repeat business and as a result typically have higher revenue growth and market share.
Because the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer, according to P.Drucker, the business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation. Only Marketing and Innovation produce these basic results; all the rest are costs. It’s also for these two domains that each company should have a “direct line” towards the customer(s).
Companies need to close the gap between their boards and their customers if they are to meet their expectations for growth. That’s is exactly the core purpose of what CX (Customer Experience) and CEM (Customer Experience Management) should be.
A board however cannot change a business on their own. They can and should create the platform from which CX-change can happen, involving a large and active engagement of the leading majority of their organization.
It’s a good practice to start small and agile, building quick wins and bit by bit increasing the visibility. Avoid reinventing warm water and use external professionals to help anchor these new domains into the daily business as usual. Dedicate a seat, labeled “the customer”, where the marketing manager, the quality manager, the sales manager, the production manager,… and even a key account could be invited to take place to listen or to answer for your customers.
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Author : Yves Ovelacq is founding partner of TripleGrowth, an organization of entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, boosting sustainable growth and results for companies with ambitious goals.
© Yves Ovelacq
